The smell of rotten flesh stuck to every wall and floor tile in the old resident district. It was a place where those with the lowest income used to live in normal times, but it had become a dumping ground for corpses during the first few weeks of the apocalypse.
This was the 17th day in a row John had to endure the stench while he cleared out monster nests with the others. It had become such a common occurrence that he no longer even noticed the smell, as though it were a background sensation.
"Watch out!" Maria warned as a horde of monsters emerged from a side corridor, their claws and mandibles snapping furiously, but John didn’t even turn towards the monsters, instead, a powerful blast erupted from his back and blew the horde to smithereens.
Maria couldn’t believe her eyes. Those were all 2-Star Monsters, some of them stronger than the Draconian they had fought that time and John could just take care of them with a blast from his back!
"Let’s get out of here," John said as he avoided stepping on the charred remains of monsters strewn across the alley.
Maria stared at the pile of corpses, her eyes unblinking and her expression grim. It had been two months since Julia and Stephanie had been thrown into that portal and John had been on a rampage ever since.
"Are we going back?" Maria stepped closer to ask and wipe the blood off his face. She wanted nothing more than to share John’s burden, but she was never given the chance.
John shook his head and said, "let’s keep moving."
"Are we going to the university?"
"Yes. They’ve been asking to have a word with me ever since Theodore and the Luminars left."
John and Maria trekked through the ruined streets in silence when Zara appeared in a burst of flames.
"Lydia needs you back at the base, John," Zara informed him and crossed her arms over her breasts, her face taut and her eyes burning with rage.
"Later," John said, walking past Zara without even a glance.
"Asshole! You need to come back, you haven’t stepped foot inside for over a week."
John stopped his movements and a surge of Energy leaked out of him, "I said later." His words were spoken sharply, his expression cold and impassive, and his eyes almost glowing with irritation.
Zara stepped back, but her gaze was still fixed on him.
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"I’ll be back today, tell Lydia to wait."
Zara scowled and vanished in a flash of red flames.
Maria looked at John, curious as to what he was planning. She knew he was obsessed with rescuing Julia and Stephanie, but he had been neglecting his duties as a leader. She was concerned the survivors might lose faith in him while Lydia continued to grow more powerful on her own.
John seemed to read her thoughts and sighed, his shoulders slumping.
"I’ll go to the university first, then we’ll go back," he said, as he ran his hand through his hair.
"Lead the way."
John and Maria arrived at the university and an entourage was waiting for them. Professor Myers and his former assistant Jules approached them with warm smiles, but they faltered once they noticed Maria’s sullen face and the blood splattered on John’s clothes.
"What is going on?" Professor Myers asked, his bushy eyebrows twitching with annoyance.
"Just killing monsters," John said, nonchalant.
"Ah... I see. Please, come with me,"
Professor Myers walked briskly towards a room with a locked door, followed by Jules and the entourage. John and Maria were hesitant, but they followed.
"Please, sit down," Professor Myers said as he sat on the red leather couch and everyone followed.
"This is what I wanted you to see," Professor Myers said as he put down a tablet on the coffee table.
John looked at the tablet, but all he saw was a map of the city, with some buildings highlighted.
"What am I looking at?" He asked.
"Some time ago, we wanted to follow your footsteps and get another power plant up and running, however, we noticed some strange energy signatures in the area."
"Explain."
"There are many energy signatures that we don’t understand. Some look like natural formations or random occurrences, but we haven’t been able to determine what caused them or why."
Jules put her hand on the table, "what we have found is a bunch of strange symbols carved onto the ground, just like you described, John."
"Interesting," John said as he leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin.
"However," Professor Myers interjected. "There is one thing that’s strange."
"What is it?"
"Look at these four," the professor pointed at the clusters on the map, "we noticed that the signatures detected in these four spots seem to converge right in the middle of the city, here."
"And why is that strange?" John asked, perplexed by the sudden change in topic.
"Because some of the energy that reaches this point seems to vanish and didn’t you say that your... um, partners were teleported to another planet? If there’s a clue somewhere on Earth, then it’s there."
"Impossible. We scoured the city multiple times and found nothing," John shook his head, and Professor Myers sighed.
"It might have been moved or destroyed, but it’s worth checking out," Jules chimed in and looked at John’s impassive face, expecting him to get excited about the news, but John remained silent and withdrawn as if the idea had made no sense to him.
John sighed and stood up, "alright, then. Let’s go, Maria."
"Let’s talk to Lydia, first, John," Maria said, glancing back at the Professor, who was watching them from the sofa.
John rubbed his forehead in frustration. Every second he wasted could be used to save Julia and Stephanie, but Maria was not in any hurry.
"Fine," John finally conceded.
They walked through the university’s corridors when a young beauty gasped, her hair was dyed teal, but John remembered the dual-colours she used to wear.
"You! Are you following me?"