III. Ghost Call

Chapter 3: Ghost Call

The government, to save the remaining survivors, decided of making safety bases in each city. This way, they can protect those who need protection, but despite the ‘safety’ it promises, there’s no reassurance that these bases wouldn’t fall.

Just 2 months after G City’s base was founded, an infected person slipped into the base. She ate her family and the other people. Because of the poor skills of the G City soldiers, the spread of the virus inside the G City was too late to stop. In just 2 months of operation, the G City’s Base fell. It made other bases pay attention to the matter of allowing people to enter the base. The rules got tighter, yet no one has any opinion. It was the government’s idea—even if the people wanted to raise some scruples; they had no right when it was the government who’s protecting them from death.

6 months after the break-out of the virus, the plants and animals also mutated. Either having abilities or becoming a monster similar to zombies. Though rare, it was still not a good thing for people—especially mutated animals. A certain base fell because of an attack by Bird Zombies, while some mercenaries told the government that they encountered Cat Zombies, which killed a lot of their members with its agile movements and sharp claws.

Another six months later, a human mutated. The first-ever human to awaken their power seems to be in a faraway country, yet their awakening seems to spread wide, all over the globe. Farrah, who was still in a fight with a zombie, felt a tremendous power pressing down on her chest at that time, making her breathless. The basic level zombie she was fighting ended up melted up in a pool of black blood because of the potent power fluctuating in every direction. Even Farrah, who’s a human, was so affected that she bled into seven orifices.

No one knew who this person was, but thanks to them—their power seems to trigger people’s mutation. Just weeks after the strange eruption of power, Dior fell into a deep sleep and had a very high fever. When he woke up, he discovered he has a dual-type ability which was Fire/Thunder. It was a piece of excellent news for Farrah and Dior. It made it easy for them to survive and reach the base for refuge.

A pity. It still didn’t save Dior from death, no matter how powerful it was.

*

Farrah watched some DVDs that she recovered a while back. Most of them are for kids, while some of them were adult videos that Dior took from who knows where. Of course, Farrah took the children’s movies to watch with her son. It seems to distract David, making it easier for Farrah to arrange her thoughts without looking out for David. Her son was too sensible for his age, making Farrah both proud and heartbroken.

Then Farrah remembered something she had forgotten. It filled her eyes with doubt for a moment before it disappeared completely. Standing up, she patted David’s head.

“DaeDae, stay here, okay? Mama’s just going to fetch something from the bedroom. I’ll be quick, I promise.”

David’s eyebrows furrowed, his eyes turning to her mother and then to the TV. His bun-like face scrunched up, looking innocent and cute. After several minutes of deliberation, the little cute guy gave in.

“Kay, Kay! Quick! Wait for Mama!”

Seeing her son actively nod, Farrah smiled and praised him for being sensible. Returning to their bedroom, she took her phone out of the first compartment of the cabinet. She’s 100% sure that she was just hallucinating about the call—maybe it was the side-effect of the nightmare she had before seeing the phone call last night.

Yet the moment she opened the screen, reality slapped her in the face. 1..3...4...10...20...100 calls, ranging from 12 AM to exactly 5 AM. All from the same number. All from her supposed to be dead husband.

Being dumbfounded would underestimate Farrah's reaction. She didn’t know what to feel. Should she feel freaked out? Scared? Maybe angry?

And who? Who’s making these calls? Dior was dead. That, his teammates, could confirm. They swear that they indeed saw Dior’s neck being bitten by a powerful zombie and flopping down on the ground lifelessly. Who’s making these haunting calls? Someone who took a dead person’s phone? Dior’s ghost? Is ghost even real?

Maybe she could ask her father for help. Who’s doing these kinds of jokes should not be tolerated, not even respecting Dior, who’s the owner of the phone. If someone is pranking Farrah, it must be someone she knew, because why call her like a freaking lunatic for hours? And it’s just her. Why doesn’t this person call her father Dior’s father-in-law?

It just means that this person was deliberately targeting her.

*

When Ferdinand came home, what greeted him was Farrah’s complicated look. For a moment the elder thought that Farrah’s depressed again, but when he took a second look, it doesn’t seem to be that case. She’s in deep thought, not even noticing that David, whose head was lying on her lap, already fell asleep.

“Dad, came back?” She greeted.

Ferdinand gazed at her and nodded. “Yeah. How are you? You seem to be in deep thought—what’s bothering you?”

It was silly for Ferdinand to ask; he knew his daughter wasn't fine, but he still asked.

