"Let's keep pushing... You can save lives in the future to make up for the ones you took," I muttered with a comforting gaze."You were and are still bad at giving motivational speeches," BJ nearly spat out his food after hearing my pep talk.I shrugged. "I try my best."We shared a small laugh, which reminded me of those days when we were carefree and young.We, of course, were still young, but we seemed to have aged a couple of years these past few weeks.I wanted to share the information I heard about the categorisation of the infected with him, but the truck wasn't a private space, and I didn't want anyone to hear our convos.Not having anything else to do, I laid my head back and drifted off to sleep, lulled by the other's voices.=====Bang!A shot woke me up immediately."What the hell is that?" I asked after the alarming wake.The others were awoken by the loud noise as well. I noticed the military officer beside me talking into his walkie-talkie."Darius! What's the situatio
"What is it? What's wrong?" Darius questioned with an alarmed tone.A few seconds passed before he gave a reply. "I... don't know... Maybe it was a tree,"I looked around and could only see trees around as the stronghold seemed to be deep in the forest.I wondered if the soldier had maybe seen another mutated monkey, but there was no indication of them. Also, I didn't feel like that reaction was appropriate, considering we already encountered them in the past."We can't take risks," Darius said and pressed a button on his device. "Private Samuel?""Over.""Notice anything out of place?""Nothing here.""Keep your eyes—"A voice in the background interrupted with a shout."Kiiiaaaarrhhhh!""What is it?"At that same instant, we looked out the windows with expressions of confusion when...The strangest thing I've ever seen since the start of this ordeal appeared in our line of sight.For a couple of seconds, I and the rest whose faces were focused on the window kept quiet while our eyes
[Unedited Chapter]*****Five days...Five days of having the same nightmare replayed each night. I thought it was all over since we were now safe in the stronghold but it only seemed to get worse.Each night, I woke up with perspiration on my body as though I'd been running a marathon.But it was only a nightmare. One that always began with the mutated infected human appearing and crushing the truck that was behind us.Then the infected would get blasted to pieces after the missile hit...This would have been a befitting end for the dream but then I'd find myself standing in the middle of the road where the other truck had been flattened...calling out a single name..."Hannah!"At this moment I would jolt awake with my whole body drenched in sweat as I breathed in and out profusely.The crushed truck disturbed my mental state to the point where I was having nightmares about it every night.I badly wanted to know who the occupants were.What made it worse was that the soldiers were a
[Unedited Chapter]It was like we were in another world. Still, I wondered if it was why we had been separated.Did they think we couldn't control ourselves?"We can't go... We haven't seen Hannah yet."Sofia immediately reminded me. "Maybe she is in another stronghold? Remember, the soldier said that they were others."I knew that. While we had been waiting for identification, I asked a soldier about the other trucks, and he mentioned that only a few had come in before us.Some people had also made their way here themselves.When I asked about the rest, he only shrugged and said there were other strongholds so the trucks could have gone there.Still, I was holding onto the words of Darius, who said that we were all passing the same route, which led to the big question.How did the trucks not all reach the camp, and if they didn't, what was causing their delay?I had counted six trucks then, which meant that two were in the stronghold, one was gone, and the remaining three were missin
[Unedited Chapter]I felt this had been easy for him to say since he was a military personnel. I already viewed people who killed others as heartless...The thing is... I am not you, Darius.To make him get off my back, I nodded and moved away.Now, I was trying to convince Emma about it, but my friend was stubborn."Tim, I understand you," He began."It's just the same with my family. Two nights ago, my mother woke up wishing to hold David in her hands. She wanted my father to return to get him, and if I could at that moment, I would have. Maybe Darius is right—""Emma, Hannah is still alive," I countered. "You can't write her off like she's already confirmed dead—"He shook his head. "I didn't mean that. I'm just saying that..." He looked lost for words and then continued after a few seconds..."She might still be alive, safe in a stronghold. I know the horror we faced on our way is still haunting you, but we are safe now and shouldn't do anything to change that. I'm sure she feels
[Unedited Chapter]"What about the QUAXs?" someone interrupted beside me.His smile and excited tone told made me feel like he had joined for a different reason, "Aren't we going out there with them?"The soldier glared. "Do not ever dare interrupt me! Never try it again!"After a few seconds of silence, he answered. "The battle QUAXs can only be used by professionals who intend to go all the way to battle the infected, which is not our job. It is also in limited numbers, so it can not just be randomly given out.You are a rescue and supply team, and your business doesn't lie with that. Also, the weapons here will be enough. In the right hands, anything can be used to kill!"The battle QUAXs was a good idea, but we were on a simpler task, and we were only going to get more attention to ourselves.I felt, a group with the purpose of gathering supplies and going on emergency rescue missions should be more solo.Although I and Emma would have loved to take our battle QUAX arm with us, it
[Unedited Chapter]The party responsible for this might also have been searching for supplies and had run into some trouble.The next section was filled with fortunately filled with drugs and they began to load them up.Just like the former section, most had been taken but there were a few that looked helpful. As they continued with that, we moved around, alert to any odd noise…which I heard in the next second.At this point, I was about to give Emma signals to tell him that, it might be time for us to move.The others in the perimeters were focused on patrolling around and we would get a window of opportunity soon."What is that?" Someone muttered through the comms. It obviously came from within."What?" One of the volunteers questioned."I can hear a low droning," The initial voice replied. "Can you hear it?"For a few seconds, the comms was a little silent except for the men packing the supplies."I can hear it too!" One of them finally stated.The problem was finding where it was
[Unedited Chapter]"Yeah," I admitted softly. "But I'm also worried my decision will gravely affect others, and I might not be able to fix it."He smiled. "No need to worry about that, let's worry about where we are going.""True... now that I think of it, look at the map," I called Emma's attention to the map."Hmm," He stared at his watch in response."I'm guessing the routes that appear red signify that a high number of infected are cooped up there... the ones that appear yellow must have a lower number in comparison to the red, and the normal-looking routes should barely have any," I pointed out."That makes sense. I'd been wondering since, but the officers never explained that. However, this must have been documented by the military, right?" Emma inquired."Definitely, or they're monitoring it with satellites," I responded."The former is most likely true, and since that's the case, we can only count on the information in the meantime, not in a long run," Emma stated."Hmm, are y