NOVGO.NET Chapter 24 Adrain Solis.
Chapter 24: Chapter 24 Adrain Solis.
The day slowly began to fade, the sunlight disappearing behind a thick mass of dark clouds until the world was swallowed in a dull gray glow.
Luna finally stood up.
To her surprise, Kai was fast asleep.
For someone trapped in the middle of an apocalypse, he looked ridiculously comfortable, sleeping so peacefully as though he was back in his father’s house instead of a death zone.
"His survival instinct is as useless as an elephant’s butt."
Rowan, who had been arranging his own things nearby, stopped and made a face.
"I know you want to laugh. Just let it out. You’re not some creature forbidden from smiling." Luna taunted.
He returned to packing the few things he owned.
Luna was also making sure everything was in order. The only thing she carried was the small handbag hanging from her wrist.
To anyone else it looked ordinary.
Only she knew the truth.
Beneath that tiny opening was a bottomless space capable of storing countless supplies while remaining unbelievably light. That was the greatest advantage of her supermarket storage. As long as she never mentioned it, nobody would suspect the bag was anything unusual.
Once everything was ready, Luna looked back.
Kai had somehow rolled onto his side.
Not only was he still sleeping...
He was snoring.
"Damn you."
Without hesitation she threw the handbag straight at his head.
Thud!
Kai jerked violently before shooting to his feet.
"Zombies! Where are they?!"
Luna walked over and picked up her bag while rolling her eyes.
"So you know we’re surrounded by danger with new threats like zombies, yet you’re sleeping like some princess."
Kai rubbed his eyes frantically, still half asleep.
For a brief second he couldn’t even tell whether the thing talking in front of him was Luna or a walking bag of chips.
Seeing Luna raise her hand again as if she was about to hit him a second time, every trace of sleep vanished instantly.
"I’m sorry! I seriously just dozed off."
Luna ignored him and walked ahead.
Rowan followed without saying anything.
"Just don’t get lost. Keep up."
Kai scratched the back of his neck before quickly chasing after them.
With Luna leading the way, the other two followed behind.
Invisible to everyone else, a transparent system panel floated before her like a navigation map.
[One of the bunkers is just two kilometers from your current location.]
Luna nodded inwardly.
Thankfully, it wasn’t far.
"Shouldn’t I be the one leading?" Rowan asked. "I actually know this place. You only arrived recently."
Luna didn’t answer.
Her attention had already shifted elsewhere.
Far ahead...
Three figures stood completely motionless in the middle of the road.
Her brows slowly knitted together.
"Why aren’t those three moving?"
Kai, being Kai, immediately took a step forward.
"I’ll go ask—"
Before he could finish, Luna grabbed his wrist and yanked him back.
"You were supposed to protect me, not the other way around. Remember?"
Rowan immediately turned toward her.
"Protect who exactly?"
His eyebrows furrowed.
"Did I miss something? Because I don’t remember agreeing to become your bodyguard."
Silence.
Luna didn’t even spare him a glance.
That only made Rowan even more frustrated.
"You keep expecting us to follow you, yet you only answer the questions you like while conveniently ignoring the rest."
He folded his arms.
"It’s seriously unfair."
Still...
No response.
Her eyes remained fixed on the floating panel before her.
[Target Number Three is nearby.]
The marker blinked several streets away.
Luna frowned.
That complicated things.
Should she continue toward the bunker...
Or change directions and recruit the last companion first?
Normally she would’ve ignored him.
But his ability was simply too valuable.
Space.
Dimensions.
Teleportation.
Those powers would become irreplaceable once humanity reached the later stages of the apocalypse.
After a brief moment of thought, she made up her mind.
"Change of plans."
She pointed toward another road.
"We’re going that way."
She had barely taken two steps when Rowan grabbed her wrist.
"That’s the wrong direction."
He frowned.
"What exactly are you afraid of? Those people standing over there?"
He chuckled confidently.
"They’re harmless."
Trying to act brave, Rowan pulled slightly as though intending to walk toward them himself.
Luna sighed.
This was exactly why overconfidence killed people first.
Before Rowan managed another step...
The two motionless figures suddenly twisted.
At first...
It looked almost graceful.
Their bodies swayed together in awkward synchronization, almost resembling a strange dance.
Like lovers embracing beneath the evening sky.
Kai blinked.
"Aww..."
He smiled.
"They actually look kind of adorable."
"They’re dancing."
Luna resisted the urge to smack him.
They weren’t dancing.
One of them had its mouth buried deep inside the other’s neck.
