Breathless

Border in Columbia.

Safe city of the Unification Nuevo Amanecer.

"Arrrgh!"

Dominic opened his eyes in a daze, and the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.

Looking to his left and right, he realized he was in a room, lying on an unfamiliar bed.

Recalling the incident in his mind, Dominic remembered the moment before he lost consciousness. He seemed to have escaped from a hunting trap that the people Glenn had located had set up.

Thinking about that trap that almost ended his life, he simply felt strange. Fortunately, he reacted quite well at that moment; otherwise, he would really be dead now.

"Oh..."

Feeling the dryness in his throat, Dominic unconsciously wanted to get up but soon discovered that his right hand and right leg were wrapped in bandages.

Moving his body a bit to sit up, he looked at his injured right leg, thinking that he had been seriously injured twice in just half a year, and couldn't help but smile wryly.

"Is there anyone?"

Taking a sip from the glass of water that had been prepared to his left, Dominic began calling out to whoever might hear him in a low voice towards the door, but no one responded for a long time.

When he turned his head and looked out the window, he realized it was raining quite heavily, and the windows constantly trembled due to the howling wind.

Reaching out to lift the quilt, Dominic grabbed the crutches placed next to him, slowly got out of bed, then picked up the jacket from the hanger and put it on, then hobbled out of the room and walked outside.

He didn't know if it was his own illusion, but he felt that waking up this time, his body was much stronger than before, but he didn't think too much about it; he just focused on relaxing his body muscles and letting them recover, and with the walk, his wounds started to warm up.

The living room was empty. When Dominic went downstairs, he saw a deserted scene.

He wasn't surprised by this either; after all, since Alicia went to the Commonwealth as an undercover agent, he had always been alone, and if there were now someone unknown in a place where he was alone, serious things would happen.

"Woof! Woof!"

At that moment, a small dog that had been resting in the corner of the room perked up its ears and got up upon seeing a person walking with crutches, got up alert, and ran towards him.

"Hey, aren't you Daryl's dog? What are you doing here?"

Seeing a somewhat familiar dog, Dominic sat on the sofa, then began to pet the dog's head and said, "Hey, you... Daryl isn't thinking of eating you, is he?"

"Woof!"

As if understanding what Dominic said, the dog barked angrily at him, then turned in circles, saying it was completely fine, and then jumped onto the sofa, laying its head on Dominic's injured leg.

"Well, if you're thinking of changing owners, you can tell me just by biting your owner. I assure you, you'll eat better than with that hairy old man."

Dominic chuckled, stretched out his hand to pet the dog back and forth, rested his head on the sofa, and said, "I didn't expect this operation to almost cost me my life. It seems I should be more careful. Who would have thought that something like a manhunt would cause so many deaths, and on top of that, I'd encounter two damned tigers?"

Speaking of this, the words stopped suddenly because he suddenly thought that tigers only gather during the mating season.

And possibly not much time has passed since they had tiger cubs, and the memory of a tiger cub gradually formed in his mind.

"Could there be cubs in that place?"

Otherwise, why would the male tiger hunt so many people and kill indiscriminately? The female tiger obviously isn't pregnant and likely has already given birth.

Thinking about the presence of tiger cubs somewhere in the forest, Dominic suddenly got interested.

Not that these tiger cubs pose a threat; without their mothers bringing them fresh meat and their own inability to hunt, it's very likely that these cubs will starve to death.

"Maybe... should we raise them in captivity first?"

At this point, he remembered Ezekiel, who had been taking care of Shiva, which caused Dominic much uncertainty. However, he never knew where Ezekiel decided to raise that tiger.

Just as Dominic was thinking, the door of the house opened from the outside.

Cold wind and water entered the room, and a figure covered in a raincoat came in.

After the figure entered the room, they quickly turned around and pushed the door closed, then removed the hat and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Alicia?" Dominic thought to himself.

Alicia took off the raincoat, placed her coat and other things on the hanger next to her, picked up the piece of meat from the floor that she had just dropped when she entered, and was about to walk to the kitchen.

Originally, she was checking the bodies of some injured people in a temporary building, but the rain suddenly came and seemed unstoppable, causing everyone to rush into the houses.

But thinking about the unconscious Dominic, Alicia had to return to check his condition, as that was her job.

But when she turned around, she discovered that there was a figure sitting on the sofa that should have been empty; it was Dominic, who had been unconscious.

"You're awake?!"

Seeing that familiar face, the things in Alicia's hands fell to the ground. Her eyes widened in shock, and she quickly asked, "How are you now? Are you fully awake?"

As she said that, her hands were already touching Dominic's body, hoping to check the wound.

"It's okay, I'm fine."

He tightly grasped Alicia's cold hands, signaled her to sit down, and said, "What are you doing in this dangerous place? I told you it wasn't necessary for you to come to such harsh places."

"I'm fine; I've learned a lot about emergency wound care. There aren't many doctors, so any help is necessary."

As if thinking of something, Alicia quickly got up and said, "Are you hungry? I'll make you something to eat."

After finishing speaking, she picked up the things she brought and walked to the kitchen.

At that moment, Dominic came to his senses and quickly turned his head and asked, "You just said I haven't woken up... What do you mean?"

"When Rick brought you back that day, you were in a coma, and it's been two days."

Skillfully handling things in the kitchen, Alicia took the knife to prepare the ingredients while responding, then suddenly raised the kitchen knife in her hand, gave Dominic a cruel look, and warned, "I must say that Tarzan managed to defeat a leopard, but a tiger is much more dangerous. How dare you fight against two tigers? If you keep this up, soon we'll be without a leader!"

"It's not that bad; they set us up, so it was hard to react to the enemy."

Dominic thought his situation was unfortunate, touched his chin, and murmured, "I didn't expect... In fact, I've been lying in bed for two whole days."

Unconsciously, he put his hand on his abdomen. For some reason, he always felt that something had changed in his body, but after careful inspection, he found that it wasn't the same as before, except that his body was a bit more lively.

"It's strange. I think too much."

Shaking his head to stop thinking about these strange things, Dominic asked, "I've been in a coma for the past few days; please tell me what happened during these days."

"Wow, that's why you're the leader."

Alicia rolled her eyes speechlessly but still said, "When Rick returned, he told us that the hunters they were looking for were eliminated and others captured. However, we also lost many people who had no combat experience; Daryl only thought about hunting, so the weapons and men in his group weren't the best."

"So... are there other discoveries in the forest?"

Alicia didn't seem upset about Dominic's injuries, but she would make sure not to let him go to dangerous places for a while.