"The weather's not looking so hot." I mumble as I look at the sky while sitting on the humvee's hood. Trees zipping past us as Rika kept driving towards our home base.
"Well, not a bad thing. If it rains we can test the rain barrels. Also, I'd say the dark sky would help with the smoke from the corpse pire. But I see no smoke coming off from deeper inside the forest to begin with..." I add as I lower my head and lift my mask to rub my eyes, then let off a big yawn.
" I'm finally getting tired now that I'm relaxing huh?" I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
"You know, it's funny. But what I really look forward to right now is a very, very hot bath, and something frozen to drink. Guess that's how that one blue uniform-wearing vault boi felt after drinking a cold beer. Having left one certain vault and spending god knows how long in the wastes of the Commonwealth drinking piss warm beers." I chuckle as I turn to look toward the sky.
"Wonder if the peeps back at the base are done since I see no smoke." I sigh as I close my eyes again. The sound of shifting gears and engine roar overtaking whatever forest ambient noise you would expect to hear.
"Naier. We are nearly there. How are you holding up there?" And my radio speaks up.
"I'm fine enough to nearly fall asleep." I answer with a small chuckle.
"You can sleep at the safe house, don't go snoozing off and falling off the roof." The radio responds.
"I know I know, don't worry. Besides, we still got some stuff to do before we can go snoozing off." I respond.
"And I don't mean taking a bath. With the weather looking all rainy. We better set them barrels pronto. And if we have any waterproof sheets to make some makeshift funnels for em, even better. " I respond.
"Already thinking ahead huh? Not a bad idea. Saeko, do you know of we have anything waterproof we can use?" The radio responds.
"Waterproof fabric? The best I can think of is any of the beach equipment we might have in the house." A distant voice, Saeko, responds.
(Beach equipment, here? In the middle of the forest? Guess for swimming in the river? Or they helicoptered them selves to private beaches.)
"And umbrellas." I add.
"Yea, that too." Saeko answers back.
"I think I saw some in the house now that I think about it." Another voice, Saya's, responds
"Well, we could set that up first. Because the walls might need some, skill leveling." I continue as I glance at the packed crates.
"Reducing the underground water usage to just drinking it will probably be enough for the rainfall to replenish the used supply. And if not, to at least make it last much longer compared to using it for everything." I add.
"Is it safe to wash with rain water though?" Saeko asks.
"Well, we will have to boil it first, and we do have a heavy-duty filtering machine to pass it through, though its intended use was for personal, not for a whole household. We also can check if the taps in the house have any filters we can use. But yea. I would not risk drinking it as long as we got pre-outbreak proofed water. But it should be good for a bath, watering stuff and washing. Plus we would have to boil the water anyway. Or do you want to take a cold bath?" I respond.
"Hmm, you do have a point." Saeko answers back.
And soon after, we reached the zig-zag uphill road. In other words, we were almost back.
"I see no corpses around. Good" I mumble to myself.
And within a few minutes, the front gate came into view. Asami and Khota casually chatting in front of the slightly open gate. While Shizuka was using a hose to spray the now seemingly empty corpse pire with water.
"Hole sweet home huh." I lean to the side of the car to look at the ground, and shortly after, jump. Landing with a roll before getting back on my feet.
Then start to walk up towards Shizuka.
"How's the corpse-tree growing?" I ask as I turn to look at the hole, other than a few charred bones, and the occasional shimmer from the probable silverware a corpse was wearing, I could only see black ash.
"Ummm..." Shizuka looks at me, then at the hole, then back at me, her expression seemed, lost, and apologetic. Like a kid that just forgot its homework.
I just chuckle and look back at the hole.
"We should start burying them sooner or later. Just in case one of them had god mode on." I continue.
"Yea, Khota mentioned that too." Shizuka then nods a couple of times.
And speaking of said chubby gun nut, Khota walked up to us a few seconds later with Asami.
"Hey Naier. How did it go? I see the car is packed with crates. Oh. We also had to use some water to make sure the fire did not spread. Sorry about that, my idea." Khota then speaks up.
"Whaaaaat? Unexeptabaaaaale. You shall put all the water barrels in the yard as punishment." I respond with a deadpan tone.
"Also, we need to search for waterproof fabrics to increase the collection radius of each barrel." I add.
"Hmm yea, good point, the more space each barrel covers the better the efficiency." Khota nods ad he puts his hand to his chin.
"I don't mean to interrupt! But can somebody open the gates?" Rika the shouts from the humvee.
"Oh right!" Khota quickly turns to look at the gate, before starting to walk towards it with a quick pace.
"We should all head inside and start setting the things up, looks like it's going to rain soon, perfect timing to test this whole gig out." I add as I nod, and start heading towards the gate as well.
