APOCALYPSE AND THE BILLIONAIRE HEIR

CHAPTER 0008

                              Adam Smith 

Endless growls. Bright white lights. People milling around in cover suits and oxygen masks…

One of them, a man, stopped in front of me and slowly took off his mask, flashing a tiny torchlight in my eyes. His lips curled into a soft smile, then he beckoned to a standing colleague with gloved hands.

“Hey, come take a look,” he uttered to the colleague. “The vaccine worked on the rich zombie.”

The colleague, thrilled by the testimony, walked toward me and flashed his own tiny torchlight in my eyes.

“Yes,” the colleague mouthed. “It’s working on him. But how come it’s not working on the others?”

The first man made a confused face. “I have no idea,” he muttered. “Maybe we’ll run some tests on him and find out if his genes might serve as a cure for the rest. But for now, we must administer more doses of the vaccine to him.”

The second man nodded. He wobbled to a corner and grabbed a box. The first man flashed his tiny torchlight in my eyes again.

“The blood in his monstrous eyes is slowly fading,” he mumbled. “His grandfather will be proud of this.”

The second man opened the box, picked a red vial and a syringe from it. The syringe was not the regular kind used in clinics. He drew the red liquid from the vial into the syringe and tapped it twice.

The first man turned to him. “Job, hurry up.”

The second man strutted toward him and handed him the syringe. He tapped the syringe twice and closed in on me, then stabbed the syringe into my neck, biting down on his lower lip as he administered the injection.

My sight blurred, and their voices grew faint in my ears, but I felt a hand touching my face.

My eyes peeled open, and I saw Rosa lying next to me in bed, with her chest resting on mine and her fingers caressing my face.

Her gentle voice broke through the silence, startling me. 

“Good morning, darling.” She leaned in and kissed my cheek. “I watched you sleep throughout the night.”

I took a deep breath. The blur was gone; her voice was not faint in my ears. What happened earlier was a dream.

I turned left, and the light from the window blinded me for a split second.

“Are you okay?” Rosa asked.

I turned to her, pained by the sudden rush of sunlight on my face.

“Yes,” I said, my voice hoarse. “I’m fine, Ro...sa.”

She smiled and crawled out of bed. She was wearing nothing but lace panty covered with a see-through gown.

She stopped by the big drawer and turned to face me. The sunlight stealing glances of her through the window amplified her beauty. Her long hair, cascading down her shoulders, looked most appealing. Her breaths unshielded by the see through gown looked gorgeous and too tempting for a man said to have survived an accident.

“Are you pressed?” she asked, then headed for the wheelchair at the other end of the room without waiting for my response.

She held the chair and slowly wheeled it toward me. I let out a deep breath.

Maybe I should share my dream with her. Maybe I should ask questions, like whether I had ever been in a situation that required getting vaccinated in a lab and being called a rich zombie.

She stopped by my side of the bed and rubbed her hands together. “Time to move, Adam,” she said, offering me a hand.

I placed my hand in hers, and she helped me sit up, but the door creaked open. My gaze drifted to the door as grandfather’s voice wafted in before he entered, followed by James, two young men in black suits, and a maid.

They paused when they saw Rosa attempting to put me in the wheelchair.

Grandfather cleared his throat and spoke up. “Unhand him this instant.”

His order was unfriendly.

Rosa did not argue with him. She stepped aside, and he wobbled to my bedside, followed by James.

“Adam,” grandfather uttered in a gentle voice, much more soothing than the one he used on Rosa, “how are you doing?”

I nodded with a smile. “I’m feeling good, Grandpa.”

Grandpa smiled and stole a glance at James, who returned the favor.

“And,” grandfather glared at Rosa, then returned his gaze to me, “how was your night?”

I narrowed my eyes.

Guess he was asking to find more reasons to hate Rosa. I had no idea why he was so hostile toward someone who identified herself as my lover before the accident.

“My night was great,” I said. “I was about to head to the toilet before you showed up.”

