Chapter 16

When the sun relinquished itself from its job, the moon takes over, sending the world to a deep sleep. Thanatos had planned to leave much earlier during the noon but due to unforeseen circumstances, they had to put their plans to a halt and wait till night.

August was busy warming himself up for the tough journey ahead as he knew that they had more than 30km to travel, he ate more than he usually did to get his body the nutrients it needed. He was unbelievably haggard, his hair was in a mess and his eye bags were terrible. 

Everybody was in a sour mood the day before but the event that occurred this morning had worsen the atmosphere. Everyone was tense and agitated but they kept on carrying out their duties.

Anesthesia eventually broke herself away from the stress and focused on her task at hand. Connor, Blaze and Kayden external injuries such as bruises and cuts was healed. Connor looked like he was in the best condition, his bones were healed and the colour flushed back into his face. It looked as if he could wake up from his deep state any moment now. The others were in.. rather questionable condition.

During noon time, Zephyr had woken up and felt extremely numb. He flicked his wrist and felt a strange surging sensation rushed up to his heart. Anesthesia immediately noticed that he was awake and assisted him, she showed him a vial of his blood and passed it to him without saying a word, she knew it would be better for Zephyr to figure it out himself.

Until now, Zephyr was still holding onto the vial and the small paper along with it,  while looking at it closely, he let out a laugh. All that was in his mind was that Dion Levisay was hysterical. 

If, injecting various liquids into a child's body was not enough already, Dion had added a small amount of powder that was poisonous and highly radioactive. If Zephyr were to use his powers while the poison was still in his body, it would clog up his blood flow and his internal organs and parts would decay. Making it much more harder and painful to activate his power. Dion Levisay was an intellectual, nobody had doubts about it. The way he thinks and plan is astronomical.

Looking at the vial, Zephyr contemplated to throw it and smashed it into the ground but paused when he heard Damien calling for him at the entrance. Zephyr looked at the scene before jumping off the roof with grace and landing near the traitor. 

Everyone was gathered around along with Ethan who stood in a corner along with a depressed Castiel, they both were shocked to see Zephyr moving and not unconscious anymore. They were about to go up to him but Zephyr looked more forbidding than usual, it was a small clue to leave him be.

August looked around and felt chills crawl down his spine, the atmosphere was so tense that he felt like he was walking on thin ice. "Please stand in the circle I created." He asked, wary of the others.

Ray and the others who could still move dragged the unconscious body to the white circle and nervously stood inside, wondering when they could have their next meal in peace without the tension that placed a barrier in between everyone.

Castiel and Ethan stepped inside the circle and got closer to Zephyr who was clenching his fist, his face was as emotionless as ever but his body language gave him away.

Damien clapped once to get everyone's attention and nodded to August to start the teleportation. It was time for them to go back, even if they didn't want to.

Understanding his leader's cue, August raised his arm and a white light came out from the ground and followed the lines of the circle, wrapping them in the white blinding light that seemed like it was being overtaken by the dark negative feelings that were emitting from the members. It was sinister.

After a while, everyone arrived at an empty land that seemed deserted with little to no signs of civilisation. No buildings could be seen even in the far distance, except for the large wall that towered behind them. This was the world outside the walls.

Even the sky looked different from the world inside, it was muddled and empty with not even a single star sparkling with hope for the abandoned land. The moon seemed so far now, as if it was staying away from the wretched part of the world.

If there was a trace of civilisation, it was the concrete and trash scattered all around the wasteland. Centipedes and other bugs roamed the land with no fear while they hunt and took the territory as theirs.

The flatland was polluted with a disgusting scent of decomposing corpses that couldn't be seen. The ground was split open with many cracks, with one wrong move, one could fall into the large deep rifts and perish.

Castiel gulped and looked around and only then could he understand how different the world was from before. The new instalments of technology were fascinating but the waste land outside was the harsh reality that no one inside dared to accept.

Before he had even seen the outside world, Ethan had already prophesied what the land would look like. However, his vivid imagination could never be compared to what it truly was. His mind didn't prepare him for the shock he'd received.

The other members didn't look shock at all while they put on their gas masks to prevent the revolting smell from entering their nostrils. 

