Arc 1: Mira in a Doomsday World [14]

Felix Alvarez was Country Y's youngest and most promising Marshall. Usually, he would be out on important missions with his team, gathering important data and resources for the state, however, at this moment, he was seated in a pickup truck that was driving along a foreign road, watching a lady who lay asleep beside him.

The blue-eyed man stared intently at Mira's face, as if to burn a hole with his eyes.

"Boss, why don't we just wake her up?" A blonde head popped from the backseat, occupying the space between Felix and Mira.

Felix stared at the blonde boy dismissively, "She won't wake up. She's been drugged."

The boy's mouth opened, and he blinked his eyes in doubt, "Really? How do you know?"

Felix waved him away in annoyance, "Otherwise, how could she still not wake up after all those gunshots?"

The blonde boy pursed his lips, "Well, what if she's just pretending to be asleep? Her companions are dead and she has nowhere to run... Maybe she's just playing it safe because she knows that we won't be merciful if she tries to escape."

His voice was drawn out deliberately, as if to provoke the sleeping girl.

Unfortunately, there was still no movement from the person in front of him, so he could only pout in disappointment.

"Her breathing is too even to be faked," Felix commented. After this, he turned his head to look out the window and stopped paying attention to the boy once and for all.

"Wow, the boss can even observe that, you must really like looking at her, huh? Well, I don't blame you, she's really pretty... Sigh, it would be good if we can bring her back to Country Y with us..."

Felix ignored him, but another man sitting beside the blonde boy reached out to pull him back immediately.

"Stop pestering the boss. Sit down properly and behave, won't you?"

The blonde boy shook off the man's hand, rolling his eyes dismissively.

"It's too boring here, we've been driving for an hour and we haven't even encountered a zombie yet..." he muttered.

Speaking of this, they indeed haven't met a single zombie on the road, much less a living person. Strangely enough, it was as if they were passing through a barren land.

Felix also heard the boy's complaints, and his eyes shifted thoughtfully. He has been on guard for a long time now, after all, in the doomsdays, a peaceful journey was more suspicious than a tedious one.

However, they've already entered the borders of a city, yet there were still no signs of an ambush.

It's like zombies and humans alike have abandoned this whole area.

Felix's fingers tapped the car door rhythmically.

Time passed, and there were finally some movements beside him. Everyone in the car stretched their necks to look at the girl covered by a fluffy blanket in the middle seat, subconsciously holding some unknown expectations.

The girl's lashes trembled; her delicate fingers twitched ever so slightly, and her eyes slowly opened. Due to the light that entered her vision, her black pupils shrank uncontrollably, painting a particularly captivating picture because of its sharp contrast against her bright green irises.

Mira blinked a few more times, lifting one hand to rub her eyes and another to block the rays of sunlight that hit her face.

Her lips were pursed and her whole demeanor exuded unwariness, making the people in the vehicle feel confused and doubtful.

Shouldn't a normal person be panicking right now? —was what they were asking in their minds.

The black-haired man at the furthermost seat took the lead to clear his throat awkwardly. He pushed the gaping blonde boy beside him away and inserted his face in the seat gap between Mira and Felix.

"You..." he looked at Mira's blank face and fell silent for a while.

It wasn't until the blonde boy shoved him away that he reacted.

"Hey!"

The boy ignored him, his honey-colored eyes glued to Mira intently. There was a bright and cheerful smile on his handsome face, greatly boosting his youthful charm.

"Hello, I'm Owen Capell. You can just call me Owen, but En is good too. I'm an envoy from Country Y," Owen reached out and placed his hand in front of Mira in a handshake gesture, his eyes filled with eagerness as he continued to stare at her face, "How about you—what's your name?"

Mira blinked sluggishly. A confused expression appeared on her face, bringing some sort of protective instinct over those who would see it.

She stared at Owen blankly, her green eyes meeting his golden-brown ones unreservedly.

Everyone gradually realized that there was something wrong after seeing her expression getting more and more confused.

Mira finally stopped staring in a daze and looked down at her hands instead.

She poked her soft palm, rubbed it, then finally pinched it hard.

"Ow..." a soft complaining cry resounded inside the car.

Everyone: ..... Why does it look so stupid and cute at the same time?

Just as everybody else was unable to react, Felix suddenly reached out and held the hand that Mira just pinched.

Everyone: !!!!!! What does the boss want to do?!?!

Mira stared at Felix's hand with an unchanging confused expression. Felix gently rubbed the area she had pinched, a soft smile on his face. His eyes were filled with gentleness, and even his voice sounded particularly warm, but his words were sharp and venomous.

