I Have Lost My Humanity

Time To Leave

I immediately asked my mother to get me through to Bella. My girlfriend of three years.

Bella was the boldest and prettiest person I've ever met in my lifetime.

Her long dark hair, her light skin tone, her gorgeous face and full lips, her graceful figure... they were all to die for.

I was truly blessed to have such a gorgeous girlfriend, but her personality was a bit different from normal.

She was scary, and no one dared mess with her when we were in university. I had gotten bullied as a freshman one time by a bunch of seniors after winning a quiz against them.

She came into the scene and whooped all of their asses with a hill shoe she had been wearing at the time. All of them had bruises and injuries all over by the time she was done.

Usually, such a thing would lead to rustication, but Bella's family had some influence, so she wasn't even reprimanded in the slightest.

Since then we became friends... rather, it was more accurate to say she followed me everywhere and everyone else kept their distance.

She was mean to everyone else but extremely nice to me.

"You've been marked," BJ would always tell me with a look of pity, but I ignored him.

Then, one day...

"I like you, become my boyfriend,"

My eyes widened, and I had a look of shock, which left me silent for a couple of seconds after Bella said this three years ago.

"Huh?"

"You are now my boyfriend,"

"Eh????"

...And that was it, from that day henceforth I became her boyfriend without even saying yes.

I was a bit scared at the time, but everything turned out great. We would go everywhere and do almost everything together.

I loved her with everything in my existence and wished to propose to her one day, but now the earth was undergoing a crisis, and I needed to make sure she was safe.

She had a couple of titles in different martial arts, but I was still worried due to everything that had happened, and I didn't think I could live on if she turned into one of the infected.

"Dustin!" She screamed as soon as she picked up my call.

"Are you okay?"

A cheeky and uncontrollable smile appeared on my face as I could feel her love through the phone.

I love her...

"I'm alright, what about you?"

"We are fine here for now," She responded.

"I was worried you were in trouble... I'm glad you're fine," She added.

"Same here, baby, same here," I heaved another sigh of relief.

"Everyone here is scared, but I think it's just one of those bad days. It will clear over soon, and we will continue with our lives," Bella voiced through the phone.

"I'm not so sure about that, but I hope so," I replied.

"These things... I'll decimate them if they come near you," Bella stated with a strong tone.

"Hai hai my warrior angel," I replied with a light chuckle.

I wasn't surprised about her calmness at the current predicament and how she wasn't scared in the slightest. It was Bella, after all.

"BJ's family is also here. The house is big enough for all of us," Bella informed.

"I'm so glad all of you are in one spot, and I thank your family for sheltering them... Bella, tell me. What did the news say?" I inquired.

She mentioned how there hadn't been much information revealed since the government hadn't come out to give an official statement.

However, the news mentioned an outbreak of toxic gas that came from outside the earth's atmosphere and how a city population had been completely turned into monsters from it.

One of those broke into our city, and that's where this whole incident began.

'It truly happening like one of those Zombie animes,' I said internally not realising things were about to get way worse in the future considering this toxic gas was capable of doing worse than just creating Zombie like infected.

After the brief info, Bella said she had to leave as her family wanted her. Quickly, I said, "BJ and I will try to get to you as soon as we can so we can all be together." I pictured her nodding.

"Alright, we'll be there soon." On finishing the call, I looked at the others.

Some had happy expressions while some looked extremely worried as they still couldn't get to their family members.

I reached for the box and placed it on a table. Before me, Mr Timmy's eyes widened at the flagrant act of disobedience, and before he could talk, I spoke up first.

"We are Mechanics. We know what we are doing, but if we keep waiting, we just might die here... we will need—"

"It's a soundproof room. Surely they can't get in," someone else spoke up, cutting me off.

"Also, the military is on their way," Mr Timmy repeated.

"You are only stressing yourself with all of these. If we wait till a certain period, they will come for us."

That was ideal in his head, but in mine, I wanted to get out. I looked at BJ, who was frowning at Mr Timmy, but cleared his expression as soon as his eyes met mine.

We didn't need to speak before I knew that he also wanted to leave. It was true that the government was trying to help, but I didn't intend to wait till they came.

I needed to be with my family.

Also, there was another reason why staying couldn't be a long-term plan. I was about to mention it then when someone interrupted me.

"Sir, with all due respect, as much as staying here is a good option, it will get worse if there's no nothing to survive on. Do you think you can stay here for so long without basic necessities?" I looked at the rest, hoping they understood my point.

"Isn't it better to go out there to—"

"I don't want to die out there," another one of them stated.

It was final. We were the only ones who wanted to leave.

With determination and partial deafness to Mr Timmy's complaints, I tore into some of the boxes before me.

"I will make sure you two suffer backlashes for this!"

We ignored him.

I had a feeling we weren't going to see anything new in these packages. BJ also helped, and the packages finally revealed their contents, which confirmed my thoughts.

They were better than scraps since they looked like built parts.

The several pieces of metal scattered inside looked familiar, and it was then I realized they were necessary parts to make a battle QUAX arm.

Voicing out the opinion that another box could hold more parts, BJ and I went to check the rest.

The others didn't bother to help, and we didn't call them either. I guessed it was Mr. Timmy's watchful glare that was keeping them still.

When we checked the rest, I was surprised to see more metals of the same thing. Our search only came up with us finding more boxes with the same contents.

We were stuck with parts to make the battle QUAX arms.

"We can do this," BJ said, which I agreed with.

I pretended the others were not there as I and BJ began working on these parts. First, we carefully studied each piece and analyzed the shape and size of each part and how they fit together.

"That's the energy-gathering ray,"

"It goes below the thumb and index finger areas..."

"The quantum field generator... "

"The ammunition calibres..."

We began to connect the pieces and reshape some to the required form.

We were finally able to create a silver-coloured robotic-looking arm.

As we were two, we worked on another until we got two functional battle QUAX's arms.

It took us a couple of hours, but it paid off.

Together, we placed our arms in them and powered the arms up. The silver-coloured robotic arm came to life, and I tested the range of motion. I was able to feel the strength in its grip and marvelled at how it felt like it was my first time.

Though we had never used one before in a battle, we had tested it long ago when we had been part of the team working on the battle QUAXs, so we both had a clue.

After wearing the robotic battle QUAX arm like they were sleeves, BJ and I were ready to leave.

I looked at the others, hoping someone would change his or her mind, but they all huddled into groups and looked at us as though we were mad.

"If you plan to leave, you can work on completing a battle QUAX arm, I'm sure they will help," I advised.

Mr Timmy scoffed. "You don't need to worry. The military will get here soon, and you will see that all this was a total waste of time."

I didn't say anything more. They had made their choice and also ours. When we were sure we were ready, we looked into the CCTV monitors to have a clue as to what lay before us.

Fortunately, the number of infected in the hallways had decreased, and I could only count eleven who were still shambling around.

If I took down six and BJ handled the rest, we would have some time to spare before encountering another horde.

"You ready?" I asked him.

"Let's do this."

With that in mind, we set forth to the door. Mr Timmy's keycard was in my hands, and since he didn't say a thing, I figured he didn't remember that his keycard was gone.

Also, I didn't think they would need it since they were all workers and surely had an extra with them.

Immediately, I swiped the card, the door opened, and I ran out with my arm outstretched.