The Origin Warden

chapter 10 : Mr. Jacob!

With difficulty he said while pointing at his throat,

“Umm… water… do you have some water?”

Without even turning around she said,

“Gina hand me a bottle of water from the bag”

Gina released her arms from around Luke and reached toward a long black bag resembling an equipment bag.

She pulled out a small plastic bottle of water and placed it in her mother’s hand which was stretched over her shoulder.

Sylvie tossed the bottle toward Jack who caught it with both hands as if it were a rare treasure.

“Drink all of it, your body needs fluids, you lost a lot of blood, it’s a miracle you can even move”

Jack nodded while drinking greedily until the bottle crumpled from the force of suction.

“Waaah, now this is better...”

He released a deep breath of relief while feeling moisture return to his throat once again.

He smiled gratefully and lowered his head slightly as a gesture of thanks.

“Ma’am thank you, what can I call you?”

Sylvie did not answer his question but instead stared at him for a long while with narrowed eyes before sighing and setting aside the weapon she had been holding. She was skilled at analyzing others due to the nature of her work which allowed her to interact with all kinds of people.

Seeing Jack’s grateful and humble attitude she was able to conclude that at the moment he held no malicious intent toward her or her children.

“I’m Sylvie...” she pointed toward the two who had changed their position and were now beside her.

“This little one here is called Lucas and this girl is called Gina, and by the way she was the one who saved you, if not for her...”

She did not finish her words because Jack’s fate if she had not saved him was obvious. Most likely he would have been wandering through the city streets searching for someone to bite a piece of flesh from.

' Well, you people caused my predicament in the first place '

Jack did not voice the thought. He nodded thankfully toward the girl who looked around 16 or 17. She did not resemble her mother except in hair color. She had pale white skin and blue eyes but unlike Sylvie’s pale color Gina’s eyes were darker.

Awkward silence filled the place for a few seconds. Sylvie and her children were staring at him as if expecting something from him.

' Damn this is awkward '

He placed his hand on his face in embarrassment when he understood why they were staring at him that way.

He cleared his throat and said with a somewhat awkward smile,

“Ahem... yes, I’m sorry I haven’t introduced myself yet ah... I’m Jacob but you can call me Jack”

“Mr. Jacob... may I ask you something?”

Gina spoke causing Sylvie to glance at her with a frown as though she did not want her interacting with Jack.

' Mister?! '

Jack nodded despite the strange feeling of someone addressing him with the title mister.

“Yes, of course anything”

Gina opened her mouth and said innocently,

“Are you crazy?”

“Gina!”

Her mother glared at her with a frown still not forgetting how she slapped her. Gina ignored the warning look in her mother’s eyes and said,

“I mean why are you wandering around at night?”

Jack let out an awkward laugh. He did not expect someone to question his sanity and again perhaps Gina was right in her suspicion. Maybe the stress of the past days had driven Jack insane, maybe not.

“Well, it never crossed my mind that there was an invisible distorted cat in the night that would follow me here. As you can see...” he pointed toward the gun and continued,

“My goal in coming here was to find a weapon, and naturally night was the best time to sneak in here. I don’t know whether you noticed or not but zombies, I mean dead walkers or that’s what the system calls them anyway, these mindless creatures lose the ability to see during the night...”

“So your goal was the weapons here?” Sylvie asked interrupting him while already holding the gun in her hands again.

Jack noticed the movement but paid it no mind. Instead he understood Sylvie’s cautious position.

“Yes ma’am that was and still is the goal. Honestly I’m amazed the place is still full of weapons”

Sylvie mocked,

“Not everyone has the courage to wander around while the streets are filled with those monsters”

“But Jacob. Tell me was it this system that healed the place here?”

She tapped her forehead with her fingers.

“Huh?”

Jack quickly raised his hand and checked his forehead. All he felt was the smooth texture of his pale skin.

Even though he had barely been clinging to consciousness when he killed the ugly black cat he clearly remembered that he truly inflicted a nasty wound upon his forehead, but now his forehead was free from any injury.

' If I’m not mistaken then most likely the reason is either the rank evolution or that increase in the stamina attribute, apparently the injury in my thigh was too much to heal unlike the wounds on my forehead...'

Gina’s voice pulled Jack from his thoughts.

“Umm guys don’t you think this is strange?”

“Sweetie. What do you mean?”

“I mean this silence!, don’t you think it’s strange that the monster gave up so easily?”

Jack raised his eyebrows and nodded while staring at the dent marks on the door.

“Umm, actually it really is strange, that monster just left that simply?”

He turned and asked the frowning Sylvie,

“How long was I unconscious?”

“I don’t know, I don’t have a watch to track time but maybe a few hours”

Jack nodded and fell silent for a moment before asking another question.

“Would you mind telling me how you ended up here, I mean here in this place”

Then he continued without waiting for Sylvie’s answer.

“I was at a job interview in an industrial company, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you that I felt a strange headache and when I regained consciousness I found the interview committee had turned into those vile creatures. My god those crimson eyes still haunt my dreams, ah... somehow I survived then met a group and separated from them because we were attacked by a two headed dog...”

“After that I found myself hiding in a trash container can you believe living in that place was safer than living in an apartment, then I saw a crazy person trying to enter the police station but he alerted a giant wasp the same type that killed him, then I got the idea to come here and get a weapon...”

Jack stopped speaking and stared with a fake frown at Gina who was trying to suppress her laughter behind her hands.

“No wonder you managed to kill that monster...” Sylvie let out a hollow muffled laugh and continued saying,

“As for me and the children it was hard but not compared to what you went through. We are here waiting for my husband Ste...”

Before Sylvie could finish her words a massive explosion sound came making the ground shake, no the entire building shook.

“Watch out!”

Instinctively Jack jumped toward the trio and raised his hand to stop the cabinet falling onto them. His eyes widened in shock while staring at the milky white aura that appeared around his palm.

When the cabinet collided with his hand or rather with that aura enveloping his hand something happened that made Jack open his mouth with a stunned expression.