In a secure underground military base, there was a dark room full of people sitting before computer screens. A man came in and screamed at all the people present, "What kind of crap job do you people do? Find out what happened at the wall immediately." He then stormed out.
Everyone began to grumble, "What crappy luck. First there was the hack and now there's an outage. All in the same area no less."
"Yeah, why are we even responsible for an outage? We don't even have enough people as it is. Are we supposed to magically find the person who cut the signal by reviewing the video footage?" commented another sarcastically.
"Shh, just get back to work."
All the people in the room were quietly screaming injustice. Their boss really enjoyed throwing his weight around and would never show them mercy if they were caught talking smack. They all felt that someone out there had it out for them.
This was the same group of people Ace and Xiao Ai hacked a few weeks back. Unfortunately for these analysts, Ace and Xiao Ai did a great job of hiding their tracks, there was no hope of them finding any amount of evidence of tamper in the videos. They were doomed to fail and get verbally abused by their higher ups.
***
Stepping out of the base, Artemis and Aida kept their uniforms on and quietly took a shuttle back into the city. The wall was built a distance away from the city as well to create a buffer in case any infected managed to break in.
Aida looked like she lost her soul as she stared absentmindedly at the seat in front of her. In contrast, Artemis looked excitedly out the window, watching as the city got closer. His handsome face was practically pasted against the window which drew giggles from the female soldiers nearby. They were drawn to his tall stature and model-esque face.
City M was one of the bigger cities in the country. It was one of the few inland cities that drew a lot of people from around the world. Despite this, Aida had never been there before as neither her missions nor her job had brought her to City M.
After reaching the city, the two of them got off at a random stop and began to wander. Life in the city looked almost exactly the same as it had before the outbreak. Artemis continued to look around in admiration, clearly enjoying the environment. He had grown up in the slums and never had the chance to leave it, so it was his first time actually seeing populated affluent streets. After the outbreak, he had joined several missions to gather food with others so got to see the other cities but never had the opportunity to appreciate it.
It was noon and many people were out for lunch. The usual business men and women walked around in their suits, enjoying delights like ice cream, milk tea, dim sum, sushi… Clearly Aida's foodie instincts had taken over and Artemis' taste buds were similarly compelled by the sight of food.
Artemis began to run over to the food but was stopped by a stern Aida. "We don't even have cash, how are you going to get food?"
Artemis froze. Even after all they had been through, they were still dirt poor at the moment. He opened his mouth to suggest stealing but quickly closed it when he saw the look in Aida's eyes. Instead, he simply continued to look longingly at the food.
Aida's resolve crumbled when she saw his expression. Cough, it's not like she wanted food, she just wanted to feed her daughter. Xiao Ai secretly rolled her eyes at her Mama's logic as they "borrowed" someone's sandwich and pizza when the person wasn't looking and quickly walked away.
Aida took a big bite of the pizza and a smile spread across her face as she tasted the warm melted cheese and oil meet her taste buds. On the side, Artemis had a similar expression on his face as well. Artemis coincidentally took a sidelong look at Aida at this time and saw her happy, blissful expression. His face immediately turned red as he realized, for the first time, just how beautiful Aida was.
Noticing his look, Aida immediately recovered her cold demeanor as she glared at Artemis. He quickly turned away and hid his expression but Aida could see that the tips of his ears were still red. Amused, she poked him with a finger. "Why are you looking away?"
Swatting her finger away, the embarrassed Artemis responded, "Nothing. Let's get going."
Casually walking along the street, Aida purposely bumped into the nearest person before bowing in apology and continuing to walk. Having recovered from his embarrassment, Artemis whistled in amusement as Aida sent a withering glare towards him. Unbothered, he simply sent her a mischievous smile, "And to think you accused ME of being a thief."
Rolling her eyes, Aida took the phone out and passed it into the pocket that Xiao Ai was sitting in. Xiao Ai would direct them to the safe house that Ace prepared. Aida dragged Artemis, who seemed reluctant to leave, along.
With Xiao Ai's help, they easily navigated the streets and reached a newly renovated townhouse. Aida left Artemis standing there as she circled the house a few times to make sure it hadn't been marked by anyone before picking the lock and entering.
She assessed the surrounding and quickly determined that Ace and Lucifer hadn't arrived yet. Ace had also ordered a bunch of items for them in advance, so a pile of boxes sat at the front porch. With Artemis' help, they moved all the items in and sat down.
Artemis cut open the box and found a box of fruits in one of them. He grabbed an apple and tossed it to Aida while helping himself to one. Sitting down on the sofa, he propped his legs up and made himself comfortable. His actions made it seem like he owned this place.