"We can just do this..." Little Lamb pointed at the list of possible plans they could go with. "No, that won't work..." Sissy had disagreed upon remembering something, and the two ladies made eye contact before continuing their discussion.
"Cancel it out." the blonde-haired femina nodded and calmly took a deep breath.
She sighed at the sound of their endless planning, another procedure that they have to go through thoroughly in order to create a new way to lure their new victims back to the laboratory.
"Where have you been?" Judy arrived where the monster truck had been parked. "Been looking for a restroom." was his reply, he took a black bag from the trunk containing his hygiene kit and left without giving them a glance.
"What is up with him?" their voices decreased the more Judy walked away from the premises. "Well, if we can't lead them to where we're supposed to bring them... Why not have the troops raid the town instead?" Sissy came up with an idea.
Little Lamb snapped her fingers in mid-air at the realization of how much Sissy's idea would make things easier for them. "So, the plan is..." they laid the foundation with more caution this time and considered every possible hole in the plan.
"Will they send their men to gather the new samples?" Sissy contemplated for a moment, making eye contact with her leader. They both sighed at the same time, finding their last mission a bit heavier than the ones prior to this.
"Over there." Mike directed the male with curly black hair, which he obviously dyed into full beige, as the silver-haired male noticed upon walking by. "Thanks." Judy spoke shortly before nodding his head and following the direction.
He entered a small house right around the neighborhood, and had to walk alone, keeping an eye out for any living undead, given that he had no weapon.
Not a single thing to defend himself but a whistle to use.
The lad confidently went inside the bathroom, he took out a hand-sized box from his hygiene kit, and unbuttoned his white top. Carefully taking it off to perform his monthly due.
"He noticed my hair." Judy looked at himself in the mirror, playing with his slowly faded hair to check on which part lacked the color he had been using all this time to conceal a secret of his.
The male continued to work on his hair, meticulously dyeing it completely into beige to hide its blackness. Some of the hair dye made its way to his white sleeveless tank top, staining it permanently but that didn't bother him at all.
He murmured all sorts of phrases under his breath while thinking of what to do with the person who noticed the only thing which he least wanted someone to notice.
"Special." was what he thought of Mike.
"He could be the specimen we ought to find." but if not... "He'd be discarded like the rest of us."
Mike regrouped with the five after watching Judy turn to where he directed, and he greeted his teammates with a frown, and they started with the most basic lesson of all.
"Identifying your physical or mental strength and weakness." he read the sign of the day which was posted on the top of their training ground entrance.
"So, where do I begin?" he spoke to June who was dripping in sweat, taking a break from the jumping rope. He could train all on his own without any of the girls telling him where to start, leaving Mike under the care of his younger friend.
Mike glanced at the four survivors before he began to feel uneasy being left with June.
Their leader threw a yoga mat on him, and immediately, he predicted that June would be teaching him how to work on his flexibility as it is his weakness.
"Go easy on me." the older friend pleaded to June who made no response and motioned him to start doing warm-ups.
On the other hand, Blessy was still adding a final touch on the punching bags before letting Shawn work on using his fists. "Why must I do all this?" meanwhile, Shawn was barely enduring the first set of exercises he had been assigned to do.
Here marks the first day of training.
The black-haired male kept himself from falling down the platform where he had been told to perform a 3-minute plank.
The 19-year-old female could only shake her head at his endless whining. 'That's exactly how I started.' she reminisced those times when her father trained her himself, as she was dedicated to protect her sister from the bullies back as a student.
Back when they weren't strong enough yet. But are they now?
"I wonder what my life would have been if I gave up." she questioned herself, choosing the perfect spot to place the punching bags to avoid having it get in the way of the other training equipment. "All set." she cheered, unaware that the last step she had taken backward was not a very good idea.
She shut her eyes to brace from the fall, however, there was no such thing. "Can you get off me now?" she turned her head to see that Shawn managed to catch her on his back, he was holding himself together in keeping his stance, almost finishing the 3-minute timer in just a few more seconds. "20 more seconds." she sat comfortably, knowing that he wouldn't let her fall.
The timer went off, and Shawn dropped himself flat on the platform he was on.
"I finished it!" the male with porcelain white skin was out of breath, carrying Blessy on his back till the very end of 3 minutes. "You've got a good amount of trust on that guy~" her sister pointed out from a distance.
June watched the four as he forced Mike's back to maintain a straight posture, he had his foot on the silver-haired male's back and completely ignored the others surrounding them.
"I can't breathe!!" Mike yelled for help which caught Ace's attention.
"Focus on the training." Rissa threatened to hit him if they get sidetracked once more.
The cinnamon-haired eldest male could only obey without another moment to waste, they resumed training using handgloves to execute how one would either defend and protect, or attack an opponent.
"Combat skills, that's what we're gonna be doing to test you." Rissa instructed him.
"On your right!" she shouted.
"Down!" then another shout.
"Finish it with a blow." the woman shielded herself from the attack, noticing that Ace hadn't been taking training seriously.
"So your weakness is that you can't pull all your concentration into what we're doing." the carrot-haired female nodded at this discovery and quickly thought of how to teach him to focus as his mind kept drifting away.
'Mike, I hope you're prepared for what I'm about to do.' someone's thought entered his head despite not knowing what it meant.
"Okay! This time, I'm not holding back." Rissa warned the other survivor, initiating a harder way of training. "YA!" she yelled.
In the end, Rissa attacked him with almost her full strength and left him with a black eye.
Hence, the end of training on day one.
The group of six huddled in a circle around the campfire in front of two tents, one large enough to fit all four while the second could only fit two of them. Everyone had their eyes on Rissa who willingly cared enough to compensate for her mistake.
No one spoke a word about what had happened, given the fact that the three new survivors were occupying the bigger tent. Four of them questioned how the three gained access to the bigger tent while June faced Mike, he knew well that he had done it.
They were all tired and didn't even have the energy to do anything about it either.
'How are we going to get any rest now?' Blessy glared at Mike for being too generous, letting out a deep sigh as she glanced at Shawn, and expected that he would have been the one to do something like this behind their back.
Ace lowered his head, enduring the pain though Rissa already applied a pack of frozen peas on it to reduce the swelling. "Stop moving, will you?" the violent female held onto his chin and continued to take care of the black eye she caused.
"What are you looking at?" Rissa got annoyed with the way Ace quietly observed her.
"I know what that look means!" Blessy and Shawn were teasing the two of them, and this moment lasted for a short moment, until Blessy and Mike suddenly turned into a sneering cat and a barking dog, and fought so viciously.
"Both of you, stop it." under Rissa's command, Ace confronted. "No, no! Tell him to stop making rash decisions by himself." Blessy sternly said.
"We can't keep on dismissing the faults of each other, how else can we grow and learn from our mistakes if we keep on putting these topics on-hold??"
Mike answered with a matching of his gritting teeth. "What do you guys have against them to make you treat them that way?" a debate sparked and before they dragged it out of control, Rissa was ready to throw hands at them so Ace tried again.
"If you want to talk about this, maybe some other time when those three aren't behind us." the male tried to calm them down. Blessy didn't care though and continued to drag it on.
"Instead of changing the topic, maybe we could talk about how much of your emotions influence your sense of judgment day by day." her voice remained the same, talking in a serious tone.
"Oh! I'm not the one whose emotions get in the way of my judgment, wasn't that you and your sister?" he didn't stop either.
"Are you bringing that up? The menstrual cycle that affects our hormones, do you even know how painful that is? The fact that hurts most is that we can't control or do anything about it." Blessy was also prepared to throw hands at him for going below the belt and slowly losing it. "Also, that is purely unrelated to what my point is here." she added.
"I did not mention that anyway, you brought it up." Mike backfired, pleasing the ears of Sissy, Little Lamb, and Judy who were attentively listening to their argument commence, smiling to themselves. "Baby, I'll be~ A conflict, wow."
Little Lamb peeked through a small gap through the zipper as she sang lowly, taking a quick peek at the ruckus happening outside of the tent. Her teammates used the available items inside their shelter to visualize the flow of their plan.
"Get up." the blonde kicked the male out of her way as he laid on one of the comforters.
"Why aren't you doing anything to help us? Our lives are at stake here." Sissy quietly organized the contents on the short table and placed sugarcubes to play the role of the troops they ought to work with, and for the six survivors, strawberries.
"And you, stop eating the plan." Sissy was caught in the act, sneaking in her mouth a few pieces of strawberries.
