Chapter 26: Bunker supplies
Reia before exiting the room grabbed her sword just in case anything escalated with Klein.
'I don't think she will do anything stupid, but who knows what that manipulative witch is thinking.' Reia gripped her sword before walking out to the common room.
Spotting Akira in the kitchen, Reia walked up to him who was currently investigating a pantry. Standing to the side of Akira she was unable to see into the pantry due to how tall Akira was as well as the door getting in the way.
"Any luck?" Reia was expecting there to be no reserved food as the bunkers were never meant for long term housing so a fully stocked pantry didn't seem plausible.
'Fufu~ we might not need to go out and look for supplies after all." Akira leaned back pulling out canned food, showing the best before date. Reia quickly leaned in and saw that the canned food was rather fresh indicating that the bunker had been supplied recently.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that." Reia was in a little bit of disbelief, but it was nice to know that they won't starve.
"Indeed, I have been checking all the best before dates and almost all of it was freshly stocked not too long ago." Akira continued to check various canned foods in the pantry all showing similar results.
"Although this is quite a lot, it won't last us forever especially if we have another 5 people moving in." Reia's point of concern was her other squad members since the food they have will only last so long.
"Good point, it is probably best we still go look for more just to build up a surplus of food." Akira agreed and if it was only the 2 of them, what was in the bunker would have been enough. However, since Reia's squad members could be out there, the food won't be enough.
"We need to find a mall or a place with a lot of food and to see if the rebels have set up camp, but if not try to loot some of the stores." Reia knew that places like a mall would be infested with mutants, but it would make it a lot easier to deal with than a rebel camp.
"For now we will raid the smaller stores as much as we can and eat anything along the way that would expire quickly, just to preserve our longer-lasting food." Due to the collapse only being recent, Akira knew most food would still be edible allowing them to go out and eat.
"So, are we going out or what?" Klein had suddenly spoken up, appearing by the door that led to the hallway.
"Oh, you're still here?" Reia sighed and turned her head towards Klein.
"Tch, I'm trying to not step on toes here so the least you could do is not antagonise me." Klein was getting rather sick of the constant off-handed comments from Reia.
"Heh, it's not my fault that you permanently bedridden your ex-girlfriend just so she could never leave you, but instead ended up dying." Reia, not listening to what Klein said, continued with the remarks.
Akira sighed and prepared to step in if things got physical as the last thing he wants to do is clean blood.
"That is not what happened! That was a lie spread by some stupid bitch who mistook her illness as me disabling her!" Klein started to get emotional and rather angry.
"Then how do you explain the scars and the fact that she was terrified to even see you. Do you have any idea what you did to her, it was evident just from her reaction alone you had something to do with it." Reia brought up pieces of evidence that left Klein speechless.
"T-that wasn't me." Klein clenched her fists drawing blood from her palms.
"Nothing you say will change my mind especially since you went after Kim and now Akira. You're lucky to have even stayed in the military in the first place." Reia put one hand on her sword as a subtle warning to Klein to not try anything.
"Reia, I think that's enough, it's in the past now." Akira felt a little bad for Klein as she had been the target of quite a lot of harassment from other soldiers because of what she supposedly did.
"Tsk I know, but I'm not willing to trust somebody in an apocalypse who is a snake at heart. It's a shame she is human as being a snake would have fit her perfectly." Reia took her hand off her sword and checked the time on her phone to see if they had enough time to go out before it got dark.
"Ha… Haha…. Hahahahaha." Klein however, started to laugh making her sound almost insane.
*sigh* "What now?" Reia thought she finally got Klein to crack from her facade since she had been known to be two-faced.
"Of course you listen to Akira, you're just his little dog and if it wasn't for him you would have already killed me. Now, why don't you come at me and finish me off like almost everyone in the world wants." Klein held her face and looking through her fingers glared at Reia.
"Oh? A bit of push back now, I have to say this other face you kept hidden looks rather ugly." Not having much of a choice, Reia gripped her sword again ready to pull it out.
"Shut up! You know next to nothing, all you are is just a piece of meat for Akira and he doesn't deserve someone like you." Ice started to form around Klein's body showing she was using essence on her own body.
"Tsk, you know nothing of what Akira has done for me. I'm indebted to him forever and shall always value him unlike you, who see your partners as just mere objects to be used." Reia was about to pull out her sword, but Akira had moved before her.
