SSS+ MONSTER EVOLUTION

Chapter 10: the monster nest.

Chapter 10

We formed parties of two and departed for New Sunset City.

The coverage for the mission included the outer parts of the city—from the water and sewage pipelines, stretching all the way to Manstand Bridge.

New Sunset City was an island, with only four bridges leading out of it. The colony shelters were located just west of the city, still inside the island but away from the buildings.

Old warehouses, factories, and schools that were meant to be demolished for the extension of the city outwards ended up being our shelters. The same places we deemed abandoned and useless were now a safe haven.

Margery and I were assigned to search through Bedrock Street. It was a scarcely populated neighborhood back then, hence it had very little sanguis activity.

We started off around seven in the morning.

At first, the walk there was awkward. Neither of us spoke to the other. Whenever we talked, it was always the three of us—and now, it kind of felt weird just walking the two of us.

I wanted to say something, to break the silence, but my mind was blank on what to say.

"So what did you used to do?"

Margery spoke first.

"Huh?"

"I mean... before the whole end-of-the-world thing, what did you used to do? Where did you work?" Her hands were clasped behind her back.

"I was a geneticist."

Before, I was proud whenever someone asked me what I did for a living. It was a job I was highly proud of. But today, I found myself answering the question with my head facing down, almost in shame.

"Oh... Wow. So you worked fancy, huh? You must have accomplished great things for sure. You certainly seem very smart." She spoke with an almost too-pure smile on her face.

Proud of my accomplishments? I looked around at a burnt city. Dead rotting corpses on the floor. What was there to be proud of? But I couldn't tell her. I wouldn't have the stomach to face her. To face reality.

I quickly changed the topic.

"And you?"

She smiled. "I was a preschool teacher."

Her smile suddenly vanished. "Watching those things tear through the building, and through all those innocent children. How could life be so unfair? Why would such a thing even happen?"

It looked like tears were about to form in her eyes, but she withheld herself.

I felt a heavy weight of guilt over my shoulders as she spoke.

"And the government? The people we looked up to to lead us? They left us here to die. The nearby countries even closed up their borders to quarantine the spread. They left us here to die with the virus."

The conversation was cut short when we arrived near a supermarket.

"A score for us," Margery said with a smile, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Margery walked forward toward the store. "The doors are shut closed."

I pulled out a hand pistol. "That's why we have this."

"Are you crazy?" Margery hissed, keeping her voice low. "You're going to attract unwanted attention if you shoot that thing!"

I pulled out a water bottle. It was a trick I learned back when I was still serving in the army. By shooting through the bottle, most of the sound is absorbed and the shot is less loud.

I placed the pistol through the bottle and shot the lock open.

No loud bang.

"See?" I said, almost too proudly.

Margery slapped her forehead. "I don't want your reckless tricks being the reason I die."

I laughed. For a while there, we forgot the conversation we just had.

The store was packed with many items. Some of them had gone bad. The meat in the refrigerator was all rotten. Without electricity to keep them frozen, they had begun to rot.

However, there was a lot of tinned food. Food that could be preserved.

"I guess we really did hit a score."

But then it clicked to me. We weren't the only shelter that looted from here. Many other scavengers from other shelters visited the outer city for items too. But why was this store left untouched?

A sudden smell of rotting flesh caught my attention.

"Do you smell that?" I looked at Margery.

"What?" she asked.

"Something... rotten." She looked at me like I was stupid or something.

"You do see the dozens of rotten meat in the freezer, do you?" she said back sarcastically.

"No. Not that. It smells... human," I said with a whisper.

I moved before she could respond. My senses had been sharper since the lab—I smelled it before I even reached the back. Rotting flesh. Human. Margery didn't notice. She couldn't. But I could.

I rushed to the back of the store. Placing my hand on the knob, I could feel that the door was open.

I hesitated a bit, but after opening it, we were met with the sight of several humans dangling from the ceiling, held by threads of blood that could only be the work of a sanguis.

It was storing them.

"We have to get out of here," I said to Margery.

She walked over to see what was inside.

She almost vomited in disgust.

"Agreed," she said.

I had seen this before, back at the lab. The reason this place was quiet was because it was its territory. It could be one as strong, if not stronger, than the one I fought at the labs.

We quickly grabbed what we packed and ran away from that location.

We ran several meters before stopping to catch our breaths. Margery, at least. I felt I could run for hours before needing rest.

"What the hell was that!? Since when do these things preserve their own food!?" Margery yelled in confusion.

She was right. Even the one at the lab didn't do such. It was clear what was happening. In fact, I feared such would happen. The sanguis virus was evolving, and at an abnormal speed as well.

"We have to report this to Benson," she said. "Maybe he'd know what to do next."

I shook my head to agree. "Let's go. The fact that it wasn't in the store means it's still somewhere out there."

We walked back to the colony, but we were interrupted on our way there.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

It was four of them. They were all dressed in black and held weapons.

The one in front was tall, with a scar running down his left cheek. He carried himself like someone who was used to giving orders. The other three stayed behind him, watching us like wolves.

"Looks to me like you two were stealing from our territory."

"Your territory?" I asked, confused.

Margery frowned. "They're from a neighboring colony. Don't mind them."

One of them—a nervous-looking guy with twitchy fingers—pointed a shotgun at us. "What's in the bags?"

Margery stepped forward. "Hey! Stealing from other colonies is forbidden, you all know that."

The scarred man laughed. "Yeah, but you just stole from us. You looted in our territory."

"Since when is this your territory?" Margery yelled back.

The scarred man's smile faded. He looked serious now. "What's in the bag?" he said, as he cocked the gun.

I glanced at Margery. She was staring at me, waiting for me to do something.

The voice whispered in my mind: "You could kill them all. They're weak. You're not."

I clenched my fists and stayed silent.