Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 232 Midnight Mayhem and a Hidden Clue

Taking a deep breath, Magnus activated the Fire Crystal and jumped out of the vehicle. He turned back, signaling the rest of the convoy, then looked around.

The cafeteria hugged the left side of the campus wall - it looked mostly intact. On the right, a few hens squatted. Who knew if they were laying eggs or just resting.

Perched on the cafeteria’s roof was a flock of sparrows, each the size of a motorcycle. They flapped about, some hopping, others nesting. The main entrance loomed wide - big enough for three off-road trucks to drive in side by side. Glass doors, once divided between entry and exit, were now shattered. Through the broken openings, Magnus peered in and immediately felt his chest tighten. The entire floor was crawling with rat beasts.

Still unwilling to give up, Magnus stepped inside. Several rat beasts by the door were startled, squealing and scurrying to the sides. When he looked up, his face darkened - a thick cluster of bat creatures hung from the ceiling, their bodies large and black against the beams. The two closest stirred, flapping their leathery wings uneasily.

How the hell was he supposed to clear this place?

Frustrated, Magnus seriously considered letting the Nature Crystal loose for a proper bloodbath. But that crystal burned energy way too fast against mutated beasts like these. What he held now was hardly thicker than a grown man’s forearm.

Killing these bats and rats would drain the crystal faster than jumpstarting a caravan. It wouldn’t even take out half of them before it was spent.

He summoned the Nature Crystal at the cafeteria entrance for the third time before pulling it back into the space at his palm, exhaling slowly. Reluctantly, he motioned to the others and climbed back into the truck. The convoy moved deeper into the campus.

Even if he did manage to clear the cafeteria, it would have been pointless. He couldn’t exactly train the bats and rats to politely exit through the front door. These things were massive - they’d smash a window and bolt, and that building would be good as scrap.

At the football field, a rooster chased two hens around in circles, tearing up the rubber track. The wind from its wings stirred dust across the field before it pounced on one of the hens. The hen shrieked and was pinned under big rooster feathers.

Magnus watched with a scowl and cursed the damn rooster. Lighting a cigarette, he cut the wheel to the right.

He remembered a library past the classroom buildings. Might be worth checking. If that didn’t work out, next to it sat a gymnasium - should be more options there.

No luck. The library and gym were just like the cafeteria, stuffed with sleeping rats and bats. Not a place for humans anymore.

Just as Magnus returned toward the off-road vehicle, preparing to leave again, a light tap sounded from the horn of the rear sleeper vehicle. Barely audible, but that single honk brought a swirl of sparrows diving down from the sky.

Two even dove straight into the steel roof of the sleeper truck, smashing into the rebar and dying on impact.

Something up?

Magnus shut his door and quickly jogged over. The sleeper truck door opened as he got there, and he stepped in fast. A few female team members were waiting by the entrance.

"Captain!"

A petite girl with a pale face and a ponytail called out, "Captain, we just heard - are you looking for a place to collect beast blood?"

"You know somewhere like that?" Magnus asked.

"I do! I’m a student here!" the girl quickly replied.

"Where is it?" Magnus cursed himself for being too caught up in things. With so many girls from Hanford Advanced Finance College in his team, how had he never asked them?

The girl pointed ahead without hesitation. "The underground parking garage - can that work? There’s one under the administrative building. Back when the principal was still around, we always parked our vehicles there!"

"Underground parking," Magnus murmured, and his mind snapped back to that first encounter with mutant beasts in another abandoned parking lot at Springvale University. How did he forget about that?

"Mhm, it’s the underground one!" the girl nodded eagerly.

"Alright. You’re coming with me. Show me the way."

He shielded her with his body and jogged to the lead vehicle. Opening the passenger door, he helped her in first, then got into the driver’s seat and shut the door. "Quick, which way?"

"Okay! Turn left from here..."

Her name was Harper Quinn. She gave directions confidently.

About ten minutes later, Harper pointed ahead. "That’s it, Captain. Over there, next to the academic building. See those two overturned cars? Behind them’s the entrance. There used to be a lot of vehicles down there from when we searched the city."

"Stay here. I’ll take a look."

This underground garage was way bigger than the one back at Springvale. One entrance, one exit. Both rolling shutters had been reinforced. No sign of them being busted in.

Two small overturned cars sat at either gate - still heavy, untouched by fire. Probably helped keep the place safe this whole time.

Magnus stepped over the wrecked cars and reached the door. He pried one side open - an overwhelming stench hit him in the face.

The acrid rot made his eyes sting. With no helmet on and Fire Crystal active, he instinctively staggered back a couple steps.

He waited two minutes for the air to clear, then pulled out a high-beam flashlight from his pocket and slowly swept it inside.

A cluster of corpses huddled in one corner. Maybe ten or more, all half-rotted, leaning on the wall. The state of the clothing barely hinted at their genders. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Reluctantly, Magnus stepped inside and pulled the rolling door shut behind him - didn’t want anything creeping in.

The garage fell into darkness, save for the beam of his flashlight. He moved along the wall, scanning section by section. More rotting bodies came into view. Piles every few meters - some slumped flat on the ground, others leaning sideways against walls, necks twisted...

One beam landed on a woman’s body, torso slumped against the wall. Long hair still clung to her. Her face, eaten through and blackened. She clutched a baby in her arms.

When the light caught the baby’s face, Magnus nearly dropped the flashlight.