The Rush

Chapter 6- Outfox

"Now what?" We caught another glimpse of what was in front of us.

Our car stopped a few meters away from the nearest town. We didn’t see any foxes around. Only the big signage on the side and a checkpoint post in front of us are here. The post is small and can only fit one person, which is supposed to be the guard, and cars can drive through both sides. Parang katulad sa mga villages.

"How can we outfox them? Outsmart them?" Dylan glanced at me.

Aki was driving and Dylan was in the shotgun seat, while I was in the backseat. I turned around again and saw that not a single fox can be seen around. That's exactly what the men said last night.

"We don't have to worry. There are no foxes in the morning."

"What? How are you so sure?" Aki asked confused.

"The men talked again last night. They noticed that the foxes only come out at night. However, with just a little noise, the foxes can come out even in the morning. But when they come out in the morning, they look like normal zombies. The zombies in the movies who aren't smart, that's it. They don't know how that happens— "

"Hold up, hold up," Aki suddenly stopped me. He frowned at me. "Why do you always keep these pieces of information to yourself? Why don't you let us hear what you hear on the radio?"

Maging si Dylan ay napaharap sa direksiyon ko. "They only talk at night, okay? You're all asleep all the time when they're talking."

"If with just a little bit of noise, the foxes can come out, then I think we need to leave the car here," Dylan said while unbuckling his seatbelt. He immediately got off without even waiting for us to say something. Tsk, rude.

"Obvious ba?" I asked the unknown sarcastically, which made Aki laugh, before following Dylan. I heard Aki's annoying laugh once more before he also followed me.

"You can't say there's no fox in the morning. They come out 'when there's noise,' right? What you should've said was, ‘no fox is roaming in the morning’. Because even if they aren't around, they're still there." I ignored Dylan's taunt.

"What kind of radio did you find? Is it the kind of radio where they say 'Good evening, people of this country!' or the police radio?" I rolled my eyes at Aki's question. He even raised his voice when he said 'Good evening, people of this country!' as if he were a DJ.

"You weren't listening. I told you it was like what cops use before." I told him and turned to Dylan when I remembered. "You're a police officer, aren't you? How did that happen?"

"I studied. Then graduated. Then took the exam to become a police officer." He answered sarcastically. I immediately shoot daggers at him because of his answer. He was always very polite! Please note my sarcasm.

I just glared at him and walked ahead. I even heard Aki laugh again. Annoyed, I marched away from them. Annoying!

"Mature," I whispered sarcastically.

I was close to the post, and when I got there I kicked the can on the road out of annoyance. That made a noise so I looked around. Maybe a fox will suddenly appear here and this annoyance might get me killed.

"Ah!"

I screamed when I look at the post and a fox was already facing me. He gaped and a lot of blood came out of his mouth. The skin on his face had almost peeled off and it was obvious that it was slowly decaying. Fortunately, he was inside the post. He seems to be the one assigned to watch over this town.

I heard the hurried footsteps of Aki and Dylan behind me. I just kept staring at the fox. It was noticeable that it was weak and just like the men said last night, they were not smart in the morning. If he's still smart, he would've opened the door just to get to me.

"Are you okay, Ayi?" Aki asked me immediately.

I nodded and slowly approached the post. I feel like Aki and Dylan imitated me and they also came closer to the post where the fox is.

"Heck, it's so creepy," Aki whispered and even shivered a little.

After that, we continued walking. There are no humans nor foxes around. The whole town looked like a ghost town. I got goosebumps when I saw how ruined this town is. There were cars parked as if they had been left on the road and a few more had collided with trees. There were also traces of blood around. Some establishments were closed and others were also tainted with violence.

I let out a slow and shaky breath. Damn, I didn't imagine that something like this would happen. I thought these shits don't happen in real life. Guess I'm wrong.

A few minutes later, we reached the very center of the town. This is the part where the malls, supermarkets, grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, and many more establishments are. We immediately approached a grocery store.

Dylan was leading the way, I was in the middle, and Aki was behind me. We looked around. We shouldn't let our guards down. At this moment, anything is possible.

"Ready your weapons."

We immediately complied with what Dylan said. I held my weapon tightly as we got closer and closer to the grocery store. It was closed and looked like it hasn't been open since the first day it all happened. Dylan immediately struck the padlock of the grocery store using the axe that he was holding in his right hand. He was holding a wood plunk in his left hand. Aki's weapon was his machete. And I have my two karambit. I grimace again, thinking that if anything bad would happen, this weapon is the worse weapon to fight with.

What he did make a noise so the three of us roamed our eyes around. My eyes widened when a fox came out. Then another. It's just two of them. One on the left side of the road, and also one on the right side. I immediately approached the fox on the left and Aki on the right, and we stab its head at the same time. We wandered our eyes around again before finally entering the grocery store.

So, it's true that foxes are not smart in the morning and they also move slowly. The question is... Why?

"Find anything useful. Get anything you think will help us."

I immediately went to the canned goods section. I took off my backpack and quickly opened it before loading the cans inside. I estimate that I put more or less twenty cans in the bag. My bag was about to fill up when I moved to the medicines section. Aki and Dylan hardly talked to me while we were packing stuff. We just focused our attention on what we were doing individually.

When I filled my bag I immediately walked back to the grocery's entrance, thinking that they were already waiting for me by the door. However, before I could finally get back there I heard something that made me stop in my tracks.

A cry of a... baby.

What the hell is happening?

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