~Leo~
"I am not thrilled about basement duty at all." Taurus mumbled, hopping down the last concrete step and sneezing as he inhaled dust.
"Would you rather count a million cans in the kitchen?" Mini asked, raising a brow.
"Yeah I would, actually." Taurus deadpanned, squeezing in between a stack of old boxes to investigate the rest of the area.
There was nothing special about the space, just your average basement used to store away unneeded items. If it weren't for the heaps of cardboard boxes, it would easily be mistaken for a decent living space with how the couches and smaller tables were rearranged to resemble a living room.
"This could last us for months! Look, fresh blankets!" Taurus began rummaging through some boxes, eager to find something that would give him comfort during sleep.
Looking around, he was right. A lot of the boxes here were just stacked with supplies; extra blankets and pillows, clothes, and some were even packed with canned goods and plenty of water. In any apocalyptic world, this would be considered a gold mine.
"Damn, were they preparing for the apocalypse or something?" Mini asked, digging through one of the boxes and practically just throwing things out.
"Maybe a hurricane. I would've come here sooner if I knew they had all this.." I muttered, taking note of the extra packages of food sitting freely on the iron shelves.
It had me thinking of my own house. Mom had been overworking per usual, so I left almost immediately when Libra came pounding at my door in a panic. Usually it's better to stay within the safety of your own home, but in my case we ain't really have anything to defend ourselves with. We were ill-prepared for a situation like this and I can now only imagine my mom returning home, crunched in a corner with an emergency bag of Lays, ringing me nonstop despite the service being out.
My insides rocked at my sudden homesickness and the thought of my mother having a total freak out. Once we got some service, I'd be sure to call her immediately and maybe give her tips on how to not become zombie food.
She'd say something like "I know that, big head!" and we'd laugh and forget for a moment that we're literally in a state of emergency. Damn, now that things had settled down a little, I really missed my mom.
"You think we'll ever get to go home? Like...after everything's handled?" I asked, which must've seemed out of the blue since Mini and Taur looked to me like I had uttered something offensive.
"What's your idea of 'handled'?" Mini asked, tipping her head. "I think this town is beyond salvageable."
Taurus quickly cuts in. "What? No. There's no way things have escalated that fast."
He said that, but his expression contradicts his statement as he appeared a little troubled. His forehead creased as his eyebrows knitted together, like he had suddenly been irked by a horrid thought.
"Don't be so confident. This shit is probably spreading like wildfire."
"Yeah but..." Taurus paused, finding it hard to counter Mini's statement. It was understandable, this shit was basically unpredictable.
We had already come across several on the streets already. Plus there were those kids that Cancer mentioned sitting in the nurse's office at school. If I were to guess, I'd say our town was about a quarter zombified.
And with it only being less than a day after the initial start of it all, that was really bad.
My stomach churns loudly and I almost passed it off as hunger if it weren't for the sudden nausea that accompanied it. Maybe my body was finally reacting to the whole situation, realizing how ill-prepared it was to start surviving off of canned foods and water.
Or well...it wasn't that bad yet.
"I wonder where everybody else went. This street looks abandoned," Taurus pointed out. "The other streets too, besides the ones running around rampant."
"I can't imagine a better place than a house. Unless it's a fortified bunker." I shrugged, feeling like a completely deserted street was a bit odd.
You're telling me the entire place has been cleared out? Not a single soul? Granted, they might be in hiding or shut themselves inside, but the way things looked out there...seems like a lot of them simply abandoned the safety of their home and fled in a panic. Maybe to hoard supplies or just get out of this infested town.
"It's not our concern. Probably died out somewhere like a sad idiot." Mini shrugged.
"Are you always this....miserable?" Taurus asked, a knitted blanket now sitting around his shoulders.
"I prefer realistic, but yeah." Mini replied bluntly, crossing her arms.
Realistic is not how I would describe Mini. In contrast to her brother, Mini was vulgar and too apathetic for my liking. It was hard to read her and she didn't make it any easier by being a constant tease or just being outright rude. Sometimes I didn't know if she even cared about others like that.
