2023-02-20 17:34:44Knock! Knock! Knock!
The sound travelled through the night, creating a crescendo in the otherwise peaceful setting.
But Seth was anxious.
Dong!
[Fifteen minutes before the first wave invasion begin.]
The System flashed on his screen, illuminating his face in shades of blue. The flickering light above him died after his seventh knock on his mother’s new home.
“They are sleeping,” Amy said from where she was leaning against the car’s hood, crossing her arms in displayed impatience.
“Or,” a male voice added after the sandy blonde, “Your mom and her new toy are fucking each other senseless.” It was Wade Moore, Amy’s cousin whom she had a bet going on with. For someone who appeared like a thug coming straight out of a bar, he really spoke like one.
“Thanks, Wade. I don’t need that particular image in my mind.”
“No problem, dude.” The sarcams flew right through his head.
Seth turned away from them, and lifted his hand again. But, before he could knock for the eleventh time, the door opened.
“Seth.”
“Withershpoon.”
Eric rubbed his eyes to brush the sleep away. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m taking your spawn with me tonight.”
“What?”
“Who is it, honey?” Seth heard his mother. Olive slipped right beside Eric, blocking the door. “You’re here? What– I thought you left since hours ago? You really want to babysit Marnie for a few days for us?”
“Not on my will and certainly not for you,” he grumbled, then continued, “But, yes, I’ll do it.”
“What?”
“The quicker you bring her here, the quicker I will be out of your hair.” He tried to peer behind them. Marnie’s bedroom door was closed. Of course, it was almost midnight. She was probably sound asleep.
“What changed your mind?”
“I don’t think you really want to know.”
Seth caught the way a small smile crossed her mother’s lips. She was just happy that he agreed to babysit her child. Nothing more. He’d bet a cat’s life that her mother didn’t actually care about his reason.
“Just get her already. I don’t have much time.”
Eric frowned. “We mean you’re the one who got to stay here with Marnie. Not the other way around.”
“Well, can’t do that.”
“But–“
Seth grew impatient. “It’s a one time thing, you know. I won’t offer again.”
Olive shared a look with her husband. Without another word spoken, they nodded. Eric retreated to pick up their six years old daughter, while she lingered on the door.
He felt conscious of his appearance as his mother scrutiny with critical eyes.
“I hope it’s ketchup on your shirt, and not some blood, Seth.”
Shrugging, he tried to brush it away. Perhaps, his mother would let it slide if he didn’t mind it much.
“And who are they?” She motioned to the siblings waiting on her drive way.
Amy boredly looking at the sky, still leaning on the hood like a model from car tabloid. On the other hand, Wade was flicking a light on his cigarette in the front passanger seat. His shotgun position had been taken over by the chain smoker.
“No one you should be concerned with.”
“You will bring Marnie around them.” Olive’s voice was laced with disdain.
“But you don’t really have a choice, do you?” Seth fired back. “That’s why you called me today. No one else can babysit her. What, did your child traumatized her usual babysitter that much?”
“No. Her babysitter fell sick since yesterday.”
“Why you don’t cancel your things and not force your son to babysit your spawn instead?”
“If you don’t want to help, don’t bother coming here.” Her mother stepped back, almost closing the door to his face.
Seth quickly held the door open. “I said I’ll do it.”
Victor said Marnie was important. And a few extra exp and cells would benefit him anyway.
Then, Eric came with sleeping Marnie on his arms. He gave the purple suitcase and bright pink Hello Kitty backpack to Seth. He eyed as if it will drastically bring down his nonexistance ‘charm level’ to zero. At least, it was a cat. No matter how heavily rendered it was from the original feline.
Once the dinosaurs-themed pyjama-wearing child was safely laid in the back seat, Olive approached him. “I left instruction and some money in her backpack. She doesn’t have any allergy but please don’t feed her any junk food.”
“I don’t promise anything,” Seth said, reaching for the door handle. But he halted, looking back at his step-father. In one long step, he pulled his fist and launch a heavy punch right to Eric’s face.
“Argh!”
“Seth! Are you out of your mind?!”
Seth merely smirked. “That’s for what you did to me. At least, you owe me that much.”
Then, he settled beside Marnie’s sleeping form, slamming the car’s door shut. He must have earned 10 exp and 10 cells from the System immediately after he completed one of the bonus missions.
“You don’t want to say something to your mother?” Amy voiced from behind the wheel.
“Why?”
“Dude, you said something big is about to happen. What if your mother died?”
Seth shrugged again. “Not my problem.”
Amy looked at Wade, trying to get him to agree. But the chainsmoker was too busy making shapes with his smoke to notice her. She turned back to him. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but regret always comes at the end.”
