"Hey! Are you alright?" the girl asked Liora when she got no response from her.
The girl looked at the boy beside her and clenched her fist as a thought came into her mind. Her little face became pale with tension.
"Why is she not responding? She is dazed... staring blankly at the front." The girl gulped before continuing her words. "Is she going to turn into a zombie?"
"No! How could she? She is a strong girl, and we did not see any zombie's bite on her." The boy replied in a shaky tone. He was also not ready to see their savior turn into a zombie in front of their eyes.
"No... no, it can't be..." The girl's voice shook, and in an impulse, she shook Liora's body without thinking of any consequences. She knew that humans transforming into zombies were the most feral, and anyone who disturbed them did not have a good ending. But still, she took the risk.
"Whoa! What happened?" Liora asked as she snapped out from conversing with the system and looked at the girl with an incredulous expression.
"What happened?" she asked again.
"Wahh! Wahh! I thought you were going to turn into a zombie." The girl said with tears streaming down her face and hugged Liora tightly.
Liora became baffled as she was suddenly hugged. No one had ever hugged her in the past. Her status was so high in the past that no one dared to casually hug her. Even her imperial mother and father had never hugged her after she had grown up.
The body contact became less and less as she grew up as a princess, and someone hugging her this tightly was out of the question.
Her hands were awkwardly hanging on both sides as she did not know how to comfort the girl. The girl was crying hysterically in her arms while choking up on her tears.
Liora gently lifted her hand, patted the girl's back softly, and said with a small laugh, "How could I turn into a zombie? I am as strong as a bull."
Even the crying girl choked on her tears, and the boy started laughing at Liora's words.
The girl lifted her head and said in a small voice, "I have never seen a girl comparing herself to a bull."
"Hmm! You will see many more astonishing things about me in the future." Liora chuckled.
The girl blushed as she looked at Liora's smiling face and could not help but think how beautiful she was. Her swaying red locks were the most beautiful, crowning her like a queen.
She had never seen someone as beautiful as her, even before the apocalypse. But still, Liora was radiating like a bundle of light in this dark and dreadful atmosphere.
The girl became more embarrassed when she realized she was still hugging Liora and crying her eyes out.
She stepped back and said softly, "I am sorry. I just thought you would also turn into a zombie, and that's why I lost control of myself."
"Also... did someone turn into a zombie?" Liora asked with wide eyes.
The girl's eyes dimmed as thoughts of her family's death and her mother turning into a zombie came crashing down.
"M-My mother turned into a zombie after a zombie bit her," she said, lowering her head.
"Ohh! I am sorry. I did not mean it," Liora said in shock. She never thought a perfectly fine human could turn into a zombie too.
She hurriedly asked the system how anyone could turn into a zombie.
[As the girl said, anyone can turn into a zombie if they are bitten by a zombie or if the fluid in their nails and teeth enters the human body.]
The system's voice rang mechanically without emotion, but Liora felt chills on her back as the thought came to her mind, "Are all zombies were previously human?"
"Ahh!" she gasped as her eyes almost bulged out. A strange feeling crept into her as she looked at the bodies of dead zombies, and pity rose from the bottom of her heart.
This world is not just strange. The end of the world has arrived here, taking humanity to its end.
Liora's face became pale as she now looked at this world again in a different light. At first, she had thought they were just strange creatures who resided alongside humans.
"But nah! She was utterly wrong. If she wants to survive in this strange world, she must learn about it carefully and understand the situation better."
Liora's eyes roamed around her. The ground was dyed in the zombies' black blood, creating a stinky smell. Everywhere lay the ruins of massive buildings. Hardly any buildings were still intact.
The sky was shrouded in a gloomy light. She had a feeling it was not night, albeit it was a scene of day. But instead of a blue sky, she could only see a grey sky as if a veil had covered their entire world, leaving no chance of survival.
It wanted to choke up the entire world on its own.
Liora's face turned stranze as more and more dangerous thoughts came into her mind.
Her trail of thoughts was finally broken when she heard a pained cry. She looked at the girl and boy. She thought they were injured, but their attention was somewhere else.
It was another boy lying in the ground, the one she had seen earlier.
"Wie'r!" The girl and boy exclaimed and hurriedly walked toward him.
The girl cradled his head and started shedding tears again.
"We have to go back to the base. Only the healer can save him," the boy said with distress in his eyes.
"Yes!" she nodded and hurriedly helped him carry their friend on his back.
Both of them looked at Liora and asked with anticipation and some hesitation, "Will you go with us to the base? It is a safer place. No zombies are there."
"Base? Will it provide shelter to me?" Liora asked, tilting her head. She remembered she still had one mission about finding a shelter.
"Yeah! They will provide you with a home to live in. We can sleep there freely without worrying about zombies attacking us in the middle of the night."
"Okay! Let's go," she said. She also wanted to look at this base that could provide everyone with shelter.