Damien took charge and squat down, touching the ground as if he was trying to find something. He continued heading forward slowly with an objective in mind, he paused and turned around. "We're heading towards that direction." He instructed, looking at the dust on his fingers and rubbing it to feel the texture and pointing to the east.

All of them walked in unison silently, everything was going well before Tina placed her hands on her ear. It was a normal reaction for when she has heard a sudden mixture of cacophonous sounds that made her ear split.

"Mutates a few metres away from us on the right." Tina said, putting down her hands to hear better.

Everyone that could fight immediately got into position, while the others who weren't on the offensive side stood back with their unconscious allies.

"1..3..6..14." Tina counted, her voice getting more shaky when she realised how many there were. It would've been fine if either Connor or Blaze was awake as they were incredibly skilled in close hand combat and fighting against mutates. They were trained exactly for that purpose.

Unwillingly, Ethan took a step forward and offered his assistance. Castiel followed suit and knew what he had to do.

"You can't fight Castiel." Yasmine called out, placing her hands on the boy's trembling shoulders.

"I'll place a dark illusion for the mutates to blind them for a while. It won't do harm to them but we can take advantage of that." Castiel said, he won't back down now. Not now. Not when Ethan had came up with a solution for him.

Mutates wouldn't be able to break out of his illusion as they were brainless and only held on to  their small string of instinct to eat human flesh for survival. The only way they could break out of it was that Castiel had reached his time limit for the illusions he could create.

"Very well." Damien agreed, plunging his fist into the ground and sending strong shaking vibrations throughout the land, acting like an earthquake.

This was a small battle that they could win. Outnumbered or not. They were definitely much stronger.

Zephyr sat beside August who was out of breath. He placed his hand on the older and August felt his racing heartbeat slowed down to a normal rate, his breathing also regulated itself. All his exhaustion seeped away in a heartbeat.

"Watch my friend, won't you?" Zephyr said, his eyes glowing an eerie green. His other hand breaking the vial while the glass cut his fingers, blood spilling into the soil. The land reminded him of his old home, where loud applause of barbarians could be heard. Spectating a match where lives could be taken in a heartbeat.

The scene in front of him reminds him exactly of that, without the tyrants yelling and cheers. The mutates were pitiful, only being able to fall to their deaths as their large deformed body struggled to stand with all the danger heading straight for their lives. Explosions, bullets and the floor beneath them.

Cruel, disgusting and inhumane. Zephyr figured while sitting there, looking at the creatures with multiple legs crawling around. He crushed it with his hands and buried it beneath the soft soil effortlessly.

"Zephyr?" August called out nervously, sounding afraid as the younger was acting rather unusual. 

"I hate insects, that's all." Zephyr said, his eyes still on the creepy crawlies.

"You scare Ray. I now know why." August stated randomly when he understood what Ray had meant about the boy. 

Zephyr eyes widened and he let out a soft chuckle of disbelief. "You should probably be scared of the mutate that is crawling up behind us." He sounded serious.

August turned around immediately and he spotted a mutate that was in the form of a centipede from a distance away. Only an inky smudge of it could be seen but from the blurry figure of it, it was definitely in a shape of a centipede with its gross legs and arms wriggling in the air. It was larger than normal sized mutates but he stayed calm.

"Leave it, it'll crawl away." Zephyr said when he saw August taking a step forward with his wobbly legs. "If it doesn't than it must have a death wish."

Feeling that Zephyr was indeed correct, August took a deep breath and turned around, starting to read the map Tina had laid out earlier, leaving the younger alone.

Zephyr focused his attention back to the battle, knowing the existence of multiple mutates in the far distance. They were everywhere, it was impossible to stay safe in the wasteland.

"So these are real brainless mutates, quite different from the ones in the lab i turned.." Zephyr mumbled, reflecting back on his actions. Dion Levisay was different from all those mutates, he still had a mind of his own and a form of a mutate. He must've accidentally created something different, Zephyr thought.

Not surprisingly, Thanatos has emerged victorious. However, they showed no signs of happiness or joy from winning such a battle. They acted as if it was a normal daily occurrence and continued marching on in silence while they left behind a pool of blood of the beings that were once human.

The blood soaked into the ground and the floor softened to mud, opening up an entrance for the corpses to bury themselves. Beneath the grounds of the wasteland were millions and millions of dead corpses of humans and mutates. The revolting smell was unavoidable.