120 The Cross

The priest's body vaporized before it could fall to the ground. Numerous gold nuggets dropped on to the stage and caused clinking noises. Afterwards, an invisible shockwave came from the priests vanishing body and passed through everyone. It traveled the whole cemetery and reached its furthest end.

Jun quickly turned around to check on everyone. Besides the confusion it brought, the shockwave did no damage to anyone. He surveyed the surroundings for any change before grouping up with the team.

"Is everyone alright?" said Jun.

"Y-yeah. I think so..." replied Sheila as she looked around warily.

"If we base what just happened to movie logic, we should be cursed right?" Edward commented as he examined his body. He checked inside his shirt for any changes and even inside his trousers.

Sheila didn't appreciate his action and said, "Gross."

"Can you check on everyone?" Jun said to Sheila, "Just to make sure that nothing weird happens to us."

Sheila nodded her head as she asked for everyone to line up. As a nurse, when checking upon someones health, she receives more information than the others. She already explained this to the group and that's why Jun asked her to do it.

A good comparison would be a civilian checking up someone while a nurse checks the same person. When checking wounds, a civilian could check basic damage dealt to the wound, cause of the wound and how long would it take for the wound to heal. On the other hand, a nurse would be more effective since she can see more information like what to do and what type of medicine is needed for the wound. They haven't tried experimenting on the difference between a nurse and a doctor since Sheila's father was always busy tending to numerous civilians.

While the check-up was underway, Jun ran to the sermon podium and looted the gold nuggets. The loot was disappointing since he expected something like a book or a staff. He then told himself to stop dreaming about such fantastical things. Or should he have made the priest use all of its energy? Maybe it would drop another book or something.

As Jun was contemplating about the matter, he heard someone laughing. He looked around, but there was no one near him. As he searched his surroundings, his sight fell on the cross in the distance. He wasn't sure if it was really glowing or its just the sunlight reflecting over the material. He kept this event on his mind and decided to investigate at a later time.

"What do you think?" said Jun towards Sheila. "We're not cursed right?"

Sheila, who was doing a check-up on Edward, shook her head and said, "I think not... but this one sure is cursed."

Edward smiled wryly as he let the matter go. He then faced Jun and said, "Are we going to fortify the bridge entrances?"

Jun pondered for a second, not whether to fortify but how to fortify. He looked around to see if there's anything he could use to fortify the bridge entrances. There's mausoleums scattered in the area, but stone and other requirement would be tough to procure.

"Maybe next time."

The group traveled back to the bridge area after making sure that everything was fine. When they were about to take the Lakeside Marina route, Adrian noticed something wrong from the broken bridge. There were numerous vehicles with differing sizes that filled the creek.

Though the group didn't know who thought of the idea, they thanked them as they used the makeshift bridge to shorten their travel time. They hopped onto the cars roof and carefully jumped off from a diagonally placed sedan. They could have just teleported back but that would mean that Jennie would be left behind. Though Jun doesn't feel anything towards her, leaving someone he got to know, even if its for a short time, felt wrong. or maybe its just pity.

The groups detour to the cemetery didn't take more than an hour and yet the municipality appeared different as they walked the streets.

Jun could feel the patrol's passionate gaze directly on him.

Jun sighed. The rumors must have gotten worse or something.

When they arrived nearby the advertisement bus, Jun noticed the crowd in front of the municipal building. There were police officers surrounding the area while others made sure that there's enough space around the elevated area near the statue.

What's going on?

Jun looked around and found Bernard standing near the toll gate. Bernard's expression was unsightly as he looked into the distant crowd.

Jun walked towards him and greeted him.

"Hey, what's up?" said Jun casually. "Do you know what's happening over there?"

Jun pointed to the crowd of people standing idly on the plaza square.

Bernard nodded his head.

"The mayor's son just came and he brought good news with him."

"Ah, that man." Jun acknowledged his reply disinterestedly. "He was staying in the local elementary school together with other survivors. I really don't know for how long, but the Barangay Chairman took him in and protected him. Speaking of that, did you see Aunt Sarah? Where is she?"

