There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 492

Chapter 492: Chapter 485. Fork Road

Zhan stared at a hole in the wall without blinking for ten seconds, before his eyes closed and his head nodded unconsciously. He flinched and raised his head again, staring into another hole for a few seconds, and then his eyelid lowered again.

"Hey," Bassena knocked the spearman’s drowsy head--gently, since the others had been hitting the poor man hard on his head. Couldn’t have one of his warriors turned stupid now, could he?

Zhan gasped and flinched, turning his head here and there in surprise. Bassena shook his head--how could someone guard a camp while being all sleepy?

"Why are you so sleepy? Have you been guarding all night? Alone?"

"Oh, Commander!" Zhan looked up at Bassena in a daze, but he had enough in him to grin at the Saint class. "Yeah, they told me to stand watch last night."

Baseena raised his brow and glanced at the quiet tents. "What--was it a punishment, or did you lose a game?"

"Both?" Zhan laughed in response.

Bassena chuckled in disbelief. "Just go to sleep now before we go again."

"Ooh--are you substituting for me, Commander?" the dulled eyes sparkled for a bit. "What is this? Are you feeling refreshed now? Had a great night?"

"I see that you want to continue on a watch for two ni--"

"I’m going to beeed!" Zhan stood up and immediately ran toward Gus’s tent, leaving Bassena shaking his head in exasperation.

The loud voice invited Zein to come out of the guiding tent where they ended up sleeping in, but all he could see was Bassena in the makeshift pantry, boiling some water. His commlink told him it was only dawn--outside anyway--so it made sense that everyone was still asleep.

"Coffee?" Bassena raised a mug.

"Sure," Zein stretched his body and looked around. Without his goggles though, he couldn’t see anything past the purification device’s light. "It’s been a while since we have a morning to ourselves."

Bassena smiled as he made the coffee, although he missed the coffee machine back home. In this uncharted land, they couldn’t help but use only instant stuff. That comment from Zein, however, made everything feel better. And indeed, it had been months since the last time they hung out in a kitchen, with him making something and Zein watching as usual. A simple thing that brought a sense of peace in the middle of this uncertain darkness.

"Oh, they had installed a beacon?" Zein glanced at the spot near the purification device.

"I told them to," Bassena looked up, at the hole that had completely shut now. "I wanted to try it, although I don’t think it works."

Zein looked at his commlink and tried to send a message to Senan, but as Bassena said, it didn’t get through. It seemed like the signal traveled by air, so the beacon would not work underground.

"Senan would be panicking," Zein chuckled. "I hope we can go out by tomorrow."

Ideally, the Iron Shield should come with them for Zein’s protection. But in this kind of excursion, Bassena didn’t like to go with too many people. Instead, Zein asked them to go scouting in a direction where another shard might be, to see if they could find anything--spotting a Specter or a fragment, for example.

Naturally, Senan pleaded for Zein to give them a regular update about their situation, and he had been doing it yesterday. But he had also told them he might not be able to if the terrain was too bad, so that should hold them back from doing anything rash for three days.

"Well," Bassena put a warm mug of sweet coffee in Zein’s hands and took a seat beside the guide. "Then we just need to find a way out by tomorrow."

The confidence in that voice made Zein chuckle. But just as he said last night, he had decided to trust his esper, so he leaned back relaxedly and enjoyed his morning coffee.

"How big do you think is this system?"

"We have a lot of breathable air," Bassena looked at his commlink, which had been measuring the oxygen level. "So it should be pretty big. My kids hadn’t been able to find the edge of the exit. If this place is as big as the desert above, we’ll have a whole lot of walking ahead of us."

"Nothing new," Zein shrugged. All they had been doing was walking anyway. "No beast?"

"The traces they found were old ones, so I guess we’re safe for the next two kilometers or so," Bassena nodded. "We’ll leave the beacon and the purification device here, in case we need a place to go back to. If..." Bassena paused, considering his next words. "If we can’t find the shards or an exit by tomorrow, we’ll go back here and surface through the same spot."

Zein glanced at the esper and smiled as he saw the slight wariness in the man’s face. He reached out and stroked the rough jaw that hadn’t met a razor this morning. "Sure, let’s do that."

Finding the shards was important, but keeping them safe was more important. After all, they wouldn’t be able to keep looking for the shards if they were trapped here forever.

"A fine sigh first thing in the morning," a chuckle greeted them from behind. "Reminding me of my nonexistent lover."