Chapter 22 Meeting Up

Tina walked out of the city and walked for a few more hours after that. By this time, the sun had just come up, and it was around seven in the morning. She trudged through the forest with a small canteen of water in her hand. "I know I said I would find a place to hide, but this is a bit crazy. Where am I even going to go?"

Tina had only wanted to leave the city. While she had some food supplies, she was not very well equipped to survive outside. She did not smoke, so she only had a single book of matches to light a fire. If she were to hunt, she could at least cook some food. But once she ran out of matches, she had no way to easily start a fire. She would have to figure out a way to do it after she ran out. "Why didn't I take survival courses instead of trying to become a police officer?" Tina pursed her lips as she continued walking. She just wanted to get away from the city.

After another hour, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Sticking out of the ground in front of her was a hut of some kind. It was built into the ground, but it did not look shabby at all. It looked very well built. "This is?"

"Lillia, do you have everything…. Ah…." Blake looked at the girl who was standing at the entrance of the underground cottage, who stared back at him with a blank expression.

"Blake Harris!" Tina suddenly yelled out as she pointed at the young man she had even dreamt about due to everything that had happened. She could not and would never forget this face.

"Blake, who is this!?" Lillia's jealousy meter was starting to rise as she stared past Blake at the young woman pointing at her boyfriend in name only.

"Lillia, will you stop getting mad every time a girl even looks at me. I do not know who she is, but she seems to know me." Blake replied. He was not bothered by her little outburst anymore, as long as she did not start to dragonfy that is.

"But…." Lillia pursed her lips and, as if to show her dominance, hugged Blake from behind and rested her chin on his shoulder as she glared at Tina.

"No… You wouldn't know who I am. Although you should have seen my note." Tina composed herself as she let out a long sigh. "Please tell me that the one hundred or so yous running around the city is some kind of illusion."

"Ahh, that was Lillia's magic. Speaking of that... Lillia, you should cancel that so no one can track your magic." Blake had forgotten about them

"Okay, done. It is good that she reminded us of them. I had forgotten about them. If a dragonic saw them, they would have been able to trace the magic signature back to us, which would not have been good." Lillia hated to say it, but she owed the tramp in front of her. However, she still wouldn't give Blake to her!

"Just who are you, people…." Tina did not understand a word of what was being said. But she knew it should have been something that should be kept secret. Suddenly she started to become afraid. She was worried if they would decide to kill her here and now to keep her quiet.

"Ah… What was your name, by the way? You know mine." Blake asked. He didn't remember the name that was written on the note.

"It's Tina Wellings." Tina replied.

"Well, Tina. It would not be smart to go deeper into the woods. The dragons will just torch it. Better to head to the mountains." Blake decided to be nice and give her a bit of information to save her life. She didn't seem like a bad person. Lillia, on the other hand, hugged Blake tighter as she continued to glare at Tina. For dragons, they were very protective of their fated ones, especially against those of the opposite sex.

"What? I just walked all the way here. The mountains are in the opposite direction! Wait! Why do you even know that?" Tina asked. She was confused as to why Blake knew they would burn down this forest.

"Because I have already seen it happen once. Anyway, we do not want to waste time. If you wish to survive, then turn around and push yourself to your limits. You only need to survive for six months." Blake said as he pulled Lillia with him as he finally exited the house and began walking towards the mountain range.

Tina watched their backs as they got further and further away. It only then dawned on her that she should probably stick with the person who knows what is going on. While she did not know this for a fact, with everything that he had shown thus far, she decided to go with her gut feeling. "Hey, wait, let me travel with you!"

A few hours later….

"Blake, she is still following us." Lillia pursed her lips. She didn't like this woman.

"Just let her be. In a sense, she was willing to stick her neck out for me in case I needed help. Good people are hard to come by, so if following us will help her survive, it will be for the best." Blake answered as they walked down the long road ahead. He was using the GPS on his cell phone to find the safest route. They were currently on a back road heading upstate towards the closest mountain range.

*Rooooaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!*

A loud dragon's roar rang out across the sky. Blake sighed as he stopped and turned around. He looked up into the air to see the sky starting to turn black. He then looked down at his phone, which now showed that it was exactly noon time. "It's started."

