CHAPTER 90: THE LAST MONTH OF THE YEAR

Dried leaves spun in the air as the tyres of a black BMW rolled and halted at the side of the light pole at the front of the junior dormitory.

From the driver’s side, Clara walked out and stood at the side, tilting her gaze around and scanning the faces of the crowd of soldiers standing there.

From the other side from which Clara exited, Kai walked out, two daggers tied at his back, then rushed straight to Max.

A faint morning breeze brushed against the faces of everyone standing there, still carrying traces of the heavy night that had swallowed their world as they turned their gazes at Kai.

Few minutes after Kai stopped beside Max, Clara exited the vehicle, walked toward Max, then continued at the gate. She pointed toward Max, Kai, Mike and a few other soldiers before exiting through the barracks gate.

Kai rushed out first, before Max, Mike, and the soldiers Clara pointed to followed him, exiting the building and closing up with Clara.

Their boots crunched softly against the gravel as they left the barracks, moved toward the alley, and stopped at the mouth of the alley, where the green building was.

As their boots crossed into the open street, they stopped simultaneously at the front of a green building.

Clara, who was the lead at that time, moved her hands to her mouth as she closed her eyes.

Kai, who was just an inch from Clara, froze, his eyes tightening sharply as he moved his gaze from the humans lying in blood-colored pools of blood.

On the ground – barely two meters from the green wall – were countless human corpses laid, their heads smashed into the cement so brutally that the skulls no longer resembled anything human. Everyone froze.

Then, from the middle of the soldiers who had joined in, a murmuring sound echoed as two people raised their heads and saw the splash of blood clotting the green wall.

The rising sun threw its bright light onto the ruined bodies, making the mashed flesh glisten sickeningly.

Max tore his gaze away, swallowing hard, "Let’s... move," he said, walking toward Clara and tapping at her back.

Mike moved toward Max, whispered in his ear and stepped ahead, directing their paths.

When they reached a narrow turn, Mike lowered his head and exhaled as they walked past a woman with a raised stomach – blood trailing from her stretched legs that had an intestine stretched long.

With every step they took, the stench thickened, rotting blood, burned flesh, and something sour that made Clara press both palms over her mouth firmly.

As they moved through the narrow path ahead of them, Max gestured to the soldiers following them, "Continue ahead and check if you’ll find any civilians alive," he said, pointing toward the building they had turned from.

Mike, Max, Clara, and Kai continued straight in the direction they were in.

The four continued and stopped a few meters from where the white building they saw was, and at the sight of the blood, body parts, and the thick air entering their lungs, they all froze.

Among the four, Kai was the first to break the sudden pause, moving tremulously to one completely charred human figure, like coal shaped in human form, which knelt with its back toward him.

Kai’s heart hammered painfully against his ribs as something inside him recognised the posture... and the shimmering blade of the sword the figure leaned on.

Clara, who stood closer to Max and Mike, stepped forward, her eyes widening. "Is he... alive?" she said in a voice that echoed as if it were the last word capable of being spoken.

But no one answered.

When Kai neared the figure, he kneeled, lowered his head, and began crying.

Max and Clara rushed toward where Kai and the figure were, but Mike knelt where he stood and closed his eyes.

As Max neared the figure, he paused his step, closed his eyes and shouted in his head, ’Lieutenant Gray!’

Though the words didn’t come out of his mouth, his tightly closed eyes and heaving heart sent Clara crying just by looking at Max’s face.

Then he moved toward the figure and tried pulling the sword from its hands, but stopped when he saw the wild eyes of Kai.

Kai bowed, struck his forehead on the ground four times, worshipping the figure, and when he stopped, stood up and placed a hand on the flat side of the sword the burnt figure leaned on, his eyes glowed.

Vision stirred in Kai’s eyes so wild it made him scream, loud enough to make the birds in the trees in a far distance burst into the sky.

And in the vision that Kai saw, he saw himself standing at the gate of the white building as three people fought against Lieutenant Gray.

Among the three, Kai instantly remembered the face of the yellow-eyed man who was holding a golden sword in the vision.

But for the remaining two, he didn’t. Kai couldn’t find any clue, but could feel the same presence he felt the first day he saw Wang entering the barracks when he saw the grim face of the man holding a long sword.

For hours, he saw the three men fighting hastily with the lieutenant, throwing their weapons at him and kicking him with their boots.

And at the last minute of the vision, where Lieutenant Gray knelt on one knee and tilted his gaze upward, Kai saw a strange smile tore on the lieutenant’s face.

And when Kai saw the blue eyes of the lieutenant tilting toward him, the man holding the long sword laughed and spoke in a familiar voice.

"Are you the so-called fearless Gray?"

Immediately the voice came, the vision collapsed, sending Kai back to the pale faces of Clara, Max, and Mike.

And when Kai moved his gaze to the burnt figure and wrapped his fingers around the handle of the sword, the figure turned into ashes.

Kai froze, stopped drawing the sword and watched the ashes of the figure fly high as if the burnt lieutenant was waiting for Kai to pull the sword from his hands.

Clara’s tears began to dry up when she saw Gray’s sword raised by Kai. And in that instant, it wasn’t Kai she was seeing; she was seeing a figure with the same height as Gray, standing beside Kai and raising the boy’s arms.

...

As they returned to the barracks, all four of them went straight to the shower, where they stood for hours before exiting.

Three weeks passed quickly, and within those weeks, the undead or zombified civilians were carried from their homes, placed at the back of long military trucks and sent to the nearby cities and villages.

And at night, when the moon shone bright above the clouds, the roaring and groaning sounds echoed as zombified figures erupted from the dark corners of the building in Bion City.

They moved, following every direction sound erupted from, and jumping onto any living thing they bumped into.

And in the last month of the year, Clara packed her clothes, gathered those of Lieutenant Gray and placed them in the back of the black BMW, then leaned on the door of the driver’s side.

As she waited calmly, she exhaled, watching as the building’s door opened.

A brown boot erupted from the door, slamming on the ground like a rock, and in a few seconds, as the boot touched the ground, another followed.

When the person who had exited the building neared the black BMW, he stopped, smiled and turned his gaze at the building.

"Are you ready, Kai?" Clara asked, brushing her hands through the black and blue hair of the boy standing in front of her.

Kai turned his gaze back at Clara and nodded, then opened the back door of the car, threw his small black bag filled with five items of clothing, and sat calmly in the car.

Clara sighed, closed her eyes, opened the door at the driver’s side and entered.

A few moments after the door closed, faces became visible at the closed windows of the building the car stood in front of.

When the black BMW drove off, swelling wind followed, carrying brown leaves.

Nearing the gate of the barracks, Max and Mike threw their hands at their heads, greeting the slow-moving vehicle.

And from the back seat of the vehicle, Kai’s face saddened as he saw tears dripping down from Mike and Max’s faces.

He clenched his jaw when the car moved past the gate and slowed at the side of the green building.

Seeing the blood sprayed on the green walls, memories of him and Gray’s training stirred in his mind, so deep Kai closed his eyes and hid his face in his palms.