Bang!
Reya's ears rang as her head buzzed faintly. Not too long after, some object seemed to have broken, its falling fragments grazing her skin. She had been hurled into a wall. Pain was a sensation she was quite accustomed to after being subjected to fights of such nature for the past 3 years or so. Forcing herself to stand back up, she staggered while raising a hand to her head. A thin coat of crimson stained her fingers, and a few thoughts ran through her muddled mind.
"Tch… What's a feral doing in an abandoned building?"
Her eyes met with the— albeit unsightly, creature standing in front of her. Damn it, she thought to herself. This was supposed to just be a scavenge mission!
Ferals are creatures that attack the uninfected. While mimicking the appearance of so-called "zombies," they are much stronger and lack the desire to consume human flesh. Moreover, since the appearance of such creatures 3 years ago, many scientists have proven that ferals are a much more different creature than the zombies that they were often compared to. In fact, scientists have lacked proper information regarding ferals due to the fact that they are extremely difficult to work with and are very unpredictable.
Reya had always felt irked towards the people who would interchange the terms "ferals" and "zombies," as she had encountered such creatures more than enough times and seen the lasting damage that they would wreak. To her, it always felt that people were belittling the danger of such creatures and implied that such beings could be compared to those fictitious zombies.
But back to the situation at hand, Reya quickly scanned her surroundings. It was strange, normally an abandoned building wouldn't house a single feral. Those creatures were attracted to human presence, so they weren't interested in abandoned structures. She was given the go signal by her group to scavenge some supplies at this building, so why did she encounter a feral? There would be only one reason to encounter one, and that meant…
Gotcha, she muttered under her breath. Whilst dividing her attention between the creature and surroundings, she saw a small silhouette in the corner of her eyes. A little girl was peeking over a corner, the rags of her shabby clothes making her more visible. Unfortunately for the both of them, the creature had turned around and showed an interest in the little girl. Before the creature could lunge forward, Reya straightened her battered body and lit a match. Using the small bottle of alcohol she kept with her for emergency situations, she threw the combo at the creature. A deafening screech permeated throughout the building as the creature went up in flames. Reya felt her ears ring again from the sound, but she pushed herself to grab the child and booked it out of the building.
A while later, she had run quite the distance away from the building. She took a short break to catch her breath, but she knew she couldn't stay out in the open for too long. She leaned her back against a tree, her chest rapidly rising between pants. Not only that, but she was still actively bleeding, mostly from her head. She was snapped out of her dazed state as a small voice rang out from beside her.
"Miss… You're bleeding…"
Reya glanced down at the girl that she had half-dragged the entire way from the building. Although the run was definitely taxing for such a small child, the girl had barely muttered a word, let alone a complaint. From the looks of it, the child was rather timid. Reya thought for a moment before deciding to reply.
"It's… nothing serious. Let me ask, what's your name and how old are you?"
The little girl frowned at Reya's dismissal about her wound. The child probably knew the wound was far from "nothing serious," but didn't push on the question anyway.
"My name is Fiora… And I'm 9!"
A short round of silence passed between the two of them. Reya seemed to be hit with some clarity. What in the world was she going to do with this kid now? She simply grabbed the child on a whim.
As Reya got lost in her thoughts, thinking about what to do with such a young kid, Fiora herself started to stumble slightly. Reverting her attention, Reya caught the child before she'd have face-planted on the ground. Having her lean against her for balance, she noticed a few bruises on the child's arms. It seemed Fiora had been attacked prior to Reya finding her. She'll have to question Fiora at some point…
After steadying herself, she lifted the child into her arms and began to quickly walk back to the base where her group was currently staying. Her battered body felt like collapsing at any moment, but she knew she had to push herself to carry the young child. Although she had no idea how to take responsibility for a kid, she guessed a fellow member should know how to deal with the situation, right?..
—
Reya shifted the sleeping child in her arms to wake her up after a while of walking. After waking Fiora up and setting her down on the ground, she reached out a hand to push the heavy doors of the base. Once the two had made their way in, Reya carefully guided the child inside. The interior was actually quite spacious. There were multiple rooms, but most of the space had bags and boxes with supplies. They ranged from food and water to different knives and guns. With the current state of the world, such supplies were necessary for survival and needed no further questioning. That is, if Fiora wouldn't ask about it later.
Reya arranged some things in a room before she gestured for Fiora to enter. Although there were a few boxes, there was a bed with pillows and a blanket. She helped settle Fiora in before standing up.
"You should get some rest for now. I'll wake you up in a bit, and we'll have a talk."
With that, Reya shut the door behind her. Yet, as soon as she was out of Fiora's sight, she almost doubled over in pain. She had barely hid the throbbing ache all over her back and head. It was a known fact that the strength of a feral was abnormal. Since she was hurled into a wall by one and even hit her head, it was quite obvious what the outcome was.
Besides the ringing in her ears, the surroundings were rather silent. Reya stayed in the base with her group most of the time and was often subjected to their loud antics. In fact— one could even say they were downright rowdy. When they had first created1 the group, she felt strangely out of place. She wasn't shy at the slightest bit— on the contrary, she didn't mind giving a piece of her mind when she needed to. However, the group's energy was simply a bit too much for her to keep up with.
Without realising, though, she seems to have grown used to the loud atmosphere. Noticing the silence now, she quietly thought to herself—
The group must've gone on another mission after I left.
…
Not a problem, however, she could deal with herself just fine.
She trudged along the hall before entering her room. There, she decided she should clean up before proceeding with using up anything from the first-aid kit. She lazily started sorting out a change of clothes from her closet and finally, she brought the clothes with her to the shower.
—
A faint sting coursed through her body as the water ran down her skin. The pristine-white floors of the shower would shortly be coated in a faint crimson hue before being quickly washed away into a drain. A few moments passed like this. She was quite used to pain at this point, considering the fact that she had been a fighter since the day the world came to such a state. Using a mix of products, she finished by rinsing herself thoroughly. She sped through drying herself off and changed into her clothes, wearing a simple loose shirt and pants. She stepped out of the bathroom with a towel over her shoulder, her dripping hair slightly soaking the back of her shirt. Likewise, she proceeded to silently dry off her hair and do her after-shower routine, spraying on a bit of perfume at the end. It wasn't until she heard a sudden voice did she break out of her daze.
"… Ah, done with your shower?" A voice not hers nor Fiora's rang out, breaking the silence.