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2024-10-29 19:42:56Relief flooded Adam’s heart as his mother picked up the call.
“Adam? Adam, is that you?” She asked hesitantly, then her voice strengthened with hope.
“Yes, mummy. It is me!” Adam whispered with happiness as he cupped his hand against the phone.
The street was still deserted, and all he could hear were shouts from afar, but he didn’t dare speak out loud. “Are you okay, mom?” he asked urgently.
Instead of answering, he heard his mother shout. “He is alive! Caleb, he is alive! My son is alive!”
“Shh, don’t exert yourself, Marriane,” Adam heard his father say as he came closer.
Tears rolled down Adam’s eyes unexpectedly at the joy of hearing his mother’s voice out loud.
She had become sickly lately and had been bedridden on and off for months even before this happened.
Sometimes, her voice would be so weak that Adam would barely hear her.
Yet, they had always encouraged him to not worry so much about them and to try to make a life for himself.
“I will take care of my wife. You take care of yourself,” his father would always say gruffly when he sent money to them out of his meagre earnings.
Adam smiled and repeated again and again that they should stay safe and wait for him.
He was glad to hear from his father that they had enough food stored in the basement for the next two weeks.
Adam then disconnected the call minutes later with momentary relief in his heart.
His parents were doing fine at the moment, but he wasn’t sure for how long that would continue to be the case.
Though his father had been as stoic as ever as he was speaking in his mother’s presence, Adam could hear the tremor in his voice.
Only God knew what he had seen while trying to shield his wife from the horror happening around them.
He needed to get to them as fast as possible.
Maradoit was about 120 miles from Joville. Adam knew he had to be fast about any preparation he might want to make.
Since he had no intention of going back to his apartment to face the zombie that he locked in, he intended to just keep moving and gathering whatever he could along the way.
He also thought of his younger sisters, who were about 200 miles away from Joville.
His sisters were studying math and physics at Chicago University and were still on campus when the zombie outbreak started.
They had been able to call his parents when the school authority first isolated them in the safest building of the school.
They were also safe in the meantime, but their numbers were no longer going through, and Adam knew he couldn’t waste time getting to them as well.
If he could still travel by plane to fetch his sisters, the 500 bucks in his wallet might be of some use, but now, with apocalypse befalling, what could a few pieces of paper do?
Adam thought of what he could do as he started moving stealthily away from the building again.
“First thing first, I must not attract attention to myself,” he thought as he spotted the expensive supermarket that he had not been able to shop at for months now.
“Second, I must get all the supplies I can lay my hands on. Thank God for the storage space I have now. I should be able to keep things away without people seeing them.”
He saw that the supermarket door was left open, and he headed for it without hesitation.
He had to run across the street, thereby exposing himself, but he had no choice.
Thankfully, he was able to cross without encountering any zombies. Though there was lots of blood on the floor, at the counters, and even on the vending machines, there was nobody around.
Adam tried his theory about the spatial storehouse as he stretched out his hand with the image of the storehouse in mind.
The storage space materialised out of the thin air again just as the first time, and Adam reached into it with the sword in his hand.
He let go of the sword, and just as if he had kept it on a shelf, the sword firmly stayed against one side of the storehouse.
Excited, Adam withdrew his hand again, and the storage vanished.
"Cool,” he muttered to himself in excitement.
Once he was sure that no zombie or human was around, he immediately recalled the storage space again and started grabbing things randomly off the shelves and tossing them inside the storage.
One cool ability he discovered was that, as he tossed them inside, the storage automatically arranged the goods into compartments.
Fruits.
Canned food.
Beverages.
Frozen food.
Dairy Products.
Grains and cereal.
Vegetables.
Down to snacks and candy, none were mixed with another category.
With a wide grin on Adam as he momentarily forgot his woes and just did the kind of shopping he had only dared to dream about in a long time.
The sort where he doesn’t have to worry about the price.
As he came to the pastry part of the supermarket, he ignored the blood smear on the once-clear show glass as he reached for the chocolate cake inside it.
Pain flickered in his heart again as he remembered that the cake was Anastasia’s favourite.
