Chapter 34 - Distraction

"Uu... AHHHH... ahh... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH."

Nicole held onto her head and began moving around dangerously. Kairos was forced to grip hard onto the fire axe she was holding to stop her from swinging it around. However, it was not easy considering he also had to hold her down.

While still covered in the blood and guts of her father, her mouth opened and closed as strange sounds continued to emanate. Even her eyes seemed to be dancing around erratically. As for Sydney, she seemed to be taking it somewhat better but was still freaking out.

Both of her hands were clutching onto the sides of her head. She was trembling slightly as tears began forming, but at the very least she wasn't resisting violently.

Kairos couldn't help but sigh internally. It seemed that they still hadn't truly adapted to the apocalypse, not ready to accept that one of them would very likely die at any point.

Though it would probably be stranger if they didn't break down like this.

Kairos suddenly tugged on Nicole hard, pushing her down. Right as he did, a bullet whizzed by the top of her head, slamming hard against the pavement, scattering debris and forming a miniature crater.

He tried to think of saying something that could calm her down, but he never was that good at comforting other people. Especially not for a situation like this.

Chase sucked in a cold breath.

"This is not the most... favorable situation to be in."

Tori furrowed her brows.

"How did someone get a damn sniper rifle?"

Chase sighed.

"There are quite a few ways for one to possess a firearm. Especially if you don't care about the legality of it."

Kairos furrowed his brows.

"We can't keep taking detours like this. At this rate, we won't ever make it to the wilderness."

Tori frowned.

"So you want us to push through this?"

Kairos looked towards Nicole, who began sobbing.

"Yes."

Tori seemed distraught.

"Wait."

She looked at Chase.

"You can shoot arrows, right? Can't you kill that damn sniper?"

In response, Chase simply frowned.

"From how fast that guy can lock on, he will easily beat me. I have no idea where his location is."

Kairos blinked a few times.

"...What if I tell you his location and I distract him then? You come out with your bow drawn right after you hear him shoot."

Chase raised an eyebrow.

"I never knew you wanted to die that badly. Did you not see how accurate his shots were?"

Kairos scoffed.

"Just tell me if you can do it."

Chase paused.

"If you truly provide a distraction, yes."

Kairos nodded.

"Alright."

With that, he took a deep breath. Kairos was intending on peeking out to determine the sniper's location, but only in his future vision. As he was preparing himself, he suddenly felt a tight grip on his shoulders.

Nicole was sobbing and clenching as hard as she could onto Kairos.

He wouldn't be able to peek out like this if she continued holding on. There wasn't really time to wait either, as a few monsters had turned their heads from how loud Nicole was being.

They seemed cautious, not willing to approach. However, they were still looking.

Eventually, Kairos decided to do something he really didn't want to do. He wrapped his arms around Nicole, letting go of the fire axe she was flinging around. In the end, she seemed to calm down significantly and hugged back tightly, gently brushing her hands against his back.

Nicole closed her eyes as she felt his warmth, somewhat surprised at how soft his body felt. Yet, the same could not be said for the other person.

Honestly, Kairos felt disgusted.

He was not the type to enjoy physical affection, but he decided to endure for just a bit. After a few seconds, Kairos let go, prompting Nicole to do the same. Her arms were still trembling, but she seemed to recover to a certain extent. She still couldn't say anything, but looked deeply into Kairos' eyes, seemingly thinking about something.

As for Kairos, he prepared to peek out. To only do something in his future vision wasn't actually that easy. If he didn't want something to happen in reality, it was difficult to perform such an action.

After all, there had to be a reality where Kairos decided to go through with that action for it to show in his future vision. The process itself was a little wishy-washy, almost like he was walking on a thin tightrope.

However, Kairos had done it many times before, thus it didn't take too long for him to work up the courage.

He peeked up and saw a two-story library in the distance. Though it was faint, he could see the glare of a scope. On top of that, he could feel the red dot on his forehead.

Kairos quickly stopped himself from doing that action, warping his future vision away from that. He then spoke up.

"In the second-most left window on the top floor of the library."

Chase blinked a few times.

"How did you figure that out?"

Kairos adjusted his glasses.

"Reflection trick with these things. Just get ready already, we don't have all day."

Chase seemed a little confused but didn't complain. He pulled out his bow, but felt a little uncomfortable with how tightly packed they were. A mana arrow began to form.

As for Kairos, he took a deep breath.

Once he confirmed Chase had his mana arrow ready, he peeked out.

This time, he stayed for longer, not caring about the red dot on his forehead. Then, he suddenly felt a devastating pain. His head felt like it was spinning, while his consciousness threatened to fade away.

Yet, Kairos continued to keep track of the time in his mind.

Then, pulled his head down.

Right when he did so, a bullet whizzed right past, blowing his hair aside before slamming hard into the pavement. Right at that moment, Chase stood up with his bow drawn, aiming at the sniper's location.

