"Where is your axe, Ren?" Caleb asked curiously.
"I lost it," Ren replied without explaining because he himself wasn't sure where he had lost it.
"Oh," Caleb nodded his head and didn't fuss over the details.
From time to time, Ren kept glancing toward the trees around him as the group kept walking, and finally, not being able to contain his curiosity any longer, he decided to ask about it.
"Why are the leaves of this forest green while the ones near the village blue?" The reason he asked this because he already knew from them that the apocalypse wasn't the reason the leaves had changed colors.
"What do you mean? You don't have different colored leaves in your world?" Lina asked with a confused look on her face as if she were talking to a non-native of this world.
Wait, he was one.
She was also confused when Ren had asked about the mutation of the natural vegetation around their village when they were in the barrier.
And with this question, she was now pretty sure that his world didn't have leaves like theirs.
"Nope. I don't think so," Ren answered, completely sure about it.
'But leaves do need to be green in color to absorb sunlight? Don't they?' Shaking his head, he left the topic behind as they finally crossed the forest in around three hours.
The sun was right above them, pouring sunlight directly on their faces.
The path ahead was a grassy field with trees scattered around but the thing that stole his attention was the pathway. A narrow strip of hard-packed earth cut through the grass. It was sunken and settled from years of passing carts.
"Let's rest here for a moment before venturing further and hope we might find a carriage," Evan said.
Nodding their heads, the group sat on a patch of grass and started to take out the necessary things they had kept in their inventory.
Lina took out a basket filled with carrots and water, surprising Ren even further.
Noticing his gaze, Ronan explained that Lina's parents had harvested the carrots and the inventory prevented them from being spoiled.
So Lina had loads of food which eased some of their worry.
Ren tasted it and found it slightly different from the one he had eaten a few times at the orphanage when people came to donate fruits and vegetables.
But the taste wasn't bad, just a little bland.
Hesitating for a moment, Ren finally asked Caleb for some water.
"What happened to yours?" Caleb was slightly curious. Because everyone had shared the pots from other houses in equal amounts and even one pot of water could last them half a day easily.
"I threw them at the horde to escape," Ren replied with a sour face.
He didn't want to talk about what had happened with him because it was simply unnecessary and… painful.
Caleb felt silent for a moment, but still nodded and with a slight push of his hand, passed a water pot.
Meanwhile, Ronan returned to the group after scouting ahead and unlike what they hoped, he didn't see any carriages.
"No worries. The city isn't even that far ahead, we should reach it by tomorrow morning at the earliest." Evan tried to re-motivate the group but instead earned a groan from Caleb.
Caleb was back to being himself and as they moved ahead while following the pathway, he kept trying to wield and swing his machete with his right hand.
Despite not losing his dominant hand, the loss of the other made it awkward for him to use his weapon.
So Caleb was trying to get accustomed to it.
After some hours, the sun finally set on the horizon and the moon showed itself.
The group decided to rest above the tree branches to avoid getting ambushed by some unknown creature in the middle of the night.
The next day, Evan woke up first and stirred the others awake before continuing their journey. Reaching the city in the early morning was only possible if they didn't stop at night and moved continuously.
And this was the reason they were disappointed after not seeing any carriages down the trail.
And after a couple of hours, Caleb started jumping excitedly at seeing the walls of the city that were high enough to be visible from hundreds of meters away.
Everyone rushed ahead to reach the city as this day was ending too and they didn't want to sleep outside anymore.
The branches weren't comfortable and Ronan still felt sore all over his back the whole day.
"Be careful," Ronan muttered as he saw the gates of the city wide open. As they reached near it, the city was just as they had expected.
Not a single soul could be seen inside from where they stood but thinking it was nearing nighttime, the people must have hidden already.
But Ren's gaze wasn't on that, it was on the city itself.
'Shouldn't it be a normal medieval world?'
The whole city was covered by a tall wall made of some black stone. And the buildings, they looked nothing like what Ren had imagined.
Rows of narrow buildings lined the street, their stone walls hidden beneath layers of coating. Blue, red, and pale golden colored walls reflected the sunlight unevenly, giving the street a warm glow.
Some towers rose at different locations, made with painted stones and wood, the tower itself as if gleaming in bright colors.
Realising it was not like a medieval world from his time, Ren dropped his gaze and also realised that there were no humans as far as his eyes could reach.
"Let's move fast. We shouldn't waste any further time and find other survivors tomorrow." Everyone nodded at Evan's words but just as they stepped foot inside the city, a notification appeared in front of them.
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[CITY WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT]
Protected Human Population has increased.
• New Humans Detected
• Sealed City: Highcrest
• New Survivors Registered: +5
Current Global Human Count: 67,219,443.