11. Truckload of Women.

"There's no way we can make it through this many." Mai's pessimist voice arose. "We're gonna die here for sure, I should've known it was all hopeless from two days ago, where I witnessed all my friends getting eaten, that's a clear sign that you're not gonna live much longer, isn't it?" She looked at Teru who was actually at a loss of words because of her. "Teru, you were right, we're all gonna die here today, I mean; Tatsumi has proven that he's strong and can protect us before, but this is too much, and there's those small ones too, we might as well give up now-" "Yukiyo, do you think this van can get us across that field?" Tatsumi shot Mai a glance and then looked at the girl beside him who had been frozen from fear, pointing to their left he used his hands to gesture. "If not then how far can this go before it's ruined and unable to move?" "What're y-" Yukiyo started but Tatsumi practically growled as he cut her off to keep her on topic. "Just answer the question." He cut her off sharply. "Look outside, they're not close enough to completely block us off yet, are we gonna have to get out and make a run for it, or can you drive us across?" "T-the tires m-might give up halfway, this model wasn't built for off-road terrains like that, so I… I don't know how far it could take us, but it's worth a shot... I think?" She replied already changing the gear back to drive, Tatsumi knew exactly how to push her buttons, she only needed an option more favourable than the other and she'd receive a boost of confidence just enough to spring into action, she'd always been that way, and the younger her was no exemption. "Yes." Yukiyo took a deep breath and looked back at him. "We're doing this." "That's enough for me then, let's do it, if we hit ground, we can make a run for it, the field you see there, there's a bridge, and then across that bridge and over the hill on the horizon, there's another town, this is ill planned, but if we continue on this road, we're gonna die for sure." Tatsumi gave her a smile and pointed. "We're in your hands Yukiyo." "What're we waiting for then?" Mai asked impatiently. "Let's go, It's a longshot but I'll take any chance right now." She commented quickly. "Let's do it." Teru said, lifting his head and unsheathing his blades at his side for a quick move."I haven't rested well enough, but I won't complain anymore, I don't wanna die here." Hearing this, Yukiyo stepped on the gas swerving the van in the middle of the road then speeding to the side and smashing the rails that separated the road from grassland, plunging them down the small steep and flooring it across the rocky terrain, it was obviously a scary feeling having to go through that many rocks in a city van, but it was this or their legs, no other option available. Looking behind them, Mai became speechlessly horrified at what her eyes beheld; All of them were chasing after them, and the ones with wings were in the air, she instantly began thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all, they were fast, too fast, she'd seen them moving at most about thirty miles an hour, faster than humans could run but not fast enough to chase a damn vehicle. "They're right on our asses!" Teru followed Mai's eyes and practically screamed upon seeing the Akugami right at their rear, he looked around frantically before punching the seat and cursing. "If this van breaks now, we're gonna be killed in seconds!" He yelled with visible fear on his face. "No, not if, but when this van breaks, f**k, we're dead, we should've stayed at that motel by the highway-" "Teru, shut the hell up already!" Tatsumi snapped and looked around at the dozens of Akugami chasing them, his eyes went wide for sure but he quickly regained his composure and looked back to the direction they were going, Yukiyo was doing a great job of keeping them afloat this far and he was glad he hadn't been reincarnated somewhere else without her. "None of you are gonna die!" He barked at them. But in the back of his mind was fright, the van was moving at fifty miles an hour, and the Akugami were right behind them still, regardless of terrain Akugami didn't start getting that fast until after the first wave, this was sending billions of warning signals throughout his entire body, he was in a deep thought. “What if…. What it there was no initial stage and the first wave was at the very beginning?” He questioned himself in thought, these monsters just made it hard to not believe anything, the world was now gullible to all legends and theories because of the existence of Akugami, because no matter from what perspective you looked at it, Akugami weren't animals, they did not exist at all before then, so where the hell were they coming from? He believed he'd find out in this life, but also felt apprehensive of the answer, everyone that had known in his last life was either keeping the truth from everyone or killed before they could tell anybody, so he was resolute in finding out just what these creatures he had named the gods of chaos came from. "You can't be serious, wake up Tatsumi, we've been getting by on nothing but dumb and unprecedented luck all this time, there's no chance of us getting out of this without the van, and if it fails us now, we die for sure!" Teru replied to his declaration of survival. "No matter how you look at it bud, were merely corpses trying to extend our expiry date!" He defiantly objected, staring Tatsumi straight in his eyes before looking back at the terrain ahead again. "It's hopeless against that many." "You're wrong." Tatsumi growled and barely unsheathed the katana before locking it again. "If this vehicle fails us, we're gonna make it anyway." Tatsumi retorted calmly, Mai