"Why are you giving us that look?" June interrogated them, firing back at the other survivor as she accused them, and she was visibly taken aback by being called out for her attitude.
"We're not interested in teaming up with any of you."
"Yes, don't act as if you three hadn't been too exposed to those creatures either."
Rissa confidently supported the idea of being possibly infected at this point, and not one of them was an exception.
June walked out to end the conversation, making things clear from the start that they had no intention of adding more people to their group.
'Because they mentioned all that, I feel... Targeted.' Blessy tilted her head.
"Give them a break, Riss." the male muttered under his breath, slowly turning to his right with his cheek brushing past the chapped, pouting lips of the pixie-haired female seated beside him. Luckily, Rissa distanced herself from him without noticing the accidental touch between her lips and his cheeks. 'Has the outbreak affected their self-care badly?'
He felt the need to prioritize his younger friends even more with that thought in mind, including the girls.
'Don't girls usually complain about not getting a chance to perform some sort of skin care routine in times like this?' and yet, neither of the two females that they have been travelling around with complained about such a thing.
Little Lamb, the blonde-haired musician, snapped her finger in front of the boy who was caught up in his thoughts.
"Carrot-head might melt from those two brown eyes of yours staring at her, Mr. Asher." Little Lamb spoke formally to Ace, who was still deep in his thoughts when observing the 21-year-old female named Riell Rossa. "Let him be!"
Shawn laughed at the sight of them, a love triangle seemed to have begun now.
"I still find the timing so dire." one of them whispered.
The fire was almost running out unlike the group of survivors whose energy had been fueled up again due to the sudden arrival of new survivors, the six members of the first surviving team left the three alone, namely, Little Lamb with the gold blonde-hair and an electric guitar, Sissy with the sharp-edged huge pair of scissors, and Judy as the only male person.
'The night is getting deeper...' Little Lamb held onto her electric guitar as it was placed sideways on the back of her neck, right on top of her shoulder, and the golden blonde-haired femina sat anxiously in the driving seat of their monster truck.
"Those sisters are the issue here." Judy's head popped up, frightening the other survivor.
"Ow!" Judy whimpered.
Sissy observed the six survivors as their teams were divided for no particular reason, leaving them a chance to come up with a strategy to earn the trust of the six or...
"We'll end up like the love of my life~" she spoke with a bitter tone in her voice.
"I suspect something from those three, this is not just my instincts." Rissa violently nodded after hearing her younger sister warn them about the new arrivals.
"My guts tell me that these three have been in contact with that creepy old man." Blessy continued, clenching her fists from the undeniable sense of danger she felt from the effects of getting bitten.
"Aren't you just hungry?" Shawn doubted the two of them, calling them over to have dinner with the others.
"What are you guys talking about over there?" Sissy sang with her voice like they weren't planning anything against the group of survivors, dancing her way to the center of the circle where they huddled together.
"Mind your manners." Ace reminded the three newcomers as they comfortably barged into the peaceful survival of the six fellow young adults.
"I may or may not want to at least give them a chance." Shawn commented as he leaned back, relying on his arms for support and getting too close for comfort, almost placing his hand over Blessy's shoulder, and their skin touching.
'These things are happening too often lately...'
Rissa noticed the endless physical contact going on in the group. 'Feels like we are getting closer somehow.' she thought, nudging her sister as the group of male friends glanced at the three new arrivals. 'There goes that trail again.'
Blessy's mind wandered off as her eyes saw a familiar-looking trail. She figured that Little Lamb and her comrades were somehow involved with the mysterious crawling old man.
"Is that so?" Ace replied as he intently looked at Blessy, not realizing that the girl had never said anything. "You were scratched, right?" she remembered.
The six of them continued to huddle in a circle, excluding Little Lamb, Sissy, and Judy from any of their further discussions to avoid having any leak of information, leading to a possible threat and risk their lives. "Take a seat." the leader-like member of the group advised his teammates to rest and not exhaust themselves further by staying on their feet.
"I can't help but believe those three are one of our enemies."
"Any proof?" Shawn still hoped that the three new survivors wouldn't turn out to be what they were wary of. "I can see traces of that man on those three." she looked at the other group of survivors while telling her teammates how her vision had become clearer and somehow completely different, as if she could use her eyes like they were her ears and nose.
She could also sense danger coming from them, especially the only male in the group. Blessy attempted to examine them from yards away, her sight seemingly zoomed in when doing this and her ears could catch a glimpse of their whispers.
"Woah! Is this what it means to use them?" her eyes turned jet black with a light luminating pink punch color. Blessy's hair began to turn cherry red from a kind of jam shade of red, along with the magenta highlights, into a wine-like shade of violet.
"Cool upgrade, Bliss." Ace complimented her as their eyes shifted to his appearance.
"You're the one talking."
