122 Detour

The streets were quickly filled with the undead. A few evolved carriers were mixed with the horde. Like tides, they traversed abandoned vehicles and dashed furiously towards the church.

At this time, the bell stopped ringing but the carriers that were already near have already arrived at the parking lot.

Jun peaked over the window and watched the scene outside.

The late ones who were not able to pinpoint the direction where the sound was coming from, now loiter the once already cleared streets.

A Hunter jumped atop a vehicle and sniffed the air. Afterwards, it jumped down and ran towards the town plaza. It continously jumped over the cars roof to quickly get out of the horde.

The regular carriers ignored the commotion but the other Hunters didn't. They hopped over a car's roof after another and followed the leading Hunter.

The leading Hunter arrived near the fast-food restaurant and continously sniffed the road. It stopped at the intersection and shrieked disturbingly. It ran around the street looking for targets. When it couldn't find anyone, it thrashed around several trash bins nearby. At this time, its fellow Hunters visibly stayed away from it as if afraid of having their presence known.

"We can't stay here." blurted out Jun.

He then turned towards everyone who was stuck with him.

They were inside a local diner and there's seven of them stuck here. Jun looked at everyone's ranks by their shoulders and felt relieved. All of them were single digits which means that they can handle themselves fairly well.

"Have I ever asked for your names?" Jun jokingly asked all smiles.

"No, you never cared." Nik replied curtly.

The others felt nervous with the way he answered since the man in front of them could basically order them to go outside and die for no reason at all. Jun, on the other hand, doesn't really care with the kid's attitude. Though he barely knew the kid, he atleast know that he works hard and is trustworthy. His answers are always on point and never cared for how the other person felt.

Jun doesn't know that Nik's treatment was unique only to him.

"We need to get out of here. Where are the others?"

"I saw them enter the next store."

"The doughnut shop? Okay, let's go."

Jun strode towards the kitchen cautiously. He readied a bonedagger since their was limited space and wielding a  huge hammer isn't appropriate right now. Although the shop hasn't opened for business when things happened, just the front door being open means a lot.

There could be looters here or the owner clocked in early for work that day.

Jun slowly pushed the door open and peaked inside the kitchen. Various utensils neatly arranged on top of the table welcomed him. The kitchen looked in prestine condition and there were no signs that someone lived here. He opened the door fully but didn't let his guard down. If anything jumps into him, he was ready to stab it in the face.

The door made creaking noises as it slid open followed by a thud when it hit the wall.

The noise echoed in the kitchen and everyone felt like it was a massive bomb that exploded in their hearts. Everyone inwardly cursed Jun for not carefully opening the door.

Jun didn't see their gaze but on his own reasoning, he didn't even know that the door would cause that much noise.

He looked around and saw the door that leads to the back alley. He strode towards it and the group followed him. When he pushed open the door, he felt some resistance from the other side. He got surprised but immediately relaxed. If it was a carrier on the other side, it would be rampaging already.

He forcefully pushed the door and it swung open. He heard something rolling on the ground as the door opened fully. He slowly peaked outside and saw some carriers on both ends of the alley. As he was observing the situation outside, he noticed a mangled body nearby. Its a woman who had its bare back exposed. A lot of missing flesh could be found on her back.

Jun stared at the body filled with curiosity.

Why is it not turning?

He kept the matter on the back of his head and focused on what's important now.

Getting out of here.

"Stay low. Don't make any noise."

The men behind him nodded their heads.

Jun waited until both ends have no carriers before going out. The group sneaked towards the nearby door which supposed to be the doughnut shop's back entrance.

Jun twisted the knob and it didn't open.

"It's locked. Anyone knows how to pick locks?"

Jun grunted after seeing everyone shook their heads. He then brought out his bonehammer and hoped that his action wouldn't cause too much noise.

He raised the hammer slightly above the knob and brought the thing down. The knob entered the space where the mouth is and caused a muffled hit. There's a short clink when the bone hit the metal but it wasn't loud enough to reach the end of the alley.

Jun cursed inwardly.

"Let's just bash this!" uttered Jun as he gathered energy with his free hand. He stored his bonehammer into his dimensional storage and raised his energized hand on shoulder level.

He bashed the doorknob causing a short-loud clink. Everyone then hurriedly went inside to make sure that the room was safe. Piles of boxes stacked all the way up near to the ceiling appeared before them.