who had been looking at him had to admire his attitude now, and even Teru was somewhat shaken aback by his no-quit attitude, but while Teru looked away Mai suddenly felt a lump form in her throat when she was seeing Tatsumi's eyes in the reflection, what shook her was his eyes themselves; for a brief second, and no time more, his iris flashed crimson like a warning. “His eyes, for a second there, I could've sworn they were red with slits…?” The girl began questioning her sanity as soon as it happened. “No…” She mused and shook her head. “It's just fear playing with my mind.” She shook her head again, even bonking it with her palm as she tried to focus on their monster problem and the predicament they were in. "Mai, grab some supplies, and hand me that bag just in case, only essentials though." Tatsumi reached behind him, taking the bag she had kept with her since taking it from him back in Salt Springs, and then like an obedient soldier, she confirmed his command with a "yes," and started packing food and water. "s**t!" Yukiyo snapped, alerting everyone as she looked dead ahead at one of the big ones in the field, it was a Shell-head, their bodies were five times tougher than the regular ones, and their lack of a proper weakness made them harder to deal with, much harder. "If I turn, or even try, we could possibly burst the tires, or even flip and crash, and if I slow down, the other's are gonna catch on." She stated the two frustratingly bad choices, tapping the steering hard in thought to try and think of a third option. But Tatsumi had other Intentions; "Then smash into it, put your seatbelts on!" Tatsumi ordered everyone strapping an army vest full of grenades on himself and buckling down as well. "Give us as much distance from the ones behind us, buy us some time Yukiyo, go as fast as this thing can." He looked at her, and though she was terrified of crashing, she felt even worse about getting eaten. "This is insane, that thing is twice the size of the van!!"Teru screamed as he put on the seatbelt as well. "Yukiyo you're gonna kill us!" The blonde screamed even louder with his eyes forming circles as the van went from fifty to eighty on the rocks, shaking so hard that everyone had to hold on to something to prevent themselves from hitting the walls repeatedly. "Faster Yukiyo!" Tatsumi urged the girl while looking at the speed gauge, ninety seven miles per hour, a hundred… "He smiled and looked at the behemoth before them. "Get ready for impact." He looked at Yukiyo. "We're making it out of this Yukiyo, you can bet on it." And then the collision came with the van hitting the Akugami at an amazing hundred and five miles an hour, the collision smashed the front of the van and flipped it clean over the Akugami's head before landing on the front again, it all happened so fast that everyone just seemed dazed, Tatsumi was bleeding from the head, but Yukiyo seemed fine, that's due in part to Tatsumi himself extending his hands to protect her from shrapnel fired off by the airbag as it deployed and then using his katana to pop it as soon as the van hit the ground, for Mai though, someone who was skilled in art and hand-eye coordinative movements, basically meaning she had quick eyes even despite her glasses, everything played out much slower, and in much more detail; The splinters of glass flying around as time seemed to slow down, the Akugami's legs making crackling noises as its bones snapped in the opposite direction, Tatsumi throwing a grenade down the monster's throat the second they were in the air, to her, it was like one of those scenes you only saw in a movie; Epic. "H-hold on a sec... there...wait... He did that?" She groaned while holding her head and neck, but soon after she questioned herself there was an explosion behind them and chunks of meat and blood fell on the van right after. "Get up, get out!" She heard Tatsumi shouting, right after, but she was in a daze, she couldn't move because she had gone numb, and to make it worse her glasses fell off when they hit the ground the second time, and she couldn't see a thing without them. Tatsumi grabbed hold of Yukiyo's hand pulling her out of the driver's seat and pushing her at Teru who had managed to crawl out before her and Mai. "Run." he monotonously yelled. pulling the pin of a grenade and throwing it at the approaching swell of Akugami with all his strength. He then turned to the van again and pulled Mai out of it also pushing her toward Teru and Yukiyo before unsheathing the katana and running paces behind them while he kept an eye behind himself, constantly glancing back and dreadfully noting that there was no way in hell they were gonna be able to outrun the monsters. "We gotta go faster!" He yelled, trying to get them to move at a pace that wasn't that of a snail. "Tatsumi!" Teru huffed. "I, I can't run anymore!" He cried out just before collapsing to the ground like a ragdoll and heaving and wheezing, to his surprise though, all of them stop instantly, and without a second of hesitation both girls come back and start helping him to his feet when the first Akugami reached them; within seconds of it's approach though, it's head was already rolling from a swift and precise swing coming from what looked like an enraged Tatsumi, the regular ones he was confident in handling, but the Shell-headed Akugami and the winged Akugami were going to eventually overpower him, he knew this for a fact, it took too long the immobilize the Shell-heads, but he still couldn't do a thing against the winged ones, those were tier three Akugami, and they had appeared far too early in the game. "Listen, you just keep running okay?" Tatsumi turned his back to them and flashed the katana free of blood, while