We moved closer to the cluster of zombies.
I guided her hands and taught her properly about shooting the crossbow while holding her in my arm. Her hand trembled in fear.
"Calm down." I whispered softly, massaging her shoulder gently to relieve tension building up inside muscles throughout the entire body causing anxiety symptoms.
Eventually, after several moments passed, Saya relaxed completely. Then I began explaining the basics step by step starting from aiming process up till trigger mechanism activation procedures.
"Just press this part." I gently poked between her fingers, "Aim through the scope."
She followed my instructions diligently without uttering a single word, nodding periodically every now and then whenever she understood what I meant.
The bolt pierced through the zombie's skull cleanly. Its corpse floated aimlessly beneath waves lapping rhythmically against shoreline rocks nearby.
Saya screamed loudly in excitement.
"Good girl." I patted her head lightly.
Despite not being trained extensively prior to the apocalypse event happening, she learned quickly. This time, I still helped her, guiding her arms as she pulled the trigger.
"But don't lower your guard. Quickly reload the arrow. The zombies are coming here due to your voice."
Three zombies managed to surface on the beach. Luckily, they were slow enough, giving enough time to reload. Or it was supposed to be so.
Saya struggled to pull the string. She even cursed out loud, but to no avail.
This was the crossbow's weakness. It took time to reload, around a few seconds. Normal people like Saya would even take more than that, especially when panicked.
To those who said the crossbow was a good weapon for the zombie apocalypse, try to reload one first. This was why guns were better because even normal people could reload it easily with a bit of practice.
"Use the handgun on your holster. It's better to change to a revolver when the zombies are approaching."
Saya hurriedly pulled her handgun and fired randomly toward the nearest zombie. I didn't hold her back, letting her practice how to fight herself, but I was ready to slash when the zombie got too close.
Two bullets flew toward the zombie, one hitting the head while the other missed.
"Aim steadily, don't pull the trigger if you aren't sure that you will hit it. And most importantly..."
I waited until the zombies got close, slashing their necks when they entered my range.
"Take care of your surroundings." I finished my advice.
There was no point in shooting randomly, wasting bullets on pointless actions. If she ever found herself facing multiple opponents at once, especially when dealing with slow zombies , conserving ammunition and avoiding being surrounded should always come first priority above anything else.
But that was enough training. I quickly took care of the zombies approaching us.
After killing some, it seemed there were no more zombies.
I pulled a flashbang from my vest and threw it as far as I could. Because I used full strength, it traveled over 100 meters in the distance in just 2 seconds before exploding with a loud sound accompanied by bright light.
That would handle the zombie that got attracted by Saya's gunshot.
With everything taken care of, I looked at her and asked, "How do you feel?"
Breathing heavily, Saya looked at me with eyes full of complaints, "Worst."
"Great. That means you're alive." I smirked, ruffling her hair playfully causing her cheeks to redden immediately.
Saya's face contorted angrily but remained quiet afterwards.
We returned to the humvee and began to prepare for swimming.
Our backpack would also act as a floating device so we would carry them on our back. Ideally, only I had to go to the yacht and bring it closer, and so I suggested that.
"You have done too much for us, brother. Let me swim to the yacht and bring it closer."
Saeko unexpectedly disagreed. "You saved our lives multiple times now. Let me help. I want to do something as your sister."
"Uhm... Sure, okay." I nodded dumbfoundedly.
Honestly, I didn't expect such an insistence from Saeko.
I asked whether she could drive a boat, and she answered that she could. It was relatively easier than planes anyway.
After that, I gave her enough fuel in her backpack, just around 1L in a pet bottle, while she took off her clothes, leaving her in black laced bras and sext thong.
She grinned smugly after noticing my hungry stare, "See you later."
Without waiting longer, she dived into water and swam swiftly toward the ship. I had to bear a suspicious gaze from Saya.
I rolled my eyes, "Yes, yes. Said someone who begged me to fuck her hard in the library while moaning loudly."
Saya's face reddened immediately. She sputtered incomprehensibly and slapped my chest repeatedly while shouting profanities at me. Of course, I simply dodged all blows thrown her way.
"Stop saying nonsense!" She roared furiously at me before pointing angrily towards the yacht on the sea, "Just focus on protecting senior Saeko!"
"I am. You're distracting me." I said nonchalantly, observing everything on the water through the crossbow's scope.
Miss Shizuka giggled at our antics. While Saya turned around with pouty lips.
Fortunately, there were still no zombies around Saeko. She swam pretty fast, and perhaps she could even win a medal in the Olympics for her amazing swim ability. Maybe.
Saeko climbed the ladder and waved at us from the yacht.
"Phew, she arrived safely." Miss Shizuka said while clapping her hand in relief.
"Yeah. Now, let's watch her start the boat engine."
Not long after, I saw Saeko entering the cockpit. The pink yacht moved slightly to the left.
"It worked." I smiled happily.
Slowly, Saeko operated the yacht and moved it here. She didn't put the fuel I gave her so the ship must've had some left before getting abandoned by its previous owner.
When the yacht got closer, I noticed that we might fit the humvee in the back area. Moreover, there was a ramp there, possibly for jet ski. We could put the humvee in that spot and use the ramp to carry the humvee from the edge of the beach.
"Hmmm~ We can bring the car in." I said.
"That's awesome news!" Saya commented enthusiastically.
Fortunately, no more zombies appear, although I thought we might meet some on the sea when sailing.
I couldn’t be more careful than now.