The sun was about to set on the horizon, bathing the bridge where the group stood in golden, orange, and red rays. As beautiful as it was, that beauty was marred by the fact that they were under attack by a horde of the undead.
"Damn it! There's no end to these vermin!" Aurélien shouted as he decapitated a zombie with his sword. At the same time, he checked his quest status.
[Quest in Progress: Eliminate 100 undead (67/100)]
They'd been at it for some time, and Aurélien was starting to tire, feeling his ribs scream in protest. His mechadendrite supported him by sweeping zombies aside, but losing his other mechanical arm in the previous fight had reduced his combat effectiveness. He hadn't eaten, and though he could push himself further, his energy would soon run out.
"Just so you know, I'm out of nails!" Kohta shouted as he backed away from the monsters, trying to conserve his scant ammunition.
Saeko spun a perfect 360°, sending three zombies flying with powerful strikes, then looked back at Kohta. "Want to borrow this?" she offered, holding out her bokken.
"I don't do melee combat!" Kohta groaned.
"Well, you're missing out, Kohta!" Aurélien joked as he plunged his sword into a zombie's skull, then retracted it.
"Indeed—I must say I'm quite impressed!" Saeko added with a grin, blood dripping from her bokken as she charged another group of undead.
Then Shizuka screamed, "Nooo!" Aurélien turned to see Shizuka and Saya cornered by several zombies.
"Shit!" Aurélien cursed. Losing ground fast, he prepared to call in his last droid for support.
"Takagi!" Kohta yelled in desperation. Saeko glanced back and swore, too. Then a roaring buzz grew louder, drawing Aurélien's attention as Takashi and Rei swooped in on a motorcycle onto the bridge.
"Well, that's one way to make an entrance," Aurélien muttered as the bike skidded to a halt, plowing through zombies before careening off the bridge. Rei leapt with a cry, driving her makeshift spear into one zombie, then spun to knock over three more.
Takashi skidded the bike and tossed what Aurélien recognized as a pistol to Kohta. A manic grin spread across Kohta's face as he caught it and immediately fired, felling two wretched zombies in rapid succession.
Soon, every zombie in the immediate area lay motionless. Aurélien nodded in salute to Takashi. "Still in one piece, I see," he said. The young man simply nodded in return.
"Yeah—every other bridge was out of commission, so we came via this one," Takashi explained.
"Lucky you showed up," Aurélien replied. "I don't know how long we would've held out without you," he admitted, chastising himself for not noticing sooner.
"You seemed to manage just fine," Takashi observed. Aurélien laughed briefly and shrugged.
"It's getting late," Saeko said, glancing at the setting sun. "And at this rate, we won't cross the bridge until morning."
"Lady Saeko is right. We need somewhere to rest for the night," Aurélien added, urgency in his tone.
"I know a place we can stay," offered Shizuka. "My friend's apartment is just a few blocks from here," she explained, pointing down a side street.
"Your boyfriend's apartment?" Saya asked. Shizuka waved her hands, shaking her head. "Oh, no, no—my girlfriend's! She's always traveling or working, so she gave me a spare key to air it out now and then."
Instantly, the image of Shizuka in a frilly French maid outfit flitted through the young men's minds. Shaking his head to dispel the thought, Aurélien heard Takashi say he'd ride with Shizuka on the bike to scout the place.
"Saeko and I will lead and protect the rest of the group until you return," Aurélien declared. Takashi nodded gratefully, jumped onto the bike with Shizuka, and sped off in the direction the nurse had indicated.
With Saeko at the vanguard, Aurélien took the moment to turn to Rei. "You doing all right, Rei?" he asked.
"Hm? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine," Rei replied nonchalantly, though the smile on her face was tense.
"No, you're not," Aurélien said gently. "What happened when you and Takashi got separated from us?"
Rei sighed softly. "We had some close calls," she admitted.
