121 The Church

The day passed by in a blur.

There was a noticeable change on the atmosphere among the populace. Almost all of them were extremely excited about something.

Jun spend the afternoon chatting with his Aunt Sarah regarding his father. In her story, the caring and loving father he remembered was brought back to life. There's a lot of unconfirmed stories but never the less, he was once again reminded about his father.

When night came, Marianne happily snuggled with Jun as they lie down on the bed.

"Aunt Sarah is too talkative, but it's fun listening to her."

"Not for me"

As Jun tried finding a good spot to sleep, Marianne brought her face to his chest and kissed it.

"But it's cute, don't you think so? This is the first time I heard about your childhood."

"Is it?" said Jun as he gently placed his hand on her back. "Then, will you tell me about yours?"

Marianne looked up and her eyes meet with Jun's.

"Are you willing to listen?"

Jun stared at her charming eyes that gazed into his soul. Her brown irises twinkled and appeared burning with desire. Her hands traveled on his solid chest and rose up to his shoulders.

As if mesmerized, Jun softly replied: "Yes, I am."

Afterwards, Marianne quickly lunged at him and pecked his lips. She then distanced themselves for a second and said, "Let's chat more tomorrow. Don't go out tomorrow, okay?"

Jun was about to reply but Marianne sealed his lips with hers. This time, she sat on top of him while she devoured his lips.

As they were on a fiery battle, the glass door was pushed open and caused creaking noises. The two passionate couple hurriedly turned and saw Adrain at the door.

Adrian turned back and went out but Jun called him to stop.

"Hey, quite rude aren't you?"

Jun sat up while Marianne shyly went under the blanket.

"Aren't you going to say something? Why did you come here?"

Anyone could notice the irritation in Jun's voice. If it wasn't Adrian he would have already shouted.

Adrian turned around and blushingly said, "It's fine, I didn't saw anything."

"I didn't ask if you did. What I want to know is what are you doing here?"

Adrain scratched the back of his head. "I planned to wait in advance and wait for you to sleep, so I could... you know, my quest."

Adrian chuckled as he slowly backed off. His small thin body cowered as Jun's terrifying aura slowly creeped towards him. On his eyes, Jun glared at him with glowing crimson eyes while possibly planning on how to butcher him.

A void whirlpool appear beside Jun and he inserted his hand. He took a panda plushie from the Guild Storage and threw it at Adrian. "I told you not to do that! You can try some other time! Or any other place! But not here!"

As Jun run out of plushies to throw, he slowly calmed down.

Not because of the increasing pain coming from his sides. Marianne, who was hugging him under the blanket, was pinching him.

"Leave." said Jun sternly. He then added, "...and once again, stealth doesn't work on me. So don't try to wait in advance. That's just useless."

Adrian didn't reply and chose to leave while Jun was still calm.

Seeing that Adrian left, Jun slowly slid his hand inside the blanket. He caressed Marianne's soft and smooth shoulder. As his hand was about to travel down, it was smacked forcefully and brought away.

Jun looked towards the door and inwardly cursed Adrian.

He knew that there was no chance for a passionate battlefield for tonight, so he let the matter go and went inside the blanket.

The two of them stared at each other.

Marianne gently hit Jun's chest with her forehead.

"Was he laughing?"

"No, he didn't even see a thing. Besides we weren't doing anything! You were just giving me a massage since my back was aching. That's why you were on top of me, right?"

Jun slightly nodded his head while Marianne unknowingly copied him. She gently nodded followed by soft muffled affirmation.

When Jun felt that she finally relaxed, he brought out a red jewelry box from his dimensional storage. "I always wanted to give this to you."

Jun opened the lid and it showed a silver plain necklace that had a small heart as the design. At first glance, anyone would know that it was a cheap necklace, but Marianne happily stared at the jewelry.

It was the second gift she received from Jun since the first one was actually him.

***

There were numerous people inside a dimly lit room.

