CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 18

Maxwell let out a soft groan as he opened his eyes, feeling the red sun light on his face a smile formed as he remembered the day before. As if in response to his thoughts, a soft laugh sounded beside him on the bed. Anthonia lay there under the blanket with a soft smile on her face as she stared at him, clearly something had happened between them the night before and brotherman was introduced to madamqueen.

"Morning beautiful". He said, brushing her hair with his fingers before planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Hey handsome" she replied, "How did you enjoy your sleep?". Seeing the faint tint of pink on her her face as well as the teasing smile on her face, how could Maxwell not know that she was trying to play him, but he decided to play along.

"Hmmm?. . . Is my best friend now acting like a wife just from a one night thing?", he asked framing surprise. Anthonia froze, clearly she wasn't expecting such a reply.

"You. . . What. . . Are you. . .". Unable to utter a concurrent sentence from shock, she could only glare at Maxwell in while vowing in her heart to show him as soon as they were officially together.

Seeing the resentful look in her eyes, Maxwell could no longer hold in his laughter and actually let out a roaring laugh while lightly pinching her pouting lips that made her look so adorable.

*Knock*

A knock interrupted their bonding moment as a raider coincidently choosed that moment to arrive. The smile on Maxwell's

face completely disappeared, at that moment he looked like he could kill as he reluctantly dragged himself out of the bed and put on some clothes.

"How may I help you this beautiful morning?", he asked the raider through gritted teeth as soon as he opened the door.

The raider could see the death threatening look on his face, but he had no other choice than to do what he was doing. After all he knew that the sanctuary head had no real killing intent towards him.

"I'm apologise if I am disrupting the sanctuary head from a very important issue, but I think you have to see this". He said, "The medical - research team have new Intel they just got from a nearby base they contacted and they would like to show you. The research leader said to meet in ten".

Maxwell started, a new lead at this point in time was definitely priceless and was really worth his time. Speed working to his off road truck which was the new common transport in and beyond the walls of the sanctuary, he drove to the medical-research facility to find out what for of information was enough to drag him out of his comfort zone with a beauty in his arms.

"Dr James!". He called out the instant he stepped into the facility. A research attendant was standing in wait for him, the second he called she appeared before him with a smile that was enough to stun him for an instant before he recovered.

'Why does it seem like every lady I come across is looking so beautiful this morning?', he thought.

As he followed behind he, he came across a lot of researchers who saluted in respect before continuing their businesses. He passed by glass rooms that contained different creatures, some of them scary looking creatures but mostly zombies, each studied for different aspects that needed to be clarified. Obviously, everything led back to trying to understand the zombies and their behaviours.

"Ah!. . . Our sanctuary head finally arrives". James said as soon as he saw him, "I'm very sorry for having to call for your presence this morning, but the situation called for it. I hope you don't mind but let's immediately get to business so as to let you go on time". "Exactly my thoughts", Maxwell replied. He was still feeling a bit angered by the fact that he was interrupted when he was trying to bond with his fiancée.

"Okaay if you say so, take a look at this first", James replied stuffing some files into his hands. "What are these?", he asked flipping through the pages.

"Oh those are the compilation of the new discoveries we have" James replied, "The new discovery however isn't totally related to the zombies, it is more related to we humans except it will kinda affect the zombies". Bringing Maxwell to a giant screen that displayed some kind of internal diagram of a human that was realising a kind of energy fluctuation, he continued

his explanation. "New discovery shows that the humans who manage to survive the sickness are the only ones that can possess experience it, they don't even stand the smallest chance to do so. From what we know, you have passed through the ordeal and your energy core should have already been formed if not you won't even be standing here, you should already have noticed some form of transformation in your body if I'm right. However further observation have shown that there are different triggers for every individual, some people triggered theirs upon waking up but some have to go through different experiences to awaken theirs. I hope you understand where I'm going sanctuary head?" James asked, "You have to be under constant pressure as a leader and I just hope you would do well to keep yourself in check before you loose control".

