Chapitre 21: Interesting time-out
Liushi put 3 buildings on fire and hastly retreated from the increasingly more frenzied hive zone. The mutant bees were more panicked and confused by the nearby fires, and didn't focus much on details, like the slow moving silver form going away. They didn't care much about what was on the ground.
Once he got far enough, Jiang Liushi took of the blanket, folded it while accelerating his walking speed, put it under his arm, and ran. He ran as if the whole hive knew he was responsible, and they were right behind him. He put most of his weight on the front of his feet, trying to be as silent as possible. Being near a hive full of unnerved mutant bees had frightened him. One wrong move and he would have been swarmed, slaughtered and used as material for the expansion of the hive. He had managed to keep a tight leash on his fear until then. After running as fast as possible for around a minute, he slowed down.
He was lucky that, by the time he decided to leave, the way to the first building he lit on fire was cleared of beasts. They seemed intent on staying clear of the smoke, and had nothing keeping them in the area, whereas around the hive they were conflicted between leaving and staying to protect their home.
As soon as he caught sight of his truck, he relaxed. It was a little behind the burning building, on the other side of the road. A few abandonned vehicles had been pushed aside to make room for it. He went straight to the living module, and when he opened the door, Xiaotian was waiting for him, with Lu near her. She immediatly started to check him.
"Are you alright? You weren't injured? They didn't discover you?"
"... As you can see, I'm perfectly alright. I managed to stay hidden the whole time."
After a few seconds, satisfied that he was indeed alright, she asked the questions that were mostly on her mind on her way there.
"How did you contact us? Why didn't you say anything about it?"
Liushi had though about it. While he wanted to keep the Starseed secret, its abilities couldn't remain secret. He was already thankfull Xiaotian didn't question him much about the truck and the improvements he made to it during their travel together. But, as he intended to make significant improvements before they reached Nanjing, the sisters would notice it for sure. They would be so extensive he wouldn't be able to use the engineering section as an excuse. So he made a story based on what the Starseed told him about the outbreak.
"As you already know, the world is changing. The ancient super-virus that the scientific community discovered and released is the cause of this. It provoked a forced evolution on seemingly all animal life, and possibly on plant life as well, though we haven't seen any signs of it yet. For humanity, from what I can tell, there are those who couldn't handle the forced evolution and turned into zombies, there are those who barely handled it, thus didn't really change from before, and then there are those who evolved, gaining either improved bodies, or something they something they hadn't before."
He stopped for a bit, letting them digest the informations, and being a bit dramatic about the following part.
"I'm part of the third category. I'm some sort of evolved human."
The silence and the faces of the girls after hearing this was unsettling for Liushi. Xiaotian was gaping like a fish, and Lu froze like a deer in headlights. Liushi chose to continue his explanation before they could react and bombard him with questions or accusations.
"I can use materials to make things, or improve things. I gained that ability before the outbreak, and with the press conference about the super-virus, I roughly guessed what had changed me, and what was likely to happen. I made this truck, my Doomsday Ride, with that ability, combining several kinds of vehicles into one."
He paused once more for the benefit of the girls before resuming his explanation.
"When I made the on-board computer, I sort of etablished a link to it. I didn't think much of it before, it was only earlier that I discovered I could send messages through that link... Maybe you should take a seat, I see it's a lot for you to take in."
As he finished, he led the girls to the seats in front of the kitchen. They didn't resist, but continued to look at him, mostly in shock for Xiaotian and wonder for Lu. He enjoyed it in the privacy of his mind. Having attractive girls look up to him was stroking his ego. Once they calmed down, they asked for some clarifications, but he didn't reveal more, aside from the fact that mutant beasts had a core, which he could use to temporary boost his ability. Xiaotian was the first to understand what it meant.
"You want the core from the hive queen!"
"Yes. If I want to reach my sister in Nanjing, I must upgrade the truck enough to not only deal with mutant beasts more efficiently, but also deal with the large number of zombies that would without doubt be there. Xiaotian, you should remember the swarm that was chasing us when we reached Shenbei."
Xiaotian nodded and shivered at the same time. She had been a few seconds away from dying with her friends, and the memory still bothered her quite a bit. She still didn't want him to go back to the hive.
"Didn't you come back precisely because you didn't have any viable way to enter the hive?"
"I didn't when I left. But now I think it's possible to do something. When I left, I saw that the mutant bees were badly affected by the smoke. In fact, I think they will be so confused they won't properly react to the presence of the truck if we got close silently enough. Then we use the turrets to trim down their numbers. Meanwhile, I'll look for some other burning materials around and make packs. When the number of beasts outside the hive gets low enough, I'll put the previously made light packs at the entrances of the hive to smoke out the remaining beasts. Then I'll get in with one of my needle rifle and some more molotov cocktails, and deal with the hive queen."
"I'll come with you" Lu suddenly interjected.
Unlike the people she escaped with when they were ambushed by the mutant bees, the father of the young ladies wasn't as agile as he used to be. Lu already suspected that her father had become a victim of the beasts. Unlike Xiaotian, she had a vindictive side, but it used to show more as some light pranking. After the outbreak, the restrain on that part was greatly reduced. Non-existant when dealing with lethal threats. She wanted to give these beasts a piece of her mind. However, her elder sister wasn't of the same opinion.
"NO!!" she said while turning her head toward her sister so fast Liushi momentary worried about the condition of her neck. "You're finally safe. I won't allow you to go back outside. Especially not to go to a monsters nest!"
Xiaotian was looking furiously at her sister, but anybody could also see the fear behind the anger. Lu met her sister glare without flinching, and without backing down. She didn't chose to go just for revenge, she also ginuinely wanted to help their benefactor. She was more athletic and daring than her sister, and had more mental fortitude and fighting spirit. She handled the catastrophe much better than her sister.
"I'm already used to moving around on foot with the zombies mutant bees threat. This time, the threat will be reduced because the beasts cleared the zombies around, and they are now distracted by the smoke." She turned her determined eyes to Jiang Liushi. "I can watch your back and help you gather whatever you need. I won't let you go alone do something dangerous for our benefits with everything you're already providing to us. It's the least I could do. I won't be a parasite to you brother Liushi!"
They looked at each other for a bit, and Liushi nodded. While he didn't want to put the ladies in danger, he wouldn't refuse voluntured help. Definitly not in dangerous times. Xiaotian, seeing the result of the silent exchange, pitifuly groaned and held her head in her hands. Lu went to her and gave her a hug which she heartfully returned.
After reassuring each other, the sisters separated. Xiaotian went back behind the wheel and strated to slowly drive the truck to the hive. Liushi stayed at the back with Lu to help her prepare for their little expedition.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Tonyorobsky
Tonyorobsky ... My pace always end up slower than what I expect when starting a chapter... When I started this one, I expected to have reached the boss at the end...
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone