No Second Chances: The Beginning Of The End - Chapter 41

Back in Casamira, Ivan requested some pieces to Lorenz who gave them the highest priority to create a special exoskeleton Ivan saw in one of his visions. Since he wasn’t very familiar with the technology involved in he saw in his vision, Ivan decided to make it from scratch and create several prototypes for what is going to happen in the near future. Lorenz feared the situation could turn for the worse since Ivan mentioned that someone might come in the search of Gree’s group and they would be coming along with a dragon. Ivan couldn’t tell when the situation was going to happen, unlike with the caves, since he could develop a device to gauge the timing on which the hive would start to move.

After receiving the order to keep guard on the walls, Pascal and Marco simply loitered nearby the cannons previously mounted to fend off from the horde that arose from the hive in the caves, which was now in a dormant state. Pascal leaned on one of the cannons and yawned as he felt quite bored from simply standing on the wall and report any sort of irregularities. Marco had a couple of binoculars in order to check for any person or infected that could be approaching in the vicinity. “I’m still a bit disgusted from the time we had to help clean the corpses from the horde. The smell of the burning corpses made me throw up even though we were kilometers away from the hole.” –Marco mentioned after turning to see the large hole that was dug up in order to dispose and eliminate the corpses of the horde.​​

“Shut up, my stomach still twists whenever I remember that.” –Pascal replied while burping and carrying his hand to his mouth as a sign of getting nauseous.

Several hours later, the two dwarves noticed a small convoy approaching from a different direction. Right after that, Marco left to talk with Lorenz about the matter. Pascal on the other hand went to the gate and tried to talk with the person guarding it in order to get any information about any programmed convoy with resources. The guard confirmed he had the order to let a convoy enter, which made Pascal sigh in relief. Marco also was coming back with Lorenz who was the one who requested it. “Thank you guys, I will be taking it from here now.” –Lorenz said while gently dismissing Pascal and Marco to their guarding post as the convoy approached the gates.

Once inside Casamira, a tall and rather fat man with a beard came out of one of the vehicles, wearing a big smile and opening his arms. “Lorenz! Been a while!” –the man exclaimed while approaching Lorenz who was also quite happy.

“Ali! How you doing? It’s been a long time indeed.” –Lorenz replied while giving Ali a handshake and a hug. “It seems like you have a new job being a businessman.” –He joked while pointing his hand towards the convoy.

“I really am, just had to get a permit and deal with all the paraphernalia, then just bullshit my way through it” –Ali continued joking while taking Lorenz with him to check the goods in the convoy. “So the mediator you contacted happened to ask the company I work in for these materials. Though I’m curious, who are you going to war with?” –He continued while revealing several kilos of gun powder, engines, batteries, and raw steels.

Lorenz pulled out his phone and took a picture of the good while Ali kept open the lip covering them. “The problem is that we are yet to know when is going to happen, a special team from the capital I supposed to be here soon, but according to Ivan, it would be a nice meeting.” –Lorenz explained while entering in the same vehicle as Ali to drive towards the workshop. “Many things have been happening lately. First, the caves were plagued by a hive and ended up becoming a horde, then this group of fugitives coming from Delcyt, and now according to Ivan, a guardian with bad intentions on his way to ask for directions.” –He continued before letting out a sigh as Ali silently listened.

Ivan was in his personal workshop taking several notes and making voice recordings on the device he was developing for something he dreamed about. The exoskeleton he was preparing would be able to withhold it and create a sort of small cannon attached to the body; the purpose of it was to fend off from something humanity would not be able to deal with as of how it is now. The seer kept mentioning Grace on his recordings, talking as if she was always his assistant, and needed to share this information with her before the upcoming incident happened to be sooner than expected. He purposely avoided telling Lorenz about the rest of his visions and kept on rushing to get the preparations ready to meet what he believes was his fate. “Recording #145: the core of the device is not perfect, but I trust you will be able to find a way to make it look better, this is just the start for you to continue it, Grace. I have prepared enough information about the core and the exoskeleton for you to be able to create anything better. I would try to do it myself but the time is almost up. I need you to also remember about the device I showed you in front of the caves, it will be important for you to fabricate one similar to it for when the virus starts to take over. Not even god will be there to help us, but you are the last line of defense humanity will have against was it going to happen. End of recording.” –Ivan saved all the data in several terminals in his workshop, keeping many backup devices in case one fails.

“So yes bro, I think it will that amount of money for the whole convoy full of goods, however, if you are not able to pay it right now I’ll just deal with it and come back every now and then to talk things out. What do you say?” –Ali mentioned while sealing the deal with the merchandise with Lorenz in his office while Lorenz was sweating cold after seen the prices of the materials.

