Chapter 22

" we can't go back without achieving something" Jay said as he drove them through the ruined streets . Melovus ran rampant, but at this point they were dispatched from the distance by Jay and Eric.

With Eric retrieving the red gems

" So we should look for more survivors "

Daniel added.

" And do what with them? The building does not allow foreigners in , and I think that is good, the number of people inside is already a worrying number , but thankfully they aren't as strong as us to take control." Eric said out loud .

" Oh I didn't tell you . Foreigners can enter the building if they have a key ."

" Yes, but the keys are humans. So unless they are a key they can't enter " Eric added

" No , what I mean is , as long as they hold the body part of a key , they can enter the building."

" WHAT!" Both Jay and Eric exclaimed, and the car went off course due to this.

This of course was a response coming from two entirely different angles.

" Doesn't this make it easily infiltratable?" Eric asked.

" Are those in the building in danger?" Jay asked

" If they aren't idiots those inside will never come out. And if they do , its better they die now before others figure it out . Frankly I wish the numbers were a bit lower, but I don't have the heart to kick them out or kill them . Afterall that gaze rewarded all those present within the buildings borders, the key."

Jay looked at Daniel like he was seeing him for the first time.

" I didn't know you were Soo ruthless " Jay stated after hearing the frankly disgusting words coming out of his mouth.

" Are you stupid? I can't agree more with said mindset. Did you not witness a human brainwashed into becoming a sleeper agent?. We can't trust anyone." Eric said

" Then what stops us from not trusting each other. I know you used to be a loner and all , and you Daniel have no filter for your intrusive thoughts, but we are living in a time were all of humanity, and the global civilization is crumbling. If we don't step up to form strong communities ,our continued existence would become pointless!"

Both were silent for a while .

" Whatever." Eric brushed Jay off.

" Start driving" Daniel pointed out that they had stopped.

" We never really said which town we were going" Jay sighed as he asked the two .

"Goddard there is a warehouse down there we can get some supplies while we look for survivors , in fact anyone with a good head will live close to the warehouses.

Those places contain all essentials in abundance.Way more than grocery shops do. "

"Hmm understandable. But going back to you Daniel, are you not contradicting yourself. You say you want to save others, but you also want those in the building to be less in number. What was your plan for those you saved then?"

" The 'keys' are what I think are too many. If only three keys existed. We would be fully in control of those we allowed into the building. "

" Hmmmmm, then why don't we just make a rule that prohibits keys from doing whatever they want without our permission? "

" Are you naive ?, there is no way that's going to work" Eric chipped in

" You are the naive ones , all the keys right now owe their lives to us , a rule from us is law, and won't be easily broken. None of you are experts in human behavior "

" Neither are you as far as I'm aware" Eric retorted

" I'm confident I know more than you thou" Jay hit back .

The car went silent as the trip to Goddard was barely uneventful with the occasional melovus coming within range.

Daniel had to correct his world views several times , melovus weren't some creatures humans could easily defeat . But he'd become strong enough to dispatch them , even though till now he hadn't.

One melovus was enough to cause a city wide disaster, and there were thousands of them just running around the city now.

His changed body had begun to influence his mind . You see even Eric and Jay were powerful enough to kill blue insectoid for the former and yellow beetle for the later. The three had begun to loose touch with the frailty of humanity.

Daniel did not see this as a good thing. Reason being all subsequent judgement would be made using themselves as the standard.

It was difficult to explain well. But the fear others faced seeing a single melovus would not be understood by them .

And if it wasn't understood well, they might inadvertently cause deaths of others , Daniel for instance recognized later that leaving those in the building and the three of them coming out wasn't a very emotionally sound idea.

Logically it was , but emotionally they had kind of ascribed melovus as harmless gem harvesting for everyone.

Daniel recalled the fear that pervaded his being seeing a melovus for the first time . And assessed how they looked like to him now . It was too different.

Jay might later come to realize this, but at the moment he couldn't.

Eric however as a regressor with an unknown amount of experience under his belt showed how out of touch one could get with the weakness of the average human.

"STOP STOP STOP" Eric yelled.

Daniel at the back was still aware of everyone, so he saw how sudden Eric's mood changed.

He was a cautious person by nature , and would avoid anything that posed a threat to his life with all his ability.

Daniels effective range of control was a mile that's as far as his spacial perception extended . Technically he could control space past that point, but it was like writing a word for word banner out of your field of vision onto a canvas out of your range by shooting water jets from your mouth.

Daniel inferred very quickly, folding an entire mile of space, sending the entire vehicle a mile back.

And he was glad he did, because certain death would have come for him had he not .

Before him was a pillar of golden light originating from the fimaments above onto the ground bellow , covering a radius of five miles from its center making a 10 mile diameter!!

Also included within that area of effect was the position the vehicle was previously been !

Everyone was confused! Daniel was stunned . Jay couldn't even process the event as the driver ! And Eric seemed starled at how quickly they'd gotten out of danger.

" WHAT THE FUCK!" Daniel cussed with passion .

