Chapter 265: A Run In With Apocalypse Survivors

We descended down the ramp, moving deeper into the facility and following the trail of blood.

The ramp led to what was obviously an underground bunker of sorts, where a long corridor continued forward with armoured doors branching off to the sides.

The blood trail continued straight ahead so we decided to follow it instead of searching the other rooms.

We were on high alert, scanning corners and even the ceiling to watch out for any Anomalies that might still be hiding here while we crept down the corridor.

That was when we heard the sound of murmuring coming from in front of us, prompting all of us to stop in our tracks.

The murmurs sounded human, not like the guttural groans and growls from the Anomalies that we have met so far.

That means... Survivors.

Or maybe... It could just be another recording of the people who used to be here but were no longer around.

All of us shared a look before advancing towards the source of the noise, still keeping on alert since these survivors might not necessarily be friendly anyway.

We reached a T-junction and the blood trail continued to the left while the murmurs were coming from the right.

Dan and Olivia turned to give me a look, waiting for my instruction.

I decided we might as well deal with the voices first since we don’t know how long the blood had stained the floor and it could just be leading to an empty room at this point.

I pointed to the right and the two of them nodded, moving in that direction with Dan taking the lead as usual.

We moved down the corridor and there was a door that was opened a few steps down, the voices coming from within the room.

That was when I realised there wasn’t just one set of voices but several of them... And it sounded like they were in the midst of an argument at the moment.

As we got closer, their voices became clearer.

"I’m telling you... It really did ring!"

"How many years has it been? I don’t think there’s anyone up there anymore. Let’s face it, it’s just a glitch."

"We even checked the ring camera... There’s no one there."

Ah... Seems like there’s actually survivors after all... And they took a long time to answer the call while we basically busted our way in here...

I gave my Guardians another look before nodding again, all of us slowly approaching the door.

We peeked inside the room, looking like those cartoons where you have several heads appearing at the doorway piled on top of each other.

Inside the room was some kind of radio room and there seemed to be four people crowding around a large security console.

Most of the screens were dark or showed static while the screen they were staring at was showing the corridor outside the door we just kicked in.

And yes, these four people looked human.

We pulled back from the doorway before those four people could notice us, wondering what we should do here.

Before I could ask if we should just announce ourselves to them, another person turned from around the corner and froze up when she saw us.

We were just stuck looking at each other for a good minute or two before the girl opened her mouth to yell out an alarm.

"P... People!! In... Intruders!! Raiders!!"

Well... Great...

We stood our ground and just tried to appear as harmless as possible, which... I suppose wasn’t really effective even though the only person who was visibly armed was Dan with his shield and mace.

I had already dismissed my floating arms earlier since I thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to appear before them with two giant floating armoured gauntlets looking menacing behind me.

The four people inside the room immediately ran out, their eyes widening when they saw us and one of them pulled out what looked like a weapon.

I say it looked like a weapon because it looked like those supermarket handheld scanners but I assume this was their gun or something in this world.

"Stand back! How did you get in here?! Who are you people?!" The one with that scanner gun shouted, waving that thing in front of him.

Dan had his shield up, moving himself in front of all of us to put himself in between the guy and us.

I called out to him, "We heard your message."

Those people froze up when they heard me.

"Our... Message? Wait... What the fuck is that thing? Is that some kind of monster?!" He cried out, pointing the scanner gun at Olivia.

I guess they don’t have Oni in this World.

"She’s a friend," I answered, hiding Maylene and Liliac behind me. "Could you put that thing down? We are just here because we thought there were survivors..."

"How did you even get here?! You... Have those things mutated to the point they can talk like us and look like that? Take off your mask!"

"You need to calm down... We do not mean you guys any harm..."

"Bullshit! How did you guys even get in here?!"

I decided not to tell them we kicked their door in and instead, went for the other route.

"Well... You have a really big hole in your garage door... And the main door was also broken... So we came in to look for survivors..."

"You’re just here to raid us aren’t you?! Get lost! There’s nothing for you here!"

"Weren’t you guys broadcasting the message to call survivors to gather here?"

There was a pause before one of the other survivors, a girl with frizzled brown hair, growled at another guy.

"I thought you said that you already shut off the radio?! You’re still letting it broadcast?!"

The younger looking guy scowled, "Hey! You want me to climb up there all by myself?! There’s no way I was going to do that?! In fact, I climbed up the ladder and heard all the growling coming from outside and made the smart choice of running back here! If I had gone out that day, I would have been ripped to shreds! Besides... I figured that it would have ran out of power eventually and stopped sending out the message eventually..."

"Well it obviously didn’t!" The girl shrieked, gesturing towards us.

This group seemed pretty hysterical right now so I guess telling them we are from another world might not help things so let’s just pretend that we are people from this world instead.

"Ok, look... We only came here because we thought that this place was welcoming of survivors... But I guess you guys have troubles of your own as well. Do you guys need any help?"

The guy with the scanner gun waved it at me, "No we don’t! Get out right now!"

The last guy of the group of four raised his hand, "Wait... You guys... You came from the surface right? You can traverse the surface?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Why are you speaking like being on the surface is a guaranteed death or something?"

"Are... Are you serious? Did you... Did you not encounter any of those abominable monsters that are prowling around the surface now? They rip you to pieces the moment they see you!"

I shrugged, "It’s not really a big deal for us. We can kill those things."

There was a moment of silence as the people in front of us needed a moment to register our words.

"You... Can kill those things?" The one with the scanner weapon muttered, right before his eyebrows furrowed in a glare at me. "Don’t lie to us you fuck face! You expect us to believe that?!"

Hey... You’ve never even seen my face and you’re calling me that? Rude, much?

I raised an eyebrow at him, "What? You’re telling me that you can’t? You’ve never killed one of those things before?"

"The surface is swarming with them! There’s nowhere above ground that’s safe! What’s more... What’s with that getup?! All of you are dressed so weirdly!"

The heck? I mean... I’m just wearing normal clothes aside from the mask... Liliac is wearing her cloak... Maylene is wearing her bunny outfit... Olivia is wearing her usual office wear and Dan is wearing a steel plate armour...

Ok, yeah, I guess most of us are dressed pretty weirdly... So that’s kind of a legitimate claim.

Before I could answer him though, the last guy spoke up again, "If... If you can really traverse the surface without worrying about those monsters... Could we ask you for help?"

The guy with the scanner turned to him and gasped, "Wait... You can’t be..."

"We have no choice... We can’t do it ourselves... Please... There’s a town down the road from here, there’s another underground shelter there... We have some friends who had gone there and we lost contact with them a few days ago... Could you... Could you please check on them? We’ll give you some of our supplies..."

Oh? You’re telling me there’s even more survivors? That’s interesting~