Apocalypse Domination: A Cold Rebirth

Chapter 6

The lead campus security officer stared at the imposing wall of armed private contractors. He gripped his standard-issue baton, but his knuckles were white with tension. He realized quickly that he was vastly outmatched. These were not poorly trained mall cops. They were elite mercenaries hired by a premier defense firm, and they looked eager for a fight.

The officer slowly lowered his weapon and took a cautious step back from the dusty property line. The university did not pay him nearly enough to engage in a violent street war with a private army.

However, he needed to save face in front of the wealthy student crowd. The officer straightened his posture and pointed a stern finger at Liam.

"You think you won this standoff?" the officer shouted over the hum of the idling excavators. "I am transferring this assault case directly to the city police department tonight. I am also filing a formal incident report with the university administration. You will be expelled and sitting in a jail cell before morning."

Julian leaned heavily against the temporary fencing and clutched his bleeding jaw. He spat another mouthful of blood onto the pavement and glared at Liam with pure hatred.

"The officer is right," Julian snarled. "My father sits on the university board of directors. I will call him right now. We will ensure they rip your degree away and kick you out of the dorms. You are finished."

Liam watched them retreat and felt zero intimidation. In his past life, a threat of expulsion would have shattered his world. He worked double shifts just to afford his tuition and keep a roof over his head. Now, he viewed their threats as pathetic, empty jokes. He knew the truth about the timeline. In less than thirty days, a university degree would not buy a single grain of rice. A police badge would not stop the negative sixty-degree winds from freezing a man solid. The institutions they relied upon for social power were about to crumble into frozen dust.

"Call your father," Liam replied smoothly. "Tell the police to bring a warrant. None of it matters to me."

He turned his back on the officer and signaled his site manager to resume work. The private contractors stood their ground and maintained their intimidating barricade along the sidewalk.

The security officers walked away in defeat. The crowd of elite students began to disperse, murmuring excitedly about the scandal. However, three girls from the restaurant lingered near the boundary line. They wore expensive silk dresses and heavy jewelry. They fully believed the whispers spreading through the crowd. They thought Liam was a secret billionaire heir who had just conducted a brutal, calculated loyalty test on Chloe.

A blonde girl named Victoria stepped forward from the group. She smoothed her dress and pasted a highly seductive smile on her face. She batted her eyelashes and bravely approached the intimidating line of guards.

"Liam, wait a minute," Victoria called out. Her voice dripped with fake, sugary sweetness. "Do not let Chloe ruin your night. We always knew she was shallow."

Liam paused and looked back over his shoulder. He recognized Victoria from his business ethics class. She frequently mocked his worn-out shoes and actively ignored his presence during group projects.

"Chloe failed your test because she lacks vision," Victoria continued. She stepped closer to the boundary line and looked at him with hungry, calculating eyes. "Some of us actually appreciate a man who builds his own empire. You need someone loyal by your side. Someone who understands your true worth."

Her two friends nodded eagerly behind her. They offered themselves up as willing replacements. They wanted immediate access to the massive estate and the bottomless bank account. They were ready to say whatever he wanted to hear.

Liam stared at them in silence. He saw right through their polished exterior. The horrific memories of the ice age flashed vividly in his mind. He remembered women exactly like Victoria trading their dignity for half a frozen biscuit. He remembered them pushing weaker survivors out into the blizzard to save themselves from starvation. They were not loyal partners. They were opportunistic parasites looking for a new wealthy host.

"You think I want you?" Liam asked. His voice carried a freezing chill that cut through the autumn air. "You are no different than the trash I just discarded. You are just hungry dogs begging for scraps."

Victoria gasped loudly. Her seductive smile vanished instantly. A flush of deep, humiliating embarrassment crept up her neck as her friends stepped away from her.

"You only noticed me because I bought this land," Liam stated clearly. "If I were still wearing a cafeteria apron, you would not even look in my direction. Get away from my property before I have you thrown out."

He gestured to the largest security contractor in the line. The massive guard stepped forward and raised his steel baton aggressively. Victoria and her friends shrieked in genuine terror. They turned around and sprinted back toward the restaurant in their high heels, leaving their dignity on the sidewalk.

