Ito Ai: A New Dawn

Ai and Mai successfully entered the forest and were slowly progressing to the northwest side of the forest. They stuck close to the dense trees and brush, never taking their eyes off the area ahead. Ai seemed to have caught something out of the corner of her eye so she waved to Mai and gave a few hand signals. The two girls quickly ducked into some brush and laid flat on their stomachs not even willing to breathe. As they laid there quietly, the sound of a rustling could be heard as whatever it was grew closer. 

The two girls stayed as quiet as possible even slowing their breathing down. Ai watched area where the sound was coming from very carefully. But as she did a foul stench began to fill her nose. It was not just any stench but one that she had smelt many times in this life and her past life. It was the smell of a rotting corpse. Ai slowly moved closer to where Mai was being ever so careful. She leaned in and whispered into Mai's ear causing Mai's eyes to open wide in horror. 

She was so scared she almost yelled out causing her to have to cover her own mouth. As she did the thing that was rustling in the bushes finally made its way into view. But it was not what Ai was expecting, it was a type one machina that came out from the brush and stopped in its tracks before it scanned the area. Mai and Ai held their breath hoping the thing would quickly leave but after one popped out, a second and a third also popped out. They each scanned their surroundings causing shivers to run up the girl's spines as the little circular lights on the face of one of the machina looked right at them. As it did the other two also turned and looked in their direction. 

Ai, knowing they were now caught quickly tapped Mai, made a few hand signals and the two readied their weapons. Her orders were simple, 'shoot to kill'.

The two girls aimed at the machina and pulled their triggers. The silencer on their weapons made muffled sounds as the machinas in front of them were riddled with bullets. "Ai quick into the trees!" When she saw all three machina fall, Ai pulled on Mai to stand up with her. They had to get off the ground or else they might be easily discovered. But it was already too late. The thing Ai was not wanting to run into showed up. A bear, three times the size of Ai herself came out of the bushes, skin and rotting flesh was hanging off its exposed bones and muscles. 

A radioactive mutant. Normally only found in the highly radioactive zones, but sometimes they ventured out beyond those areas. One would very rarely run into them if you did not go near the radioactive zones. They were so rare that Ai had never even thought to mention them. Even in her past life, she had only run into five of these things. The thing about these things was that they were extremely hard to kill. When you saw one it was better to run than to fight it if possible. Because unless you completely burnt it to ash it would still be alive even if you cut off its head or smashed its brain. To her knowledge, she had never heard of any research being done on them, mainly because everything about them was dangerous. 

"Ai what do we do?" Mai asked, almost hurling up what she had eaten earlier due to the found smell coming from the bear. 

"We run!" Ai said as she grabbed Mai's hand to turn and run in the other direction but as she did she stopped her feet because, in front of her, there were five more first type machina. She really couldn't help but curse! "Fuck! Fine if you want to try to kill me let's fucking fight it out!" 

Ai's shout caused the mutant bear behind them to roar in anger. But Ai could care less about the bear and worried more about the machina since they were quicker. With not many options, Ai could only try to run deeper into the woods. She fired at the machina blowing off one of the legs on one of them as she pulled Mai along with her. "Just shoot at will, as of now we are in deep shit so do not worry about notifying those men. Better yet, it would be better if we did, maybe we can use them as shields." 

An idea flashed into Mai's mind as she changed course again to run towards the northwest. Since they wanted to watch her base then why not use them as bait to escape their situation. "Ignore the bear, Mai, and shoot the machina. They are the fastest."

Mai nodded and with her free hand, fired at the machina behind her blindly. Ai was doing the same. They could not stop to aim correctly so they would only spray the area. Luckily this seemed to work as two of the five had already been crippled and fell to the ground, but sadly, they could not finish them off. 

Branches and thorns tore at their exposed skin as they rushed through the forest. The two girls ignored the stinging pain they felt in their legs and arms and continued on, not daring to stop, not even for a second. "Ai up ahead!" Mai yelled as she spotted a man with a gun. 

Ai's eyes flashed and a sly smile appeared on her lips as she yelled out: "Sir quickly help! A bear is chasing us!"

***

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