I Don't Wanna Die Like That!

The next morning.

Emma and Rosie were sitting at a table. Rosie was drinking coffee while Emma was working on her laptop.

Tap, tap, tap.

She furrowed her brows as she tapped faster and faster. After some time,

"Bingo!"

Upon hearing Emma exclaim, Rosie put down her cup of coffee and asked,

"What did you find?"

"Something that might be useful."

Emma had found something, but she didn't know if it would be useful or not.

As she scrolled down, her smile faded and her face grew more and more solemn. Rosie saw that and walked over to Emma's side to peek at the laptop. Emma turned the screen a little towards Rosie and said in indignation,

"I kind of expected something like this, but still… tsk."

Rosie scrolled down and once she was done going through it, she had a frown on her face.

On the laptop's screen was information on the series of terrorist attacks in the Schon kingdom that had happened six years ago.

The Schon kingdom was located North-West to the Empire of Britannia. As its name suggested, it was a beautiful kingdom. People from all over the Western continent visited it for its scenic spots and tourist attractions. If the Empire was the center for science and technology, then the Schon kingdom was the center for tourism.

The terrorists had attacked the famous tourist attractions of the kingdom. All of those attacks combined had resulted in thousands of deaths. Because the law enforcement and the military of the Schon kingdom hadn't been able to prevent those incidents, public safety had been a mess. All tourism had had to be suspended. Even if it wasn't, no one was willing to visit the kingdom because of how bad the situation had been. Since most of the kingdom's economy ran on income generated from tourism, and the attacks had forcibly suspended almost all tourism within the country, the kingdom's economy had been badly affected.

The kingdom was affiliated with the Empire, so they had requested the Empire's help. Once Britannia's forces reached the Schon kingdom, the terrorist attacks stopped. The two country's forces worked together to hunt down the terrorists but the terrorists had disappeared without a trace.

It had caused a lot of problems, but with the Empire's help, the Schon kingdom gradually recovered some of the damages.

It was only recently that tourism in the kingdom had resumed, and although it still hadn't recovered to what it had used to be, it was much better than before. The kingdom's economy was starting to recover.

All of this information was already available to the general public. What wasn't available to the general public were the details on the weapons and explosives that had been used by the terrorists.

"I compared the explosives used in the bombing after the train derailment, and the one they used to blow up that kid's room in the hospital."

By 'that kid,' Emma was referring to Lucas.

"They were the same. I then searched for incidents where similar explosives were used."

The explosives used by the organization were unique and it took Emma quite some time to find incidents in which similar explosives were used. And that was how she came across the terrorist attacks that had happened in another country six years ago.

"But there is one problem, I don't know if the incidents I excluded are related to those terrorists or not."

There wasn't enough time to look into every single terrorist incident and compare it to that terrorist organization. Even if there was, it wasn't something Emma could do on her own.

The information Emma had shown Rosie was on the weapons, ammunition and explosives used in those incidents and the recent incidents in Excelentia.

"What do you think?"

Emma asked.

Rosie's family was related to the military and she herself had an interest in weapons because of which Rosie's knowledge related to weapons only slightly fell short of that of experienced professionals.

"They should be from the same manufacturer. The weapons and explosives used here seem to be upgraded versions of those that had been used by those terrorists that had attacked the Schon kingdom."

Rosie answered.

Ring, ring, ring~

Emma's phone rang. It was the alarm she had set for college.

"Let's look more into this another time."

Rosie said as she got up and went to pick up her stuff. Emma nodded. She looked at the laptop's screen one last time before turning it off.

Meanwhile, at the military base.

Lucas was sitting on his bed with his chin resting on his hand. He was deep in thought.

There hadn't been any news regarding Jacob Graham. Although Lucas wanted to look for him, it was difficult without his computer. He had tried using his laptop, but he failed.

Lucas's brows furrowed.

He found that he had been relying more and more on those around him.

He used to not rely on anyone until he met Viola Williams one day. She had helped him and given him shelter. After that, she protected him from the organization. Not only that, she adopted him and showed him what it was like to be loved and to have parents. It was something he had never experienced before.

Unfortunately, those days had been numbered.

After Viola had been murdered in front of his own eyes by that hateful organization, things had changed. Lucas's days of living like any other ordinary child were gone. He almost went back to how he used to be before he was adopted, no, it was even worse. Before being saved by Viola, he had never experienced familial love, so he didn't know what it was like.

But when it was gone, he felt pain. A pain far greater than what he had experienced before.

