Colonel Aguilar got a call. The men confessed that they truly had Adam’s family with them. “He is the one that master wants, though,” said one of the men as he pointed at Adam “Well, you are in luck then. Here he is. Take us to him,” Colonel Aguilar said. The men didn’t argue. Two of Aguilar’s men entered Watson's jeep and they led the way. They had not gone far when the colonel’s phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and picked up the call immediately. She kept repeating, “Yes, sir.” “Okay, sir.” “Right away, sir” on the phone in a contrite tone until the call was disconnected. “We have to turn back,” she said immediately. “What?!” Layla asked in shock. The captain sighed loudly and closed her eyes for a moment before saying, “I am so sorry, Lay, but I really have to. My action at the moment is a breach of protocol. I was on duty when I decided to do this. I thought I could help you with this and get back to the facility before they finished offloading the supplies.” “Wh
Foreboding chills engulfed Adam as the men’s whispering conversation went on and on.After they entered the gate only to see more armed men inside, the two men who led them in had told them to hold on at the foyer.Just as they were leaving, a man dressed a bit differently from the other bodyguards came down the staircase and the men who told Adam and Layla to wait quickly went to him.Adam strained his ears to be able to pick out their words, but they were too far away for even his sharpened hearing to pick on.One of the men who brought them took out the note from the colonel and gave it to the man.At a point, the man they were talking to looked over at Adam and they kept talking.Adam’s anxiety grew and he knew that walking through that door would probably turn out to be the worst action of his life.“You should have followed her,” he said quietly.“What?” Layla asked suddenly.“Your aunt. You shouldn’t be here.”“What the hell are you talking about?”The man came towards them.Ad
The bodyguard jumped out of the way right on time.The young master looked up at him with rage.“How dare you?!” he yelled.“I am sorry, sir,” the bodyguard said quickly with a deep bow.“I am sorry, young master,” said the lead bodyguard as he entered. “But master said..."“I know what my father said, damn it!” roared the young master.He turned to look at Adam with vengeance in his eyes. “The stakes have been raised now. This bastard has a lot more to pay for!”“I am sure."“Just shut the hell up!” the young master yelled, and everyone got quiet.Knowing that he probably wouldn’t shoot him again, Adam couldn’t hold back his questions anymore.“Where are my family, please?”The young man let out a disbelieving, short laugh.“Can you hear that? Can you see that audacity?” he asked no one in particular.Then he pointed at the blood patch on the floor again “Sure, why not? They are right there,” he said callously.Adam’s heart thumped painfully as he looked down at the spot, then back a
“No, no. Stop that thing right now, before it puts us in another trouble!” Layla said urgently as she backed away from the rattling sword. While Adam was banging on the door, the sword had materialised. Adam quickly held it before it could ram the door. Still, it rattled in his hands as if it wanted to jump out. “I can't!” Adam snapped in frustration. Sweat ran down his face in his effort to hold on to the strange force of the sword. “What do you mean you can't...? Of course, you can! It is responding to your agitation! Can’t you see?!” “I can see that! Why not do it then since you know so much about it?!” Adam snapped right back. “Where the hell did you even... you know what? Never mind! Just keep it in check before it kills us all!” Layla shouted with fright in her tone. Adam ignored her and concentrated on his feelings. He might not know how to fully control the sword yet but he knew something. The sword acted based on what he was feeling. Adam concentrated on his pain a
“Percy?! I need you to…”“My name is Persephone!” The tow-headed, skinny girl turned back to snap at Dixon. She looked away from him and looked around her unfocusedly as she repeated to herself, “My name is Persephone, and I am not crazy!”“Okay, okay. Good to know,” Dixon responded with a roll of his eyes. With his hands stretched towards her, he said, “Calm your jets. I get it. You are not crazy. I need to know that you know where you are going, though. I don’t fancy getting lost.”She looked at him blankly for a while, then smiled. “You talk funny—the hotel. I know the hotel. Jared said I can’t go anywhere by myself but I can go to the hotel. I know there. I am hungry.”Dixon’s mouth hung open at her erratic way of talking. He still hadn’t gotten used to it.“You are hungry? I met you around wrappers of all kinds of food! How can you... You know what? Don’t answer that. I am hungry too. Just get us to the hotel and I am sure we are going to... well, I will get you something to eat
