My Sniper System in a Zombie Apocalypse World-Chapter 127: Eyes in the Ruins

Instead of replying, she tilted her head slightly. "Then what about you?" she asked. "Why did all of you choose this role?"

"I can’t tell you," Jaxon said calmly as he held her gaze. "But I have my reasons."

Na-rin let out a small sigh. "That’s not fair, you know." she muttered.

Her eyes shifted toward the others. Cindy and Isabel were openly curious, while Natasha was staring at her with a sharp, watchful look.

Na-rin lowered her voice, leaning a little closer to Jaxon as a faint blush crept onto her face. "...I’ll tell you when we’re alone."

Jaxon had already guessed that much, but his expression stayed calm. "Tell me now."

Na-rin blinked. "...Later."

"I want to know now," he said, cutting her off before she could avoid it again.

Her blush deepened, but when she saw how serious he looked, her expression slowly steadied. She took a small breath before speaking. "I already said it before," she said softly. "I’ll stay by your side."

Jaxon nodded slightly. "You did, twice," he replied. "And I never gave you a proper answer back then."

He paused, a small smile formed on his lips as he leaned closer to her. "Then stay by my side. I’ll do my best to protect you and give you the best I can."

Na-rin’s face instantly turned red. She covered half of it with her hands, clearly not expecting him to be this direct in front of everyone.

Jaxon’s gaze softened for a brief moment, then turned serious again. He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper near her ear. "But you have to promise me one thing."

Na-rin slowly looked at him.

"From this point on," Jaxon said softly, "whatever you see, whatever happens... don’t tell anyone. Can you do that?"

She fell silent for a moment. She seemed to understand that this was related to the secret he had been hiding all this time. Still, she did not hesitate.

"...I can," she answered, giving a small nod. To her, whether she learned the truth now or later didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had given her answer.

"Ahem." A loud, deliberate cough suddenly came from the side.

Jaxon and Na-rin both turned their heads. Natasha was staring at them with narrowed eyes.

"Seriously?" Natasha said dryly. "We’re outside the walls, and you two are having a private moment right now?"

Na-rin instantly looked away, her face burning as if she wanted to disappear on the spot. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Jaxon just shrugged lightly and let out a quiet laugh. "Hand me your weapons and bags."

"Hmph." Natasha snorted, but handed over her pistol and the extra items she was carrying anyway.

Cindy and Isabel exchanged a glance before doing the same, followed by a slightly embarrassed Na-rin.

The items disappeared one by one as Jaxon touched them, vanishing before their eyes. In their place, their original weapons reappeared: Isabel’s M16, Cindy, Natasha, and Na-rin’s pistols, and his own DMR.

Na-rin froze, her eyes widening in shock.

"Wh-what is..." she stammered, about to ask, but then the memory of his earlier words clicked in her mind.

’So this was what he’s been hiding.’

Everything started to make sense, the random appearances of items, how he seemed to store their weapons out of nowhere. A slow realization washed over her, and her breath caught slightly.

Jaxon had expected her reaction. He knew she was smart enough to understand the implications of his ability.

Building his own force required trust, and Na-rin had already proven she was worthy. There were still many steps ahead, but this was the first. "Let’s keep moving," he said calmly.

The five of them pressed forward, moving cautiously through the outskirts. The mission given to them was simple: observe Ironpoint City, the closest urban area to their safe zone, and gather as much information as possible.

Briefings before the mission had been concise. Over the past week, the infected in the city had been behaving strangely, moving in and out of the area as if under someone’s control.

Drones had been sent in to monitor, but the patterns were too erratic to decipher. When a helicopter was sent in to investigate, it was quickly shot down by variants, leaving the military both frustrated and wary.

The group wasn’t expected to uncover the full truth, no one thought they could, but they were tasked to gather every scrap of useful information and report back. Any insight could help the military prepare for a full-scale intervention if necessary.

Jaxon and his group had been trekking through the mountains for over two hours, expecting to encounter infected by now, but they hadn’t seen a single one.

Jaxon’s brow furrowed, his gaze sweeping across the silent landscape. "This is strange... not a single one of them."

"Maybe we’re still too close to the safe zone," Cindy suggested.

"But we haven’t masked our scent," Isabel added, frowning. "They should have picked it up and rushed us by now, right?"

No one answered, their movements grew cautious as each of them became warier than before.

"Let’s keep moving for now," Natasha said calmly. "The city’s still more than half a day away. We’re far from any other town, but we should keep an eye out for a car or something we can use."

The others nodded in agreement, picking up their pace along the narrow mountain path.

.....

Meanwhile, on Ironpoint City. The quiet and stillness of the broken city was disturbed by the faint hum of drones patrolling overhead.

One drone lowered itself to scan a building through its shattered windows. When suddenly, a long, sticky hand, like a lizard’s tongue snapped out from the shadows and smashed the drone to pieces.

The mutant inside let out a deafening roar, though it quieted almost immediately, as if the sound above had been nothing more than a nuisance.

From the tops of the surrounding skyscrapers, variants lurked, hidden in the shadows. Their eyes tracked the drones that had been patrolling the city all week, moving as if they were aware they were being watched.

Whenever a drone got too close, a variant would strike, smashing it or hurling debris with unnerving precision.