He took less than a second to hone in before letting the arrow loose. The sniper hurriedly adjusted to Chase, but heavily underestimated how fast the arrow would be.

With a bang, the mana arrow shattered through the glass window and exploded the sniper's head. He had been laying prone with a red sniper rifle, peeking out a slightly open window.

Chase sucked in a deep breath.

"It's done."

He turned to Kairos.

"You really just play with your life like that, huh?"

Kairos held onto the side of his head, still a bit dizzy from the phantom pain. Though he knew getting hit by a bullet would hurt, it was still much more than what he expected.

"Yeah, yeah... let's quickly get out of here now."

They got out from behind the black carapace. Sydney was still crouched down on the ground, seemingly not registering any of the world around her. Tori let out a sigh before pulling her up and dragging her along.

As for Nicole, she stuck close to Kairos.

Kairos took one last glance at Harold's dead body before dragging the black carapace along with him. A few monsters were in the distance, staring hungrily at the body, but did not dare approach.

Kairos could tell what was going to happen sooner or later. For the sake of Nicole and Sydney's mental health, they had to get out of here soon.

They ended up getting closer to the library and as they did, a rather strange sight was laid out before them. There were countless corpses laying down on the ground just outside the library, in a position that implied they were looking at the library before falling over. And it was the corpses of people, not monsters.

On top of that, nearly every single one had bullet wounds all over their body. There were currently a few monsters tearing these corpses up, feeding off of them. The monsters took notice of the group approaching, but had more interest in the food below them. It seemed that they wanted to be the first ones to eat it all up.

As for the library itself, it seemed completely closed off.

The doors were shut while the windows were blocked by bookshelves. As for the glass that these windows consisted of, almost all of them were shattered.

Tori frowned as she dragged Sydney along, who was stumbling in her steps and mumbling to herself. Almost like a drunkard.

As they got closer to the library, a voice suddenly thundered, along with a tinge of surprise.

"What are you trying to do? Leave now! We will not provide you with any food or shelter!"

It was a commanding tone, like a soldier. The arrogance behind that voice bleeded out heavily, almost like it was certain that every other person that existed was a piece of trash without exception.

Kairos couldn't tell how they were being seen, but didn't care too much.

"We are just passing by."

The voice didn't seem to trust him.

"You don't have to pass by this way! Go some other route!"

Kairos couldn't help but scoff with a small smirk.

"Do you feel like a big boy? Screaming as loud as you can to cover up how pathetic you are?"

He intuitively understood what kind of person shouting was. His disdain was so high that it couldn't help but slip out.

Chase laughed as well.

"You don't have to be so honest."

The voice didn't know how to respond for a few moments, not even responding despite the fact that they were walking by. The entire time, Kairos was focusing on his future vision in case these people did fire. He was ready to cover at the very least himself with the black carapace. On the other hand, Tori slashed one monster, killing it. And the moment she did so, the rest ran away like rats.

Only when they were almost past the library altogether did the voice return.

"I am a part of the armed military! You have no right to speak like that! If you dare get any closer then we will fire at you with our weapons!"

Although he had the enthusiasm to back it up, considering that the group was already beginning to walk away from the library, it was kind of pathetic.

Tori's face twitched.

"Let's just get out of here."

Chase chuckled gently.

"Yes, we should."

He then turned around.

"By the way, you should check up on your friend on the second floor. I'm sure he's getting a little lonely."

The voice seemed agitated.

"Shut up! Our arrangements have nothing to do with you! Do you hear me?"

The group ended up ignoring that guy, walking away. They could still hear his faint screams from far away. That person would probably have a nice surprise when they found out one of their teammates was dead.

Tori couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"...Those guys really hate other people."

Chase slowly nodded.

"They would rather kill any humans that come close despite the monsters roaming the streets. It appears that they couldn't handle a few civilians that were probably begging to bring them along. Now they kill humans on sight, but thankfully we had that weird shield, else more of us might've died."

Sydney was not paying attention to the conversation, still faintly sobbing. However, when Nicole heard it, she froze up. Kairos was able to notice it because she was right beside him when all of a sudden she stopped moving.

Her breathing had become heavy once more. It was clear she was on the verge of a breakdown.

Kairos quickly spoke up.

"Hey."

Nicole flinched before looking at him. She tried to speak, but could only make very soft sounds that didn't mean anything.

Kairos reached out with his hand.

"We have to move forward."

Nicole hiccuped, before taking that hand and squeezing it very tightly. If it wasn't for his high stat points, Kairos would've complained that it was hurting him.

As for Chase, he looked over and seemed to have realized what he said.

"Ah, sorry about that."

Nicole simply kept her head down without responding.

Kairos took a deep breath.

"Let's just get to the wilderness already."

He narrowed his eyes.

"We should be able to take a break there."

Unfortunately, while they would be able to make it to the wilderness, it wasn't exactly a 'break' in store.