“Dr. Blair,” Lisa called as she rushed to the side of the coughing woman on the floor.Adam was relieved that the unconscious woman was not his mother, as he had first thought.He watched Lisa help the white-cloaked woman to a sitting position.With her hands held to her head as if she were in pain, she blinked up at Lisa and asked in a thready voice, “Where is the cure?”“What cure?” Adam spoke his thoughts out loud.Lisa looked at him and looked guiltily at the virologist.“I am so sorry, Dr. Blair, but what knocked you out also made me lose hold of the canister. It got smashed and the cure is all gone.”Dr. Blair’s eyes widened, and she instantly forgot her pain as she clutched Lisa’s lapels with both hands “You mean it is all gone? The only solution I was able to extract after so much was gone? My ticket out of hell is gone." Her voice rose in agitation as she shook Lisa with each of her questions.“Okay, I don’t care who you are but I won’t stand by and watch you abuse my sister,
A few minutes earlierColonel Aguillar stood at the head of the throngs of men.She waited expressionless as the scientists made the necessary last adjustment to the tanks they had with them.Outwardly, she appeared calm and unbothered by anything.Yet inwardly, she couldn’t help but think of her niece.What if she had overestimated Cletus's sense of reasoning?What if he didn’t care about her explicit order that nothing must happen to Layla and her friend?What if she had just sent her niece to her death?That would mean failing her sister all over again.Wishing that this assignment would be over as soon as possible, she tried to put all her focus on it.It was a high-risk assignment.She had been directed to Alagan on the pretence of a food courier assignment.As much as she was irked by the sudden assignment that was dropped on the shoulders of her and her men, she knew there was no going back.An order had come from above.All they had to do was follow it.She was sorry for the f
Colonel Aguillar put the phone back in her pocket and sighed a little.“Guess we are doing this?” her lieutenant asked.“You know the answer to that question, Matteo,” Colonel Aguillar said.Lieutenant Matteo smiled a bit, and then he said, “Are you sure about leaving Ralph behind?”“I am sure. This is not a vacation and we will be back soon. I have enough to think of without adding my lieutenant second-guessing me to the mix, you know,” she said, all while changing her tone.Liutennat Matteo became contrite immediately and uttered his apology.Colonel Aguillar wondered why she had a feeling of unease about the whole mission.It was the fact that they had sort of lured her and her men to the facility before telling them that they would be protecting the jets that would fly low into a zombie-ridden city to spray it with unknown zombie-killing chemicals.Or it was because the creator of that all-powerful chemical seemed unsure about it.Whatever it was, Colonel Aguillar was not feeling
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Adam left the house after Theo was buried.Even though Lisa was not happy with the idea, she respected his decision after warning him to stay away from danger and call her from time to time.Layla paid him no attention as he left and in a way, he knew she might never really forgive him.Reminding himself of how much more important the art of survival was to them at the moment than the matters of the heart, Adam became a scavenging nomad.Layla was right in a way after all, if Theo had not been with him, he wouldn’t have died.So he thought of the best plan.To travel alone from place to place, helping those he could and educating people more on how they can beat this thing.He gathered men from place to place, and trained them in ways they could get food, avoid attacks and how they can survive.Soon enough, Lisa and the others made out the first batch of the new vaccine they were working on.It was a vaccine that could mask people’s scent when they are near zombies.They had been able
“Please tell me you were not out here all night.”Adam threw the soil off the shovel and swiped at his sweaty brows before looking back at Lisa.She stifled a yawn as she peered at him through bleary eyes. “You really have been here all night?”Adam smiled as he said, “Pot. Kettle.”“Well, excuse me. I have been trying to think of ways to save lives. What is your excuse?”Adam’s smile was gone as he said, “I have been trying to do what I can to preserve the body of the life that was taken because of me.”“Oh, Adam,” Lisa said in a heartfelt tone as she came closer to him. “She blamed you, didn’t she?”“She was right,” Adam said automatically. “I couldn’t even get the tools yet a man died because of my decision. That is not on anybody, Lisa. It is on me.”He turned away and continued digging again.He ignored Lisa’s approach and continued to dig in a frenzy.His back glistened with sweat in the cold air and the increasing light of dawn brushing the sky.“Adam!” Lisa called sharply when
“So it was your fault!” Layla said immediately Adam finished his narration.She had been holding herself so rigidly as Adam told them everything without sparing any detail.Even as others gasped and muttered with sympathy and shock as Adam explained exactly how Theo had died, she had only stood their with soot and sweat drying on her body.With her arms tightly around herself, she stood still, like she might crumble if she moved.Tears falling from her eyes had increased, but she didn’t say anything.Then, immediately after Adam completed his narration, she blurted that out.“Layla, I don’t think Adam...”“No, it was his fault.” Layla cut Maddy off. “If he had not told him to stop, if he was not so concerned about getting some goddamned farming tools, Theo would still be here with us!”Each of her words dug a dart into Adam’s heart.He had not expected that from her.From anyone else, he could have expected the hateful words coming out of her mouth.But not from Layla. She was...Layla
