Chapter 38

A gust of night breeze maneuvered through the sprawling city streets, fluttering PQ's messy brown hair.

His heart froze.

'Wait… Mary? She is John's sister?'

The family portrait in John's apartment materialized in PQ's mind and he immediately took a glance at the innocent little girl before him. Mary's sleeping gown rustled under the wind, its pink shade creating a great contrast with the dark environment.

Palpable guilt coiled around his heart, suffocating him. It was just yesterday when his spear pierced through John's skull, and now he finally met the little sister whose elder brother he had mercilessly killed.

Staring remorsefully at Mary, PQ's conflicted heart felt cold. There was no way he could reveal the truth to her, that her brother has died.

"Oh! I recognize you! So you're Mary!" PQ kept his voice as calm as possible.

"So you actually know me? Oh… I'm sorry PQ. I guess PJ was wrong about some things." The little girl replied apologetically as she retracted a portion of her previous unintentional insults.

PQ smiled awkwardly as the frequency of gunfire increased in the background.

"One minute left and we will initiate the breakthrough!" Sergeant Grigor's raspy voice roared out from the battlefield, reminding PQ of the countdown while improving the morale of his tired soldiers.

Feeling remorse and a sense of urgency, PQ crouched down to maintain eye level with Mary. "I'm sorry Mary, but I really need to rush back. Follow us, we will keep you safe." He said softly.

Mary shook her head, tugging on his hand. "It's not safe out there."

"Trust me, Mary. I can keep you safe." PQ reassured.

"No, you can't."

"I promise, Mary. We can—"

"No. You can't."

PQ frowned at her stubborn response, uncertain whether he had enough time to convince Mary to follow him.

Standing up, PQ sighed resignedly. "Listen to me Mary, I can protect you. I know I can—"

He paused abruptly.

The words he was about to say struggled to leave his mouth as the demeanour of the little girl before him suddenly shifted from cordial to forbidding.

Mary's amiable grin vanished and her stern gaze challenged PQ's. For a moment, he felt like he was being lectured by a wise professor thrice of Mary's age.

"PQ," Mary whispered calmly, her innocent tone shifted as if a foreign personality had taken over. Emotionless, Mary resumed. "I can see it in your eyes PQ. You're just like me!"

"Just like you?" PQ knitted his brows at her strange behaviour. Just a second ago, Mary was behaving appropriately for her age. But she had somehow altered her personality, transforming into a different person.

Mary's pupils dilated. The colour of her eyes was a carbon copy of John's, brown and clean.

"Yes, PQ. I can see that you're special like me." Mary's calm tone evoked an uncanny sensation. Her eyes reflected his face like a mirror, reading him like a book. "We have more memories than others. We've experienced this apocalypse before"

The distinct memories of his life on Earth flashed before PQ's vision, igniting the spark in his brain. The dazzling lights in Mary's complex eyes told a realistic story, but at the same time, felt like a facade. This segment of her story unravelled a different world that he has never perceived before.

"We both are… from Earth." PQ's eyes brightened when he made his discovery. So he was right all along. John was indeed a person who had reincarnated from Earth. Since his sister was in a similar situation too, does that mean everyone in his family was also reincarnated?

Many questions muddled his mind, but he decided to focus on a more serious topic which had always troubled him.

Before he could ask further questions, Mary concealed her emotionless expression as a flurry of footsteps approached them.

"PQ? What's taking you so long over there?" Teresa rounded the corner in search of PQ, only to find him holding hands intimately with an adorable little girl while staring deeply into her eyes. "You… You…" Gesturing between him and the little girl, Teresa was too stunned to form a sentence.

"Hey hey! It's not what it looks like Teresa!" PQ stumbled backwards frantically to expunge misconceptions.

Fortunately, Teresa's eccentric personality and thinking omitted any misunderstandings. "You managed to find a survivor! Wow! You are truly deserving of being my idol!" Teresa beamed as she leaped towards Mary. "Aren't you adorable? What's your name? And how did you get to such a dangerous area…"

"I came from the train station under construction." Seizing this opportunity, Mary brusquely answered Teresa's question. "My mommy and some good guys are waiting for me there," Mary murmured cutely, demonstrating absolutely no signs of her previous mature performance.

"A train station! Did you hear that PQ? This is our breakthrough opportunity!" Teresa deflected this information back to PQ.

PQ understood Teresa's decision. She wanted him to make the call himself whether he wanted to follow Sergeant Grigor and his men, or Mary. In a nutshell, the two options were either to make a risky retreat with the mass towards the city centre, or escape discreetly with Mary through the underground tracks.

Though he didn't want to be labelled responsible for the potential deaths of a platoon of soldiers, PQ acknowledged that the latter was the obvious winner.

Were those lives more worth putting his friends in danger?

As an introverted person, PQ barely had any friends growing up, regardless of whether it was on Terra or Earth. To be honest, he has received much more joy in this short period with his new friends than in the last twenty years.

