May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 33: Before Leaving the City

Unaware of what her own protagonist was planning, Aila waited for the morning to come before she opened her phone to contact her friends and the people in her villa. So far, on her friends’ side, they are currently safe and are on their way to quietly separating themselves from their companions and family slowly. It was a good thing that most of them are at their respective houses where there are so few people. They have at least two days before they will leave the city for safety.

On her villa’s side, there were some incidents that happened about those who turned into zombies. But due to the preparations she made beforehand, these were quickly dealt with. Those who become zombies are either put down or placed in isolation in the area she has designated early on. At the moment, the whole community is on heightened alert and allows no one to get inside or anyone to get out until her return.

Sorting everything she needs to sort out. Aila then went down with a bag she had prepared long before. Especially the keys for the modified RV she has prepared for them to use for escape. She especially renovated the home van to be more sturdy and at least on the same level of toughness as an off-road vehicle.

She chose the biggest available recreational vehicle to accommodate all of them as much as possible. For assurance that all of them could be fit, she also had another smaller one. As the parking lot of their current home cannot accommodate it, it was temporarily parked in the mansion of his uncle Arthur. That was the first place they would be going to after they left their house to retrieve their RVs.

Hopefully, her friends’ abilities were easy to use, in their first time of use, for them to be able to store whatever things they could grab along the way. Especially Travis, who can use space to store things.

Everyone has a different duration for which their abilities will show itself. Some will immediately show its brilliance at dawn after the aurora, some might take months or godforbid years before they can be triggered into existence. There is hardly any difference in ability whether it took so short or too long to be called into existence, but it does have merit the longer it will take before it materializes.

Those who had their abilities early meant they were forerunners of development. They are first to master their abilities and get to have the biggest voice in the early days. Most of the first bases that were built were headed by them.

The survival rates of those early bloomers were not too optimistic as they were individuals who could make a difference. They are the forerunners of survival and the beacon of hope to others. This made them very popular and in demand. But all this popularity of theirs also means many of them are unable to live long for various reasons. Most common of their perishment was their due to conflicts arising in their ranks compared to the troubles of the changes in the world.

As for the latter, they are at an advantage in the accumulation of energy. Like the mutant plants and animals, they are more destructive and powerful than those that preceded them, but they are notorious for having bad control. Their abilities are far beyond their cognitive capability. Thus, resulting in many dying by their own hand the moment their powers are manifested.

But should they get in control of these aspects, they are sure to be people to be wary of making an enemy. Other than being someone who has awakened their supernatural abilities, they are more or less honed in the changed world. Unlike those who have awakened early, their methods are something people dare not to incur.

As far as Aila knows, her friends were a mix of these two types of supernaturalist. She remembers Travis and Liza were the first type, having awakened their abilities upon the dawn of the day. Space and Plant abilities from each of them respectively.

Travis’ space is quite big. From the description he told them, he estimated it to be as big as a 2 or 3 football field side by side. With that, there is no problem storing some vehicles and some materials along the way too. The downside was that it could only store non-living things and nothing else.

Liza’s plant ability, on the other hand, was a gentle one that could tame mutant plants and could stimulate growth of plants. A useful ability that has kept them fed during their wandering years in her past life. In fact, this has been a reason why they have to get by most of the time went they cannot find any resources in their scavenging. People were doing their best to get her to feed their bases.

They all thought that these two abilities were just limited to that, but it turns out they possess dual abilities. It was only that it took them some time before their other ability to awaken. A fact Aila was forever jealous of.

Was it reasonable that everyone whom you are with is supernaturalists? In fact, it shows that as time passes by, they are not just single-ability supernaturalists, they are all dual-ability supernaturalists. Aila wanted to ask the world what it meant to make her jealous of something she did not have.

But thinking about it later on, she thinks it was better that she did not have any supernatural powers. As it was obvious that the world is protective of her and has granted her some sort of lucky halo on her body (minus that one time it didn’t do her good), others could say she is simply too unreasonable to be complaining. So she learned to accept that, other than the buff given by her creation, she is pretty much better than those who are not blessed with an ability.

“Mom? Dad?” Aila called to them as she went to the living room. She could have gone to their rooms to check on them, but she felt she should not for some reason. And doing what she felt did her well, so she opted to wait for them in the living room if they were still not up.

As expected, they are not in the living room. She didn't know if it was normal as in her last life. She was not with her parents to know if they had some sort of baptismal experience that some supernaturalist has. But she is willing to wait for a whole day for them. At the moment, there is still some resemblance of normality, it was only at noon did the zombies slowly spread in each corner of the city. She estimates that the full blown outbreak will be a week later when the local authorities will have a slip up and normality will be broken.

Aila for sure knew that the zombies began existing at a little shortly after midnight. They are not yet the flesh-eating monsters that exist hours after the sun is up, so the government only treat them as rabies infected people. With that, in conclusion, they only restrained the biters and those who were bitten were treated and allowed to go about their business.

