Chapter 9 - Red Watch

Kairos froze in place.

"What? Your bat broke already? It can't possibly be that flimsy."

Sydney held the bat sideways, revealing a crack around the handle. Kairos furrowed his brows and pushed his glasses up.

"...Wouldn't a crack normally form at the top of the bat?"

Nicole jogged over and looked.

"Ah, it's because you weren't holding it properly!"

Sydney blinked a few times.

"Eh? How are you supposed to hold it?"

Nicole sighed.

"The handle for this one was shaved, so it is especially fragile. You have to hold both hands at the base and right next to each other. On top of that, make sure you are using the same amount of strength in each arm!"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"So bats can last pretty long, just if used properly?"

Nicole tilted her head to the side.

"Well, not really. I mean, you could look at mine, it's already a little bent."

She stuck out her bat, as she said, the very end of it was slightly bent, despite being metal.

Kairos pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I thought those things would last longer than just a few swings."

Nicole pouted.

"Well, they are the best thing we could've possibly gotten as weapons..."

Kairos decided to take a closer look at the lamp he had. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the base wasn't as tightly attached to the pole like before.

He clicked his tongue.

"Change of plans. We need to find a place with better weapons as soon as possible. But... I'm not exactly sure where we could find something like that."

Harold rubbed his chin.

"Hmm... I remember seeing a fire axe in the freezer of a grocery store when I worked there before."

Nicole blinked a few times.

"Eh? Why would a grocery store have a fire axe?"

Harold lowered his head down in thought.

"If I remember correctly, they were so that the workers wouldn't get trapped in the freezers. The fire axe would then be used to force themselves out in case of an emergency."

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, nice. Do they only have one, or do you think there would be multiple?"

Harold shook his head.

"There will probably only be one, that is if nobody has taken it already."

Kairos smiled.

"Ah, I suppose that is to be expected. Though I can't imagine most people would think of the fire axe when they think of a grocery store. I'm pretty sure there will be a high chance of one being there."

Sydney nodded.

"From what I remember, the nearest one shouldn't be too far away. I think it's somewhere at our front, but more towards the right a little."

Kairos nodded.

"Then let's go."

Soon enough, they came across a commercial district. There were various shops lined up next to each other such as barbershops, restaurants, and their goal, grocery stores.

However, there was a fairly big difference between how they remembered it and now.

It was bloody.

Not to say that everywhere else wasn't, but this place, in particular, was really bad. Various body parts were strewn around the place along with various organs. The smell of blood was strong and the carnage that went down here was easy to see.

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"...Seems like a lot of people wanted to be the early bird."

Sydney's jaw dropped slightly.

"Why are there so many people dead here?"

Kairos clicked his tongue.

"They probably realized that an apocalypse was coming and wanted to ransack as much food as they could for themselves. Unfortunately, that inevitably made quite a bit of sound. I imagine there were people fighting with each other too."

He adjusted his glasses.

"So a lot of monsters were attracted. Then, they were killed."

Sydney frowned.

"...It's a pity."

Kairos sighed.

"At least it seems to be relatively calm right now. This seems like a fairly good time. Although there is a lot of blood here, as long as we don't make too much sound, we shouldn't attract too many monsters."

Nicole nodded.

"Alright!"

With that, the group got out onto the street and began briskly walking towards the nearest grocery store. The pungent smell of blood and guts became really apparent to them now, but they just dealt with it.

However, before they got too close to the entrance.

"Get back! This is our place!"

Two men appeared at the front of the grocery store. One with a thick black beard holding onto a pipe, while the other was a man on the younger side with short hair, holding onto a crowbar.

Something that immediately jumped out to Kairos was that their weapons were not covered in blood and neither were their clothes.

In other words, they haven't fought anything yet.

Kairos raised a finger to his lips and responded in a hushed voice.

"Be a little quieter. The monsters are attracted to sound."

The younger man smirked.

"Haha, oh really? Then why aren't there any monsters coming?"

He put one hand on the side of his face, acting as though it was a megaphone.

"Oh monsters? Why don't you come and get me!"

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

He honestly didn't understand how someone could be so daring in such a tense situation. That is... if they had not yet already gone crazy.

Kairos swiftly signaled to the other people in his group with a pulling action and dashed to the side, towards a barbershop. The other three promptly followed.

The man with the beard let out a condensing laugh.

"A bunch of cowards!"

The group did not stop and got inside the barbershop, which was really clean considering how bloody it was outside. Almost immediately, Nicole spoke up.

"Are they going to die if they keep making sound like that? We have to convince them that being loud is bad, or they are going to die!"

Kairos shook his head.

"We have already warned them. That is plenty more than what we had to do. If they do not take our advice, then that is on them."

Sydney sighed.

"Yeah... We have already given them a chance which is more than what we are obligated to do."

Nicole furrowed her brows.

"Ok..."

The raucous laughter of the two men was still slightly audible from within the store. Harold cleared his throat, trying to change the atmosphere.

"Well, would there be anything in this place worth taking?"

Kairos let out a soft hum.