And so, upon entering the building. Letting the car in and closing the gate behind us, we parked the Humvee in front of the main building.
"I'll start unpacking and setting the barrels, somebody had to move the crates and start unpacking the things from inside them, if we can somehow move the crates in the house good, otherwise open the crates and start moving the cartons inside one by one." I say as I tap the Humvee, the others slowly exiting the car.
"I'll see what I can do to get the crates inside the garage, no point making the house look like a barn since we got space." Rika responds as she exits the car.
"Fair point." I answer as I grab one of the barrels.
"I will go find any waterproof fabric I can." Saeko then nods and turns to enter the building.
"I'll see if we have any books to read on how to correctly set the wall materials we got." Saya continues as she turns to also enter the building.
"Ummm, what should we do?" Asami asks right after.
"Hmm try to find some beams or supports for the barrels, we need four for each barrel, taller than the barrel itself, if we find any fabric that is." I respond as I turn to look around the front yard. Then at the house.
"Hmm, the roof drain is, there. We can put one barrel there, though we might have to cut part of the pipe so it ends at the barrel." I nod as I pull a barrel and put it over my shoulder.
"We should be glad we don't have to put some of these in the roof and plum them into the water taps..." I chuckle under my breath.
"Oh and maybe start unpacking the gardening stuff somewhere" I add as I start to walk.
With that, we spreaded out and started 'upgrading' the place...
Starting with setting the barrels all over the front yard.
Meanwhile, Rika moved the car closer to the second garage to see what she can do with the crates...
And, about 30 minutes later...
The first droplets fell from the sky.
"Hmm? It's starting to rain?" I tilt my head as I look at the blue barrel I had just placed on the ground in front of me, a few water droplets appearing on it.
I then look up at the relatively darkened sky and lift my mask.
"Yep, that's dark alright." I blink a couple of times as I keep staring up.
"Everything alright?" A female voice then speaks up next to me. Turning to it, I find Saeko, holding what seemed to be a packed-up sheet.
"Yea, starting to rain it seems. Found anything?" I ask. Saeko just stares at me, before chuckling.
"Love, it had started raining for quite a while now. And yes, we had these waterproof car hoods in the garage, we could probably use them for a few of the barrels?" Saeko responds.
"It has? Never realized, and yes, these would do fine. A good wash and maybe a hole to tie in the center. One hood for each barrel would do. How many we found?" I ask back.
"Three. Khota and Asami are by the garage looking at the other two for any holes." Saeko answers flatly
"Hmm, better than nothing. Ok let's see what we can do." I nod as I wipe my hands on my pants, and start to walk towards the garage.
Taking my mask and balaclava off in the prosses, and passing them through my hand till they reached my shoulder.
"Oh, and Naier, can I have a second?" Saeko then speaks up from behind me.
I stop, turn around, and find her face right in front of mine, too close to mine.
Before I could speak, she pressed her lips against mine for a few seconds, before breaking off.
"Could not let such a chance slip by~" She adds with a small giggle. I just blink at her, then shrug and chuckle back.
We then both turned to head towards the garage.
Upon closing in, Kohta who was on the floor with the car waterproof coverings on his legs turned to look at us and raised his hand.
"Hey! We checked them both! They are all with, no mask?" Khota starts to speak, before turning to stare at me.
"Maskless car coverings. Intriguing." I respond flatly.
"Uhh, I mean they are both fine. Though they need a good wash. And we also found several umbrellas." He responds as he quickly shakes his head.
"Good good, how good is your survival DIY?" I ask as I fold my arms.
"Want me to install these three to the barrels?" He asks as he tilts his head. I nod.
"No prob, I can handle it just fine. If I remember from that survival game I played. We need to make them like a funnel. Hmmm." Khota nods back as he turns to look at the fabric while he starts to fold it.
"Do not cut the elastic band in the end so you can use it as tension balance with the steel poles Asami found, not too tight though as you want the center part to cave in, make a hole in the center, duct tape the hole to the barrel's lip. Done." And Khota starts to speak to himself.
"Just make sure they stick the poles in the soil well so they don't get pulled off from the tension. Call us if you need any help. I'm going inside the house for a few." I nod back as I make a thumbs up, and turn to head towards the main building. Saeko leaving the car covering she held with Khota and following behind me.
Upon reaching the house, I find Rika sitting on the sofa in the central room, smoking. She notices me and turns to wave.
"Done with my part chief, the crates are all in the garage~" She motions with her head towards the kitchen behind her, since the garage with the breakers was behind the kitchen.
"Aight, thanks." I nod back and start to take off my vest, then leave it on a chair next to me along with the helmet, mask, armguards and the such. Essentially taking off all of my 'armor'. Then, roll my shoulders.
"Damn, I feel way too light right now, got used to the weight." I chuckle as I make a few jumps.
