Chapter 20: Flames of hope

'Are we gone now?' Will thought out of despair. He couldn't see any outs from that situation, except to accept their destiny.

However, he made up his mind when he saw all the other survivors struggling to survive. Far away, people were trying to enter Atlantis on foot while escaping from other Dreads. Vehicles as destroyed as theirs were entering inside that town. And, the most impactful, once the firetruck fell, the first thing that Sarah and Scott did was to take the baby with them and start to run toward the city.

"I know that a lot of you can die while we do this. But, anything is better than waiting here for our death! Keep trying till the end, don't stop for anything! Move!"

Will jumped from the bus, going past the barrier of Dreads trying to climb the bus and falling on the ground almost perfectly. That was a huge feat for him who wasn't an athletic person.

The other students started to follow him from behind, also avoiding the Dreads as they could and running as fast as possible.

In the way, just as Will predicted, those youths one by one started to get eaten or severely hurt by those monsters. Each second that they passed running took one more student away.

Anyway, none of them choose to stop to run and accept their death. They kept pushing forward until they felt that their legs couldn't move anymore or those beasts could take them first.

Their hopes were nearly vanished by now, but the sight of the town looking closer each second made their muscles keep working and seemed to attract their bodies like a magnet.

Owen and Lisa were still inside the car and they could keep it working until they got in the entrance of the town. However, from then on, they needed to get out and run as well. The traffic was so high that the people abandoned their cars since the streets were thoroughly occupied. Even entering the town with a vehicle wasn't possible anymore.

That family was the first to enter there and keep their rush until the pier.

Sarah, Scott, and Will were the last ones. They arrived there roughly at the same time, the Dreads still on their tail making them panic.

However, once they entered the city, those monsters started to spread and attack other survivors, taking down some still moving vehicles. It lessened the pressure on them, but the group couldn't stop moving.

'Damn! Just 9 students remained. After a whole trip with no deaths at all, just 9...' Will felt like he was a loser. His heart hurt because of those who needed to get eaten to let the others arrive in the town.

For various times, the Dreads seemed to be about to get them, but they always could outwit the beasts. Run across that town was the same as run a marathon, it lasted for so long that it seemed to have twice the size.

At some point, a huge Dread with the same characteristics as a cat, but several times as big, appeared from inside a building, breaking its wall. It was already so evolved that it was 2.5 meters tall. It seemed more like a big panter than a cat. Most of its features as the cute animal it once was were gone.

It spotted the group, and with no hesitation began to pursue them.

In the middle of their run, Scott looked to his future wife and the baby in her hands.

He always considered himself a failure as a firefighter, a coward... but the harsh decision he needed to make let no doubt for anyone, nor himself: Scott wasn't a coward.

"Sarah, run with the rest of them. Run! Don't look behind!" He shouted, then departed from the group, going to the right.

At first, the Dread didn't care about him, but once he got shot right in the eye, he stopped his rush and looked at the black man pointing that rifle at his head.

"Come here!" He shouted while running.

Sarah didn't stop to run, but despair filled her chest once she saw that Scott wouldn't be able to outwit that Dread. Tears went down her face as she tightly held the baby in her arms.

After going through some more kilometers, the group finally arrived at the pier.

Owen, Lisa, and Alysson were already there. They were looking at the ships... that were already getting far away from the coast. A crowd of people was looking at that scene with astonished eyes, some of them already crying, others collapsing on the ground or just throwing themselves on the water and trying to swim to catch up with them.

The ships were full of people who looked with pity to the others that got behind.

Will couldn't believe what his eyes showed to him. His mouth opened several times, but for a long while, no sound came out of it.

All his mixed feelings exploded at the same time as he got near the coast, looked at the ships going away, then fell on his knees. He let out a scream, slamming the ground with both fists.

"Are you kidding me!? What do you guys think you are doing here, you bastards!!? Can't you see that there are people still trying to survive here!? Are they just freaking numbers for you, your pieces of shit!?"

One of the students tried to get near him and pat him on the shoulder, but he furiously brushed off his hands.

"Don't screw with me! Don't even kid around with it! I am still alive, and I am just a human, I can't fight those things even if I want to! We are all humans, aren't we? Aren't we supposed to fight together, to cooperate, to act as a society!? We are all humans here, we also want to be alive tomorrow, we have things we love and hate, we also have the same weaknesses as you! Don't turn your freaking backs to us!"