"She's inside, chatting with Marianne." replied Bernard with an infatuated smile.

"Is there something wrong?"

Bernard quickly shook his head. "N-nothing, nothing. There's no problem. They're probably waiting for you, so I think its better to head in. The tanods volunteered to help with area security and is currently in-cooperation with the police force. You're private guards also went out to train."

Just as Bernard finished speaking, Nik took the chance to interrupt and asked Jun, "Are you still going out? If not, I'll go out and train."

Jun was already done going out for today since he has matters to talk about with  his Aunt Sarah.

"There's nothing else, so you're free to go. Bring everyone here tommorow morning, we're going somewhere."

"Okay."

Nik walked away and never looked back. The four death slaves waited for a few seconds to make sure that they could really leave. When Nik got futher away, they quickly followed after him.

This is also one of the reasons why Nik was the leader of the group. He thinks for himself and makes his own decision. Unlike the others who wait for orders like a programmed machine.

"Okay, I'll head in first. Let's chat later."

"Uh-huh."

Bernard watched as Jun walked passed him and noticed a fair maiden following him. He then shook his head while smiling.

"It;s really good to be young."

He turned around and was about to head back to his post, but the crowd suddenly rejoiced out of nowhere. He could see some crying while others were jumping in joy.

Bernard frowned. What's going on?

***

"Hahaha, does he? Let's stop, he's coming."

When Jun asked around where Marianne was, he was led to the second floor living room. There, he found Marianne and Aunt Sarah chatting on the sofa. The two were happily laughing together as if they were old acquiantances.

Jun approached the two and sat beside Marianne.

"You two getting along with each other?"

"Totally." replied Marianne cheerfully.

Jun then turned to Aunt Sarah and jokingly threatened her. He said, "You're not saying anything bad about me, right?"

Aunt Sarah shrugged while looking at the sides. "What do I know? I only saw you when you're father brought you for a visit. Well, i know for sure that you're a daddy's boy and scared of bugs. You know, those squirmy little ones. Wait, are they bugs or worms? Never mind that, what tokk you guys so long?"

Aunt Sarah ignored Jun's realistic angry stares as she changed the topic.

Jun continued glaring for a while, but sighed exhaustedly in the end. He let the matter go and answered: "I just investigated something."

"What is it?" said Marianne curiously.

Jun faced Marianne and slid his arm around her stomach. Marianne blushed but didn't remove his hand.

"The local cemetery was infested with carriers, so we cleared it."

"Is that all?" said Marianne with disappointment.

"You cleared the cemetery?" Aunt Sarah gasped unable to believe Jun.

"Yes."

"But there's hundred's of them!"

"And how did you know that?" replied Jun. He took his arms off Marianne and sat up straight.

Noticing Jun's interest in the matter, Aunt Sarah tried her best to recall about the matter. With a snap of her fingers, she sat up and inched closer to Jun. "The first night that things happened, we saw a cross glowing in the distance. The next day, I told my men to investigate the matter. Since we only knew about the direction, they ended up at the cemetery. The only place that has a cross in the area. There they encountered those zombies. At first, my tanods thought that they would die since they were outnumbered. But! Those zombies were weird and never left the cemetery! Every night, we could see the glow of the cross. After several observation, we realized that it doesn't come from the cemetery, but at Cavalry."

"That small hill with a lot of stairs?" interruped Marianne.

"Yes!"

Jun pulled back Marianne, who was getting to excited for no reason. "So, did you go there?"

Aunt Sarah looked at Jun like he was an idiot. "Why would I order my men to go there? The town plaza was a literal no-man's zone! Even this far, we could see zombies running about. We couldn't even venture out three streets away and you want us to travel that far."

"Well, forget it then. Is there anything else that you could remember?"

Aunt Sarah pondered for a few seconds while slowly scratching his forehead. "Nothing really. After the first days, we never assigned guards near the walls since weird kinds of zombies appeared."

Marianne excitedly requested for more stories while Aunt Sarah happily complied. Jun let the two chat while pondering over the matter.