"So they're basically tyrants?" said someone sitting on a swivel chair facing towards the group of people on the other side of the table.

"Just the leader. The others were good people. Though some of his subordinates aren't right in the head, they still helped people." replied Liutenant Cedric.

"That doesn't except them and make them good. Besides, we have a crucial evidence we can use against him."

The man turned towards the floor, where someone was busy doing push-ups.

"Will you stop that?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm currently training right now. I don't take orders from you since I have a "master" who would be mad and might kill me if any of this information gets out. I'm training! So. Please. Stop. Disturbing me!" the man said with a black mask still attached to his face.

"We also need to find that lawyer. How's the search going?" said the man on the swivel chair.

"He went back to his house. Reason unknown. He hired three people as escorts back and forth." an officer reported at the sides.

The man on the swivel chair didn't doubt the information and pondered over things.

***

The next day, Marianne greeted everyone she met and as if a blooming flower, she caught everyone's attention.

As Marianne walked by Alex, she took her hand and shook it. She then said, "Don't give up! You'll find someone that you'll truly love!"

Marianne then left Alex stupefied.

"What's wrong with her?! I already found it! Humph!"

***

Jun passed by the local bank and took the right turn. He passed by the grocery store and the canteen where a car crashed into its walls.

It was already late in the morning since he wasn't able to get out of bed for some unknown reason. It took some convincing and a lot of energy before he was able to leave his own room. When he walked by the streets, he was greeted by construction workers who were working for Black Haven on the new Market Place.

The farming father and son, stopped their works and greeted him. He greeted them back with a smile.

Everyone was already waiting on standby when he reached the next block, where scavenging groups usually gathered.

Nik fixedly staring at him as if making sure that he knew that he was late.

Jun ignored him and brought everyone for a walk.

Back to their travels...

The group fought their way and reached another intersection where a fast-food restaurant could be found. There were barricades in some places and it was noticeable that people lived here for some time.

The parking lot besides it have numerous cars toppled down as if a giant kid with nothing else to decided to play around here for a while.

The town plaza had numerous wandering carriers but were easily dealt by his death slaves. They passed by numerous shops and some of them appeared unlooted.

Jun didn't care about the measly loot he could find in these shops and decided to go straight for his goal for today. He had limited daylight and scavenging should be left to those who truly needed it. He was long past the stage where he needed every piece of canned food he could find.

Although he didn't loot the shops, that doesn't mean that his slaves wouldn't.

Some strategically fought carriers and brought them near the shops. Afterwards, they would quickly search inside to clear any threats that might be hiding there.

Jun didn't stop them and let them do as they want.

After several minutes, the group moved on and passed by the local parish church.

Jun noticed the gathered groups of carriers on the parking lot of the church. There were at least a hundred of them loitering the parking lot. He peeked through the walled-metal fence and saw that the doors of the church were closed. The gate that led to the christian school dormitory was also closed.

There was a shortcut here that directly led towards the Calvary Hill where the glowing cross was located, but upon seeing the number of carriers made him think otherwise. He finally chose to take the long and risky path. They would follow the main road and traverse several streets before reaching the stairs that lead to the Calvary.

The group made their steps as light as possible. Though some carriers were loitering the streets, most of them were gathered at the church parking lot.

As they were passing by, a loud ringing of a bell resounded on the area.

Everyone looked around in panic and found the source to be the church bell attached to the bell tower. Its ringing continued for several seconds until the group could hear shrieks on various corners of the streets. The ground even trembled as if the earth was quaking.

"Quick! Hide in the stores!" shouted Jun.

Everyone quickly ran for their lives and hid on different stores depending on what was nearer to them. Even though panicked, everyone still managed to close the doors without creating noise.

Several seconds later, the streets became flooded with regular carriers.

As a side dish, there were a bunch of D1's and H1's loitering around, pushing and eating some regular carriers when they wanted.