2 To Choose

"We're here."

Outside of the car was Blue Elementary, the school where Sophie's sisters went to. Sol closed his eyes and there he could sense many of the vampires, their life energy twice as strong as a normal humans. This made him frown as it had taken him more than ten years to have his current strong life energy, but these vampires were instantly as strong as he was without any training. The only lucky thing about this situation was that they were mindless and had no skills.

"The entire school building has been turned. I can sense a couple students holed up the library past a couple dozen vampires." Sol said as he opened his eyes.

"How do you know that?" Sophie asked as Sol always seemed to know where people were as well as many other mysterious things.

"It's an ability I have." That was the only explanation Sol left her before he sighed. "You need to be ready just in case…."

"They're alive, they have to be." Sophie said in a shaky voice after hearing this, turning over to Sol. "You'll save them right?"

Sol stared at her for a few seconds before he replied. "I'll do my best, but you need to follow my every order."

Sophie nodded and the two left the car as it automatically locked itself, turning its engine off as well. Sneaking around, Sol found the entire area to have been infested with vampires. The only problem was that the vampires were children who had been bitten and turned. Knowing the person beside him, this was going to be a problem.

With a sigh, Sol unsheathed one of his knives and stood up. Only to have Sophie grab him with shaking hands. Behind the mask, Sophie teared up as she watched the girls and boys who were just little kids.

"Can't we, just sneak passed them?" Sophie pleaded and Sol could only nod.

Sheathing the knife back into his holster, the duo jumped the fence, one better than the other as silently as they could to avoid detection. They climbed the roofs of the building and jumped from roof to tree to roof until they finally arrived on top of the library building. Seeing as the building had a sliding sunroof, Sol opened it and found a couple dozen kids inside with teachers.

"Come down after I call you, I need to make sure it's safe." Sol ordered and Sophie nodded with every step closer to this group making her more nervous.

Sol nodded and jumped down with a soft thud when he sensed someone rushing him from behind with quite the speed. Flipping backwards while holding the shoulder of the man with his right hand, and using his left hand to grab a knife off his thigh holster. Sol landed silently behind the man with the knife digging into the man's back, directly at his heart.

The bald man was large, almost six and a half feet tall and was quite muscled. Sol noted that there were multiple tattoos and the man had the feel of the military. Pushing the man with quite some power, the large man stumbled for a bit before turning around. His grey eyes scanning Sol before they widened.

"You're not a vampire…?" The man asked and Sol sheathed his blade, crossing his arms.

"It's clear, come down." Sol spoke with his mechanical voice scaring many kids with some others instead becoming awed.

Sophie looked down but with a fall from the roof to the ground, she knew she would break something. "Catch me Sol, i'm not super strong and stuff like you."

Sol nodded before he walked underneath the sun roof and Sophie dropped down into his arms as gently as Sol could make it. Sophie looked like a cat as she had her arms close together but the feeling of embarrassment stopped after Sol set her on her feet.

"Search for them, then we leave." Sol ordered as he kept glancing around, sensing everything around him cautiously.

"Ok." Sophie nodded and looked around, asking for her younger sisters.

As this was going on, the big man watched Sol who had his arms across his chest. He felt Sol was dangerous and with the knives on his thighs and the bulge under his jacket, the man knew the unexpected visitor had guns.

"Who are you?" the man asked after he felt that the masked man wasn't going to kill them randomly.

Sol looked at the man before replying. "Introduce yourself first and then you'll get my name."

"James Tomb, a retired military soldier, currently a PE teacher." The man named James said.

"Sol Lee." That was all Sol said and the man became even more cautious but soon calmed down since the man named Sol was obviously helping the girl find her sister.

The search went on for two minutes, then three before five minutes passed. Sophie kept on repeating the same question over and over before Sol had to walk over and hold her still.

"They're not here."

Sophie froze before she turned and wrapped her arms around Sol, crying her eyes out as she couldn't accept this. Her sisters, her two twin sisters weren't here which meant the worst could have happened.

"Who were you searching for again?" James asked as he walked over.

"Acacia and Violet Green! Do you know where they're at?" Sophie asked as she wanted to find any hope that they were alive.

"Maybe…." James said before he remembered something. "Every morning the twins come to school, they like to try and scare me by hiding in a closet by the office. It's located next to room 1134, they might be there or they won't but it's worth a check right."

Sophie turned to Sol and he sighed. "Let's go quickly then, it's not safe here. There's too many vampires in this area, it could turn ugly fast."

"Wait vampires, is that what you think is happening to these…. Infected kids and adults?" James spoke in with skeptical voice.

