Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Stretching out as far as the eye could see were cars bumper to bumper. Ai and Mai had made it to the highway that led south towards the military base. "Ai are you sure about this?"

"Mhm, at most we will run into some first type machina's, just stay on guard and listen for any metal clinking sounds. It will be much more audible on the road." Ai explained as she adjusted the bag on her back and began walking forward. 

Ai had no fear as she walked in between the cars. Mai who was shaking slightly continued to look left and right feeling very nervously as she watched her surroundings. This caused Ai to laugh inwardly. She remembered in her past life when she first made a trek down a highway by herself she was the same way. But highways were no place for people to be. The only cover was the cars and the sun was hot. It would make hiding in a car unbearable. With little water, no one was dumb enough to stage an ambush here. Otherwise, they were just asking to die from heat exhaustion. 

But one thing was for sure, the air in this area was very heavy with the smell of death. This was because a lot of these cars were trying to escape the first wave. They were not on the road during the earthquake. It was not until the machina showed up did people try to flee. Before they were willing to live their lives in the abandoned buildings but once the machina came they all tried to make their way to someplace safe. Where that safe haven was, Ai did not know. 

Now this same highway that should have been a means of escape turned into one giant graveyard. Ai was sure that at some point, one of the bridges for this highway must have long collapsed due to the earthquake. This was why the traffic was so backed up like this even after such an earthquake. The number of vehicles that were roadworthy was not that many, leaving the only conclusion was the first wave.

The girls continued to walk under the hot sun. They were sweating from head to toe but they had no other choice. The current situation with the new types of machina already active, Ai had to get a better supply of weapons. Only then would she feel a bit more secure. 

With the smell of death around them, the girls had masks on their faces in order to not pick up any diseases. Mai was still very nervous and with any sound she heard, the tip of her gun was instantly pointed in that direction. "Mai if you keep going on like this you will have a heart attack at such a tender age. You have yet to even reach the age of sixteen but your heart is that of an old lady." 

"Ai, don't make fun of me! I am not like you who has been through all this. Of course, this would be a scary thing for me! I mean we are surrounded by corpses all over how can it not be scary!?" Mai complained. Tears were threatening to spill out from her eyes.

"Okay! Okay! I will not tease you anymore but just so you know we will be sleeping next to these corpses tonight." Ai said, giving Mai a teasing grin.

Mai looked at Ai and really wanted to cry. But she knew that she had to overcome every obstacle that she faced in order to survive. But even still the thought of sleeping amongst corpses still scared her. Ai, let out a sigh as she walked over and wiped the tears from Mai's eyes. "Remember Mai, in the future, we will experience much worse than this. If you think sleeping next to a pile of corpses is scary what will you do when you are forced to hide in a pile of them. Some of which have their innards out on display? It might sound bad and very sick but when you are faced with many machina wanting to kill you. Sometimes the best hiding places are the most disgusting." 

Mai's whole body shivered but she understood what Ai was saying. "I will do my best to get through this..."

"You will eventually get used to it all. To be honest I was like you when I first had to venture out on my own. I did this same exact thing as we are doing now. I traveled down a highway that was just like this and even had to sleep under a pile of corpses in order to hide from any dangers at night. My trip took almost a month. My travel was slow and I felt like I was going to die many times. But after a week of dealing with such a situation, my mind grew numb to it all." Ai said with a bitter smile on her face. She let the gun in her hands hang from her neck as she stretched her hands up towards the sky, turned around, and continued to walk forward. "Life is not always pleasant but human adaptability is a strange and amazing thing. We can adapt to any situation when given time. You will discover this as time goes on. Are you not already adapted to seeing dead bodies, or killing another human? Things like this will continue to become worse. Much, much worse..." 

"I know. I know I will get used to it but is it wrong for me to be scared now?" Mai asked.

"Nope! It is perfectly normal. Plus you will need not sleep under any corpses anytime soon. We are two. We can keep guard for each other. When night falls and the air becomes cool we can use a car as a place to sleep. One with the least amount of windows... Hold on." Ai stopped talking and held her gun in her hand. She looked out in front of her, eyeing a set of cars not too far away. "Get down and quietly follow me."

***

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