章 11: Journey to the Vault (4)
"What?"
Tim realized what just happened. Debris fell right above him but he didn't get hit by any. He didn't understand what happened, nevertheless he knew someone saved him.
"Show yourself!" Tim assumed a fighting stance as he said. He readied the AR-15 on his back and observed what was in the dark.
Recalling the voice that he heard, it was a childish voice. It was a high voice and on the male side. The children around him that he was aware of was Adam and that kid who was wearing loincloths for clothing.
"Is it you kid?" Tim asked loudly.
Brian took a few moments to give a proper excuse of some sort. To perhaps hide his magic and such, but after a few moments of deliberation.
"Yes. I'm sorry sir." Brian replied and went out of hiding.
Upon seeing the rough and short figure of Brian within the darkness, Tim relaxed a bit and removed his aim but his wariness didn't fade.
"What did you do, kid?" Tim did not care for his apology at all.
"I saved you, Sir." Brian said with a firm will. He clenched both of his fists as he walked closer to Tim.
Upon seeing Brian getting closer and closer, Tim was alarmed. He was still in a tense mood due to the sudden combat.
"Stay right where you are, kid!" Tim warned Brian with his AR-15.
"I don't know what you did to save me, but I must assure my safety." He continued.
'Jenny and Adam need me the most right now.'
Bang~
He fired a warning shot at the side to show that his gun was indeed loaded.
You might think that Tim is unnecessarily wary of a child. However, his worries are not unfounded. Brian was a child that had the power to react and save him from danger at a moment's notice. That would mean he also had the power to subdue or kill Tim.
Upon seeing the gun being fired, Brian was alarmed as well. He stopped his movement and relaxed to try and have a proper conversation.
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't follow your orders. However I don't know why you are so wary of me." Brian said to calm Tim down.
"So answer me, kid. What did you do?" Tim continued being wary, however.
"I used magic to save you sir." Brian no longer had the intention to hide it.
Brian thought of hiding his powers before, but upon knowing that it would be inevitable that his powers would be revealed later down the line if he wished to travel with them.
Moving alone in an unfamiliar world undergoing apocalypse isn't the best option, after all. Brian decided to trust Tim who showed leadership during the hardship. He had respect for Tim as a fellow man, but he was still in a child's body.
However, Tim was skeptical of his confession. Magic was nothing but a trick on Earth after all, there were explanations for each of them and it needs preparation.
"Show it to me." Tim said as he put his aim down. He decided to trust Brian who spent a lot of effort to calm him down.
"Excuse me?" Brian replied in confusion.
"Show me your magic. The one that you used earlier." Tim clarified his statement.
Brian nodded his head and soon started casting his magic.
"This won't be the same spell, but it does basically the same thing." Brian explained as he moved the mana in his body.
"Greater Repel Projectile" Brian casted a spell.
Upon seeing the faint light surrounding him, Brian nodded his head.
'This should be enough.' He thought.
"Okay sir. Now try and shoot me with that object again. This time, aim for me." Brian told Tim what to do.
Tim, who was wary of the faint light surrounding Brian, nodded his head. He first aimed at Brian's head, but he wasn't confident of a power he only just saw. So he changed his aim.
Bang~
"Kugh."
A single shot was fired from his AR-15. A standard 5.56 caliber bullet was shot towards the Brian's shoulder. And a single grunt could be heard.
Brian, who closed his eyes due to the sound, was relatively unharmed.
'It didn't go through!' Brian was satisfied with his magic.
However, the repelling nature of the magic was a factor. Due to aiming towards the side, the bullet ricocheted then went back towards its sender, Tim, then hit him on the right foot.
"Oof." A single cry of pain escaped Tim's mouth.
Brian noticed Tim's anomaly. He stopped praising himself in his head and walked closer to Tim.
"Are you okay, Sir?" Brian asked.
Tim just looked at him with a crooked smile. He was partly to blame as he really tried to shoot a kid on the shoulder.
"It's alright, Kid." Tim assured Brian who he thought would be feeling guilty.
Brian was indeed worried about Tim. His suggestion to use the weapon in Tim's hand was very immature, he just wanted to show off after all.
Tim sat down and removed his impromptu ninja mask. He gasped for air and dealt with the pain on his right foot. Brian reached him at this point.
"Sir, what happened?" Brian asked Tim in worry as he looked at Tim's wound.
"The bullet bounced back. I didn't expect your magic to be elastic at all." He replied with a weak voice.
"Oh. Then let me fix it for you!" Brian said as he started casting another magic.
"Light healing"
Brian healed Tim's foot, it was slowly closing. It was a healing using mana instead of faith so it was not effective on very large wounds. However -
"Hey!"
Tim was alarmed. Brian healed his wound before he could take the bullet out. The opening was no longer there but he could still feel the bullet lodged inside.
