After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

”I got news.” was the first thing she said as she re-entered the cave. Sheila stared, waiting for her to continue. ”I found other survivors.” Althea said, and Sheila’s eyes brightened immediately.

”Really?” She asked. ”There’s finally more people!” Then she realized her naivety, she cleared her throat and looked at the younger girl in embarrassment.

”Are we.. going to see?”

Althea smiled, glad that this white rabbit was finally growing up. ”Yes.”

Of course, they would take a look first before making contact. Anyway, the smoke was in the way of the mountains, so she might as well check it out.

”I’ll make sure not to be too friendly.”

Althea nodded. ”And don’t be too showy of our supplies.” Althea reminded her, and after a pause Sheila nodded in understanding.

Indeed, it’s only been a day; everyone more or less still had supplies that could last a few days. Maybe it could last weeks if they managed to hoard enough. What about after?

Althea probably worried that when the time came she’d be softhearted. But Sheila thought Althea worried too much. How could she possibly forget that woman that she tried to save, but pushed her to the mouth of the monster instead.

One experience was enough, a second one would just be foolish.

The trio then finished up eating and packed up. Althea looked at their backpacks and wondered what to do with them.

Unfortunately, there was no space in the backpack-space anymore, so they could only carry the bags by hand, as usual.

They also tried to arrange themselves, even with the blood in their clothes, before heading to see the other people.

As they trekked, Althea noticed a relatively recurring plant. It was a few bunches of grass with somewhat upright tillers.

It was dark brown, and its stems were diagonal. This was a common plant in this area, so she decided to keep some, some of them with roots, for future study.

They followed the smoke and eventually heard some murmurs and sobs, and she was surprised to see more than twenty people huddled together in a small clearing of little more than 10 square meters and making do with a small fire in the middle.

The people were also covered in blood and grime, although less than two of them fought in the middle of monsters for many hours, but the temperaments of the rest were weak and hopeless.

They turned to her and they were startled. Some looked guardedly, some looked with a greedy leer, and some were apathetic—as if they could no longer see anything but that small speck of fire.

Althea took this all in.

Then, a voice from the crowd sounded. She turned to see a familiar pair of father and daughter from the corner of the small crowd.

”Miss!”

”Sister!”

Her eyebrows rose, realizing the people who called her were Harold and Maya.

They were very dirty and bloody and haggard, but their limbs were complete and they looked at her like seeing a lost relative.

Althea nodded with a smile, glad to see decent acquaintances. ”Oh, it’s you.”

When someone recognized the newcomers, the guarded ones obviously loosened their guards, while a few people retained their greed.

It could be because they were young women (and a walking dog meat), and it could also be because of the bags on their backs.

After all, the fact that they had backpacks could mean their space was still full!

But Althea noticed that there was still a stare in the crowd that had obvious hostility, although Althea couldn’t see who it was yet. She could determine that there were two of them.

”I’m glad you’re fine, cool sister.” Little Maya ran to her and gave her a hug, her head landing above her thighs, not minding the dry blood on her.

”I am glad you’re fine as well.” Althea gently patted the girl’s little head and then turned to her companions. ”This is Sheila, I met her… outside the villa area. Fufi also.”

Maya brightened at the sight of the dog. They lived in the same villa area, it wasn’t the first time she saw him.

The two brats hit it off very easily.

Watching the child and the dog talk and play, the adults smiled warmly. It took Harold several minutes to remember he was greeting someone.

”Hello, Miss.” Harold grinned as he approached her. The wrinkles on his face were made more prominent by his wide smile, genuinely glad to see an old friend.

Indeed, although they only exchanged a few words, meeting fellowmen in this terrifying strange new land—and seeing each other alive and well in this circumstance—did give her a feeling of reuniting with lost friends.

She nodded and he looked around, wanting to chat, but was uncomfortable with chatting under all these stares.

The group opted to relocate and chose to sit under a tree a few meters away.

”Tell me what happened to you after coming here.” She said, ”And that group.”

”There are thirty or so people now. But when we arrived here, we came with over a hundred people.” Harold told them, ”We landed on a young forest with clearings. The view of the mountain was close and nice.”

”It was quite beautiful and we thought that we really escaped that hellhole filled with zombies.” He paused, but there was sarcasm in his tone.

”At the time, we really thought we were taken out of hell and were brought to a paradise.”

Althea and Sheila listened with interest, with the former more interested in this ’paradise-like’ land. ”And why did you call it so?”

”There were meadows and colorful flowers. The trees were many but not too dense. It looked peaceful at first sight, but—

”Some of those plants alone poisoned a handful of us within ten minutes of arrival.” He said.

Now Althea was even more interested. Not necessarily because of the poison flowers, but the description of the meadow and immature forests.

Althea’s gorgeous emerald eyes sparkled in interest.

Meadows, relatively loose foliage, and a mountain range close by…

She had an intuition.

They were finally getting closer to their ’new home’!