Sol looked at James as he spoke. "People who have been infected turn pale like snow, their irises and sclera turns yellow, their nails turn long and sharp, they're mindless, and they want to drink blood."

James hearing this couldn't help but sigh as it was plausible, but vampires, he couldn't help but not accept this reason easily. As the retired military soldier thought on what was just said and his own experiences of the day, he was slowly starting to accept it.

Looking once more at Sol, James asked him. "You're in the military right? Is there going to be any backup coming to this city?"

Sol paused and answered. "I'm not part of the military and if this is happening everywhere, then the military has their own problems at the moment."

James nodded in understanding after thinking for a second, the military all over the world must be facing internal struggles with their own men turning. No one knew what the cause was so he couldn't help but think the worst.

"You can help them right, these children. You can help protect them and find food for them right?" James said as he motioned to the children grouped together.

"I could…" Sol didn't even look at them as he finished answering. "... But it's not my problem."

James fumed but seeing how easily Sol had evaded his tackle and had even almost killed him, he didn't want to risk his life. After all, who would protect the kids and other teachers if he died, the only one who knew how to fight.

"Sol…." Sophie walked up and tugged on his jacket.

"You're asking for a lot." Sol replied as he knew what she wanted.

"Please." Sophie asked once more.

Sol thought for a second as a plan to make sure the children are safe and fed. "I can't do much on my own, but to make this place safe, I'll need to kill the vampires, all of them. James would also need to help me scavenge for food and bring them back as I doubt you could carry much. This would mean endangering the only people who know how to fight and considering the vampire children have the power of adults and adult vampires having superhuman strength and speed. We could die and this means everyone here could die."

While the suit Sol wore would protect him from bullets, knives, environmental effects and even poison gas. Physical forces still affected him and since the kids have the power of adults and adults had superhuman strength. It was quite easy to picture what could happen should Sol be swarmed.

Sophie paused at the words die, and didn't answer which made Sol sigh. "Make a decision when I come back here with, or without your sisters."

"Wait, I want to come-" Sophie couldn't finish her sentence as she felt a chill run up her spine coming from Sol somehow.

"No, if you come along then it will be multiple times more dangerous. I'll need you to stay here just in case a vampires enter since you have a gun." Sol commanded and Sophie nodded despite wanting to come along.

After this, Sol raised his hands up towards the ceiling to where they had come from. Clenching his fist together and motioning his fist down, a wire with a sharp head shot out. It attached itself onto the ceiling and Sol was soon pulled up, exiting the room through the sunroof.

"That's… cool." Sophie said as she looked around at the children, the words of Sol running through her mind.

----------

After leaving the library, Sol started running and jumping on the rooftops silently and quicker than before. Soon approaching the front office but there was a problem just like Sophie was in his life. The girl always asking for things and Sol always doing what she wanted. Shaking his head, he got his mind back into the mission mindset, he would settle other affairs later as he needed to stay focused.

Closing his eyes, Sol could see many vampires and many adult vampires in the office. The only human life energy signatures were the two in the closet which must have been the twins. Sol found Sophie to be quiet lucky but as for himself, he wasn't.

Thinking of a plan to get the girls out, make sure they don't scream and get back to the library without trouble or danger. It was impossible as every plan he had came up with the vampires appearing and chasing them. This was only if he didn't kill any other vampire, kid or not so he sighed.

"Looks like i'll have to get rid of most of them." Sol said as he took out two knives from his holster.

Like a ninja, Sol quickly and efficiently killed each of the vampires as nicely as possible. With a single stab to the brain, the vampires life energy faded slowly before disappearing. Soon the area was clear of living vampires and was filled with bodies.

Wiping the blood off of the knives, Sol set them back into his holster before he stopped and glanced one more time at the bodies. A second later, he turned back to the closet door and opened it. Inside of the room were cleaning supplies and on the ground was a shaking pair of twins. Both of the girls had their hair tied to one side of their head.

Both girls had heterochromia as well which was quite strange, blue and green with both being on different sides as well. While both of the girls were afraid, only one of the girls glared at Sol with a determined gaze. Sol actually liked these people even more than those who were truthful to themselves.

People who put on masks to help others, this was also nice but there was a drawback. People who did this always had built up emotional luggage that would explode. They needed someone to release the pressure before they really broke down. Sol hoped she would find someone quickly but since she was still young, she would probably find someone later in life. If she ever survives to become older and reach that breaking point that is.

"You're sister Sophie told me to bring you to her." Sol said and both girls became visibly happier.

"Big sister Sophie did?" The timid girl asked as she lifted up her head some more.

"Yes, now we need to leave now before more vampires some here. It's going to be dangerous if you make a sound so stay quiet." Sol said before looking once more time around himself.

