บท 46: 2.15
Despite the ambiguous tension growing between us, Alex convinced me to share the bed with him again, only to disappear by the time I woke, leaving a cold spot where he had lain with a separate blanket.
He'd been ever the gentleman maintaining a distance since our little heart-to-heart, pulling that mask right back up again.
During breakfast, Luke explained that he had left with Matt and Aiden at dawn to check something out. Which left Ethan and Luke to arrange the sword lessons with me.
In total there were twenty-seven of them who wanted to learn, which were then split into two groups, those with some fighting experience and those with none, leaving me to plan a morning and afternoon class. Adding Leo and Holly who had no choice but to attend both.
The students were mainly from the sports departments, or in some form of team or another, and on scholarships like Alex. Which meant the majority already had great stamina and strength combined with the virus boosting them.
I got system to scan everybody around me to make note of how many were inside the walls. In total System counted sixty-seven alive, of which only twenty-three had successfully mutated. It did not have the strength or ability to tell which abilities they had.
Of the forty-four people left to mutate, more than half, Leo and Holly included, were dangerously close to reaching the stage of the virus that induced the fever. I needed to get to that meteorite beforehand.
Late at night, after a very gruelling day of trying to get noisy, impatient brats to listen, I collapsed in Alex's bed grateful for the space to lazily starfish, though deep in concern at just where he had gone in such a hurry and with so few teammates. Would he come back?
I woke to System notifying me that all three boys had returned. Pushing the quilt aside I walked straight into Alex's bare, wet chest as he left the bathroom beside the room.
"Hannah, what are you doing up?" He held onto my shoulders, steadying me back. I looked up at him, grateful at least in this life my neck didn't ache to speak to the men in my life.
"Worried about you," I avoided eye contact but made sure he heard the bitter annoyance in my tone.
He pushed me back into the bedroom, closing the door and rummaging through his drawers for clothes. I made a point to crawl back under the blanket, covering my head.
Shortly after he climbed beside me on the bed under his blanket.
"Why do you want to go to the meteorite?" He asked eventually, making me peek my head back out to see a complicated look on his face.
"I have a way to stop it leaking the virus into the ground and air, it should not only make it stop luring zombies here but lower the risk for the kids when they go through the fever. But I need to actually touch it to do what I need to do."
System had been vague in describing its plans, only that I needed to find it and touch it whilst others watched my back as I'd be vulnerable during whatever it was it needed to do.
He let out a heavy sigh, his hand running through his still-damp hair.
"It won't hurt you to do it will it?" he asked, the worry obvious and catching me off guard. There goes that ambiguous atmosphere again. My heart couldn't take much more of this. No one had been this unconditionally kind to me.
"No, I just won't be able to defend myself whilst I do it."
"Thank fuck," he tossed himself onto his back, his hands almost looking ready to tear out his hair, "the number surrounding the damn thing has more than doubled since I last checked."
"How many?"
"More than we have here that's for sure, and that was just the ones I could see."
"Shit, I don't think the kids can last much longer before the fever starts either," I complained, also lying on my back and staring helplessly at the ceiling.
"Tomorrow we'll organise volunteers willing to go help clear the area out so you can do your thing," he eventually replied after debating quietly. He looked so worn out, yet his eyes were wide awake. He needed to sleep soon before he collapsed.
I rolled over, placing a hand on the side of his face, getting System to flood his system with melatonin.
His grin reached ear to ear at my touch, though there was a slight blush at his ear tips.
It was then I realised how much my intentions to help must seem like advances. But System could only alter a person's hormones with a skin-to-skin connection only.
Though I suppose he did have a pretty face, a fit body, and a chivalrous personality. Perfect catch for any woman.
Yet I did not want a relationship. I did not want attachments to this world. I could die tomorrow and leave them all behind. He could die tomorrow. My chest constricted painfully at the thought.
"You okay?" He asked sleepily, blinking his green eyes.
"Don't die on me," I accidentally blurted out, starting to feel the effects the melatonin System had released for me.
His large, warm hand cupped the side of my face mirroring mine, "so long you promise not to die on me."
I found myself unable to lie, to promise I'd stay alive for a long time yet. There were no guarantees. Going on past experience, I knew, that when push came to shove, if a situation required it I'd be the first to sacrifice myself.
The knowledge that death was not truly the end of my memories, and my personality, unlike theirs, made me view my own life with less value than theirs.
Especially if they were someone young or I knew. I wasn't stupid enough to sacrifice for just anybody though. Someone like Kylie, who only incited chaos in troubled times, I could probably do without her putting others at risk.
Like I had with Daniel, I found myself unable to see her in the same light as others. There was something there, something wrong with her, something beyond the naked eye.
