After Olivia came back to the camp.

After she got inside, people were relieved to see her back unharmed, after all, most people adored Olivia, she was a good person, and she took care of everyone whenever someone got hurt, but of course not all of them liked her.

Stacey never liked Olivia and was always jealous of her relationship with Jack.

Stacey approached Olivia and said, "I'm very glad you are safe but don't you think that was reckless of you to walk around and make everyone go out looking for you?"

"I'm sorry everyone, I didn't mean to" Olivia said with her head down.

"Sorry!!!, what if someone was hurt looking for you? Is sorry gonna fix that?" Stacey lashed out.

"That's enough Stacey, everyone, I need some time alone with Olivia" Jack interrupted the conversation

Stacey was frustrated, this was a rare opportunity to vent her anger on Olivia, the miss-perfect all the time.

After everyone left, Jack held Olivia's hands

"Hey sweetie, where were you? I was worried sick"

"You know I'm worried about Ray, he has not come back yet, and I wanted to clear my head, so I went for a walk outside"

"Ray and David are fine, don't worry, it's not the first time they have been late, they are probably doing one of their side hustles again, and trying to get some extra stuff to sell"

"I know, but I just have this bad feeling," Olivia said while sobbing.

Jack embraced her and comforted her "Listen if they are not back by tomorrow morning, I will look for them myself, so just take it easy"

"Thank you, Jack, I don't know what I would do without you"

"You know you can always rely on me," Jack said with a confident voice

***

Later that night

Olivia tossed and turned in bed, debating whether to tell anyone, but she was afraid, what if the kidnapper was watching her, and what if there was a traitor in the camp, she could not take the risk, even if it was a small chance.

When she finally made up her mind, she got out of bed while making sure Jack would wake up as well and pretended to be sneaking out of the bedroom.

Jack woke up and said, "Olivia, where are you going in the middle of the night?"

"Don't worry honey, I’m sorry I woke you up, I just wanted some fresh air"

'She must be worried about her brother, maybe a walk outside could put her mind at ease' Jack thought worriedly.

"OK, wait I'll come with you, it's not safe outside to be alone," Jack said hurriedly.

After convincing Jack to go to the nearby lake, Olivia and Jack walked side by side.

They usually go there when they want to have a change of scenery and some alone time.

During their walk, Jack noticed Olivia's weird and distant behavior, she wasn't her usual self, she was oddly quiet.

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"Olivia, slow down what's gotten into you? You seem distracted, what's going on?"

Olivia stopped and turned around, she looked Jack in the eyes before she burst into tears " I'm sorry Jack they have my brother, and I had to do it, I'm sorry…"

Jack was taken aback by Olivia's sudden breakdown "Slow down, what are you talking about, who has your brother? And what did you do ?"

" This guy has my brother hostage, and he wants to…"

Before Olivia could finish her sentence

BAMM!!! A loud bang!

Jack was slammed on the head from behind, blood splattered everywhere, it was Fletcher, he was holding a golf club, as soon as Jack fell, Fletcher kept on slamming the golf club down on his skull, as hard as he could, until there was just a bloody mess of brain matter and hair on the ground.

'I was expecting a tough fight, but this guy is so weak or maybe I'm just too strong, but one thing I'm sure of, he probably never absorbed any cores, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to ambush him, he would have been able to sense my presence.'

Olivia was on her knees in complete shock, staring at her fiance's lifeless body unable to utter a word, not even a scream.

Fletcher stood over the body, wiping his face from the blood and brain matter.

"This was easier than I thought, but I have you, Olivia to thank, God you're just as naive as your brother" Fletcher said mockingly with a big grin on his face.

'Shit, she is in shock ' Fletcher waved in front of Olivia's eyes a few times but got no response.

"Well I guess seeing your lover, murdered in front of you can have that effect," Fletcher said shrugging his shoulders.

Fletcher searched Jack's body in case he had anything useful on him, and while searching, he stumbled upon something interesting, located inside what was left of Jack's brain a round object, marble-like with electric streaks flashing inside from time to time.

'What could this be, is it similar to the zombie cores' Fletcher could not help but remember the monster from Rover Hill and connect some dots, Fletcher always thought it was strange how the monster back then only ate Will's head and left without touching anything else.

'If all awakened humans have these inside their heads, and that's what the monsters want, then that would mean these beads are of some value, and maybe can be used to upgrade attributes just like zombie cores.' all kinds of interesting thoughts ran through Fletcher's head.

Fletcher felt that his guess was correct, but needed to confirm it later.

***

Fletcher dropped Olivia back at the storage building and after tying her down he left and went to the camp.

Now that Jack was out of the way, the rest of the group were easy to deal with.

He equipped himself with a military combat knife, which he looted from the soldiers back then, and sneaked inside, he knew there were four people spread outside the camp on night watch.

Fletcher carefully made his way inside and managed to get close to one of them, as soon as he was close enough.

Fletcher ran straight toward him, the man was startled and tried to grab his weapon, but Fletcher was faster, a knife was plunged into the man's neck, and just as he was about to scream, a hand blocked his mouth, the last thing he saw before dying, was a pair of cold eyes.

Fletcher was akin to a superhuman, he was not only five times stronger and faster than a normal human being but also his reflexes, reaction time, sight, and hearing. He was superior in every conceivable way, so he finished the rest of the guards with relative ease.

Fletcher made his way inside the building and started going through it room by room, Fletcher was like a killing machine, nothing could stop him, any unfortunate soul that was in deep sleep, stayed that way forever, but he didn't kill everyone he left four people, two women, and two men, he tied them down, whatever he had in store for them was not going to be pleasant.

Fletcher spent the rest of the night moving the bodies to a secluded part of the building, they could be useful later.

Fletcher found the group's hidden loot, stored away in a walk-in freezer, to his surprise, they had more cores and supplies than he thought, after counting everything

145 red cores

123 blue cores

35 green cores

10 white cores

In addition to cores, he found a lot of boxes of food and necessary supplies like medicine and such.

'This is quite the harvest, I think hunting scavenger groups is more efficient, I'll build my base of operations right here for the time being'. Fletcher thought joyfully.

He kept all his prisoners tied and locked in a room.

'I'm tired, I have been moving around all night, and I need some rest.'

Fletcher chose the biggest bedroom locked the doors, and went to sleep.