After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 315

Chapter 315: More Friends
Aberdeen City, Eighteen Years prior

“Awww, little one, you don’t have to miss me.” The teary Althea pouted, making the chubby tanned boy grin. However, if one were to take note of his runny nose and red eyes, any adult could see he had been crying.

A moment later though, his pretentiousness cracked like a normal little boy. “Wuuu—”

He then began to sob, hugging his two friends and rubbing snot all over both of them. “I’ll definitely miss you guys though!”

He then parted with them eyes filled with tears, before reluctantly parting with them for real.

Before going, he grasped arms with his best friend, Garan. “Be happy.” And then he patted little Althea’s head.

“Don’t get fatter!” She said. Obviously, he ate just as much as they did, but he was so chubby!

The boy grinned. “I will get fatter, for your information!” He got fat with eating minimal, he could only imagine how it would be when he could eat normally.

It was both an exciting and worrying image!

After a while longer of farewells, Beany joined his new parents in their car, not forgetting to open the window and wave until they were no longer in sight.

The two of them watched the car disappear from view, and Althea sighed like a little adult. “There’s just the two of us now.”

Garan’s heart broke. If only she had more friends…

He leaned down and patted her head. “And we will always have each other.”

___________________

Fargo Village, Present.

The group looked at the five in question, wondering, “How could you tell?”

At this, Orz and Ben’s shoulders slumped, as if ashamed, their eyes narrowed in pain.

“We met Tagashi Sister-in-law…” Orz paused, before clarifying. “We met Jiro’s wife.”

Silence occupied the room.

Before losing Johnny, the previous one they had lost was a man named Jiro, the last person in logistics other than Eagle. He was a kind, soft-spoken man liked by everyone, and his death was particularly painful for a lot of people.

He died on the way to Twinwave inside a large mob that killed a dozen of them.

Eagle looked at the men with furrowed eyebrows. Among them, even if they were from different countries, he spent most time with Jiro as a fellow logistics soldier.

“How… did she handle it?”

It was Minko, the pale archer, who spoke up. “Not very good,” he said, looking at the silent companions next to him. “She was hysterical, actually.”

Then Ben, scratched his now-curly hair (he used to don a half-bald look), before dragging the topic to the information asked of them. “They were refugees from another territory.” They said, “The territories further West and northwest were mostly from our country.”

No one spoke, because they knew of the implications:

Their next stop would then be towards the West, while those of Eden and the nearby countries would be heading East.

After a long moment of silence, the five awkwardly looked at each other before turning to the captain, donning complicated expressions.

They were happy to finally find some clues, but they knew they wouldn’t have gotten so far without the captain.

“Captain, we—”

How could Garan not know of their internal conflicts?

“You will always be members of the Terran Mercenary Team,” Garan said with a small smile. “We could contact each other through the mercenary union, can’t we?”

The five choked up a bit, touched, and their tears fell when Garan then took out dozens of gold and handed a handful to each one.

“You would definitely want to leave as soon as possible,” he told them with that characteristic baritone voice of his. “The sun is still high, it is safer to go now.”

“Captain…” the soldiers uttered, sniffing.

How lucky they were!

…

The rest of the team returned with similar news, quickly noticing the atmosphere. There were a few people packing up!

“What happened?”

With complex expressions, a couple of companions told them of the major news that just happened.

“What?”

“That’s lucky…”

Luis sighed, being ever-so optimistic. “This also means Terran has been compressed within this area. Everyone should be able to meet someone from their hometown.”

Indeed. The compression gave them more hope of encountering people they knew sooner than expected.

It was just that the parting from life and death companions dampened the mood regardless.

Soon, the time to say farewell arrived and they walked the five people to the gate, giving them some food and items to take along the way.

“See you again, soldiers!”

The five stopped some meters away, standing up straight, and saluted them. Their eyes were lined with tears, hearts mixed with hope to find their loved ones, and reluctance to part with their life-and-death friends.

“Thank you for everything!” They just said, just before finally turning and heading towards West—hopefully to their families.

May they meet again!

…

The team was now reduced to five more people. They were now only 17, excluding Gaudi.

Garan sighed, feeling a little heavy. They walked to the rented villa in silence.

He looked around. “Gill is still not here?” He asked and the soldiers looked at each other with similar questioning expressions.

Looking around, they realized that it was only Gill who was still outside.

They did not have to look for him, however, as Gill arrived a couple of minutes later still with some more big news.

When Gill knocked on the door, he had a rather happy expression on his face. “There’s someone who wants to meet you.”

He then stepped aside to reveal the person behind him, revealing himself to Garan’s cerulean eyes.

The newcomer was, like everyone, unclean and unkempt, but his rounded eyes were brighter than anyone in this territory. He was also a lot thinner than when Garan saw him a few months back. But it was definitely him.

“Beany?”

Garan immediately stood up and raised his hand to give the newcomer a one-handed hug. Beany looked annoyed and gave him a light push.

“That is Jeremiah to you!” He said with a little annoyance. “I’ve been telling you for two decades!”

Garan couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle, a very very rare sight for the others.

Beany then looked around to see his companions.

It was just a year ago that he and Garan reconnected after a decade of estrangement.

They had not seen each other for years after getting adopted. When he went abroad, they didn’t even get to attend his wedding, nor was he able to attend theirs.

Did they even know he was married? Who knows…

Speaking of wives—

“How is… Althea?” He asked, concerned. The last time they talked was when he was investigating Garan’s disappearance. Who’d have thought he’d meet him here, of all places?

Anyway, he didn’t have updated news of Althea because he was forced in isolation soon after and he wondered if the couple had met during that time.

Hopefully, they did, because that meant she was safe at least.

Garan sighed, “She’s not with me.” He paused, looking at his old friend, remembering his specialty. “She should be nearby in a Territory called Altera Village. Have you heard of it?”

“No, unfortunately. Except for the first territory I’ve been to—which fell on the third day, by the way—I’ve only been here.”

He paused as if recalling a memory, but he shook his head. Instead, he turned to Garan with a gossipy tone. “General Price is here.”

This made Garan flinch and caused Vanessa, who had been watching all of Garan’s reactions carefully, to abruptly stand up.

“Dad?” She asked and Garan also looked at Beany, very concerned. The woman then walked over to them.

“How is he?” She asked as she held his arm, heart beating faster in excitement. But it was doused with cold water with the chubby man’s next words.

Beany sighed, looking at them both.

“He’s… not so good.”