The government managed to take some control over the situation for a time, before those who were bitten showed signs of being infected of sorts by the morning. And by noon a week later, the same time she was having her sweet time in the cafe, everything became uncontrollable and chaotic. The zombies have fully evolved into the flesh-eating monsters depicted in many films and stories.

As Aila was simply at the epicenter of the outbreak, she only managed to see her friends and parents a day later at the playground where they had agreed to meet each other before her phone was sadly utterly damaged by being used and abused as she was escaping. That said, the way to the playground was absolutely tedious and hard for them all. Thankfully, all of them were able to meet with each other intact.

In lieu of the time it will take before the undead become monsters, she could wait for three days before the government is forced to close its borders to facilitate the "infections", as they call it. In this three-day grace period, they planned to make adjustments in their plan to leave the crowded city, and the rest of their time would be spent on how they would be making their way to their new home.

As she awaits her parents to emerge from their rooms, Aila takes the chance to prepare some food for them to consume. Getting her portion, she stored the remaining food in a container to be heated later. That way, her parents have no need to bother themselves to prepare their own food as they are already there.

With nothing else to do, after she was done with her breakfast, she decided to survey the community to see if there was an undead roaming around the area. Leaving a note on the refrigerator, she left with a handy knife she purchased some months ago.She had the knife under a holster she had under her skirt to avoid suspicion. With a knife in hand, she thinks it will be enough for her to protect herself against the still weak undead at the moment.

The community their house was in was not the most expensive and, as well as that, not the cheapest there is. It is a little above the average line, but affordable for those with stable incomes. Therefore, it is quite populated and with many people they should gather and miggle. The name of their community is La Villa Homes.

But as she mentioned, most people here are not the richest people and the cost of living here is not really very affordable for most, many people mostly spend their time away in their offices. Working hard to have enough funds to neutralize their expenses and to pay for the various bills that come in their way. So, in the mornings, the whole community is mostly deserted and quiet.

Though it did not stop her from seeing some friendly neighbors getting busy, some looking after their children and some busy cleaning their homes. Children were currently free as it was the weekend. They flocked to the paved roads and played to their heart's content. There was a designated playground for them, but seeing them in the road, it might be that they just like to make a change and play there. After all, being kids means everywhere is a playground, it does not matter where they are as long as they can play to their hearts' content.

It's hard to deny something their child simply wants to do. Their parents have learned to let them be as long as they do not make any big problems. On the brightside, the children were near their homes, so the parents could do some chores as they guard their child.

Most people here are relatively good and treat everyone in the community well. Even as a foreign soul, they did not show much animosity towards her. So she is particularly amiable to them.

It was no doubt a very lively scene to see what she saw. And Aila was filled with so much remorse to have destroyed this peaceful life. In just a few hours, this kind of life is impossible to have. So much so that she did her best not to look them in the eye.

She greeted some of her neighbors who gave her a good morning politely before she continued to wander around the community. Out of good intentions, she warned them against going out of their house at noon. Using the excuse that the sun is uncharacteristically harmful today as an astronomical phenomenon happening that was mentioned in the news last night.

She also advised them, if they can, they should save as much food as possible, saying that the prices of food will be higher in the next few days. If possible, they should patronize the planted fruits and veggies in the urban gardens of the community. Other than helping to lessen the, it is also healthy for the body and gain some hobby along the way.

Aila talked for a while about helping them as much as possible for the upcoming apocalypse. As for whether they heed her warning, she dares not to think about it in fear she will be swallowed by her guilt.

Minutes after she departed from where the children played, she saw her first "infected" for this morning. At the moment, the said person is only showing some rabies-like symptoms, so she cannot do anything drastic like kill them. So, calling a security guard to deal with it, she watches warily at the person. Not wanting to let it wander past her and go to where the children were.

Luckily, the security were fast in responding. One team arrived and took the person away. Mindful of being bitten as it was clear that the other was not in the right state of mind. Quickly, they used their own mobile to get the person to the nearest hospital.

“Sir, may I say a request if you wouldn’t mind?” Aila asked one of the security guards, who thanked her for her report.

“What is it, Miss?”

“I read this morning that there are plenty of people with the same symptoms as that person all over the city now. Can you strengthen the patrols and not easily allow outsiders to get inside today? I fear that if another person with those kinds of symptoms appears, those inside the community will be in danger.” Aila said as she showed them the pre-made news she and her friends made a few months ago to save as many people as possible.

They built a trusty blog that disseminates various news and various life hacks . This was their tool to relay some warnings to the paranoid people out there. Thankfully, it is quite a popular site now with a few people actually believing its contents.

The security guards’ faces were ugly as they read through the section. No doubt it has shaken him to have a need for something for the occupants here. It helps that some of these guards have some family members living here in the community.