Upon hearing the sentence, Manav was taken aback. He lifted his gaze to identify the speaker. "May I know your name, miss?" he inquired, addressing a striking woman with raven hair.
"My name is Lois, Lois Lane. I'm a journalist or news reporter, as you might say," the woman introduced herself.
"Pleasure to meet you. Do you know Clark Kent?" Manav greeted and queried.
"Clark Kent? Hmm, doesn't ring a bell," Lois Lane responded.
"So, Miss Lane, what's our next move? How do we escape from here? Any ideas?" Manav asked her.
"You can call me Lois. As for an escape plan, I'm afraid I don't have one," Lois Lane replied, shrugging.
"You can call me Manav," he told her.
"Why not," Lois responded, her attention diverted to exploring the room.
Manav disregarded her seemingly childish behavior, aware that girls often show interest in novel things, especially characters from fiction or real-world fiction. He fell into deep thought, recalling the positions of the soldiers in the manor when he arrived with Kara. He formulated a rough escape trajectory from the manor. His knowledge of the manor's layout was limited, consisting only of a rough mental map of the areas he had seen and traversed.
While he was lost in thought, Lois had finished exploring the room. She sat on her bed and examined the pairs of clothes brought by the manor's maid earlier in the afternoon. She found a pair of clothes that suited her. Noticing that Manav was deep in thought, she stood up and walked to a spot in the room where her back was to him. As she changed her clothes, she kept an eye on Manav.
While changing, she discovered a chiseled stone in her pocket. She remembered picking up this stone before she came to this world, during a mountain hike. She sat on her bed and examined the stone. Suddenly, the stone began to glow. Surprised and curious, she called out, "Hey Manav, come here. Check out this stone. Why is it glowing?"
Hearing her, Manav walked over to her. Lois was fiddling with the chiseled stone when she accidentally cut a small part of her skin. "Ouch." Although she was hurt, she didn't scream like other girls. She merely whimpered a little.
Manav tore a small piece of cloth from the white bedsheets. "Okay, I'll do it," he said, stopping Lois, who was sucking her blood. He pulled her hand towards himself and noticed saliva on her hand.
"Uh, sorry, I just have a habit of sucking my blood whenever I get hurt," Lois said, quickly sticking her tongue out and then retracting it.
Manav didn't see her do this; his entire attention was on the wound. He tied the torn piece of cloth from the white sheets tightly around Lois's hand.
"Hey! It hurts. Can't you tie it a bit looser?" Lois said with a pained expression when Manav tied the knot of the bandage.
"Can't. Show me the stone," Manav said, shaking his hand.
Lois picked up the stone and handed it to Manav. He took the stone and found that it was smooth. He wondered how a smooth stone could injure anyone unless it was thrown or hit someone.
"This is smooth. How did you get hurt?" Manav asked Lois.
Lois just shook her head in confusion. Manav touched the stone to Lois's hand. The stone started glowing. Manav was trying to recall something similar to Lois.
"Yes! This is an Earthstone, and its ability is to create machines that are far beyond the capabilities of the 20th or 21st century," Manav said, snapping his fingers the moment he recalled the information.
"Earthstone?" Lois was confused.
"Okay, Lois, take this stone in both your hands and think about creating a teleportation device that can teleport two people anywhere on the planet," Manav instructed, placing the stone in her hands.
"Uh? Okay, I'll try," Lois said, following Manav's instructions. She sat on the bed in a lotus position.
After watching Lois get busy, Manav got up from the bed and checked the situation outside the window. He could only see half of the mansion from the room's window, and due to the darkness outside, he couldn't see any further. He sat back on the bed and started thinking about what to do next. He could only hope that the stone was indeed an Earthstone.
He suddenly noticed a blue glow on the stone in Lois's hands from the corner of his eyes. He turned his face and saw that the stone had become blurred, as if it was changing its shape. Now his hope was rekindled that they could escape from here. But he noticed that the transformation was slow. So, he walked towards the door and checked if anyone was coming. If they got caught, it would be over for him, Lois, and the others.
After checking the situation outside the window and the door of the room, he felt relaxed, but still checked every 10 minutes to see if anyone was outside or coming towards them. Like this, two hours passed. He just closed the door after checking the situation outside and turned towards Lois. He saw that Lois was floating on the bed. Manav was surprised and walked over to Lois. After seeing that nothing was wrong, he pulled a chair and sat beside her bed.
Suddenly, he heard Lois whimper in pain. Manav got up and saw that her facial expressions were contorted in a painful grimace.
"Hey, Lois, stop. If you're feeling pain, just stop. We'll find another way to escape," he tried to stop Lois.
But nothing happened, as she was either ignoring him or couldn't hear him. Manav was terrified inside. He stood beside Lois, wondering what to do next. He thought of interrupting her physically. He extended his hand towards Lois, but suddenly his hand stopped. It was as if an invisible force field-like barrier was covering Lois. Manav was shocked. He stopped his futile actions. He knew that if he used too much force, she might get hurt or something more terrifying might happen.
He walked back to the window and the door to check the situation outside. While Manav was sitting on the chair, worried and shaking his legs up and down, he heard gunshots coming from outside the manor. He quickly leaped towards the window to see what was happening outside. He saw fires blazing from the town's populated areas. He quickly ran towards his bag and took out binoculars. He leaped back to the window. After pointing the binoculars in the direction where the fire was blazing, he saw that an old man was in his car wearing a military outfit, with an army motorcade. Jeeps and trucks filled with soldiers were heading towards the town.
