Oh my apocalypse [YiZhanFF]

Part 21: Their destination so close

When Yibo woke up in the late afternoon, he did not find Zhan next to him. For he was sitting in the front area of the gas station and was busy with a map he had found here. Besides, Zhan had already been in contact with his father over the radio, where they were exchanging ideas about which way to go next to find the hotel in the mountains.

Since Zhan could not remember the exact entrance, only that it was through a forest. In addition, although the hotel should be very conspicuous, it is very hidden and there are many large mountain ranges, especially in this area, which did not make it easier to find the hotel.

Zhan's father had given him the approximate description of the driveway they must take and then explained, "You must remember that this is a very large and dense forest. The road may not have been traveled since your great uncle died, so it may be overgrown. So try to keep an eye out for the wall. A five meter high wall, should be visible, even in such a dense forest area. In these two mountains that belonged to your great uncle, the windows are camouflaged, but maybe in the right light, you can see the glass panes shining."

"I see. How far along are you now?" Zhan wanted to know.

"We reached the hangar this morning where you had spent the night. We'll probably rest here for two or three days, since many of our survivors need to rest. They are at the end of their rope. And my soldiers need a rest, too. Because of the overcrowded buses, they have to do some of the routes on foot."

"Okay, so it will be a while before we see each other. Um, do your scientists have a theory about why the black creatures have largely disappeared?"

"Oh, they haven't disappeared. They're moving on. But, they leave some of their kind behind. We suspect that these are acting like guardians. Or, they are not strong enough to continue their journey. Also, they assume that the creatures are settling somewhere. Species preservation, you know what I mean."

"Mmm, so they're having young."

"Exactly. The scientists assume that the females stay behind and these guardians bring them food and protect them until they're ready to move on. But that's just a theory. And it doesn't mean we can get careless now."

"I know dad. What do they think about the gray creatures? They look like the black ones, only in dark gray. But they're very different in behavior."

"Well, we know they don't eat humans. They catch fish as we saw, they eat fruits and vegetables, smaller animals. They protect and take care of each other. And they make friends with people. We suspect, since they've never interacted with humans before, they're very curious about us and are studying us in their own way."

"Our three gray ones seem to follow us everywhere. They even take care of us. They put apples outside our door when we were sleeping. And one of those gray ones, even offered us a dead bird."

"Oh hahaha. And how did the bird taste?"

"Dad, please. I didn't eat the bird, I threw it to the creature and then it ate it. They let us touch them and even pet them. They trust us."

"Wow, you got that close to them?"

"Yes. However, we suspect that these gray creatures that are so close to us are children or teenagers. They are almost as big as the black ones. But very playful and extremely curious and capable of learning. And since they also followed us at night, we think that this species, does not suffer so much from night blindness."

"It could well be that they are something like teenagers. We've seen gray creatures, some of which were one to two heads taller than the black ones."

"We haven't seen any that big before. Oh yes, about the vampires. We've only seen one and heard one. How many do you guys estimate there might be? And will they become a problem soon?"