Tears flowed continuously in his eyes as he screamed those things. His face was distorted in a grimace. The people around that could hear his words cried with him. The students gathered around, sitting on the ground and letting their feelings flow with their tears as well.

The Dreads could be heard a bit far away from the coast, killing the last humans there to finally go attack that mass of survivors looking at those ships.

There was no hope anymore. Death could be smelled along with the salty scent of the sea.

Sarah was kneeling on the ground, crying painfully with the baby in her hands.

'Scott... Scott...' The name of her beloved kept echoing in her mind.

Owen was sitting on the ground with Lisa and Alysson, not knowing what to do. Again, he saw himself impotent. He couldn't save the ones he loved the most.

It was the end for all of them.

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Will raised his head.

"No." He wiped his tears. The only sound echoing in his ears was the other humans around him crying. "Humanity doesn't end here. We are all together. We are crying together. And we will survive together! No matter what imposes in front of us, we will start to rise again!"

He looked around, seeing all those fellow humans. Society didn't end yet. They were still there, just waiting for a little grain of hope to force themselves to keep going!

That's what humans always did.

'It's in times of crisis that human beings show their full potential!' Will's heart throbbed, then a familiar and intense heat appeared.

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Sarah was still looking to that baby. That piece of life had so much to live yet, but wouldn't if nothing was done.

She had clear on her mind the memory of her fiance giving his life to save them. Even if their hopes were now falling apart, she couldn't just let his death be in vain. Sarah couldn't bring herself to let the others around her also lose the ones they loved.

There were other couples, other families, other people with brilliant futures there, people who deserved to be alive and see the next day!

'If I just sit here and look it all being destroyed, I will just be like my parents were in harsh moments. If I let this kid die, Scott's death, and that unknown mother's death, will be for nothing.'

The ex-lawyer approached one of Will's students, crouching beside her, and delivering silently the baby. She gave to both an affable smile as her heart heated up, making all her body get increasingly feverish.

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Owen looked to Lisa and Alysson. After all those years together, the man needed an apocalypse to discover how much he loved them. He didn't feel proud of such a thing, but it was better than never knowing it before he died.

He was sitting on the ground with them, looking at their eyes.

"Lisa, Alysson, there is a way to get out of the city quickly. If you border the coast, you will get to a part where the sea's level is lower. You will be able to swim and get to a tiny beach hidden around there. If you get there with the other survivors, maybe you can save yourselves." He stood up while explaining to them.

Lisa looked at him concerned, also standing up with Alysson in her arms.

"And you?"

"I will gain some time." He grinned, showing that everything was okay.

Alysson timidly pulled his dad's shirt, looking with pleading eyes at him.

"Daddy, you will come with us soon, right? You promise that you will be back home, right?"

Owen closed his eyes, feeling a sharp pain in his chest. Then, he did something that he needed to do a long time ago: he acted like a real man, a real father, and a real husband.

"No, Alysson. I won't. Daddy will be late... But late forever this time."

He nodded his head to his wife and she started to run, calling the other survivors to follow her if they wanted to live.

Owen stayed at the same place for a while, both fists clenched while looking down. That intense feeling started to appear on his chest.

Then, he turned towards the town again, giving a strong step forward as if to push away the sadness. That heat inside his heart exploded as his determination increased. Golden flames began to envelop his body, giving him a feverish feeling, and a comfortable burning sensation that seemed to reach his soul and made a will of fire burst inside him.

Those flames danced around Owen, dyeing his eyes with the same gold color. After the first step, even if his body felt five times as heavy, he gave a second, then a third.

Sarah also moved from her spot, those flames also appearing from his chest and enveloping her figure. Her now golden eyes shone under the sunlight. For the first time on that day, the ex-lawyer felt like she was capable to wipe out that entire city.

Will was the last one to move, also with the same golden fire burning around him and following his body wherever he went.

Those three connected people, yet so individual at the same time, walked calmly side by side on the main street of that town, facing the horde of Dreads coming their way.

The chaos and terror of those monsters against the will and desire of humanity.

The trio had tears in their eyes, that slowly evaporated with the heat around them, but they didn't hesitate in any step they made.

The flames of hope ignited humanity's will. It motivated those survivors that gave up before, making them try to survive again.

That day marked the first time that humanity fought back... and won!