Apocalypse Fighter

Chapter 34 - I still have a helper

"A virus? A vaccine… Oh, my god, the free vaccine Janet mentioned at the last party is true?"

Everyone was understandably anxious at the news and could not sit still. It was thought that the vaccine was a stunt by the state to introduce new drugs. Now this Dr. L guy was saying the vaccine really was for an imminent pandemic.

Those at the party who heard Janet discuss the matter before assumed she must know something more and pressed her relentlessly for information.

"I don't know if it's true because I just heard that the vaccines in the hospital were stolen last night and a security guard was injured. But this must be a coincidence. How could the guy have known where the vaccines were kept?"

As she said this, Janet suddenly stared at Richard with a strange look. The others noticed this and it did seem odd. They all remembered who had been so interested in this batch of vaccines at the last party.

"Was it you, Richard?"

Suddenly it was quiet and everyone was looking at Richard.

"Officer, I know who stole the vaccines. It was him, Richard. I’m positive!”

A tall thin man with wire-rimmed glasses suddenly cried out. His voice almost cracked with fear.

"Gary, you i***t, shut up!" Janet shouted, sounding embarrassed. She regretted having mentioned the vaccines at the party. Gary was also present that day and he knew Richard was very interested in the subject. To make matters worse, he and the recently deceased Henry Pope were very close friends. He was desperate for someone to blame.

"Oh, come on Janet! If you hadn’t drunk too much that day and mentioned the vaccine, it would have been impossible for Richard to rob them. Now we’re doomed because the vaccine is gone and we’re all gonna die. Officer, arrest this man and ask him where the vaccine is. My family lives in the same neighborhood as the hospital. I don't want them to die from that horrible virus!"

   Gary was getting more and more animated as if it were Richard who murdered his whole family. Things started to get a bit chaotic as no one knew what to believe. They started to look at Richard in a very strange way. If what Gary said was true, that death rate of the virus was very high, they also didn’t have time to go to the hospital to get the vaccine now. So, it was better to find some way to escape Richard.

Unconsciously, except for Janet and Lily, everyone looked at Richard’s family coldly. Meanwhile, the swat team’s guns were still pointed in their direction.

Dr. L grinned and walked towards Richard. As he got close, he stepped back several steps and stood beside Captain Dempsey. Patting him on the shoulder, Dr. L said with a smile, "Captain Dempsey, people in this world sometimes are really ridiculous and hard to understand. With a little inside information, they will dare to risk hoarding drugs to make a fortune. I'm not afraid to tell you that the drugs you’ve stolen are useless. The vaccine can only keep you alive for a while and will become useless when the virus mutates. You have tens of thousands of useless vaccines.”

 Richard looked at Dr. L calmly and then checked the clock on the wall. As far as he could remember, there were at most ten minutes before the Doomsday would begin. During his time in the post-doomsday world Richard had never heard of a virus that could destroy the earth. Instead, survivors had long agreed that the cause was a mysterious meteor hitting the earth.

The meteor emitted a magnetic wave called Radiation D and it caused a global biological retrogression. Richard again raised his head and looked carefully at Dr. L. He was evasive but appeared not to be lying. What really happened? Could it be that the government had long been aware of the mysterious shooting stars and didn’t really know the true reasons?

Various complex theories were running through Richard’s brain. He shook his head to shake himself out of the daze. In just a few minutes, Radiation D would sweep the earth.

In evolutionary biology terms, cats, dogs, and other pets had evolved for a short time and their genetic chains were relatively unstable. In the last Doomsday, Richard saw that one third of humans died being bitten by their pets. Once the police dogs mutated, everyone in the house would die.

"Captain Dempsey, I will do as you ask and I will hand over the woman you are looking for. But before that, you must give me five minutes to say something to my family."

 Richard reached over Mary's shoulder and lowered his head to whisper to her, "Listen to me, take Steven to the basement right now, and remember to lock the door. Don't come out no matter what happens outside!"

"Richard, take care! We can’t lose you."

Mary put her arm around Richard and sobbed while leaning into his shoulder. A few tears fell on Steven's small cheek and he laughed as he tried to touch his cheeks.

"Well, now that you've said what you need to say. Put your hands up and get down on the ground. If you resist, I will shoot you dead."

 Captain Dempsey had lost his patience. Spitting out the words, he gestured to an officer beside him to take out the handcuffs. Mary quietly took her son down to the basement. Richard looked at the four police dogs behind Dempsey and saw their brown eyes suddenly turn blood red. Outside, the clear, cloudless sky was getting dark.

"You guessed right that I robbed the medicine and that I killed someone, but what can you do with me? Shoot me? In that case, I urge you to do so soon, because in a few seconds you will lose the chance. Everyone here is going to die!"

Richard pointed at Captain Dempsey and the other officers as he spoke, which made the Captain furious.

“Well, I have to admit that you have nice skills but you are pretty naive. You may be fast, but you cannot outrun a bullet. What do you think is gonna happen? You expect your accomplices to save you? Believe it or not, I could give the order to kill all of you right now. If you’ve got a backup, I suggest you call them. If they’re late, all they will find is your dead body.”

Despite Richard’s arrogance, Dempsey responded with a smile. He was trying very hard to suppress his anger and stop himself just shooting.

"Accomplices? Well, congratulations on your guess. I do have a few and they have already been in the room. Wait a few seconds and you'll see what they can do. I hope you can still shout at me with the same strength when the time comes."