[A/N:
Hello everyone.
This chapter provides a little more context to prepare for what's coming.
I don't want to include characters without proper development.
Please comment and donate Power Stones.]
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In an open area near the northern part of the city.
Tommy and Gerry were near the spot where Alex was helping Joel and Sarah. They heard the gunshots and ran as fast as they could. Upon arriving, they saw Alex standing next to a soldier, while Joel was holding Sarah tightly to his chest, looking angrily at the soldier.
"Who is he?", Tommy asked, holding his rifle firmly as he approached Joel and Sarah.
"A soldier who wanted to kill us", Joel commented angrily as he calmed Sarah, who was complaining in pain.
"What?!", Tommy exclaimed, looking at the soldier with murderous intent.
"Calm down, Tommy", Alex said, standing between them. "He's just a soldier taking orders, and he misunderstood the situation", Alex said, signaling Gerry to back him up.
"But he tried to shoot them", Tommy retorted angrily, noticing that the soldier was still holding his weapon firmly. "There's no need to make things worse", Gerry commented.
"I think the situation has cleared up… Is there anything else we can help you with?", Alex asked the soldier.
"No", the soldier replied firmly. "You must respect the curfew. I won't take any action now, but you must return to your homes. If you can't make it, we can relocate you to temporary shelters, and then you can return home", the soldier informed everyone.
"No need, thank you very much", Alex said, looking at Gerry and the others. "We'll return to our home immediately", he added with a wry tone.
"Okay", the soldier said as he walked away from the group.
"Whew… That was close", Alex commented as he wiped his forehead. "I'm Alex, and this is Gerry", Alex said, introducing himself and Gerry.
"Thank you very much for earlier", Joel said, looking at Alex as he held Sarah and loosened his previously tense shoulders. "I'm Joel, and this is Sarah… And I think you've met my brother Tommy", Joel said in a friendly tone.
"Yes, that's right", Alex said as he looked at Sarah's condition. "I'd like to continue this conversation, but we need to get out of here, and before that, we need to help little Sarah", Alex added, signaling to Gerry to lead the way.
"That's true", Joel said as he slowly stood up.
Tommy helped Joel support Sarah on his way back to the car so he could regain his strength. They all walked for a few minutes until they reached the car. Alex went ahead of the others and took his backpack out of the back seat. He reached inside and pulled out an emergency kit he and David had prepared.
"Here we have some painkillers and what we need to clean and bandage Sarah's wound", Alex said, handing the kit to Joel. "I wish I had something to suture, but for that, we need to get back to the safe house", he added in a confident tone.
"Thanks", Tommy said as he gently placed Sarah in the backseat.
Joel quickly cleaned Sarah's wounds as she moaned in pain. After firmly bandaging the wound, they all set off for the safe house. Along the way, Gerry turned on the radio.
"People are attacking each other, it's crazy, I don't even know if I want to leave the station anymore", one of the radio hosts commented.
"There's no attack, the curfew is because of the protests", another host commented, denying what his colleague had said.
"Haven't you seen the videos? ... In one of the videos, you can see a person biting another person to death, and when they tried to kill this guy who had gone crazy, he stayed on his feet even after being shot multiple times in the body. He only stopped when bullets rained down on him from all sides", the first commenter angrily commented.
"Don't believe everything you see on social media. It could easily have been done by an AI", the other commenter denied again.
"He's an idiot", Alex said angrily, turning off the radio.
"Do you know what's going on?", Joel asked, noticing Alex's annoyance.
"Yes, but I'll tell them when we're safely home", Alex replied in a tired tone. "This has been the longest afternoon of my life", he thought as he listened to the sirens in the background.
Half an hour later.
"Welcome", Alex said, opening the front door.
Alex, Gerry, Joel, Sarah, and Tommy had arrived after a tedious trip to the safe house. Along the way, they had to take several detours due to the large number of abandoned or crashed cars. They also came close to encountering police patrols who began using loudspeakers to inform people about the curfew and the possible penalties for breaking it.
"Alex", Alicia said excitedly as she hugged him as soon as she entered.
"Gerry", Karin said, doing the same to Gerry.
"I didn't expect this welcome", Alex commented, patting Alicia on the back as she quickly let go, embarrassed.
"Joel, take her to an unoccupied room and I'll bring you a full medical kit", Alex told Joel, who was entering with Sarah in his arms.
"This way. Follow me", Karin said, noticing Sarah's wound.
Alex walked over to one of the rooms that served as storage and took out a first-aid kit much larger than the one in her backpack. She looked around the room and noticed some changes. She then went to the room where Sarah had been taken and handed the kit to Joel.
He then left the room and walked to the kitchen. Alex felt hungry and anxious; something to eat was all he wanted at that moment. He went to the kitchen and took out a large piece of aged cheese, ham, and a piece of bread. He ate his sandwich very quickly, bite after bite, even having to take out a bottle of juice because he was choking.
"It seems like a long afternoon", a man's voice commented from the kitchen door.
"That's right", he commented ironically. "I'm Alex. I don't think we've met yet", he added as he extended his hand in a friendly manner.
"I'm Daniel", he introduced himself, accepting Alex's greeting. "Thank you very much for earlier", Daniel said, staring at Alex.