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I brought the boys and the maid. They will take you to the restroom, help clean you up, and help tidy your room.”

Rosa stepped forward. “I was about to do all that.”

Grandfather raised a brow. “Yeah, I get you, but he has an appointment with the doctors today in the big hall, so I’d rather have my boys and the maid do the job.”

I saw the dissatisfaction on Rosa’s face. I had no choice at the moment. Grandfather was here to have his boys do a flawless job. 

He signaled the men to come forward. They obeyed in the blink of an eye, and grandfather gestured at the wheelchair.

“Adjust the chair and do your job.”

Rosa was shoved aside, and the two young men lifted me gently and sat me on the wheelchair.

A searing pain surged through my neck as the men wheeled the wheelchair to the restroom.

I reached out and touched my neck to soothe the pain, but instead, I felt something on it.

I pulled my hand away from my neck and checked my palm. There was no blood, but the pain grew unbearable, like I was stabbed in the neck. I gnash my teeth, enduring it as much as I could.

“Good morning, Mr. Smith,” the maid said as we arrived at the restroom. “My name is Eva, your new maid...”

I ignored her speech and gestured at the big mirror in the restroom.

Then I sighted it.

A red patch on my neck, with a tiny black dot at the center.

“Mr. Smith,” the maid called, drawing my attention back. “Shall we?”

I nodded, rubbing the patch with my thumb.

“Yes.” 

---

Someone stroked the strings of a violin as we entered the big hall. The sound reverberated through the hall, warning us of something special waiting ahead of us.

I was dressed in a white shirt and grey pants paired with black shoes.

Rosa walked beside me, dressed in a silk black gown with silver dragon patterns that matched the silver pin holding her hair bun intact. The gown hung slightly above her knees, keeping her long, flawless legs on full display.

Behind me, one of the men in suits pushed the wheelchair I sat in, guiding it into the main hall.

As we ventured into the hall, ten violinists waiting with different sizes and calibers of violins rose from ten long stools. They bowed as we drew closer.

The instructor stepped forward without saying a word to us. He spun to face them, and with a gentle flick of his fingers, his boys got to work, playing familiar notes and saturating the hall with classical music.

We waited to admire them for a while, but grandfather entered, followed by James, both of them dressed in suits.

Behind them, a young Asian man in a doctor’s outfit followed.

“Look who’s getting entertained,” grandfather said, spreading his hands and wrapping them around me as he closed in on us. “How was your night, grandson?”

I smiled, stealing a quick glance at Rosa before returning my gaze to him. “It was wonderful,” I said. “What about yours, grandfather?”

He relaxed his face and raised his shoulders slightly. “It was brief.” He lowered his shoulders. “I was awake throughout the night, going through the list of doctors in Seoul to get you the best physiotherapist.”

He turned to the young Asian doctor. “This is Doctor Wong,” he stated. “He’s your physiotherapist. You can drop him if you don’t like him. I don’t mind finding you another.”

Everyone laughed. Rosa held my hand and squeezed it softly. She was the only one not laughing. I looked her in the face before returning my focus to grandpa and the doctor.

The doctor moved toward me and stretched out a hand. “Good morning, Mr. Smith,” his deep voice rippled through the hall. “I am your new physiotherapist. You won’t have any reason not to like me.”

I narrowed my eyes and nodded jokingly. “This is my first time coming into close contact with an Asian doctor with a deep voice and sarcasm.”

James clenched his lips, holding back his laughter. Grandfather laughed right away, not holding anything back. Even the doctor could not hold it in entirely. He laughed.

“Anyways,” I said, “I won’t fire you, but I think I have a request to make.”

The hall went silent except for the violins now playing at a low tempo.

“I met an Asian nurse in the hospital the day I woke up and saw grandpa’s old face staring at me like a curious lab rat.” Laughter rattled once more from everybody, but I continued. “I took a liking to her, and I promised to bring her over. I want her to be part of the physiotherapy team.”

