Apocalypse: The Savior with System

19 A Ruined Friendship

Paul decided with the storage building first.

Or rather, Rahu decided it for him when a loud explosion rocked the house to its foundations, waking Paul up from bed during the pre-dawn hours. Judith, sleep-rumpled, had run barefoot out of the bedroom, a gun in her hand. Paul was already out the door when he saw the smoke coming from the storage and Rahu walking calmly back to the house.

“What the heck was that?!” Paul yelled. Rahu went up to him and threw what looked to be a steel-encased detonator into his hands.

“Your breakfast,” said Rahu, “Enjoy.”

Paul gawped. Judith raised her eyebrows. Rahu nodded to her blindly, walked upstairs, and went back to sleep.

“I can’t go back to sleep now” Judith complained mildly, already heading to the kitchen. “Might as well start on actual edible breakfast. Go ahead. I’ll call you in an hour.”

Half-naked in borrowed pajama bottoms, Paul went out and gazed in awe at the huge pile of debris that was once a hangar-sized storage building.

He had to laugh at Rahu’s methods. He blew up his own building so hard; Paul could see ten feet beneath the ground in the hole the explosion made.

There was a huge steel wrecking ball somewhere in the compound. Paul thought he could use that to demolish just one building. But he guessed Rahu didn’t have the patience to use one.

By midmorning, Paul had collected close to two tons of his needed resources, including the steel from the wrecking ball. He realized Judith had probably not called him in an hour because he was too busy picking up resources. She knew best how much he needed to stock up on those, especially since they had no idea when they will have to leave this place.

Translation: When Frank Yardley was coming.

“You should get some actual food in you first!” Judith finally called out to him.

Paul left the storage, cleaned himself up, and sat down to breakfast.

“Rahu still asleep?” he asked.

Judith shook her head. “He went to the back,” she told him, pointing to the room with the security panels with her chin.

Paul ate his breakfast-making small talk with Judith while she finished her coffee. She did tell him that she gave another dose of the serum to Rahu. Paul thanked her which she brushed off. A while later, Paul went after Rahu and found him staring at the real-time video capture. The lights which Rahu had previously indicated to blink fast when the other holder of the security codes was near were now all blinking faster than in previous days.

“I started planning for this place in college,” Rahu suddenly shared. Paul pulled up a chair and sat beside him.

“That early?”

“I knew what I wanted early on,” he added, typing on the keyboard to change the angle of the cameras. “Yardley has always had an eye on design and that was what convinced me it was a good idea to get him on-board.”

“You didn’t know he will betray you.”

“No, I didn’t know and maybe if I had known, I wouldn’t even have believed it. Not until the last moment.” Rahu inhaled deeply and exhaled loudly. Paul expected him to just grunt and leave it at that but it seemed like Rahu was on a speaking marathon that day. Paul was not going to stop him.

“He designed everything, the layout, the panels, everything,” Rahu explained. “Except for the house, he had intimate knowledge of the compound. Samantha considered the house her pet project. She designed it.” Rahu looked at him sideways but Paul knew better than to say anything or make a sound.

“I’m not entirely blameless. Somewhere down the road our friendship soured when I became involved in the underground. He and Samantha tried to get me to stop but I couldn’t. My underground activities brought more money into Knight Industries, why should I stop? It gave me more ideas for weapons, introduced me to concepts no ethical professor would have taught anywhere. It built for him and Samantha their dream home where they could live in comfort and raise their children away from this place. Samantha never approved of us going into weapons-making and dealing.”

Rahu stopped as if to gather himself and steel himself for what he was about to reveal next. “All semblance of goodwill between us was gone when Samantha died along with their unborn child. She became infected but was too weak to fight the virus. She had to be exterminated.”

“And then you became infected, too?”

“She got it from me.”

Okay. I shouldn’t have asked.

“I’d been sick a long time and I told no one I got it during my dealings with the underground. I only told Yardley and he made me promise I wasn’t going to go back to the underground. I made him promise to keep it a secret. At the time, it was more for economic and business purposes. The stigma against sufferers was high and I didn’t want Pearse who was a huge partner in our venture to cancel our contract. Though Knight Industries was run by the two of us and overseen by a board that included Samantha, I was the face of the company. It bore my name alone. My position can veto the board. Sick as I was, I couldn’t leave the running of my company to him, my other activities aside. I thought it was one of those things that made him do what he did.

“But when Samantha got sick because she followed me to the underground to stop me…it pushed him to act against me and break his promise. After all, I didn’t keep my own promise.”

“So, what? He shot you over and over again until you were almost dead?”

Rahu nodded. “He wasn’t the one doing the shooting but yes, he ordered the hit on me. And he did it, too, on a day when I was very sick. I couldn’t have fought back, not in the state I was in. So I pretended to die by falling down the mountain and making my way north to where you found me. There was some luck there, though.”

Getting bullet-ridden by your former best friend and business partner and almost getting done for by zombies did not seem congruous to having luck, though.

“One of the bullets damaged the tracer implanted in me, which connected to the security system I made,” he said with pride, pointing to a spot below his right chest. “Damaged, it cannot link to the clone system in his keeping.”

“He couldn’t look for you, then” Paul stated.

“But I can know where he is relative to the compound because he still has the tracer inside him.”

Paul looked down at the blinking lights. “He’s almost here now, isn’t he?”

“Not for another day, at least,” Rahu told him, standing. Paul followed suit. “In the meantime, get yourself your resources. Upgrade. Later we’ll start with the design lab and leave the munitions factory for last. I still have some weapons baking in there.”

As for what those weapons were, Paul was anticipating to know, too. But first, he had to get the resources. ASAP.

Paul suddenly felt Rahu’s hand on his shoulder. “I know you want to help me, Paul, that’s why you’re in a hurry. But this is my fight. Save those fireballs for the things they’re meant for. I can deal with Yardley.”

As far as “mind your own business” went, Rahu’s version was actually kind and noble.

“You know I got your back,” Paul emphasized.

Rahu grunted, walking away. He passed Judith on his way out, possibly to rig the design lab with bombs, and grunted back at her. Judith raised an eyebrow at Paul curiously.

And we’re back in business, Paul thought, grinning.