"You're welcome. I just hope you're comfortable", Alex said, taking another bite of his sandwich.
"We are", Daniel replied. "By the way, that girl Alicia said we could take whatever we wanted. So, I took out some painkillers for my wife, who injured her leg during our previous escape", Daniel commented gratefully.
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[A/N: For those who know the character: Did he release anything else while Alex was away?]
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"Was it a bite?", Alex asked suddenly. "No", Daniel firmly denied. "Speaking of which, you seem to know what's going on. Can you tell me about it?", Daniel asked, sitting next to Alex.
"Of course I will, but I'll tell everyone when you're done treating Sarah", Alex replied as he got up from his seat and headed to the room where Sarah was being treated.
Half an hour later.
"Now that we're all gathered, I'll tell you what I know about what's going on", Alex said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
Everyone was in the living room except for Gerry's daughters, Joel's daughter, and Daniel's wife. The rest were sitting on the sofas or some chairs in the dining room. Most were looking forward to this, while some already knew what was going on since Alex had mentioned something to them earlier.
"Some of you may have noticed that some people started acting strange today", Alex began to explain. "These people were infected with a highly contagious virus. I don't know where it originated, I only know how it works, and I also know that there's no cure for it yet", he added in a serious tone, showing that he was completely sure of his answer.
"Does this virus make them more resistant?", Joel asked, recalling the encounter with his neighbor a few hours earlier. "I'm asking because my neighbor started attacking us, and in self-defense, I had to shoot him, but no matter how many times I shot him in the body, he wouldn't stop. Only when I shot him in the head did he collapse", he explained, worried, watching the others' reactions.
"Yes, something similar happened to us", Alicia chimed in. "Our neighbor was also infected, and following Alex's instructions, we only hit her from a distance to keep her away, but the blows didn't do anything… She didn't even complain", she explained, looking depressed and scared.
"Have you ever seen a movie or series about the living dead?", Alex asked after hearing both of their stories.
"You don't mean this virus turns people into zombies?", Chris asked, frightened, staying close to his mother.
"I'm afraid that's the case", Alex replied without hesitation. "Only with Joel's account can you confirm this fact. The gunshots didn't do anything to your infected neighbor; only a shot to the head can truly kill them… Besides, you may have seen that he wasn't bleeding from any of the shots in his body, or perhaps he bled differently than a living person would, wasn't that, right?", Alex asked Joel, while everyone looked at each other in confusion and fear.
"It's just as you say, Alex", Joel replied thoughtfully. "When I shot him, I aimed for his legs, since I didn't want to kill him, especially in front of Sarah", he added sadly.
"When I shot him, blood came out, but not the way it should have; it even looked darker than normal… And just like the young woman said, my neighbor didn't complain one bit after the shots… He carried on as if nothing had happened. His gaze seemed lost, more like the eyes of a living person. If I had to describe it, it would be like the eyes of a dead fish… He kept coming closer as if we were his prey, and to save Sarah… I had to shoot Jimmy", Joel recounted, his head down, his tone growing increasingly saddened as the story progressed.
Everyone was shocked by that cruel tale, one that would soon grace the lives of every person alive in this world. Some of them looked at each other, searching for someone to refute this brutal event, but they all knew, deep down, that fiction was becoming reality. "I know some of you wish I were lying… And believe me, I wish it was too, but sadly, it's something we must endure for the people who will be left behind and for all the people we're meant to protect", Alex said calmly, looking at everyone present.
"Didn't I know I could give motivational speeches?", Alex wondered, confused, noticing that he'd been acting unconsciously all this time.
Alex didn't know when he'd started acting this way. He had an idea of when his behavior began to change, but it still seemed very strange. Just 20 days ago, his dreams appeared, progressively changing his life in a direction he never predicted.
At first, he thought they were simply the effects of stress, but with each dream and each revelation, his fear and paranoia grew. After definitively confirming the date where it would all begin, the paranoia turned into a fervent desire to prepare for the worst.
And thanks to this, he was able to prepare with all the resources at his disposal. He managed to rent houses and transform them into shelters, like the one Alex and this diverse group of people lived in. He was also able to purchase a wide variety of supplies, medicines, and weapons. However, Alex still felt confused.
His unconscious state had forced him to make decisions he never would have made. He had saved strangers, offered them shelter, and now he was guiding them through this crumbling world.
"Could it have been that day in the park?", Alex wondered, dismayed, as he watched each group of people arguing about their own situations.
Madison looked between her children, who were arguing about their neighbor, and Travis, who was arguing with his son and his ex-wife. Joel and Tommy argued about what to do and how to keep Sarah safe. Daniel talked with his daughter about traveling to Mexico and seeking shelter. Gerry talked with his wife but was thinking about a call he had received earlier from an old friend.
"Alex, what should we do now?", Alicia suddenly asked Alex.
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[A/N: CHAPTER COMPLETED
Thanks everyone for reading.
I know I said there wouldn't be any chapters like this, but I must say it's quite different from the chapters where I only talked about preparation.
Read my other novel called Vinland Kingdom: Race Against Time.
You can find it on my profile.]