Two weeks passed by quickly without much activity. Well, almost.
A small celebration was held when the soldiers of the settlement returned with more supplies and weapons from an abandoned military outpost. Masako was also invited to say a few words. After all, it was she who had retrieved the key to unlock the doors of the base. She declined the offer with an excuse to look after William, even though he was already in a stable condition.
William had awakened but still remained in the medical bay since no one else was occupying the beds. He would stare off into a distance during his waking hours, but still spent most of the time asleep. Masako visited him almost everyday, although all they did was space out with the same hollow look in their eyes. Victor on the other hand, busied himself with more work, making increasingly frequent trips out of the settlement.
Their paths rarely crossed as both went about their daily routine and even if they did, they barely exchanged words other than the occasional nod. Though unsettling, everyone was relieved for the much needed peace.
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The evening sun casted a long shadow of a figure slowly descending from the sky. He lifted a hand over his eyes, shielding them from the glare of the setting sun as he walked towards a destroyed town. It was one hell of a disposal job, but this should be the last batch of concrete he needed to clear.
Victor scrunched his face and raised his hands. A loud rumbling shook the ground as rubble started floating up from the floor. He swung his hands to the side and the rubble followed suit, soaring through the air out of view like a flock of giant concrete birds. Victor inspected the streets littered with gore and crushed bodies. It was enough to make the average man retch, but he ignored them; he was here to confirm something else.
And he had just found it.
Victor walked cautiously towards a hole in the ground barely covered by a melted drain cover. He took a few steps back and violently clawed the air with both hands. A large chunk of ground ripped itself out, revealing an empty space below. Victor walked forward and looked over the edge. A long train track spanned beneath the ground; its well oiled surface indicating that it was not just an abandoned railway track. So I wasn’t imagining things; a train did pass by underground that night.
Victor could practically smell the giant lump of metal that lay ahead of him. He raised a hand almost unconsciously, and images flashed through his mind intermittently like a glitched out video.
I’ve lifted this before…? When? Victor fell to one knee, his head throbbing as he racked his brain to relive the abnormally strong sense of Deja Vu. He stared at what remained of the crashed ship, realising there was a gaping cavity in his memories. No point trying to recall it now. Victor’s attention drifted back to the yawning hole in the ground.
A large part of him wanted to jump in and see where the tracks led to; to try and jolt his memory, but he decided against it. There was no telling what waited for him at the end, and he was not about to risk his life trying to find out. Not all by himself, at least.
The geokinetic man mentally pushed against the ground, feeling the weightlessness once more as he floated up and soared back to his home.
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Meanwhile, back at the settlement…
Masako stared blankly at her dinner plate. Fish and spinach again. She was in no place to complain, considering her living conditions were much better compared to most of the world. But she really was in no mood to eat, and having the same tasteless thing for her dinner five days in a row was not helping.
“Hey, anyone sitting here?”
Masako looked up to the source of the voice. A freckled boy with brown hair was smiling politely, motioning to the empty seat beside her.
“O-oh uhm, yeah sure,” she stuttered, motioning to the seat.
“Great, thanks. I’m so glad they shifted dinner time earlier today; I’m starving.”
Masako continued staring at her food, mustering the will to lift her fork and begin.
“I’ve been seeing you around lately, but I never got a chance to talk to you. Which floor do you live on?” The boy turned to face her, setting his empty plate aside.
“E-eh?” Masako replied reflexively, taken aback by his forwardness. “Uhm, the seventh floor?”
“Wow, that’s reserved for the most important people in this place. You must be really skilled. So what do you do?”
“I- Uh… I-I’m an electrician,” Masako lied, avoiding eye contact with him.
“Wow I didn’t think a girl like you- Uh…. I mean… That sounds really impressive.” The boy laughed sheepishly, swiping his hair from his eyes. “Ahem, I’m a hunter. The food here kinda sucks, eh? Perhaps I could bring you on one of my hunting trips…”
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His voice trailed away awkwardly as Masako stared at him.
“I’m Brett, by the way-”
“And I’m not interested, boy.” Masako cut him off coldly, turning back to her food.
“B-boy?!” he exclaimed indignantly. “I’ll have you know that I’ll be twenty one years old this year!”
“And I’m twenty six.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have guessed. I thought you were younger; you’re pretty cute for a twenty six year old.”
Masako quickly turned away as she felt her face burn. Gosh that wasn’t even good, how did I fall for that…
Brett smirked victoriously, but his expression quickly darkened. “I need your help-”
BANG!