My mind would go back to the conversation we had back at Scorp's place, where she had basically sworn me to secrecy instead of just telling Scorpio the truth. Now I held the burden of keeping a secret from her that would probably shatter her once I told her.
"Hey Mini, uh—" I was gonna ask her about it, thinking it was better to crush Scorpio's heart now rather than later.
Oh, what an awful way to put it.
"OuuuauuuaggAUghhhhh..."
What was that saying..? "It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop"? Yeah, we were caught in one of those moments. We had each frozen up at the sound, recognizing it and now wildly scanning the basement for the source. None dared to move, as if a mere blink would result in the worst possible outcome.
Taurus hid his head under the blanket he carried, crouched down and staring up at us with his doe eyes as wide as a deer in headlights. He mouthed something along the lines of "What the hell was that?" Which he surely knew the answer to.
But where was it? In the basement? No...it was supposed to be safe here, wasn't it? What kind of safe place as a random zombie wandering around freely??
"Aoouuuuughh.....aaauhu.." The zombie bellows, its sad howls echoing off the thin walls of the basement and sending chills down my spine.
My shortness of breath was the result of inhaling and exhaling faster than my racing heart. My eyes scan the darkness in front of me, the only light being the dim bulb swinging above our heads which I wasn't going to move from.
Then I spot it. Peeking over one of the many stacks of boxes was a lanky figure staggering about, dragging along their flimsy limbs as they constantly spewed inhumane sounds from their vocal chords.
I was close to shrieking in terror, but luckily Mini moved quicker than my mouth. She goes on the offensive, brandishing a gun that she had pulled out from her back pocket and aiming right at the wandering figure.
POP! She shoots with no hesitation, her hard expression unchanging as she strikes them right between the eyes and watches as they collapse to the floor. Taurus had jumped from the sound, stumbling into a stack and knocking over a few boxes.
We stand there in a circle, stunned as the faint groaning of the zombie gradually fades as the minutes pass. Mini lowered her gun with a whistle, appearing mildly satisfied while Taurus and I were still stuck in a state of shock.
"I thought this place was safe." Taurus hissed, whispering like there was another zombie lingering around the corner.
"Is anywhere really 'safe' at this point? It's all a load of shit." Mini grumbled, averting her gaze.
Surprisingly, she had a point. While there are places most could deem as 'safe', it wouldn't be long before zombies got there too, and suddenly things wouldn't be so safe. We were rapidly approaching the downfall of Newcrest and it was unlikely we'd be able to do anything about it.
"So, we heading up? I think I hear Saber barking." Mini frowned and upon listening closely, I could definitely hear Saber's loud yipping from upstairs. He must've heard the gunshot.
"We've found what we needed to, I don't wanna be down here any longer than I have to." Taurus was already heading for the stairs, carrying one of the boxes full of extra blankets.
Mini seemed to be on board with the "head upstairs" plan, but I couldn't help but wonder. We may have gotten what we needed, but was there more? Not like I wanted to be greedy, but we might as well make sure we've gone through everything. Plus there was the case of that zombie...how did it get in here?
"Leo, you comin'?" Mini called to me and I turned to face her, seeing that she was ready to leave regardless of my answer.
My answer, damn what should I do? I'd rather not explore this place alone since asking those two to stay would result in instant denial. But my curiosity was being tempted and wouldn't be quenched unless I did.
We were technically in an apocalypse right now, which meant to always expect the unexpected. In that case, should I really be risking anything right now?
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Looks like we've got a bit of decision-making to do, hm?
Leo is currently faced with a dilemma due to his undying curiosity and needs help deciding on what's best for him at this moment.
So should he:
Head upstairs
OR
Keep exploring
As you already know by this point, the choices made depend on the readers' votes via comment. If there are too little votes or none at all, I will be making the decision myself and no one wants that :)
Keep in mind that future choices may link to past choices and there is a possibility of unlocking a specific route depending on the decisions made. So CHOOSE WISELY.
Thank you for reading and for sticking around even if the updates are super slow <333