“I can pay a part of it now, then I will transfer the rest, I can make also an act stating the agreement.” –Lorenz answered, trying to not take advantage of Ali’s kindness while using a small handkerchief to clean the sweat off his forehead. “I am really grateful you understand we really need them, and I don’t plan on letting you down.” –he continued while typing out the act of the agreement on his computer.

Meanwhile, Ali arrived at Casamira and brought needed resources to Lorenz, in the capital Nat walked around trying to get to know every worker and soldier in the underground facility as she felt the living quarters were rather boring with the lack of things to do. She stumbled upon some scientist and showed them a special pass Eloise granted her and so they began to escort Nat around, answering her questions and showing her the whole place. Seemingly, the pass Nat had was a special VIP card that only Eloise had for whenever she made an appearance in the military and research facilities for work matters. However, Nat was still confused as to why there was such willingness from the scientist and soldiers inside the facility, but she didn’t stop to think about it too much.

Inside the living quarters, Elvira slowly walked around and searched for anyone who could be guarding the area, however she couldn’t sense anyone other than Phil who was in his room. After a couple of minutes of hesitating, she decided to sneak inside of Phil’s room and lock the door behind her. She then contemplated for a few seconds what she was about to do while undressing, stepping closer to Phil who seemed asleep. However, upon getting closer, Phil’s body instinctively reacted and reached up to grab whoever’s arm was nearing towards him, but as he was not fully awake, he instead grabbed Elvira’s neck. Elvira, rather flustered and surprised, stood still for a second before getting serious and slapping Phil’s hand away, therefore, tearing his shirt apart, making Phil fully wake up and realize what was going on.

Nat spent most of her day walking around with a group of scientists. “Oh wait! Does anyone know where Gree is? I wanted to mention something important and forgot about it when I saw Phil injured…” –She suddenly asked the group but they didn’t know.

“Maybe they left somewhere with the director Francois, I was told she got visited by the testing soldier Chronos so I can’t confirm if they are out of the facility.” –One of the scientists mentioned while shaking her head, denoting she didn’t know much more.

Nat frowned and pouted briefly. I need to make a mental note to remember telling Gree about what Eloise told me. I should go to the workshop and check if she left any devices in there for me to study them. –She thought while standing still for a moment. “You guys know where Gree was working? I wanna play around with her stuff.” –She asked the group while turning towards them. Two of the scientists escorted her to the workshop while the rest of them went back to their laboratory to resume work.

Meanwhile, on the surface, Francois was driving to a specialized psychiatric institution at a request from Gree in order to get a general view into her and Chronos’ minds. The trip was taking long despite the streets of the capital being less populated as it was almost midnight. Francois figured the ones who would be needed for the group might not be in the area, or even awake, but he still tried to contact them via an airpod he had on himself all the time. After several minutes of driving and trying to reach out to the doctor, he managed to finally get a call through. “Is this Doctor Sebastian Monroe? I am Francois Vega, General Director of the special forces of the country; I am currently contacting you for a rather urgent request to check a couple of people’s minds for me.” –He diligently mentioned while the man through the phone felt rather confused and almost hung up thinking it was a phone prank. After noticing the call didn’t end yet, Sebastian asked several questions to Francois to which he answered them all. A minute later the man affirmed to be on his way to the institution to check in the new patients.

Once the group reached the place, the doctor also arrived shortly after. Both Francois and the doctor talked for a moment to explain the situation better, Sinns was near them and simply heard what Francois mentioned before going back to sit between Gree and Chronos. Approximately 20 minutes later, the doctor asked Gree to go into the room to have a session with her. Gree nodded and walked to the room.

When she entered, the room looked like a very comfortable office, the wall behind the desk was full of bookshelves and the desk had a couple of anti-stress toys. Sebastian handed her a couple of images for her to look at and asked what she saw in them. “Is there any real purpose to this?” –She asked while looking at the doctor.

“Your explanation actually helps me know about your perspective towards the images. This helps me to know how to understand your mind better.” –Sebastian explains to Gree while sitting behind his desk.

“I’m actually here to talk about the guy that came along with me. His name is Chronos, and I’m afraid he has an imaginary friend that could become really dangerous.” –Gree mentioned while grabbing a small ball and squeezing it. Sebastian got a bit worried and asked Gree to leave and bring him, to which she did. However, once Chronos entered the room, Sebastian began to feel anxious, as if behind Chronos was something looking straight into his eyes, warning him about what he was about to deal with.