preparing himself for an all out fight he was sure he wouldn't survive. "Don't look back... No matter what, you just keep running!" Tatsumi exhaled heavily, grinding his teeth and grasping the katana. "I'll hold them off for as long as you need to have a clean escape to Ketchup Town. "That's absurd Tatsumi, you're in a much healthier position than I am, you should take Yukiyo and Mai and leave me and run." He objected weakly, "You have a better chance of surviving than I ever did from the start, so you don't have to die here, just leave me and protect each other…" Tatsumi ignored his friend's plea and instead gave them a silent back, deciding that he would rather face this than live with being responsible for Teru dying twice, so he defiantly stood facing the coming crowd of dozens, when something suddenly flew over his head and exploded in the front of the monsters surprising everyone as the Akugami were sent off their feet and blasted out of the air, being dangerously close he ran back to the others and grabbed all three of them in a dive, ducking beneath flying debris. "You were this close?!" He snapped at them. "I wouldn't have been able to make any kind of difference if you didn't actually run you idiots!" Tatsumi had tears in the corners of his eyes as he shielded them as best he could with his own body; not that he needed to with how clean the explosions were. Before any of them knew what was happening explosions were blasting the Akugami in the sky and on the ground to chunks of meat in rapid succession, and they eventually all sat up to get a better look at what was causing the chaos around them. "The military…?" Tatsumi whispered calmly, sheathing his katana and watching in awe as a sudden wave of armoured vehicles and men with grenade launchers raided the field, eliminating the Akugami with explosions and armour piercing caliber weaponry. Seeing the matter under full control of the military, he helped Teru to stand and then released a long sigh of relief. "We're gonna be okay now." He spoke to them as they looked at the men approach. He had many encounters with soldiers, and his perspective of them was as low as hell at this point, but it was still safer to be around a group of well trained individuals, it had more benefits than setbacks. "Damn.. you're one lucky kid." The voice in his head spoke up, "I was so close though, right, you were about to accept my offer weren't you?." Ravana who had remained somewhat silent the whole day laughed. The moment he had been in a pinch she had asked for control over his body, he had declined obviously, but the problem is that she wanted it in the first place. Tatsumi's frown deepened even more before he angrily mumbled; "never happening" causing her to laugh at him again. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with this weak body of mine demon, yet you wanted to possess me, your words are contradictory." He hissed. "True you are Tatsumi, but I still have no interest in your current body, you are weak and lack the strength you need to traverse the skies in search of a higher meaning, the truth you so desperately seek, trust me kid, someday, you're gonna beg me to do it; one day you'll be begging me to take control of your body." She laughed again, somewhat normally though, at least in his perspective she didn't seem to intend harm. "I have looked through your memories, and it still puzzles me that you have truly come from a future of this world, you fascinate me Tatsumi." She concluded before going silent. A truck full of people in civilian clothing drove up in front of them, with the driver gesturing them to the back. "Today's your lucky day kiddos, you'll be safe with us, hop on in." Another soldier looked down at them reaching down his hand to help them up. "We definitely have luck on our side huh?" Teru asked, smiling weakly. "Things can only get better from here on, so long as we're with the military." "This is great, we're gonna be safe now, right?" Mai laughed, lightening their mood even more as she placed her hands on Tatsumi and Yukiyo's shoulders, but only to have that mood drop upon seeing the refugees; instead of taking the soldier's hand, Tatsumi climbed up, then turned around helping the rest of them but only after looking around at the people inside of the truck "They're all defeated souls." Tatsumi quietly commented, looking at the people who who really did look void of any hope of life, it made sense though, the horrors they must have seen and endured. "Something is wrong here, you should leave the first chance you get." Ravana instantly warned him, clear and audible, causing him to even look over his shoulder before recognising the voice actually came from his head. Taking in consideration the fact that she had been helping before, then thinking twice because of what she was, he finally decided to take her seriously, after all; this was her first time warning him, and after that she went quiet again meaning it wasn't a taunt. "Okay," he replied to the demon inside him before turning to the others. "If anyone asks, you're my little sister, something's off about these guys." He whispered in Mai's ear before turning to Teru and Yukiyo and whispering; "stay on your guard" to them. He then turned and looked at the civilians again. "I see... Ravana is right, there isn't a single guy in here, women and girls only, are these dudes even soldiers?" He began questioning the validity of the men guarding them while looking at the uniformed man that was sporting a grenade launcher, he sighed grasping the katana and staying on his guard as he had been told to. "Lady, weren't any of the men from your town saved?" Yukiyo asked the dirty woman closest to her, but when the woman looked