Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 370. Downplaying Danger

I teleported into our room and conjured up the sandcastle.

HOW LUCKY that there was no furniture, so we HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH SPACE.

It wasn’t that destroying it was really necessary; I just didn’t want to leave anything behind that would let people know that someone had been there.

I am too paranoid for that.

A few seconds later, Henry appeared, and, after hugging me, he happily noticed the castle.

"I have to tell my grandma we are back," I said, and Henry hung on me, telling me that he wanted to come with me.

So we left the room; meanwhile, I found the fingerprint lock really nice to use because it reacted fast and felt relatively secure.

Leaving the room and walking along the corridor to the staircase, the entrance door opened, and the three guys entered as if on cue.

"Kenny!!" Danny’s eyes lit up, and he raised a pile of wood in his arms.

"I got firewood myself! I am a forest man now!"

"Pfft. Okay." I nodded, not missing the strange look they all gave me because Henry hung on me yet again.

They’d probably needed some time to accept him being close to me; I understand. I needed time to accept that as well.

"And what do we have here? Garbage?" I asked Jordan, who suddenly posed sideways at that moment, covering his face with one hand and raising a garbage bag in his other as if he had accomplished something grand.

Henry chuckled, and Danny laughed, but Jordan wasn’t defeated.

"Ethan said a few hours ago that you should take a look at a rat up close, so I caught a... PINK one!!" He looked around as if he wanted applause. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Eww. Is it alive?" I looked at the garbage bag, the fact finally sinking in that I would have to touch these things very often in the future.

It was just... the pictures were so disgusting, and as I discovered while looking at them, I am not that good with things this... hairless.

"Catching one alive—what a joke," Jordan sighed at me as if my expectations were too high.

So it was dead.

"Good job, thank you." I looked at Omar, who shrugged, only carrying a few little branches.

"I also got firewood," he nodded before looking at Henry again.

I applauded half-heartedly before going to the staircase with the others following, and in the end, we were all gathered in front of the door to the throne room upstairs.

I thought the others would pass by, but they didn’t, apparently to hand over what they brought to the boss.

I knocked on the door while looking at Danny.

"Why did you even get firewood?" As he had said, there was no stove here.

"The demon queen demanded it..." Danny shrugged, and his body shook at the thought of my grandma, letting him nearly drop the firewood.

"BAHHAHAHA!" I broke into laughter and opened the door, and we entered.

My grandma, naturally on her throne, and Kitty, naturally on her silk pillow, both whipped their heads to me.

I saw my grandma breathe a small sigh of relief after scanning me. Well, apparently, she was worried regarding my little journey.

Smiling and warmed by the familiar love, I wanted to tell her that I am back when she scoffed at me.

"Did you roll in the sand?"

Wow, the heartwarming moment lasted for about one and a half seconds.

"Yeah, I thought I’d bring a bit of sand, cause I know you like it."

"If you DARE to dirty everything again!!" She didn’t finish her threat, just letting it hover unspoken in the room.

"So we are here. Can we go?" I asked the old hag.

I had heard someone cooking in the kitchen when we passed by, and I wanted dinner now.

"Excuse me, can you let me pass?" Ethan cleared his throat from behind us, and I stepped aside with Henry; Jordan made space for himself as well so that Ethan could get through.

He went behind my grandmother’s throne like the first-class butler he seemed to have become.

"You brought it?" My grandma asked, and Jordan nodded, stepping in front of the office desk covered with a plastic sheet.

Ah, so they wanted to show me directly.

Before dinner.

Good choice.

I moved closer with Henry and the others still holding onto their firewood, and even the staff sergeant appeared.

In the end, everyone stood around the office desk besides my grandmother’s throne, her included.

It’s laughable how she had moved the throne so that it stood in line with the door so she could stare at everyone entering like an almighty queen, when the desk was not in front of the throne but beside it, having no chair to sit on at all.

I think she didn’t place the desk in front of the throne across from the door so that it wouldn’t cover her almightiness.

Anyway. Without a chair that had to be moved aside or a wall against which the desk could have been shoved, we could all surround the trash bag just fine.

Jordan opened it with scissors and regrettably let us see what we shouldn’t have to see.

This pink rat didn’t look like the ones in the pictures on the government site. It looked rather like one of these hairless cats, just bigger and sturdier.

The skin was scrunched up in the face and around the joints; a few spots had some little fluff, and the tail was long and rat-like—ah, and it had a bullet hole in its head.

Absolutely disgusting. I know some people like these cats and would probably like something looking similar...but I do not.

The staff sergeant on the other side of the table took over the explaining, touching the rat without any qualms while looking at me.

"The dark rats are more common; you won’t be able to miss them when you go out; only a fifth of them are pink. Look at these claws." He squeezed the paw of that thing, and I saw sharp claws coming out.

However, they were absolutely thin and formed like needles, difficult to spot for a normal human, especially when these things were in the midst of moving and attacking.

"They see perfectly in the dark, like the black rats," the staff sergeant continued, then he opened the eyelids of the little monster.

It became even more disgusting; the pupils were not round or slit-like but looked as if someone had put out a cigarette in them. It was a checkered circle, not at all symmetrical.

"The pink rats are a bigger problem because of their speed and how silently they move, as well as these." He opened the rat’s mouth, and I instantly saw pointed teeth, also very needle-like, and outrageously many of them. Not in one row, but multiple rows, scattered all over the roof of its mouth with just as many on the lower side, where the tongue should have been.

"The humans bitten by pink rats show rabies-like symptoms," the staff sergeant said, looking at me sternly as he tried to convey the danger to me.

I raised my eyebrows, instantly thinking of zombies and not at all amused that they sent my friends to catch such a dangerous thing just for this presentation.

Henry addressed the staff sergeant, looking at him in surprise.

"The pink rats are the cause of these symptoms??"

It seemed like he had somehow known about that already.

"The military received notice that this should be the case," the old man nodded at him.

"We are showing you this, Mr. Howard, because we wanted to warn you. Don’t let your guard down when you are outside." Ethan pushed his glasses up.

"Next time don’t send my friends, but get it yourself or let it be." I answered sharply.

Ethan lowered his head, while my grandmother instantly came to his rescue, admonishing me for my behavior and saying that it had been her own order.

Omar, standing beside me, wanted to pat my head but stopped midmovement when he met Henry’s eyes. He pulled back again before looking at me.

"Don’t worry, we are able to hunt; we learned more than enough from the staff sergeant."

I glanced at the staff sergeant, who assured me of their abilities before I turned to my grandma and gave her a silent warning not to repeat this nevertheless.

"You are going out to hunt?" Danny diffused the tension and prevented my grandmother from hurling insults, as he asked me in wonder.

"We will come with you," Jordan, who stood beside the staff sergeant, instantly insisted, glancing at Henry uncomfortably.

"You are underestimating me as I am apparently underestimating you." I chuckled and looked at the pink alien on the table.

I thought of the official internet site from the government and wasn’t even surprised anymore.

"The government site implied that the pink and dark rats are essentially the same and mentioned nothing regarding zombies."

Henry tightened his hug around me, and the staff sergeant looked at me with a slight sigh, neither agreeing nor denying anything, but I didn’t need an answer anyway.

"I know," I hummed.

"You aren’t responsible for managing the government site." Everyone acts on orders, not ever looking back to see where and from whom they come.

They will never stop downplaying danger, will they?