4. The Blood Sun

Unable to sleep, Luca stood on the balcony. Takes out a cigarette and lights it. The sky tonight is completely dark, the full moon is covered by clouds, and the stars are hidden.

 

Thinking back to Ruth’s question, Luca felt that his life was about to take a 180° turn. His hard-earned job would have to be given up just to do something ‘crazy’. However, his recurring dreams and Ruth’s attitude made him feel that this doomsday was coming quickly.

 

It was clear that this was the craziest thing he would ever do!

 

He exhaled the last of his cigarette smoke, pressed the wick into the ashtray, and entered his room. Staring at his reflection in the mirror, Luca undressed, seeing a lean body with no muscles and no fat.

 

Too skinny, he thought.

 

If he wants to be strong, the first thing to do is to pay attention to his body condition. He should start exercising more.

 

Despite going to bed late, he woke up very early and put on gym clothes. Do some light stretching before leaving the room.

 

Hearing the movement, Ruth, who was sleeping on the sofa, opened her eyes to see Luca wearing gym shoes. She yawned softly and hoarsely asked, “Is it work time already? You’re so diligent!”

 

Luca glanced at her, seeing Ruth struggling with sleepiness. He casually replied, “Going for a morning run.”

 

“Ahhh, go ....” Ruth went back to sleep, rolling herself up in a blanket on the narrow sofa.

 

Luca didn’t bother to care about the girl. He went out for his morning run around the community. Panting and feeling a burning sensation in his chest. What a labor of love! Fortunately, as soon as he entered the apartment, the smell of food immediately greeted him, making his mood a little better.

 

It’s so good to have a little assistant, he thought cheekily.

 

After breakfast and cleaning up, the two people were ready to go. This Sunday, they had a special agenda. Meeting potential buyers for Ruth’s penthouse before finding a contracting company to build a house in Luca’s parents’ hometown.

 

Neither Ruth nor Luca had any family anymore, so their movements were very free, with no need to ask permission or explain this or that.

 

“About the construction. Should we pay attention to it or just take it as it comes?” Ruth asked when they had just left the contracting company.

 

Luca thought about it for a moment. “We have to pay attention to make it fit, right?”

 

Ruth nodded her head. She gave Luca a long look. What this means is that I can’t handle things on my own while you’re away at work.

 

Luca is not a mind reader, nor is he a man who is good at translating the meaning of a girl’s gaze. So he frowned.

 

The gesture made Ruth snort in disgust. Straight man!

 

“Aren’t you going to resign from your job? I’ll submit my resignation tomorrow. What about you?”

 

“I don’t know.” Luca shrugged indifferently and entered the car, followed by Ruth. They drove home after having dinner outside.

 

The next morning, Luca went for another morning run, this time for a longer distance. He also made an appointment with Dash to go to the gym after work. Ruth officially resigned, which surprised many people, especially Dash. Everyone who knew Ruth went to ask Luca and didn’t get the answers they wanted.

 

Their lives went on like that. Luca was still working while Ruth took care of the purchases and hid them.

 

Even though they were getting busier, Luca never stopped his morning runs, no matter where they were. He would also practice his punches and kicks.

 

Until they completed their base, Luca decided to resign from his job. They moved into the base, buying a large car. Slowly moving things into the base, little by little, and collecting jerry cans of fuel.

 

That morning, Luca arrived with a pile of instant food in the car. He honked and subtly forced Ruth out to help move things.

 

“So noisy!” Ruth complained with an annoyed face.

 

Luca didn’t care about her, indifferently saying, “Do me a favor.”

 

Ruth moved her hands and feet, helping to move things out of the car and into the food storage.

 

“Should we stack the meat, too?” Luca asked as he closed the car door and followed Ruth into the house.

 

“Yes.” Ruth sat on the sofa, turned on her laptop, and checked the list of items that had been moved. “Even though the power will go out on doomsday, we can eat it when people start getting sick.”

 

Sitting on the other side of the sofa, Luca collapsed in a moment and yawned. It wasn’t easy to drive the car all night and move so much stuff.

 

“I’ll buy it tomorrow. By the way, it’s very difficult to get numerous medicines at once.”

 

Ruth turned her gaze to Luca and pursed her lips. Medicine was not something that could be bought in bulk, and there were even some medicines that required a doctor’s introduction.

 

After a moment of silence, Ruth’s low voice was heard. “It’s okay not to collect a lot of medicine. My superpower seems to be healing. We can’t stay in this place for long, anyway.”

 

Luca nodded weakly, rising to his feet to enter the room and get a few hours of sleep before starting his training.

 

It would be nice if they had a magical storage room.

 

In the afternoon, Luca practiced with the help of Ruth. This was their regular agenda. Since Ruth was strong and agile, Luca asked her to teach him. After he finished practicing, Luca didn’t enter the house right away. He lay down in the backyard and stared at the darkening sky.

 

“Don’t you want to eat?!” Ruth shouted from inside. Luca reluctantly got up and replied, “Of course.”

 

However, his footsteps did not enter the house directly but approached a large tree that was not cut down during construction. For some reason, he was suddenly drawn to this tree. Taking a small, pointed stone, Luca scratched the bark and wrote his name.

 

Throwing the stone carelessly, it happened to hit a large boulder. However, what interested him was something poking out of the ground near the stone.

 

He curiously observed the object and started digging. It was a small, old wooden box that looked like it had been buried for a long time. Perhaps due to the movement of the earth and the changing climate and weather every year, it slowly emerged from the ground.

