*
This meeting had been very informative already. I had gained valuable knowledge, especially about the mechanics of innate abilities. Or at least their origins.
What we got from Mother Earth back at Safe Zone 3 was more like a general explanation.
It seemed that after the apocalypse, everyone in this room had conversed with Emma and got the extended edition of the explanation.
Emma was the Advocate, someone used by Mother Earth to converse with humans. I had also wondered if keeping her in Safe Zone 1 would be for the best instead of having her in Safe Zone 3.
However, I could imagine how Astrid would refuse to restrict her daughter's freedom by having her be there. She probably feared Emma would be turned into an apostle to guard the crystallised life energy or something.
A possible reason could also be that Emma herself was constantly travelling between Safe Zones from time to time, to add to morale, so it wouldn't make much of a difference if she stayed in Safe Zone 1.
Still, I'd say it was a risk.
From the looks of it, Safe Zone 1 was much more fortified than the others as it had the largest population.
It was a wonder to me why our enemy didn't just attack Safe Zone 1 in the first place, since they seem to be attracted to life energy.
Were they stalling?
The crystallised life energy from Mother Earth was said to be cloaked, such that sensing it would be impossible. That would explain only half of my question though.
Perhaps humans had been more tenacious than I thought in the last few months that most of the stragglers just couldn't make much progress and had been defeated at every turn.
Rena made the projector show a different image.
It was an aerial image of a massive blob of grey flesh that had thick veins running through it.
This blob was located far up North, in what would be the remnants of cold countries like Greenland.
It was emanating from a floating mass of land in the middle of the ocean.
"Our satellites picked up this image during the raid of Safe Zone 4. I understand that it was also the reason for Aryan and Mei's delay for the operation," Mr Newman said giving Aryan a rebuking gaze.
Aryan himself just sighed and folded his arms.
"The amount of radiation that this thing is was emitting was immense, however by the time your operation was finished, this mass deflated in seconds and vanished."
Aryan raised his hand and got permission to speak from the stout man.
He stood up and spoke.
"Sir, if I may. Everyone here wants to solve the problem. I abandoned the mission to investigate if there was anything that could lead us to the root of our problem. Surely that was more important than travelling a great distance to stop an issue that would be solved sooner or later," he said.
Before Mr Newman could reply, I saw something appear before Aryan in a flash.
It was Amelia and man, did she look pissed.
"You would sacrifice thousands just because of an investigation that could have been done after the rescue?!" she glared at him and yelled.
"What should we prioritise? Isn't a sacrifice of thousands worth it when the payoff is finding the source of the apocalypse?" Aryan asked with a relaxed expression.
"What good does it do when the people we are supposed to protect, the people who are supposed to carry on the legacy of humanity die in the process?"
"You want to talk to me about death? When I arrived to save your sorry asses, thousands had already died under YOUR protection. What good is a Safe Zone Commander who can't even mobilise the resources they have at their disposal properly?"
"That's why we needed reinforcements!"
"Like I said before. Don't dare pin this on me. Those deaths are on you," said Aryan.
Amelia grabbed Aryan by the collar with a vicious grip.
The atmosphere was getting tense. I was worried about what might happen. A fight seemed to be about to break out.
A girl who was sitting beside Aryan grabbed Amelia's hand and pulled it away from Aryan.
She had hot toffee coloured hair cut into a pixie with grey eyes and a high nose. She was quite tall, and in her free hand, she had a mobile phone which she pointed at Amelia.
"Chill, the hell out," she said softly.
Two figures jumped from their seats and bolted up to the three.
One of them, a short man with a crew cut, rushed up and grabbed the girl beside Aryan by her shoulder. The other rushed up to Amelia and went in front of her defensively.
While I was worried about what might unfold, we all heard a sharp and fierce voice ring from the table at the forefront of the room.
"Epilogue: Horror."
With those words, I felt a heavy feeling that crippled my mind and brought to the surface all my fears!
Everyone in the room felt the dense feeling that settled on them including Aryan, Amelia and co.
I could see it on their faces, the fear.
We all turned pale.
I looked for the cause and saw what looked like a dark shadow emanating from a certain man sitting at the large table.
It was the Safe Zone Commander, Thomas!
The man was glaring at us with a languid gaze but behind him, the shadow creeping from his back made my body quiver in fright!
I was genuinely scared.
I almost wanted to kneel down and beg for my life.
All of sudden, the pressure vanished and everything returned to normal.
I was sweating buckets while panting heavily. I turned to my sides to see both Nicholas and Paul experiencing the same, even the usually calm Josh was sweating a little but a smile rested on his face.
Amelia and Aryan were panting as well, along with their defenders with pale complexions visible on their skin.
"Sit down. The meeting is still ongoing," Thomas said, to which everyone sat back down.
Surprisingly, the Panel members were not affected by the display. They were either shaking their heads or giving indifferent looks as if they were unfazed.
Mr Newman sighed and continued speaking.
"Aryan, your actions were indeed not wrong, but they were not right either. There was too much of a risk in investigating such an anomaly," he said.
"Now, as you came, you gave me a brief report of the result of the attack. We lost Elite Invigorated in quite the numbers which is detrimental to our situation," Mr Newman faced Amelia.
"I must say that your leadership in this situation wasn't so efficient, Amelia. We lost a lot of people and you seemed to not be prepared even after receiving a warning beforehand."
Amelia was still breathing deeply to get her bearings. She looked at Mr Newman, then at Mr Thomas before standing up.
"This is the issue I wanted to discuss. Safe Zone 4 is a very small area.
We have a severe lack of strong Invigorated. Only I, Darius and Grace have abilities that can even be called decent.
All the other Safe Zones are manned by powerful elites with reasonable numbers but we got the short end of the stick," she said with a hard expression that displayed her frustration.
"As you said, your Zone is the smallest. We can't afford to distribute more human resources there when there's a Zone like ours which has a double priority of its inhabitants and the life energy crystal," said Mr Newman.
"So you expect me to deal with situations like these again in the future without any more help?" she asked.
"No," said Mr Newman as he glanced at Mrs Williams who have a small nod.
"We have been in discussion of an evacuation program to create a single Safe Zone for all. I believe it's time we enact it. However, the best course of action will be to have multiple stages, to avoid risk.
I believe relocating your people here will be the first step. The news of a straggler capable of destroying the Safe atmosphere has challenged our perceptions. We have no choice," he said.
Amelia's eyes were widened. I could see that she didn't expect such an answer. No doubt she was going to bark until they shot her down.
"Alright. We will be deliberating on whether to send a team to the island where the large mass was spotted, to which a decision will be informed to you all," Mr Newman said.
Afterwards, the matter about the stragglers and an overall review of the operation on Safe Zone 4 was held.
It didn't take long and after finalising a couple of issues, the meeting was adjourned.
I was tired. I really wanted to go home and desensitise myself of the past few hours.