"Why should we trust you? You might be like those people who were eating each other!" The more feisty girl demanded to know.

With her voice being loud, Sol frowned in irritation as the girl who spoke out loudly suddenly felt a crushing pressure. This was a special use of life energy that some skilled martial artists could use. The technique that Sol used applied his energy outward in all directions or just at one person. If their life energy us weaker than his own, then they would feel pressure. Their power would be weaker and they would lose the will to do anything. It basically forced the person into a state of fight or flight but with the person leaning more on the flight.

The technique was called force and usually this was only usable to older more experienced martial artist such as Sol's master but Sol was different. He was born with a higher amount of life energy and was able to train and master it easier thanks to his special senses. This made him master quite a few techniques but since all humans had limitations on their life energy, Sol couldn't do much with these abilities.

"Stay quiet and follow me, understand." Sol spoke after releasing his force.

The girl nodded and soon the couple were walking together behind Sol. Once reaching the edge of the building, Sol sighed as the kids were only ten years old. This meant that they wouldn't be able to climb the side of the building. With no other choice, Sol decided to use more of his life energy to power his special techniques.

Taking a deep breath, Sol used his life energy and infused his legs with the energy. His body became more stronger and faster as Sol picked up the two girls and jumped more than ten feet into the air from a standing jump.

The two girls were in awe as they saw this but Sol on the other hand was just annoyed. The reason many people who were martial artists didn't use life energy was because it took a while to recover and these techniques costed too much. Using force used only a little bit of life energy as no one else knew how to resist but it was also die to his own energy being larger than the other.

As for the technique called boost, it drained his life energy quickly as it multiplied his strength by five times in whichever area he infused it into. That was why he only infused his legs and not his whole body as he could only last ten whole seconds with his entire body powered up.

Just from using boost for a second on his lower body, he had used five percent of his total life energy capacity. Thinking on the term life energy, Sol decided to start calling it qi again since it was shorter and easier to remember, at least for him. The twins would surely tell Sophie and Sol knew he couldn't keep his abilities a secret for much longer in this new world.

"We're almost there." Sol said as he started running quickly and quietly, the girls in his arms.

Soon the twins were in the library and they looked around before asking. "Where's Sophie?"

They got their answer as Sophie ran over and hugged them, saying. "You're alive! Thank god!"

The twins looked at the black suited girl in front of them before their eyes widened. "Sophie?!"

Sophie realizing they didn't know her as her face was covered with the mask took it off to reveal her face. They hugged and Sophie kissed her little sisters while James looked shocked.

"You're a kid." James said before he turned to Sol.

"High schoolers, but it's basically the same thing." Sol said after that.

After the family was reunited, Sol crossed his arms and asked. "Did you make a decision yet?"

"Yes." Sophie said and smiled sadly. "I want to help these people."

Sol looked at her as he before he restated what she had just said. "You want to help these people, you don't want me to help them?"

Sophie nodded as she rubbed her sisters heads. "I know how you don't like people at all, you're only doing this for me. So you can go if you want, but i'm going to stay here and try to help these children."

"You're an idiot." Sol said as he thought back to what he had been sensing in the vampires ever since the time had started ticking to the evening.

The energy within these vampires had been growing, becoming stronger and denser than normal which was impossibly large. Their qi was making their physical bodies become even more superhuman even if they didn't use the energy to enhance their bodies. Sol felt helpless as he came up with two conclusions, one of them was that the vampires were getting stronger and would soon become too strong. The second was that they only got stronger during the night which was bad but not as bad as the first guess.

"Why am I an Idiot?" Sophie complained.

"These vampires are getting stronger and faster, I don't know why and I don't like it. Their senses are probably being increased as well which means that they'll be able to smell and hear us better. They'll be charging here to take a drink of blood, and your sisters will be victim to the monsters." Sol explained.

Everyone became shocked and James asked. "How can you know this?"

James was becoming even more suspicious of Sol as the man or kid, James didn't know nor did he care, was spouting all of this information. His source was the main reason for his suspicion and he was even starting to believe that Sol was the one who spread this as he seemed prepared for this.

Sol sighed in irritation before he spoke to James. "Whether you believe me or not, I don't care. But since Sophie wants to stay here and protect these kids, I guess I have no choice."

Pulling up a seat by a table, Sol sat down and started explaining his game plan. "Tonight, we will wait here and defend this room until morning. Once and if we survive until morning, I will bring you to my base to grab weapons and supplies. I'll also help clear the vampires in the school but after that, I won't help anymore."

"You got that." Sol turned to Sophie and she nodded.

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