The Situation

After a full day of traveling through the freeways, the group finally saw Tokonosu City in the distance. Ryo was driving the truck with Rei's company, while Kururu drove the pickup and Hiratsuka the bus -where everyone was traveling-.

They looked in the direction that lead to the Estate where they once stayed, but simply decided against going there. Whatever they could find, wouldn't be worth their time. Only later, when everyone else was gathered, would they try to recover the supplies and materials left there. Ryo was confident that he could face at least a thousand zombies himself if he tried hard, and Zeke was pretty much also a beast in his own right. The girls could also deal with a few hundred each, so Ryo was confident in their power output. But against ten thousand zombies, for example, they would still die if they tried to fight them all.

For such a reason, he took the long way into Tokonosu, heading towards the direction he believed Kouta's group would be. Knowing Kouta and the other people who were left leading the group, Ryo had one major guess as to where they would've gone to.

According to Yuriko, a few miles outside of Tokonosu City, there is a small mountain village. It is close enough for someone to reach it in the same day by walking, which is the reason why Ryo believed the other survivors to be there.

"Yuriko, how longer until we reach the village?" Ryo asked when they took a stop to eat some brunch and stretch their bodies from driving. The milf sat closer to him, hugging his arm, and answered. "Not much longer, perhaps twenty or so minutes"

"I see... so we'll arrive around... 11 PM" Ryo muttered before taking a bite out of a piece of jerky. While chewing, without much decorum, he talked to the group. "Since it's a mountain village, we could even stay there"

The group chatted a bit about the condition the village would be in, but Ryo was pretty sure of one thing. Kouta, the Miyamotos, Matsushima and the Yamadas would've surely done a good job in their stead.

*

"What... what the hell is going on here?!" Ryo yelled in bewilderment when he saw the village.

The buildings were intanct, Kouta's group was there but... everyone looked like they were depressed, the atmosphere was heavy and the amount of people... the amount of people didn't match. From a building, he saw a boy that looked just like Kouta when they had left but slimmer and more muscular. What he heard made Ryo feel angry. It was an anger he was getting used to already.

"Ryo... We... I... I'm sorry!" Kouta tried to speak while he teared up, but ended up falling to his knees and began hitting his face against the floor, not caring about how his glasses broke. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"What" Ryo said, his voice cold. "What happened here, Kouta"

Kouta did his best to calm down, while a group of people had gathere there. Only then was Ryo able to see them all. Of the 70-ish people that they had aided during the escape of the Estate, only 20 remained -and that was counting Kouta, the Miyamotos, Yamadas and Matsushima-.

Ryo took a deep breath, intending to at least listen to what they had to say without being angry. He could let go all of that anger later on.

"When we first reached the village, everything was fine..."

According to Kouta's story, they were raided during the night by another group. As if that wasn't enough, they took away weapons and supplies, leaving them with barely anything to defend themselves with and barely any food. The only reason they were alive was that Kouta himself had drank the Liquid Virus, so he could defend the rest of the people. The only thing they were surprised about was the fact that they didn't take people away as slaves, hostages of playthings, but just killed them.

"They... they called themselves Panderers, and they said they'd be back" Kouta finished his explanation of what had happened. Ryo, who was standing by a tree, just sent a punch straight for it.

In front of their eyes the tree, which had a girth of a hundred inches, had half of it's trunk rmeoved by Ryo's fist.

"Good... I see how it is..." he said with a sinister tone of voice. To the girls, it was like the time when he met Masao, but everyone else felt opressed in fron of the current Ryo. His entire aura had changed and his overall demeanor was cold, but there was an added effect now. Everyone could feel how the temperature around Ryo was actually lowering, even if slightly. "Let them come... I'll be waiting for them"

*

Ryo called a meeting among the people leading the camp. Luckily, all of those he knew personally were alive. The only people excempt from the meeting where the Miyamoto's, who were enjoying their meeting after a few days of being apart.

"Hashimoto-kun... are you still human?" asked Matsushima when they were all sitting at a big table. Everyone, Karma included, looked at him expectantly. The girls already knew, so they didn't care. Clearing his throat, Ryo answered. "Mostly"

And that was it. He didn't need to explain more than that for people to understand something simple: he was a human for the most part, but not entirely. The reason he answered like that was simple. He himself wasn't sure if he was still a human, and he didn't care, but since his DNA had changed he would be honest.

"I'm going to begin by saying..." Ryo looked at everyone in the room that he hadn't seen in a while and smiled a bit. "That I'm glad every one of you is alive"

When they heard his words, everyone smiled. The group that already was in the village had a heavy, worn down smile. One could see that they had gone through a lot and had had a hard time. But now Ryo was there, and he wouldn't allow them to worry about those things anymore.

"Then, I will give every one of you what I gave Kouta" he said before explaining that in fact, it was the virus in liquid form. "Karma, you're also drinking it, only then will you be allowed to train with us"

Ryo explained what they had learned about zombies in the time they were away and the different kinds they knew about. Hiratsuka and Yuriko retold the stories of what had happened to them, from reaching Shirakawa-go to Komatsu City and how they were almost trapped in the airport. Saya did a report on the resources they had gotten, which she had worked doing the stock of, and the two vehicles they had. Ryo said that the pickup will be mostly for exlploration and reconnaissance purposes, while they would probably take the truck to raid markets and the like.

"Then we have Yugo and Aki" he said while pointing to the couple. "They are graduates from the Dairy Science department of their highschool, so they know about farming and animals"

Since Kouta and the others hadn't had time to meet the couple properly, they didn't know about their studies in Dairy Science. The piece of news brought their morale even another step higher. Ryo then looked at Kouta, Isami and Niki, the three gun nerds that seemed to be closer than ever. He was sure that the girls were to blame for that, since Kouta just didn't strike him as the kind that would suddenly gain confidence and pull the first move.

"I will have Zeke..." Ryo said while pointing at the "wolf" they couldn't recognize at all as Zeke. "...act a scout on the surroundings, since he will probably be the most effective one"

Ryo's next words chilled the people present. They knew who Ryo was, they knew how he behaved. They knew how he reacted to things. But above all else they knew... that Ryo always did good on his word.

"And I will be expecting them to come..." he said, his eyes shining brightly in the badly lit room. "Because I'm angry"

"And this time" he continued, standing up and walking through the door. They all saw him turn his head and look at them, his cold, shining eyes making him look like a demon of sorts. "I will massacre them all until they beg me to kill them"

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The gang wars begin! Who are the Panderers? Who leads them? We'll see!