Jiro watched as Ren fixed the manhole's lid with a blank expression. Jiro then turned his gaze to Emi to ask for her opinion.
"Let's just go this way. It seems empty," Emi answered instantly after reading Jiro's message through his expressive eyes.
Ren nodded and did not talk anymore. He took out his pocket watch—which was thankfully still intact and did not get lost with all the running and jumping—before clicking it open.
47 minutes past 5 o'clock.
"There's still a long way to go. How about we find a decent place to take a short rest? We'll shift every hour to guard the place," Ren suggested in a monotone voice. He gestured towards the building near them. "Let's make do with that area."
"Okay."
The place they entered happened to be a small apartment, just enough for one person to live. For four grown people to stay there, it was quite cramped. But no one complained. It was better to stick together.
Jiro carefully picked up the trash to avoid stepping over it later. It's always these damned cans that make noise in every horror movie he watches.
While Jiro was cleaning up the apartment, Emi and the other woman also busied themselves with moving the tables and chairs to block the door.
Ren had no qualms about their plan. He simply stood while watching them work. Like a boss.
However, while monitoring his colleagues, Ren's attention was suddenly caught by an old picture frame near the wall. He slowly walked over in order to see it clearly.
"Huh..." He exhaled a mouthful of air as he recognized the animal in the picture.
It was Old fucking Zhu. Yes, that butcher pig from the restaurant.
"What a twist of fate," Ren murmured in genuine surprise. Out of all the beasts, it just happened to be that Old Zhu!
Jiro noticed Ren's silent murmurs, so he also went to Ren's side to see what he was looking at. Jiro was just as surprised as Ren after recognizing the familiar facial structure. "Was it Old Zhu?" he asked in a whisper.
"Yeah," Ren replied with a dull expression. The surprise in his face was long gone as it was replaced with dread.
Jiro was keen to notice this change. "What's up?"
"If they failed to find us downstairs, then Old Zhu would have to come home to rest, yeah? And then it would come here and find us." Ren crossed his arms over his chest, leaning over the wall nonchalantly.
"Should we change places then?" Emi interrupted them after understanding the gist of their conversation.
The woman pouted. "Ah, but we just finished preparing this, though?"
Ren waved his hand to stop them. "There's no need. Everywhere we go, they'd still find us. Let's just escape once they're already here. For now, let's do what I said." He leisurely walked towards the mattress before dumping his body there. "I'll take a nap for the first hour."
Jiro looked at Emi. "I'll guard tonight."
Emi nodded. "Me too. Hey, girl—what's your name?"
"Aya."
"Okay, Aya. Take a good rest right now. You will guard together with that guy later," Emi stated in a calm voice, gesturing towards Ren, who was already fast asleep.
He was even snoring. Not that loud, though. Just bearable snoring.
Aya took a quick side glance at the salaryman before slowly nodding. Then she lied down on the vacant sofa before coating herself in a blanket that they had found earlier.
Jiro and Emi positioned themselves in different areas. Jiro was responsible for looking out of the window while Emi took charge of the door and the noises that Jiro wouldn't be able to pick up.
Jiro's palms were sweating profusely as he tried to focus on the road outside.
He planned to guard right now so that he could sleep well later. Jiro had full trust in Ren, knowing that nothing bad would happen if Ren guarded them.
But now, it dawned on him that guarding was very nerve-wracking in the first place. To stay alert for a whole hour is like draining all of your senses by maximizing their fullest potential.
By the time 30 minutes had passed, Jiro's eyes were already sore from too much exposure to the air. He wasn't blinking anymore. Emi had to remind him to relax a little bit. After that, Jiro finally closed his eyes to rest them for a short while. He had to trust Emi too.
However, as soon as he opened his hazel-brown eyes again, his sight caught the upcoming beasts getting out of the manhole where they came from. Jiro hastily signaled for Emi to come over.
"Why are we so unlucky today? Others have already caught some humans!"
"It's because we had a snake with us! Bad omen!"
"No way! It's because of that pig over there," the snake immediately butted in after being slandered by others.
"Meh, you're just blaming me for everything! You're not even using your nose and tongue properly! Can't even sniff them off with your prided senses, ptui!" Old Zhu spat at the snake with contempt.
"You fucking swine!"
As expected, a brawl broke out because of their verbal war.
Jiro and Emi, on the other hand, shook Aya and Ren to wake them up from their slumber.
Ren woke up with a deep frown on his face, his messy hair covering his dull eyes. "What?"
"They're already outside," Jiro informed them in an agitated whisper.
"Let's just wait 'til they break the doors, then let's jump out of the window," Ren muttered before diving back to the mattress.
Jiro was utterly speechless at Ren's nonchalant remark. 'Damn, a just-woke-up Ren is not reliable at all!'
Emi, though, caught the meaning behind Ren's plan. She hurriedly opened the closet and picked up five hanging dresses.
"What are you doing?" Aya asked, helping Emi separate the dresses from the hangers even if she didn't know what they were for.
"There are wires near the window that are connected to the opposite building. We'll use this," Emi said, raising the hanger, "to transport ourselves."
"Wow, like in the movies? You know, like zip lines?" Aya was slightly thrilled as she picked the sturdiest hanger out of the four. "Should we try it out? Let's test whether the wire is sturdy enough to carry our weight," she added with a grin.
"Yeah," Emi agreed with her. "Later, though. They're still outside right now."
"Of course." Aya rolled her eyes jokingly.
Jiro simply watched as they conversed about it. He held tight to his own hanger before using it to poke at the snoring salaryman. "Hey, wake up."
"Nnn..."
"This is not the right time to sleep, Ren!" Jiro continued poking the resting tiger with an annoyed expression in his face. If only this guy wasn't vital for his life's longevity, he wouldn't spend time waking him up, okay?!
