Chapter 29 – Sky Of Tides (Part 1)
Sucking in a deep breath, Jack looked down. His mind worked quickly, imagining all kinds of scenarios and potential events that could happen in the near future. That kind of situation in the eastern part of the city wouldn't pass peacefully, and he knew that.
'We certainly can't pass from there. It will be a death sentence,' Jack mused as he looked down at his group. They were all staring back at him, waiting for him to come back down.
'They won't be able to handle seeing that either. But…' Jack frowned. 'Our relatives could very much be in that military base. If many sought refuge there, then we can't simply ignore that place.
Even if the chances were small and he could very much be wrong, Jack wanted to at least confirm it for the sake of the group. 'If their mental state deteriorates, it will only make my responsibilities even harder to manage.'
He needed them fully focused and ready to fight till the end. If they lost their will to fight due to the loss of a loved one, it might as well happen now rather than be prolonged.
Besides that, Jack also wanted to look for his parents. He had already accepted that they were likely dead, but he wanted to see for himself so he could fully move on.
"Well, it seems we'll have to go where we least want to," he said. "Great."
"Hehehe, are you sure you can deal with that many monsters?" Liliana asked amusedly.
"Of course not. But I have no choice here. Who knows? That base could be the perfect shelter we're looking for."
If they could overcome that massive horde of monsters, the base was possibly the safest place in the world to stay.
With that in mind, Jack finally turned around and descended to the ground again before joining his group.
"As I expected, the reason for the disappearance of all the Undead is because they're all clustered in one place," he said. "There are easily hundreds of thousands of them there."
"H-Hundreds of thousands?" Emi muttered as she put her hand on her face.
"...So many… clustered in one spot?" Evan muttered as he looked down.
"There is most likely a huge population of humans there," Luna said with a strong look on her face.
"Yeah. That's what I guessed too," Jack replied. "We'll be heading there. If there's a chance any of your families are alive, they'll most likely be there."
"..."
Hearing that, everyone stared at him silently for a second. A surprised look appeared on their faces, as if they hadn't expected that at all.
"What?" he asked.
"A-Are you sure, Jack?" Alex asked with a nervous expression.
"Yeah, don't you all want to find your families?"
"I-I'm worried about my mom," Emi said.
"Then we'll see if we can find her there."
"You said there are hundreds of thousands of Undead there, Jack," Luna said with a serious expression. "How are we going to get through?"
"We'll figure something out once we get there. It shouldn't be completely impossible with some maneuvers."
"And you're ready to take that risk?" she asked.
"Risk is all we can take, Luna," Jack replied with a cold tone. "Every step we're taking is a risk. We can only try to do what we must."
"..."
His words made the girl go silent for a few seconds before she nodded faintly. Then she turned around and looked away as a small smile appeared on her face.
'He hasn't changed one bit since we last talked… Jack will always be Jack.' She felt warmth in her heart, realizing that her beloved was still the same person she had grown endlessly in love with. He hadn't changed one bit. Calm, collected, yet also very smart and wise. She never understood where all that came from.
Yet Jack was the way he was. Perhaps even the end of the world couldn't change the man he was.
"We are moving!"
***
Location: Sky Of Tides Base
"OPEN FIRE!!!!"
BOOOOM
Merely kilometers away from Jack and the rest, the world was in a completely different state. Surrounding a large structure was an unfathomable number of Undead. They filled all the streets, nooks and crannies, and every other building around the base.
The wall surrounding the base was being relentlessly attacked by the hungry Undead as they tried to carve a way through the fortified cement and iron. Meanwhile, their grunts and cries deafened the ears.
"FIRE!!!!"
Bullets and tank shells were fired relentlessly into the crowds. The entire sky was filled with the flashing light of bullets as they dove into the sea of monsters. The situation was grim. Nothing could be seen in the chaos.
The soldiers fired as if their lives depended on it. Bullet after bullet, grenade after grenade — yet the numbers didn't seem to be decreasing.
"Sir!! They're about to break through the wall!" a soldier rushed to the back, where a man and several other companions sat around a table, discussing what they must do in a hurry.
"Don't let them. Put more soldiers there! We must defend this base with our lives!" he yelled.
However, even with those words, he knew that the situation was truly hopeless. Forget about ammunition — they couldn't simply stop the marching of that many monsters with their forces.
'What the hell is going on?! What is all of this?!' The man held his head in distress. "God has cursed us all. We have been cursed."
They hadn't received any orders or help from the government. In fact, the man was almost certain that the entire government had been rendered useless, with no actual control over any of the nation's vital parts.
In a matter of hours, this country was destroyed beyond repair. Only he knew that, and only he knew what that meant for the future of their lives.'We will never see a moment of peace again in our lives…' He clenched his fists instinctively.
Meanwhile, his generals kept talking and yelling at each other, throwing ideas left and right while the battle only grew more and more intense outside.
"We need to bomb them," one said. "We'll use the fighter jets to wipe them all out!"
"We don't have enough missiles to do that! Also, the minister himself told us not to!"
"Screw the minister! Are you looking outside?! If we don't kill all those things, we're dead! There are innocent people hiding here!"
As they argued, everyone was suddenly shaken in place as they heard a loud roar. Even against all the noise and chaos going on, that roar completely rendered the world silent for a few seconds.
Instinctively, everyone rushed out to check what had happened.
"N-NO…"
"You're fucking with me…"
Many soldiers standing on the wall stared into the distance, their faces pale as a sheet of paper and their eyes wide to the extreme. Their weapons dropped from their hands without them realizing, as a sense of despair slowly settled in their hearts.
They had seen these monsters — their gruesome expressions, their lethality — and yet… nothing readied them for what emerged from afar.