From the scratches, exposure, and bites that each member of the group attained throughout their journey, travelling from the mall and parking lot, coneflower field and underground chrysalis, the waterpark, the long road, and the tunnel toward their objective to enter the town of Fes, the group began to see how far they have come.
"I guess we're lucky enough to have gotten these abilities. For the price of losing our humanity." the chestnut brown-haired eldest male stated.
Blessy began to think of how this phenomenon was possible.
'This means that it has something to do with our blood type.' she took note of the findings in her mind. At the same time, Ace happened to hear Blessy's private thoughts, which made him look at her for a moment before he noticed the others looking back at him.
"What? Did something change again?" his friends witness yet another upgrade occur all of a sudden. "Yes, your brown hair has gone darker and your eyes..." Mike examined his older comrade's newly upgraded features.
'His chestnut brown hair color turned cinnamon. Eyes that possessed a dark shade of clouds became cedar.' described the carrot-haired female.
"It's glowing." Rissa kneeled closer to the other individual, ignoring her invasion of his bubble, just to get a closer look at the man she had grown to rely on.
"Distance, Riell Rossa." her younger sister eyed her.
"Apologies, Mr. Asher." she giggled like a child, finding it intriguing to see two of their teammates transform beyond humanity.
"Sorry to break your bond, but are none of you sleepy?" Judy approached the group as he was chosen the least threatening among the three of them. 'Well, I am the leader and they're only the sidekicks.' he concluded in his thoughts.
Mike and June took no notice of him while Blessy, Ace, Shawn, and Rissa had their eyes glaring at the newcomer for ruining their moment. "In case you can't read the room, it's a no." Mike kindly turned him away as they continued their conversation.
'I knew this would happen.' Judy couldn't help but show a look of scorn in his eyes, sending a signal to Sissy and Little Lamb. "Proceed to Plan C now." he heard the blonde-haired femina speak from the radio.
"What was Plan C again? And have we even tried Plan B?"
Sissy was dumbfounded on the other end of the gadget, they both bickered noisily that the group of six happened to catch a glimpse of the moment.
"This is Plan B!!" shouted Little Lamb.
Their goal in Plan A was to engage contact with survivors they had come across, which was a success, with Ace being one of those survivors. After that, the three new arrivals would immediately have to report it to their assigned scientist.
With the highly guarded walls of the six, though, they would likely fail to accomplish their mission overnight. "Will you keep it down? You'll end up revealing our plans to those morons!!"
Little Lamb violently pulled Sissy's long straight and shiny black hair, taping the younger one's mouth shut to avoid any more mishaps in their plans.
"Stay there until the sun comes." her eyes gazed at Sissy like a dagger, meanwhile, the younger femina could only obey lest they be sent back and become the very thing they aim to turn the six survivors into. "We can't risk getting injected."
'Amateurs.' Judy felt ashamed to have them as teammates.
He placed his hands behind himself, showcasing the unstained white uniform of his, and smiled at them like he had no ill plan in his sleeves against the other group of survivors.
"Excuse me for being rude, but can I use your tent to sleep?"
Pretending to be heading to bed to plot them into going to sleep as well, his fellow new arrivals in the blue monster truck listened to the conversation on the radio in their vehicle.
"Get ready for the last option." Little Lamb commenced.
"You can use mine, I don't sleep much." Blessy suggested, giving way for the others to get some rest. "Then that has left me without a place to sleep now... Got any solution for that?" Rissa threw down her feather-braided long hair behind, ruining the short pixie cut she had in front.
The six of them laughed simultaneously.
'This'll be harder than we originally expected.' turning his head to them, Judy made eye contact with his so-called sidekicks.
============
The three new arrivals failed to accomplish their mission in a single night, to bring in a specific target to whomever they are currently working for, in order to keep their humanity intact.
"We need a new plan. All the things we've prepared before initiating to make contact with them have failed to be functional." Judy threw his hands in the air.
Sissy sat on top of the vehicle, sharpening her pair of scissors. "We're only left with one choice then." Little Lamb flung the door open after turning down the radio that had nothing playing.
"I cannot lose to him." she grew furious at the sight.
'Called it.' Rissa and Ace were staying up on guard around the tent close to the new arrivals, leaving Blessy as she roamed carefully around the area to keep note of the possible routes they could take. The rest of the group of survivors lay in the tent, playing a game of staring contest as they prevented themselves from falling into slumber.
"This feels like a game of last one to fall asleep." it was indeed yet another night, whereas they were all wide awake.
"We don't get a moment of sleep given the fact that we have strangers around." June's eyes were starting to tire, his eyelids were getting stiff and dry out the cornea inside of it.
"On the contrary, we have the upper hand here." Shawn mentioned, the six of them knew that they had two members in the team who had become extraordinary beings now.
'That gives us an advantage.' and this was something that they could never let anyone else find out.