"It's still inside!" Tim said vehemently as he held both of Brian's shoulders.
"Inside?" Brian asked bemusedly at Tim's statement.
Tim shook Brian hysterically.
"Kid , you closed my wound with a metal bullet still inside." Tim said with crazed eyes.
He didn't like the unpleasant feeling of a foreign object in his body at all as a man. It felt like an itch but it was deep inside your skin that no matter how hard you scratched, it won't go away.
Meanwhile, Adam and the others did not try to set up camp. They expected Tim to take at most half an hour and return. However Adam noticed something was missing.
"Hey, where's Brian?" Adam asked as he looked around. He couldn't find Brian at all.
"He's probably just nearby. Maybe he's taking a piss or something. That reminds me, excuse me for a bit." Jenny said.
She grabbed Adam who was on her lap and put him down on a flat debris. Adam was munching on a jerky, he has been chewing it since earlier. She then soon left to powder her nose somewhere by herself.
Ivan and his wife were busy by themselves. Discussing things with their hands. Adam ignored them and focused on the marten. He was having a hard time eating the jerky, he took another piece from its container then fed it to the marten.
'What kind of animal is this?' Only now did Adam think of the strange animal.
He knows most of the animals within their packet forest in their backyard, however it was his first time seeing an albino marten. This anomaly made Adam confuse the marten to be a different animal all together.
The marten was slowly getting attached to Adam now. And since it was fearful of everything else, it sticks with Adam the most. Due to that, Adam was also attached to the critter.
"You need a name." Adam said as he held the jerky to feed the animal. It was nibbling on the jerky while Adam held it.
The animal stopped chewing and looked at Adam in the face. It's long tail was swaying and it looked like it was anticipating Adam's next words.
"How about White Rat?" Adam has a bad naming sense.
The marten continued looking at Adam. Adam realized that it was asking for another name since the suggested name was very bad.
"Okay, how about Talyn?" Adam asked the small animal.
The marten just looked at him and then continued chewing on the hanging jerky.
"I guess it's decided then!" Adam excitedly said.
Adam continued feeding the marten with the jerky while eating one himself. He was stupidly smiling by himself.
At this time, Jenny came back from doing her business. She seemed refreshed and ready to wait for her husband once more.
After waiting for half an hour, she began to worry. She tried calling Tim on his watch. She forgot, there was no signal anywhere so calls are a no go. The lack of communication made her worry a lot more.
On the other hand, Tim was having second thoughts on wounding himself with a knife. He planned to open a knife wound to take the bullet out.
However, planning and doing are two different things. He was hesitating, it was hard to conflict pain upon yourself, especially a wound large enough to get a bullet out.
"Argh, let's just get this over and done with!" He tried to firm his will with a shout. He swung the knife and
Stab~
"Yow hohohohoo" Tim cried out in a weird manner. He was holding his foot, he paled at the sight of his foot.
The wound was not big enough for a finger and a bullet to pass through simultaneously. Tim was scared at the thought of having to widen the wound with the knife.
'Come on man, let's do this!' He encouraged himself once more.
Shleeeeeeeek~ (AN: sound for knife cutting flesh slowly. forgive me, it's the best I can do.)
'Oof, that should be big enough. Right?'
He then dove his finger within his wound. He was in agony, it hurts so much but he knew he had to do this.
Slussh~ (sound of finger rotating in blood)
He tried his best to take the bullet out but to no avail. It was too slippery, so he just tried prying it with his knife. He had an easier time using the knife to pull the bullet out.
'Ah, I didn't need to expand the wound.' He lamented at his own incompetence.
Once the bullet was taken out, Brian closed his wound with light healing once again. Brian was awkwardly silent but soon opened his mouth.
"Sorry." Brian solemnly said.
"It's alright. You did save me after all." Tim said as he pat his hand on Brian's head.
They then proceeded to look for the map together. Tim was walking awkwardly due to his foot, he wasn't injured anymore but the psychological pain still remained and so he continued acting as such.
After scouring through the ruins of the subway, they found the map they were looking for.
"Hey wait a minute!" Tim said in a loud voice.
He continued examining the map with a bright smile.
"Hey! This train track is connected to where we are going! We can use the tunnels to traverse instead!" He deliberated.
"What if the tracks are blocked out front? The ceiling is expected to collapse."
"Don't worry, the ceiling of the tracks are more resilient than any other ceiling. It has a higher budget and is significantly sturdier since debris on a train track would be very costly." Tim confidently said.
Tim was right, the track was not damaged as much as the world above due to better foundation.
"You should not have any more complaints right? Then it's decided. Let's go through here." Tim said excitedly.
However, deep within the dark tunnel resides more of the creature that Tim fought earlier. Their numbers were not many, but they are very hard to deal with within the darkness.
These creatures were still unnamed.
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