"Mister, just where are we heading?"
The CUV is cruising along a familiar road that leads to that familiar neighborhood where he first noticed survivors watching him.
"We're just heading to a neighborhood I passed by here a couple of hours ago. I just need to check on something quick then we'll immediately make our way to Fresno." Michael replied while taking a curve that leads towards that neighborhood he was talking about.
Athena had slightly lowered her wariness towards Michael and is now comfortably watching the passing scenery outside the window.
"Is it important?" Noah, the little boy, couldn't help asking in his curiosity.
Michael looked towards them through the rear-view mirror. "Of course. If there are survivors, then I have to meet them and ask them to join us. There's safety in numbers after all. Besides, our community also needs the increase in population."
"You're not planning on selling them too, are you?" Athena suddenly slapped him with that question.
Michael scrunched his eyebrows together while squinting his eyes. "What? No! How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not selling anyone?"
She still does not believe him and lets out a snort. "That's what those two also told us before they killed our parents."
Michael chose to remain mum as he does not have any words to that or any words of comfort for them.
'Kids are really difficult. Damn, I just hope I didn't impregnate Amanda from how many times I did it inside her.' Remembering the woman he left back home, Michael suddenly had a headache coming as he suddenly started worrying if he had gotten her pregnant.
"I hope not," Michael murmured in a low voice as their vehicle entered the neighborhood where he first spotted the signs of survivors nearby.
He drove the car in front of that familiar house and stopped there. Though from the entrance along the way to that particular house, the scenes outside the car terrified the two young siblings as they had never seen so much corpse lying around.
They even drove around a pile of corpses in the middle of the road, and even the person behind this was slightly nauseated. Not because of the scene, but because of the terrible smell in the air that's permeating all the way inside the car.
"Eww, it smells horrible. We're staying inside. You're on your own." Athena frowned, and like her brother, she was also pinching her nose because of the slight foul smell in the air.
Michael just shook his head and got out of the car. The moment he did, an even more revolting smell assaulted his senses. He quickly closed the door behind him as he was worried about the kids inside.
"Damn. I don't think they're still here." Leaving the engine running, Michael couldn't control himself and let out a curse. It was the stinkiest shit he had ever smelled in his life.
'So their smell becomes worse when they get killed off huh. This place now smells like a dumpsite that's been used for years.' He thought while making his way over to the front door.
Bang!
Crash!
Michael didn't bother to say anything and just gave the door one powerful kick that sent it crashing in pieces inside.
"Come out. I know you're in here!" Michael bluffed. He actually does not know if there are still people inside.
Stepping foot inside, Michael looked around and if you ignore the mess inside, then the home had remained visibly intact like most of the houses he had "visited".
Ignoring the mess around him, Michael hastily made his way over to the stairs.
Clink!
Stepping onto the fifth stair, Michael immediately had that feeling of stepping onto something and a bad feeling rose inside him.
"F*ck!" Michael let out a curse when he saw three bowling balls tied to their own ropes swinging towards him in a menacing manner.
Swoosh!
Michael immediately ducked down to dodge the incoming trap. He remained prone and made his way upstairs while crawling on all fours as the three bowling balls kept swinging over him.
Michael stood up and looked down at the three balls that had already started losing their energy.
'That's some home alone trap.' He thought and he suddenly missed his tree house he left behind.
While Michael is looking for any signs of people inside the house, Athena suddenly spotted someone running out of the house, three houses down the street.
She quickly thought they must be ones that Michael is looking for. She wanted to quickly alert Michael, but then she remembered the scene outside, so she hesitated.
"AHHH! Michael, help!"
She might have hesitated, but her brother who also witnessed it seemed really smart as he quickly rolled down the window and started shouting to get Michael's attention.
"Hey! It stinks, close the window Noah!" When the rotten stench rolled in inside the car, Athena immediately started gagging while berating her brother in between.
"Michael!" Noah ignored her and gave one last shout before hurriedly closing the window.
Noah turned to his sister as he took a deep breath. It was clear he had cleverly held his breath earlier to prevent himself from smelling the stench outside.
"You..naughty kid." Athena coughed in between.
On the other hand, Michael had just reached the second floor when he heard Noah's voice outside.
"AHHH! Michael, help!"
His gaze immediately became sharp and his gaze turned towards the nearby window and gunned towards it!
Shatter!
Michael burst through the window with his arms crossed protecting his face and landed on the ground with a roll.
Thud!
He quickly stood up and looked towards their car, but was quickly met with confusion when he saw the kids inside and not in danger at all.
He started walking over when Noah suddenly stuck his head out of the window.
"There's people escaping over there!" He yelled while pointing towards Michael, specifically behind him.
He quickly turned around and saw a person holding a kid and saw them escaping inside a vehicle, but it seemed like something had happened because the vehicle was still not driving away.
"Great job kid!" Michael yelled and made a mad rush towards the escaping survivors.
Several seconds earlier.
"Hurry, Jose." Rosie escaped from the house they were hiding in and pulled Jose along with her. The poor kid, due to the difference in the length of their legs, had to run twice the effort.
"Hold on, we're almost to the car." Rosie looked behind her and saw her nephew already breathing raggedly. She knows that they can't stop now and could only make her nephew endure it for a short while.
"Aunt..who are we..running away..from?" Jose was confused by the sudden situation and had to quench the curiosity in his mind.
"Someone dangerous. Dammit, we should have left when we had the chance! Why did this lunatic have to come back?!" While on the run, Rosie couldn't stop herself and started venting her frustrations to the air.
"Michael!"
They were almost to their car when they once again heard the boy yelling that dangerous and infuriating name!
"Hurry, put your seatbelt on!"
Rosie helped her nephew inside the car and instructed him before she hastily made her over the opposite and into the driver side.
Drrdada! Drrdada!
She kept trying to turn on the engine, but it kept dying on her.
Smack!
"Dammit, come on!"
In her frustration, Rosie angrily smacked the steering wheel. Sadly for her, her anger wasn't helping at all since it's clear that the car wasn't cooperating with her.
Jose ignored her aunt and instead leaned on his chair and looked behind them.
"Aunt, he's coming. I mean, he's already here." Jose first saw Michael still tens of meters away from them, but he had just blinked his eyes once but Michael had already crossed roughly eighty percent of the distance between them.
Meanwhile, it did not even take long for Michael to cross the distance between and immediately arrive beside their car.
Placing his hand on the roof of the car, Michael slightly leaned to look at the woman inside and smiled at her.
"Hello. Do you mind stepping out of your vehicle for a bit?"
He was actually surprised. He was just trying his luck, but he didn't expect that he'd really stumble upon this person here.
'So you were really here before you met those two, and seeing her with a kid. This must be that nephew she had mentioned in the series.'
Seeing that Michael had retreated a bit, Rosie slightly opened the car door. " Who are you? What do you want from us?"
Michael showed a harmful smile. "I'm Michael. One of the leaders of Hope 101 community. I travelled all the way here from Georgia looking for survivors. Right now, I have two kids I rescued with me earlier today. You probably know that since you've heard one of them yelling for me earlier."
Rosie didn't get out of the car and like Athena before, she's wary of his presence. Most especially after the things she had witnessed him do today.
"What are you?"
"Uhmm..a human?"