The World Cataclysm - Chapter 39: Stolen Van

Following after Damien, they were first welcomed by the reception desk. It was a common reception room except for neon lights lightening the internet cafe from inside. There were also empty shelves, seemingly for snacks and drinks.

“Let’s go to the staff room. Except for comfy seats, it is useless to be there. Or do you want to play games now? Be aware, the internet isn’t working.” Damien said in self-contempt as he noticed their curious glances to the gaming zone.

Even though it was a successful business idea back then, earning him quite a profit, computers were useless for him now. They couldn’t fill their stomachs nor did they protect them from zombies, so though they were still functional, their use didn’t exceed the use of metal scraps now.

Damien opened a door behind the reception desk and showed them a staff room. It was a small square room with two rows of lockers in there and with a small wooden table.

“It might be a bit cramped here, so please don’t mind it,” Damien remarked when he saw that they were standing too close to each other.

“Let’s have lunch and wait a day till zombies outside calm down,” Dave suggested as his eyes fell on the snacks lying on the table. Of course, he wanted to eat the food of others.

“Then, let’s share everything we have,” Damien said as he pointed at the heavy bag on Dave’s back.

“What? It’s my personal belongings. Do you want to rob me?” Dave asked back threateningly. He was glaring daggers towards Damien and also reached with his hand towards his axe.

“Okay, then join us!” Damien said in irritation yet still kept his smile on his face. He was trying to act nice, so they won’t arouse any suspicions from Dave, but it seemed harder than he had thought.

Truthfully, the choice of food was very poor since there were only several packs of snacks and several bottles of drinks, but it wasn’t his, so Dave didn’t complain about it.

“Hey, should we just bear with it?” The tall student exclaimed in anger as he whispered to Damien.

“Wait till midnight and we’re gonna get what we want,” Damien whispered to him ominously with a cold glint in his eyes.

Both of their group ate in silence. Rachel was still feeling awkward after a previous conversation, while Rebecca didn’t feel right to talk in that atmosphere. As Dave was eating calmly, others were exchanging glances with each other, further proving his suspicions.

“I’m gonna borrow one of the empty VIP cabinets.” Saying it, Dave stopped eating snacks and left the staff room. He headed towards one of the empty cabs and sat there cross-legged on the floor.

It was a small room, barely enough to play comfortably on the computer, and a gaming chair itself took most of the space, so Dave pulled a chair out of the room. The VIP cabinets were small, yet they still provided a user with little privacy they need and it was enough for him.

A short time later, Rachel and Rebecca also followed after his example since they wanted to rest somewhere without any eyes peeking at them and VIP rooms did provide them with privacy. Rebecca also tried to meditate there, yet she still wasn’t able to grasp the skill.

Dave quickly entered into a meditative state and started absorbing mana clusters surrounding him, restoring his mana reserves. With everything done, he only needed to wait till the night and other people will do everything instead of him.

Of course, it was wasteful to use a van as a bait, considering all the food they had in it, but it was necessary means in their situation. He couldn’t freely move in their current place with two girls with him since it was packed with zombies.

‘We still need to take a slight detour on the way so to visit that place.’ Dave thought as he rested after one session of meditation. He didn’t forget to do his daily regime as he moved to his Mana Sensing.

Close to midnight, he pulled the gaming chair into the room and acted like he was sleeping. All he needed to was to wait for others.

***

As deep nightfall had fallen on the internet cafe, only whispers from the staff room could be heard. Four people, three men and one woman, were saying something to each other in a hushed tone.

“What the situation outside?” Damien whispered to the tall student, who had gone on scouting before. Impatience could be seen in eyes of every one since they had waited for this moment since the afternoon.

“It seems that they are already asleep since I couldn’t hear any noise from their rooms.” The tall student replied to him.

Rebecca was tired from a long day and was soundly sleeping horizontally on the gaming chair. As for Rachel, it was the most exhausting day for her since she was the one who drove the van through the ranks of zombies.

She never saw so much blood in her life, not to say a corpse which stuck to van’s frontal widescreen. Mentally tired, she was the first one among them who fell asleep.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and obtain a van key!” Fatty exclaimed in excitement as he wanted to quickly get out of the university.

“I’ll go. You sit here!” Damien stopped fatty who was going to go after keys, fearing that he might do something unplanned and fail their plan. He noticed that fatty had other intentions other than obtaining a key since his eyes had shined in a vulgar light.

Silently leaving the staff room, he headed towards Rachel’s VIP cabinet and searched for the key, but it wasn’t so easy since darkness had filled the internet cafe. Finally, he found them at the corner of the desk.

Sighing in relief, he took a van key out of her VIP cabinet, grinning on the way back to the staff room. He could already see his father’s company before his eyes as he laughed evilly inside ‘Rot with zombies here!’

“Yes!” Everyone exclaimed in joy when Damien showed a key to others. Giving it to fatty who was able to drive heavy vehicles, they quickly started engines and drove the van forward to the exit point of a university which wasn’t too far away from their location.

As they were moving along the main road, the lights of the van shone on the swarm of zombies who were rushing towards them. Damien, who sat in a passenger seat, paled a bit and said, “Damn, crush them fatty!”

Their van hit some of the zombies in front of them yet more were rushing towards their van.

A short time later, they were surrounded by zombies from every direction, and it was harder to move forward. Advancing with a slow speed, Damien finally saw the end of the packed group of zombies, yet…

Thud…Thud…Thud!

Something big was stomping outside the van! And when it finally stopped on the way of their van and was illuminated by the lights of the van, Damien became terrified!

The Giant towered before their van and lifted its humongous fist in front of them. With a little effort, it sent a punch to the front side of the van as it was sent backwards.

Bang!

“AHHHHHHH! Fuck!” Damien gruntled in excruciating pain. Just a week ago, he was a student with a promising future and had never suffered so much pain in his life. Yet the most terrifying was what appeared before him.

Fatty is dead!

Since the punch had fallen directly on the driver’s side, fatty was smashed into a bloody mess. His face was disfigured with a visible eyeball drooping from its seemingly an eye socket. Damien never saw so damaged dead body.

Thud…Thud…Thud!

Hearing the same stomps of the monster, despair overcame his mind. Due to the unbearable pain and terror, tears streamed down his cheeks as he started sobbing “Please…No!…I don’t want to die!”

However, a second later, he was smashed under the fist of a Giant as everything blackened before his eyes.

Several moments later, zombies had reached the backside of the van as they gnashed their teeth to the flesh of Katelyn and a tall student who weren’t able to resist them in any way. After several seconds, their shrieks had ended as only the sound of tearing flesh and chewing could be heard.

All along, two moons evilly hovered in the dark sky, observing everything that happened below them.