CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 54 – REUNION

Chapter 54 – Reunion

The heavy door creaked as it was shoved aside, the sound echoing harshly in the gymnasium’s hollow corridors. A man stumbled out, his chest heaving as if every breath carried years of suffocating tension. His eyes darted wildly, glassy with disbelief, until they locked onto Jack and Evelyn.

"I... I can’t believe it! I really can’t believe it! People survived!" His voice cracked, rising almost to a manic pitch. Hope and desperation poured out of him in equal measure. He lurched forward toward them, arms half-extended as though to grasp their shoulders, but both Jack and Evelyn instinctively stepped back.

Neither of them wanted to risk contact. Who knew what this man had endured? What filth clung to him—fear, madness, or worse?

The man froze, hands trembling in the air, then dropped them with an awkward, broken laugh. "Hah... hah... H-how? I saw so many monsters... so many. The city was crawling with them. We all thought everyone was dead..." His voice grew smaller, almost as though he was ashamed of even speaking it aloud.

"No," Jack answered evenly, his gaze steady, "some survived. They’re hiding in the bunkers." His voice carried no embellishment, just cold fact. "Are there other survivors with you?"

The man’s face lit up at the question, though his relief came out ragged and unstable. "Y-yes! Yes! A dozen, maybe more. We were trapped here... the campus was infested. There was no way out. So we locked the doors and swore never to open them again. We thought it was over, that there was no point in hoping anymore. And now..." His voice cracked again as tears welled in his reddened eyes. "Now I see I was wrong. People survived... truly survived."

He wiped his sleeve across his face, smearing the tears into his dirty skin, and looked at Jack and Evelyn with a childlike reverence. "But... how did you make it here? How did you get past them?"

"They’re dead," Jack said simply, jerking his thumb toward the corpses lying outside.

The man blinked in disbelief. "Wha—?" He craned his head past them, only to freeze at the grisly sight of mangled monster carcasses littering the ground. His lips parted soundlessly. "H-how?"

"It’s a long story," Jack replied, dismissing the question as if it didn’t matter. "Take us to the survivors. Are they inside?"

"Yes, sir! Yes, come this way!" The man spun around, stumbling back through the doorway with frantic energy.

Evelyn’s gaze flicked toward Jack. His expression was unreadable, but his shoulders were taut, and she could sense something deeper stirring beneath his controlled exterior.

’He’s probably nervous,’ she thought. Her chest tightened with sympathy. ’This could be it... his chance to find them. I really hope he does.’

The two followed the man inside.

The gymnasium was cavernous, its once-bright banners drooping in tatters, its floor covered in dust and debris. The faint smell of sweat and mildew lingered in the air. Once a place of laughter, competition, and mundane campus life, it had become a hollow shelter—an echo of the world that had collapsed outside its walls.

Jack’s sharp eyes swept the entire space in an instant, his mind cataloging details with frightening precision. Every broken bench, every shadow in the rafters, every trembling body huddled in the far corner. His enhanced perception left nothing hidden.

The survivors sat clustered together like frightened birds. Their eyes were wide, faces gaunt from hunger and fear. Confusion rippled through them as the shouting man rushed forward, waving his arms.

"Everyone! Everyone! There are survivors outside! We’re saved!"

The reaction was immediate.

"..."

"No way..."

"So it’s true..."

"I told you all! You didn’t want to believe me!"

"We’re saved! Oh God, we’re truly saved!"

Their voices overlapped in a jumble of disbelief and joy. Tears sprang to eyes that had long since dried out from hopelessness. For them, Jack and Evelyn weren’t just survivors—they were proof that life still existed beyond these walls. Proof that the world hadn’t ended.

But Jack wasn’t paying attention to their cries. His eyes scanned each face with surgical precision, searching.

One face after another.

Each time he failed to recognize someone, a quiet irritation grew inside him. His mind kept whispering questions he didn’t want to acknowledge: ’Are they not here? Did my mother leave? Did she not survive?’

His pulse quickened. Beneath his calm exterior, unease crawled through his veins. What if all his assumptions had been wrong? What if he had overestimated their ability to survive? What if they really were... gone?

The possibility stung. He squinted slightly, jaw tightening. He had told himself he had accepted that outcome, that he could bear it if they were gone. Yet now, faced with the real chance of it, the idea cut far deeper than he expected.

He wanted to see them again. Desperately.

One by one, the survivors shifted, parting slowly to give him a clearer view of their faces. Hope drained with each one he didn’t recognize. By the time the last few shuffled aside, he had already begun bracing himself for disappointment. His mind was moving to other possibilities, other ways he might trace their whereabouts.

And then—

Footsteps.

Slow, hesitant, deliberate. A figure emerged from behind the cluster, parting the crowd like a tide.

Jack’s gaze snapped to them instantly. His breath caught. The face that appeared was painfully familiar. His chest constricted.

"...Mom," he whispered.

The woman’s eyes widened as they lifted to meet his. In that single instant, a storm of emotions flashed across her expression—shock, disbelief, sorrow, and then overwhelming relief.

"J... Jack? Is that you?" Her voice cracked in a whisper before breaking into a sob. She staggered forward, then sprinted the rest of the way and threw herself into his arms.

Jack froze as her arms locked around him, crushing him in a desperate embrace. He hadn’t even had time to lift his own hands. Her tears spilled hot against his neck.

"You’re alive..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "You’re alive..."

Jack stared down at her. His mother—his strong, unshakable mother who had always stood tall against everything—was sobbing in his arms. It was a sight so alien, so jarring, that it felt like a blow to his chest.

From his parents, he had always felt closer to her. Not because of her warmth—there hadn’t been much of that—but because she was strong, and he could at least respect that. Yet even then, he had often wondered if she truly cared. He had come to believe her affection was little more than duty, surface-level acknowledgment of him as her biological child rather than her son.

But now... she was clinging to him like he was her entire world.

"Thank God... Thank God you’re alive," she whispered brokenly. "I thought I lost both of you. I thought I’d never see either of you again..."

The words cut through his daze. Jack stiffened, pulling back slightly. His voice was low, uncertain. "...Wait. What?"

Her eyes brimmed with grief as she slowly pulled away from him, though her hands remained gripping his shoulders as though afraid he might vanish. Her lips trembled.

"He died, Jack..." Her voice cracked. "He died." She spoke, trying to keep her composure through it all.

Jack stared at her blankly, his mind refusing to process the words at first. When their meaning finally sank in, his eyes widened faintly. A strange light flickered in them, and he clenched his fists tight before forcing them open again.

"I see..." His voice was quiet, almost flat. "I expected such an outcome."

"Jack..."

"It’s unfortunate, but not surprising. I thought you both would have found a decent hiding place, but—"

"Jack!" she cried, cutting him off. Her voice was raw, pleading. "Stop... please..."

Her desperation caught him off guard. He looked at her fully for the first time, startled by the sheer grief and fragility in her tone.

"Your dad is dead," she whispered, her voice breaking. "He’s gone. Forever. Do you understand?"

Jack opened his mouth, but no words came.

"You don’t need to explain it," she went on, her tears falling freely. "You don’t need to reason it away. Don’t analyze it, Jack. Just... don’t."

Her words struck him in a place logic couldn’t defend. They unraveled his careful detachment, leaving him staring at her in silence. For the first time in what felt like forever, Jack was completely speechless.