"What's wrong?" he asked, stroking the creases from my face, where I'd unconsciously scrunched it in anger at the thought of that sick bastard.
"Bad thought," I murmured, closing my eyes to try and think of happy things. The last thing I needed was for my dreams to follow my thoughts.
Lips softly kissed my wrinkled forehead, breaking my concentration. My face turned a shade of red as I felt him lie close beside me, inching slightly under my duvet.
"Sleep," he whispered. Only when his breathing steadied did I relax and allow myself to drift back into dreamland.
In the morning I woke up tangled in Alex's arms, just like the first morning. Though this time, his arms were also wrapped around me, one hand was even slightly inched up the baggy t-shirt I wore as a nightie.
"Morning," he groaned, reluctant to wake.
"Uhuh," was all I could say. I was too self-conscious of the fingers stroking down my bare waist. There was no way we could remain ignorant to the ambiguous tension in the air, there was something between us, something unspoken, that neither of us was willing to approach.
His other hand reached for his phone, looking at the time. One bonus to living in the dorms was not only the electricity but the campus intranet was even still running, making it so they could all communicate with each other so long they were still on the college grounds.
The internet still existed, though many web pages were down last I'd checked on Luke's tablet I'd played with during yesterday's lunch break.
"Hannah," it was only when his fingers squeezed my waist that I realised he was trying to talk to me.
"Huh?"
"You'll be late for your morning sword lesson if you don't get up now you might not even get breakfast."
I groaned, "I don't wanna."
His playful squeezing turned into tickles forcing me to shove his hand away and roll over. I closed my eyes hoping to drift back off, but now my bladder was wide awake.
"I don't like you anymore," I muttered, staggering out of bed and heading for the loo ignoring his laughter at my misery.
At lunch, we ate downstairs. Alex had spent all morning talking to those he deemed strong enough to join us, convincing them to join us on our potentially deadly trip North, whilst I'd spent my time mainly beating the slightly more annoying students with blunt swords during 'demonstrations'. At least they'd had fun, pretending to be zombies.
It was hard trying to come up with how to best get the annoying brats comfortable with the sword, enough that I wouldn't worry about being accidentally stabbed whilst battling with them. Though, deep down I also felt a natural talent for it, as if I'd done it at least once before in another life.
The most important thing, was for them to understand the best way to use their sword to kill the dead, lessening the chances of the blade getting stuck or damaged, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
"Sis," Leo waved his hand in front of my face trying to get my attention, "I wanna go with."
I shook my head vigorously, "No, stay here, look after Holly." Holly did not have a mean bone in her body, she was too sweet and kind and even somewhat fearful of the weapon in her hand. She had yet to kill a zombie. It was a miracle she had survived as long as she had. Without Leo, I was one hundred percent certain she would have joined the rest of her family on the other side by now.
Leo pulled a face but did not argue.
I looked to Alex and the others discussing who was best to stay or remain on our journey. We couldn't very well take all the strongest members, leaving the rest of the group vulnerable behind. What if we never made it back? I pushed the thought back down, focusing on what I could control.
"Does everybody willing to come with us have powers?" I asked, now actively engaging in the conversation, ashamed at how rude I had been to lose myself in my own bitter thoughts.
They were doing this because of me, for me, I needed to try my best to ensure they all made it back afterward or I wasn't sure I could live with myself.
"Yes," Luke scrolled down his tablet, where he had everybody willing to go on a list. Beside their names were numbers, linking to another sheet, as well as what power each person possessed. I noticed there were quite a few like Matt who could control flames, as well as earth, metal, wind, strength, and speed, to name a few.
Luke was like Alex from the IT department, though at least he looked more like the kind of guy who spent the majority of his time behind a computer screen. Between them, they'd set up a small database of all the survivors. Not only to keep track of who was here, but who they lost too.
"We need to leave at least two Earth users in case people need to leave or enter," Alex said.
"The best way for those behind to keep the place safe is to stay behind or on the wall, we do have guns but we avoid using them for the noise, there's a lot of woodlands here and it's hard to know just how many are lingering about," he paused, thinking.
"The six members from the archery team have over a hundred arrows in inventory, it's best to make sure they all stay here, in case a crowd gathers near the entrance," Luke wrote six names on a piece of paper. "I'm useless so I'll stay here to run things."
"Why are you useless?" I asked, he was the only one I'd not seen use their power.
"Well, for fighting I am," he sighed, raising his hand palm up, showing a blob of water forming in the air above it.
"Ah," I nodded understanding, that he was just like Victoria. Damn. Guilt tore through me that I'd left her asleep that morning. Though unlike Luke she was from the special forces, I had every faith she got away in the car.
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