"Good evening, Hastin! How are you doing?" Slaughter greeted Hastin out of nowhere.
Hastin, who was just relaxing on the terrace while trying to analyze the dark forest jumped up in fright. He looked at the phone lying down next to him and noticed the app had sent him several messages. He ignored them altogether and walked towards the railing. He stared intently at the Troodon which kept pacing around impatiently.
He remembered how a human being was guzzled down and feast on by that wild ugly looking creature. He tightened his hold on the railing. He finally realized that everything is completely out of control. If the app already infiltrated the army then he just could not do anything against the App. No one is safe on earth from now on.
He needs to escape from this hell. He needs to run away but not through the main gate which was monitored by Slayer. Akemi could easily catch up with him and break his legs. He heard one more message tone from his App. He decided to leave the phone on the terrace.
He climbed down the stairs to analyze the situation. Akemi was busy with the cars as Nick came back to fix one more car which that army guy drove the day before.
"How long will it take to modify this car?" Akemi asked.
"Maybe in a few days, I am not sure as the parts for such cars are not easily available in the market. I am just a small businessman. For now, I would just change the exterior paint cover and the number plate." He walked behind the trunk and opened it.
Once his nose hit the metallic blood smell, he walked away. At that time Troodon came running towards them. After sniffing the blood, with a disappointed look, it turned towards Nick. Nick was pushed down by the Troodon but before he was devoured Akemi warned,
"Stand down Troodon! He is our guy and we need him. Now back off before I report to the App about your actions."
Troodon screeched at Nick and ran away with its two long hind legs. But when it reached the place where Hastin was hiding, it stood a minute and stared at him. Then after hissing at him, it disappeared.
"Troodon disappeared. How is that possible?" Nick exclaimed.
"There are several things possible in this world, Nick. But stay away from knowing more, as it won't do you any good rather you might be in trouble if App finds out that you are not Nick actually." Akemi said when she pulled an injection from behind.
She inserted the needle right into his brain and nanobots entered his brain directly.
"What are you doing? What did you inject me with? Get away from me" Nick rolled on the floor as the nanobots started its work.
He felt like his brain was being burst open because of the headache he experienced. He almost wished to die rather than to stay alive. He pulled the pistol from his pocket and pulled the trigger. The blood splat across as the bullet came out from the other side.
Within a few minutes, all the struggles stopped and the lifeless body lay on the front yard. Hastin slowly backed away after watching a guy shoot himself to death. Akemi pulled her hair back and stared at Nick. She bent down and pulled the face mask. It revealed the officer's face whom she met when she came back from delivering the book to Jackson.
She searched for his pocket and found his id card from the wallet he carried.
"Officer Dan! You had high chances to become someone useful for the app but look at you now. You lay here lifeless by your own choice. A big idiot you are!" Akemi kicked him with her foot and walked away.
Troodon out of nowhere jumped on Dan and pulled him away. Akemi turned and looked at Troodon with doubtful eyes. Normally, no animal created by App had any appetite. It would just follow the orders received and kill the prey, may even eat for fun sometimes just like Slayer. But Troodon was acting sneaky all the time and behaving oddly.
She decided to follow it and find out where it was taking the food. Noticing that Akemi was now walking towards the forest, Hastin slowly moved towards his mother's room. There was an adjacent door attached to it. He slowly opened and pressed a switch which in turn revealed a secret door.
He snuck in and closed the door behind him. With the torch and a backpack filled with food, he walked into the dark tunnel which led to the outside world. As it was not used by anyone for a very long time, the spider webs spread around the whole tunnel.
It was really scary and even made Hastin shiver while he took every step deep into the darkest tunnel. But he can never go back to the mansion as it has turned into the App's fort.
Meanwhile, the App issued a Code: Red alert, as Hastin did not respond to any of its messages. The story was not written and the victims were on the run except for one girl. Akemi who was following Troodon entered the house and ran towards the server room. Before she could reach the mansion, a message popped up in front of her eyes,
"Find Hastin immediately! It's an order."
Akemi ran around the house in search of Hastin. But she could not find him anywhere. His mobile was left on the table placed on the terrace. His laptop lay on his study while the only missing thing in that house was a torch that Hastin always kept near him.
'Where did you go Hastin? Where?'
Akemi ran towards the garage and drove away with Simon's car. The gate opened automatically and closed behind her. She searched almost for a few miles but Hastin was nowhere to be seen. She reversed the car and went to search in the other directions.
The app released all the animals, birds, and insects to find Hastin. All of them stood in front of Hastin's mother's room and started to bang on the door. The door broke into pieces within minutes and even the adjacent door was broken into million pieces. But they couldn't open the hidden door with whatever power they used.
The thick steel door stood hidden without bulging even a bit. They all stood in front of the door listlessly without moving an inch. Akemi who was about to enter the highway received a message and it displayed in front of her eyes without any warning. She lost control of the car when she forcefully applied the brake to avoid hitting the truck she was following from behind.
Her car spun around and pushed onto the oncoming traffic. The car was almost smashed and hit by all the vehicles. She jumped right out of the car when she noticed the car moving towards the highway uncontrollably.