Katya Edition: Second Edition

Thirty Sixth Corpse: A Luck That's Unlucky

❝Please stop making that face.❞

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Thirty Sixth Corpse | A Luck That's Unlucky

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[Z-day +10 | Apr. 24 | 12:19hrs]

A bit after noon is when we finally made it back to the mainland, ending up at the very docks we left from.

The air seemed stale, carrying with it a flowery scent of spring and death. It made me wiggle my nose in disgust, trying to avoid inhaling too large a breath.

It was strangely silent, and I remembered that we were hit by that EMP, which meant as far as electronics went, there were none within the vicinity that would be working.

We disembarked and for a long time after unloading our supplies, each of us equipped with our own survival packs, we stood around on the beach, lingering; hesitating to be the first to walk away.

There was a tension in the air, a deadlock of reluctant allies who subconsciously believed in strength in numbers and the nature of camaraderie.

But one of us had to move sooner or later, and sadly, it couldn't be me. Because even though I wanted to find Yamada so badly, I also wanted to stay with everyone as well. If you were to ask which I wanted more, honestly, I couldn't answer in that moment.

In the end, Victor was the one to make the first move. With one hand clutching at the strap of his backpack, he walked over to me and enclosed me in a tight, one armed hug, pressing a kiss to the top of my head, "Take care of yourself, KitKat..." He murmured softly, squeezing me once before letting go and backing up. He gave me a small smile, before tapping my nose and turning away, "Let's get a move on," he called out to Quin, "Daylight's wasting."

His actions sent everyone else into action and one by one, everyone started exchanging farewells. I hugged Saya, pulled on Kohta's cheeks, exchanged a few words with Saeko and got smooshed between Shizuka's large mammaries. Shiki got a farewell smile, Takashi and Rei got nods and Alice got kisses all over her face. The only one I didn't know how to act towards was Quin. So for a moment, we just stood before each other stiffly, glancing but never meeting eyes. It was awkward and uncomfortable and I hated that we couldn't go back to how we were but we really couldn't. Not right now anyway.

"Be...be safe out there," Quin stammered out hoarsely, his words so quiet that his voice cracked.

"You too..." I mumbled after a moment of hesitation, before I spun on my heel stiffly and walked over to join Remi and Dante, who were standing to one side as they weren't very familiar with everyone just yet, so they didn't have to suffer the painful goodbyes like we did. Thomson joined us after a quiet, private conversation with Shiki and nodded toward one of the many paths leading back to the highway.

"Let's go," he murmured, taking long, purposeful strides forward, his head firmly facing forward with zero intentions of looking back.

Remi and Dante followed his lead and I brought up the rear, mimicking his actions with all the resolve I had to offer. If I looked back, I'd be sad. And now was not the time to be sad.

Thomson with his confident strides easily took the lead and I had no complaints. Leadership was never my thing — I could do it but most of the time, I seriously didn't want to. I was content to just follow the plan another, competent person came up with; utilise my talents for the brains of the operation, that kinda thing.

And so, we walked. We walked for a while. If we were said to be going to the right of the beach, then Saya's group was heading to the left of the beach and Kohta's group was actually headed in the same direction as ours for a bit but they had way further to go than we did. Once we reached a certain point parallel to the highway, Thomson had us cross over the lanes to the other side and go into one of the many streets which would lead us to the very heart of the Shoman District. We advanced with caution, well aware that more houses meant more people and more people meant more walking corpses. This was the time to tread carefully.