Apocalypse: The Savior with System

28 Control

Resources, resources, resources.

Over the next several days in the compound, it was the one thing, almost like a mantra, that kept repeating in Paul’s head. He did not know if it was his own mind telling him he had to keep looking for those things or if it was the system. He wasn’t exactly hungry or becoming weaker. He wasn’t even using the system or any of the fireball controls. He’d open the system panel, stare at the buttons, check the map, and then hide it again.

Control.

When the thought struck him first, Paul became afraid of it. Was the system something he could truly control? Or was it there to control him? Worse, the possibility that it was also placed inside him to be controlled by an external hand added to his uncertainty. Because the system was made up of what Rahu Knight invented, Paul asked him about what exactly his invention did.

Unfortunately, even Rahu could not give him an answer.

“I made those tiny things yes. But knowing Pearse-Sachly, they would have already done something else to remove any trace that it had been mine to begin with,” Rahu told him. “Or, if they kept traces of my work there, it would’ve been so buried under all that biochemical science, you’d hardly recognize Knight’s imprint…unless you’re one of those biotech geniuses.”

When Rahu offered to look at it by opening him up first, Paul declined.

He thought of talking to Eric but his friend’s days were split between helping out his friends from the safe zone and having his fingers almost plastered to a laptop, coding, decoding, and decrypting data for Judith to get into the government’s, or Pearse-Sachly’s, servers.

Which left him Judith Merkel.

She’d been quiet cagey with the details of the system’s implantation. Whenever she spoke of her time in Pakistan and with him, she barely gave details. She explained what her job was. Beyond that, nothing he did not know of already.

As days passed, he noticed her becoming more constrained and jumpy. She’d always been a quiet sort of person but since Eric arrived, Paul could have sworn he caught a glimpse of an almost-madness in her eyes. Judith was on a hunt for truth as he was. He was curious, though, how much she wanted the truth and if she was even ready to know it.

Or if this was all just a matter of professional pride.

Paul sighed. There was no one else who’d know in the area, anyway.

He smelled them before he saw. Only his quick reflexes saved Paul from getting bitten by a rogue zombie that came hurtling from the side. Paul fell to the ground, wrestling against the rotting body, until a loud blast rendered him deaf in a second, and the cold slime of congealed blood with bits of burnt flesh splattered all over him. The zombie—headless now—fell on top of him. Paul pushed the body off and tried not to get sick all over himself.

He looked up to see Rahu standing several meters away, a smoking hunting rifle in his hands. The rest of their companions came running towards him but only getting as close to him as their noses could handle. Eric grimaced. Two people ran to a nearby copse of trees and emptied their stomachs.

“A newbie,” Rahu remarked as he arrived. Paul groaned and stood, everyone giving him a wide berth. “Still looked fresh.”

“Quite,” Eric muttered, shaking his head. “I’ve never gotten used to that smell, really.” Paul saw that Eric had a large carbine in his hands, most likely provided by Rahu.

Rahu raised his gun high and peered off in the distance in several directions. “Rogue zombies aren’t really rogues. They’re almost always followed by a group,” Paul said, trying to get rid of the disgusting stuff on his clothes, giving up when he couldn’t. “I better get cleaned up first and then we all have to talk.”

Eric’s eyes widened. “Jesus, that’s your ‘I’m-done-taking-s**t’ voice, man!” Turning to Rahu, he raised his gun and asked, “Care to share any more of this babies?”

Rahu grunted.

When Paul had cleaned himself up, he called everyone into the house, including Judith who had been cooped up inside Rahu’s personal office for days, checking everything Eric managed to hack from hidden servers.

“Okay. First things first, next to a safe zone, this is the safest place you could be in,” started Paul. “But given the number of attacks we’ve suffered from both humans and zombies over the last many weeks, that might no longer be true. So, those of you who wish to go back to a safe zone, you can take the van.”

Eli spoke up. “Truth is, we don’t know if we can ever go back into a safe zone. We escaped from one so it’s likely they have records of that and blacklisted us from getting help. Also, we don’t know if we are already infected, no offense meant.”

“None taken,” said Paul, nodding in understanding. “I’m sorry if staying with us made it harder for you to go back. The best way for now is to find a testing center so you could find out. If you test negative but can’t go back into a safe zone, there must be near-empty towns you can stay at.”

Andie looked at Paul and asked boldly, “Are you in trouble?”

Paul and Judith exchanged glances. “Yes. That’s the second thing we have to talk about. You don’t need to know all the details but it’s enough for you to know that if you stay with us, you’ll get more than just the virus. We’re also being hunted.”

“By whom?” asked Eric.

Paul shrugged. “The government? Pearse-Sachly?” He thought he heard Eli mutter about the government and the research giant to be one and the same.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Paul said uncertainly. He couldn’t very well tell them more about the system in his body even though they’d all been witness to its power. He thought the more people knew, the more he’d get into trouble along with his friends.

Then again, knowledge is power, too. Hopefully, they never use it against him.

Paul took the risk and told them about the system—or at least what he knew of it while Judith remained mum to one side of the room—with several people eliciting gasps of awe and horror. He didn’t know if he should be proud of it like it was an achievement of his own merit. For sure, Paul wouldn’t have been able to dispose of so many zombies without those fireballs. In more ways than one, the system has been saving his life since Ormara.

“I’m not a fighter,” a middle-aged woman in the group said. “I don’t really like seeing people die and seeing the dead live again when they’re supposed to stay dead. I hope you don’t mind if I take the van?”

“I still have family in Florida,” another spoke. “As long as we can get tested and are armed for defense, I think we can survive out there.”

Many in the group agreed and soon, only Eric, Eli, and Andie remained.

“Leaving you again was never an option,” Eric told Paul.

“If you get infected—“

Eric shook his head. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Besides, we’ve had military training. But these two—“ Eric scowled at his two younger friends. Andie grinned cheekily.

“Unlike the others, we don’t have family anymore to go back to,” explained Eli. Andie’s grin melted into a sad though resigned expression. “My brothers are all dead and the circus where Andie grew up in is gone. We’ve been talking, too, and decided we’ll just take our chances with you, guys.”

“It’s really not so different inside walls or outside of them. The circus taught me that,” Andie said with a shrug. “Everywhere else is a cage with a jailer. You don’t really need actual walls to keep someone in if you really want to.”

Their small group was silent for a long time, each of them obviously weighing the words from Andie’s mouth. She was right, Paul mused. Wall is relative.

So is safety.

And freedom.

“Okay,” Paul said, nodding to Eric. “You’re welcome to join us. As of the moment, we’re still looking for a way to get more resources for myself and for Judith to get the information she needs. Eric, how long until you can dig deeper?”

His friend shook his head. “I really can’t say, Paul. Trying to hack into Pearse-Sachly is like head-butting a one-meter thick stone wall. We could be here for days, even weeks, and not get past a few layers of security.”

“Didn’t you design their security, too, Rahu?” asked Paul. Rahu shook his head.

“Knight Industries lost the bidding for that to another company Some Silicon Valley upstart who also designs AIs.” Rahu bent down, seemingly to look for something.

“AIs?” Eli asked.

“Artificial intelligence,” Judith finally spoke. “We have employed some of those machines at the institute. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re also using AIs to safeguard their servers.”

“Rahu? What are you looking for?” Paul asked, noticing Rahu peering behind the sofa.

“I could have sworn I was carrying two more guns on my body,” he murmured.

And then, someone screamed.