At the same time that they entered, the group didn't know that a carrier just happened to pass by on the entrance of the alley. It looked inside the alley and when it saw the empty space, it continued walking towards the cluster of growling carriers nearby.

The other door opened and a masked man appeared. It was Toby.

"Call everyone, we're getting out of here." said Jun.

"Yes, sir!" replied Toby hastily. He then ran back and called for everyone.

Jun once again made sure that there were no witnesses on either ends of the alley before choosing to head out. The group chose the nearest exit and timed it perfectly when no carriers were looking.

"Why are we taking this route?"

"Because its safer!" replied Jun without looking back. Though he only heard the voice, it was enough to know that it was that brat, since he was the only one with the courage to say words like that to him.

Nik furrowed his brows under the mask. He felt like his understanding of what safety means differed against Jun.

The group was currently running towards the exit that leads to the street next to the church. Though everyone felt that the earlier situation was dangerous, atleast they were inside a building. If they don't make any noise, they could have just waited until the undead dispersed on their own.

"The Hunters can smell us. If we stay in one place, they'll find us."

Jun didn't share everything that he saw, but explained enough for everyone to know their situation.

"We can outrun those normies but Hunters are good runners. Now that we know that they can track, we bettter avoid them or kill them on sight."

Jun stopped talking when he reached the end of alley. He was immediately spotted by regular carriers. Thankfully enough, it was only the tail-end that got attracted to them. Most of the evolved carriers seemed to be inside the church's parking lot or already wandering on their own.

"Run!" whispered Jun as he ran on the open street.

As they continued running, they passed by numerous regular carriers that were idly standing on their spots. When the carriers noticed the living beings behind them, they quickly ran after them.

"This is a bad idea!" Toby shouted as he ran with all his strength.

"Where do we go!?" yelled Nik as he ran besides Jun.

Jun was contemplating whether hiding inside a building would be better than outrunning the regular carriers. Every turn could be dangerous since he doesn't know what's waiting on every corner. He decided to trust what he can see and chose to run straight were he could see what's in front of him.

Jun knew the area like the back of his hand since he ruled here for several years already. That's also the same reason that he knew that this place is the most populated place in the whole town. They're in the public market!

People come here early in the morning to buy and sell things that they needed. Whether a kilo of rice or shopping for clothes, this place is alive day or night!

Jun can't afford to take a wrong turn only to be cornerd by those carriers. When it comes to it, people would surely die if they try fighting this many at such an open space!

Is this it?

As Jun felt out of hope, he saw someone waving at the docks entrance. He zoomed hsi vision and saw that it was a middle-aged woman. Beside her was a middle-aged man trying to pull her and leave. The woman who was powerless got forcefully pulled. The two rode a small motorized-wooden boat and left the area.

As he watched the scene with clarity, hope came back to Jun.

"Run to the docks!" he shouted.

With their feets already twinkling from sprint, Jun exerted additional effort and outrunned everyone. He was atleast five meters ahead of everyone.

When everyone thought that he was trying his best for his safety, Jun stopped at the edge of the docks. He untied the boat from the post, then removed the planks that civilians use to board the boat. He went down a few steps and submerged his feet into the water as he pushed the bow with his bare hands.

Nik who arrived after him quickly helped pushing the boat. Both of their faces showed how much effort it took just to push the boat. The others that arrived after, helped them in pushing the boat and thankfully, the boat slowly started to drift away.

"Go! Everyone hop in!" yelled Jun as he stood up. He noticed that there was a battle going on at the dock's entrance. He brought out his main weapon, his bonehammer, and joined the fray. He mostly secured everyone as they backed off. There were a few times that he was almost grabbed and barely dodged it.

Jun ran away after swinging two times, then jumped towards the boat. His feet dangled in the air as he stretched his feet to reach the boat. His front feet landed perfectly but his other couldn't. he then slowly fell backwards.

Just then, a hand caught his arm and pulled him towards the boat.

When he looked ahead, he saw Nik pulling his arm with all his strength. Behind him were several people grabbing his waist, for him not to fall towards the water.

With a single pull, he was brought back into the boat.

He stood atop the bow of the commerical boat as he caught his breath. He turned around and watched those regular carriers fall into the water.