75: Chapter 66 Destiny!!!

The warehouse was dusty, and a strange musty smell floated in the air.

Kiana pulled the last box of canned food off the shelf, hoisted it onto her shoulder, and walked toward the door.

The box was a bit heavy, but it felt like nothing to Kiana; during those years of wandering, she had carried things much heavier than this.

She placed the box beside a small pile of supplies already stacked at the door, shook off the soreness in her arms, and casually felt the pocket of her jacket.

The thing was still there.

It was a can of yellow peaches, with a glass body and a faded pattern printed around the lid.

She had found this item just now in a corner deep inside the warehouse.

Among the surrounding ordinary luncheon meat and compressed biscuits, it looked particularly eye-catching.

She wanted to take it back to share with Kaiwen; Kaiwen would definitely get tired of eating those dry rations all the time.

Teacher Baishi was counting the quantities inside the warehouse, and several students were packing water into backpacks at the door.

The hauling work was coming to an end, and this trip would be enough for the camp's normal needs for about a week.

The sun had already tilted westward, and the setting sun shone on the ground, illuminating the dead city of Changkong City brightly.

Kiana leaned against the warehouse door frame, looking at the setting sun, thinking about Kaiwen in her heart.

She wondered what she would be doing alone in the camp—maybe reading a book, or sitting under the eaves daydreaming and the like; she was just that kind of person, chatting with people when someone was around, and doing her own thing when no one was there.

Being somewhat dazed and cute, that was also the reason why Kiana was involuntarily drawn to her.

The walkie-talkie at Teacher Baishi's waist suddenly rang.

"Teacher Baishi... Teacher Baishi!"

A very small child's voice came from inside intermittently.

"In the camp... in the camp, there... there are monsters!!!"

Teacher Baishi grabbed the walkie-talkie, and her expression changed abruptly.

"How many? Is anyone hurt?"

"I don't know... several... the older sister who was watching the house... the older sister is hurt... so much blood..."

A sound of impact and children's screams came from the walkie-talkie.

Then there was no sound.

But Kiana had already dashed out; she rushed out of the warehouse gate, stepped on the gravel road, and sprinted at full speed toward the direction of the camp.

Teacher Baishi behind her also called a few students in good physical shape to quickly follow along.

Kiana ran at the very front, leaving everyone else behind.

The wind poured into her ears, and she couldn't hear anything clearly.

She could only hear the sound of her own heartbeat.

Kaiwen, please don't let anything happen to you.

But when crossing a piece of collapsed ruins, Kiana's peripheral vision suddenly caught something in the sky.

It was a dark gray-painted aircraft.

It was flying away from above Changkong City towards the distance, moving very fast, and turned into a small dot within a few seconds.

But Kiana didn't stop her steps; now was not the time to care about that.

...

When they rushed to the camp, the camp was already dilapidated.

A section of the low wall at the entrance had been knocked down.

There were still large amounts of blood stains on the ground.

When Kiana rushed in, three Assault-type Honkai Beasts were roaming among the tents.

They were not large in size, but their claws were still stained with blood.

Kiana didn't slow down, aiming her muzzle directly at the moving Honkai Beast and firing.

That Honkai Beast's head exploded, and it died within the momentum of its body still charging forward.

The second one pounced from the side; Kiana directly delivered a side kick, kicking it against the wall, and then aimed her muzzle at it and pulled the trigger.

The last one hadn't reacted yet before Kiana shot it to pieces with another single shot.

Kiana shook off the remaining smoke from the muzzle and scanned the camp circle.

The children looked like they were alright, but the person lying down by the low wall was obviously seriously injured.

Kiana had an impression of this person, having seen her before when she was at Chiba Academy.

That girl was lying sideways on the gravel ground, her right arm and ribs torn open by the claws of a Honkai Beast, and blood soaked a large area of the ground beneath her.

If not treated, she might not have much time left.

Kiana immediately walked over and briefly treated this girl.

Then Kiana stood up again, her gaze sweeping across the entire camp, searching for Kaiwen's figure.

She walked quickly into the room they used to live in and pushed open the door.

No one was there.

She walked out and began to look around the camp.

Tents, stove, clothesline, the open space behind the bungalow, the edge of the ruins outside the low wall.

Every single place.

Her movements became faster and faster.

"Kaiwen?"

There was no response.

"Kaiwen!"

Still none.

Teacher Baishi also arrived with people; seeing the girl lying in a pool of blood, she did not panic.

She just squatted down, tore open her sleeve, and started performing emergency hemostasis.

Kiana walked up to the group of children huddled in the corner and squatted down.

"There was an older sister with white hair here earlier, did you see her?"

Several children shook their heads blankly.

A little girl sobbed and said, "Didn't see her..."

Kiana stood up again and looked at the few people performing emergency treatment.

The only person who might still know where Kaiwen went was now lying in a pool of blood, unconscious.

"I can't stop the bleeding!! Quick, quickly get me some bandages, did anyone go get the first-aid kit."

Teacher Baishi knelt beside the girl, pressing her hands tightly against the wound, but she simply couldn't stop it; blood kept overflowing outward.

Two students nearby frantically rummaged through the first-aid kit, but the things inside were obviously not enough to handle this level of injury.

Kiana tucked her gun back into her waist and pulled out the communicator from her pocket.

Taking a deep breath, Kiana pressed the switch.

After a brief sound of current, the communication connected.

"Kaiwen?"

Himeko's voice came from the phone.

"It's me, Kiana."

Kiana didn't talk nonsense and spoke directly into the communicator.

"There is a shelter in the suburbs of Changkong City with a seriously injured person inside. She won't last long. I will send the coordinates over, send people over as soon as possible."

Without waiting for Himeko's response after speaking, she turned off the communicator.

Teacher Baishi raised her head, her hands covered in blood, looking at the communicator in Kiana's hand.

"Kiana, were you just contacting—"

"Someone will come." Kiana interrupted her, "After they arrive, take everyone away. Including her."

She glanced at the girl on the ground.

Teacher Baishi held down that deepest wound, temporarily preventing it from worsening further.

"What do you mean by leaving? Hasn't Kaiwen been found yet..."

"I know."

"Then we..."

"You take the children and go. I'll stay behind to find her."

Teacher Baishi looked at Kiana.

Kiana squatted down and helped Teacher Baishi press a torn strip of cloth onto the wound on the girl's ribs.

"It's not safe here. Just because monsters came earlier doesn't mean they won't come again later." Kiana's voice had little fluctuation, "If you stay behind too, who will take care of these children?"

Teacher Baishi lowered her head, looking at the unconscious girl lying on the ground.

"...Can you handle it by yourself?"

Kiana did not answer this question.

She stood up and turned to walk toward the low wall on the outskirts of the camp.

The setting sun was about to go down.

The outline of the ruins turned into a black silhouette at the edge of the sky, and the sky was clean without any movement.

But Kiana remembered.

On her way back just now, she had seen an aircraft fly away from above Changkong City.

Changkong City was a dead city.

Ordinary people wouldn't come here.

Let alone anyone dispatching aircraft in this place.

She only knew of one faction that could freely dispatch aircraft in the Honkai disaster zone.

Kiana's hands slowly clenched.

That box of canned yellow peaches in her pocket hadn't been given to her yet.

The wind blew from the direction of the ruins, stirring Kiana's white hair.

She stood by the low wall, staring at the long-disappeared flight trail in the sky, squeezing out two words from between her teeth.

"Schicksal!!!"

(Talked a bit about urging for more updates...)