Chapter 204 - Extortion

"It's because of the food. They're probably thinking of extorting us before we leave."

Kai looked at Rosa with dead eyes. "And you still did that, knowing this would happen?"

Rosa scoffed. "Either that or be kicked back into the surface with that mutated monster and hordes of zombies."

Kai pursed his lips and didn't say more.

"I think we should get out of here," Fjord cut in with a grim voice. "The more we dally here, the more I felt safer on the surface with those zombies than these humans."

Myla nodded her head in agreement.

"T-then what's it gonna be?" Kelly didn't know what to do. She was just going to tag in the majority.

Rosa and Seraphina looked at each other before snapping their heads away with a loud hump.

"Eh . . ." Fjord and Kai wanted to cry from the way the two women were acting. All because of Ryu, who probably was clueless as they spoke. And they were not even his lovers. 

"Alright, since nobody wanted to decide. Let's go by coin." Kia broke the silence and flipped a coin onto his arm. "Head is we go forward while tails mean retracing all the way back and waste our effort thus now."

Rosa rolled her eyes. "Get it on already." She didn't like that a toss of a coin would decide their problem, but it was better than nothing and waste time by arguing with themselves. 

There was a brief silence and pause of breathing as Kai removed his hand from his arm, exposing the head of the coin.

"You cheated, didn't you?" accused Rosa and smacked Kai in the head.

"Ouch. How can I cheat when everybody is looking?"

"So you're going to cheat if someone is not looking?" asked Kelly with an innocent tone and big round eyes.

Kai coughed between his fists. "That's not the point. As you can see, it's head, so that means we move forward."

"Yes." Fjord fisted and jumped on his toes while Rosa frowned and Seraphina pouted.

Rosa wanted to see Ryu. The halfbreed gave off a sense of security that she couldn't explain, and she loved that security no matter how much she denied it. 

While Seraphina wanted to be with Ryu and was excited to meet him again, she wondered what would be his reaction upon their reunion.

Seraphina giggled at the thought and realized that their sweet reunion would have to be postponed again. Her mood plummeted, and her face turned sour.

"So how will we get to this City X exactly with all the horde of mutated beast and zombies out there?" Rosa asked, voice sneering. Her piercing gaze made Fjord avoid his eyes.

Fjord opened his mouth, but Rosa beat him to it.

"Don't tell me that the plan is just storm towards City X and hoping for the best that the mutated monsters got bored and wouldn't be waiting for us on the surface?"

Fjord shut his lips tight. That was exactly his plan. 

"I don't think that's exactly a plan," sighed Seraphina.

"Then does anyone have a suggestion?" asked Fjord and met everyone gazes, face on the verge of tears.

. . .

. . .

There was another long silence before Kelly chimed in.

"H-how about we used the underground tunnels as much as possible to get to City X?"

All eyes flickered at the little halfbreed, and Kelly shrunk in size. 

"That's not a bad idea," Kai laughed and patted Kelly's head. "Zombies and mutated beasts might not overrun the tunnels, and it let us move undetected. Like this one."

"Might?" Rosa wasn't convinced about that fifty, fifty percent chance. True, the tunnel had its advantages over the surface, but if the undead overran the tunnel, the space they could hide and run was limited. Or worse, they might be trapped with nowhere to escape, unlike the surface where they could run and hide.

"There might not be much undead in the tunnels." Fjord's face brightened. "Most of the tunnels here are sealed, and the mutated beasts and zombies aren't intelligent enough to open and enter it. They mostly roamed the surface."

"Do you have a map of this tunnel?" Seraphina asked Fjord.

Fjord scratched his head. "I do have a map of the subway."

Rosa smirked. "So that's a no?" She might be able to turn this into a hopeless endeavor so they could just go back to base. 

She crossed her arms and sighed into the ceiling. "If we don't have a way to move forward, then I suggest that we just retraced our step and got back to the safety of the sanctuary."

"The map of the subway is the map of the tunnels." Fjord clarified and laid out his map for all to see. At the back of the map were intricately interwoven subways that interconnected each city. "They build tunnels and all other wirings and pipes under the subway for easy access and maintenance. We got to enter the right tunnels and follow the subway leading to City X."

Kai slapped his fist against his palm. "That's genius! Though I didn't get what you said, but that means that we have a solution to our problem!"

"Uhm . . . w-what about the solution to that problem?" Kelly stuttered and pointed to Ric, who was leading a group of armed beings.

"Well . . . At least they waited an hour," Rosa chimed in with a condescending smirk.

"This is no laughing matter. W-what should we do?" Fjord's knees almost gave way when a demon in Ric's group licked its lip like it would eat him alive.

Kai winked at the others with fake bravado. "Leave this to me."

He then walked forward with his signature dopey grin. "Yo, Ric. Right on time. We were just about to go. If you can kindly shut the door when we leave."

Rosa and Seraphina both shook their heads in disappointment. That was not their idea of taking care of Ric and the others.

A low-ranking demon smiled in Ric's group, face twisting in greed. "Oh, don't worry about that. We'll definitely shut the door tight when you're gone to make sure that no unwanted pests can ever go wandering in here again. But first . . ." he licked his lips, tongue long and slithery like a reptile. 

"Hand over your valuables."

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A/N

Sorry for the long vacation. I just had a baby so things are a little tight right now T-T

We'll update as frequent as I can when time permits T-T