Zero's Law: Lord Of The Karma System

Don't Let Me Die Here.

Chapter 3: Don't Let Me Die Here

Zero sat in the backseat of his car, as Gina drove him to the hospital.

She looked at him through the middle rearview mirror. "What were you thinking? No matter how angry you are... you should have known better than to recklessly assault Marcus, especially in his own building."

Zero didn't reply.

Gina continued. "If Marcus guards hadn't jumped you, he could have easily made a case against you for your actions. You would have been in serious trouble, and might have even lost your license."

"Gina, I don't want your criticism right now, okay?" Zero said.

"No, you need to hear it... because you seem to have lost all rationality."

"Gina..."

"No, you listen to me..."

"Gina, WATCH OUT!!" Zero yelled.

Zero's shout forced Gina to focus on the road, where an incoming tanker had driven out of lane and was now coming towards them.

Gina narrowly managed to swerve the car out of the tanker's part, and crashed into a pole. But the bus directly behind them was not so lucky. The tanker rammed into it, and the impact was thunder. It came with a loud boom. Glass shattered, and steels folded. The tanker’s frame groaned as if the earth itself were splitting. For a breathless instant, everything froze... then the smell of gasoline rushed the air, bringing passerbys out of their trance like state.

There were a lot of screams, and people started started conversing among themselves, as they gathered to watch the scene. Some quickly swiped out their phone, turned on the camera and started videoing. But no one moved forward to help.

"Gasoline is leaking off the side of the tanker..." Someone yelled.

The bus was on its side, windows jagged with broken glass. Smoke hissed from the engine. Inside, those who were still conscious screamed, clawing at the seats, the exits, and each other. Gasoline licked up from beneath the tanker’s barrel, threatening to swallow both vehicles whole if anything were to ignite it.

The onlookers quickly distanced themselves from the scene, not wanting to be caught in the explosion.

"Zero, are you alright?" Gina asked.

"Yeah, I am good." He replied.

Thankfully, they both had their seatbelts on so they didn't sustain much injuries. But their car crashed not far from where the tanker and bus was.

Gina saw the gasoline leaking from the tanker. "We need to get out of here. That thing is going to explode." She said, and removed her seatbelt.

Zero turned to her. "Call the cops, and the fire service. Tell them to get here fast" Then he forced himself out of the car and moved without thinking.

"ZERO!!" Gina yelled.

He got to the bus in a jiffy, amidst the shouts of the onlookers. He tore open a window and pulled a lady out, thankfully the lady was still very conscious. He told her to get to safety, and hauled himself into the bus. The heat was already unbearable. He stumbled through the cramped aisle, searching.

He came across a fat man who was barely conscious, and held tightly to his seat by a seatbelt. He tried to help the man but realized that the seatbelt was jammed. Just then a child’s cry pierced the chaos.

In a split second decision, Zero choosed to abandon the man and rescue the kid instead.

"Hey don't leave me... pl.. please... Don't let me die here." The man said and tried to grab onto Zero, but he was restricted by his seatbelt, and moreover Zero have already moved away from him.

As Zero clawed his way through, he passed by different people in different state begging for his help, but his target was fixed on the kid.

__________

Outside, onlookers watched with a tensed expression on their face, as two survivors made their way out of the bus through the window that Zero pulled out.

"Where is the crazy man that jumped in?" A lady asked her boyfriend.

Just then, underneath the tanker’s cab caught on fire.

"Oh shit. The tank's on fire." Someone yelled, and the onlookers in mad panic, quickly distanced themselves more from the scene, as the tanker would explode any second now.

"I don't think that guy is making it out of that bus." The boyfriend said to his woman.

Gina could only watch on in fear.

__________

There. A boy, no more than eight, was trapped beneath a half-fallen seat. Zero pulled until his muscles burned, shoving the twisted frame aside. He scooped the boy up, pressed him to his chest, and staggered toward the window.

He was almost free when he felt something grab him.

He looked down and saw a cold bleeding hand locked around his ankle. The hand belonged to a man... half-crushed, blood pouring from his temple. The man stared up at him with glassy eyes. His lips trembled, but no words came. His grip was desperate, clinging to Zero with the last sparks of life.

And then he went still.

Zero’s breath caught. The man’s eyes glazed over, but his grip never loosened. And in that final moment, Zero felt something pass from the man, and into him. The feeling was fleeting and indescribable that he wondered if he imagined it.

But then...

[SYSTEM TRANSFERRED: INITIATING THE KARMA SYSTEM.]

The voice wasn’t sound. It detonated in his skull, clear and mechanical, reverberating through his bones.

Zero froze, the boy still in his arms. The hot bus seemed to vanish around him for a heartbeat, drowned out by the impossible clarity of that message.

When the world rushed back, screams echoed, and the tanker groaned under the weight of its leaking fuel.

Zero quickly pried the dead man’s fingers from his leg. The boy whimpered against his chest, his tiny fists clutching Zero’s shirt.

With a surge of desperate strength, Zero shoved himself through the shattered window and dropped onto the street. His legs threatened to buckle, but he forced himself to run, clutching the boy tight.

"Hahaha, I am still alive." A voice yelled from the back. Zero turned to see the fat man he abandoned earlier, forcing himself out of the window.

"I can do this. I won't die here... I will LIVE!!!" The man yelled as he kept struggling to get out of the bus through the window.

Just then, the tanker caught on fire.

"Oh shit." Zero yelled and increased his running speed.

He managed barely thirty feet before the tanker ignited.

Searing light devoured the night. Heat slammed into him, knocking the air from his lungs. Then came the sound... deafening, as if the sky itself had cracked open. Fire devoured the tanker and the bus, climbed the sky, and rolled outward in a savage wave.

Zero had only an instant to register the blast before it struck him.

He and the boy were flung across the street like ragdolls. Zero’s back slammed the pavement hard, pain spiking down his spine as his skull cracked against the concrete. The child tumbled from his arms, rolling across the asphalt, screaming.

Then came the silence. No flames, no screams... just the hollow ring in his ears.

Zero lay sprawled, his body broken. The world tilted, spinning away from him. He turned his head... just enough to see the boy still breathing, curled in a ball, shivering in shock a few feet away. Relief flickered in his chest.

Then the impossible appeared.

A glowing purple screen suddenly appeared, and hovered before his eyes.

[INITIATION COMPLETE.]

Zero blinked. "I am... seeing things," he gasped. And then he lost all consciousness.