It was tearing flesh apart.
From a distance, the movements looked almost romantic.
Up close...
It was nothing more than feeding.
"Aww... they’re getting intimate."
Kai practically gushed.
Luna pinched the bridge of her nose.
This idiot truly had no survival instincts.
Had she left him alone earlier...
He would’ve died within an hour.
Rowan still looked unconvinced.
He was just about to continue walking when a frantic voice suddenly echoed from somewhere behind the buildings.
"Don’t go any closer!"
"They’re infected!"
"They’ll attack you!"
Rowan froze.
Only then did the nearest figure slowly lift its head.
His breathing stopped.
Half of its face was missing.
Bloody flesh hung loosely from exposed bone.
One eyeball dangled grotesquely outside its socket, swinging with every twitch of its head.
The person beneath it...
The one Rowan thought was its partner...
Was nothing more than an innocent stranger.
Dead.
Completely lifeless.
With a sickening thud, the corpse collapsed onto the ground.
The creature feeding on it slowly turned.
Its neck twisted far beyond what any human spine should allow.
Crack.
Crack.
Its shoulders bent unnaturally.
Its limbs jerked at impossible angles as though every bone inside had shattered and been stitched together incorrectly.
Then...
It stared directly at Rowan.
"Zombie!"
Rowan screamed.
"Run!"
The creature lunged.
At the exact same moment, the corpse lying on the ground began twitching violently.
Its fingers curled.
Its legs spasmed.
Then...
It slowly stood back up.
The freshly turned infected let out a horrifying growl before charging alongside the first one.
Luna cursed beneath her breath.
Without wasting another second, she sprinted forward.
Instead of running away blindly...
She grabbed the man who had shouted the warning.
"Thanks for the information."
Her grip tightened around his wrist.
"But we’re leaving."
"And you’re coming with us."
The man stared at her in confusion.
Luna didn’t give him the chance to refuse.
She dragged him along while running toward the bunker marked on her system.
Kai finally snapped out of his shock and chased after them.
Rowan followed close behind.
Behind them...
The zombies pursued relentlessly.
Their movements were erratic and clumsy.
They stumbled.
Twisted.
Cracked.
Yet somehow they continued gaining ground, driven by nothing but hunger.
A military patrol rounded the corner.
Seeing several civilians sprinting through the streets, one soldier immediately blew his whistle.
"Stop!"
"No one’s supposed to be outside after lights out!"
"Return to the evacuation camp immediately!"
None of them slowed down.
The soldier frowned.
Before he could repeat himself...
Two infected burst from an alleyway.
They slammed straight into him.
"No—!"
His rifle slipped from his hands.
The zombies dragged him to the ground.
Then came the screams.
Blood splattered across the road.
The horrifying sound of flesh being torn apart echoed through the evening air.
Gunshots erupted moments later.
More whistles.
More shouting.
Panic spread throughout the streets as soldiers finally realized something far worse than flooding had begun.
The disaster was no longer nature.
The dead...
Were walking.
Several more infected staggered from nearby buildings, drawn by the screams.
Luna didn’t dare look back.
Her only focus remained ahead.
Finally...
She came to a stop before an enormous circular metal structure rising from the ground like a buried fortress.
The bunker.
She looked at it with satisfaction.
"This is it."
The man she had dragged all this way stared first at the bunker...
Then at Luna.
His expression became increasingly confused.
"I think we should keep running."
Luna shook her head.
"We’ve run enough."
She pointed directly at the massive structure.
"We’re taking the whole thing."
The newcomer blinked.
"...What?"
Luna shoved her handbag into his hands.
"Help me empty everything inside."
"Put every single supply into this bag."
He stared at the tiny handbag.
Then at the bunker.
Then back at the handbag again.
"...You’re joking."
Luna’s voice became impatient.
"I’m not."
The man remained rooted to the ground.
His eyes widened slightly.
How does she know...?
His ability...
No one should’ve known it.
He possessed the rare power to move through dimensions and space.
A secret he had never revealed to anyone.
Yet this strange woman had found him specifically...
And was now asking him to use it.
"...Who are you?" Adrian Solis finally asked.
Luna ignored the question entirely.
The growls behind them were becoming louder.
More gunshots rang across the city.
Sirens wailed endlessly.
Searchlights swept across rooftops as military reinforcements flooded into the streets.
Only now were they beginning to understand the horrifying truth.
The natural disaster that had devastated the city...
Was no longer the greatest threat.
The people who were supposed to stay dead...
Had begun walking again. Phase two activated completely.