*
We sat in the back of the plane. It had been a hectic experience. The bloodshed and how things had gone terribly wrong at some point still lingered in my head.
I was reviewing my mistakes during the battle and my first experience with a grade A straggler. It was not pretty.
From the time we arrived, I had decided to be the first one to move in order to get a better grasp of my abilities while I had people to back me up, and in the process, preventing myself from screwing them over.
In the end, I achieved barely anything at all.
We had agreed to rendezvous at a certain position after saving some of the civilians but unfortunately, I barely saved any. I shot some Stragglers and wasted the remaining time for my Free Roll.
I still can't help but think that Safe Zone 4 had a lot of holes. I barely met any strong Invigorated and when we arrived things seemed to be falling apart already.
If Aryan and Mei hadn't come to help, things would have really gone south.
Remembering how the giant tree Straggler's roots had entangled the base was a nightmare. The impaled men, women and children. It was brutal.
We were informed that a meeting had been called in order to evaluate and decide what to do next and thus we were headed to Safe Zone 1. The largest Safe Zone, and the one tasked with guarding the life energy crystallised by Mother Earth.
At present, we were in a plane.
The mood would have been heavy, but it was more tense and damp.
Because....
My entire body except for my head was chained to the walls of the plane.
As if that's not enough, there was a thick layer of ice also wrapping around me and frozen to the walls.
My body was constantly vibrating, trying to rewind the heck out of there.
On top of this ridiculously unamusing position, I was also deal with the curious and questioning gazes that I'm receiving from my friends, alongside one bordering on hostile.
Yang Hai.
She had been delivered by a wolf from the battlefield and diagnosed as being severely dehydrated and having third degree burns on her body.
Luckily, one of the most convenient things we had in this time, was healers. There weren't many, but they weren't few either. Most have different ways of tending to wounds and disease altogether, but we did have enough of Invigorated with recovery abilities to last a while.
Therefore, despite Yang Hai's situation being fatal, she had still managed to be healed.
However, her walking around and using her ability already was a testament to Yang Hai's immense fortitude.
"So, I guess this is the perfect time for you to explain what your ability is exactly," said Josh who sat beside with an eerie expression.
'Dude, it was you who refused to learn of our abilities beforehand. Don't give me that Joker smile,' I thought.
I sighed.
I averted my eyes from Yang Hai's piercing gaze and spoke.
"My innate ability is called Gamble. I have a few abilities that I can access but there's also a chance of suffering effects from those exact same abilities if I roll wrong....." I explained.
5 minutes later...
Everyone was looking at me as if I was demented.
Ana was looking at me with a concerned look.
Nicholas was patting my shoulder as if it was a funeral.
Paul remained wearing an encouraging smile.
Josh's brow was raised.
Yang Hai...
Well.... for the first time she gave me a sympathetic look.
Hey, guys... I prefer being reprimanded not given a look of pity like I'm going to die soon.
"Wow. Not what I expected at all. It seems you're really up the creek, huh?" Josh said and flashed a smile that was neither good or very good.
"So that was what the dice was all about?" asked Nicholas. "Here I thought I had it roug- Ughh."
Nicholas received an elbow in the gut from Ana and shut up.
"Well it seems .... unique. But quite risky... It really fits the name Gamble for sure. Its potential though is quite impressive," said Ana.
"I have no right to complain. After all, you saved my life," said Paul with a smile.
"So these penalties last for 30 minutes right?" asked Josh.
"Well depending on whether I roll a blank or a double blank, I can get that time extended," I replied.
"That's hilarious," he smiled.
'No its not,' I retorted in spirit.
"Well, we'll deal with this issue back home. We still have customised training to go through, seeing as you can barely use your innate abilities.
The issue at hand right now is that we're going to a General Meeting. These are meetings we have to decide on big events and decisions which are led by the Panel," Josh explained.
"The Panel?" asked Ana.
"Yes. When the world turned to shit, a group of men and women from different nationalities and fields of expertise were selected to lead and make decisions for mankind.
We call them the Panel, because they were selected for this trying time. They manage weaponry, population control, resource allocation and distribution etc."
"Oh I remember now. Astrid told us about that. Though the name is just as forgettable as any," said Ana.
It made sense.
I pondered on how there was barely time to debate on who leads what anyway. Panel seemed like the perfect name too.
Almost sounding like these people were given the name to remind them that they were only chosen for the period of time that was, post-apocalypse.
There was a person who had insisted on coming despite the devastation she left back home.
Amelia.
There were 2 planes carrying Invigorated; one was ours from Safe Zone 3 and the other was carrying Amelia, Aryan and a few others.
Amelia had insisted that she wanted to discuss something with the Panel, choosing to leave the rest to some of her most trusted officers.
I had thought it was reckless at first, but after seeing the look on her face when she saw the base almost crippled, with the hundreds of bodies strewn about the ground, I understood that this wasn't her trying to sit in some meeting and accept garbage being fed to her.
As such, Mei chose to stay behind and help oversee the clean-up and civilians alongside the Safe Zone Invigorated.
Suddenly, this story didn't seem all that optimistic to me anymore...again.
When I saw those people die, I had asked myself what my life would amount to. How we can just be slaughtered like cattle after all these years of free reign on earth?
I would need to settle my emotions another time though, because after an hour, we finally arrived.
My 30 minutes were up, and I was finally free from rewind. it was good to be free. I almost shed a tear.
Safe Zone 1 looked grander than I thought. The wall with the panels that looked like it could tank Godzilla's charge, the space inside that was immensely large with human activity visible even from the air.
The community seemed more lively. I can only assume so since there is way more people here than Safe Zone 3.
That reminded me that in the more than two weeks that I had been training back home, I hadn't set foot outside the Grand Peak. I had been holed up even in my free time, either from the exhaustion or me trying to find out the intricacies of Gamble.
Seeing the masses of people here made me place 'interacting with the people from the residential area' on top of my to do list.
We landed on the designated platforms and disembarked, while looking at the massive structure before us.
A grand building with multiple sections. It was so grand that it made the Grand Peak look like a joke.
We saw another plane land after us, and a few figures disembarked thereafter, three men wearing the black trade marks suits for Invigorated.
Ahead of us all, was a small team tasked with welcoming us.
At the very center was a tall man with white hair that told the sermon of his age and sharp aqua marine eyes.
He wore a standard shirt and baggy jeans as he looked at us. I could tell he was not the janitor.
He was probably the Safe Zone Commander.
I imagined a warm welcome, but his next words slapped the naivety out of my mind.
"You're late. The General Meeting has already begun," he said with a stern voice.
I was already quivering.
Bro, what's your deal?