'I cannot work with these two.' she ruined her hair and sat heavily on the ground, it was such a headache to deal with a fever while leading her two comrades, she couldn't help but feel as though they had given up at this point. Little Lamb threw down the table and flipped it over, frustrated at the thought of carrying their team alone.
June's attention had been caught, making him feel even more uneasy as the darkness grew around them.
"How about you mention something that is right infront of us instead of bringing up what happened days ago?" the argument had not stopped yet, and reached no conclusion.
"And out of all the things I did, why that one? Why not ask about that time I kept on going away from you guys just to do what I wanted? Does it or does it not ring any bell??" she kindly suggested. Shawn was in the midst of them and couldn't do anything given the fact that his body felt sore from the training.
"End this conversation before I end both of you, and you three who are letting this go on." Rissa scolded her sister and Mike, including June, Shawn, and especially, Ace who was beginning to have a fear of her.
"Regardless of your reason, tell us before deciding on anything else." the argument ended without hearing more from his side. "Happy now?"
Blessy scoffed at her sister's question. "It is nice to argue once in a while, I was offended." Mike shook his head. June sighed at the sound of his teammates arguing.
"You've been awfully quiet today. Would you care to share what it is, June?" Mike noticed this and proceeded to cook food for the others, it was afternoon and after training, they had nothing left to do.
Their leader would still not utter a word, clenching his jaw and letting out another sigh. "Use our tent if anyone needs sleep." Rissa offered, finally settling down after placing a cast on Ace's left eye. Silence fell in the air again with only the campfire which produced crackling sounds and the murmurs from the tent where the three survivors stayed in.
'Tell us, man. We won't know unless you speak out.' June was the perfect target for Ace who tried his best to figure out how to use his telepathic ability. 'Either I can communicate without words or read their minds.' he concentrated on his friend alone.
'Something isn't-'
Just like that, a cold breeze passed through and killed the fire.
"What just happened?" Blessy could feel the chill rush up her spine, the others were also shocked and lit the fire again. "I was almost there!"
Ace jumped from his seat, he walked back and forth with frustration in his voice as he mumbled all sorts of words to himself, it looked as if he was going insane.
"I don't follow." Blessy and the others were dumbfounded. "I need space."
Ace dismissed all the questions and went inside the small tent which June did as well. They both left the campfire and sat inside the tent in silence, trying to focus on their own concerns at the moment without distractions.
"Can I use you as my experiment?" Ace threw off June using such vague words.
"Whatever." June answered while taking a seat in front of him, he finally uttered a word after almost a day without a whimper. Ace gathered up all this remaining strength and kept his eyes on June. "I can do this." June started to feel like running away.
Their eyes locked at that moment and both breathing heavily, the silence continued as they focused more on each other, trying to grasp the inner part of themselves.
'I thought he had a thing for Rissa...' June raised an eyebrow as he read the room, meanwhile, his friend continued trying to read his mind or rather, talk to him telepathically.
'Is he gay?'
"No, no. NO!" Ace's eyes grew big and his mouth wide, the older male stood up and denied the question he heard in June's mind. "You can-" the black-haired friend of his lowered his voice before he resumed. "You heard that?" he whispered.
"Is everything okay in there?" Blessy asked from the outside, sitting beside her sister as she braided the older female's hair. 'Listen up!' their ears perked up at the surprise.
Ace effortlessly communicated with them using his mind.
'Hold up, did I just hear Ace or..?' Rissa and Blessy looked at each other, they could hear one another. "We're not crazy, right?"
Shawn awoke from his sleep and Mike dropped the basket of water bottles he took from the gas station nearby, the four of them around the campfire looked at each other with gladness, it was as if their thoughts have been linked as one.
'What do we talk about first?' Rissa was smiling from ear to ear, having unlocked a new bond with her teammates. 'Now this is what we call reading each other's minds!' the younger sister joined her, fueled with excitement at the news.
'We have to keep this to ourselves, got it? No one else must find out.' the six of them believed that this was their major weapon against the three new survivors, against any of their undead enemies, and against other existing entities out there.
"They sure are quiet." Judy commented out loud, trying to catch on some sleep since the next day would be filled with the start of his plan, mainly talking to the other survivors.
