Jerome immediately stood up and went to the rooftop. The soldiers stationed there seemed extremely excited. One of them handed their binoculars to Jerome. "It's over there, sir."Jerome looked in the direction the soldier was pointing at. Soon, he spotted the signal coming from Mount Gremont and decrypted its message.[I'm fine. What's your status?]"It's Draco…" Jerome muttered."What? War Legate Draco was the one who sent that flare?" the soldiers asked excitedly.Jerome took another look and confirmed that it was indeed Adrian who had sent that message. "It's him. He's alive.""Hahaha!""This is great!""I knew he'd be all right!"The men cheered that Adrian was safe and sound. "He's asking for our status. I'm going to reply to him now." Jerome lit a signal flare used by Wyvern Peak. The multi-colored smoke contained his message. Adrian saw the signal Jerome sent. [We're hiding underground and are looking for survivors. What about you?]Adrian pondered for a moment b
Adrian’s group rested up at the foot of Mount Gremont and prepared to press on after eight hours. Everyone had fallen asleep as Adrian stood watch from the top of a trailer. At that moment, he was missing Samantha terribly. He had no idea whether Nova and Samantha were alive, nor did he know where they were if they were alive.The faces of many swam through his mind, but Adrian needed to focus on pushing forward. He had no idea when he would be able to see Samantha again or when he would even be able to return home. After all, this journey was filled with uncertainties and terrors at every corner. Even someone as powerful as Adrian was fearful of what might happen in the future, but he knew he could not let it show. After all, he was the survivors’ final hope."Feeling homesick?" Rozi walked over and sat next to Adrian.Adrian shot a glance at her but remained silent. Rozi could tell he was missing his wife and daughter. "I know how you feel. You could go home and take a look if y
As darkness shrouded the city, there was not a soul on the streets. The desolated city had turned into a ruin, devoid of its former prosperity.Adrian sat at the top of the trailer for a long time. When others came to take over, he finally decided to get some rest. The moment he closed his eyes, he began to dream about Samantha and the rest.Meanwhile, hundreds of people had gathered in an underground safe zone in Swallowston. They lay on simple bedding strewn across the ground. These people had been living here for several days.On one of the makeshift beds, a woman covered in dust cradled a little girl in her arms. The babe was wailing from hunger. The woman seemed slightly anxious as she tried to calm her daughter. The shelter echoed with cries, and the child’s despair was visible everywhere. "Your aunt will be here soon, Nova. Just wait a little longer, okay?" Samantha coaxed her precious. Yet, Nova continued to cry after being hungry for an entire day. Swallowston was in ch
Yet, here they were.The three women kneeled before Samantha.Ivy said, "You've lost so much weight, Sam. And Nova must be starving. Let's hurry up and feed her."Samantha nodded. The only thing she could feed Nova with was milk powder mixed with bottled water. In the meantime, she also ate the food Gloria had brought back. "Where are the others?"Eira shook her head. "It's just the three of us. Everyone else is dead. We've been trapped inside the Battle Warrior Department headquarters and only managed to escape today. We then ran into Gloria and followed her here.""It's so good to see you girls," Samantha cried."Although we don't know what's happening, we have to remain strong and find a way to survive. We can't stay here, Sam. You and Nova should come with us," Ivy said. "But there are monsters everywhere. Nova and I would only hold you back. Where would we go anyway?"Eira replied, "We found a safer location. We should hide there and wait for backup. We shouldn't bother
Samantha clutched Nova in her arms and left with the others. There was only one thing that kept her going—finding a place to hide while waiting for Adrian to save them.Monsters lurked throughout the streets. Eira, Ivy, and Nyssa surrounded Samantha and Nova, guiding them past the monsters."We should get out of Swallowston and find somewhere safe outside the city to hide. But on second thought, Adrian won’t be able to find us when he gets back to Swallowston, so I've decided against it and chose to remain here. Let's hope we'll hear from him soon," Ivy said as she looked toward the surroundings. Without a doubt, Ivy was now their leader. She was a powerful fighter with Eira and Nyssa obeying her every command. Without her, Samantha and Nova would be bullied by wicked people in the safe zone, if not killed by the monsters. Adrian's past grace had proven extremely crucial for their current survival, and Samantha chose to follow Ivy without a doubt. Gloria was no longer the same wo
Matthias wolfed down his bread and wiped his mouth. "I'm almost done, sir. Give me another hour and we the communicators should be ready. However, the signal range is limited at the moment. It’s no longer than twelve kilometers.""That's good enough. We'll need to send in our men to scout our areas, and it’s dangerous to go in blind."Matthias nodded. "I'll have them ready as soon as possible.""Good.”Oliver walked over and handed Adrian a slab of meat that some engineers had bought from a supermarket and left it at the base for good. However, Adrian took a packet of compressed biscuits and said, "Distribute the meat to everyone. Make sure that our rations are distributed fairly so that nobody is discontent.”Food was precious to everyone at the moment, and it would only become even more scarce in the future. They were all eating leftovers and emergency rations, and there was little hope of finding more food from the land at the moment. If their rations ran out, everyone would be
Adrian said as he got to his feet, "Well done, Matthias. Please distribute the communicators to everyone and decide on a channel for us to use. We’ll depart after you're done."Matthias nodded and handed out the communicators.Adrian climbed atop a trailer to look at the nearby village.Cian appeared beside him and asked, "Is something wrong, sir?" Adrian pointed up ahead and said, "That’s Cloud Village. Pass through there and we'll reach Gold Haven, and then Rivton shortly after. We have to be cautious as we move through the village. There may be traps."Cian nodded. "Do you think the villagers would want to hurt us in such a situation?""You can’t let your guard down, Cian. Kindness is a virtue, but we have to be careful of who we choose to be kind to. This is especially true in situations like these. We can’t show others how kind we are, or have you forgotten what many did when Chase Gardner started that bout of rumors?"With half the world's population gone, Adrian was cert
The village that laid ahead of them was Cloud Village.Cian took a deep breath. "Sir, we're almost there. Should we continue on?"Adrian looked at the forest up front. Starved of sunlight, the leaves on the trees were yellowing and falling after. If this went on for longer, the trees would surely die. "It's too quiet up ahead, and I believe those are monster carcasses around the village. I’ll have the combatants get on top of their trailers and stay alert.""Yes, sir."The six trailers responded to Adrian's instructions. As they cautiously entered the forest, they caught a whiff of a foul stench. Rozi said through her communicator, "There are bodies in the forest, human bodies.""Stop," Adrian commanded, and the trailers came to a halt. "I'm going down to take a look. Watch our surroundings." He jumped down from his trailer and followed the stench.Adrian came across dozens of bodies on the ground. In their decayed state, they emitted the foulest of stench. Several suitcases