CHAPTER 8

In the RV, the conversation continued.

“God! . . . You needed to see yourself running towards that swift, you were running with inhumane speed”, Joy said.

“I almost swore or I even heard you growling".

“Look at the colour of your eyes, they have changed!”

One after the other, Marvellous friends voiced out their thoughts and also commented on whatever changes they noticed on him.

“ . . . ” Marvellous.

Completely ignored, Marvellous sat on a chair while listening to them talking as if he was non existent. Taking a quick glance all over the area with his eyes for something to keep him busy but finding none, he rose from the chair and walked to the drivers

compartment.

*******

Maxwell was in deep thoughts in his makeshift office , thinking about the group of teens he just encountered. He could only feel confusion and even more confusion the more he thought of them. Unable to come to a final conclusion, he let out a sigh and went out of his office. Standing with his eyes closed, he savoured the feeling of breeze blowing on his face while inhaling deeply. Turning to the drivers, he commanded.

“Speed up, we have to arrive in town by morning.”

“Raiders be on alert” he warned, “Watch out for zombies.”

—

Anthonia could not keep out her concern for Maxwell out of her mind, despite his carefree attitude she knew the destruction of the sanctuary had heavily impacted him, and he was hurting inside. Thinking back to when they first met in the elementary school, she couldn’t help it as a smile crept onto her face. They had become inseparable, always at arms length from each other. After being together for so long, how could she not understand him, she even felt she understood him than herself. ‘I’m going a need to have a serious discussion with him later’ she thought. Picking a pair of binoculars, she began to observe the surrounding area. ‘The map says we should be pretty close to that town by now, I wonder how long we still have to drive for until we get there’ she thought. With a sigh, she was just about to drop her binoculars having noticed nothing when a towering sign in the distance caught her attention.

“WESTCLIFF CITY” It read. Finally they were going to arrive.

*********

As Maxwell and his sanctuary members were celebrating their arrival, killing their way into the city, a vehicle approached some distance away. In the driver’s compartment of the RV, Marvellous saw a towering sign that read ‘WESTCLIFF CITY’.

With his enhanced vision, it was no big deal for him to see a lot further than his friends but he was so excited that he called out to his friends immediately - forgetting that he could only see the sign from where he was because he wasn’t any normal person - “We’re here guys”.

“Mmh?.”

“Really?.”

“Finally!.”

“Can’t wait to see the museum.”

“I feel like I need a real bed right now.”

“ . . .”

Those were the next reactions of the group as they stuck their heads out of the windows to catch sight of the sign board.

But the next instant, the expressions on their faces took a quick morph. They realised that they had been feeling relieve for just no reason at all.

“T . . . That looks pretty small doesn’t it?”, Basit said.

“Yeah, how the heck did he see that far?”, Larry said.

“At least it will take minutes before we get there even at full speed . . .”.

“You guys ask too much questions, with his enhanced vision I bet he can see even further than that if he wants”,

Roosevelt said.

“Ehn . . . that’s true!” Mod said, “We can use his eyes as a mobile telescope”.

“ . . . ” Marvellous.

“. . .” The rest of the group.

Roughly forty-five minutes later, the group members were standing in front of the giant arc admiring its beauty and relaxing. They were all excited, at last they had arrived at the town they marked as their destination for over a week and best still, they did not have to start cleaning up zombies the instant they arrived. Judging from the freshly mutilated bodies on the floor, someone or some people had arrived before them and cleaned up the mess. As time went by, all the excitement from their arrival began to die down. Gradually, they began to get bored just sitting out in the open and sunbathing until finally they all grew silent.

“Why are we actually wasting time sitting in this scorching sun?” Roosevelt asked, “I thought you guys were also enthusiastic about visiting the museum?”.

“That’s right, why are we wasting time?”.

“And we can even turn it into a temporal home if we find it suitable”, She suggested.

“Yes . . . But Marvellous has to agree first remember?”, Ebbie said.

“That’s right, we have to make him agree first” Larry said, “But who will tell him?”.

After few minutes of thought . . . .

“Rose tell him” Mercy said, “You know he always listens to you”.

“Yup, that’s true. Why were we even thinking so hard, when we could have directly sent you?”

“So he doesn’t listen to anyone of you?”, Rose retorted feeling reluctant to go.

“ . . .”

Finally, Rose was collectively selected by the group.

Marvellous had been standing silently some distance from his friends, hearing the contents of their arguments, his heart warmed when he saw the red hue on the fair face of Rose. Despite that however, his mouth would occasionally twitch from the words they said that seemed overboard but he could not bring himself to stop them to avoid embarrassment. Noticing Rose walking towards him, he quickly composed himself and stared straight ahead.

“Marvellous, the group has suggested that we go to the museum” She said standing next to him.

“Hmmm”

“What do you think?”, She asked.

“Well that’s fine” He said, “Why are you the spokesman?” He asked.

Hearing his question, Rose sighed. “I know you heard everything they said” She replied.

“Mmmmmh?”

“Look the other guys may not know you well enough but I do” Rose said, “You have enhanced vision, strength and speed, did you think I would not figure there was an enhanced hearing too?” She asked.

Somehow, what she said touched Marvellous, he seemed to feel guilty, like he was accusing her of being dumb.

“Look, whatever happened when I was bitten was a variant, the instant I was bitten and lost consciousness in that room I never thought of seeing another day as a sane person not to talk of being a super person” He said.

He was saying what he felt had been bottled up within him since he regained consciousness, somehow he felt she was the right and only person he could tell.

Seeing Marvellous speaking to her of the thoughts that had been weighing on his mind, she sighed. “I know” She said,

“Let’s go”.

Together, they walked back to the group, they were still arguing when they were suddenly interrupted by Marvellous, “You guys do realise that I could hear you right?”.

“But . . . you guys are right, lets go to the museum” he said.

********

In a random house in the city, Maxwell walked into one of the supposed rooms totally exhausted. If there was one disadvantage of moving to new cities with no sanctuary, it was the numbers of zombies that would have congregated there. Even in their worn out states, they had cleared the surroundings before they could settle in and it was definitely not fun when fighting swifts.

After a while of thoughts as he lay on the bed, Maxwell finally fell into a deep much deserved sleep.

—

“Steve”, Anthonia called.

“Yes deputy head”, The raider replied.

Steve was an handsome muscular man in his mid twenties who must have had a lot of admires before the apocalypse. Even after the incident that changed the world, he still maintained a smiling face and a carefree attitude and that was one of the reasons Maxwell choose him to be Anthonia’s personal guard.

“The sanctuary head should be hungry now, get me some food stuffs. It’s time to cook for an old friend”, she said.

If there was a delightful part of the post - apocalypse, it would be the times when she cooked for Maxwell. She could not deny that she felt a strange thought looming at the back of her mind whenever she cooked for or had to look after him, but it was also the reason she enjoyed doing it. To anyone looking, they would seem like just very close friends, but a secret Anthonia had been keeping to herself all along was the huge crush she had on Maxwell. Now that crush was influencing her thoughts, feelings and emotions and she felt like she could kill to feel it every day. Perhaps it would sound crazy to anyone who found out but . . . It was the thought of being his wife!!!.