Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 78: Extra Helping Hands

'Dammit! I didn't expect that he would actually asked us to work for him at looting supplies and rescuing survivors!' Prince Ashton and Brock both had the same thoughts as they cursed in their minds.

Thinking that they are actually helping a possible enemy in the future to amass a force and food made them bitterly smile to themselves.

"*Sigh*" Prince Ashton let out a breath and then started picking up packed cup noodles, sugars, salts, peppers, etc. Nothing was left behind as they went back and forth between an eight wheeler silver colored cargo truck and the grocery store while they are helping Leo help loot supplies, Leo was instead standing outside keeping a lookout while lazily yawning and would kill some zombies from time to time if they get near them.

'Hehe, fools. I'll worked you guys to death before we arrived back at the camp!' Leo had his back turned towards them so they can't his huge silly smile plastered on his face.

'I didn't expect that there would actually be a time where I would order around a Prince, much less a prince from the Royal Family' Leo laughingly thought.

"Mister, we're done here"

The voice Prince Ashton sounded behind Leo and when turned to looked back at him, Leo noticed the scowl on Prince Ashton's face, the face of a girlfriend who felt somewhat wronged.

Leo smirked and thought, 'Ohh, I just wonder what your faces would look like when you found out the person you're looking for is actually me, Kyahaha~!"

Seeing Leo's smirking at him made Prince Ashton uncomfortable, 'Shit! Don't tell me this person is into men!?'

"Come on! To our next stop!" Leo said as he hopped on, on his bike. Following that, the soldiers immediately got on in their own vehicles while Brock drove the cargo truck along with Prince Ashton as they followed behind Leo.

Surprisingly for them, every road that Leo choose would be deserted with no zombies in sight but would have abandoned vehicles instead blocking the road where they would be forced to come down from their vehicles and pushed the abandoned vehicles aside, just enough to have a clear road towards the other side of the road while sometimes the road would have sparse zombies that does not pose any threat.

'I'm really thankful that I have a real time map as part of the system that I could avoid the places packed with zombies. Of course, I don't mind killing them but it takes too much time doing it' Leo thought while driving and he would check the map from the upper corner of his eyes if there are any changes, like a mutated zombie charging towards them.

Leo and his so called group are currently moving through a gated community where Leo saw that there are a lot of survivors inside some of the houses, he even saw someone watching them from a window but when they saw that Leo noticed them, they would immediately pull back curtains as they are clearly afraid.

"Stop!" Leo stepped on the brake while raising his hand as he stopped as the others also slowly came into a halt.

Leo got off from his bike while Prince Ashton and Brock slowly came over to Leo and the other soldiers also got down from their vehicles and immediately surrounded it to prevent from suddenly getting ambush.

"Why did we stop?" Prince Ashton asked while cautiously watching his surroundings.

"There are survivors inside those houses, send your men and asked them if they are willing to follow "me" to a safe place" Leo said while pointing to the houses that have people inside while specifically referring to himself if the survivors decides to come with them.

Brock was curious on how he even knew there are people inside but didn't bother to asked as he just regarded it as probably one of his abilities as mutant and then ordered his men to do what Leo asked after getting the the go signal from the Prince.

"But don't force them" Leo added when the soldiers passed by him and the soldiers just nodded as slowly walked over to the houses that Leo pointed in groups of two.

While Prince Ashton instead walked back at the truck they were on earlier and took out a packed sandwich called Sainsbury's Chicken Salad Sandwich and started eating it as he walked back towards Leo.

*****

"What should we do!? I repeatedly told you to stay away from the windows if there are outsiders here but you didn't listen and now, there are armed people coming over to our house!" a middle aged woman who has light blonde started panicking as she started pacing back and forth in a bedroom.

"R-relax, I'll take care of it" her husband stuttered and tried to show a tough front as he picked up a golf club and started cautiously walking downstairs.

"W-wait for me!" the woman panicked when she realized that she was all alone in the room and hastily ran up to her husband downstairs.

Outside of the house, two soldiers walked towards the front door and one of them knock.

Knock~ Knock~

"We are the personal guards of Prince Ashton of the Royal Family" the soldier who knocked said and then he added, "We are here to rescue survivors like you and escort you to a safe place. Please open your door if you're willing to come with us, you guys only have a minute to decide and after that, we would immediately leave" after he said those words, silenced reigned as no one answered.

"Was that okay?" the man turned to his companion and asked in a low voice.

