A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Michalina looked towards the door through which her brother disappeared with barely concealed concern on her face, as she looked towards his brother's so-called fellow Apostles who were busy gossiping about mundane things without a care of the world she balled her fists hard.

'Family, yeah right the duo has yet to show any concern over my brother, and are now gossiping like some bored housewives, ugh this idiots dragging my poor brother into their mess and not at all sympathetic to him.'

Her musing was cut short when she felt someone snapping their fingers in front of her eyes and as she came back to her senses she heard Xuelong speak in an amused tone, "Did you come back to your senses? I hope you were not thinking something bad about us with the amount of ill intent you were exuding, people tend to die when they focus their ill intent on us and I would hate to inform of your accidental demise to Ryan."

Michalina quickly raised her hand in surrender as she spoke with a slight smile on her face, "I humbly apologize Your Holiness, as it seems that my mind had wandered off to some unpleasant memories, I did not mean to disrespect you."

Xuelong simply turned her head towards the building with a bored look on her face head as she spoke with a drawl, "How cute."

Ylerias meanwhile simply rolled her eyes before she spoke, "I do not mean to be too nosy or rude but there is a group claiming Ryan as their son and Ryan did not seem to be too comfortable to be in their presence."

Michalina was silent for a moment contemplating whether or not to reply before she spoke with a sigh, "They are really his birth parents, parents who neglected him treated him, no matter hard he tried he was always their afterthought, his blood-related sisters used him as a scapegoat and now after he had cut ties with them they are trying to mend the bridges."

Xuelong narrowed her eyes as she spoke, "So they are opportunistic?"

As Michalina nodded in confirmation as Xuelong continued, "Then what is your relation with him."

"In a sense, we are both orphans with mine dying when I was a very young child and after that, we were adopted by the same person."

Xuelong gave a nod as she spoke, "I see as for his previous family I brought them with me as such they are my responsibility and if they pester Ryan too much just say the word and I will personally through them out."

Michalina simply gave a small bow to her but before she could speak the window at the side disappeared and then Ryan climbed out through.

As he stepped outside he took a deep breath before steadying himself with the help of his crutch, but he did not have to wait too long as Michalina was by his side supporting him as he stood.

"Did you manage to accomplish your work?"

Ryan looked towards Ylerias as he spoke with a nod, "Yes I did."

But Michalina's mind was moving towards another direction she had immediately noticed the slightly haggard look on Ryan's face as she spoke, "Brother are you alright? You look extremely unwell do you need to lie down?"

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "No sister I am fine and I want to finish with the second one as soon as possible."

Michalina glared at him as she spoke, "No brother you are not fine at all, tell me what happened inside there."

As Michalina spoke Ylerias chimed in, "Yes brother Ryan, I heard your gunfire and I was worried for you."

Michalina's head swivelled towards Ylerias as Xuelong chimed in, "Was there any kind of creature inside the building."

But, before Ryan could speak Michalina spoke with disbelief, "You could hear him."

Xuelong gained a look that seemed that she was deeply insulted by Michalina's words as she spoke, "Of course I could hear him as both Ylerias and I have better hearing than a human."

Michalina brows twitched upon hearing about that as Ylerias continued to speak, "We also heard you vomited all of a sudden, are you really well."

All thoughts of anger vanished from Michalina as she looked over Ryan with a look of concern as he began to speak with a sigh, "It was nothing there was barely any light and when I stepped inside the room I heard a wail and without looking properly I fired my gun killing the reason for the wailing, which turned out to be a baby, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an undead baby, I was already feeling a bit nauseated and the thought I might have killed a living baby caused me to vomit."

Michalina simply patted him on his back as she spoke, "You are not alright Ryan we should postpone your quest for a moment."

Only for Ryuu to shake his head as he spoke, "No, I do not want to waste time with the easier ones too much, the third and fourth would take lots of time, but if possible I would like some water."

"You did not bring your canteen."

A sheepish look passed through his face as Ryan spoke, "I left it behind inside the car."

Michalina took her canteen before handing it to Ryaan as she spoke, "Here, have some water from my canteen."

The group began to slowly make their way towards the second position as Ryan drank from the canteen before handing it back to Michalina.

"So, what was the hidden stash that you had to find?"

Ryan cast a glance towards Ylerias before he pulled out a piece of paper from his inventory before handing it to her.

The trio accompanying him closely looked at the piece of paper that Ryan handed them as they looked at it with intense scrutiny.

A few moments later Michalina spoke with a frown, "This looks like a part of some kind of picture that has been torn from a much larger piece do you have any idea what it is?"

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "No I do not, as the part of the picture I have, shows the blue sky so it can be anything, but referring to a piece of paper that was torn out of a larger picture as a hidden stash is too much."

