"We're almost out of gas, we'll stop at a gas station for refill." She sent it to Duke while munching on potato chips.
Keith looked at his sister's relaxed and carefree appearance in the passenger seat. He, on the other hand, felt dreadful, his palms were sweating while anticipating the upcoming chaos, every second passed felt like a decade and butterflies fluttered in his stomach.
He inhaled and exhaled deeply to relax his nerves, and cleared his mind.
"Stop thinking about it, we'll cross the bridge when we get there." Kisha stated with a deadpan expression.
"I'm trying but we only have more than 6 hours before then." He mumbled like a child, pouting.
"By then, we'll be in the base Duke prepared. We have a great headstart than everyone else."
"What if unexpected things happen?" He feels pessimistic even before it happened.
Grandma slapped his arm with knitted brows. "What's wrong with you?! Don't jinx it."
"Son, a soldier can't run in a war. It's okay to be nervous but don't let your anxiety kill your will to fight, else, you wouldn't even know how you died." Grandpa patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him and give him strength. "We have each other. Don't overthink things."
Feeling that they were right, he relaxed a little and parked the car at the gas station.
While Keith was filling the tank, Kisha and her grandparents went to the store to buy some more snacks and other necessities they needed.
Duke also followed suit and let his people fill their tanks and went to follow Kisha inside the store. He filled Kisha in on the progress of the supplies.
"We've got hundreds of livestock of different variations, It was all sent in the valley along the fruit trees and seeds." Then showed her his phone screen showing the pictures of the livestock and other items being pulled to the big warehouse. "I got them to lock the place down so that the animal will not be affected by the blood rain or be attacked by zombies just in case."
Her brows raised and looked at him up and down. "You're meticulous." She commented.
His eyes twitch. "Why do I feel like this woman is making fun of me?" He thought to himself and cleared his throat.
So he decided to tease her a little. He dialed Tristan and in a few seconds, it was answered.
"Do you have other instruction, master?"
"Let the animals bask in the sun and take a shower in the rain later."
Tristan and Kisha were surprised.
Tristan was aggrieved and a little resentful as they just finished pulling the animals inside and he wanted them to pull them out again? He pursed his lips
"No! no!" Kisha was flustered and immediately held his arm that was holding the phone.
"This guy is so petty! If I did not know better, I would think that he has retained some of his memory." She thought as she glared at him.
Duke was enjoying what he was seeing, he smirked. "I thought you were not satisfied with my arrangements earlier so I want to rearrange them again."
Kisha smiled sweetly and acted fawningly. "What are you talking about big brother? Haven't I just commended your meticulousness?!" But she can't stop her eyes and the corner of her lips twitching.
"I thought you snorted at me and thought I was incompetent?" He acted as if he was wronged.
"Who said that?! Aren't you the most capable?!"
Tristan on the other side of the phone heard everything and was in a state of shock. "Where was the Duke Winters that never jokes around and is 24/7 serious?" He inhaled but suddenly clasped his free hand in his mouth trying not to make a sound.
Kisha complained in her heart. "He used to be stoic and just a plain iceberg. Why is he acting chummy now? Did he hit his head?"
Having enough fun he told Tristan to continue storing the important items in the warehouse and told him to always update him on the progress.
After picking what to buy, they went to the counter to pay.
But before the cashier starts calculating the purchase, an earth-shattering tremor shakes the whole place.
Duke pulled Kisha into his arms and tried his best not to lose his balance as he walked slowly toward the pillar.
"My grandparents!" Kisha worriedly said.
Duke whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, they are hiding under the table."
Only then did Kisha relax, she also noticed Keith was fine and was protected by the guards outside.
The earthquake was really strong, everyone was having a hard time standing and all the items in the store were being thrashed from the shelves. The light posts falling to the ground one by one and cracks from the walls and floor slowly getting bigger.
Dark clouds starting to block the sun and the sky is getting darker and darker.
Kisha was having a bad premonition about this.
She looked up at Duke and met his gentle eyes, devoid of worries. But it somehow made her feel guilty.
She did not know what was happening because it never happened before, she's having an inkling of feeling that things would go off course starting now but was it a butterfly effect? Why did it never happen before, it is not that there was no butterfly effect before but there were no major changes in big events like this.
She knew in her heart what would happen next but she still had a small hope that it was just a false alarm. She tried her best to calm down and waited for the tremor to stop.
But for some reason, this earthquake took longer than before and was stronger. Some parts of the building wall are starting to fall off. The rain cloud was also darker, thunder roared and there were even strong winds blowing, as if a storm was coming.
Her heart felt heavier every passing second felt like an hour.
The moment the earthquake stopped, the woman next to them reached for the door and started running but before she got far, the store's signboard fell on her, squashing her to the ground.
The man behind her, who might be her family member, screamed in agony. He cried and slumped to the floor.
Others couldn't take the gory scene so they looked away, some with weak stomachs even vomited on the spot.
Kisha checked her grandparents and only felt relieved when she saw that they were fine. She led them outside with extreme caution and regrouped with Keith and the others.
Duke never let go of her hands but Kisha did not notice because she was deep in thought.
She uttered. "I think the apocalypse will happen ahead of time." She looked at Duke and told him to inform his people to be prepared for the rain to come and be more vigilant. The virus's effect might have increased and is different from what she remembers.
By now, she has realized that she has been fighting a battle that seems impossible to win. As if an invisible entity wanted humanity to perish.
"Host, I also feel like, something is manipulating the happenings on earth." 008's weak voice sounded in her mind as if afraid of something.
"008, we still have enough points right?"
"Yes host, we still have 25 thousand points. Plus the current mission is still gaining points, currently, we have earned 100 thousand points."
"Only 100 thousand? Not millions?! Are you sure you counted correctly?" Kisha was agitated.
It was rare for them to have this kind of mission where they could earn points like selling pancakes. But why is it only 100 thousand? Did people treat their warning as a hoax or a prank? She was fuming with the people's stupidity.
She adjusted her emotions. "Either way, 008 use 1000 points to upgrade yourself, in a few days, we need to upgrade again. We need to unlock the other features and functions. Especially the item exchange in the shop."
The item exchange feature is where they can sell or exchange items to different worlds. She also needs to unlock the feature Item Modification so she can modify and strengthen their current item.
Although they can't sell things to other worlds because no one wants what they sell, they could still try so that she can continue to upgrade her system and she can go to higher realm's sales channel to buy more useful items.
Having formed a simple plan in her head, she led her people to wait for the rain to come just outside the store while discussing with Duke their next step.