Grandfather paused, took a deep breath, and spoke up. “I understand you got charmed by the Asian beauty, but…”

“Not beauty…” I chimed in. “I want her as part of the physiotherapy team.”

Grandfather nodded, dropping his initial resolve to keep things at his desired professional level. “Okay, I don’t mind getting you all the nurses in the big hospital, but for now, you need to eat.”

I nodded gently. “Exactly,” I announced. “I’m famished.”

He smiled. “Then let’s head to the dining room and do the needful.”

---

Grandfather led us to a plush inner hall two times smaller than the big hall. A massive dining table and dining chairs made out of expensive wood awaited us.

On it were laid all manner of delicacies and grilled pork big enough to serve twenty grown men. We settled around the table. Grandfather wanted me to sit next to him, but I chose a different spot for Rosa’s sake.

Five maids entered with five more trays. They dropped the trays and went around serving us the meal waiting in front of us.

Rosa helped me cut some pork and scoop some rice, and soon the dining room got busy. I thought of the young lady from last night. I had forgotten her name. I moved my lips to ask about her, but grandfather spoke up first.

“How is the food?” he asked, then went on to answer his own question. “The pork is tender, chosen from one of our farms, and the veggies are wonderful. Even the rice is a Korean national treasure.”

I said nothing.

The old man was just too excited. I wondered what he must have felt when he got the news of my accident, the accident I couldn’t remember.

“Don’t forget to add that Maria spent the night in the kitchen marinating the pork,” James hollered. “But unfortunately, her head is so heavy and drowsy that she’s still in bed as we speak.”

“Speak for yourself,” a female voice rattled from the doorway. “James.”

We turned to see the young lady from last night standing by the massive doorway, fixing something on the long sleeve of her yellow gown. The gown fell well below her knees, and her black boots hid half her legs.

She walked down to the dining table, hugged me from behind, and pecked my cheek, then rubbed a warm finger over it. “How was your night, Adam?” she asked, completely ignoring Rosa.

“Mine was great,” I said with a smile. “What about yours?”

She chuckled. “He already told you I was awake all night,” she said, pointing at James with her chin, “marinating the pork you have at the center of the table.”

I nodded. “You did a wonderful job then.”

She sat to my left, her cologne mild and her hair packed behind her head. “Good morning, old man,” she said to grandpa.

James broke into laughter. Grandpa shrugged and focused on his meal. “Your lonely days are gone, silly.”

“Didn’t you instruct those men in the other hall to play notes derived from modern albums?” she asked grandfather, her voice unshaken and her face relaxed, as though speaking to the old man in whatever manner she liked was a luxury she could always afford. “Why do I keep hearing Wolfgang Mozart? Believe me, Adam doesn’t like those verses.”

The table laughed again, except Rosa. She was busy munching gently, her plate full of veggies.

“They are not your regular violinists, Maria.” Grandfather raised a cup of water to his lips, took a sip, and lowered the cup back to the table. “They are classical, not your modern piece-of-shit fuckboy violinists.”

James didn’t laugh this time. The old man had gone vulgar.

Maria cut herself a huge chunk of pork and dropped it onto her plate. She looked at me and nodded. I had no idea what the nod meant until she cut another chunk and dumped it onto my plate.

“Used to be your favorite,” she said, making a face. “Not those veggies the maids made for the old man.”

Grandfather looked up from his plate, chuckled, and got back to eating.

I cut into the chunk on my plate and stabbed a piece with my fork. I raised it to my mouth and grabbed it with my lips.

Maria smiled. “The man is back.”

The table clapped. Rosa managed to join them. I munched the delicious pork, smiling. “Thank you.”

Grandfather’s phone beeped mid-meal. He glanced at it and stood up. “Please excuse me.”

He made his way to the door. I looked toward it and caught sight of someone familiar.

A tall man with a stern face and eyes I could remember. He shook hands with grandfather. Another man joined him, and he called the man Job as they exchanged handshakes with grandfather.

They were the men from my dream.