"No need to fight, I don't want to make a mess in our new bunker." Akira had dashed to the side of Klein knowing she wouldn't do anything to hurt him.
"But that bi-" Before Klein could finish her sentence Akira slightly infused essence in his hand and hit the back of Klein's neck instantly knocking her out. Klein fell to the floor and the ice that formed started to dissipate.
"Ow!" Akira shook his hand in pain because he burnt it from using essence on himself.
"Reia you really have to stop harassing Klein, I know you were trying to get her other self to come out, but at least do it outside." Akira rubbed his hand making sure he did not damage it too much.
"I understand, but it's so hard not to, as just seeing her face reminds me of all the things she has done. The only reason she still has a life is because of her ability to copy a person's essence." Reia looked at the passed out Klein with disgust still undecided if she should get rid of her or not.
"I don't think it's worth getting rid of her, plus as soon as we find Lou, I'm sure she will run away on her own. Not to mention she will be more useful alive than dead so let's at least put her to use while we can." Akira knew Klein would listen to him so it would be better if they used her than kill her off because of past grudges.
"You have a point and when you put it like that I can't really argue." Reia relaxed, taking a few deep breaths to calm down.
"I hate her a lot as well, but you can't deny she is useful so I would rather take advantage of that than lose an asset. As shitty as it sounds, there are no more rules and anything goes so we can't expect our enemies to play fair either." Akira spoke the reality of the situation as they could not afford to follow a good moral compass 100% of the time.
While Akira spoke he had picked up Klein and moved to the small lounge in the common room. Reia followed him out a little bit lost in thought, thinking about what Akira said.
'Akira is right, I really need to calm down otherwise it's going to cost us.' Reia was realising that her emotions were getting more out of hand and was a lot more impulsive than she used to be.
'I wonder if it's because I only recovered my emotions about a year or 2 ago that my body is not used to being so free.' Reia's theory was that since she lost her emotions and had to control them after recovering, being able to freely express them caused her to be a lot more volatile.
"Anyway with that settled, I have a question for you." Akira put Klein on the couch and turned to Reia who was behind him.
"Hmm?" Reia broke out of her chain of thoughts curious about what Akira was going to ask.
"What exactly did I do for you? I don't know if I just can't remember or I don't realise how important it was." Akira rubbed the back of his head, finding the question rather awkward.
"Uhh, well to you it might not seem important, but it was to me so that's probably why you don't remember." Reia tiptoed around the answer as she did not want to say out loud what it was.
"You are dodging the question again, tell me. What did I do?" Akira had a blank face as he instantly could tell she was avoiding answering.
"Aha, I just realised we need to get going." Reia started to slowly move towards the exit in an attempt to escape.
"Oi, stop leaving me in the dark about these things. Does it have something to do with Octavia?" Akira guessed it had to do with Octavia who he had no idea was and knew Reia would go silent when she was involved.
Reia froze on the spot as Akira guessed exactly what it was and she almost felt obliged to answer him.
*sigh* "If you really want to know, it was when I asked you to ask your family for information." Reia did not see the harm in letting Akira know what he did as it would not reveal much.
"Wait, that weird request?" Akira was rather confused as a request like that did not seem meaningful.
"Like I said it might not mean much to you but thanks to you and your family I was able to get information that has been invaluable so I'm eternally grateful for that." Reia's face was a little red as it was embarrassing to admit.
"Oh okay, well I guess you're welcome, didn't realise that meant so much to you." Akira was unsure how to feel about the whole situation.
"That is beside the point, we need to get moving." Reia did not want to dwell on the topic for too long as she wasn't quite ready to tell the full story to Akira.
"Yes we should, Klein should be out for a few hours so let's try to return before then." Akira did not bother to question it further as he was just glad he found a little bit more information about Octavia.
"Alright let's be quick then, as well as grab some dinner while we are out." Reia went up to the bunker door and put her hand on the scanner.
Reia and Akira quickly grabbed their guns while the entrance opened and when it was fully open they exited the bunker.
Upon walking out they were met with a few mutants who had seemingly wandered over.
"Looks like we get a bit of a warm-up." Akira wasn't too thrilled, but at least it wasn't people.
"I needed to let off a little steam so hopefully these mutants can satisfy my anger." Reia pulled out her sword ready to start killing.
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