**Chapter 6**
Julian couldn’t help but feel a pang of panic. He gripped Blair’s arm, anxiously asking, “Blair, are you sure the apocalypse is supposed to happen these days? Could you have gotten the time wrong?”
Blair, also confused as to why things weren’t following her memories, said indifferently, “Maybe it’s a few days later than I remember. Anyway, the zombies are going to break out any moment now.”
With t
Julian calmed down a bit, quietly waiting for the predetermined future.
Several more days passed. Mr. Davies was anxiously pacing back and forth in the yard when he suddenly heard a loud banging on the main
gate.
Mr. Davies was startled. The urgent, rhythmic knocking didn’t sound like mindless zombies.
Mr. Davies cautiously opened the inner door, peeking out through the small window in the iron gate.
Several middle–aged men in code enforcement uniforms were relentlessly banging on the welded iron gate. Seeing Mr. Davies‘ head, they immediately flared up in anger.
“What’s going on with your villa? When did you put up all these illegal constructions? Towers, ditches, everywhere! Tear them down, now!”
Mr. Davies was shocked. “Didn’t biting zombies appear in the city? It’s the end of the world, isn’t it?!”
The code enforcement officers looked baffled, then burst into laughter. “What are you talking about, old man? Been watching too many zombie flicks? The city’s just fine!”
“That’s impossible!” Blair shrieked, rushing forward and slamming her entire body against the iron gate, her face squashed by the bars of the iron window, looking somewhat comical.
Cold sweat trickled down from his temples; Julian’s back was instantly soaked. It was still summer, but a chill seeped from the depths of his bones, reaching his limbs.
Mr. Davies‘ mouth twitched. He clutched his heart and collapsed to the ground. He couldn’t even find the strength to stand, only managing to emit hoarse gurgling sounds from his throat.
“You wretched child!” Eleanor Davies let out a piercing shriek. The woman, who usually lived a pampered life, was now filled with despair. Her hair disheveled, she lunged at Blair, pinning the fragile woman to the ground and slapping her repeatedly, left and right, over a dozen times.
Blair had no time to resist. All she felt was seeing stars, red, white, and black exploding before her eyes.
Eleanor Davies collapsed powerlessly to the side, muttering repeatedly, “It’s all over! It’s all over!”
Blair’s pretty face was so swollen it was unrecognizable. The moment she moved, she felt intense pain in her lower body, and a warm flow slowly trickled between her legs.
code enforcement officers outside had never seen such a mess. The people inside started fighting each other after only a few words. Seeing the blood between Blair’s legs, they panicked too, but lacking the right tools, they could only call the fire department to bring equipment to cut open the iron gate.
When the thick iron gate was finally cut open, the firefighters hastily helped the three people on the ground onto an ambulance.
One firefighter took a closer look. Another person was still standing there, his face ashen, muttering to himself, “No, it can’t be… How could the apocalypse not come…”
The firefighter wanted to ask the man to get into the ambulance for a hospital checkup, but the moment he was touched, the man let out a desperate scream and bolted out of the villa.
“Cassandra! Find Cassandra! She must have a way! She must have a way!”
At that moment, I was in an isolation ward at the research institute, examining the man.
After several days of sleepless effort by the entire Institute, the pallor of death finally receded from the man’s face, slowly regaining his vitality.
He had no identification documents on him, only a silver pendant around his neck, engraved with the initial ‘S‘.
A colleague from a prominent family speculated that this person might be Asher Sterling, the young master of the powerful Sterling family. who had mysteriously disappeared three years ago while studying abroad.
The Sterling family was based in a distant state, so they couldn’t come for the reunion right away.
My thoughts drifted a bit. I wondered if Julian and the Davies family were still immersed in their dream of the apocalypse arriving, or if reality had already slapped them awake.
A faint smile played on my lips. I didn’t notice the man on the bed’s eyelashes flutter slightly.