" H-H-HOW!!, WHAT?! " Jay stuttered

Both turned to Eric for an explanation. Jay wasn't so shocked that Daniel had reacted fast. Afterall , it was that speed that saved their lives!

Because from where they sat , Jay could hear the sound of drilling from the pillar of golden light. It was like the ground covered from their vision was being eroded away.

It's sounded like what one would think of if continuous disintegration was to be given a sound.

And even as they sat there still , the pillar of golden light was still ever present. Meaning it couldn't pass for a hallucination.

" I -I ..." Eric with his cocky attitude from the moment the Apocalypse begun had lost it!

The fear of something had thoroughly paralyzed him to the point he couldn't speak .

Daniel was sweating profusely, to the point were had he had a shirt on , it would now be drenched, wet like he'd dropped into a pool . But because he didn't have one on , it stained the cushion seat instead . This was less to do with his mental fear , and more to do with his new bodies heightened instincts!

Usually there was a direction where one felt danger from . But In rare cases , it felt like you were right in the center of said danger, like being pointed at by guns from all sides , including the top of your head , and the bottom of your feet.

It was actually getting difficult to breath .

So Daniel did what any rational being would he folded mile upon mile upon mile unrelenting. He did have the presence of mind to continue towards their original destination.

To outside observers it'd look like a truck was being teleported a perfect mile each time it appeared .

In 14seconds the truck had traversed 6 miles , that would have taken 6 minutes 55 seconds to travel at at 55 mph!

It was an astonishing fear by all accounts, but Daniel couldn't feel proud about it . Even after 6and a half miles away from the 'event' , the air was still so saturated, breathing felt like a luxury. At least for Daniel . The others didn't have as strong of an instinct as he had .

" GET A GRIP!" Jay slapped the trembling Eric across the cheek with so much force a

'TAAA' sound was made.

The wake up call brought Eric out of his own thought prison . But his next words hardly made sense.

" How did one appear here ?! There were only supposed to be three ! one in Manhattan, one in Kyoto and one in Cairo ! What is one doing in Kansas?!" Apparently he was in so much shock Eric forgot his identity.

But Jay and Danielknew that it had to be bad , so bad that facing the gaze and the threat of the all powerful external entities didn't make him crack.

To Daniels senses , 'energy readings he got from his affinity and new body' , whatever Eric was scared of wasn't as powerful as the four entities he had battled against from across the rift . Not by a long shot. But he guessed that to those who were ignorant/ unaware of energy readings, this .... Whatever it was would come across as more powerful in comparison .

After all , look at the pressure it was exuding. It was so dense that for miles, away from the golden pillar of light that stretched for 10 miles, Daniel still couldn't breath properly.

" What is it? What is causing the destruction?" Jay asked .

Only for Daniel to grip him by the collar of his shirt and throw him out the window of the drivers seat.

Jay couldn't understand Daniel, but the next second, he did .

The drivers seat exploded!

BOOM!

Daniel skidd out of the car back seats moment later , with his shorts torn up on its side .

Daniel folded space closing the distance between himself and Jay , then held onto his arm and folded again taking them both further from the vehicle.

But immediately after they reappeared / changed coordinates another invisible kinetic attack came for them from the sky .

Daniel immediately folded space infront of himself to act as a shield , but was knocked into the air.

And Jay finally saw the attacker . It was Eric !

BOOM BOOM

Daniel maneuvered mid air dodging the subsequent two attacks , leaving gauges

/ Trenches bigger than the human being.

Jay was smart enough and quick enough to understand the reason behind the sudden betrayal.

His shields went on forming a sphere about himself and Daniel as his closest friend held him while standing on nothing. All this had occured in barely 6 seconds, so while he might have seemed slow, it really wasn't the case, its just that the other two were very quick .

" Is your regression such a big deal that the only answer you found was to murder us?" Jay asked him with an unusually stern expression.

Eric's eyes widdened.

" Since when ? Since when did you know ? " Eric asked , or more like demanded an answer.

" The moment the Apocalypse begun " Daniel said before Jay could answer.

Eric seemed shocked again .

" What gave it away ? " He asked further . He seemed genuinely interested in the answer. Like he was willing to learn from his mistakes and not repeat them .

This could mean one of two things. One , he was determined to kill them then and there , and start over again.

Two he had more than one opportunity to regress back to the fist day and start again .

Either case was bad , and Daniel was sure as hell not taking either option.

" Don't start a new turn just yet " Daniel gambled with the information he has available, assuming that Eric had more opportunities to go back to that first day .

And what do you know it paid off.

" I don't need the start of a new turn , I can deal with you just fine ." This statement ment he had access to the second option but preferred to use the first .

This perhaps denoted that there was either a price for a regression , a condition that needs to be fulfilled , or Eric's ego holding him back from insta regression at any inconvenience.

There was also the possibility that there was now a resource he might never have access to if he regressed , and that was the 'building'

Daniel really didn't know , and could only speculate for now until more was uncovered by him

The flying Eric exploded / propelled himself at insane speeds traversing the distance between himself and the two immediately, this time Jay acted first

VaBoom !

A blueish plume cannon formed on the very surface of the protective sphere , and lunched at Eric in a frontal face off .