"With the shambling corpses?" Aurélien pressed. Rei shook her head. "No—of the all-too-human variety."
"I see," Aurélien said in a grim tone. He understood that this crisis would awaken darker impulses in people, that "kill or be killed" would become their new mantra. He wondered how long it would be before he and the others faced such survivors—beyond the depraved Shido. The thought of such people crossing paths with Saeko, Rei, Shizuka, or Saya made his stomach churn. Whether it was the Magos's influence within him or something else, Aurélien felt an increasing urge to restore order to this chaos.
"Aurélien?" Rei's voice pulled him from his thoughts. He blinked and met her concerned gaze. "You all right?" she asked. "Yes, I'm fine, Lady Rei," he said with a reassuring smile, hiding the dark thoughts in his mind.
"Now that we finally have a moment to talk without prying ears," Saya chimed in, "we'd love to know how you made those strange mechanical extensions." This caught the rest of the group's attention.
Aurélien glanced at Saeko—he could confide in her, as he had before. Her open-minded nature and sense of honor meant she would take the secret to her grave. But he couldn't be so sure about the others. Not that he didn't trust them, but better safe than sorry. And it would give him an alibi if asked again later.
Finally, he decided on a half-truth. "I belong to a very ancient order of religious researchers, the Adeptus Mechanicus. We seek to elevate humanity through technology. The order possesses knowledge far beyond the modern world but refuses to share it with governments deemed too immature to use it responsibly. Sadly, I am now the last surviving member of that order," Aurélien replied. Saeko gave him a quick, curious glance but saved her questions for later, listening intently.
Having fused with the soul of a Magos Tech-Priest, Aurélien indeed considered himself part of the Mechanicus—at least a splinter branch, since he didn't agree with all their values. The organization hadn't vanished from existence; he was merely its first living member in this world.
"How were you initiated?" Saya asked, genuinely curious about this secretive scientific order.
"Sorry, but I'm forbidden to speak of it!" Aurélien said firmly. Saya bristled briefly but dropped the subject—this apocalypse had made her more mature, he saw.
Kohta asked, "You said it's a religious order—doesn't that conflict with scientific research?"
"Good question. Actually, my order worships the Machine God, also called the Omnissiah. We believe technology is a life form superior to those born of crude physical processes like biological evolution. Only a divine source could inspire the perfection of form and function found in machines. That source is the Machine God. Not a 'personal' deity as in old Abrahamic faiths, but an immanent force in the universe," Aurélien explained, lightly tracing the Omnissiah's emblem on his cane with his right index finger.
They continued discussing various ideological aspects of the Tech-Priest's faith.
Soon, the group caught up with Takashi and Shizuka, who stood beside a large vehicle. Aurélien wasn't a car expert, but his first thought was that it looked like a military truck. Kohta recognized it and shouted, "Humvee! That's the military model!"
"What kind of friend do you have, exactly?" Saya asked Shizuka, who shrugged in response.
Rei eyed the high walls with approval. "The walls are nice and tall—we should get a good night's sleep here," she declared.
"You're right, and there's a convenience store nearby if we need supplies," Takashi added, just as a sudden moan alerted him.
Outside the mansion, about a dozen zombies gathered, led by a runner making Olympic-sprinter speed.
"Crap! Here too?" Kohta groaned.
"There aren't that many. We can handle them," Saeko said confidently. Aurélien nodded, drawing his blade.
"Remember to watch each other's backs and take no risks!" Saeko warned the fighters among them.
The five of them worked quickly, clearing the yard and mansion grounds. As they dispatched the last zombie, Aurélien suddenly realized how little time had passed since the outbreak—and how swiftly they'd adapted to survive. It hadn't been long at all.
As Shizuka unlocked the front door and everyone filed inside with the lights on, Aurélien stole one last glance outside. All they could do now was rest, recuperate, and await the night. A lone droid took up position on the roof, standing guard like a faithful sentinel.