“Yeah, because if it comes at the beginning, it’d be called registration.”
Wade snickered, his ignorance earlier was just an act. “Let’s just go. You said you don’t want to be in the city when whatever it is happened.”
As Amy’s second-hand car revved to live, Seth pulled out his phone and straighaway opened the ‘User Interface’ donut icon.
Dong!
[Count down begin.]
“Wait–“
His eyes flicked to the digital number on the top side of his screen.
[Ten.]
23.59, no more time.
[Nine.]
Seth didn’t know what will happen.
[Eight.]
Wide-eyed, he caught the siblings in front peered at him through the rear view mirror.
[Seven.]
“You looks like you’re seeing ghost,” Wade stated, puffing out smoke from his dark lips.
[Six.]
“It’s happening,” he said in a breath.
[Five.]
Amy hummed. “What’s happening?”
[Four.]
Seth gulped, looking out the window.
[Three.]
The lights on the road side flickered. The moon hang on the sky, illuminating the world in soft haze.
[Two.]
Nothing out of ordinary, but the screen on his phone said otherwise.
[One.]
“Seth?”
[The first wave invasion begin.]
[Welcome to the end of the world.]
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79. Table Turned
The raid was a bust.The lieutenant didn't even wait until they were in the privacy of his office before chewing him like useless gum. He demanded, "What is this, Monroe?"Mark bit back the urge to say, 'What did I tell you about raiding it yesterday, Sir?' He waited quietly and avoided any eye contact from the many people in bulletproof vests with bold 'PPD' on their back, strapping their gun back into safety and rounding up their failed attempt. "Why did I spend three hours of driving to the middle of nowhere with a full squad to take down a drug lab and slavery den while there's nothing here?"Again, instead of pointing out that the raid should have been done as quickly as he had suggested, Mark waited."Tell me, Monroe, why are you even screwing up this bad after the rookie slip up with that fake journalist in the warehouse?"'This is not my fault,' he thought. "We are too late, Sir," he said."Too late? Are you saying I'm too slow to act?" Madsen retorted angrily. "Do you even k
78. Make a Move
"You're so annoying, do I have to remind you every hour?" Rhea grumbled from the passenger seat, watching the dark-haired man behind the steering wheel as the car drove itself to the hill house. "Old news," Lucian commented and then glared at her. "But I already said not to let him into this again."Of course. "Mikhal's right. You do sounds like a jealous secret boyfriend.""Ha. Ha." There was no humor behind that. "First, I am not your boyfriend, I'm your fiance. Second, you're the one keeping this a secret, not me."Rhea grinned, "You didn't deny the first one? Are you jealous?""So what?" She frowned but didn't say anything else. She still couldn't figure out why he was jealous of that tall coworker of hers. No matter how many times she asked him, Lucian wouldn't tell.'Or you just never believe his answer,' a small voice at the back of her head supplied helpfully. She brushed it off because it was total drivel. There was no way Lucian actually felt jealous just because he liked
77. Running for Life
She was not as reckless as Lucian sometimes said to her. But she was still new in this espionage thing, and Mikhal suddenly pushed her down to the ground. Her heart raced, pounding noisily along with the blood in her ears. Mikhal's tall figure was equally low by her side. Confidence may fool many people, but she had none of it right now. Especially not after a burly man in a tank top suddenly pointed his long firearm in her direction, right before she took another shot of the drug lab with her phone. Breathing quietly, they waited in suspenseful silence until the man turned his weapon away from their direction. Another man came out of the drug lab's door, probably exchanging words before both of them went inside again. Rhea exhaled in relief, shoulders slumping down as both Mikhal and her shared a look. They moved closer, trying to get more proof from the small window at the side of the building now known as the drug lab. Not only from the chemical glasses with some colored liquid
76. Into Hidden View
After four days of work, Rhea finally got her day off again. Mikhal texted her, 'Meet you at East Station in twenty.' Smiling to herself, Rhea texted back an affirmation. "So…" Liz glanced at her from behind the steering wheel, "If I may ask, where are you going, Miss Rhea?""Out," she merely said."Any specific place in mind?"Rhea locked her phone, "Not really."The bespectacled girl looked uncomfortable for a second before she asked again. "Do you have any companions?""Yes.""Oh. Who is that?"Rhea narrowed her eyes, not liking where the bespectacled girl was going with this. "Is this an interrogation?""No, of course, not." Liz hastily said, topping it with an awkward laugh that she tried to make it sound natural. "I'm sorry if it came out like that, Miss Rhea. I didn't mean to."She sighed, turning to the sturdy houses that came into view as they finally reached the town's area. "It's fine. Lucian ordered you to do that, right?" Liz stayed silent, so she'd take that as a yes.
