Chapter 101 Myla And Caroline

"Michael, you stay back. We will get your friends out,"Myla suggested as she looked at me and I shook my head,"it is fine. I can handle myself."

Though she looked like she wanted to convince me to stay back but Jeff spoke first,"it's fine. There are only weak zombies. Plus, those guys seemed like they were currently collecting stuff inside the mart. Shawn, Clara and I will guard from outside. Go. They are on the third floor at the edge of the building."

Hearing his words, I gave a smile to Myla, and she shook her head before she spoke,"all right, but stay close to me." I nodded at her before both of us went into the building.

As we were going inside the building, I could faintly hear Jeff and Shawn whispering.

"His energy level?" Shawn asked

"Below 1.. Or maybe 0," Jeff replied with a sigh.

"Welp. Guess I expected a bit too much," Shawn replied.

Then I smiled on the inside before venturing deeper into the building. There weren't any zombies around as we simply walked to the third floor before quickly reaching the place where Jeff told us about.

"Caroline!" I shouted as I reached around the area and, hearing my voice, someone dashed towards us. Myla almost reached out to shoot, but I stopped her before she could raise her rifle.

"Michael!!!"

-Thud!

Caroline hugged me tightly as she reached closer to me and I simply smiled as I patted her head before looking at Alex coming from the same place where Caroline came from.

"Brother!" There was a bright smile on Alex's face as he too ran towards me before stopping at a distance from me.

"Hey there, kid. How are you doing?" I asked and Alex answered with a joyful expression,"we are good, brother. Just checking the perimeter around the mall. What about you, brother? Where have you been?"

"A few places here and there. Nothing special,"I answered before turning at Myla as I spoke,"Myla, this is Alex and this one is Caroline. Alex and Caroline, meet Myla."

"Huh? My..la...?" Caroline released me before turning to Myla as she took a closer look at her. Like a wild dog, she smelled Myla as she muttered,"Olive green hair and hazel eyes. A strong look with a beautiful face... it really... is her..."

Caroline's eyes widened as she took a step back away from Myla and turned to me as she asked,"your... former girlfriend?"

My eyes narrowed at Caroline as I asked,"How do you know about that? Didn't we meet only after 3rd year in college?"

"Caroline... the girl because of whom Michael got infected with an HIV injection,"Myla too spoke with her eyes concentrated on Caroline and this time at Myla, once again I narrowed my eyes as I asked,"How do you know about that? Didn't we lose all contact after high school?"

These two freaks... were they both spying on me?

Hearing my question, Myla widened her eyes for a few moments before she looked away as she spoke,"that... was...uh.. for... military purposes, yeah. That's what it was."

"At least look in my eyes before spouting nonsense," I said, as my eyes still narrowed at her.

Then I turned to Caroline and said,"Caroline."

"Yes!!" she stood in a military position as she looked at me with slight sweat trickling her head and I sighed before speaking,"well... forget it. Not like I can do anything about what you two idiots were trying to do."

Just trying to think and deal with it is a pain, so I might as well not think about it.

They both sighed too as they looked at me before their eyes matched each other. Though before any sparks could erupt,

"Let's go out. Jeff and the others are waiting for us. Let's discuss things while we go down," I spoke as I began walking out. Hearing my words, Alex was the first one to follow me before Caroline and Myla followed.

Even though it looked like they both had to say something to each other, they kept quiet and followed without uttering a single word.

"Alex, is there anything special that happened in the past 10 days?" I asked as I felt like Alex might know a few things that White or the others won't and fair enough, he spoke without any hesitation.

"Some of the people have been saving more cores and absorbing it in secret in a bunch. All in all, those who successfully absorbed got a bit stronger than the others. As for zombies, their power level is also growing slowly.

Ah! One more thing... just last night, I felt a really strong energy from the north. It was both strong and strange at the same time."

"Strange?" I asked in a serious voice as I turned to him. Myla and Caroline too turned serious as they listened to Alex.

"Like... it felt zombie-like but... I don't know.. They felt stronger... different... like a bundle of... irritating energy coming from them," he spoke as his eyes shook a little before I patted his head and spoke,

"That's all right. I think I know what they are."

'Night Crawlers,' I thought as I felt like the description of what Alex told me fit in the box. Stronger than normal zombies, strange energies felt in the night. All this matched the description a bit.

"You do?" Myla chimed in as she looked at me with a surprised face and I turned to her with a slightly curious expression,"you seem to know something about it."

"Well..." her voice slowed down a little before she pondered over it before speaking,"it's a secret, but since you more or less know what we know... actually, we received the same energies too last night from the exact same location. That was the whole purpose of the mission, to scout out the place and report any unusual findings."

Hearing her words, I nodded a bit before we got out of the building and spoke.

"Those beings, if I am not wrong, are Night Crawlers. Stronger than usual zombies and don't have the ability to walk in the sun."

I recalled in bits what Erina told me about them... but isn't it a bit early for them to arrive? Or more like... could it be a weaker version of the Night Crawlers that were chasing me in the dungeon?

'Or perhaps it's something else altogether?' I thought as I reached Jeff and the others.

"How strong?" she asked with a deep look.

"I don't know, just that they are really strong. Didn't dare to get closer to them," I spoke as I looked at Myla and she nodded with an understanding expression before we reached Jeff and the others.

"Well, we do need to scout that area anyway, so we will be going there. What will you guys do now?" asked Myla with a curious expression before I spoke,"Can you guys take us somewhere? It's not very far from here."

Confused, all four of them looked at me before Myla asked a bit about the location.

"Libra building, not too far from here. About 3 kilometers," I answered and looked at Myla who pondered a little before speaking,"I guess it won't be that much of a problem. Though why? Is there anything there?"

"Yeah. A few of my friends are there," I answered and understandingly she nodded before speaking,"all right, I guess we should hurry then. We do want to reach our location and return before the evening."

I too nodded at her before getting on the jeep along with Alex, and Caroline who was carefully looking at me.

"What?" I asked as I saw her question-filled face and she, in return, asked,"how can you be so casual with her... I mean... after all her disappearance and stuff? Don't you have questions for her?"

"Ah! That... actually..." I spoke as I began to explain the reason for my odd behavior in regards to Myla.