It took him time to suppress his emotions and think with a clear head. After that, he interfered with the organization at every chance he got.

'But I have yet to make them suffer any substantial loss.'

So far, Lucas had only hindered a few of the smaller of the organization's plans. He hadn't been able to make it suffer a critical blow.

'I need more allies.'

The only ones who he knew were on his side for sure were Jacob and his niece, Carolina. Adding Jessica, there were only three people.

If Lucas were to somehow clash against the organization with only that number of people, he'd be able to win on the twelfth of never.

"Tsk."

He knew he had to work with the military and the government. If possible, Lucas had wanted to stall for more time before taking that step, but when Jacob, the person who had been taking care of him for years had gone missing, he couldn't wait any longer.

He opened his laptop and started to look for something.

Carolina asked. She had been eating some biscuits while reading a book when she asked. It wasn't off today, so she was making up for the classes she missed. When she saw Lucas open his laptop, she was curious and asked,

"What are you doing? Looking for something?"

She then continued to read her book, obviously not expecting an answer. But then she heard.

"Trustworthy people."

Lucas had answered her question.

Carolina was astonished. After her momentary astonishment, she thought of something.

'…Wait.'

The way Lucas had said that made it sound like she wasn't trustworthy. She knew he didn't mean it like that, but she still said,

"Explain."

Lucas noticed her blaming tone. After a moment, he said,

"More allies."

"Oh."

Carolina understood. She smiled.

Meanwhile, Jessica was on her way to college on a bus.

"There's no way I'll be late this time. Muhahahahaha!"

She laughed cheerfully, so cheerfully that it was borderline maniacal.

Some of the surrounding passengers gave her the side-eye. One even thought of calling the police. But since Jessica didn't do anything crazy, he didn't.

The reason why Jessica was sure that she wouldn't be late was because she had set off a whole hour earlier and had even changed her mode of transport. The last two experiences on the train hadn't been pleasant ones, so she changed to getting a bus instead.

She was playing a game on her phone and humming when,

SCREEEEEECH!

The bus decelerated rapidly and Jessica almost lost her balance. But she reacted fast and even helped the person on her side to stabilize. However,

CRASSH!

The bus crashed into something. However, that wasn't the end.

CRASHH! CRAAASSSHH!

Two cars crashed into the bus and the bus turned over.

Crack, crack, SMASH!

The windows of the bus broke and the broken splinters flew everywhere.

"Everybody! Duck and cover your head!"

Jessica shouted.

Some people were able to react quickly and followed what she said. Others weren't fast enough and got injured more badly.

BOOM!

The sound of an explosion resounded.

BOOM! BOOM!

Bombs went off somewhere nearby.

With some effort, Jessica hurriedly got out of the bus and looked at the situation.

The bus was at an intersection, where it had crashed into a car, and then two cars had crashed into it from the side.

But that wasn't important for now.

The bombings didn't end there. More and more bombs were going off, all in the surrounding buildings.

'It's dangerous to stay inside the bus.'

If a bomb was thrown near, or even worse, inside the bus, people wouldn't be able to get out in time.

Without delay, Jessica hurried and pulled open the door. She helped the nearest person get out and then went to the other door, but before she could reach it, it bent and then flew open. Somebody had kicked it from the inside.

The person that had kicked the door open came out while pulling out another person. It was Neo.

Jessica was surprised to see him, but she only nodded to him as a greeting and then hurried to help the others.

Neo nodded back and also helped the other passengers. However,

Bang!

One of the people who had gotten out of the bus got shot right on the head and died on the spot. The others were scared and hurriedly moved back inside the overturned bus in hopes of protecting themselves.

"It's dangerous to stay there."

Jessica shouted.

They didn't listen to her. One couldn't blame them. It was only natural to be scared at such a time. Only one of them answered in a cursing tone,

"Heck. It's even more dangerous outside!"

That man was somewhat correct. All the bombs were going off inside the nearby buildings. The overturned bus appeared much safer.

"What if they threw a bomb here? Then you're all dead! And it's easy for the fuel to catch flame!"

Jessica argued. But those people didn't listen.

Neo patted her on the shoulder and shook his head.

"You agree with them?"

She asked. Neo heaved a sigh and said,

"Let's get rid of the snipers first."

"But…"

Wee woo. Wee woo.

The police had arrived, along with a bomb disposal squad.

"We can leave it to them. Let's take care of the snipers first."

Neo said.

Both Jessica and Neo had heard another gunshot. They were surprised, but reacted fast. They moved towards a building, in an irregular pattern in order to avoid getting shot.

