Code Collector

Allen immediately returned the towel to Jeremy who was laughing lightly. The man took his bag and slung his arms over Gwen's shoulders.

"Sorry, this girl really likes shipping men together. It's uncomfortable at first, but you'll get used to it," Jeremy said.

Allen has never seen this side of both Jeremy and Gwen before. When he first me them, and all their other encounters, they looked serious and maintained that looked through the duration of their conversation.

"Were you guys always like this?" Allen asked. "This seemed to be out of your character— for the both of you."

"Oh, you mean the laughing and the teasing?" Gwen asked. "Jeremy and I formed a strong bond that we don't always show to other people. But since you showed that you can be our friend, we show this side to you too."

"Oh," was Allen's words.

"You two go ahead to the room, I'll take a shower," Jeremy said. "The gym shower is much bigger than the room shower, so I'll just do it here."

"Be careful, and hurry," Gwen said. Allen and her went to the ward while waiting for Jeremy. 

"Where are Kyle and the others?" Allen asked. He also noticed how they weren't in the room when he checked in earlier. The three seemed to be somewhere else even when their friend was still in the hospital. Typical.

"Jeremy sent them home," Gwen replied. "They actually insisted on staying, but they couldn't win against Jeremy. What he says, he gets."

"Oh," Allen formed an O with his mouth and nodded. He then sat on the sofa while he waited for Jeremy.

"You know," Gwen suddenly said, breaking the silence that was looming around them. "That Gary guy. Do you know a lot of people call him Lucifer?"

"That doesn't sound nice," Allen scrunched his face after hearing Gary's nickname. "Why would they name him after a devil?"

"Lucifer wasn't actually a devil, but that doesn't matter. The thing is, Gary was the one who everyone thought would progress the fastest in his batch," Gwen said. "You know how Hunters are sent by batches, right? I was batch 1112, Gary was 997. I could still remember him when I was a newbie.

"He was the Ranger who could one shot, one kill a Basic grade beast even when he's far from it. The man had eyes of a natural born Hunter. But then, it all changed when his friends died. All his team was killed and starting from then on, Gary has fallen out of grace," Gwen sighed. "From a hero, he became nobody."

"Was it related to the Fire Dragon Incident?" Allen asked, even after he knew that it was. Chen's story about the incident was just when the two teams discovered the dragon's path and reported back into their camp.

Allen stopped the man from proceeding with his story when his head burst out and his memories started flooding his mind. It was painful to see things that he can't remember, and the memories that started resurfacing. He lashed out and ran away from Chen, so he never got the full story.

"It was a bit complicated," Gwen said. "At that time, Gary got back from the forest to report about the appearance of an unimaginably powerful beast. Jeremy was even the one who confirmed the identity of the beast's victim, and I was there when the papers were processed.

"Gary found one of his friends to have been shot by the dragon's fang, and the wound was infected. Gary went to the police station to confirm everything, while his friends were waiting for their other friend to recover. But then something happened…"

–

The streets were busy. Everyone was panicking. The people on the streets were running away in panic, some even screaming and others were bawling.

"The hospital has been breached!"

"Run for your life!"

"Zombies! There's zombies everywhere!"

…

Gary had just got out of the police station and he was headed to the hospital when he saw the commotion. It was hard to make out what it was since people were running over him like crazy. It was a scene out of an apocalyptic movie.

Remembering his friends are still in the hospital, Gary pulled one person to the side and asked her, "What in the hell happened?"

"Zombies!" the woman cried. "There are zombies in the hospital."

"These—"

Gary cut himself off and pushed the woman away. He summoned his weapon and walked closer to the hospital, seeing that it was surrounded by strong Hunters while the weaker ones were evacuating.

Gary was about to enter the front lines when a man pulled him aside. It was his friend from the police, Evan, who pulled him. The man looked distraught as he held onto Gary's collar.

"Stay here," Evan warned. "Whatever's you do, do not go to the hospital or even try to look at what's happening."

"But Evan, my friends are inside!" Gary argued. "I'm the best Ranger in Camp Twyla. If there are indeed beasts, you're going to need a man with a long range of attack."

"No," Evan shut Gary's suggestion immediately. He was still gripping on Gary's collar, seemingly having no plans of letting go. "You. Stay. Here."

"Evan, if I joined the police, I could be your captain," Gary said.

"But you didn't, so I don't have to take your orders," Evan rebutted. "Don't make my job hard, Gary. Just stay here and don't try to go there. We can handle this."

With a defeated sigh, Gary nodded. Evan loosened his grip on the man's collar but didn't remove his hand just yet. Gary just shrugged, making Evan smirk and fully let go.

"Stay safe," Gary said. "Do your job right, okay?"

"I will," Evan said before turning away. He ran back to the front lines where the other police officers were and they surrounded the hospital. It was night and the power inside the building had been compromised.

There was only darkness. The only light that provided them vision was the streetlights around the hospital. On the inside, no one knows what's going on.

"What's the situation," Evan asked his colleague. "Any signs of the infected?"

"For now, there have been no note of increase in their numbers, sir," the man replied. "But it's hard to track them down since barely have any heat signature. These people have gone cold too fast."

"That would only mean that they're dead," Evan sighed. "We shouldn't show them any mercy. They already killed one of the healers and heavily injure a doctor. We can't add another casualty."

"Roget that," the police officers around Evan yelled. They conjured their weapon and equipped the night vision goggles provided to them. They entered the building and slowly get swallowed by the darkness. 

"Situation," Evan said from their radio. He was the commander of the operation, so he didn't have to go inside. He was just outside with the computers who provided them night vision cameras.

"Dark, cold, and silent," the officers replied. "These people are strong when they were Hunters, I don't know what could happen now."

"Just stay alert and don't let your guard down," Evan commanded. "They instant killed a healer who has a good combat ability. We don't know what could happen to you."

"Don't worry sir," one of the men inside said proudly. "We're police officers. We've been trained thoroughly. Something like this wouldn't be too much of a—"

Even felt his entire world froze when the communications stopped. He looked at the screens and saw that everything was static. "What in the living hell happened?"

"Sir, we lost them," one of the computer men said. "Their vision, radio, and even their aura vanished."

"Vanished?" Evan asked. "What do you mean they vanished? Those men are highly skilled in combat. It's impossible for them to vanish just like that!"

"But sir, we couldn't even locate them," the man said. "Officer Reyes's team has gone under the radar. We just spoke to them, but they vanished."

"Impossible," Evan muttered. "Send in the drones. Look for them right now or else."

"Right away sir."

Evan's team prepared ten military-grade drones and sent it inside the hospital. The drones have built in cameras and powerful guns to defend themselves when something attacks them."

"Show in the vision," Evan ordered.

He watched through the multiple monitors. Each monitor shows one drone as it explored the dark building.

"Something doesn't seem right here," Evan thought out loud. "From the scale of the commotion caused by the people earlier, the hospital shouldn't be this clean."

"Sir, check this out," one of the men pointed at a screen.

Evan's eyes looked like they would bulge out of their sockets after what he witnessed. The entire hall was littered with blood and guts that it looked gruesome.

What's worse for Evan was the remaining clothes that were attached to the bodies were the uniforms of the police officers that went inside.

"What is happening?" Evan asked himself as he fell to his knees.