"Don't look at me, I don't know but you sounded like a salesman though so I think....it's passable?" his companion replied as he wasn't sure about it too.

A few meters away at the other side of the door.

"W-wait did they say they are the personal guards of Prince Ashton?" the middle aged man had a shocked look on his face as he was already to swing his golf club at them if they try to barge inside.

"They did say that, so shall we open the door and leave with them? I heard that Prince Ashton is a nice person" the wife asked her husband as she didn't know if they should leave with the soldiers or just stay here at their comfort zone, their house.

"Nice? Those are just rumors. We don't even know him personally how do you know he's actually nice?" the husband said in disdain but didn't lower his guard.

"Then are you saying that we should stay here and wait for our deaths? You should know that we are already running out of food here" the wife scowled as she replied angrily.

"T-this" the husband was suddenly put into a dilemma as he finally remembered that they are already running out of food.

When the man saw the pitiful look his wife is in, he sighed to himself and gave her a hug which startled his wife but the latter immediately hugged him back after that.

The man then separated from her and walked towards their front door and held the door knob but he paused as he looked back at his wife who nodded at him.

"Alright, I'll open the door! If you guys do something stupid I will fight you to death!" the man yelled as he slowly opened the door just enough for the half of his face to be seen.

"You said you would bring us out of here and get us to a safe place?"

"Yes, so immediately pack up as we would leave immediately" one of the soldiers showed his most sincere smile when he saw half of the man's face cautiously looking at them from the other side of the door.

The middle aged man didn't answer but instead started looking back and forth at the two soldiers which lasted for only a moment and the man said, "You guys won't hurt us, right?"

"We certainly won't" the other soldier reassured him.

The middle aged man then sighed to himself before saying, "Alright, please wait for us while me and my wife packs up" after that he closed the door and even locked it. He then told his wife that they are going with them and asked her to immediately packed up their clothes and along with anything useful for them.

The same scenes happened to the others where the residents were cautious of them.

Some decided to follow the soldier and try their luck outside and leave the comfort of their homes while others rudely rejected and some even cursed at them from which the soldiers didn't mind but instead cursed in their hearts, 'Heh, let's see if you don't regret it then'

Leo had the survivors occupy the vacant seats of the vehicles and when Leo heard that there are others who wanted to stay put while some even cursing the soldiers. Leo didn't get angry and instead sent them his prayers and he even generously left a liter of clean water and a packed of cup noodles and some canned foods.

After that, Leo left them for a bit and started going to the abandoned houses and started looting useful things for the camp like cooking utensils, some spices, garden tools that are passable as weapons and even dining sets wasn't spared, he even had the gall to loot the houses that was just recently abandoned a few seconds ago.

Leo was like a bandit stealing stuff in broad daylight without any care at all at his surroundings especially the ugly looks of the rescued survivors seeing that their homes for almost half of their halves are being ransacked in front of them and they can't do anything about it but just watch.

After a few minutes later, Leo finally got out from the last house around where they stopped and stretched himself before walking to the rest of the group like there was nothing wrong.

"Let's go!" Leo smiled as he ignored the ugly look of the prince and got on his bike as he turned it on.

Prince Ashton was feeling ashamed at what Leo did as he won't he found out that his guards actually used his name while trying to convinced the survivors to leave with them which would have been okay for him but what Leo did made him looked like a Bandit Boss as he tried to ignore the stares of the rescued survivors as he got on the truck as they finally resumed their journey.

All in all, Leo rescued seventeen people divided into five families, food supplies that would last at least a few months for the camp, some building resources and long with.ten sets of dining tables and chairs, some cooking utensils and table wares.

"Humm...Humm" while Leo was humming a happy tune, inside the truck just following behind him was a prince yelling his frustrations for having his reputation and image being ruined in the eyes of the people they brought with him but Brock immediately made him realized that the people they picked up won't be coming with them if they get back at their base and would instead follow Leo as they were his responsibilities and rescuing people was his idea all along and hearing his explanation, made the prince sighed in relief but the dark look on his wasn't disappearing yet as he still felt indignant inside.

'F*cking asshole!' Prince Ashton cursed while staring angrily at the back of Leo.

Brock just sighed and shook his head, seeing his actions, 'Even a prince would have their bad days I see'.

Of course Leo just ignored what was happening behind even though he clearly them but instead felt laughing to himself when he gave them his condition before.

'Hooo~ Rescuing them was really a great idea as having extra "helping hands" isn't that bad of an idea'