"Another beautiful morning…."

I got up from my bed and went out of my room.

Walking to the kitchen, I was planning to greet Perci good morning. 

Except, Perci wasn't there. 

Wasn't he supposed to cook today?

"Perci! Where are you?"

He might have been training, so I tried checking the basement. He wasn't there. Then, I went through all the rooms of the house, even the attic. But still, he was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell could he be?"

Maybe he was outside, so I walked towards the front door.

Just as I was about to hold onto the door knob, Perci had suddenly opened it from outside and covered my mouth. 

"Mmmmmmm!"

"Shhh…Be quiet. Don't open that door."

I nodded silently and he locked the door. He dragged me over to the window and I took a peek.

 The sound of motorcycles could be heard coming towards the house. 

"No way….."

It was coming from Ryder. And this time, he had more riders with him. 

"His gang wasn't that big before….how did this happen?!" I asked.

"I don't know, but I was on patrol when I spotted them from afar."

"I thought he was dead for sure, but now he's back with double the gang members!"

"It’s not like we finished him off last time…." 

"Dustin's there too! That traitor!" I pointed towards the orange-haired boy on one of the bikes.

“HEEEEEEEEEEEY!”

Ryder screamed with his lungs.

“What is that idiot doing? He’s going to attract the zombies!” I complained.

“I know you’re in there! Show yourselves!”

Obviously, we didn’t respond. Why would we? 

“Do we have to do this the hard way?! Last chance! I’ll give you three seconds," Ryder put his hand in the air. "If you don’t come out by then, we’re forcing ourselves inside!”

“Tsk, we better hide,” Perci said, clutching his umbrella. "There's no way I can take on all 10 of them."

“3!”

“2!”

“1!”

“Time’s up! Let’s go boys!”

They tried to turn the doorknob forcibly, then banged on the door loudly and tried to kick it open.

"Of course it's locked! Break in through the windows!"

"Let's head upstairs quickly," Perci escorted me up the stairs.

The breaking sound of glass could be heard from downstairs alongside some footsteps that entered the house.

They began to smash things around the house and destroy most of the furniture, creating a huge mess.

"Hey…is that ok? They're disrespecting your grandfather's house," I whispered.

"I don't understand why they're doing this….." Perci said. "But my grandfather told me to act calmly in situations like this. I can't let emotions cloud my reasoning and judgment."

"There's no one downstairs. Time to go up!" Ryder said.

"Let's hide on the rooftop."

We entered Perci's room and climbed the window on the rooftop.

We slowly took a peek at the front of the house and noticed that there were 5 people, including Dustin, staying put to guard the motorcycles.

More sounds of breaking could be heard below along with screams of complaints inside the rooms.

"Gotcha now!" Ryder said. "Huh? Damn it! Not here! Where are they?!"

"Pfft. They're so stupid," I said. 

"Don't underestimate them, if they find out we're hiding here, we won't be able to escape."

"Come out already!" Ryder screamed.

"Boss, maybe there's no one here…."

"Shut up! I know what I saw! There's definitely someone here!"

"Ugh, such a loud dude," I muttered.

"I give up!" Ryder said. "This is pissing me off!"

"Didn't think they would give up so easily…" 

The intruders went outside and Ryder kicked the ground.

"Damn it! I'm not letting you go! Time to use the last resort! Dustin! The molotovs!"

"Did he say molotovs?" Perci said.

"B-but Ryder, that's dangerous!" Dustin said.

"Shut up and do as I say! I've given you a chance to redeem yourself, so don't screw it up now!"

"Y-yes! Sorry!"

Dustin brought a bag of alcohol bottles and handed it over to the rest of the gang.

"Hey, hey, you can't be serious!" I said.

They all lit up their molotovs and threw it all over the house.

"Take this you fuckers!" Ryder screamed.

They all crashed and started fires throughout the house.

"They're insane!" I said. "They set the whole house on fire!"

"Come out already! You can't survive if you don't! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

RAAAAAAAAAAH!