"Yeah I've got this man" Maxwell replied, of course he knew that James was just trying to keep an eye out for him and he appreciated the effort. "Oh! Another thing!" James hurriedly said as he saw that Maxwell was about to leave, "The newly upgraded zombies or combatants as we have decided to call them also seem to have this energy core in their head like humans and are suspected to have powers as some sanctuaries have reported" he said.

Maxwell sucked in warm air as he heard the last words of James Having powers?, what in damned world was wrong with the world!, what happened to the zombie movies that trended before the apocalypse, wasn't it only a world of horrific looking slow walkers, why then did they have to deal with swifts and the so called combatants that were conscious - whether of low intelligence or not, that had powers which would have been the only advantage of humans presently.

Still in deep thought, he opened his truck and got in. Thinking of the beautiful lady waiting for him by the time he got home, he could not help but speed up. Let the apocalypse do its own, none of it mattered as long as he could be with the lady of his dreams. 'After all, how many men are fortunate enough to actually have a woman to themselves?', he thought.

Following the apocalypse, the population of females took a drastic drop. After all, they were the most vulnerable and had to be protected the most but with the law out of the way, a lot of men began to openly display nefarious behaviours to women they were 'supposed' to be protecting and would mostly do away with those they thought were no longer useful, actually using them as meat shields and all that. A lot of men longed to have a woman to themselves but all that had become a wishful thinking, even if a woman was willing to be with you and you weren't strong enough to protect her, she would still be taken away.

As Maxwell pulled up in front of his apartment, he saw a figure sitting in front of the door. Clearly the person was waiting for someone. Exiting the truck and closing the door, he was about to ask if he could be of any help when the feminine figure turned around. The concerned look completely disappeared from Maxwell's face, in its place was anger, disgust and

contempt, actually the person was clearly someone that he was extremely familiar with, she was once his girlfriend. Seeing her again just seemed to have resurrected all of his dead memories, back then before the apocalypse they had entered into a relationship that he had thought would lead to marriage only for him to discover that she had never truly loved him, she had only been trying to use him to build connections and the moment she successfully did, she dumped him.

"Wow! Looks like you are doing great without me". She said, "You know I was expecting you to kneel the instant you saw me and beg me to come back, but I can see that you've gotten yourself that slut to satisfy your needs for the time in the apocalypse. What are you waiting for?, hurry up and throw her out, I heard that you are actually the leader of this sanctuary. I have finally returned after all these years to claim my rightful position as the wife of the leader of this sanctuary. . . ".

Maxwell was fuming, if looks could kill there was no doubt that the lady would already be rottening in the ground. The look of disgust on Maxwell's face knew no bound as she continued speaking, she even called his fiancée a slut and asked him to toss her out, what INSOLENCE?!. Finally unable to bear her useless words, Maxwell began to walk towards her as her gave her a piece of his mind.

"To even have the face to return and begin to rant utter rubbish from your mouth, how shameless!. Now you tell me Kate. . . What kind of person do you think I am?, do you take me for a rag that you only pick when you need me and toss away after?, do I look like a moron to you?. . . ". The words in the mouth of Kate froze, she looked at Maxwell as though she was unable to believe what she just heard. Naturally she didn't, Maxwell before the apocalypse had actually been just too naïve that the him back then would have run to meet her in tears and hugged her as soon as he saw her, even apologise if she had any accusations against him. Still unable to believe the fact that Maxwell had actually gotten over her, she suddenly turned in the direction of the house and shouted, "It's all your fault. . . SLUT!". Actually she did love Maxwell back then but she felt it would be better to use him to achieve her goal of standing at the top with the cream. Seeing another person with the one she loved but actually forsook, she could not help but feel jealous. At that moment however, she suddenly had a feeling of crisis.

Looking over at the direction of Maxwell, she saw him create a ball of fire as a crazed expression appeared on his face.

"I told you to GET. . . LOST!" he shouted.