 

Luca carried it into the house and curiously tried to open it.

 

“What is it?” Ruth asked as she saw Luca enter with the ancient object.

 

Luca shrugged his shoulders without looking at her.

 

 

“No matter what it is, the point is to wash your hands before eating. Gross!”

 

Putting the box in the kitchen, Luca went to wash his hands. After that, he ate with Ruth. They designed this place like a normal mansion so that it wouldn’t make people suspicious, except that there were more rooms used to store things.

 

Ruth sighed heavily, looking a little depressed. “Soon,” she said incoherently.

 

“Yes,” Luca responded casually, completely ignoring the expression on Ruth’s face.

 

“Aren’t you depressed? There are only a few months left before doomsday comes. It’s really... scary.” Even if she was no stranger to doomsday, it still gave her goosebumps. Ruth felt that her mood would worsen during these days.

 

Luca tapped the surface of the table. “Don’t get too depressed or you’ll get sick and be unprepared for the changing world.”

 

“I know. I know.” Ruth got up and left Luca’s presence.

 

After finishing his meal, Luca went back to trying to open the box he had found earlier. His hard work paid off in the middle of the night. Even drowsiness was defeated by that perseverance.

 

Inside was a white pendant the size of a coin. It looked ordinary and inconspicuous, suitable for both men and women. In this day and age, where people have great taste and love unique items, they would ignore this pendant in the corner of a warehouse. It’s a good thing it was found by Luca, who doesn’t have an artistic eye.

 

Luca looked for a necklace chain to hang the pendant, then he put on the necklace, hiding it under his shirt.

 

The days passed quickly, and it already filled their house with many things. Grains are also planted in the yard and they dry the vegetables before being packed in plastic vacuums. Ruth worked hard at it, while Luca made many trips to get gasoline and other valuables.

 

“We could start renting a car,” Ruth told him as they rested after gardening.

 

“Yes, starting tomorrow we’ll go rent a car.” Luca followed Ruth as she sat under a tree, taking off his shirt and shaking his hands to give his face a little breeze. Sweat dripped down their foreheads. “How many cars do we need?”

 

“As many as possible. The farm will be emptied after today’s harvest, so it can be used to store cars.” Ruth glanced at Luca and was slightly stunned at the man’s body, couldn’t help but praise, “Hey, nice body shape.”

 

Luca’s body was no longer skinny, muscles were forming on his abdomen as well as his arms, clearly looking more reliable. Although not as big as a sports athlete, but enough to make others envious. Not to mention his physical strength had also increased. At Ruth’s insistence, the bangs covering Luca’s eyes were cut and combed back.

 

His clothing style didn’t change much, but his aura was different, which led to the change in appearance.

 

Luca did not respond to Ruth’s teasing. He continued to fan his face. After all, after months of knowing and even living together, there was never any ambiguity between them, as if each other were not attractive at all. Luca even thought of Ruth as his ‘brother’. Yes, although she was a girl, her strength was not that of a girl.

 

The next day they left the house as planned, rented a car for 1 month, and returned home with a jerry can of gasoline. This was done repeatedly for 3 weeks. The empty front yard and garden were now filled with off-road cars and several SUVs. Luca also made a cover in the garden to expose the cars to direct sun and rain.

 

1 week before doomsday, Luca and Ruth decided to rest at home. They don’t do any outdoor work, there’s a gym inside for simple exercise, and there are all sorts of electronic devices to monitor the situation outside.

 

5 days before Ruth’s doomsday, the sunlight seemed darker. The next day, the sun rises from the west and the characteristic yellow light turns red, like bright blood.

 

Luca hadn’t slept, so he stared at the sunrise through the bulletproof glass in the top-floor monitoring room. Ruth ran up the stairs and entered hurriedly, pulling the curtains to cover the glass.

 

“Don’t look!” she called out sternly. “We can’t see or be exposed to this blood sun directly, let alone for long.”

 

Luca nodded and sat in front of the surveillance monitor, taking in the surrounding scene. Ruth sat beside him, turning on the computer and searching the news channels.

 

“In a few days, many people will fall ill, usually with fever or weakness to the point of immobility,” Ruth explained. She had said this before, but not specifically because of their limited time until she forgot about it.

 

“Will those who get sick become zombies?” Luca asked, taking out a pack of candy. He had given up smoking in recent weeks in favor of chewing candy.

 

Ruth looked uncomfortable. Sweat dripped down her forehead, and her breathing was unsteady.

 

“No... They will be people with different superpowers.” She paused, taking a deep breath before letting it out with reluctance. “But there are more people who turn into zombies because their bodies are not strong enough to withstand the changes caused by the emergence of superpowers.”

 

Luca pondered this for a moment while watching Ruth, who looked pale. After a moment Luca asked, “Then, are there people who don’t get sick?”

 

Ruth nodded. “There is. They are ordinary people on doomsday. They don’t become zombies and don’t have superpowers either.”

 

“Oh, yeah!” As if remembering something, Ruth turned to Luca. “Actually, it’s not called a superpower, but a special ability. Because there are different types of powers.”

 

Luca muttered a low ‘Mn’ and maintained the computer screen. The information provided by Ruth was almost the same as most doomsday games.

 

News channels covered the number of people who fell ill at the same time. The phenomenon caused a conversation among smart people, and even the government began to issue precautionary policies. There was chaos everywhere.

 

When they were about to go downstairs to eat, Ruth suddenly fainted.