Chapter 15: Unscrupulous Old Man
"It should be around 8 pm right now." Rahul said and pointed at a dot in the map.
"This is where we are right now." Then he pointed at another place in the map and said. "This is a settlement that's connected to the highway. It's called Pali Village."
"It's 40 something kilometers away from our current distance."
"We can walk twice as fast as a normal human and we also have more stamina so it should not be a problem for us to walk this far."
Indeed, if we start walking right now and cover 2km every hour. It should not be a problem for us to cover this much distance by 6:00 am tomorrow morning.
"After that we'll rest a few hours there and then take this road that detours around the village." He said and pointed at a thin line on the map. "There should not be many Abnormals around this road. If we're careful, we should not face have any problems here and might even gain some Crystals. What do you say?"
"Hmm. It's a good plan." I said nodded my head in agreement. I also wanted to get back home as soon as possible.
"Very well then. Since everything has already been packed, let's start moving." He kept the map in his tracking bag after which we left the old hut and continued on our journey.
This time we were focusing on covering as much distance as possible so we only killed 2 Abnormals throughout the whole night. They came across our path by mistake and lost their lives.
Rahul's calculations were a bit too humble and we reached the outskirts of the Pali Village at 3:00 am in the morning.
As per according to our previous plans, we were supposed to rest at the outskirts of the the Pali Village. And after we've rested enough we would take the bypath but when we came close to the village Rahul stopped walking all of a sudden, forcing me to stop with him as well.
'Maybe he sense something.' I thought and realized that his expression had soured all of sudden.
"You hear that." He said and his eyes became vigilant as he tried to find something in the darkness up ahead.
I remained silent and focused all of my attention in listening but aside from a few barks from the dogs in the distance, I was not able to hear anything else.
But Rahul definitely heard something as his expression became even worse.
"Go back. Slowly" He slowly whispered in my ears. "And don't make any noise."
I had no idea what was up ahead in the village that scared him so much that he wanted to go back. But I knew that I couldn't possibly go wrong by trusting him so I stayed as silent as I could possibly be and followed his footsteps as we went back to the path from where we'd just come.
After going back a few hundred meters back, instead of slowing his steps he increased his speed and walked faster and faster until he was practically running.
I also sensed the urgency in his steps and started running along with him.
Although the bag in our back was heavy, we were still able to cover a lot of distance before we both finally got tired and stopped running.
By this time, we had already run around 4 kilometers, to the north, which was the opposite direction to where we should be heading.
After we stopped, I wanted to ask why we ran in such a hurry but was too exhausted to do so.
I threw my bag to the side, laid on the ground and panted like a dead dog.
"Damn it!" Rahul suddenly cursed while panting and kicked a stone on the ground.
"What happened Rahul?" I asked after getting back my breath. "Why did ran from that place?"
Rahul had serious look in his face as he said in a grim tone "That place has now become a habitat of the Mutant Beasts."
"Habitat of the mutant Beasts?" I asked.
"Yes. Go to any other place filled with Abnormals. You won't ever hear any dog or mutant dog barking like that in that place." He said "Such a thing can only happen places where there are no Abnormals, or places which had already turned into the domain of Mutant Beasts."
"But that was a human settlement so there must have been a lot of Abnormals in that place."
"The fact that you can still hear those dogs barking is a sign that all the Abnormals in that area had already died and become food for the Mutant beasts. That area is now a domain of the Mutant beasts."
I felt a chill down my spine when I heard that.
Demon beasts are far more dangerous than Abnormals because 1. They can see at night. 2. They have a strong sense of smell. 3. They still have their basic animal instincts and 4. They are much faster than Abnormals.
If you go inside a town filled with Abnormals at night then there was a high chance that you will survive the night. But if you go inside a town filled with Mutant beasts then you'd definitely die.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and asked "How many Mutant dog would it take to wipe out a village filled with Abnormals?"
"It doesn't necessarily had to be Mutant dogs." Rahul shook his head. "It could also be Mutant Cows, Mutant Goats, Mutant Pigs or Mutant horses."
"But… Aren't those animals herbivorous." I asked.
Rahul laughed when he heard that and said "Not after turning into mutant beasts. There is no such thing as a herbivore Mutant beast."
"Plus, after the herbivorous turn into Mutant beasts, they're usually more dangerous than their carnivorous counterparts."
"Why's that?" I asked.
"Size and numbers." Rahul said. "There are far more herbivores in nature than the carnivores. As for the size, I don't think I need to comment on that."
"A mutant Dog can fight against a single Abnormal or even defeat the abnormal on it's own, but a mutant cow can easily crush a dozen of them before running out of gas. Do you understand now?"
