Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 202: A New Journey

1:00 pm, Afternoon.

"Hum..! Hum..!" Leo was humming, while lying down, but he was clearly moving from place to place because the surroundings around him is moving pass him.

The reason for this, is because he's lying on the back of the [Tyranosaurus] he caught yesterday, and the mutant beast is swimming through the wide river.

And the smaller mutated beast in the waters would always make way for Leo's pet, like it was the king of the whole river.

Leo is currently crossing the two hundred meter wide river to reach the shore of the other city, called Laoag City, the capital city of the State of Ilocos Norte.

A couple of moments later, Tyrano finally arrived at the other side of the river.

Leo immediately got up and jumped off of his back and landed on the muddy ground.

"Thanks, you can go rest for a bit" Leo said as he patted the mutant turtle, turtle glowed softly before it disappeared and was sent back to Leo's own [Beast Sanctuary].

Leo then burst forward as he ran upwards through the embankment wall on the side of the river that prevents flooding.

*Swoosh!* *Thump!*

Leo landed on a railing, then went over and jumped towards the nearest building, which was once a school for students, now turned into a mess with overgrown weeds and trash scattered everywhere!

"W-wow! This place...what a freaking mess it had become" Leo was startled at the sight of the former city before him.

The once great city had become a mess, with a lot of buildings were destroyed, abandoned tanks, military trucks, civilian vehicles, roaming zombies, rotten corpses, and trash scattered everywhere that his eyes could see.

"It seems they were at least prepared that the army was once even here" Leo muttered as he jumped down on the ground, and as he patted an abandoned a FNSS ACV-15 military tank, then he shamelessly stored it inside his [Inventory]...for future use.

Leo checked his [Map] again, but never saw any survivors within the city, but he did notice there are a few survivors at the villages at the city outskirts.

"Those places are really far from here" Leo muttered, before closing the [Map] by swiping it to the side.

Leo started walking around the former city, he went to the supermarkets, took all the remaining food and water inside, taking clothes from the clothing store, furniture like beds, pillows, blankets, hygienic products.

He took all of them, and to Leo's surprise, there's still a lot of food that was left behind, and then he went to a popular jewelry store, and noticed that there are still a lot of jewelry left.

"I think they were at least sensible enough to prioritize food over useless wealth during the initial pandemonium" Leo mumbled as he started looking around the jewelry store.

Currently, this is probably the only city right now that only had over a thousand zombies left remaining. After all, the [Darkseeker] took almost all of the available zombies here when they attacked San Nicolas City two days ago.

"If I have eyes that could see ghosts right now, then this city would be full of it" just thinking about an entire city full of ghosts made Leo shiver in fright that he even turned his head quickly from side to side.

Leo then just continued to look around, and in one corner, he spotted two identical rings sitting in the corner of jewelry case drawer.

He went over and took them into his hands. It was just two simple identical golden rings.

"Hmm...I wanted the three of us to have matching rings, but it seems it won't be possible" Leo smiled helplessly, but he still threw the rings inside his [Inventory] as he plans to give them to Amanda and Michelle when he goes back.

Then he threw another rings, bracelets and necklaces inside, some watches, even the military vehicles that still works that he saw sitting on the streets wasn't spared from his "thieving" hands!

He was that freaking good at it...looting.

He was like some kind of a weak RPG character that was making a living from the scraps left behind by the more powerful players!

"Well..I guess I'm done here" Leo said after going around the city looting things for almost three hours long.

Leo then summoned one of his tamed beasts.

*ROAR!*

A black rift appeared beside Leo, as a Demonic Lion stepped out of it. It was Shade, the alpha male of the pride of demonic lions back at Manchester.

Leo immediately on its back, and he patted the side of Shade's neck and said, "Come on, let's go!"

Then the Demonic Lion dashed forward, jumping over the cars, abandoned on the road. It just ran forward, moving through the national road of the country as they headed towards the next neighboring town.

*****

"Shush, we don't want the zombies hearing us" a teenage boy gestured at the two kids, a boy and a girl behind him to be quiet, and the two are around nine or ten years old, while the teenage boy is probably around sixteen or seventeen.

All three of them are dressed in ragged clothing, and the teenager is armed with a curved machete, while the other two kids are carrying backpacks of their own, and each a little knife strapped on their waist.

The two of them meekly nodded towards him.

The three of them are currently hiding inside an apartment in a two story apartment building, and they peered out of the window from the second floor, as they warily watch the roaming zombies outside.

This is their hiding place, because it has fenced around the property where it could at least keep the normal zombies from reaching them, and their only worries are the mutated monsters like zombies and animals from finding them.

And this is the reason why they spread waste oil at the surroundings of the property, to at least disrupt their senses from smelling them.

The building is surrounded by farmland from three directions, while the front is facing the highway network of the country..

"Come on, let's eat, but let's try to be quiet as possible okay?" the teenager smilingly said to them.

"Okay, Dan" the girl nodded towards him, while the boy started taking out things from his backpack, like canned meat, bottle of water, and plastic utensils, as he spread them on the floor in front of them.

The three of them then started eating quietly. After all, the zombies have pretty sensitive ears, that even the smallest sound would attract them.

*Rumble* *Rumble* *Rumble*

Suddenly, a loud rumbling sounded, as the ground shook a bit, and the three of them noticed that the sound is getting nearer towards them.

So they immediately put away the food in front of them, and ran towards a nearby bedroom and hid inside.

"You guys stay here while I check it out okay?" Dan told them, and just as he was about to leave the room, a small hand suddenly grabbed his hand.

"Please just stay here and don't leave us" the girl said to him with pleading eyes.

"It's gonna be fine Mara. I'm just gonna be outside for a bit" Dan smiled at her, as he rubbed her head, before leaving the room as he closed the door behind him, but not before giving them a reminder.

"Don't open the door, unless you guys hear our secret code, okay?" he reminded them, from which the two nodded worriedly.

And so Dan, headed back to the living room cautiously as he could feel the ground beneath him shaking a bit, arriving near a window, he peeked his head out towards where the sound is coming from.

"W-what the heck is that?" Dan opened his mouth in disbelief than he even almost screamed when his eyes laid on the huge monster approaching their direction.

*Swoosh!*

The monster passed by their location, leaving a gust of wind behind it, and at the same time, it killed the zombies it passed by stomping them or biting them to pieces!

"I-its a freaking lion, and it was even colored black. How come there's a freaking lion here? We don't have any zoos around here in these parts" Dan stuttered, confused at why there's a lion around these parts.

"B-but most of all, why is there a person riding on its back? It seems that the person even saw me, because he even smiled towards my direction. Did he perhaps tame it? That would be incredible!" Dan muttered to himself as replayed what happened earlier inside his head.

*****

"Should I have stopped by and say hello in the least?" Leo muttered to himself.

"Nah, maybe not for now, but I'll make sure to say hello when I pass by here again"

And so the man and beast continued in their journey towards the direction of a secluded military base.