Teaming Up with My Enemy to Rule the Apocalypse

’No, wait. There was still Nathan Thorne.’

Seeing Nathan Thorne standing there, Sierra Sullivan found it a bit odd. "Why aren’t you going to help?"

Nathan Thorne hesitated, not moving. "I was just thinking... what if we can’t find all of them?"

Hearing this, Sierra Sullivan gave Nathan Thorne a strange look. "What’s the point of thinking about that? Instead of getting lost in hypotheticals, you should just get going. The sooner we find them, the fewer people might die. The later we are, the more will die."

’Instead of standing here worrying about things that might not happen, he should be thinking about what he can actually do.’

Nathan Thorne seemed thoughtful after hearing her words. A few moments later, he nodded. "I get it. I’m heading out then. You guys get some rest!"

He was just hesitating and refusing to leave, and now he was off in a flash without a second glance.

’This guy sure changes his tune fast!’

Of course, Sierra Sullivan and the others couldn’t possibly rest.

Just as Nathan Thorne left, General Aldridge turned to them with a solemn expression. "Tell me again, what exactly happened?"

Knowing General Aldridge would ask, Jayce didn’t hesitate, recounting the entire incident from beginning to end in great detail.

Everyone, including General Aldridge, listened with rapt attention.

"So, according to that, the stone attracts Aberrant Beasts and also attracts humans. But after humans absorb the energy inside, they turn into zombies," General Aldridge summarized.

"We can’t be certain if that’s exactly what’s happening," Jayce said, shaking his head. "But based on what we know so far, that seems to be the case!"

General Aldridge pondered for a moment, then picked up his walkie-talkie.

This walkie-talkie had been specially modified.

From here, he could contact Kevin Everett at Red Sun Base.

"Mr. Everett, something has happened here at Dawnlight Base. I need to tell you about it right away..."

Red Sun Base probably wasn’t experiencing this situation yet, but he had to tell Kevin Everett so he could prepare in advance.

Listening to General Aldridge explain the situation to Kevin Everett, Sierra Sullivan walked over and sat down next to Jayce.

"Do you think the situation in Dawnlight Base is... too severe?"

Jayce took Sierra Sullivan’s hand. "Severe or not, we’re already at this point. All we can do now is take it one step at a time."

In truth, Sierra Sullivan didn’t need Jayce’s answer. She knew it in her heart.

The situation at Dawnlight Base was probably not good at all.

As she was thinking, Sierra Sullivan suddenly remembered the little girl from before and immediately stood up.

"When we came downstairs just now, there was no one on the staircase. I don’t know where that little girl and her mother went."

Whether it was because the little girl had provided the clue or for other reasons, Sierra Sullivan wanted to thank her properly.

But in the blink of an eye, they were gone.

They weren’t familiar with Dawnlight Base. Even if they wanted to find someone, they wouldn’t know where to start looking.

Jayce pulled Sierra Sullivan back down. "Sierra, don’t worry. When Nathan Thorne gets back, we’ll tell him. It should be easy for him to find someone in the base."

Although she didn’t have much faith in Nathan Thorne’s abilities, Sierra Sullivan couldn’t think of any other way at the moment, so she could only nod and sit down.

After a wait of about two hours, someone finally returned.

The person who returned was none other than Nathan Thorne.

Nathan Thorne’s face was pale, his brows were tightly furrowed, and he looked utterly exhausted.

He kept his lips pressed together, looking like he was about to be sick.

’The scenes he just witnessed must have been pretty rough on him.’

Sierra Sullivan raised an eyebrow. "What’s wrong with you?"

Nathan Thorne pursed his lips and shook his head. "It’s nothing..."

He said it was nothing, but he clearly looked like it was anything but.

Sierra Sullivan didn’t press him further.

Although she hadn’t known Nathan Thorne for long, she could tell he wasn’t the type to keep things bottled up.

She wouldn’t even have to ask; he’d end up blurting it out on his own soon enough.

And, just as Sierra Sullivan had thought...

After a short while, Nathan Thorne seemed to have recovered a bit and started talking on his own.

"We just... we found over fifty more... zombies. We killed them all."

"We originally wanted to keep a few alive to see if there was any chance of saving them, but some of our men got bitten before we could get them fully under control."

"The ones who were bitten have been tied up and isolated. I don’t know if they’ll..."

...become infected.

Nathan Thorne didn’t say the final word, but everyone present understood. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Although none of them had ever seen or experienced something like this before, they had read about it in novels.

The wisdom gleaned from those novels was that anyone scratched or bitten by a zombie would very likely become infected.

If they could endure it, they might awaken a Superpower.

But if they couldn’t, they would turn into a zombie.

And the probability of turning into a zombie was much, much higher than the probability of successfully awakening a Superpower.

No matter how much they didn’t want to believe it, this was the reality.

To have suddenly experienced so much in just one or two hours—it was no wonder Nathan Thorne looked so terrible.

"Life and death are determined by fate... You shouldn’t dwell on it so much," was the only comfort Sierra Sullivan could offer.

Living in this difficult apocalypse, everyone had to be prepared at all times.

Prepared to die.

"I know..."

Nathan Thorne said, while giving Sierra Sullivan a strange look.

Being looked at like that, Sierra Sullivan just felt it was weird. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Were you just... comforting me?"

Even after asking the question, Nathan Thorne still found it unbelievable.

From the moment he met Sierra Sullivan until now, she had always been cold and distant. Her gazes toward him were even tinged with scrutiny and disdain.

He thought she really disliked him, but now, she was actually comforting him of her own accord?

Sierra Sullivan was dumbfounded.

’She was just making a token effort to be polite, and he’s taking it this seriously?’

Sierra Sullivan took a deep breath and changed the subject directly. "I was also hoping you could help me find two people—the mother and daughter I spoke to on the stairs earlier."

Nathan Thorne broke into an "I-knew-it" expression. "I knew you’d ask about them. I’ve already sent people to look. I’ll let you know when we have news."

"You knew that too?" Sierra Sullivan was genuinely surprised.

’Was Nathan Thorne’s brain actually this sharp?’

Nathan Thorne got a little angry. "Why are you looking at me like that? You were being so obvious! If I couldn’t even figure that out, wouldn’t I really be an idiot?"

’Really be an idiot?’

’So he knows he’s a bit of an idiot himself?’

Sierra Sullivan took a deep breath and bit down hard, desperately trying not to laugh and cause Nathan Thorne to fly into a rage out of embarrassment.

"That’s enough!" Nathan Thorne clenched his fists. "If you want to laugh, just laugh! You don’t have to hold it in like that!"