"Monkying around I see." And a new female voice speaks up. Turning out to be non-other than Saya, who just entered the building, books in her hands.
"Yes, I am maximum Monke." I answer flatly as I turn to her. Saya stares at me for a few.
"At least you're not wearing that damn mask anymore" She adds as she walks up to the table in the middle of the room, in front of Rika, and leaves the books she was holding.
"So, guess we set the barrels and we can take a break?" Rika asks as she turns to me again.
"Aren't you already taking a break?" I ask as I fold my arms and tilt my head.
Rika leans one shoulder and narrows her eyes as she lifts her cigarette-holding hand at me, much like a dunk man.
"Actually, I am not taking a break. I am high alert in case I am needed somewhere." She adds with an expression that was essentially herself not believing her own words.
"Yeaaaaaa. But yes, we do this, and we can make something to eat and take a break." I respond
"Oh, damn, now that you mention it, I'm starving! I'll go get Shishuka so she can start making something." Rika quickly responds as she springs off the sofa.
"She won't burn the house down?" Saya adds as she tilts her head.
"I'll watch over her." Rika waves her hand as she moves to head to the upper floor.
"She, did not deny it." Saeko adds with a tilted head.
"Ho boy, better start looking for a new safehouse I suppose..." I sigh with a chuckle as I turn to look outside.
"I'll go check if the front side of the gates is still clear, or if any corpses survived the burning session. Then lock up." I add as I turn to walk toward the exit.
"I'll go open the gate for you." Saya nods and turns to follow me, Saeko, just followed behind me again in silence.
And shortly after, I was by the now open gate. The rain slowly starting to pick up.
"Looks clear. Smoke's gone too." I respond as I look toward the now fully dark sky.
"And it seems we will have a heavy enough rain to test our barrel set up" I add as I take a deep breath.
"So, now what?" Saeko asks as she stops next to me.
"Now, we sit on our asses and hope the world does not implode on itself." I shrug.
"So this is it huh, we're staying here and letting the others deal with all the troubles." Saya, who also stoped next to me mumbles as she folds her arms under her chest.
"Yes. All I care about is to make sure 'we' are safe. Saving the damn world ain't my job. Nor is going on a final dramatic mission. Had enough drama to last me." I respond as I shrug again.
"Fine by me to be honest." Saeko shrugs slightly as she slowly slides her hand to mine.
"Uhh, yea, guess you're right." Saya nods with a solemn look as she keeps staring toward the zig-zag road. Then, looks at the sky.
"We are going to get soaked if we stay here much longer..." Saeko then adds as she lifts her hand to feel the cold droplets falling from the sky.
"I don't like the rain..." Saya mumbles as keeps looking up.
"Hey, chin up. It'll be sunny again eventually. Ain't most days in Japan sunny after all?..."
...
.
.
Welp, this is it folks, 3 years, 86 chapters. I'm going to put a full stop at the story here. Cause each chapter has been dragging on way too long now that i got zero time for such big undertakings xD
SO, now whut, I hear you ask?
That, means 4 things.
1. I know there are a lot of loose ends. But I don't have the time or strength to sit and write another epic atm. Stuff like that takes time and research so I don't end up writing complete bollocks, and I don't have the time to do that anymore. Now, will there be a sequel/side story that ties everything into a little nice bow? Probably. But not in the foreseeable future. That, also means that I am giving the free for all for whoever whats to do whatever with this story and it's characters. If you want to use em for your own story, use em. Remake the story, remake it. Write side stories for the still-hanging threads of story such as the merc group, write em. Add your own alpha-sigma-omega chad and kill Naier to prove how shit he is, go ahead, so you plebs can finally stop pestering me about his personality and life choices. Just you know, keep em in character.
2. Interlude chapters. What I mean by these is. The story is over, and there won't be any more progression. BUT. I still like hotd as much I did 3 years ago xD. So, I intend to still write occasionally. BUT any new chapters that I might post(That will now be ever rarer for hotd) will essentially be of daily life, maybe they play video games and hold a tournament for who eats the pancakes, maybe they go to a beach and chase around Naier to put him in a speedo. Stuff that you can read in whatever order, and would still be the same.
3. I'll probably slowly continue my Kill la kill fic, since I hate leaving things without giving them a semblance of an end. I also want to try something new right now, which is to use the 3d models I make to make illustrations for my next story, so it could either be something from Tales of Vesperia, or monster girl encyclopedia. Now I'd say I want to keep things small, but knowing me, I'll derail into a 100+ chapter story sooner or later again xD, especially if I make the monster girl encyclopedia fic, which will probably be an unending adventure xD (Also get people to flip their panties off cause I'll make a no smut and lemons story in a monster girl fic xD)
4. A thank you for reaching the end!