I nodded my head as I realized that the Abnormals in that village had probably died in the hands of the animals they once used to raise.
'Haah!' I sighed as I realized that we had really been lucky back there. If by mistake any of those Mutant dogs had gotten out smell, the whole group of them would come chasing after our trail.
And looking at how even Abnormals were no match for their speed, we would definitely be surrounded by them before long and not meet a good end.
I looked at Rahul and asked "Then what are we going to do now?"
He shook his head and said. "What else can we do. We'll have to take an even larger detour. And do it as fast as possible. Those Mutant beasts won't stay there forever. After they've digested those Abnormals, they'll start moving outward in search for more food."
He gave me his hand and pulled me up. "Get up. We don't have a lot of time in our hands. The faster we cross this area, the better it'll be for us."
—————
After taking a long detour that costed us four hours, we were finally able to put Pali Village behind us.
By this point, we're thirsty, hungry, exhausted and stunk of sweat.
I looked at the water bottle in my hand which had emptied out an hour ago. This was already the fifth time I was looking at it, hoping there to be a few water drops inside even though I knew that I had licked it clean.
'Damn! I'm thirsty.' If looked back in the direction of the Pali village and sighed. We had earlier planned to get some drinkable water from there, but we had to change our plans due to that unexpected event.
Not only were we not able to find water in that village, but we also had to run back 4 kilometers and then take a 4 hour long detour which exhausted the last of our water supply.
"Brother." I said as I looked at Rahul who looked had a slightly better condition than me. But I knew that his water bottle had emptied out 15 minute ago very clearly since I was the one who did it.
Rahul looked at me and said "Don't worry. We're travelling through the dry forest so it's only natural that there no water source nearby. But once we get out of here, it won't be that hard to find Drinkable water."
'I won't mind even if the water's undrinkable.' I thought but didn't say it. I knew what he had said was true.
After we get out of this forest, any vehicle we find will probably have some water inside it that we can drink.
So even though I was very thirsty, I didn't complain much.
A human won't fall in despair as long as he has hope.
After walking for one more hour, we finally got back to the highway. But to my dismay there were a lot of Abnormals lurking there.
We might be able to deal with 10 Abnormals. If we get lucky then we might even be able to defeat 20. But if all the Abnormals in the surrounding come after us then we'd really lose our life.
"Don't worry." Rahul said when he looked at my crestfallen face. "It won't stay like this throughout the whole highway. It we continue walking, then sooner or later we'll find some stranded vehicle or some other source of water."
"Alright. I would rather drink it sooner than later though." I said in a hoarse. This was truly the first time I'd ever been so thirsty in my life. And the fact that there was water right in front of us but we couldn't drink it made it worse.
I gave another look to the hundreds of vehicles and left along with Rahul.
We walked along the highway for two hours but were not able to find any water. But at last, just as I was about to lose my patience and was considering risking an attack, we came across a petrol pump station.
It was not the petrol station that interested me, but the Retail shop beside it that was closed at this moment.
'There must be some water inside that store.' I guessed. 'And judging by how it was closed, there shouldn't be any Abnormals inside either.'
Although there were a lot of Abnormals lurking near the petrol station and some at the front of the Retail store, the back door was still clear.
'Thank god. Finally I'll be able to drink some water.' I rejoiced at this thought and looked at Rahul who also had a faint smile in his face.
"Let's get in from the back." I said.
"Yeah." He nodded after which we sneakily avoided the eyes of Abnormals and reached at the back of the store.
I give the door a slight push and realized that it was closed from the inside.
"Move aside." Rahul said and then used his 'Jedi-level' sword techniques to cut through the the locks after which we easily entered the store.
It was a bit dark inside as we were in the storage room and we waited a few moments in silence to make sure that there wasn't any Abnormal inside. After we were sure, we entered the store. and I skipped everything on my was and went directly to the freezer.
There I found what I was so desperately looking for. I sighed in relief and took out two bottles from inside the freezer.
I threw one toward Rahul and started opening bottle. Just as I was about to put it in my mouth the dark store suddenly turned bright and I heard a voice from behind me.
"Put your hands in the air and turn back slowly. And don't make any funny movements or I'll blow up your heads."
'Damn it!' I cursed in my mind. 'At least you could have let me drink the water first.'
I didn't let go of the bottle as I raised my hands and turned back slowly. Turning back I saw an old man, with a face full of wrinkles pointing a gun in our direction.
I didn't knew if that gun was real. Nor if it had any bullets in it. But I didn't wanted to take any chances in order to find out.
"Good Sir. We've not had water for a whole day. We're just here for the water. After that we'll leave peacefully." Rahul said in a calm manner.