As soon as they reached the nearby building, they entered through a broken window. There were two people inside. Those people were hiding in a corner, shivering.

Jessica was about to say something to reassure them, but she sensed something. She was about to move but Neo had reacted faster than her and pushed her to the side.

Bam!

The two people had shot at them.

Neo dodged and jumped towards them. Jessica didn't react slowly and also moved to them.

Right around the time Neo had knocked out one of the two people, Jessica had reached the other of the two. She KOed that person and then looked at Neo.

"Thank you."

Although Jessica would've been able to dodge the bullet on her own, Neo had helped her. She was grateful. Neo smiled and said,

"Don't mention it."

They then tied the two people who had been knocked out, and then moved towards the window, in a way that wouldn't be obvious from the outside, of course. They didn't want to get headshotted, after all.

After a moment, Jessica muttered,

"It's a sniper. No, there are at least two snipers."

She had noticed the trajectories of the incoming bullets to guess where the snipers were. Of course, Neo had done the same.

"Hmm."

"I'll take the one at four o'clock."

"Then I'll take the other one."

"Do you have a gun?"

Jessica suddenly asked.

"Yeah."

Neo replied.

Ordinary citizens were banned from using guns. Only police officers and military personnel were allowed to carry weapons, so although Jessica was a bit surprised, a part of her thought that it made sense. After all, not just anyone could beat her in combat.

The two then nodded to each other.

"Good luck."

"You too."

And then they moved towards their respective targets.

Jessica ducked as she moved towards her target. That sniper was on the tenth floor of a building not too far from where she was.

"Ah."

She remembered something. She took out her phone and called her aunt, while she kept moving. Time was of the essence, after all. However, the call didn't go through. Her aunt was on another call.

Jessica hurriedly sent a text message and then continued moving towards the building the sniper was in.

Meanwhile, her aunt had been on her way to work when she received a call from headquarters. She frowned as she was informed about the situation. She was asked to take care of it.

"Understood."

She answered and then hung up. She was about to call her team when she received a text message. Before she saw who it was from, she got a bad feeling about it.

'I hope it's not what I think it is.'

She pressed on the notification, and then facepalmed.

"The hell!"

She swore as she pressed on the accelerator and turned on the siren.

'What kind of talent is this? To be present at all the damned recent incidents in this damned city!'

She wanted to curse.

Bam!

A bullet hit not far from Jessica. Jessica was somewhat surprised because she was in a well-hidden position. After a moment, she turned her head. On the wall in front of her was a CCTV camera.

Jessica came out and looked at the camera. Then, she smiled at it and mouthed,

Bring it on.

She wasn't being cocky. Instead, her goal was to grab their attention. She didn't hide anymore. Instead, she started to move in the open.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Those bullets hit very close to her feet.

However, the way Jessica was moving made it look like she had effortlessly dodged those bullets. Only she herself knew that they had missed by the skin of her teeth.

Suddenly, she jumped to the side and ducked behind the waste container right beside her.

Boom!

Heat and debris from the bomb was blocked by the waste container she had taken cover behind.

'That was close!'

She was sweating. If the bomb had suddenly been thrown right in front of her, it wouldn't have been so big a deal. She had dodged such bombs countless times. This time, however, the explosion hadn't been caused by a bomb but by a landmine.

Jessica took out her gun and peeked from the waste container.

Bang!

A bullet flew towards Jessica.

Jessica swiftly ducked and pulled the trigger.

Bam.

She then jumped out and shot the gun repeatedly.

The man who had attacked her had dodged her first shot but wasn't able to dodge the next ones. One of the bullets knocked out the gun in his hand while the others hit all four of his limbs, practically immobilizing him.

Jessica then aimed at his head and asked,

"Are you with the terrorists?"

The man didn't answer and only smirked. Jessica sensed something was wrong and sprinted.

"Shit!"

Bang. Bang. Bang!

Jessica cursed as she barely missed all those bombs, no, landmines.

'This is crazy!'

She hadn't expected the man to so decisively blow himself up, which triggered the surrounding landmines. And those landmines kept triggering the other nearby landmines.

"Just how many of these are there!"

It was as if a chain of never-ending explosions had been triggered.

Jessica kept running and running, barely missing the impact of those landmines. Her back felt like it was burning. But she didn't have the time to care about that. One wrong move and she'll be dead.

She remembered how people that got killed by a bomb looked like.

'I don't wanna die like that!'

She thought as tears streamed down her cheeks.