Chapter 6

It had been three days since Christy’s visit to Shedrack’s home, where she had met him at the hospital with the water samples. He had promised to let her know as soon as the results were out. Christy had collected all the samples she could, from river water to tap water, Well water, and sewage water was not an exception.

She had been busy those days, from working her shifts at the hospital to checking up on her contractor for the bunker. Sometimes she just shopped for the things she needed online and input the delivery date, which was when the contractors said the building would be ready for use. Still, deep down, she felt everything was going too slowly as the number of Ru-Zero patients kept soaring. As for her system, it had only shown people’s profiles.

Christy’s thoughts briefly drifted to Shedrack. She still remembered the scent of his cologne from the mall, vanilla and something stronger she couldn’t place.

She frowned and forced the thought away.

I have an apocalypse to prepare for. Why the hell am I thinking about his cologne?

“Mummy,” Sam said, striding into her bedroom alongside Taby.

Christy immediately wiped away the little blush that had crept in, regardless of how hard she tried to control it.

“Yes, my baby, come here,” Christy said, picking up her Sammy. Taby had her big unicorn toy in her hands, and she stood relaxing against the bed frame, her eyes locked on the ceiling.

“Mommy, when can we meet Daddy?” she asked, her eyes still on the ceiling.

Christy swallowed hard. She brought her hand down to Taby’s light brown hair, running her fingers through it.

“Soon, baby…”

Taby stomped her feet, her round eyes finally resting on her mom.

“You said that last week.” Her little brow arched into a frown. “I want Daddy!” Her voice was full of protest.

Sammy looked between them and struggled to stand on his mother’s thigh.

“Me too, want Daddy,” Sammy said.

Sam was a copy of his father, with blond hair and hazel eyes, his small nose exactly like his father’s. Unlike Taby, who took her brown hair color from her mother and her hazel eyes from her father. Christy made a mental note to herself to never let her children find out how selfish their father was.

“You can call him, Taby,” Christy said. “Daddy will come if his princess asks him to.”

Christy remembered how she had cut all ties with Judas in her first life after finding out he had cheated on her with his secretary. Now that she thought about it, she realized the emotional impact of her actions, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty about it.

“Really?” Taby jumped up, her round hazel eyes lighting up with joy.

“Really!” Sammy said too. Christy noticed how her son now followed in his sister’s footsteps.

Sometimes she wished days like this would never end, days when she got to just stay indoors and watch her kids.

Taby ran out with Sammy in hand to call their father on the home line. Christy stood up and followed them.

Taby had just dialed the line when Christy’s mobile phone started ringing. The caller ID showed her contractor.

“Hello, Mrs. Knox,” a man’s voice said.

“Hello,” Christy replied.

“It’s Mr. Luka, at the construction site.” He stopped, probably thinking of how to tell her. “There’s been a problem, ma’am,” he finally said.

“What is it?” Christy asked. Judging from his tense voice, she could guess what had happened.

“A woman named Diane Norman came by. She threatened to have us arrested for trespassing and immediately ordered us to stop work. We don’t want any problems, so we decided to stop construction immediately,” Mr. Luka said.

“Hold on, Mr. Luka. I will get back to you immediately,” Christy said calmly, but internally, her emotions were rising.

“We can’t hold—”

Christy snapped, cutting the man off.

“I paid you to work for me, so when I ask you to stay put, you stay put!” she yelled.

There was silence at the other end. Christy felt like an hour had passed, even though it was just a few seconds. She bit down on her lip anxiously, slightly shocked at her own outburst. She wasn’t one to yell. Maybe the changes that had come with the apocalypse were affecting her emotionally too.

“Okay, ma’am,” Mr. Luka finally said. Christy immediately disconnected the call and dropped her phone before he could say anything more.

Knock. Knock.

Christy instinctively jerked back, fear briefly engulfing her.

“Mummy, someone’s at the door,” she heard Taby’s voice from the home line, which was stationed in the dining room.

Another wave of desperate, rough knocking that sounded more like banging came from the front door.

Christy pulled herself together, shaking off the fear, and glanced at her babies.

“Daddy, we missed you,” she heard Taby say as she passed by.

The door suddenly swung open, and a brown-haired lady in her mid-twenties walked in. Her eyes burned with rage.

The floating bar appeared.

[Warning: New Individual Detected.]

Name: Chloe Knox

Relationship with Host: Blood sister

[Intention Towards Host: Hostility & Hate]

[Would you like to arm yourself?]

“Arm myself? For what?”

Christy hurried towards her sister.

“Chloe, you didn’t tell me you were com—”

Slap!

Christy’s voice trailed off as her mom appeared behind Chloe and struck her across the face.

“Mom…” Christy’s voice stuck in her throat, tears streaming down her burning cheek.