A silence descended between them as they reached their second destination when all of a sudden Ryan collapsed on the ground breathing heavily.

"Brother let us leave you have done enough, for now, a bit of rest would do wonders to you."

Ryan shook his head as he spoke, "No, I set a goal and I will complete it no matter what."

Michalina growled as she spoke, "You and your stubborn pride, here climb on my back I will carry you."

Ryan let out a tired chuckle as he spoke, "Sorry big sis but I might end up vomiting all over you as such I would like to pass."

Michalina looked ready to protest only to be stopped by Ryan who spoke with a sigh, "Sorry sister but please let me finish it and the faster I deal with it the quicker I can take some much-needed rest."

Michalina simply sighed as she helped Ryan back to his feet before she used her radio to contact Angela and bring the car closer towards their second destination.

Unlike the previous house, this one occupied a much larger space though the house itself was only a storey high.

As such Ryan could not help but exclaim out loud, "What a waste of space."

Michalina simply snorted as she spoke, "If you have the money you can even get a toilet made out of solid gold, a bit of land is nothing to the rich."

Ryan simply scowled as another subordinate of Ylerias approached them, who promptly kneeled as she spoke, "Your Holiness we did not detect any living creature near the house but we detected a few movements inside the house, but because of various reasons we are unsure of the exact number."

Ylerias gave a nod as her subordinate left promptly, while Ryan scowled as he spoke, "So we have an undead problem.", he then turned towards Ylerias as he spoke, "I have a small question, how did your subordinate detect living beings, they could be hiding."

"Well, we have spells that can detect the life force of the living as such when it was used by my people they detected that there was no living in the immediate vicinity but unfortunately the spell does not work on the undead."

"I see."

"So, how we should proceed Ryan."

Ryan frowned at that as he spoke, "Unlike the previous one, this one has not suffered too much damage and is only a single storey building as such we can easily enter this place, I want Xuelong in the front followed by Michalina and Ylerias bringing the rear."

Michalina was glad at the arrangement since from the words and action of Ryan's fellow Apostle's they did not seem to care too much about him as such being close to him would enable her to help him.

Xuelong taking charge slowly opened the door as the peered inside the room, the stench of death and decay hit their nose making Ryan gag a bit.

'Ugh this house smells even worse than the previous one, is it because of undead present inside, must be but that also means that their number would be a large one, what a nuisance.'

They walked through the narrow hallway with Xuelong taking the lead, as the floor creaked under their boots Ryan winced, 'A few months has passed yet these uninhabited buildings now resemble haunted house from some horror movie, a haunted house that has been uninhabited for centuries.'

When they neared the end of the hallway a hand suddenly erupted as it tried to grab Xuelong who casually caught it dragging the creature out before punching it hard enough to destroy its head completely, and thus effectively killing it.

A second one appeared but the Ryan shot it and killed it before he stepped into the room, while keeping a vigilant eye on the surrounding, the windows were covered with thick drapes preventing the light from entering but the torches lit the room as if it was flooded with daylight, a quick check later it was deemed to be safe as there were no other danger in that room, but also the search area had decreased as well.

Xuelong looked at the area with a bored look on her face as she spoke, "I have to learn the 'Detect Undead' spell soon."

Ylerias nodded as she spoke, "Me too, the undead have the largest population currently we have to learn it as fast possible otherwise the last thing we want is getting swarmed by the undead before we could even react."

While they discussed amongst themselves their future Ryan meanwhile had a deep frown on his face as they managed to reach the centre of the house.

Xuelong looked around the house before she spoke with a haughty sniff, "I have no idea on how you design your houses but if this is the prime example then I have to say you fail considerably."

Ryan simply spared a glance towards her as he spoke, "I might not have any idea about designing a house but even I have to say this is design very poorly."

Michalina gave a nod in support before she spoke, "Yes however designed is either a complete idiot or mad it is designed rather poorly.", she then looked at Ryan as she spoke with a frown, "Is there something wrong brother you looked troubled."

Ryan looked back at her before he spoke with a sigh, "I can feel the location of the stash and I believe it is directly under us."

Ylerias frowned as she spoke, "Are you sure."

Her question was answered with a nod as Ryan continued, "So now we have to find a basement door."

With that, the group simply separated from each other trying to find the door only for Xuelong to shout out in frustration after near about an hour later, "Where is the God-forsaken freaking door?"

Even after all their attempts, they had yet to find the door and their patients were running out first as such Ylerias looked towards Ryan as she spoke, "Can you destroy the floor and create a path?"

Ryann simply nodded before he placed his hand on the floor which quickly started to disappear and they soon found themselves a nice hole and the basement exposed to them.

Ryan looked at the depth before he spoke with a sigh, "It is a long way down."