Chapter 268: Searching The Town

I looked at the Anomaly struggling in the grasp of my floating arm, watching it scratch at the gauntlet fruitlessly before I tightened my grip and crushed the creature.

I let the corpse drop on the ground before looking around the streets of the town that were now piled high with the corpses of the Anomalies we killed.

The town that had been filled with the sounds of guttural roars and battle was now completely and utterly silent.

Dan stepped up beside me, his mace and shield dripping with the blood and entrails of the Anomalies.

He looked like he was going to say something serious, only to lay his blood soaked, gauntleted hand on my shoulder and stain my shirt with the blood of those Anomalies.

"Eeeyyyy!!" I squirmed away, shooting him a glare from behind my mask as I hurriedly dusted my shoulder of the blood. "Bastard sia, you!"

He let out a laugh, probably finding amusement that he got me to slip back into my Singlish tongue before dusting at his hands.

"What? Why you so scared of some blood? Not like you never get bathed in Anomaly guts before."

"You fucker. If I wanted to be bathing in their guts, I would have done so from the start, bitch."

He chuckled again, "Aiyah, you are our fearless leader what! So must look the part!"

I scowled at him, then I remembered that I had Diana’s powers so I went ahead to exert control over the blood on my shoulder and tried to draw it out from the fabric.

Blots of it peeled away to form into a ball of red liquid hovering over my palm, removing most of the stain from my sleeve.

But since my control over it was not perfect, there were still some stubborn stains on it which I hoped would be able to wash off later.

I scowled back at Dan who was just giving me a cheeky grin in response, though obviously the both of us were just playing around like usual.

Olivia joined us and her eyes narrowed at my shoulder for a moment, her mouth opening to say something but snapped shut almost as quickly.

I guess she probably decided that it wasn’t worth berating Dan for the perceived disrespect since I knew him personally.

Instead, she looked around the streets with a hardened gaze, "The town is clear, my Lord. Though there might still be a few stragglers hiding within the buildings, they won’t be a problem for us. Should we start our search for the survivors?"

I looked around the broken streets and buildings, most of the houses here broken and crushed in some way where only a small portion of them was broken because of us.

It seemed like fights had been quite frequent around this town before we got here, though I wondered if the battles that had been raged in this town were against Anomalies or other survivors?

I nodded at them, "Let’s look around..."

Maylene hopped over to me, "There’s no need for us to be quiet, right? Since we’ve already cleared out the streets, we could just start calling out to the survivors to reveal themselves?"

I thought about it for a moment and realised that was certainly true. It wasn’t like we had to maintain our stealth here or something since we could just deal with whatever Anomaly might appear in front of us without any issues.

Thus, we started walking through the streets while calling out at the top of our voices.

"Hey!! Anyone here?! We’ve cleared out the monsters! We’re looking for survivors!"

"If there’s anyone here! Answer us!"

The town wasn’t really big to begin with, the place consisted of maybe just a few dozen residential buildings and several businesses.

At the centre of the town was a large complex which I suspect was a shopping mall considering how it was designed with the large parking lot and commercial feel to it.

Well... As much of a commercial feel it could get with its boarded up windows and makeshift walls.

It looked like someone had tried turning this place into a fortress but judging by the broken walls and shattered glass, I don’t think whoever held this place managed to defend it.

All of us looked up at the battered building that was most likely a pristine shopping destination at one point and, perhaps, a bastion of safety in another.

"I guess we don’t need to wonder where our survivors could be?" Dan suggested with a chuckle.

We did not need to say anything else as we headed towards the entrance of the building, stepping past broken fortifications that might have been set up to defend against intruders at one point.

The place was silent as we stepped up to the large entrance of the mall, the interior dark and foreboding.

"Hello!" Dan called out, his voice echoing across the mall’s interior.

We waited for a few moments but aside from the dying echoes of his voice, there were no other sounds coming from inside.

Liliac turned to me, "Maybe... They’re afraid that the Anomalies have managed to learn how to speak?"

I nodded, "Maybe. I’d be suspicious if I went for a long time only hearing Anomalies all around me and then suddenly hearing a human voice coming out of nowhere with no warning at all."

Dan grinned, "I think all the noise we made while fighting outside was indication enough though? We made quite a ruckus leh."

"They might be somewhere where they could not hear. Anyway, let’s just go in and take a look. See if we can find anyone or even any signs of someone still alive in here."

They nodded and all of us headed inside, calling out all around us to ask if there were any survivors hiding in the mall.

Our voices and footsteps echoed around the empty interior, all the Anomalies who might have been inside here having already cleared out of the mall when we were fighting the horde.

We spread ourselves out, aiming to cover more ground to search for survivors.

While we were searching for survivors, I couldn’t help but look around at the things the mall was selling.

There were a number of things that I didn’t recognise and had no idea what the purpose were, though I did pass by a boutique of some sort where the clothes looked like they came right out of a sixties or seventies movie.

Though I could see some similarities, it seems like this world had their own unique style, especially since I found that a majority of the skirts being sold in the store had pockets.

I thought about it for a moment and decided I might as well take some of them for Kris since I know he would most definitely like these.

I picked up a few of the skirts and dresses off the racks, hanging them on my arm as I gathered the clothes that I believe Kris would like.

As I was doing that though, I paused when I noticed a trail of blood leading towards the back of the store where it disappeared behind a door that had the word ’staff only’ on it.

That shouldn’t be that big of a deal but... I just realised that despite how messy the mall looked, this was the first sight of blood I’ve found inside the mall.

Even though the shops around were smashed and wrecked, there weren’t any blood splatters around like the mall itself was sacked beforehand and someone else moved in to occupy it before it got attacked again.

Curiosity got the better of me as I placed the clothes I picked up back on the racks and moved over to the door, summoning my floating arms to use them as shields in case there was something hiding behind.

I carefully opened the door with one of my floating arms and watched it creak open, waiting to see if an Anomaly would jump out.

Seeing none, I peered inside to realise it was a storage room for the clothes in the store and the blood trail continued further to the back where there was another door leading out of the store room.

I turned back and called out to my Guardians, getting them to gather with me.

None of them said anything when they saw the blood trail on the floor.

We followed it to the back and Dan took point as he pushed the next door open, only for an eye watering, putrid smell to waft to our noses.

Dan gagged and turned away, making a retching sound while the girls quickly took a few steps back.

I was fortunate that my mask came with a filter option so I quickly turned that on and the smell disappeared for me.

While my Guardians were still recovering from the unexpected stench, I peered through the gap in the door to find several corpses lying inside what looked like a manager’s office.

And these weren’t the corpses of Anomalies but the corpses of the humans of this world...

Damn... Were we too late for them then?