Fox Girl In An Apocalyptic World

Chapter 8: Squad 2 leader

Reia, hearing the voice, scrambled for her gun before pointing it in the direction it came from.

"Stay away!" Reia yelled out trying to see who it was, but because she was exhausted her vision became blurry.

"Woah it's only me, you wouldn't shoot a fellow squad leader." The man spoke and as he finished his sentence his voice suddenly could be heard from behind.

"You need to rest, don't worry I will protect you." The man spoke right next to Reia's ear and she tried to move her gun to shoot the man. However, something covered her eyes and a warm sensation washed through her body.

Reia then passed out not knowing who or what happened to her.

**

Reia laid on the floor until she suddenly shot up in a panic, grabbed the gun that was next to her and looked around for the man she heard.

Seeing that no one was in the room with her she relaxed.

'Was that just me hallucinating, I did not think I was that exhausted.' Reia knew she was pushing herself too hard as she has not been able to rest ever since she got back to base.

'That doesn't matter now, I need to get a move on and meet up with the others.' Reia went to get up from the ground but her legs were still trembling making it impossible to stand properly.

"Ah shit!" Reia sat back down as it would be suicide to walk out where the mutants were with half working legs.

'Is there anything in this room that can help me?' Reia wanted to make sure that she did not leave anything useful behind after she recovered. Reia then had another look around the room to see if there was anything she could use, but since it was an office there was hardly anything useful.

Reia, a little unsure what to do to pass the time, decided to lay down again, however, the sound of footsteps was heard just outside the door.

Reia quickly aimed down sights at the door hoping it wasn't a mutant as the sound of the footsteps sounded human-like. She also noticed her chair lock was gone meaning that it was an actual person.

The door opened and Reia was about to fire but she noticed it was a half-fox in the same uniform as her.

The man had bright red eyes alongside a red accent military uniform. He had long brown hair which was tied up with bright red streaks going through the ponytail. Another noticeable feature was that he was about 6'7" tall making him only able to just fit through the door frame. On his back were a pair of black swords and an m4 carbine each lined with red.

"Akira?" Reia lowered her gun as she recognized the man in front of her.

"Oh, you are awake, glad you decided not to shoot me." Akira let out an awkward laugh as seeing the gun in Reia's hand meant he was close to being shot on sight.

"Well, I'm basically disabled for the time being so I didn't want to kill a potential helper." Reia was prepared to kill anyone especially if they looked like they were going to take advantage of her.

'Wait, doesn't that mean he was the one to put me to sleep and scared the shit out of me.' Upon coming to this realisation Reia aimed her gun back at Akira.

"What did you do to me? That warm sensation I felt before passing out seemed like essence" Reia wanted answers as it seemed like Akira used essence to put her to sleep which would have been highly dangerous.

"No need to threaten me, all I did was put my hand on your forehead, I was about to eat a hot cup of noodles so that's probably why my hand was warm." Akira slowly inched his way closer to the office desk by the window.

"Wait really?" Reia felt a little stupid for assuming it was essence but so much had been going on that it was hard to not think the worst.

"Yes, look." Akira opened a drawer and pulled out a cup of instant noodles.

"I-" Reia had nothing to say as despite the world falling apart this man was happily eating noodles.

"Okay, whatever, if I may ask Akira, what happened to your squad." Reia knew that Akira was the leader of squad 2 which was a squad below them and on many occasions worked together.

Reia had also put down her gun, now that she knew she was safe.

Akira's face grew dark and filled with anguish at the mention of his squad which told Reia everything.

"I-i see, you don't have to talk about it." Reia knew that losing your entire squad was the equivalent of losing family, so she did not want to push the topic.

"T-thank you." Akira took a deep breath and then bit his lip in an attempt to not cry.

Giving Akira time to recompose himself, he finally spoke up again.

"Did your squad make it?" Akira sat on the desk and his rather light tone shifted to a more serious one.

"As far as I know they are all alive, but I lost contact and got separated from them." Reia explained her situation which was a lot more hopeful than Akira's.

"Let's hope they are alive." Akira leaned back looking through the blinds to check for mutants.

"Right now it's my squad's goal to make it to a haven we built outside the city so that's where I will be heading. Did you want to come along?" Reia knew that Akira had nowhere to go and although there was some conflict between their squads she wasn't going to leave him without offering.

"And to face that crazy bitch Lou? No thanks, last time I saw her she almost strangled me to death because she thought I was hitting on Kim." Akira went back to his lighter tone indicating he was feeling a bit better.

"Do you really have a choice? Or are you gonna stay here eating noodles till you are murdered by the mutants?" Reia knew it was rather easy to back Akira in a corner and although she couldn't physically do it at the moment, doing it verbally was just as effective.

"Tch." Akira turned his head away as despite what he said about Lou he really had no other choice but to join Reia if he had any hope of surviving.

"Good~, but we need to wait a bit longer as I still can really move my legs." Reia tried to move her legs, but each time ended in them cramping or a burst of pain.

"How the hell did you end up exhausting yourself so much anyway, are you not meant to be a superhuman." Akira was rather curious about what happened to Reia as she wasn't in the best condition when she came into the office.

"I had just come back from a mission before the collapse so I didn't have any time to rest." Reia thought back to the meeting with the general.

"Hope that bastard is dead." Reia thought out loud.

"Let me guess the head general of the Alteryx military." Akira was rather familiar with the human general but was still curious if it was him.

"Yes, we spoke just shortly before the collapse, so I can only assume he is the reason why this is all happening. I just hope he dies as a result of his fuckup but I wouldn't mind killing him myself." Thinking about his death had put a smile on Reia's face which creeped Akira out a little but also found it reasonable why Reia would want him dead.

'Yeah, let's not piss Reia off.' Akira was reminded once again who not to piss off.

"I wish for his death too but it sounds like your hatred is more deeply rooted than mine." Akira had also noticed the look in Reia's eyes showing pure killing intent.

"If you knew what he did, death would be an easy way out for him." Reia tightened her hand into a fist drawing a little bit of blood.

"Anyway, moving on to a lighter topic, What is the plan to get us out of here and closer to this haven." Akira did not want to dwell on the general for too long as he noticed the blood coming from Reia's hand.

"Hmm." Reia quickly calmed down and went back to her neutral and cold look.

"We need to get supplies for a couple of days before making our way to the haven as by foot it will be at least 2 days."

"I see, so it could be months till we actually even head there as we also have to fight through hordes of mutants and not to mention the massive ones roaming the city." Akira considered how slow the process would be and if they exhausted themselves too much it could lead to their death.

"I hate to think it will take that long but yes we may be stuck with each other for a while." Reia wanted to be as quick as possible but they needed to be slow and cautious.

"Oh no, my worst nightmare, being stuck with you." Akira sarcastically spoke, but Reia decided to pick up her gun again and aim it at Akira.

"Make another shitty joke and I will shock that humour out of you."