He had once had enough to buy it for her, but since things changed for him, she always reminded him of how cheap he was—that he couldn’t even afford something as small as a cake.
He shook himself out of his morbid thoughts and took out two of the cakes for good measure.
He fleetingly thought of what happened to her before firmly shutting the door on any thoughts of her, and he tossed the cakes into the spatial storage a little too aggressively.
One of them entered, but then the other fell to the floor.
The sound, as small as it was, sent dread through him as he quickly looked around to be sure that he was still alone.
Then he looked back at the cake that fell with surprise.
That was when he noticed that the spatial storehouse was full to the brim and wouldn't accept anything else.
Filled with disappointment, he looked around at many other things that he still needed in the supermarket, but he knew that there was no use in bemoaning his fate.
He would have to make do with what he had.
Adam tucked the spatial storehouse away as he saw the clothing area next to the bag aisle.
He quickly stripped off his bloodied clothes and replaced them with black jeans, a black polo shirt and Air Jordan 12 OVO black sneakers.
He couldn’t believe the fact that it took brain-eating monsters and an unmanned supermarket for him to get to wear the acclaimed $100,000 shoes.
It was kind of sad, and he remembered the snotty attendants who had always sneered at him when he spent minutes checking out things he could afford before buying daily necessities in the supermarket recently.
He wished they didn’t suffer much before they died.
He took two more pairs of clothes and shoes, all dark colours, and grabbed a sturdy-looking army-style backpack from the rack to stuff them in before he left the supermarket.
Adam checked the streets well before he ducked out of the supermarket again.
He had not gone far, though, when he heard a snarling sound from his left.
He looked sharply towards the balcony of a house where a couple of zombies were.
A male and a female.
“I can outrun..." His thoughts were interrupted as the male jumped from the two-story building balcony.
“What? They can jump from that high?"
Adam thought in amazement as he started running and tried to remember how he had been able to call forth the orb of blades the first time.
As running feet gained on him, cold sweat broke on his forehead as he was unable to call forth the orb.
“Shit! I can’t die now! Not this way!”
He screamed in his mind as another door burst open, and a teenage zombie lurched out too.
Hell!
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Almost thirty minutes later, after Adam had thought he would certainly end up as zombie food, he was breathing so hard as he watched the two crystal cores that had rolled out of two of the zombies’ shimmer and disappear.Immediately, the spatial storehouse shimmered too and expanded in dimensions twice. 6 cubic metres wide now.Adam waited for the third crystal core to roll out of the adult male zombie, but nothing came out.With no intention to waste his time wondering about that, he quickly left where he was standing.Three things were clear to him now, though.The more crystal cores he got from killing the zombies, the wider the spatial storehouse got.Each core was equivalent to 1 cubic metre. The spatial storage would shimmer and expand according to how many core he got.Also, it was not all the zombies that had the cores in their brains.As he moved farther away from what used to be his home, taking in the destruction on the once-busy roads of Joville, Adam knew that his world w
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THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM Chp 6 - Gallantry Gone Wrong
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I can’t thank you enough, dear reader, for turning the pages until this point. I really do appreciate you for checking out this book, adding it to your library, unlocking chapters, voting for this book, giving this book your gems, and for your amazing and inspiring review and in-chapter comments as well. You are the reason I kept going to this point. You are my strength. I appreciate you a lot. Lots of love and blessings to you! I assure you that there will be more improvement in my writing style, plots, settings, and the way I portray the characters in my subsequent books. I would like to have your comments and suggestions on what you would like to see in my other books. I will appreciate that a lot, and I assure you that I will work hard to infuse your wants into my books. You can check out my other stories on this platform. I assure you that they are quite interesting and much more satisfying too. Thank you so much for being here. KABIRAT ALEEM
- THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM
Epilogue - The Art Of Survival
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
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Chp 227 - Good News
“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
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Chp 226 - The Unwanted One
“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
- THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM
Chp 225 - Layla's betrayal
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
- THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM
Chp 224 - I Knocked Her Out
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
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Chp 223 - Divine View
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
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Chp 222 - More Than A First Aid
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
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Chp 221 - Hornet's Nest
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
