Chapter 88: Useless Pig
"Then everyone inside the bus might be dead, and we can just take that bus instead," Jenny stated bluntly, finishing the grim thought Vivienne had left hanging in the air.
Vivienne gave a somber, reluctant nod. Her shoulders sank slightly under the heavy weight of the reality she was describing, but she didn’t dispute it.
"Was there any Awakener or someone capable of fighting off the infected on board?" Fredrinn asked, turning his gaze back to Vivienne.
Given how slow and feeble ordinary Stage 1 zombies tended to be, it was a bit premature to assume a whole busload of passengers was doomed.
If someone had kept a cool head or possessed a decent combat skill, they might have cleared the threat from within before the vehicle went off the road.
Vivienne shook her head, dispelling that sliver of hope.
"No, I really don’t think so," she explained in a low voice. "There were only three Awakeners in our entire school. Two of them panicked right at the beginning—they took off immediately, dragging their close friends and whatever students they could grab from the lower floors. The only one left behind was with our group, Ash."
Rose hummed softly, resting a slender index finger against her cheek as her newly sharpened mind pieced the route together. "Sounds easy enough, then. Let’s take the vehicles we drove in with and follow the path they took. If the driver crashed or the bus stalled out, we should spot it along the main road."
Both Aadav and Jenny nodded in immediate agreement. It was a far better prospect than attempting to resurrect the rolling scrap heap parked in front of them.
Aadav cast one last, disgusted glare at the rusted yellow relic. Letting out an irritated grunt, he reared his boot back and kicked the rear quarter panel with enough force to leave a deep, hollow dent in the corroded metal.
Shaking his head in frustration, he turned on his heel and stomped back toward the main building with the rest of the group.
Back inside the cafeteria, the remaining faculty members and a small handful of female students were pacing restlessly.
The moment the double doors pushed open and Fredrinn walked in alongside Vivienne and Rose, the room erupted.
The survivors shot to their feet like spring-loaded traps, practically swarming them in a desperate wave.
"Did you check out the bus?"
"Did it start up?"
"Are we finally getting out of here?"
"U-Uhm... would you like some cold water?"
A flurry of eager, anxious questions showered the group.
Fredrinn let out a faint chuckle, graciously accepting a plastic water bottle from a petite, youthful girl.
She blushed a bright crimson the second his fingers brushed against the bottle, her eyes darting away in shy fluster.
She wore her hair in neat twin ponytails, her slender frame looking barely sixteen or seventeen years old.
Even Rose didn’t bother reacting to the blatant display of schoolgirl infatuation.
Her heightened intellect told her that a timid, underdeveloped kid posed zero threat to her status as Fredrinn’s primary partner.
Instead, Rose simply offered the girl a polite, sweet smile.
The poor teenager instantly froze. Swallowing a lump of dry saliva, she took a hurried, trembling step backward.
The entire cafeteria vividly remembered how this smiling demon woman had nearly taken Miss Vivienne’s head off only minutes ago.
Rose could only let out a quiet, internal sigh of disappointment.
Humans were truly bizarre creatures—always holding petty, irrational grudges over the smallest incidents.
So what if she had almost severed the teacher’s neck? The woman was still walking and breathing, wasn’t she? I
t was merely a harmless misunderstanding, yet they acted as though she had committed an unforgivable sin.
She resolved then and there to stop wasting energy trying to socialize with this foolish species.
As far as Rose was concerned, only her Hubby was worth her time; everyone else was just dead weight that he liked dragging along for reasons she couldn’t yet fathom.
"No, that piece-of-shit rustbucket didn’t work. In fact, we didn’t even waste our time turning the key," Aadav barked, stepping right into the middle of the crowd. He marched straight up to the fat, balding male teacher, glaring down at him with unrestrained hostility. "And do you want to know why? Because some of us have actual standards. You fat bastard, why the hell did you tell us you had a functional vehicle ready to go, huh?!"
The overweight teacher went pale as a sheet under the intimidating gaze of the brown-skinned, heavily armed man.
He couldn’t help but notice the sidearm resting prominently in the tactical holster at Aadav’s waist, coupled with the dense, suffocating aura radiating off him. An Awakened wasn’t someone an ordinary civilian could afford to cross.
The teacher gulped, hastily ducking his head. Internally, he was screaming with bitter outrage. ’I didn’t say a single word about the damn bus, you lunatic! Vivienne was the one who brought it up! Why the hell are you screaming at me?! You sexist piece of trash!’
Naturally, none of those thoughts dared cross his lips.
Outwardly, the bald teacher bowed his head repeatedly, apologizing in a frantic, groveling tone.
To appease the angry gunman, he hurried over to the kitchen’s walk-in cooler and returned carrying an armful of chilled soda cans, offering them with trembling hands.
Aadav only scoffed, snatching a cold can from his grip before gesturing for the rest of his squad to take their pick.
"Well, Miss Vivienne actually gave us a viable plan to clean up your mess, so we’re heading out," Aadav sneered, popping the aluminum tab with a sharp hiss. "Sit your ass down, stay put, and stop feeding us lies, you useless pig."
With that final insult, Aadav turned around and marched toward the exit.
Jenny and the others exchanged amused, blank glances, holding back their laughter as they followed him out.
Everyone in the group saw straight through Aadav’s aggressive tantrum—he was simply venting his pent-up frustration and wounded pride on an easy male target because he was far too shy to yell at an attractive woman like Vivienne.
"Taking the bike again?" Jenny asked casually, falling in step right behind Aadav.
She kept her face deliberately neutral, but the faint edge in her voice made her underlying annoyance glaringly obvious.
Watching Rose cling to Fredrinn’s side like a devoted, inseparable shadow had clearly left her feeling pushed to the sidelines.
Fredrinn let out an amused chuckle.
Closing the short distance between them with a few smooth strides, he reached out and casually draped his free arm around Jenny’s shoulder, pulling her in close.
"Now, if you put it like that," Fredrinn murmured with an easy, teasing grin, "How could I possibly leave you alone?"