Jiro's inner monologue was cut off by Emi's sudden hush. Jiro looked back at her with a 'what's-happening?' look.
Emi pointed at the animals below. "They're going in," she mouthed without a sound.
Jiro and Aya's eyes widened at that. Once they confirmed that the beasts were indeed slowly marching inside, Emi opened the bedroom window to test the wire. She pulled it here and there before tugging it downward in a strong motion.
"It's safe," Emi whispered with a thumbs up.
This served as a cue for Aya to line up after Emi. The order was like this: Emi, Aya, Jiro, and Ren (if Ren ever wakes up along the way, that is).
"I'm going to try this first, and just in case it succeeds, I'll assist you guys once you arrive safely," Emi reminded them as she positioned her foot on the window's lower frame. "The blockage at the door that we did beforehand will give enough time for all of us to travel. As much as possible, use all of your force to swing forward. Understand?"
"Yes!"
Emi nodded at the two before she took a quick glance at the peaceful figure of Ren. She heaved a deep breath before finally facing the opposite building. Emi hung the hanger on the wire tightly, her lips pursing in an adrenaline rush. "Let's do it!"
She applied all of her body weight to her foot as she pushed herself off the window, moving forward while grasping the hanger. Emi then swayed her body back and forth, her legs swaying on air as she attempted to travel smoothly across the wires.
Jiro and Aya watched the woman with hopeful and tensed eyes. Aya wasn't even aware that she was already clutching the window so tight that her palms were left with scratches.
Emi solemnly landed her feet on the other building's window, her expression serious as she rolled inside after removing the hanger from the wire. Her heart was beating so fast from the adrenaline rush. Her face was flushed red as she gasped for more air.
After a moment of recovery, she finally signaled the others by giving a thumbs-up.
Aya gritted her teeth as she crawled out of the window. Jiro had to look away, as it was extremely awkward to see a woman in a red dress doing it. "I'm ready," she muttered before pushing her feet off the windowsill, just like Emi did.
Her travels were smooth despite her nervousness. There wasn't anything strange, and the wire seemed reliable enough that Jiro couldn't help but sigh in relief. He was about to walk towards the window to take his turn when he suddenly remembered something important.
'Ah, right. There's still that screwed person,' he thought with a deep sigh. Jiro turned back and glared at the sleeping man on the mattress. This time, he did not hold back and threw a kick at Ren. Much to his surprise, Ren actually caught his leg before pulling him sideways as if to throw him away.
Sensing the upcoming danger looming down on him, Jiro then instinctively exclaimed at Ren, "Wait, Ren! Don't kill me!"
This seemed to work on the sluggish young man. Ren slowly opened his eyes before his gaze drifted to Jiro's leg, which he was grasping tightly. Just like what he did before to the hero when the hero tried to choke him to death while Ren was sleeping. Born out of this was his reflex to threaten those who had the intention to harm him.
Ren squinted his eyes at Jiro's scared, stiff face as he gently released the teenager. "Don't come giving me physical attacks while I'm asleep next time. You don't want me choking you to death, don't you?" he said in a casual tone, stretching his hips and arms as if he were simply waking up on a normal day.
Jiro bobbed his head up and down with pursed lips. He unconsciously rubbed the part of his leg where Ren touched him. Upon seeing the bluish-black marks on his skin, his face turned pale. 'Damn, he was dead serious about killing me. If I didn't shout at him, he would have broken my bone.'
But who was to say that Jiro's shout was left unheard of by the animals downstairs?
"There's someone upstairs!"
"Hey, isn't this your turf, Old Zhu? Do you have visitors in your apartment?"
"Meh, he doesn't have any relatives or friends; who would be stupid enough to come and visit this swine?"
"You fuckin' snake, you're really pissing me off big time today!"
Jiro stiffened at the nearing voices of banter from the floor beneath theirs. He hurriedly tugged on Ren's sleeves with a horrified expression on his face. "Ren, I can't move my leg. Fuck."
Ren sighed. "Okay, get on my back. I'm going out of the window, so hold on tight."
Jiro obediently nodded his head as he threw himself on Ren's broad back. "I'm ready!"
"Here we go," Ren whispered with a wide grin on his face. He walked out of the window while looking back at the bedroom door. It was as if he was waiting for something interesting to happen.
Feeling like Ren was going to do something unexpected again, Jiro carefully tugged at the salaryman's neck. "What are you waiting for?" he hissed at Ren with a frown.
"Guess," Ren replied, his voice laced with a hint of mischievousness.
Jiro did not dare to guess, for Ren has consistently been unexpected ever since the moment they met.
Truth be told, Ren stayed still near the window as he waited for the animals to break into the bedroom. The apartment's door and living room were gradually being ransacked by the beasts outside. They were now sure that there were humans inside Old Zhu's apartment. The smell of humans was too pungent and distinguishable for them to ignore!
Soon enough, the group finally entered the living room with aggressive growls and hisses. Their stomach hurts from the intense hunger after sniffing too much of their fresh food's scent!
They quickly marched to the unprotected bedroom door. The moment the door was kicked open, Ren gently stepped on the window sill. His body was outside the window, but he suddenly stopped moving to playfully give them a joyful wave of his hand.
"Hi, friends. How about you guys play with me instead? My meat is probably S-grade!" Ren was grinning from ear to ear as he stared at the angered looks of the man-eating animals. "Catch me if you can!"
And then Ren, together with the pale-faced Jiro, skillfully skipped away from the window before bouncing off to the building beside Old Zhu's apartment. Aya and Emi watched in confusion as the two males suddenly jumped away from their building.
'What...? Is he trying to distract them from our location?' Emi exclaimed in hushed wonder. 'Is he crazy?!'