A deafening sound shook the dining hall, saving Masako from having to deal with the boy’s awkward pick up lines any longer. Murmuring spread throughout the dining hall as curious people rose from their seats to see what caused the sound. Masako flinched as the same explosive sound but this time louder, rang out again.
“Oh my god…” Brett whispered as he walked up beside Masako, looking in horror at the huge holes in the wall that fortified the settlement.
“Are those… TANKS?” Masako pointed at some metallic objects moving away in the distance.
“Oh… MY GOD, RUN!” Brett bellowed, grabbing Masako and running for the escalators. Murmurs turned into screams as zombies started pouring into the settlement through the holes punched in the wall. Masako followed Brett’s lead, jumping over tables and chairs as the zombies tackled the slower survivors.
“The stairs, take the stairs!” Masako screamed, shaking off Brett’s hand. He slipped as he changed direction abruptly, barely avoiding the narrow clogged up escalators which quickly became a zombie buffet. Brett scrambled backwards, dodging a stray zombie lunging for him. It missed and landed between his legs. He wasted no time, taking out a hunting knife from his jacket and stabbing it in the head before it could make another move.
“You alright?” Masako asked, helping him up. “Let’s go!”
“Go where?”
“To the roof!” Masako called out without turning back, breaking into a full sprint to the staircases. The rushed footsteps behind her got softer as the boy fell further behind by the second.
“C’mon, hurry up!” Masako yelled, beckoning to him as she held the doors to the staircase open. Brett dashed through the door right before Masako slammed it shut in front of the chasing zombies.
“What the hell? You’re freakishly fast,” he panted. “Are you-”
Masako ignored him, running and leaping over entire flights of stairs without breaking a sweat. She reached the roof a few seconds later and tried to open the roof doors, but they only rattled loudly in response. Brett reached the top of the stairs a few moments later, panting even more as he slowly trudged forward.
“Oh bugger it, they’re locked,” he said, shaking the doors pointlessly.
“Please move out of my way.”
“What-” Brett turned around but quickly jerked backwards. Masako ran forward and kicked the doors clean off their hinges. The two survivors rushed out onto the rooftop, greeted by a large helicopter just about to take off.
“Huh, what’s going on?” Masako yelled over the deafening drilling of helicopter blades.
“Alexei, what is the meaning of this?” Brett shouted at the tanned man sitting at the passenger’s seat. Alexei scowled, before suddenly reaching for the mounted machine gun beside him.
“NO-” Brett screamed, but Masako pushed him aside. Alexei changed his target, aiming at her instead. Masako closed her eyes, bracing herself from the hail of bullets about to hit her. But they never did. She opened her eyes incredulously.
A thick shield of water was rippling in a violent but controlled manner in front of her, catching the bullets in its currents. William, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere, was standing behind her with someone else clad in a dark blue armour.
“We only got one shot. Ya ready?” he asked, focusing on the wall of water. A flash of white danced in front of Masako’s confused eyes as the masked girl flipped her hair, reaching for the crossbow on her back.
“I’ll be, when you give me the opening,” a familiar voice said from behind the mask as she loaded her weapon and aimed it forward. A small hole opened up in the water briefly, just enough for the red nocked arrow to fly through. It struck Alexei in the shoulder and he yelped in pain, falling out of the helicopter.
The helicopter pilot immediately engaged the controls and flew off without him. It quickly soared out of view as the others ran forward.
“No! No, wait for me, you selfish-” Alexei groaned on the floor.
“You’re not going anywhere, traitor.” William hissed, placing a foot on the man. A loud crash followed by a stampede of footsteps echoed from the staircase below before he could say anything else.
“The zombies broke through the door!” Brett panicked, scuttling towards them.
“No shit.” Yuxia gritted her teeth. “Any ideas, doctor?”
“Just one.”
Water poured itself out from the bottles at William’s side and pooled into the shape of an open box. With a dramatic clench of his fist, the water instantly solidified into a large floating ice bed.
“What’re y’all waiting for, an invitation? Get on!” William said, carrying the wounded Alexei and climbing into the ice bed. The rest quickly scurried in as the first grotesque head popped out from the roof entrance.
“Hold on tight.” William grunted, mentally lifting the ice box off the roof and moving it just out of range of the leaping zombies.
The group watched silently as the zombies threw themselves off the eight storey building.