Farrah felt flustered that her father easily saw through her in just one look. She blinked, scratching her nose. “Dad, do you believe in ghosts? Are they real?”

Ferdinand paused, his face scrunching up as if he heard the funniest joke in the world. Laughing quietly, he shook his head. “Ghost? What nonsense! Ghost don’t exist, what are you thinking all day...”

“Why do you not believe in ghosts?” Farrah finds it quite funny. Zombie Apocalypse used to be but nonsense fictional ideas, but it still happened in real life, right? Proving that anything can exist in this world, even if they exist in the higher plane of dimension than humans.

Ferdinand didn’t believe in ghosts, at least not until there’s a piece of solid evidence they exist. He felt it might be the stress pressing down on Farrah that she began entertaining nonsense thoughts. Feeling complicated, he asked. “Why ask? Is there anything?”

Farrah didn’t intend to hide the thing about the calls. She explained to her father and even let him see the call logs from midnight last night to 5 AM this morning.

After seeing the calls, Ferdinand yelled. “Impossible! Ghost don’t exist! It must be someone trying to make fun of you, don’t indulge in nonsense thoughts. It’s better to investigate.”

Farrah nodded, and no longer argued. Deep inside, she also believes that it wasn’t a ghost calling her. Even if there’s a ghost, beings like them can’t interfere with things that exist in this dimension. Don’t mention calling, even holding the phone. Ghost will surely have a hard time accomplishing that.

“Help me investigate then, Dad. I’ll wait for your news.”

“Alright. Leave it to me.”

The father and daughter duo reached the end of the matter and no longer talked about the ghost calls. But not even minutes after they finish dealing with the matter, Farrah’s phone buzzed again.

Someone’s calling.

Farrah and her father’s eyes met. Ferdinand gestured her to answer the phone. Farrah nodded and when she saw the Caller’s ID, she let out an enormous sigh of relief. She doesn’t want to deal with Dior’s ghost calls again.

Answering the phone, she mumbled. “Hello Eden, is there something?”

There’s some kind of noise on the other line, then followed by Eden’s gentle voice. (Hello, friend! Sorry to disturb you right now, but there’s an emergency. You see, darling, Black Leopard Mercenary, and Lynx Mercenary group came back at the same time. Most of them are injured, but no zombie bites. We need you here because some people exceeded our healing level. Can you come?)

Farrah and Ferdinand exchanged looks, and the former replied, “Sure. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

(Thanks, dear. I’ll treat you later.)

Farrah smiled, shaking her head as if Eden could see her doing so. “It’s my duty.” Then she hung up the call.

10 minutes later, Farrah arrived at the hospital wearing her white coat. Everyone immediately urged her to the group she’s assigned to heal—the Black Leopard group. There’s a reason the hospital didn’t dare to neglect this group. It was because the leader of this group is the Mayor’s son. The Mayor is a person with power in this base, and that’s why no one wants to offend this group.

Farrah vaguely remembers that her husband’s group seems in conflict with the Black Leopard.

When Farrah entered the room, what she saw was a male with a gunshot wound on her chest, nearly hitting the heart. He seems to be slowly losing his breath, making his teammates urge Farrah to be quick.

Farrah was surprised. If it’s a normal human, Farrah was sure this man wouldn’t survive just seconds after being shot in the heart. He must be a powerful person to hang on with the thin thread of life for almost half an hour.

Farrah didn’t delay any longer, putting her hand on his wound. A bright green light slowly emerges from her palm. From the wound, a small piece of metal slowly floated out, then Farrah immediately took it and place it inside a small metal bowl. She then focused on the open wound, slowly healing it with her ability. 2 minutes later, the wound disappeared like it never appeared.

Looking at the people behind her, she nodded and explained. “He will not be waking up soon. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. It’s not because of the gunshot wound, so don’t worry. It’s mainly because of exhaustion. Where’s the next patient?”

The guys expressed their thanks and pointed out another room. In this room, a woman had her left foot amputated. There’s blood everywhere, and she seems to be delirious too. Farrah calmly asked what happened while taking all the tools needed.

“What happened to her?”

“We encountered a level-3 zombie with a powerful weapon. It attacked Itzy and had her left foot amputated...”

Hearing their explanation, Farrah paused before nodding. Even if it wasn’t a direct zombie bite, there’s a huge possibility that the weapon used to harm this woman was contaminated with the virus.

It took hours for Farrah to deal with the woman. Thankfully, she wasn’t infected, but because she needed to recuperate, she’s confined in the hospital for few more days.