Chapter 18: 18

Jared’s head looked at Oscar with a worried expression.

“No, look at his arm near the elbow. It has a hole in it. He must’ve been using psychedelics, he probably overdosed and turned after. I’ve seen a lot of those holes to know what would happen next.” He explained. Jared gave a sigh of relief as Oscar confirmed that it was a dead person.

“It could be the same case with the guy in the airport, the one you killed has a white substance on his clothes.” I said.

“But how did the zombies reach here? I stayed on guard duty too, why did a few come from the left side?” Mark inquired.

“Some could’ve slipped by when we were eating breakfast since no one was at the barn earlier, we need to check the cameras for that. Also, we need to start on your plan as soon as possible.” Oscar said, while everyone nodded.

We then hauled the bodies to a pedicab and drove carefully to the left side of the road and burned the bodies on a street corner. The streets are empty besides us, I saw a few heads in the windows of some houses but no one seems interested to strike up a conversation.

We went back to the gate while some of us rode the pedicab. We closed the gate and saw everyone at the poolside huddled up and talking, but there seems to be an argument happening.

“You need to calm down, everything is gonna be fine.” Jo said.

“How?! Tell me! Don’t you even care about our girl?! She’s 5!” Manilyn bellowed.

“I’m her father! Do you think I don’t?! I’m doing my best here aren’t I?!” he replied.

“Do you know what she told me this morning? She told me, ‘Momma, are we gonna die?’ I can’t even answer her!” she said as she continued to sob.

Everyone fell silent. Manilyn left and headed to their room while Jo followed her. I was about to follow them but my aunt held my shoulder. “Give them space for now, I’ll talk to them later.” she said. A few of the people in the group have somber expressions especially the parents in the group. I decided to let my aunt handle it because she understands the challenge of being a parent more than I do.

“We’re going to get through this you know…” everyone heard a small voice. As we looked for the source it was actually Aya. “We got everyone here, right?” she said.

A few gloomy expressions turned to lighter ones. Her mom hugged her then Aya walked towards me hands raised. I raised a questioning look and I said, “What?”

“Where’s my peanut nips?” she said as she adjusts her glasses.

“I remember telling you that they were called ‘Trailmix’, right?” I said.

“Oh, right. I’ll remember what you say from now on.” she said innocently.

I made a loud snort and I laughed; Kaley also remembered the bag of Trailmix that I bought with her so a smile formed on her face when she looked in my direction. Aya followed me to my room while I asked my uncle to start building a catwalk at the side of the gate first.

I opened the door to my room where Zeus was the first to enter it while Aya followed. I looked for the bag and gave her one of them. “Don’t eat them all in one sitting okay?” I said. Zeus is looking at the bag while I saw Aya looking at the rack near my bed.

“What’s that? You call those samurais, right?” she said as she pointed.

“No, samurais are those who uses them. This here is a katana, this shorter one is a wakizashi and this last one that looks like a small knife is called a tanto.” I said as I point to her each one of the blades placed horizontally on the rack.

“Oh~ but where is the other one?” she replied as she pointed to the top most part. It has a groove where one more blade, which is also much longer, could be placed down.

“Yeah, that’s where you put a tachi, it’s much longer than this katana here.” I motioned with my hands going apart as I give her a light push on the forehead. She laughed for a bit though I never answered her for where was the tachi located.

She carried the bag with both of her hands as we walked down with Zeus. I grabbed the wakizashi from the rack and tied it to the back of my h.i.p.s horizontally where the handle is at my left side. Lois saw us come down and he looked at the weapon on my hip.

“Hey~ you finally brought the katana.” he said.

“Wakizashi.” Aya said.

My eyebrow shot up as I smiled at Aya. I ruffled her hair while Lois gave a confused look.

I asked Rin for a clipboard with the names of everybody. I take a look and I started to assign tasks for everyone. Before I started, Arnel came up to me with his two kids though his little daughter is with his wife.

“Anything these two boys could help? I can also make them help carry a bit of stuff for the catwalk, you know hold things and stuff. Stanley my eldest is good with his hands and Ian here is very athletic.” He said.

“That’s good thanks. Stan, help Zeidrick to draw up the plans for the catwalk and Ian, talk to Oscar for the materials to carry later with the other guys. I’m still figuring out the task for everyone today so, I’ll call for you when I finish.” I said.

I called Rin to help me with the task, turns out she’s still behind me eyeing the blade on my hip. He saw me looking at her and she adjusts her glasses as she looks away.

“Like this? You can hold it for the moment.” I said as I unsheathe it.

*shing~*

The blade made a small ring as I pull it out. She looks at it with at excitement as I hand it to her.

“It’s a bit short, is this a wakizashi?” she said as she inspects it for a bit and handed it back. I was surprised that she knows the correct term, most people I know would say ‘samurai’ or just simply ‘sword’ or ‘katana’.

“You’re correct. I never asked but do you have a Japanese lineage too?” I asked her.

She nodded and she said that her late grandfather was a quarter and I told her I’m half. We chatted for a bit then we get back to the task at hand.

A few minutes passed and this is what we came up.

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