Summoned

Roadtrip through the woods

-Random J-pop song playing-

Music was coming off from the small speaker placed in the middle of the car. Said car passing through a shallow point of a river. Meanwhile I was sitting, or more like laying against the hatch's lid on the roof of the car. watching at a tree line that was now behind us.

"Guess this is why we needed to pass the river huh..." I whisper to myself.

As Saya guessed, the side of the river we came from had way too many thick trees for a bike, much less a car to pass. While the other side past the river had a relatively flat plain that ran along the river. The plain itself was not too big, as the woods took over again the moment you strayed too far from the river, but it was big enough to fit two to three cars next to each other.

Also.

"And not a single corpse in sight." I add as I fold my arms and glance around.

And it was not just now, after we went off-road the number of corpses got drastically reduced. We did spot one or two occasionally. But they looked more like survivors that made a last-ditch effort to run away after getting infected, rather than corpses that wandered into the forest.

"Naier?" And a female voice speaks up from behind me.

Turning around I find Saeko peeking from behind the hatch's lid, holding a closed M.R.E bar towards me.

"Hmm? Ah, thanks." I nod as I take the bar.

"Mind if I join you?" She asks right after as she keeps standing in the hatch.

I respond by sliding a little bit to the side, leaving some space on the hatch's lid, then tap the lid, essentially copying what she did when she offered me to sit next to her inside the Humvee.

Saeko didn't respond, she just silently climbed up and scooted next to me. Folding her legs under her and leaning on me instead of using the hatch lid.

"How many should we expect inside?" I ask.

Saeko did not respond.

"Can we, not talk about what we will have to do to survive for a bit?..." She asks she absentmindedly narrows her eyes towards the distance, placing her head on my shoulder.

"Feeling drained?" I ask as I wrap my arm around her.

"I, was terrified." She answers flatly as she keeps looking in the distance.

"When Saya told me that your whole team got killed I..." She mutters as she lowers her head.

"And this is why we left. So we don't have to deal with situations like these anymore." I answer as I pat her shoulder.

"I thought we left because Saya got assaulted?" Saeko responds with a questioning tone.

"She got assaulted because I got sent to the other side of town and because in that place pre-outbreak status overrides post-outbreak actions. As a matter of fact, I think that the 'We let your friends get preferential treatment because you work for it' lolipop that they kept sucking was a bunch of hot air. If I had to guess, it was because you and Saya had important parents that they let us use these rooms. Thus why you got kicked out the moment somebody more 'important' arrived." I answer as I sigh.

"At least now, we will be the ones making the rules in that house." I add as the humvee finally reached the other side of the river and turned left, now driving with the trees to its right, and the river to its left.

We then drove on for a few minutes...

"I don't know how many we should expect. The house was not supposed to have people in it. But since my father knew it was overrun. Maybe he let some of his acquaintances use it for some reason. Or, he actually let the infected in to deter survivors from trying to claim it." Until Saeko spoke up.