at her nodding a quick "no" and breaking eye contact. She frowned, something was definitely up. "Hey kid, you weren't actually gonna fight those things with a sword, were you?" The guard asked, grinning at Tatsumi. "Katana." Tatsumi mumbled in reply, keeping his gaze on the people who were all looking at him. "How come I only see women and girls, what happened to all the guys?" He asked, pointing daggers at the man, and caught off guard by the sudden question the man then chose to completely ignore Tatsumi. "Where exactly are you taking us?" Mai asked, following up from the hint Tatsumi had given, but the man only frowned at her, that's before one of the women close to Teru spoke up saying; "they told us we were going to Ramen city". This caused Teru's frown to deepen to extreme levels that Tatsumi and the others couldn't ignore. "Ramen city is westward, where the sun sets." Teru whispered to Tatsumi, and Tatsumi looked at the evening sun puzzled. They were going in the opposite direction as before, away from ramen city, and away from Ketchup Town, these men were liars. "We're not coming with you." Tatsumi spoke up again. "Whenever you stop we're parting ways, we'll make it to Ramen on our own." He finished. "Tatsumi!-" Teru started, trying to not let his friend confront people with guns so directly, but Tatsumi was pressing to continue. "No, Teru he's right." Yukiyo cut her cousin off sternly. "We are better off on our own, if we're careful we might find ourselves in a better position than these lot, this caravan is making a lot of noise." She quickly made up a valid excuse. "No good little soldiers, we're not stopping till nightfall, and that's when the creepy's really come out, as I'm sure you already know." The soldier guarding the truck of women grinned from ear to ear. "Unless you want to travel during night when you can't see s**t out here in the plains." "Wherever you stop, whenever you stop... We're leaving." Teru replied, finally seeing what everyone else saw, these men weren't soldier's at all, for all he knew they were mere thugs or a gang who had connections. "Whatever... It's your damn funeral." The soldier scoffed, turning his back and looking out on the road, grumbling like the middle-aged man he seemed to be. "When you leave, can I come with you?" A woman asked Mai secretly, and it caused Mai to look over at the others who had heard. If ever there was a doubt, that lady had just confirmed their suspicions, without a doubt those guys weren't soldiers, Mai nodded yes to the woman while the guard wasn't looking, of course Tatsumi was in objection to this, he wasn't going to settle in some colony of useless people like before, everyone he knew and had survived with in his last life were warriors in their own fields, while Teru had dies before the first wave, Yukiyo had become adept at ranged fighting and crafting all sorts of interesting gadgets, the art of creation flowed within her, she'd be an asset, while Mai was something of a secret weapon until she had given her life to save his own, she was their medic and scout, she had a good nose for resources and could always determine where was best for them to go with almost a hundred percent accuracy. The small caravan of military vehicles kept a constant speed, rolling lover until late evening when they finally started to slow down. "Let's get ready." Tatsumi announced, standing and picking up his bag, but before he took a single step there were gasps all around him, and he felt something press against the back of his neck. "What the hell is this?" He asked grinding his teeth and sneering. "You can leave little sword man, you and you're wounded pal, are free to go get yourselves killed, but the girls stay with us." he heard the man's hoarse voice behind him "I can't do that....Sir." Tatsumi replied so threateningly that the man himself felt some level of intimidation, while Tatsumi himself was feeling a strong urge to rip heads off overtake his calmness. "We don't have a problem killing guys okay, We just want the girls, kid the world's ending in bloodshed, and it's our jobs as real men to keep the population from hitting zero, aren't I right?" The man asked him while pressing the gun harder onto his neck. "So just go, I won't even shoot at you, you're free to leave, you won't survive out there either way, but if you stay here with us, you'll have a woman to yourself, or even more than one provided you do as you're told." "You're gonna die, very painfully if you don't remove that gun from my neck." Tatsumi growled as his body began to shake from the rage he could feel bubbling to the surface. "Give in to me Tatsumi, you know you want to, I can help you out in this situation no problem, you only need to say the word brat." Ravana's voice echoed seductively in Tatsumi's head as he tried to fight down the anger. "We don't have to do this, just let us go." Tatsumi released several sharp breaths trying to calm himself while speaking rationale to the man with the gun against him. "The girls stay!" The man shouted, raising the hilt of the gun and hitting Tatsumi in the back of his head intent to knock him unconscious, but after the gun collided; instead of going down, Tatsumi spun in a fit of rage, with a murderous glare in his eyes, grabbing the katana and unsheathing it in the blink of an eye. The sudden burst of an unnecessary gunshot caused the entire caravan to halt. The chilly evening breeze slowly blew at their faces, and a steady bit of blood dripping to the floor of the truck signals that something had indeed happened as he gasped and exhaled, Yukiyo and Mai's mouths hung open from shock, while Teru had widened eyes as they stared on. "You...bastard…!" "Now, look what you made me do."