"Well, scissors should be handy in a variety of situations and could also work as a last resort weapon. We should definitely stay here for a decent while, so getting scissors shouldn't be too much of a problem."

With that, the group split off to get some scissors. There was still hair on the ground, making the place rather empty. However, it was completely devoid of any people. Kairos ended up wandering into the back and found the breakroom for employees.

He was looking for some sort of water dispenser, and found it.

However, Kairos' attention was immediately attracted to another item.

"What the..."

It was a watch lying on a table next to an open window. While it had the shape of any generic watch, the band was a dull red. As for the hands that were supposed to tell time, they melted completely.

Kairos walked closer and furrowed his brows.

"This thing must've been left by someone and hit by the red sunlight. Then... somehow changed."

He got closer, but immediately felt uncomfortable from simply standing near it.

"Hm. This really does make me curious..."

He used his future vision to 'touch' the watch without actually touching it. However, it only felt warm.

After some hesitation, Kairos eventually walked back out and waved towards the others.

"Hey, I found a water dispenser so we can have a little drink. There's also this... strange watch."

Harold raised an eyebrow.

"Watch?"

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Just come in and take a look."

The four of them walked into the breakroom, then surrounded the watch.

Nicole let out a faint hum.

"Oooh..."

Then, she reached out for it.

Kairos immediately spoke up.

"Don't touch it."

Nicole flinched.

"How did you know I was going to try and touch it?"

Kairos rolled his eyes.

"Because you are too predictable."

Sydney murmured to herself.

"Isn't this something bad? I don't think the red sun is a good thing."

Harold held onto his chin.

"But the status panel does say to touch the red sun. There is probably some sort of benefit, right?"

Kairos nodded.

"That does seem to be the case..."

The corner of Sydney's lip twitched.

"Should I try it? I've been partially infected anyway..."

Kairos thought for a while.

"Hm... your status proves that only a little bit of infection shouldn't matter. That means it should be ok for one of us that haven't been infected to put it on for a bit of time. It looks too special to just be left alone."

Sydney nodded.

"Then... who should get it?"

Kairos looked at the others.

"Do any of you want it?"

Harold hesitated, but shook his head. As for Nicole, she bit her bottom lip, clearly hesitant.

She eventually sighed.

"I... I'm too scared."

Kairos nodded.

"Very well, I will try it then."

He reached for the watch, feeling its warm touch. He was about to place it onto his wrist.

But then, Kairos saw what would happen if he did.

There was a tremendous amount of pain as his body seized up. Kairos immediately stopped himself, keeping the watch above his wrist.

He was breathing rather heavily, almost like he had just gone for a run.

Sydney looked at him with concern.

"Are you alright? Did the watch do something to you?"

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"I... I just have a bad feeling about putting this on."

Then, he set it down on the table.

Nicole blinked a few times.

"Wow, it's almost like you can tell the future with your feelings."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched.

"Uh, yeah..."

Nicole pouted.

"So do we just leave it here?"

Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

"Well, if you trust my feeling we can do an experiment."

Nicole raised an eyebrow.

"Eh?"

Kairos tapped his chin.

"You try to put on the watch, but if I feel something bad I will shout at you to stop. How about it?"

Harold frowned.

"What? We should stop with this nonsense. I can maybe understand a gut feeling, but I don't think that extends that far."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

"Might as well try."

Nicole let out a soft hum.

"Ah, I'll be fine Dad. I'm sure nothing too drastic will happen."

Harold furrowed his brows, but said nothing more.

Nicole smiled.

"Let's try it then."

Kairos took a deep breath.

"Immediately pull away the moment you see my mouth move."

Nicole nodded.

"Got it."

She picked up the watch and very slowly brought it over to her wrist, getting even slower once it came to placement.

Kairos' eyebrow twitched.

Since his ability was time-based, doing this actually made it harder to tell when it was in contact with her wrist and by proxy if she was ok. However, he decided just to trust himself.

Eventually, Nicole placed the watch on her wrist.

And that was it.

Kairos blinked a few times.

"Do you feel anything?"

Nicole let out a soft hum, then spoke really quickly.

"It just feels a little warm. Also, why are you dragging out your words?"

Kairos raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you talking so fast?"

Nicole put her hands on her hips, then suddenly zipped to Kairos, lightly punching him on the shoulder.

Sydney gasped.

"You... you are so fast!"

Kairos laughed.

"Take the watch off for now."

Nicole did as told, then let out a soft gasp.

"Oh wow... it feels really different."

Kairos smiled.

"Looks like this thing can slow down time for the person wearing it."

Nicole's eyes widened.

"Wow! That is so cool!"

Kairos reached out with his hand and lifted up Nicole's. This made her blush faintly.

"Eh? What are you doing?"

Kairos narrowed his eyes.

"Checking for any marks left by the watch."

Nicole laughed awkwardly.

"Ah, I see, I see."

After a few moments, Kairos looked back up.

"Hm. Seems fine. I think you should put that watch on whenever we have a battle. It will make your already fast self even faster."

Nicole nodded.

"Ok!"

In the distance, there was a series of hasty footsteps along with a muffled voice.

"Help! Help us please!"