At this point, his answer was very simple. His friends' lives were far more important than strangers.

Sighing as more footsteps approached this dark alley, PQ succumbed to Mary's suggestion when the familiar faces of his squad reunited under the 'Construction In Progress' sign.

"I understand. We'll follow your lead, Mary."

"Hehe! Thank you, PQ! Now follow me, I will show you the station."

Her guileful smirked slightly annoyed PQ, but he tolerated it for the sake of Mary being a child. A rather odd child.

****

"You never experienced the apocalypse on Earth?" Flabbergasted, Mary muttered.

Scratching the back of his head, PQ shrugged. "All I have are memories of the peaceful era, and a subtle warning of the outbreak."

"That's strange….That is really, really strange…"

Their subdued footsteps echoed in the hollow station as they made their way down a long flight of escalators. Void of life, their clamorous taps against the sensitive escalator steps resounded freely without attracting any zombies.

The stale stench of cigarettes lingered in the air. Construction tools and cleaning equipment were dispersed messily across the porcelain floorings and wooden benches, insinuating hints of unprofessionalism. Wires dangled from the ceilings where light installments were supposed to exist like snakes in a jungle awaiting a chance to strike.

"Watch out for these steps right here."

Mary warned PQ and the others as she leaped down a badly designed slope, her braids jumping in tune.

Shining a flashlight to guide himself and the others behind, PQ avoided tripping over the uneven ramps.

Sappore's underground railway station had a unique attribute as compared to many countries on Terra, which was the clever implementation of platform barriers that served many purposes. Yet despite the strict rules for subway stations to retrofit barriers along with the platforms, this half-completed station hasn't even begun any installments, allowing easy access to the empty railways.

Dust whipped up when Charlie picked up a grubby, old broom, forcing him to sneeze in response. "I've never heard of this station before. Was it Atlan station or something like that?"

"Correct. The incompetent workers here clock out before 9:30, which is the time before the apocalypse happened."

Raphael murmured, explaining why it was musty down in this station.

"Transportation could have been so much more efficient if they completed this project and just moved on to the suburbs."

"Is that so?" PQ said, hopping down the high platform before gently carrying Mary down.

"As a civil engineer with a pretty decent pro-folio, I was one of the applicants for the job here." Raphael chuckled, stroking his beard. The thick forest enveloping his lower face has gone into a frenzied state, which was he always had to smoothen with intense brushing. "But some rumours of embezzlements managed to spread, and as a result, I decided to drop out of the selections."

Shrugging, he grabbed a wooden plank leaning against an empty advertisement broad and slid it down the platform. The wooden plank was etched into the sturdy railway tracks, creating a temporary bridge for the others to descend the platform.

Charlie's golden retriever trotted down the wooden plank as she scurried ahead to scout the idle tunnel, her pale beige fur bouncing with every step taken. Her paws brushed passed abandoned beer cans and bottles, scaring away little critters such as cockroaches. But not all shared the same reaction. Some of them peered at the people walking down the long tunnel, their nature emitting aggression.

"Hey Mary, are you sure your mommy is waiting up ahead?" Teresa asked tenderly. They have been walking down the path for a while, yet they haven't encountered any living human beings so far. For this reason, she had begun to raise some doubts as no sane mother would ever leave her daughter so far behind.

"Um, yes. Mommy is… nearby." Mary winced, seemingly uncertain as she glanced at PQ to seek help.

PQ had immediately understood Mary's reaction. Mary's mom being nearby was probably a lie, and that she was just providing a valid for their squad to follow her.

Frankly, Mary's bluff even went over his head because he kept on forgetting about the fact that she had a complicated background. What separated him and Mary was her vague knowledge and memory of the apocalypse. Unlike other children, she is much more independent and even remembers basic survival skills from her previous life as a survivor.

What about regarding her cold behaviour? Turns out, it was merely a combination of her current personality and traces of her past personality extracted from Earth. The split personality theory that PQ had thought of inwardly was nothing but a baseless imagination.

"Don't worry Teresa." PQ waved her concerns away. "She knows what she's doing."

Squinting in suspicion, Teresa just shrugged.

"Woof!"

A strident bark echoed throughout the hollow tunnel as a furry figure darted passed Teresa.

"Chloe! What are you doing!" Seeing this, Charlie whistled and gave chase when she refused to listen to his orders. "Chloe come back! That's not the right way!" Chloe and Charlie's figure soon vanished at the end of PQ's flashlight as his echoes slowly died down.

But before PQ and the rest could react to what just happened, frantic footsteps refilled the silence in the tunnel.

"Ahhhhh! Guys! Run!!!!"

"Rats are coming!!!"

Not two but three figures rushed out from the end of the darkness, screaming in fear.

Blanketing the railways' track, a surging swarm of rats and insects trailed behind Chloe, Charlie and another young man, cruising towards them like a black flood.