"Damn! The zombies are here! Let's move out!" Ryder said.

The bikers immediately fled the scene and rode away.

"Those assholes!" I said.

"Let's go," Perci said.

He got up and started to move. Perci slid down the roof, hopping from platform to platform and landed safely rolling to the ground.

"C-cool!"

"Now, it's your turn," Perci called out to me.

"H-huh?! I can't do that!"

"Don't worry. Just jump down from over there and I'll catch you," Perci said and opened his arms.

I went over to the place Perci directed me to go and looked down.

T-that's a mighty long fall…..

"I-I can't! It's too scary!"

"Ori, trust me."

He stared at me from above with a stern look on his captivating indigo eyes.

Sigh, that look on his face says it all.

"Promise me that you'll catch me!"

"I've done it before, so don't worry. I promise I'll catch you."

Gulp!

"Here goes nothing."

I took a leap of faith and flew into the air.

"Perci!!!!!"

He caught me in his arms and fell to the ground to cushion my fall.

"I got you," Perci said.

"Thanks…." I said.

I got off of him slowly and stood up.

 

"This is the first time a girl has fallen for me…" Perci said with a smug grin.

"You! You're definitely teasing me this time!" I punched him lightly on the shoulder and looked away.

"Sorry, it was too good of a joke."

"It wasn't good. It was corny!"

"At least I got a cute reaction from it," Perci smiled.

"You really drive me nuts!" I pouted.

Suddenly, his smile had faded. Perci looked towards the burning mansion in silence.

"Your house……"

"It's fine. I was just reminiscing about all the memories I've had here."

He bowed.

"Thank you, grandpa."

"Perci….."

RAAAAAAAAH!

"The zombies are coming, let's go!" 

We ran off into the woods. 

It was harder to run around, the ground was uneven and I had to jump across branches, rocks and fallen logs. Not to mention, the pressure of being chased by a zombie can really get into your head. 

I nearly tripped stepping on a rock, but Perci kept me up and continued our pace.

"Watch your step," Perci said.

Lucky for us, the zombies also had problems with running in the woods. Because of their reckless movements, it was easier for them to stumble and fall down.

"We've lost most of them!" I said.

Perci turned back and fought the two remaining zombies with his umbrella. This time, he didn't use the blade inside and bashed their heads instead.

Even the umbrella itself is tough…..how much is that thing?

We made it back to the residential area and rested for a while.

"Phew, I'm beat!" I said.

I took a few breaths. In and out. 

"We'll have to search for another place to stay now…." Perci said.

"I'm pissed! I really loved that mansion too! Now we have to go running again!" 

Perci sighed.

"There's no use crying over spilled milk, let's go."

………..

We were running around the residential area for some time now, until we finally reached the city plaza downtown.

"Look! It's my favorite cafe! Let's hide there!" I said.

"You sure do love your coffee….."

"I can't help it! I haven't been able to drink this morning!"

"There's nothing much to do anyway…." 

"HELP!"

The scream of a woman called out from somewhere nearby.

"Did you hear that?" I said.

"Yeah."

Perci was about to run towards the direction of the scream, but I held his arm.

"Are you going to help her?"

"You said it yourself. To atone for my sin by saving as many lives as I can. Besides, as a gentleman, I can't afford to leave a lady in trouble," Perci said.

I let go of his arm.

"That's right. I'll come with you."

"You can just hide at the coffee shop if you want…"

"No way! I'm not leaving you out by yourself!"

"You don't have a weapon."

"Give me a sec."

I ran inside the cafe and searched behind the counter.

The former owner of the cafe was a strong lady who wanted to protect herself from violent customers.

That's why she has a personal weapon kept in here….

I walked out of the cafe with a pastel pink wooden bat imprinted with the words, "Adios Kitty" with the face of a cute cat on my arms.

"I have one now."

"Cute…….it suits you," Perci said as he stared at the bat.

"S-shut up! This is the only weapon I could find!"