Chapter 19: Scouting
Reia and Akira looted the clothes of the dead soldiers that had been fully consumed by the corruption. The only thing that remained was the blood that came from the wounds leaving a small pool on the ground.
After going through their belongings, Akira and Reia managed to get a bit more food, giving them a more comfortable time frame to find a place to stay. Amongst the clothes of the half tiger, there was a note with an address on it.
"Akira, It looks like we have an address to their base." Reia looked at the note and next to the address was the words' base, so she assumed this was where the rebels were residing.
[Collins Street - base]
"Let's hold onto it, for now, we need a map first otherwise we could be running around forever looking for it. Still keep an eye out though, but let's focus on finding a place to stay first." Akira knew what Reia was thinking as it would be the place where the old man was heading.
'tch, at least I know where that bastard is going.' Reia was a little disappointed that they wouldn't look for the base, but she was satisfied with knowing where a rebel base was.
"Did we also want to take their weapons or is that not worth it?" Reia thought if they took their weapons, Echo could make use of the parts of the spare guns.
"If you want, but we are already carrying a lot, so unless we really need it just leave them." Akira did not mind the idea, but he did not want to add more weight to what they were already carrying.
"Hmm, they are older models, plus we can always come back here if we desperately need to and if someone doesn't come by to loot the construction site." Reia was examining the gun the rebels had, figuring it was probably for the better to leave the guns until they had their own place to stay.
"Well try hiding them somewhere then." Akira looked around and seeing that it was rather dark all the time, Reia could probably find a place to put the guns.
"Nah I won't bother, we need to get moving anyway." Throwing the gun on the ground, Reia walked up to the stairs where Akira was sitting.
"Alright then, let's get going then, did you want to take the lead this time?" Akira realised he had been taking charge since it felt natural for him to always be the first one to go in.
"Whatever is fine, I was enjoying not playing squad leader for once." Reia smiled and although she would rather take charge, did not mind following Akira around.
Akira recoiled back as to him the smile despite how cute Reia looked, was menacing and screamed you do it or I will murder.
"Y-yep, I will take the lead." Akira quickly got up and turned around to go up the stairs.
Reia tilted her head confused as to why Akira seemed suddenly afraid.
'Is my smile that bad, I wasn't trying to be scary.' Reia felt a little self-conscious and held her hand to her mouth.
'Surely not, Akira smiles all the time, and it looks great, does this mean my squad members think the same of me.' Reia spiralled in her thoughts while she followed Akira.
*
Akira and Reia made it out onto the street to find that it was cleared of mutants.
"That's a surprise you would think there would be some more mutants." Akira thought that while they were asleep mutants would have converged on the street.
"Well, the mutant lion did cause them to congregate and move as a group, so a bunch of mutants are probably somewhere else." Reia imagined that there was a massive horde somewhere waiting to get aggravated and chase down another victim.
"I say let's take advantage of the silence and start looking for a place to stay for the time being. Ideally, we want something underground or somewhere hidden or hard to get to."
"This is a military city so there were tunnels and bunkers that were underneath the city before the use of Essence barriers." Reia remembered when looking at blueprints of the city that there were a bunch of underground checkpoints. When she asked about this, she was told that before the application of essence was used as a way to defend the city, bases were built underground to prevent assassinations as well as provide evacuation routes.
"Oh yeah, those military briefings in case of an attack went through how if the base was under an aerial strike that the underground tunnels were one of the escape routes."
"They are id locked so we should be able to get in unless they already blacklisted us." Reia, having one of the highest positions you could get with hard work, had the authority to enter these places in case of such emergencies.
"Alright let's try to find one of these entrances, but we should be careful since some other people from the military may have taken these spots." Akira who also had access knew that the other squad leaders would also be able to.
"Tch, let us hope that squad 5 leader is dead, I hate her guts." Reia's squad was not the only one with capable members and there were at least 10 squads that held the same rank. This was also one of the reasons why they did not think of this sooner since it was potentially a highly contested place by other military members.
"Bleh don't get me started on her, she tried to hit on me and when she saw one of my squad members get close to me, she snapped." Akira had a disgusted look thinking about squad 5's leader.
"Klein is a psycho, if it wasn't for her unique essence, she would have been kicked out already." Reia remembered hearing how Klein killed one of her own squad members by "accident".
"Mm indeed, her ability to copy other people's essence is too valuable for the military." Akira did not like the thought of bumping into them, but they needed to try the bunkers.
"As much as there is a high chance of encountering them, if we go to the bases, let's hope we can get Echo to mess with the locks." Reia knew If they could find Echo it would make the base so much safer from unexpected guests.
"Knowing him he might already be in one." Akira being one of the few males in both their squads felt a connection with Echo.
"There are so many underground bases and tunnels, it would be a miracle if we could find him." Reia knew in the massive city there were hundreds of backup bunkers and tunnels that spread throughout it.
"Aha, you are not wrong, but we have wasted too much standing around. Let's start looking for one of these bunkers." Akira took one last look around to make sure there were not any mutants sneaking upon them.
"There are more tunnel entrances so it may be a while till we find one of the bunkers."
"We just have to try them all then." Akira hoped it would not take too long, but from what Reia said, it might take them the whole day to find one that has a functioning lock.
"Well hurry up and get moving squad leader Akira~." Reia slapped Akira's back forcing him to take the lead.
Akira let out a sigh and started to walk down the street with Reia walking beside him.
*
Akira and Reia explored the streets going past many apartments and convenience stores that were ransacked almost completely. Due to the collapse being recent a lot of the food was still okay to eat, so they were able to have some hot food before it went stale.
Akira and Reia sat on the edge of a roof, to take a short break and relax before moving.
"Oh yeah remember that mutant that could jump." Reia while taking a bite of a piece of pie that was still warm and okay to eat.
"Oh that, it was rather odd, it seems that there are variants of the mutants with enhanced traits like the giants." Akira also had a pie and bit into it.
"We should probably name them, so I say we call them variants and then based on what they do. So for example the giant variants or the jumpy boy."
"Jumpy boy? Can't you think of something else?" Akira was a bit astonished at Reia's naming sense.
"But it is a great name, it tells us exactly what the mutant can do." Reia felt that the name was completely fine.
"Well, I don't know about that, how about hunters." Akira randomly threw a name suggestion out and Reia stopped to think about it.
"I like it." Reia took another bite into her bite enjoying it before they would not be able to eat like this.
"Eh but isn't that too vague." Akira thought that hunter would have been too vague for Reia's liking, so he was rather confused.
"Whatever, I Like it, so we name it that."
"O-okay." Akira was not complaining, but he did not understand what Reia was thinking.
"Now that we have that sorted, we should get moving again, we have been lucky that no mutants have come around." Reia could hear mutants in the area but was unable to see or exactly hear where they were.
"Indeed, we need to get a bit more discrete, now that we are out of that area." Akira could tell that the lion's roar did not reach here as a few mutants have been seen wandering around.
Getting up from the edge of the roof, Reia finished off her pie and stretched.
"Ahh~, so far we have only found tunnels, so let's pick up the pace a bit."
"Let's hope the first bunker isn't infested with military rats." Akira finished off his pie and got up from the edge as well.
Reia and Akira got ready and were now back to looking for a place to stay.
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