"Are they asleep?" Sissy wondered as she did some light stretches beside the beige-haired male. 'I wonder who they mistook me as... Who is this Cyrus person?' the male questioned himself, attempting to take advantage of what he remembered.
His mind drifted off to sleep for as long as it took him to set his goal straight.
============
It was dawn when the sky turned red as from the sun's color the next day.
The drowsiness Blessy felt had been wiped away when she was called by an unknown voice, a little girl's presence awoke her from a comfortable sleep.
A sleep that she never expected to have that night.
"Hey!" it tried to get her attention but she refused to open her eyes and cut off her sleep. And there she fell back into slumber. Hours came after, and one by one, the survivors got up.
"How was sleep?" Judy had two cups of coffee in his hand.
The silver-haired male sat inside the bigger tent which the three survivors had left untouched since morning came. He was offered a drink and unconsciously accepted it while deep in his thoughts. "Mike." the wrong pronunciation of his name returned him to his senses, patting the seat beside him and acknowledged the other male's presence.
"It is actually Mikey spelled as Mike." he corrected the lad, leaving traces of his name on the ground. "Apologies, my friend. Very well then." he formally took note of it and began to talk about his life before and after the outbreak.
"You've been in the facilities where those monsters were created?" Mike repeated after him.
A nod was given in return, followed by a continuation of his journey.
"I was basically raised by scientists and I've known of the situation in the Southern Island before it happened." Judy continued, revealing a secret of his in order to gain Mike's trust.
'If I want his trust, I have to show him that I trust him.' the beige-haired male analyzed Mike's facial expressions.
He then explained how he had been traveling the country for years in hopes of finding a cure to the infection. The beige-haired male mentioned how he had been looking for someone special, a person who could be immune whether injected, scratched, or bitten.
Even just a simple exposure to the infection.
"And you think I'm that person." Mike assumed correctly, almost too fast.
'He is quick-witted.' Judy discreetly rolled his eyes.
"You just seem so different from the rest of your friends." the lad replied while walking towards the tent cover and opening it halfway to show Mike a sight of his friends without him.
They were laughing and goofing around while training.
"It is as if they wouldn't even notice when you're suddenly gone." Judy continued, successfully manipulating the other survivor. He let down the tent cover and sat next to Mike who was clearly taking it into consideration, every word that came from Judy.
"But out of the six of you, aren't you the one who cares the most? The one who would notice the tiniest things about them?"
Mike knew well enough that no one paid that much attention to him. 'It is always about them...'
"Aren't you tired of playing as a side character? Look at me." he looked at the fellow and listened well to his advice.
"I see Ace's ex-girlfriend and that girl with the scissors as my underlings." he clearly didn't remember their names as a sign that he treated them as nothing more than partners in their mission.
"You could become like me, way better if you badly want that." the silver-haired male had the personality of a golden retriever, making it appear like he was under some kind of hypnotism.
'I feel endagered.' were the only words repeating in his mind.
"But I'm not like that." Judy was caught off guard when Mike suddenly stood up and looked down on him. "You and I, different." was his short last response before exiting the tent to meet with his friends. 'Well, that hurt my pride.' Judy followed him.
"Oh, hey! We were just talking about you." Blessy greeted him with a warm smile as the five of them had been training. "What exactly were you guys talking about?" surprised at the unexpected attention he received right after Judy said otherwise.
"He forgot his own birthday." Rissa couldn't help but hide her laughter, hitting Ace playfully.
'My birthday.' the silver-haired male didn't bother looking back at Judy when the lad approached them excitedly, all the more encouraged to establish his plan alone.
"This calls for a celebration then." he placed his hand over Mike's shoulder.
'What did you guys talk about in the tent?' Ace could smell the fishiness in the air, he managed to get his younger friend's attention and speak to him. 'He was telling me about how you guys wouldn't notice if I weren't around. That I am different too.'
'Something like that, huh?' Ace whispered in Rissa's ear.
"They're trying to target Mike and distancing him from us, laugh as you pull away from me like I just told you a joke." and she laughed without a hassle. 'They're really up to no good.'
Their minds were linked as one again, it was as if Ace's thoughts were now made public.
"A celebration will indeed happen, just not that big. I suppose." Mike decided to play along, and so did his friends. 'It takes two to tango, doesn't it?'