The gates slowly shut after the two vehicles.
From the parapet above, Daichi turned towards a figure that had approached silently from the darkness of the hall. A figure he'd thought had returned to the living room.
Saya didn't even register his reaction. She simply stared out at the deserted street where the expedition was heading for the city.
Kohta was also there, looking beyond the gates of their own little fortress, lamenting not being able to provide support and backup to his companions. It was a first for him, being left out of an important mission.
But he also recognized the burden of his responsibility. To protect home.
Alice and Zeke had also come out to bid the departing group a cheery support, with Zeke barking his 'fighto!' in canine language.
They stayed there for a while even after the two vehicles completely disappeared from view, becoming nothing but specks of light in the distance.
Saya turned around and retreated back inside.
...
The journey to the coast was a slow crawl through the ruins of their world.
They took the secondary route Kohta had marked on the map, a winding path through suburban neighborhoods that had long since surrendered to nature. Weeds grew through cracks in the asphalt, and ivy crept up the sides of houses, their windows dark and vacant.
They encountered small groups of zombies, lone stragglers mostly, which they dispatched without slowing down. Rei's spear, extending from the Mule's window, was efficient. Saeko simply watched, her hand resting on her sword.
Miku, at one point, hopped out of the moving truck, dashed toward a stray zombie, and swung her bat with a grunt. The head flew off in a high, clean arc. She scrambled back into the truck, grinning, panting, a speck of dark blood on her cheek. The girl could be quite scary, the same way a sugar-addicted kid could be.
"You're going to break your neck." Takashi told her.
"But I didn't." She beamed.
They drove in silence for a while after that.
An hour later, they reached the old railway bridge. It was exactly as Daichi had described. Rust-covered steel girders stretched across the wide, slow-moving river, wooden planks forming the roadbed. Some were rotted through, leaving gaps that revealed the churning water below.
Tysone had briefly stepped out of the Mule to inspect it closer, though without venturing too deep into it.
"Yeah, we should avoid that." Miku said.
Tysone nodded. Even if they walked on foot to test it, he wouldn't risk driving either the Mule or the Tortoise across it. A single rotted plank under the weight of a vehicle could be catastrophic. "Let's use the alternative route." He said, speaking into the radio. "We'll lose some more time but I don't want to risk it."
"We don't have a choice."
"Copy that." Kenji's calm voice came back.
They had to drive further west, adding another hour to their journey. They were also slowly remapping the city, as the landscape was undergoing a slow but constant transformation, thanks to the mutations, the debris blocking roads, particular nasty hordes, and/or just a very gut feeling that a specific road should not be taken.
As they neared the industrial district that bordered the coast, the character of the ruins changed. The houses gave way to warehouses, factories, and storage yards. Some of the roads were littered with decayed corpses; even with Evolved likely hunting and clearing out the streets, there wasn't really anyone cleaning them up.
They drove with the lights off now, quietly and slowly.
"Movement. Ten o'clock. Two hundred yards." Kenji announced over the radio. "Looks like a patrol."
Tysone slowed the Mule, pulling into the shadow of a massive corrugated iron warehouse.
He looked over at the direction Kenji's voice had come from, a bit later.
Not zombies. People.
Three figures moving quickly between the shells of shipping containers. They were armed, dressed in mismatched tactical gear. A ragtag group, most likely one of the hundreds of desperate settlements that had sprouted up since the apocalypse, trying to survive like barnacles clinging to a ship.
He wondered if he should roll down the window and hail them. Maybe ask them if they knew the way to the port? Would be kind of funny if they didn't start shooting first.
He knew there were bad seeds out here. Scavenger settlements that would take what little food, supplies, and water a team like his had.
They watched the three figures disappear between the containers and didn't move for two full minutes after.
"They didn't see us." Saeko hummed.
"Probably."
"They moved like they were afraid of something." Rei chimed in from the back seat.
Tysone had noticed the same thing.
The movement had been lateral, quick, container to container—trying not to be seen rather than people looking for something to take.
There was a difference, and it mattered.
"We keep moving." He grunted. "Same speed."
Nobody argued.
The warehouse district opened up another kilometer south, the buildings getting larger and more industrial, crane structures visible against the aurora-lit sky like the skeletons of enormous animals.
The smell of salt water arrived before the coast did.
Miku inhaled audibly. "Oh. That's nice."
"Don't get used to it." Takashi said.
"I can enjoy it for two seconds."
"Two seconds, then focus."
"Yes sir, Captain Boss-Man."
She focused. But she kept the window cracked.
...
The port was larger than any of them had expected.
Not because they hadn't looked at the map, but they clearly hadn't done it justice. The scale of it struck Tysone the moment they crossed a metal guardrail and rolled to a stop at the end of a narrow, rutted access road. The facility stretched along the coastline for nearly a kilometer: loading bays, container yards, fuel storage, a dry dock that could've held three ships at once.
A mass of cranes and piers spread out before them like some huge mechanical swamp, cargo containers stacked two, sometimes three high, creating rows of vertebrae that vanished in the distance.
Small fires burned like scattered candles throughout the maze.
Smoke rose from some places in dark columns. It curled around the skeleton structures, giving the whole thing a hazy, dreamlike quality, like an Escher painting.
Takashi swore softly. Rei tried to imagine how many hordes could fit in the seemingly endless ranks of cargo containers alone.
They gathered themselves at the end of the road, keeping a vigilant eye out for more patrolling figures.
Tysone stopped the Mule on the elevated road that ran along the port's northern perimeter, killed the engine, and they sat there looking down at it.
Two of the fuel storage tanks had lights. Not bright lights—likely from generators.
A low, orange-yellow glow through high, narrow windows. One of the loading bays had a vehicle parked outside it, a heavy truck with a canvas-covered bed, facing outward. Ready to move.
"Someone's home." Miku said.
"Multiple someones." Kenji's voice came through the radio. He and his team had positioned the Tortoise on the road's far end, covering the eastern approach. "I count see three of 'em on the upper level of the easternmost tank. Sentries, probably."
"Copy." Tysone looked at the port. "Saeko."
She already had the binoculars. "Four sentries visible. Two on the tank structure, two near the loading bay. They're covering the... water, not the approach roads." She lowered the binoculars. "There are unarmed workers. Mostly at the far north side. Men and women. There's no way to tell the good guys from the bad guys by looks alone. My best guess is that anyone holding a weapon is someone we want to put down. Which means everyone."
There was a dark look on Saeko's face. Tysone put a hand on her shoulder. "Only the ones that fire." He said quietly. She smiled at him, eyes soft.
He turned to look at his people. Takashi and Rei had their backs against the front doors. Kenji and the others in the Tortoise were out of sight.
Miku was pressing herself up between the front seats. Saeko held the binoculars on her lap.
The original plan had been for a silent, covert entry, observing and exploring the area before engaging anyone, and only if it was necessary.
"Why would they cover the water?"
"You reckon something's there?" Rei gulped. Takashi paled.
Looking at the abyss that was the ocean beyond the piers and cranes, one could easily imagine the terrible, black water to be filled with all sorts of unnatural abominations, seeping from the depths with their claws raised.
Tysone frowned as he grabbed the binoculars from Saeko's lap.
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.