Katya Edition: Second Edition

Thirty Seventh Corpse: A Reason To Act

❝You're doing this for everyone but me!❞

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Thirty Seventh Corpse | A Reason To Act

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[Z-day +10 | Apr. 24 | 04:05hrs]

It wasn't the same as before but when we were done cleaning, the snackette at least resembled what it once was and Remi's teary-eyed declarations of gratitude proved as much.

I blew out a breath as I put the broom and dustpan back into storage. Dante had managed to scrape the old food off the floor and walls but there was no running water so we couldn't mop or wipe anything.

I was sweaty and covered in dust but there would be no baths until we found somewhere with water, something I was already dreading. At least on the island we had water from streams and such. Here on the mainland, other than the main rivers, the only waterways were those no one should be bathing in. It was depressing but at least we had food, sleeping bags and bottled water from the mansion. We could look for anything else as we moved about.

From our entrance into East Shoman, we hadn't passed through District 2 yet — that was where Yamada, Mia and Ishikawa were ousted from the bus. The real search would begin once we covered that area but since they were put off the bus eight days ago, I wasn't expecting them to still be in one spot. What I was looking for were lingering signs of their presence and clues to their current location or a destination.

Since Yamada was never at the Tropical Chicken snackette, I can only assume that he didn't come back this way. If he did, he would have definitely have stopped in at the snackette. Of course, there was also the possibility that he had stopped there and just hadn't left any signs behind but I was certain he knew I'd look for him, and I was confident that he was smart enough to leave me a trail if he really did move on from a spot. Here's to hoping that I knew him well enough.

"We should make our way to District 2 before the sun sets," I murmured, eyeballing the map of the area that was surprisingly well-preserved behind a glass display on one of the snackette's walls. I was really itching to take it with me but I didn't have the tools to remove it without causing more damage to the snackette and I'd prefer not to do anything that would cause a fuss at this point.

"That's at least eight blocks away, and we don't know if we'll find somewhere safe to lay low for the night," Thomson murmured, "It would be better to fortify this place and get some rest so we can start out early tomorrow."

"We can definitely cover eight blocks in an hour, hour and a half at most," I argued, "We've got at least two hours of sunlight left."

"That's on the assumption that we won't run into trouble," Thomson pointed out, "I don't know about you but I prefer not to be running for my life in the dead of night. I prefer traveling smartly, rather than hastily. In case you haven't noticed, your life isn't the only one on the line." He smiled a smile that wasn't a quite a smile and it made me stiffen because it reminded me of before we had that match at the Estate. This wasn't just a friendly reminder, he was being deliberately belittling.

What I couldn't get was why. Earlier when we were outside I was sure he was over his moodiness from the island. Why the hell was he holding such a grudge? So I had a healthy amount of distrust for the newbies, it wasn't like he was a ball of sunshine when we first met, so why the hell the hot and cold sensitivity?

"If you didn't want to deal with me, you could have just not joined me," I pointed out tightly.

"Full of ourselves, aren't we?" He mocked, "Not everything is about you, Rivera."