CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 55: HEADING BACK TO THE BASE

"What’s with that look on your face?" Cassias lifted his eyebrows.

Zerra’s hand grabbed her face, then turned to him defensively. She shot back, "What’s wrong with it?"

"You look..." he tilted his head to the side and scrunched his face, "... disappointed."

Zerra narrowed her eyes. Flashing him a stiff smile, she coughed. "Nothing, I am just disappointed I can’t sleep longer. I will go to store the supplies now."

With that, she ran to the warehouse. Her heart palpitated wildly. Cassias’ face wasn’t smeared with chocolate just as she wished. He had cleaned it.

It made her suspicious. This man must have been aware that it was the fox who made all the dirty blotches across his chest and face. But... did he know that the fox was her?

Her mind was blank. For the next thirty minutes, she occasionally bit her nails in worry. There was this possibility, and with his intelligence, Cassias might have suspected it.

However, she was also aware that there was nothing which would give away her fox identity for now. Even if Cassias found out, he wouldn’t have a way to prove the fox was her unless he brought her out in the middle of her transformation.

With that in mind, she relaxed.

The speed of grabbing the items in front of her increased. Then she jolted. Someone grabbed her hand.

She turned her head, sending a questioning look at the person. Her mouth twitched when she found out it was Cassias. "What are you doing here?"

"Miss Zerra, don’t be so fierce to Mr. Virethorn. Look at him. He is so pale." Someone abruptly chimed in to their conversation before Cassias could respond to her. "He must have been really tired."

Zerra was wondering whether she had a hearing or eye problem. She scrutinized the person; he was still facing her with a serious look on his face.

It was one of the Brown family’s lackeys, Draven... or to be exact, he was Cassias’ lackey now. In this entire team, perhaps only her, Cassias, and the three of them knew about it.

This cunning, perverted male lead sometimes collected lackeys he thought to be useful. He was the type of someone who would hide his strength, pretending to be weak, and strike when his enemy least expected it.

... or, that was supposed to be how he was.

The people who came up to them destroyed Zerra’s understanding of him. Well, maybe she didn’t really know him that well to begin with.

"Yes, Miss Zerra. Let Mr. Virethorn help you here. He feels some fatigue, but still kindly insists on helping. Don’t you know that Mr. Virethorn led us to kill a lot of zombies last night?" Another Cassias’ newly recruited lackey spoke.

Zerra blinked in shock, her eyes widened. "Killing zombies? There were more zombies around?"

She wasn’t shocked because Cassias killed the zombies, but because he was openly flaunting his power. Originally, she thought he would order his lackeys to keep their mouths shut about the dead zombies. She had assumed wrong.

"It was, but now they are gone. All thanks to Mr. Virethorn. Alas, he also expended too much energy in the process, so others agreed to let him help you here to pack things." Draven nodded at her.

He stole a brief glance at Cassias; she didn’t miss that brief interaction.

"I hope that you won’t mind." Cassias flashed her a smile. From her point of view, that smile somewhat held malice in them.

She took in a sharp breath. Her temples started to throb; a sign of incoming headache. Even if she wanted to refuse, she couldn’t!

Some people who were moving the items back and forth had begun to glance their way. Curiosity was apparent in their eyes. It might not be long before they came over and questioned what had happened.

"That’s fine." She let out a defeated breath, forcing a smile.

It must have been his plan. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made his lackeys to speak for him.

Cassias might be testing her, so she had to act as natural as possible.

"Can you bring those cardboard boxes here?" She began.

Seeing them getting along so well, the lackeys, who still had their work to do, left the two of them. The target of the mission was to go back as soon as possible.

The longer they were out of the base, the higher their probability of encountering the danger was. Moreover, when Zerra perked up her ears, she heard them talking about some kind of fog.

"Do you see the condition outside? There is this kind of fog."

"What fog? I have been putting these items in boxes and haven’t come out at all."

"Then, better hurry up. Mr. Valez and Mr. Henry told us we need to go back as soon as possible. It might have something to do with this fog. They also look somewhat... ominous."

Zerra heard the conversation of the people not far from them. Her face scrunched up, full of thoughts.

"Here."

She snapped out of her daze when she heard Cassias’ voice. Taking the cardboard boxes from his hands, she began to arrange the items in front of her into the boxes.

Cassias was doing the same without her telling him to. She had to admit that his speed was quite fast, much faster than her. In less than two minutes, he already arranged a few small sacks of grains inside.

She only needed to touch the cardboard boxes after he was done, which made it very convenient. She didn’t need to expend too much mental power by imagining the items one by one.

Six hours later, they were finished filling all the trucks they had brought. There were still some supplies remaining inside and they planned to fetch them another time.

"Make sure everyone is already here." Darren began as they stood in front of the supermarket. His eyes faintly swept over Cassias with an indescribable look in them.

"Check all the people who are in the same vehicle as you. If anyone is missing, you can report to me," he added.

Not to be outdone, Henry called his people over and ordered, "Start counting..."

After they made sure everyone was already in their assigned vehicle, they set off.

"The fog is getting thicker. The visibility is so bad," Zerra commented as she scrutinized the road ahead.

She was still in the same car as Cassias, the same person who instantly became the center of attention as soon as he showed up in front of everyone.

No doubt, it was because of his last night feat of killing a few hundred zombies on his own. Although some credits fell on the Brown family’s lackeys, most kills were still counted on his contribution.

So, he was trying to hide from everyone’s attention by helping her as an excuse? Zerra didn’t understand.

"Don’t worry. We will be alright," Cassias muttered in a nonchalant tone.

She shot him a look. They weren’t going to be alright at all. Especially when the truck’s rear light was getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

He must have jinxed it.

The moment they managed to shorten the gap between their car and the truck, the latter abruptly stopped upon reaching some kind of rural residential area.

They went out of the car.

"The limited visibility made us accidentally took the wrong path." Darren announced as he shot a discreet look at Henry, who merely snorted in irritation.

Henry had an awkward look on his face, and he just let Darren led the talk.

"The fog increasingly becomes thicker. So, we have to stay here for a while until the fog is gone or we will risk continue to driving and got lost. Worse, we might encounter dangerous creatures," Darren added grimly. His face was a mask of seriousness and vigilance.

None objected to his words. They scanned their surroundings and felt the chill ran down their spine. It was unknown whether it was because of the cold from the fog or the foreign surrounding.

"Should we go to the houses or just stay inside the vehicle?"

"Boss, I think I saw some lights in those houses..." The person who said this had an unsure tone in his voice, mixed with the fear of unknown.

They all looked at Darren and Henry. Before any of them could answer, someone who didn’t belong to their group suddenly emerged from nowhere.

His face had some kind of smear that looked like blood. In the fog with low visibility, it was such an eerie sight.

He grinned at them and asked in a hoarse voice that sent people’s skin crawling uncomfortably, "Who are you people?"