It didn’t take Adam long to realise that his guess was right.The fiery halo was nothing but a blazing fire.“Who the fuck was making a fire out there?” he wondered as he ran with all his might.He started hearing the sounds of rushing feet ahead of him as well.Soon enough, he caught up with Maddy and some other men also running in the direction of the fire.“What is going on?” Adam asked instantly.Maddy’s eyes widened in surprise as she saw him. Without stopping, she said, “You are back! Good, we are about to find out who the fuck wants to die so badly.”They burst out into the opening to see Jared struggling with Molly!What the… “Hey!” Adam called out in fury.The two struggling figures turned to look at Adam.At least Jared turned.Molly used that opportunity to send her elbow into Jared’s guts.Though her hit didn’t do much to hurt him, he grunted and staggered back a bit.That gave Molly the chance to turn around as well.Her face fell when she saw Adam.Then she looked guilt
Adam recognised the car even before he saw the cutout van behind it. His heart leaped for joy when he saw Layla at the wheel of the car. But then his happiness was tainted by what Lisa just told him. He looked back at his sister just as the car parked. “You are sure?” he asked urgently. With tears in her eyes, Lisa nodded. Adam stepped out of the car. “Adam!” Layla called excitedly as she rushed forward to hug him. The men in the van came down just as Layla realised that Adam was not as excited as she was. She moved back from his embrace and asked, “What is wrong? Were you able to get…” Layla saw Lisa at the back of the car just then. She smiled in greeting and said, “Glad to see you are okay, Lisa.” “Hi, Layla,” Lisa responded in a gloomy tone. That made Lisa’s brow rise in confusion as she looked back at Adam and asked, “What is the problem?” Adam didn’t bother to mince words. “It is Theo,” he answered. Layla automatically looked towards the airplane, where Jeremy w
Hoping that he wouldn’t cause their crash, Adam quickly turned his phone on and searched for how to land an airplane while it was on autopilot.He could see the anxiety on Lisa’s face as she removed her jacket and placed it on him to keep him warm.Silent and morose, Jeremy stared intently at the unconscious body.Lisa looked up at Adam and he could feel the hope dying in her as she asked, “How far to go?”“Not too far,” Adam stated.Not that he was so certain of all the digits and radars on the system.He just hoped they would soon be in Sydney.He was glad for the fact that Theo had already inputted their destination into the control system before the unfortunate incident happened.Adam looked over at the body on the floor.The blood had finally stopped.Lisa had made sure of that.Still, Thomas remained very unconscious.When Adam had checked his pulse earlier, it had been threadbare.Things were not looking good at all.Adam took his mind off the morbid thoughts and focused on sea
Adam ran as fast as his pain-wracked body would allow. The angry shrieks and snarls behind him were thrumming in his head. Even though the sword kept slashing zombies down behind him while following him, the zombies were relentless in their pursuit. At that moment, Adam thought fondly of the chemical the Emir’s men had used on the zombies. He would make it his life mission to ensure they had something like that too. That was if he survived. Which was not looking so likely at the moment. The bites on his body hurt like hell as he ran without pause. The overgrown weeds slowed him down, while the mindless zombies plowed on without stopping. He had to turn to shoot at the closest two zombies that escaped the sword’s reach, even while backing away. The zombies were gaining on him as the airplane came into view. He could see the anxious faces of Lisa and Jeremy by the window as they were yelling something he couldn’t hear. The sword gained him some ground as he quickly climbed th
They started coming from everywhere. The more the zombies that were with them snarled and growled, the more other zombies started coming to join the feast. Adam regretted his urge to stop at that place. As he swung, slashed, and cut, he wished he had never thought of stopping at all. He took no notice of the crazily increasing storehouse.Cores dropped in succession and the storehouse increased in tune with it.Adam was too busy fighting for survival to marvel at the size of the storehouse.One couldn't stand at one side and see the other side of the storehouse again at this point.Adam was sweating profusely as black blood flew yet more zombies poured out of what had once seemed like a ghost town.It was like entering a hornet’s nest. The more he killed, the more they started coming. Theo was holding his own, and Adam was helping him out whenever he could. But when Adam was able to pull out a gun and toss it to Theo, the gun fell to the ground uselessly as Theo shouted, “I don