Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday - Chapter 104

Chapter 104: The Bad News

On the fourteenth day after the Shadow Rain, it became quite obvious that the continuous drop in the temperature wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. The temperature on the day before arrival of the rain disaster was 42°C, while the current temperature had dropped to 15°C.

There were estimates given by the weather department that the temperature would only keep dropping unless the clouds would suddenly disappear and the sun would return all of a sudden. But people knew better than to expect for such a miracle to happen.

What they didn’t know was that the temperature wouldn’t stop dropping until the entire southern hemisphere of the planet would be covered in snow. While the southern hemisphere would suffer a volcanic winter, northern hemisphere would be suffering from rain, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and other rain related disasters.

In the previous timeline, the volcanic winter lasted for three long years before the Earth finally got to see sunlight again. For three long years, people suffered through – the winter for which they were completely unprepared, a pandemic that either turned people into zombies or gifted them with superpowers, and a sudden attack from monster-like creatures.

Grace couldn’t help but wonder just how much this timeline was going to be different from the previous timeline.

So far, there had been several changes – early earthquakes, the period for which rain disaster lasted, early volcanic eruptions, late arrival of Shadow Rain, and the early result of Shadow Rain’s effect on Grace and her team.

Talking about the last one, the countdown of the fifteen days finally came to an end.

Everyone gathered in the living room of unit 2003 on the morning of the sixteenth day from the Shadow Rain. There were twenty-one people in total who got in contact with the rain, including Grace.

Without wasting any time, 2025 began its daily check-ups.

Grace was the first to be scanned. She stepped forward and hold out her hand for 2025 who was out in the open, finally visible to every person present in the room. It was almost funny to see everyone’s reaction as they stared at the little creature, making it pretty obvious that they were struggling to believe what their eyes were seeing.

She even heard Valeska and others whisper-talking about 2025 in the back of the room, but her attention was pulled back to her scanning when the system’s scanner proggrame, that was checking any possible change in her body, started beeping loudly.

The very next moment, a mechanical voice suddenly filled the now silent living room.

[Changes detected. Energy levels are increasing. DNA alterations observed.]

Everyone in the room froze, including Grace who stared at 2025, unsure what to do or say. She didn’t feel sick or strange. In fact, she felt better than ever. Stronger, sharper, and more alive. And yet, she was unable to stop herself from feeling slightly anxious once she realized that she was no longer normal.

“What kind of changes?” Davian was the one who broke the silence and asked the question, his voice sounded steady despite the war that was going on in his deep ocean blue eyes.

2025 immediately jumped into running more scans. After several other tests and painful long minutes, a new notification was heard from the system.

[Subject shows signs of evolutionary advancement. Powers are likely to awaken soon.]

A murmur spread through the room once everyone realized that whatever changes had been detected in Grace, they were good.

Grace finally released the breath she didn’t even know she was holding. It felt good to receive the confirmation that the changes happening in her were actually good ones and not the ones that could turn her into those lifeless zombies. In the previous timeline, she hated them with a passion. It wouldn’t have been nice to turn into one.

Since her checkup was completed for the time being, Davian and Rune pulled her aside and made her sit on one of the couches in the far corner of the living room.

“Close your eyes,” Davian guided her gently, aware that she had no access to whatever power was blooming within her. “Try to feel what’s happening inside you. If something is awakening, you should be able to sense it.”

She nodded her head in understanding and closed her eyes, focusing on her inner self. At first, there was absolutely nothing, but the more time she spent exploring, the more she got disconnected with the outside world and was able to actually sense her inner self.

She wasn’t sure exactly how long it took, it might have been just a minute, or ten long minutes, but she finally started feeling that it was indeed there, hiding deep within her. It was faint but warm, like a spark waiting to ignite.

While she continued to delve deeper into that energy, 2025 continued to check the rest of the group. One by one, the little creature checked the remaining twenty people, most of whom showed similar changes to Grace, with increased energy levels and altered DNA.

However, the numbers and charts displayed on the huge digital screen were telling the slight, but important, differences between all twenty-one of them. Each minor difference made them distinct from one another.

Everything was going smoothly, but then the scans revealed something different in two of the team members – Marcus and Julian. Both these members were from Davian’s team.

[Subjects are showing high potential for zombification]

The system announced to everyone’s horror. The room went dead silent immediately while Marcus and Julian looked at each other with shock and fear written all over their faces.

The moment she heard the names, Grace felt a sense of relief washing over her. A big part of her felt guilty and even bad for the two men, as well as for Davian who had to go through such a phase, but there was also that small part that was unable to feel relieved after knowing that every person from her own team was safe and wouldn’t be turning into zombies.

“What does that mean?” Marcus asked, his voice was almost shaking.

“It means the Shadow Rain is breaking your body down instead of enhancing it,” 2025 explained without any hesitation. “Your symptoms will only worsen over time, eventually leading to you both turning into zombies.”

Before anyone else could have spoken, Davian stepped forward and announced in a voice that sounded extremely calm – “I will take care of these two.”

Neither Marcus nor Julian spoke a single word and just watched in silence as Davian walked out of the room without a single glance back.

Grace signaled Kevin to dismiss everyone before she quickly followed after Davian. When she walked out of Unit 2003, there was no sign of him in the hallway. She was about to head to twenty-second floor when Rune stopped her. She turned around and faced him, but before she could have asked anything, he was already speaking, “He didn’t go there. Maybe you should leave him alone for the time being.”

She wouldn’t have listened if it had been another situation. But hearing from Rune that Davian didn’t return to his own apartment after stepping out of Unit 2003, she understood that the last thing he wanted was to be found by anyone… including her.

With a small nod of her head, she headed to her own Unit while leaving a message for her team in the group chat to meet her for a quick group meeting.

– – –

The clock struck five in the evening and Grace headed to the kitchen to cook dinner. She was unable to keep herself from thinking about Davian as she hadn’t seen or heard from him since that morning. He seemed to have disappeared somewhere.

Letting out a small sigh, she focused her attention toward the task at hand, forcing herself to stop thinking about the man and cook the dinner.

From the update she received from Ryan that afternoon, both Marcus and Julian had left the Building K12 in a car that came to pick them up during the late morning hours.

For the next an hour, she busied herself in kitchen, preparing a variety of dishes. The mixed aroma quickly filled the air of the apartment, making her stomach growl in protest.

She just switched off the gas and covered the pots with lids when the doorbell rang. Wiping her hands, she headed toward the main door and pulled it open, not really thinking anything until she found herself looking at a familiar face.

She inhaled deeply as she took in Davian’s tired and haggard appearance. The way he looked at the moment, it attacked her heart straight, leaving her completely speechless.

Pulling herself together, she quickly stepped aside to allow him entrance. He didn’t waste any time and immediately stepped inside the apartment, heading to the living room. She quickly closed the main door and followed after him.

Her brain was suddenly fuzzy and she couldn’t think of anything to say as she walked up to him. But it seemed like he didn’t need her to speak at all…!