Chapter 10

10 "Ahah!! I see you have killed him, now we are even," Beauty said, a disturbing giggle escaping her lips.

"Yes, I did. That should tell you just enough about me," Neo said placidly, attempting to play the formidable and dauntless assassin. He was already on his last legs. It would be unfortunate if she chose that moment to attack, so he had to put some contingencies in place.

"You should understand that there's strength in numbers, right? So why did you kill him?" Beauty said, staring daggers at him.

Neo tilted his head. Beauty's understanding of "strength in numbers" made him shiver. Her concept of strength in numbers meant wraith baits, most especially the ones that would transport themselves to the point of slaughter.

"How sinister."

Neo cleared his throat and replied, "He tried to kill us all, so I killed him first." He tried to maintain his elusive behavior.

Beauty walked up to the corpse, confirmed its death, and with her usual sinister smile, she replied again. "Now that there's two of us, we wouldn't want to do anything silly, right?"

"But of course. That's why you are going to help me with this computer, while I'm going to check the situation outside," Neo replied.

"Ohh, I see. Your plan of escape is quite ingenious," Beauty said, maintaining the same sinister smile Neo already started to loathe.

"Ohh, I see you are getting me wrong, friend. There's no way I'd be leaving without you. There's strength in numbers, remember?," Neo replied, trying to wear his own facsimile of her devious smile.

Neo walked up to the corpse, closed its eyes, and retracted the bone from his heart in one forceful jerk.

"I'm sorry, Scholar. I had to do this," Neo thought inwardly. Leaving the room, he walked outside.

Neo suddenly frowned. There was something quite different about… everything.

First of all, the scratching sound of the wraiths against the barrier in a mindless attempt to phase through them was gone.

Secondly, there were huge dents on the barrier, which Neo suspected was the obvious doing of the mutated monster. Thankfully, the barrier held the onslaught of the rabid monster. It was beyond Neo's imagination to think of what would have happened if it didn't hold. That thought alone made him shudder.

As if reminding Neo of the third abnormality, a drop of rain fell on his nose, making him look straight up. The cloud of rain rose from all sides as if trying to rebel against the moon. A lightning bolt illuminated the world, followed by a thunderous rumble, announcing the coming of the rain.

Without the light of the full moon, they'd be technically blind. He had to report to his untrustworthy counterpart immediately.

Walking inside the dimly lit room, Neo spared a glance at the corpse, sighed, and said, almost simultaneously with Beauty,

"There's bad news."

Neo could have sworn he sensed worry from her voice.

"You go first," Neo replied, trying to mask his own worry to no avail.

"The technology this guy's using is called Complatech. I can only do so much on it, so I'm happy to tell you that I can't switch off this nuclear decontamination thing, and that the gate is opened for only hundred seconds. After that, the nuclear decontamination will activate, making this place go up in flames." Neo's eyes narrowed as he snapped,

"You mean the gate is open now?"

"Yes."

"Then what are we doing here? Let's get the hell out of here!."

"Alright, but not before you tell me your bad news," Beauty said, pursing her lips.

Neo's eyes twitched violently as he replied between gritted teeth.

"You creepy bastard! You will see it for yourself once we get outside!."

"Ohh, who am I kidding?" Neo added, running out of the room with the little strength he had.

Once outside, drops of rain washed away his clouded thoughts as he quickly made out the shape of the barrier door with the help of the moon's light seeping through the clouds.

Once in front of the door, Neo suddenly paused. He just couldn't help but think that the monster was waiting silently for them on the other end of the door.

As Beauty approached him from behind, he felt quite relieved. At least, if the monster was truly there, it would only take one of them, leaving him with a fifty percent chance at survival. Well, if the monster practiced gender equality, that is. But nevertheless, a fifty percent chance of survival at that moment was a generous offer, so he was more than willing to embrace it.

Talk about strength in numbers.

If only Scholar was there, then the stakes would have been higher.

Beauty caught up with Neo, and both of them slowly pushed the door open. To Neo's greatest relief, nothing lunged at them, but what he saw made him shudder.

There were wraith corpses as far as the eye could see, but the culprit was nowhere to be found. This meant that the monster could be anywhere. If the monster had destroyed all the wraiths, then they were next because they also had the virus, but it used to be suppressed... used to.

A seen enemy is much easier to defeat than an unseen one. The feeling of uncertainty was driving Neo crazy. Neo didn't have the time to think about anything else at the moment. He felt that there was a noose around his neck, closing in every second. He quickly searched around frantically, trying to make out the open gate's figure in the darkness. At that moment, he didn't even care about eliminating any threat anymore. His primal will to survive had taken over his thoughts. Let the threat go to hell for all he cared!!

He just had to escape. He just had to live.

A wave of relief washed over him as he found the gate not too far away.

"Ahah!! Salvation!!" Neo almost yelled aloud.

Whoosh!!

He carried his broken self and raced towards the gate. Beauty was running right beside him, but he had already forgotten she existed. There was also a third figure racing in the darkness, but Neo didn't care. Wait!! He did care. The speed of the figure was almost ten times theirs.

Suddenly, the mutant monster stopped in front of the escaping duo.

A loud roar rolled out of its maw, annihilating the sound of falling rain for a moment.

The mutant monster had a face that said,

"Haha!! Where do you think you are going, dessert?"