Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Arriving at the Capital
Darren knitted his eyebrows together. His eyes swept toward the group of people that were about to rush toward them for food again.
Then, he saw Nyra standing in front of him. His shoulders tensed, grabbing the woman and pulled her so that she stood beside him. He was worried that those survivors would hurt her.
She pursed her lips, pulling herself away from him. Zerra, who was standing behind Cassias, was curious about what the female lead would do.
Her eyes widened when the surroundings suddenly exploded in red waves. The sea of fire illuminated the darkness that slowly painted the sky... her heart thumped, not expecting Nyra would make such an extreme decision.
The survivors let out surprised squawks, dashing away from the scene. Nyra had briefly shown the fireball in her palm, so they knew what it was.
"You vicious woman!" Some of them cursed upon realizing they had been fooled.
Zerra blinked. Oh, she forgot Nyra had utmost control over her power and that a brief sea of fire was within her range of control.
On top of that, it was really effective in driving the desperate survivors away. Some of them were deterred by Nyra’s show of force, while the rest still approached them again.
"We have no food here." Nyra announced. She held her palm at chest level. The extinguished fire burned fiercely once again. "Try to come again. This time I might not be able to control my strength."
The desperate survivors looked at each other; this time they really hesitated.
Seeing them no longer crowding around, Darren took the reins of the situation quickly. He ordered them all, "Get in the car."
The members followed his orders amidst the reluctant eyes of the survivors. They quickly drove away from the scene.
There weren’t only survivors desperate for food in that place, but also some ability users with sufficient supplies. They gazed at each other; the meaning in their eyes unknown.
After the group brought their cars quite a distance away, they stopped. The neighbourhood was quiet. They had just arrived at an abandoned gas station.
They all exited the cars and gathered. Laziel sighed. "Those people were so scary. I almost thought they were coming for my meat instead of a piece of bread."
Meira nudged him, and he gave a sheepish grin in return. Currently, they were sitting on the concrete ground, forming a circle. Zerra was distributing some canned food to them.
The minor episode near the gate to the Capital did leave heavy hearts on them. Humanity had fallen to such a degree that they needed to beg for a piece of bread.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything they could do to help them. If they gave those people their supplies, it would be them who were going to starve next.
Anyway, at such a difficult time, they admitted they were also selfish.
"The queue is too long. With the rate it takes for them to examine all people, we might not be able to enter even in a few days." Isryn analyzed, "On top of that, new people are arriving every day."
Zerra pursed her lips. As a city with a massive population, the leadership seemed to be trying to cut more losses. They acted like they were doing it for more security inside the Capital, but they definitely didn’t want to feed too many people.
Darren spoke, "I will try to speak to the guards tomorrow. They will most likely let us in after we follow the procedure."
He discreetly turned to Cassias, who hadn’t spoken since the beginning. He sighed after he saw that the man acted as if he hadn’t noticed his gaze, calmly eating beside Zerra.
"There is no need for such a thing, friends." A voice suddenly rang out. Some people appeared out of the darkness, walking over toward them.
The members shifted their attention toward the newcomers vigilantly. They instantly recognized the nine people as the ability users who were watching them as they dealt with the desperate survivors.
The leader, a thin man in a dusty jacket, spoke. "You don’t need to be so wary of us."
He glanced at the portable lamp in the middle of the small group. A guess instantly formed in his head; none would bring such a thing out just to waste the power like this. They had a fire ability user, and could light up firewood somewhere, but they still stayed at this gas station.
This group should be quite wealthy, and they might have a space ability user among them!
"Who are you?" Darren asked with narrowed eyes.
"I am Sean Whittaker," their leader introduced himself. "The leader of our mission group. We are ability users from the Capital, and we happened to take a rest when we saw you people."
"I suppose you are ability users like us too. The lady over there," he gestured to Nyra, "From the way you control the fire so perfectly, you all must have been a powerful group, eh? Where did you guys come from?"
Darren took a step forward. "I am Darren Valez, from another city. We are here to report to the higher-ups."
A look of realization dawned on Sean’s face before it morphed into a slight disappointment. With a look of uncertainty, he still asked, "Do you plan to stay here in the Capital?"
"The city is much safer than anywhere else in the country," he added. His tone had a hint of persuasion, and Darren instantly noticed that Sean acted as if he wanted to recruit them.
He cleared his throat. "It depends on each member’s intention. I wouldn’t be able to control what they want. Some of us might stay in the Capital."
"The registration will be closed soon for today," Sean cleared his throat. "If you want to, you can tag along with us. They will be more lenient if they know that you are with us, a group on a mission."
Darren didn’t immediately decide. In the apocalypse, they had do thread carefully, and the reason Sean approached them–going as far as following their group, was a little strange.
"How is it? I don’t have any malice. The Capital is in need of more ability users now, so they prioritize people who have awakened superpowers." He shrugged. "We need to preserve the humans. Otherwise, we will all turn into zombies."
"Fine. We will trouble you then." Darren finally gave his answer. This Sean was such a chatterbox fellow.
Sean beamed, "Let’s go!"
He and his group also had their own cars. As they walked, Sean also told them, "Those people at the gate went after you, didn’t they? They are like vultures, seeing dead animals as soon as they spot newcomers."
He continued chattering along the way. "Actually, the higher-ups at the Capital also take pity on them. At least once a day, they would serve a small amount of porridge to those people, enough to keep them alive."
"They were lying when they said they hadn’t eaten for days. Haven’t you seen someone starving but still so energetic?" He enthusiastically told them.
"Yeah, remember the first time we went out of the Capital two weeks ago? Those guys thought we were easy targets and went after us," His members chimed in once a while.
"Then, they decided not to bother us again after what we did."
"Right, right? They finally behaved."
The atmosphere in Sean’s group was relatively cheerful. It improved Darren and others’ impression of them.
Zerra blinked and silently reassessed the Capital once again. They didn’t seem so bad after she heard about the higher-ups giving porridge to people. But... that wouldn’t be the long-term solution.
Only a few months passed after the apocalypse started, and it would take some time before the new order of humanity would be settled.
It was still in its infancy now.
They all drove their cars. Darren and others followed Sean’s group, driving behind them.
Sean was right. The moment they arrived at the gate, the guards didn’t stop them. Sean gave proof of his identity. They allowed all of them to go inside with their cars.
The group parked their cars and went out.
"We have to go through the procedure first. Follow us." Sean waved his hand.
He walked over to the tall building, which seemed to be some sort of clinic. Sean told the people in charge about Darren, who expressed his intention of coming to the Capital.
Then, they went through a round of checking. The first one was to check whether they were infected by zombie virus or not. After they were deemed clean, they went to the registration table while mentioning their ability.
"All of you are ability users?" The woman looked taken aback.
"One of us isn’t." Darren pointed to Meira, who was indeed an ordinary human.
Meira’s face flushed, and she clenched her hands.
However, that minor episode didn’t affect the entire group’s mood. They registered themselves without a hitch.
"Do you have lodging here?" Sean asked them. His team members had begun to disperse. "I can lend you my place."
Darren didn’t refuse.
Zerra felt it was surreal as she looked around. They finally arrived at the Capital.