The doors of the food truck flung open after several slashes from Jeffery's sword to its lock, revealing a pretty bizarre scene that left the onlookers' mouths and eyes agape in shock.
When the door flung open, they expected to be greeted by the comforting sight of food supplies but instead encountered something entirely unforeseen — inside the truck, three male students in Starmap Academy uniforms could be seen bound to wooden chairs with thick ropes and black gags covering their mouths, blood trickling down their faces from numerous bizarre wounds resulting from a severe beating.
Two of them were unconscious while one managed to remain conscious, his eyes weakly staring in the direction of Dorian and the others as he pleaded wordlessly for help.
"What the fuck happened?" James was the first to react.
"Who on earth could've done such an evil art? Look at their bodies," another reacted.
Dorian frowned, remarking, "This rope, it's strangely similar to the one that the zombie was bound with to his bed in the dorm when we were clearing it."
That day, Dorian had no clue as to what was happening, but he believed that the truth would come out very soon, though certainly not this soon, as it hadn't even reached twenty-four hours.
Dorian decided to check the stats of the three students — they were all level 0s with the same basic warrior class. It seemed they hadn't gotten the chance to slay any zombie since the apocalypse began, which only meant they were already captured before the apocalypse.
"Someone help them," one of the young ladies in the group let out.
"I don't think we should, what if those wounds were dealt by zombies?" Jeffery responded almost immediately.
"There is no way a zombie could've entered the food truck if it was locked when we came in; this is one hundred percent the handiwork of a human being — not just any human being, but someone who had access to our school," Dorian responded without taking his eyes off the captured students.
His suggestion was immediately accepted as the students quickly processed the situation and realized it was true.
James climbed onto the truck, Dorian and two other students following right after him. James and company first did a check on the two unconscious ones and, luckily, they were still alive. After confirming this, they began untying the ropes.
Dorian went to free the conscious student, he untied the ropes binding him before removing the gag.
*GASP
The male student gasped for breath after the gag was removed and coughed out several mouthfuls of blood as his body struggled to regain balance. As he coughed, his body gradually lost the last bits of strength keeping him conscious, and he almost fell from the chairs.
Dorian acted quickly to prevent him from falling and injuring himself further.
"If you can speak, please tell us what happened here, who did this to you guys?" Dorian asked.
The male student continued coughing, though it wasn't as severe as it had been at first.
He nodded his head to Dorian's questions.
"I–it was…" he stuttered painfully.
He appeared to be using his last bit of strength to speak.
"P-please, we w–we need to leave before they get back…" he said in a fearful voice while looking into Dorian's eyes.
The fear in his eyes was evident as he spoke, as though he had just seen a terrifying ghost.
Although his voice was low, his words reached everyone's ears, and they began to wonder what sort of people he had encountered to instill such terror in him.
"Can you tell us who these people are?" Jeffery asked.
He had been standing beside Dorian all this while.
The helpless student shook his head weakly as the last bit of strength left his body, and he began losing consciousness at a rapid pace before finally fainting in Dorian's arms.
Dorian held his unconscious body up, and Princess carried him out of the truck. James and the other guy took out the bodies of the other two unconscious students.
"This is really strange, it appears to be a case of kidnapping, but why would the kidnappers transport them on the food truck supplying food to the school?" James shared his confused thoughts.
"Maybe these were done by a stranger, and the truck drivers weren't aware of what was in their truck," one student replied.
"How can that be? The food trucks naturally go through so many security checks even before leaving their pick-up point and even before they enter the school, and the security at the gate would perform another stop and search," another student retorted to the first speaker.
"So what is your explanation then? 'Cause I'm as confused as every other person here right now."
The student went back and forth for about thirty seconds, but none were able to arrive at a definite conclusion explaining the situation.
Even Dorian could not discern what was happening, everything was as confusing to him as it was to every other person.
"I hope this is not the same for the other two trucks — if it is, then our efforts were all for nothing," said James.
"Noise was coming only from the one we just opened, I can't hear any from the others, so I'm sure they are filled with food supplies," Jeffery replied, and then he went to open the other trucks with his sword.
The first truck he opened was filled to the brim with food supplies — there were several baskets of fruits, crates of eggs, bags of rice, and many other provisions, including the much-needed spices for cooking.
The group let out sighs of relief upon seeing the bulky food supplies, they then proceeded to the last truck, and thankfully, it was filled with another variety of food supplies.
"Who amongst us can drive these trucks?" James asked.
"We can drive," the other twin on the team declared, raising their hand.
"Me too," Brandon added, raising his hands as well.
"Great," James nodded and turned to Dorian, "You said you have other team members, right?"
Dorian nodded, and together they devised a plan: they were going to drive the three trucks into the academy, and the vehicles would prove useful in the future for transportation.
The food truck where the captured students were found was immediately cleansed by the triplet mages who possessed a water magic affinity. After it was cleansed, Dorian and the other students climbed in, and they set out for their destination, where a predicament awaited.