Liam watched them run and shook his head. He had no time for fake affection or social climbers. He turned his attention back to the construction site and prepared to review the bunker blueprints with the foreman.

Several blocks away, Julian and Chloe walked briskly down the illuminated street. The autumn wind bit at their skin, but the internal sting of public humiliation burned much worse.

Chloe cried uncontrollably as they walked. Tears ruined her expensive makeup and stained her collar. She was not crying from the physical pain of the slap. She was mourning her catastrophic financial loss.

"I cannot believe it," Chloe sobbed. She clutched her designer purse tightly against her chest.

"He had all that money. He was buying an entire city block in cash. I could have been the lady of that estate."

She wiped her nose and sniffled loudly. Her mind raced with bitter regret.

"He was just testing me," Chloe lamented. "If I had just held on for one more week, I would have passed the test. I would have had everything I ever wanted. I threw away a billionaire for a cheap hotel room."

Julian stopped walking and grabbed her arm aggressively. His jaw throbbed with a dull, constant pain from the strike. His patience had finally run dry.

"Shut your mouth," Julian snapped. He glared at her until she stopped crying. "Stop acting like a pathetic victim. The loyalty test is over. You failed it. Whining about it will not put his money into our bank accounts." Chloe shrank back and looked at him in surprise. "He humiliated us in front of everyone. What else can we do?"

Julian wiped a smear of drying blood from his chin. His mind churned with dark, manipulative calculations. He refused to accept defeat. He was a rich heir accustomed to getting whatever he desired. If he could not break Liam with campus security or legal threats, he would find another angle to exploit the sudden wealth.

"He may be rich now," Julian said. His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "But that does not mean we cannot benefit from his new money. We just have to be smart."

Chloe wiped her eyes and looked at him with cautious hope. "What are you talking about?"

Julian began to pace back and forth on the sidewalk. He pieced his theory together using his extensive knowledge of elite social dynamics.

"Liam is doing all of this to spite you," Julian explained. "He bought the land right across from our favorite restaurant to rub his wealth in your face. He wants your attention. He wants to prove he won the breakup."

Julian stopped pacing and looked directly into her eyes.

"To complete his revenge, he will want to show off," Julian continued. "He will want to elevate a new girlfriend. He needs someone to wear the diamonds and live in the mansion so you can clearly see what you lost."

Chloe frowned and crossed her arms. "The girls at the restaurant already tried to flirt with him.

He rejected them immediately."

"Because they are strangers," Julian countered quickly. "He knows they just want his money.

Liam is paranoid right now. He will want someone he already trusts. He will choose a girl who knew him while he was poor."

Julian grabbed Chloe by the shoulders and shook her slightly.

"Think," Julian demanded. "Is there any other female in his life? Someone he genuinely trusted and spent time with before today?"

Chloe shook her head initially. "He spent all his free time working or studying. There is nobody else."

"There has to be someone," Julian pressed. "A study partner? A friend from his hometown?" Chloe furrowed her brow as she searched her memory. A sudden realization struck her. She remembered the long shifts Liam worked as a delivery driver to pay their rent.

"There is a girl," Chloe said slowly. "She works with him at the Oak Diner. Her name is Maya.

She is a waitress there."

Julian released her shoulders and smiled. "Did he trust her?"

"Yes," Chloe nodded. She recalled feeling a brief pang of jealousy a few months ago when Liam mentioned her name. "He always spoke highly of her. He said she was the only honest person at his job. They shared shifts all the time. She is the only other female he actually talks to."

A predatory smile spread across Julian's bruised face. The plan crystallized perfectly in his mind.

"That is our target," Julian declared. "Liam is going to try and make this Maya his new girlfriend.

He will shower her with his new wealth to prove a point to you."

Julian looked back down the street toward the distant glow of the construction site floodlights.

"We have to get to her before he does," Julian said. His voice was filled with malicious excitement.

"We will find her tomorrow morning. We will buy her loyalty first. If we can manipulate her, we can use her as an inside puppet to drain his fortune."

Chloe nodded in agreement. A wicked gleam returned to her eyes. The game was far from over.