"Are you playing stupid or are you really stupid? Don't you know your situation right now?" he squinted his smiling eyes at her, "It's either you cooperate with us or we feed you to the zombies, okay? Now, which one would you like to choose?"

The entire car became suffocatingly silent. Everybody else retracted their gazes, trying to fix their attention elsewhere.

It was said that the youngest marshall of Country Y was like a fox, but the people who encounter him for the first time would have a hard time believing this. How could such a stern and serious person resemble a fox?

It was only when they saw the man threatening others in front of them that they realized Felix indeed resembled a fox, it's just that he never flaunted his tail so openly.

Previously, a soldier under his command accepted a bribe and unknowingly let an infected person inside the base. The marshall also smiled so gently while pushing the said soldier inside the same cage as the infected person.

At that time, the soldiers were all creeped out by Felix's lighthearted and gentle tone that contrasted with his ruthless words, "Since you're so eager to flatter this person, why not become a zombie together with him, hm?"

No matter how much the soldier begged and repented, Felix only watched indifferently as he transformed into a monster, the warm smile on his face never faltering.

Since then, no soldier ever dared to accept bribes or slack off on their job.

This event cast a shadow on the hearts of the people of Country Y's capital base. Even Owen, who wasn't a part of the army, would panic whenever he saw Felix's gentle smile. At first, he also didn't believe that Felix had such a side, but after almost being stabbed to death by the man himself, Owen would subconsciously shudder when seeing that smile. The trauma he experienced made him a bit tamer when facing Felix.

The rest of the people in the vehicle all held their breath, wanting to make as little noise as possible. Meanwhile, Mira shifted her eyes from Felix's hand and met his stare instead.

Her face was still filled with confusion and doubt. She tried to take back the hand that Felix was holding, but his grip was surprisingly firm.

"Let go of me," Mira frowned in dissatisfaction.

Felix didn't lose his smile, but his eyes suddenly turned cold.

"Right now, you are just a hostage. Who do you think you are to raise demands?"

Mira frowned, "Let go of me."

"Which base do you belong to?" Felix asked, ignoring her struggle.

Mira's brows were furrowed in confusion, but she didn't answer.

"You really don't want to cooperate?"

Mira stubbornly kept silent.

"Alright then," Felix let go of her arm, "Stop the car."

The car immediately stopped, and the other two vehicles behind soon followed.

"Get out."

Felix's tone was icy, and he no longer kept the false gentleness on his face. He looked outside the window expressionlessly.

Mira gathered the blanket in her arms, grabbed the door handle, and scooted forward, ready to go out.

"Wait!" Owen called out. Seeing that Mira paused and looked at him strangely, Owen sighed in relief and hurriedly spoke, "Don't leave yet, wait a minute."

He turned to Felix, a pleading expression on his face, "Boss, can you let her stay? She doesn't look like a bad person, why not take her to the base with us?"

Felix glanced at him indifferently, "Oh? Weren't you the one insinuating that she might be pretending to be harmless earlier on?"

"I was just joking then! You already said it yourself, she wasn't pretending at all."

"That doesn't make her any less suspicious," Felix stared at Mira once more, his azure eyes scanning her unblemished skin and healthy figure, "Who knows who's behind her?"

"That doesn't matter, if we keep her with us, wouldn't those people be grateful to us for saving her? Boss, aren't you very good at negotiating? Maybe we can work some things out and get some advantages..."

"That would still depend on whether she wants to cooperate," Felix cut him off, "As you can see, she isn't willing to."

Owen looked at Mira pleadingly, "Hey, it's really not safe for you to wander outside alone... If you can tell us more about you, we can take you with us and help you find your relatives..."

Mira looked at Owen suspiciously, "...no thanks, I can get a taxi myself."

Under everybody's bewildered gazes, Mira opened the door unhesitatingly, and just as she was about to jump down, Owen stopped her once again.

"Wait! There are no taxis here!"

Mira looked at him in puzzlement.

"This city is empty, there are no people here, only zombies... If you walk around, you might die in minutes," Owen explained.

"...You're crazy."

Mira jumped down, not caring about Owen's stiff expression.

The group watched as Mira walked away from their car. The fluffy brown blanket was draped over her shoulders, covering her body and leaving only her neck and head visible as she squatted on the opposite side of the road.

×××

Xu: Day 2 of not being able to see my wife... (ᐡ߹𖥦߹ᐡ ) I miss her...

Mira: Day 2 of not being able to see Wei Lin's annoying face ٩( ᐛ )و I'm so happy~