"Hmmm… There is a mid level dragon mixed in. We were right to leave." Lillias frowned. She did not want to run into any dragons over lower dragons until Blake was strong enough to fight them, especially since she could not expose herself.

Tina ran up to them with fear in her eyes as she asked: "Wh-What was that!?"

"The dragons have finally reached the city. You were quite smart to move when you did." Blake replied. He looked up at the sky and shook his head once more. This was only the start. He looked at the fear filled eyes of Tina and then looked at Lillia, who looked back at him and snorted in understanding as she crossed her arms across her chest.

Blake chuckled as he said to Tina: "You can follow us. But you have to listen to Lillia. Oh, and don't fall for me, or Lillia might just kill you."

Lillia liked hearing the last part of Blake's sentence. Although it was true, she might just kill the girl if she crossed that line. "Since Blake said you can come, then make sure you do not fall behind."

"Ri-Right…." Tina was still trying to get over the last part of Blake's words. She really did not wish to die.

"Then let's get going. Staying here will make us a target if we are spotted." Blake said as he turned around and continued walking forward. In his past life, it was the same. Humans had to keep on the move. If you got spotted, you were dead. There were no outrunning dragons. You had to be lucky and escape without being seen. At that time, Blake used to chuckle to himself as he thought about how humans seemed to be like cockroaches to dragons. No matter how many humans they killed, they just kept popping up out of nowhere.

p They kept walking forward. This time with Tina only two steps behind. Now that she was officially allowed to join their team. They found cover around four in the afternoon to stop to rest. They were not the only ones out here either. There were quite a few people. Blake watched as families kept walking forward, their faces filled with stress, despair, and anxiety of not knowing what was to come. Would they survive? Would they be able to live to see another day? Would their lives ever return to normal? All of these things were things they had to worry about at this time. So many uncertainties would cause many to lose their minds or want to kill themselves, but because they wanted to live, they kept moving forward. And because humans naturally congregate, they unknowingly began to form a crowd.

"This is not good…." Blake said as he watched the people grouping together as they walked by. "At this time, the more people grouped together, the higher the chances that they will be spotted. We will change course and move through people's backyards. It will be a bit riskier, but it will be safer than walking in a group."

"Blake, can I ask how you know all of this?" Tina finally couldn't keep her mouth shut. She had to know.

"Because he has been there already. He has experienced it all." Lillia answered for Blake. She did not wish for him to remember the bad times.

"But how?" Tina really did not understand. How did he already witness all of this?

"It's fine, Lillia. It is good for her to know anyway. I am someone who has lived and died once. I woke up about a week ago in my body after dying many years in the future. A future where Earth is no longer dominated by humans but by dragons and many other races. In that world, humans can only be considered a minor sentient race. I died fighting a high ranking dragonic. She looked no different from you and me. But she had horns and a dragon tail and the power to wipe out entire cities with a wave of her hand. I died due to one of these attacks. The hell I went through is still fresh in my mind.

"At first, I questioned my sanity. I wondered if it was all a dream. But then I met Lillia, and well, the rest you probably know already. But you can say that everything is going exactly as it did in my past life except now things are different. I know what will happen, and I know how to survive. I will not struggle like I did last time, especially when I have Lillia by my side. But at the same time, I need to grow stronger and stronger so I can stand by her as an equal.." Blake explained while causing Lillia to blush with his words.

"Then, Lillia, who are you?" Tina was still confused. She could take most of what Blake said because of what was currently happening, but he was leaving out important bits of information, making it so she could not make heads or tails of the rest.

"You do not need to know who I am as I do not trust you," Lillia responded bluntly. Tina lowered her head. She did not wish to anger Lillia, as she was the key to her survival. She had to hold her curiosity and wait for Lillia to finally trust her.

"Alright, let's get going. We will need to stop again later since Tina here will need to eat." Blake said as he stood up. He no longer needed food as mana would nourish him. But unlike Lillia and himself, Tina was still a normal human. Tina had question marks over her head about Blake's words because it sounded like he did not need to eat at all.

As Blake turned to walk into the field next to the road. He felt the hairs on his neck suddenly stand up. "Shit!" Blake grabbed Lillia's and Tina's hands and pulled them both with him as he ran towards the nearest cover he could find that was away from everyone else.

"Blake, let go of her hand right now!" And Lillia, who knew what was coming, was more concerned about Blake holding another girl's hand.