"You mean to say that you can break into my store. Steal my water. And then leave as you want. Is that what you're saying." The old man said in a hysterical voice as he pointed the gun at Rahul.
'Damn it. Is this old fart insane or what. Even in the apocalypse he still cares about his store.' Although that's what I thought, I didn't dare to do anything. Just from the way he was holding the gun and his posture I could tell that he had must have used it extensively at some point in his life.
"I can pay for the water." Rahul said in a calm manner. "I'll also pay for the damages done to the door. In fact, I'll pay triple as a form of apology."
"Money!" The old man laughed in a shrill voice and then shouted. "Do you take me for a fool. Do you think I don't know what's going outside. Do you think those worthless pieces of papers still hold any value."
'Damn it old fart. Can you not shout in such a loud voice. If those Abnormals heard it and attacked your precious store then we'll definitely be in trouble.' I thought but at the same time I also realized that this old man was not as simple as it seemed.
I thought so because:-
1. He was able to survive the Severe Pain despite being so old. It must mean that he must have a lot of willpower.
2. He was not only able to survive the Severe pain, he was even able to secure this private little area filled with supplies for himself. And although he said that this was his store, I highly doubted his words.
3. He was able to sneak up on us when we were the least prepared.
'Was he some kind of James Bond in his younger years or something.' I thought and gritted my teeth.
"Good Sir. If you fire that gun then each and every Abnormal in the surrounding will hear it. At that time we'll all die. We truly mean you no harm. Please put down the weapon." Rahul said calmly.
"Abnormal. Is that what you call those devils out there." The old man spat on the ground and continued. "As for whether I fire this gun or not is up to you. I'm already this old and don't have much longer to live anyway so whether I die today or a few years later makes no difference to me."
'Damn it! Isn't this old fart a bit too cunning. If he puts situation in that way then it makes it seems like he has nothing to lose. This really puts us at a serious disadvantage. Just who the hell is this guy.'
"You have not killed us so far. That means you must need our help for something. Then tell me, what do you need of us." Rahul finally threw away all pretense. He had also realized that this person was not some just some crazy old guy.
"That's better. I was getting a cringe every time you called me Good Sir." The old man laughed with a shrill voice and said. "What I want is very simple." He then said something that surprised me greatly.
He removed his sleeve and showed us his Black Watch. "I've talked with the AI in this watch and have come to learn that eating Crystals can increase our strength, speed and stamina significantly. What I want from you is very simple."
"You'll go out and kill those things for me. After you've killed 20. Bring their crystals to me and I'll let you both go. Until then your brother will remain a hostage of mine."
"May I know how to address you?" Rahul asked.
"You can call me George." The old man said without skipping a beat. That was definitely not his real name. 'This old man is too good at lying. That means that none of his words can be trusted.'
'He said that he'll release me after Rahul brought him 20 crystals but I already know how addicting those crystals can be. Once he gets some, he'll definitely ask for more. Not to mention that killing 20 Abnormals is no easy feat.'
'Damn this old man.'
"George. If you know this much about crystals then you must also know how powerful those Abnormals are. You don't really expect me to kill 20 of those all alone do you?" Rahul said.
"Huh! Pthuh!" The old man spit down on the floor and said "That's none of my concern. If you want your brother to live then you'll bring me those crystals. But don't worry. I'm a very generous and kind-hearted man. I won't force you to do something that's beyond your capabilities. You can bring me 2 crystals every day. After 10 days when you've fulfilled your quota I'll let you both go as promised. I'm a very patient person. I can wait for my crystals."
"As for whether you are really capable of killing them or not." He smiled and said. "Surviving so far out in the forest has already proved that you guys are capable."
"Also, don't think I didn't saw you walking in the forest. That speed is definitely not something that a normal human is capable of. If I had to, then I'll guess that you must have already consumed some of those crystals. Hell, you might still have some of them on you. How come I didn't think of something like that so far."
He slapped his forehead and laughed in his signature shrill voice. "Come on now. What are waiting for. Throw your bags here. And while you're at it, strip down your clothes and throw them over as well."
'It seems like he really won't let us go.' I thought as I looked the unscrupulous old man. 'The more time we spend here the more he'll ask of us and the worse of a situation we'll get in.' I didn't dare to underestimate this old man any longer and decided to finish this farce once and for all.
'Lily.' I thought in my mind.
'How may I help you?' she said in a serious tone. It seems like she understood the danger we're in and thus didn't play around like she usually did.
'Buy the 'Agility Booster' Skill Book and put it in my skill slot.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Fortunate_Soul
Fortunate_Soul Skills will start making their appearance from here on out :)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone