Erza checked on his floor's corridor through the suite's tablet.
The only entryway to their suite has 3 security cameras installed: one at the door, one in the corridor, and one in their private lift.
'No movements. Good.'
Before the event happened, he tipped the General Manager with 500 dollars to make sure nobody accesses the private lift for 'private reasons'.
After making sure the door is fully locked, he went to check on the windows.
He didn't need to reinforce the door or put a barricade in front because the suite's door is made from high-quality steel.
True to its name, the Royal Suite is meant to protect royalties and affluent people.
Hence, the door itself is a security fortress. In between two hard wooden materials, the core of the door is a shock-absorbent steel.
"Big bro, why are you sticking the dark tinting films on the window?"
Bucky asked Erza after calming himself down.
"The 'Infected' is quite sensitive to stimulus. Lights, sounds, smell, vibration. We need to make sure the windows are all dark if we want to use the lightings here."
All four of them revealed a pale expression.
"Y-you mean, those people could reach this place?"
Mr. Zayf asked his son.
He looked at him as somewhat a reliable pillar to hold on to.
"Eventually, Dad. That's why I picked the highest and most secure floor as our temporary shelter."
After the emergency announcement, they opened up various social media platforms and tuned into different news channels, and every one of them showed the same thing: people biting people!
"B-but Ezra, how did you know all this?! Is this some kinda prank? You're not messing with us, aren't you?!"
Mrs. Numee was beyond shocked and had a disbelieving expression on her face.
"Mum, Dad, little bros, what I told you guys last night..was all true. You can treat it as a prophetic dream that I experienced for 10 long years."
It was hard for them to believe him, but the current happenings proved them otherwise.
"Big bro, say you're telling the truth. How did you come back from the future? And…and what happened to all of us?!"
Feera couldn't hold back his curiosity.
All eyes were on Erza.
"I was fighting a really strong 'Infected'. I exhausted every ounce of my energy, and was killed by it."
He added that the reason he fought the monster instead of running away was because of a few precious people he wanted to protect.
"Were those precious people...us?"
Although Bucky half-heartedly believed in the story, he was still curious.
Erza shook his head.
"You guys...I lost you guys early on during the doomsday."
Rage and vengeance consumed his previous decade long apocalypse life.
Strong emotions exuded from his face. Words could be made up, but the eyes could never lie.
'We didn't made it, huh...'
They had mixed feelings about their fate from Erza's sad eyes.
"Son, if what you're telling us is true…wouldn't you disrupt the flow of time? What about us? Would we have a chance to live?"
Mr. Zayf asked curiously.
Erza explained that he has already altered the future by gathering all four of them in a safe place.
'Butterfly effect…never thought I might experience it in reality.'
All four of his family members are in denial.
They think that all of this a bad joke.
Then they realized, Erza is not the kind of person who do such a thing.
...
After Erza finished telling them his story, they immediately called the other relatives and people they knew.
"Son, can all of our relatives come and stay here? With all this happening, I'm afraid.."
Erza calmed his mother.
He explained that they would be much safer if they were to stay in their own homes.
"The army would eventually sweep out the Infected and rescue people. But I can't guarantee that anyone that travels through the chaos out there would survive."
Tears start to fall on Mrs. Numee's eyes.
She kept thinking about her old father's and her siblings' fate.
DING!
A sweet ring sounded from the suite's tablet.
'What the hell?!'
Erza frowned.
In the tablet, he clicked on the notification bell and the screen switched to a view from a camera.
It was the private lift's camera.
As the camera has motion-detecting feature, it would notify the suite's occupants via the tablet.
'It's the general manager!'
Erza's expression became dark. He clearly told him to stay off the lift for the rest of the night.
He then went into a walk-in closet and came out with a black combat attire.
"Uh, big bro, isn't it a bit late to play paintball?"
Feera chuckled when he saw him wearing a black paintball helmet equipped with Kevlar gloves.
Erza just smiled and switched on the TV. He changed the screen to the private lift security camera's view.
"Guys, please look at the screen carefully. He is the hotel's GM (General Manager) that I specifically told him to keep other people away from our lift and floor."
He then zoomed in to the GM's face.
It was pale, devoid of color.
"Out of panic, he must've thought that fleeing to our suite would save him."
Bloodstains were splattered all over his white shirt underneath the tight black suit.
"This is how an 'Infected' looks like."
He then pointed out on the GM's eyes, listless and cloudy.
Its mouth is black and liquids ooze out of it.
"You guys stay here, I'll handle it."
Before any of them could say anything, Erza went out of the suite.
Ding ding!
The lift arrived on their floor.
What greeted Erza is an Infected, which was once the prestigious hotel's GM.
It saw it's prey in the middle of the corridor.
Roar!
It sprinted as fast as it can, fueling its instinct to bite another human.
Erza was calm.
His family members, however, rushed to the door to pull him back in.
But what they witnessed baffled them.
With a swift movement, Erza walked towards the hideous creature and swept its legs with a low kick!
As the zombie charged with incredible speed, its momentum turned on itself and tripped it over to the floor.
With a swift movement, Erza jumped behind its back and plunged a hatchet right in the middle of its skull!
Screams of horror came from his family members, as red and gray matters burst from its head!
As though Erza has practiced it tens of thousands of times, he took a sharp butcher knife and stabbed it into its back.
"Bro! What are you doing! That-that thing has already stopped moving!"
Feera screamed from the suite's entrance door.
Everyone was afraid to approach him, so he ignored them.
After confirming that the Infected is deader than dead, he took out the hatchet from its skull.
Crack!
Erza was pulling out its spine, and cutting it open!
After a few minutes, he took off his helmet and said "Guys, it's okay now. This thing is dead."
…
What happened half an hour ago was utterly shocking.
Mrs. Numee fainted, his father and brothers vomited.
He laid them down on the living room couches let them calm down.
While fixing some hot beverages, his father asked him.
"Son, it's not that I don't trust you but…what if the police saw this?"
Mr. Zayf is worried about the legal implications.
After serving him a cup of tea, Erza answered.
"Dad, the world that we know is already gone. Laws and order has collapsed."
If he were to told him that the strongest survivors would be the ruling class and not politicians, what would his father think?
The atmosphere in the room was deathly silent.
Erza left the living room to give his family time to recover from the shock.
He went back to the corridor and dragged the body to the trash disposal area.
He opened a window behind it.
Whoosh!
He flung out the body from the 21st floor!
'Can't let my corridor to smell like rot and death, can't I?'
Human bodies decompose quite fast.
Therefore, burning the bodies of Infected were the norm during the apocalypse.
But he can't openly burn the body in his hotel suite so resorted to throwing them out of the hotel's window.
He went back into the suite as if he just came back from disposing of a bag of household trash.
...
It is now almost 10 p.m.
Most of his family members got back to their senses and looked dejected.
He brewed a pot of chamomile tea to calm them down.
"I'm sure you guys have a lot of questions for me."
He stood in front and attracted their attention.
"As you all have seen, this is what the world is right now."
Recalling the gruesome scene of how the General Manager shrieked like a banshee, charging towards Erza with its bloodied mouth…they slowly accepted the reality.
"The mutated Doronavirus spreads through the transfer of bodily fluids. An average human will turn into an Infected in less than 20 seconds upon being bitten or scratched."
A simple yet comprehensive expanation.
"There's only one way to survive, and that is to get stronger!"
He whipped out a pink bead, akin to an exquisite pearl that are sold in luxury accessories shop.
"You guys saw me dissecting the Infected, right? This was what I was looking for."
Erza explained that the pink bead is a crystallised essence of the mutated Doronavirus-20.
"Although the failed vaccination attempt resulted in an apocalypse, it also gave humans a chance for survival."
Erza swallowed the pink bead.
"Erza! Spit it out! That thing was from the infected guy!!"
Mr. Zayf rushed to his eldest son in concern.
"Don't worry Dad, trust me."
Warm energy permeated in the center of his stomach and spread throughout his body.
'Never gets old every time!'
He licked his lips as the bead gave a sweet aftertaste.
"Look at this, Dad."
He took a steel chair near the edge of the living room, and bent its leg!
One…two…three.. four legs of the steel chair was bent!
All four pairs of eyes opened wide in disbelief.
"H-how…"
Mr. Zayf's knee went soft and he plowed down to the couch.
"Guys, that pink bead I just ate is called an 'Evolution Nectar'. Not only it boosts my strength, it would also make me immune to the mutated DOVID-20!" said Erza.
Crystallised essence? Immunity?
It almost sounds like words from science fiction novels!
His family members immediately jabbed him with questions about the mutated virus, the Infected and the Evolution Nectar.
"How is it that a sick person like the GM could run so fast? He closed in to you in less than a few seconds!"
Bucky is an observant person.
"That is what the mutated virus does. It kills the host, takes over their brains and effectively removes the brain's limiter."
A normal human brain possesses a limiter to limit our body's capabilities.
It served to prevent over-exertion in order to preserve the body's longevity.
"The Infected you guys saw had twice the physical prowess of an average human."
If an average person runs a 100 meters dash in 15 seconds, an Infected would complete it in 8 seconds or less!
"Big bro, how can we get stronger like you? I mean, you looked so calm when you killed that 'Infected'. I don't think me and Bucky could do the same, not to mention Mum and Dad."
Feera skeptically voiced out his opinion.
"Leave everything to me. From tomorrow onwards, I'll teach you guys how to live!"