The mansion of old Bentley was outside the town and was covered by a whole regime of the army. He himself was an army officer with a rank of captain and had 100 soldiers under him. After seeing them going, Manav quickly packed his and Lois's clothes and other accessories. He saw that the stone had almost changed its shape into a prism-shaped device.
(Captain's POV)
"Sir, there is news that more than hundreds of undead attacked the town," Soldier One reported.
"Sir, they are suspected to be the diesel undeads, who may have attacked the train the day before yesterday," Soldier Two reported.
"Okay, soldier, warn everyone to be alert and cautious. We don't know what's wrong with these diesel undeads coming out of the forbidden land," Captain Bentley ordered.
"Yes, Sir!" Soldier One saluted and took out a speaker, yelling the order given by his captain.
After the whole motorcade reached the town, the captain ordered, "Eliminate those diesel undeads. Use the newly practiced formation against the undeads. Shoot them in the head or heart."
"Yes, Sir!!!" Every soldier yelled loudly while getting into formation. They were trying the new guerilla formation against the diesel undeads because casualties caused by the undeads had started increasing. Gunners started to walk in the town using the hide, cover, and move strategy. Other soldiers quickly took out extremely shiny lights and got on the heights to illuminate the town. The town was not very big, just over a population of 5000.
As for why there was a military regime here, it was because this was one of the towns near the border of the empire, bordering the forbidden land. This town was used for reinforcement, and they were not the main forces. After everyone got into their positions, the captain ordered them to attack. They started killing the diesel undeads who were walking on the streets. There were many corpses on the street caused by these undeads. Soldiers got the upper hand on the walking diesel undeads. They started killing the undead at a fast pace.
"Looks like this is an easy victory, but why do I have a foreboding feeling?" the captain said happily, but he was uneasy in his heart.
In the mansion room, Manav was hearing the loud sound caused by gunfires. "Aah!!!" A soldier screaming crashed in front of the captain's car.
"See what's happening. Tell everyone to be alert," the captain quickly yelled into the speaker.
Light-holding soldiers pointed their light towards the direction from where the soldier came crashing. The moment the lights pointed towards that position, a humanoid shadow disappeared. It was running at a very fast pace, which was hard to catch with normal eyes.
"What is that? What type of undead is that?" The captain's heart was filled with fear.
"Sir, I don't know, but I have heard of powerful and intelligent diesel undeads being seen," Soldier One reported.
"I thought those were rumors," the Captain said slowly. "Now they are confirmed, sir!" Soldier One reported. "Bring the grenades," the Captain ordered. "Sir, but this is a civilian area," Soldier One hesitated. "Bring them," the Captain said with a stern tone. "Yes, Sir!" Soldier One saluted and ran towards the truck where the weapons were stored. "New order, throw these grenades at those shadows, try not to hit our soldiers," Soldier One relayed the Captain's order to the soldiers sitting in the truck. "Ok!" The soldiers in the truck saluted, picked up the boxes of grenades, and walked towards the roof of the house where the light-holding soldiers were stationed. "There, throw the grenade," a soldier pointed, and another one threw the grenade. The grenade exploded the moment it hit the ground. But when they pointed the lights at the crater, there was nothing except a dark hole caused by the grenade. In the mansion, Manav noticed through the increasing explosions that the fight was getting extremely intense. On the roof, the soldiers were more alert, having seen that the undead were evading the grenades. "There," a soldier said, and another threw a grenade. But this time, the grenade came back flying. The entire roof was blown off, and other grenades on the roof also flew everywhere. When the other soldiers heard a metal ticking sound, they saw that there was a grenade under their foot. "Jump!!!" a soldier said, and jumped, but the grenade exploded before he could jump far. This was the situation in most places. More than half of the soldiers died from the grenade explosion or were killed by those fast undead. "Captain, the situation is out of our control, should we evacuate? There is no one alive in the town," Soldier One said to the Captain. "No! We will fight to the end," the Captain denied the suggestion. As such, the fight continued. But the number of soldiers was decreasing rapidly. The Captain sat on the hood of his car, with sadness and grief showing on his face. Suddenly, a hollow but scary laugh sounded. "Hoahohaohehuhuhihihehehhoho." The Captain raised his head in the direction of the laugh and saw a heavy diesel zombie walking towards him with a scary laugh on his face. The zombie walked near the Captain and raised his hand to hold the Captain's neck. "You think you will escape here successfully," the Captain said, trying to catch his breath. "hahohihehhohahi." The undead just laughed. The Captain pulled a string coming out of his uniform. "Hust die," the Captain said, and an explosion engulfed both of them. The explosion was massive. Manav was surprised and quickly stood up from the chair, locking the doors and windows of the room with objects and furniture. He stood near Lois, worriedly, with anxiety and fear increasing in his heart at a fast pace. Suddenly, Lois shone like a bright sun. The whole room shone like the brightest torch. The undead in the town started running towards the light where Manav and Lois were in the Manor. In a few seconds, the light died down. Lois was not there, just a ring and a prism device turned by the Earthstone. Manav was confused but he quickly put on his and Lois's bags. He put the ring on his finger and clicked on the prism's only button. He was in a hurry because he heard a loud howl in the mansion coming from the main hall. Manav was quickly engulfed into a dark but shiny cloudy portal. Manav disappeared. While Manav was falling in the empty place, the prism turned into a red light and disintegrated into atoms. Manav was shocked. Suddenly his vision blackened and he fell unconscious.