75. Coping Mechanism
The cafeteria was full of cola and burgers. "Free dinner for everyone!" one of the senior staff called out as they entered it. Rhea grinned – almost jumped in excitement – as her favorite food was served in front of her for free. Emi, on the other hand, chimed in a loud voice, "We don't pay to eat here!"She stuffed her face with the burger. She sat surrounded by a white shirt and blue vest-wearing staff, finally having a nice break out of the craziness of the afternoon shift. "I can't believe I was so excited about it before."Emi smiled broadly, munching on her mouthful bite of burger. She looked funny. "Didn't I tell you that it's crazy?""Yes, but you carefully left out the fact that it is precisely like that oddball group all over again, except, it happens continuously. Marching in a group in the lobby, then shoving each other to get in the elevator. Why do we only have four elevators, anyway?""But it only happens in the afternoon. After that, it's pretty slow, isn't it?"Rhea h
74. Unwritten Law
Lucian had been at the scene of serious diplomacy once, ages ago as he was still ten, where his father was showing him how to negotiate with a foreign mafia boss from another country. Earl would sign an agreement of letting said mafia boss move into Livingard and give him a little territory on the border to set up whatever operation they had planned. Earl would get back his prized butler slash right-hand man safely in one piece in exchange. He was fond of that man, his favorite butler. A middle-aged friendly guy who had a penchant for cutting apples into beautiful figures and dragging Lucian out of bed before dawn for a morning run. So, hearing that his favorite butler would be back after missing – he was captivated by the foreign mafia after accidentally crashing his motorbike to the mafia's daughter on the road – for three days, Lucian was eager when his father wanted him to tag along. It was supposed to be a valuable learning experience for him.One of the foreign mafia subordinat
73. At Least We Try
'Let him be, don't talk to him, whatever, just ignore him.'She didn't even want to see him. But bottling her overflowing emotions? It was a ridiculous idea.Then a notification chimed in, breaking into her bubble of thought, pulling her from the suffocating underwater feeling. 'How's' your girl's day out with Emi?' Mikhal texted her, oblivious to the chaos she made herself. 'She was great.' She texted back.'Cool. No more outings today?' His reply came seconds later, followed by three dots, signifying he was typing now. 'Imma starts the afternoon shift today. Dunno what to expect.''Expect the worst.''Never know u'r such a pessimist.'She wasn't. Fine, maybe she was. Just at the moment, though. Rhea responded with a laughing emoticon. Followed by a string of crying yellow faces.'What was that?' She bit her bottom lip, 'I want to go out.' Her thumb sent it before she even read the line. She considered deleting it. No use, Mikhal already typed again.'I'm free, if you were asking
72. The Walk Down
Sprinting to the beach, Rhea suddenly stopped before her sneakers touched the wet sand. Quickly taking them off, Rhea looked around for a place to put them without getting worried that the wave would sweep on them or someone take them away. Not that she was suspicious of some people enjoying the beach there, or that her shoes were extremely pricey – they were, not that Rhea knew about that, because it was Lucian who paid – but Rhea didn't want to lose her only pair of sneakers.She looked back to Lucian's parked car on the edge of the beach, where the dry ground met with green patches of grass. Squinting her blue eyes, Rhea calculated how much force she needed to get her shoes to the car's side. The light brown-haired girl got into a stance as if she would throw a slider with her sneaker as the ball. Then, Rhea let go of one of her sneakers in a powerful side swing. It flew in a bent trajectory and landed safely on the dry sand, though still a little far away from the car."Ah, I need
71. Wolf in the Flesh
It was the first time Rhea saw a wolf in real life.The wolf looked like how a wolf would in a book or movie. Nothing special, unlike the jet-black wild wolf she saw in a show. Or the majestic white wolf in legends. The animal in front of her looked just like the usual wolf. Short, triangular ears. Broad snout. A long tail. Looking slender yet seems powerful in its built. Its back was grey, so was its upper head. While the rest of its fur was light brown, and the underside was white.Rhea could not believe it."Should we continue?" Jo asked, stepping slowly on the gas pedal.As Jo drove the car past the watchful gaze of the wolf, Rhea felt a shudder run through her body. Either it was a creepy coincidence, or Lucian somehow controlled the wolf to appear there and failed Rhea's escape. Which sounded impossible. Both of them.It was some minutes later that Jo stopped the car. They were near the first building in the outskirt of Stradfield's little town. "Are you sure you want to get off
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