Surviving the Apocalypse with a System.

Fading World ( Part 6 )

After Jack was taken away by the military , Linzy immediately turned to Hamilton , stopping him just as he was about to enter the Parliament building.

“ I know of a way we can get to the army headquarters and help Jack ,” she started , Cynthia arriving a few seconds later terribly out of breath. Though she had received a blood transfusion to relieve the blood loss , the smaller side effects of anaemia still lingered.

“ Well come on. Fucking out with it ,” Hamilton’s hope rose again at the prospect of saving his friend.

Linzy reached into her dress pocket and pulled out Timothy’s wallet , the one he had given her earlier on while they were still in the company building.

“ Before he died , Timothy asked me to take care of his wife should he not make it ,”

“ I still don’t get how this is connected to Jack,” Hamilton was confused.

Linzy grinned , “ Timothy’s wife works as a doctor in the army and according to Timothy , she was recently posted to work at their headquarters.

Timothy and your commander once served together in the Mage Association . If we tell your commander about Timothy’s request , then we will be able to go there and save Jack in the process.”

“This will never work even in the wildest of imaginations. The army headquarters is one of the most secure facilities in the nation . If anything , she will be much safer there than with us here,” Hamilton tried to reason with her.

“ Yes but we can still give it a try . You never know ,” Linzy insisted.

“ What’s the point ? You will all just get yelled at for nothing and get dismissed. Trust me , I’m speaking from experience ,” Hamilton turned away to close the matter.

“ Dammit Hamilton , don’t you care about Jack ?” Linzy snapped.

“ The balls on you Linzy ! I don’t care about Jack ? Do you know that if Jack had done as I had fucking told him , he’d be here right now ?

You two are the same , won’t fucking listen to a single thing I say then when trouble eventually comes knocking , I’m the bad guy?” Hamilton flared.

“ You know what , fine . If you won’t help , I’m gonna get a car and drive all the way to the army headquarters myself,”

“ And where will you get one , you gonna steal it and end up in fucking handcuffs like your boy friend ?”

“ You asshole!”

At this point , Cynthia had to break her silence and stop the two hot heads before someone’s teeth started flying.

She knew Hamilton was a short fuse , but Linzy getting so agitated was a cause for concern. Both of them were military trained to throw a fist or two , something Cynthia feared happening.

Linzy’s desire to save Jack was blinding her to reason and Hamilton , being who he was, would just add gasoline to the fire.

“Please ,calm down both of you. Arguing will get us nowhere ,” she said, putting herself between them.

Seeing Cynthia exert herself before them , the two friends were instantly overcome with a sense of shame over their actions.

“I’m sorry Cynthia ,” Linzy was humble enough to apologise.

“I’ll try and talk with the commander ,” Hamilton used an alternate strategy to redeem himself.

“ And this is the last time I am to find you two hurling insults at one another ,” she concluded the dispute , in her chirpy voice of course.

Commander Henry Wilberforce sat quietly in one of the empty offices inside the Parliament building. In his hand was a photo of a younger Timothy and himself , back in the days when he was still just a fresh recruit mage.

The two had been assigned different posts at the time but still managed to become close friends. While Timothy , a graduate of business school , took to the administrative areas of the association , Henry as an active mage was always being sent out on peace missions in war torn countries. This was hard on him , especially since he started out as a third class mage .

Timothy was always the one pulling the strings behind the paperwork so that his friend was always in the rear formations where the fighting was less intense.

Timothy did this till the day he was caught and fired from his job for malpractice.

Luckily for Henry however, he had gotten enough time with the training wheels provided by Timothy that he was able to rank up to a second class mage . He could now hold his own in the battlefield , an achievement he would forever owe to Timothy.

Now the man had died even before Henry could repay the debt owed , a fact that made him feel cheated by life. It was a shame really , for between the two of them , Henry had always pictured himself as the one who would die first.

“ Excuse me commander , Hamilton is asking to see you ,” one of his subordinates opened the door slightly and informed him.

“ Let him in ,” Henry put the photo back into his coat pocket.

Hamilton entered with an uneasy look in his eyes , “ Sir , there is a favour I’d like to ask of you.”

“ Didn’t you already ask me to give your friend a chance, Hamilton? I did and look where that brought us, nothing but a waste of valuable time,”

“ I apologise on behalf of Jack Kamphar sir . This matter , however , concerns my former boss Mr Chester,” he released the bait.

“ Timothy Chester? Well go on, will you . Out with it Hamilton ,”

Linzy was having a conversation with Cynthia about how risky going out of the Parliament building in search of Jack was when Hamilton found them again.

“ I think I’m with Hamilton on this ,” Cynthia bluntly stated.

“ You waited till Hamilton was gone to tell me that, didn't you ?” Linzy smiled at her friend’s consideration.

“ I didn’t want it to look like we were ganging up on you . You know Hamilton , he’d just press the gas ,”

“ I appreciate the gesture Cynthia , but you know me too. Jack risked his life so that we could make it out of the company building ,I’m not going to abandon him now,” Linzy remained adamant.

When Hamilton eventually arrived , he had a worried look on him.

“ So how did it go ?” Linzy pounced on him , grudges already done away with.

“ Turns out the commander had already made plans for a helicopter to go for Timothy’s wife . We are lucky that he and Timothy go way back ,” he replied , “ You are free to go with the pilot , but I have to remain here pending assignment. The choice is yours Linzy.”

“ I’ll go ,” she didn’t even hesitate.

Hamilton turned to Cynthia , hoping that she would prove reasonable unlike her friend.

“ We’ll be back before you know it ,” she said to Linzy’s surprise.

“ Cynthia , you don’t have to come. You are still recovering, remember?” Linzy objected.

“ I insist , someone needs to keep you in check lest you go around assaulting everyone there looking for Jack ,” Cynthia was not going to debate about that , “ Please understand Hamilton .”

Hamilton had had his fill of arguments for the day . Furthermore ,the commander had also started raising concerns about the increasing danger of monsters around the Parliament building.

“ You don’t get into trouble , that’s my condition ,” he told her.

“ I promise we will be very careful . And now that I’m going , make sure you eat enough food and get plenty of rest . I’ll know if you don’t,” Cynthia smiled .

She wanted to hug him but was too shy to act on her emotions.

Pretty soon the two ladies were on the chopper , flying off into the dusk skies.

From their high vantage point , the damage that the city had sustained became even clearer. Most of the fires from the previous nights had died off and in their place burnt down structures that were barely standing.

The Rein river , one of the city’s greatest symbols of national heritage , had burst its banks and was now flooding a few sections of the city. Multiple canoes could be seen paddling through the floods as people came back trying to salvage what they could from their former homes.

Linzy wondered why the government was allowing this , given the high danger posed by the monsters still lurking about.

“ Linzy , somehow this feels like the end of the world ,” Cynthia whispered , her heart reaching out to the many lives that had been claimed in the disaster.

“ I fear you’re right ,” Cynthia agreed , witnessing live as a new portal appeared above one of the flooded sections. Massive tons of black fluid poured out of it and she saw what seemed to be a massive finned reptile slip through the portal and dive into the murky flood water.