"Speaking about that, what do you think Ace got?" Mike wondered about, brainstorming with two of his comrades inside the tent with him as he sat with one leg on top of the other, placing his hands behind him to support his positioning.
"It would be cool if he had telepathic abilities to help us distinguish who to actually trust here." June laughed. "What is so funny about what I said?"
Shawn was offended by the reaction, not realizing that June thought he was joking, he stared at him until he finished laughing so hard, meanwhile, Mike was staring at the top of the tent, deep in his thoughts.
'I hope that my family is doing well...' he felt his heart sink as he thought of his family's condition out of the blue.
"Shawn, you have no need of superpowers to find that out." June made a point that caught Blessy's attention. She arrived back at the campsite just in time to give them a report about their surroundings.
"Mike, are you okay?" Shawn rolled his eyes at June for laughing, finally realizing what the laugh was for. "I am worried." the silver-haired male friend of theirs opened up once more about his concerns, still bothered by the well-being of others.
"I'm sure that we can all hope that our families are as fortunate as us." the fact that they managed to survive for this long is rather lucky and fated. "I can confidently say that I might actually have telepathic abilities." Ace entered the tent halfway.
"How so?" Rissa curiously asked how the male with the scratch figured it out.
"I heard your sister without a word leaving her mouth when we were around the campfire earlier." was his short explanation.
"Then tell me what I'm thinking about right now." Rissa lay on one of the comforters, not giving a care in the world about how loud her voice was. "Keep it down, sis. And you, don't use that on me." Ace respected her for making it clear.
"Now, for us to stay wide awake, for at least a couple more hours..." Blessy continued, she suggested that they all have a snack break because when there are snacks around, there's more room for conversations, and it'll lessen the urge to sleep.
The night passed quite slowly than usual. The group of survivors was finally getting closer to their next destination, all they needed now was a vehicle.
"Now, how do we get there before the festival?" Shawn thought. "Do we have to make it there for the festival?" Rissa complained as she packed up the tents they used.
All eyes fell on her with the tone of voice she used to mention that subject.
"What a pleasant surprise!" Little Lamb approached the six survivors with her two teammates still in the monster truck. "What do you mean by that?" Ace crossed his arms over his chest, curious as to why his ex-girlfriend found it pleasant to hear.
"Well, we plan on heading back there if you guys would like to come with." she suggested.
'How do I read her mind?'
"Quit staring at me, will you?" the blonde-haired femina raised an eyebrow at him, finding it weird that he was seemingly too focused on her.
'I have to figure this out before they try to pull anything.' he turned his back against her and helped Rissa, who was struggling to tidy up the tents.
"How will you guys carry all that crap anyway? Without a vehicle." Little Lamb added. Her eyes were judging them so heavily that Shawn could now tell why they wanted to maintain distance.
"Stubborn, that's what they are." Judy couldn't believe that they were failing their mission. 'The only mission we have left.' he was trying to come up with a plan, unlike his two teammates, who were practically enjoying their free time outside of the laboratory after being sent to find survivors who possess immunity from the infection.
"But if I am going to make this work, I have to do this alone." the success rate of his plans would only increase if the two girls were to back out, however...
'I can't ask them to go back, they'll retort.' he had to think of a way to separate himself from them without compromising their freedom, as it would affect his as well.
Rissa and Ace were paired up again, and they decided to take their time for the rest of the week before officially leaving to start traveling on the way to the town of Fes.
"The festival is not happening till three weeks from now."
Judy came by without his sidekicks in sight, and Shawn and June didn't notice his presence until Blessy asked to confirm about the festival. "What is the festival about?" she came carrying a load of equipment that she had gathered from a nearby warehouse.
"The festival is to celebrate survival in this infected country and the large number of survivors who have found hope when more and more people have been discovered alive since the outbreak." Judy explained.
They had to build a manmade training base in order for the entire group to properly defend themselves. Rissa was assigned to lead them in terms of strength and firmness, while Blessy volunteered to handle their stealth.
"You know what, you should also include in your lessons on how to move as light as a feather." Judy read the situation and openly gave them advice, knowing that they'll definitely need it the most.
His statement, however, reminded the two other males of a friend they also longed to see alive and healthy, another friend whom they hadn't seen for a while, even before the outbreak occurred. "Do you think he's okay?" June couldn't answer Shawn.
Mike happened to overhear their conversation, and Judy was fortunately there to answer some of their questions. "By the way..."
Blessy could instantly tell what was going on in their minds as she, too, was curious. "Why did these two overreact when they saw you for the first time? Or was it not the first time?" she innocently asked them.
"That's not something we can talk about." June ended the conversation, leaving Shawn and Mike with Blessy, who was clueless as to why he reacted that way. Judy thought of something, and that this could become the foundation of his successful plan.
A light bulb lit on his head as he excused himself with satisfaction.