Chapter 439
They waited for them on the platform. So of the strangers held what looked like 360-degree LED torches in one hand, and those devices were powerful enough to illuminate the entire area. Only the dark mouths of the tunnels remained shrouded in darkness, as the light didn’t quite reach them.
The other survivors gripped their weapons tightly. While they didn’t aim them at Jake and Catalina, they clearly kept them ready, uncertain about the unfamiliar woman they had never t before and her intimidating-looking companion.
At the front of the group stood Silvia, a woman who appeared to be in charge. When Jake and Catalina stepped down onto the platform and halted a short distance from the group, Silvia acknowledged them with a brief nod.
“First of all, let thank you, on behalf of my people, for getting us out of that fix,” she said. “Without your help, I don’t think we would’ve made it out alive.”
As she spoke, she kept her eyes on Catalina. Once she finished, Catalina gestured toward Jake and, with a smile on her lips, said, “Well, I didn’t do anything. It was Jake who…”
However, Silvia didn’t give her a chance to finish. “Now tell , who the hell are you, and how did you get here?”
Catalina was taken aback by the woman’s sharp tone. She stayed silent for a mont, so Jake stepped in. Retrieving his electrolarynx and pressing it to his throat, he said, “We ca here from another city.”
A few of the mbers of the group gasped in surprise.
“It talks!” sobody exclaid in a loud whisper.
“That ans it’s sentient,” another said.
“And here I was thinking it was just her pet or sothing,” another human remarked, eliciting a chuckle from soone else.
“Talking doesn’t make it harmless,” a firm voice interjected. “Stay alert, everyone.”
“Guys, doesn’t it remind you a little of…”
Without glancing back at them, Silvia raised her hand, silencing her people. She was now eyeing Jake, her expression a mix of curiosity and apprehension. “So you can speak? That’s interesting.”
“Who exactly are you people?” Jake asked. “And how have you managed to last this long in this city?”
Jake asked the question mostly for Catalina’s sake, knowing he would learn everything he needed as soon as he used Mind Reader on these humans.
“I’ll be the one asking questions,” Silvia cut in sharply. “Answer mine first, and if your answers satisfy , I’ll take you to our leader. He’ll tell you everything you need to know.”
She didn’t seem particularly frightened by his appearance. Or perhaps she was simply putting on a brave front for her people’s sake.
“We don’t know you, so I need to make sure you’re no threat to us,” she finished.
As Jake watched these humans, he couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing was off about them, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. There was sothing in their eyes, sothing he didn’t like. Sure, they didn’t trust the two of them, especially him, since he didn’t look much different from so of the ravagespawn. But Jake suspected there was more to it than simple distrust.
He knew he could use Mind Reader on them anyti he wanted, but for now, he chose not to. They had been enduring the horrors of Dead City for a long ti, likely months. Even though his ability allowed him to scan a human’s mories extrely quickly, it could still take a couple of minutes to study several months’ worth of mories for a single person. While doing so, he’d have to tune out their voices to fully concentrate. So for now, he wanted to focus on the conversation instead.
“Fair enough,” Catalina said to Silvia. “As Jake already ntioned, we co from an entirely different city. We only arrived a few hours ago.”
Jake appreciated how she didn’t reveal much about New Hope yet. The strangers didn’t trust them, and that was understandable. But trust worked both ways. Catalina also had no reason to trust these people yet and tell them everything about herself.
“How did you get here exactly?” Silvia asked. “A huge wall surrounding the city prevents anyone from entering or leaving.”
“We flew over it,” Catalina replied calmly. “In a helicopter.”
Her response stirred an excited murmur among the strangers.
“A helicopter?” they echoed, exchanging hopeful glances.
“Unfortunately, our helicopter crashed,” Catalina quickly added, as if not to let these people get their hopes up.
A groan of disappointnt swept through the group. These humans obviously wanted nothing more than to get out of Dead City.
“And how exactly did you manage to survive the crash?” Silvia asked, eyeing Catalina with skepticism etched across her face. She obviously wasn’t quite buying the story.
“I still don’t really know,” Catalina said with a faint smile, glancing toward Jake. “It all happened so fast I hardly had ti to process it. All I know is that Jake used his incredible abilities to save .”
Silvia turned her gaze toward him. Again, there was sothing in her eyes he didn’t like. The man nad Finn also stared at him with suspicion.
“And who are you?” Silvia asked. “Or what are you, exactly?”
“He was human once, just like us,” Catalina interjected before he could utter a word.
Silvia glanced at her briefly before returning her expectant gaze to Jake. “How did you beco… like this?”
“I got pulled into a strange anomaly,” he explained. “Sothing happened inside it, sothing that changed into what I am now. When it expelled , I was no longer human. I’ve been a mutant ever since.”
“I see.” Silvia went silent for a mont before asking. “When did it happen?”
“Just a few days after humans in our city ca out of stasis.”
“And when did it happen exactly?”
It was Catalina who answered her question, and Silvia nodded in reply. “I see. So your city awakened from stasis much later than ours.”
Jake was growing tired of her interrogation. He decided he would tolerate it a little longer. Then it’d be Silvia’s turn to answer his and Catalina’s questions.
Their answers seed to ease Silvia’s suspicions. Turning to Catalina, she posed another question, “Why did you co to this city? What brought you here?”
“In our city, the Ravage Contamination has already taken over most of the streets,” Catalina explained. “It’s still spreading, and no one knows how to contain it. We tried every thod we could think of, but nothing worked. Then I heard about this place, so I decided to co here. But I knew that the Ravage Contamination had already happened here, completely swallowing the city.”
“If you knew our city had already fallen to the Ravage, what exactly did you expect to find here?”
“I don’t know,” Catalina replied with a sigh. “By then, I was completely out of ideas on how to stop the Ravage from spreading. I was just trying to grasp at straws. All I knew was that I had to protect my people, the ones who counted on .”
“I see.” Silvia went quiet for a mont. “And now you’re stuck here just like us, huh?”
“Yep.” Catalina didn’t ntion that it was the humans who were trapped in Dead City, while Jake could return to New Hope anyti he wanted.
Jake decided they’d told these people enough. Now it was his and Catalina’s turn to ask questions. Before Silvia could co up with another one, he said, “Before arriving here herself to search for her people, Catalina dispatched two helicopters into the city, spaced one day apart. Both lost contact almost as soon as they entered. We don’t know exactly what happened to the first, but the second one was shot down.”
“So?” Silvia asked, her voice sharp and cold.
“Was it your people who shot it down?” he asked bluntly.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Catalina’s team barely had ti to report spotting ard figures on a rooftop before they were attacked.”
Silvia remained silent, however, staring at him defiantly.
Jake leaned forward. “I asked you a question. Answer it.”
Her eyes flared with anger. “Who are you to interrogate ? I don’t have to answer your questions!”
Her reaction was weird. She could have simply said it wasn’t her people who brought down the second helicopter Catalina had dispatched and left it at that. However, Silvia bristled at his question for so reason. If Jake had to guess, he would say the question took her by surprise, as though she hadn’t been prepared for that type of questioning and therefore didn’t have a plausible explanation ready. She seed unsure of what to say, worried she might accidentally reveal sothing she didn’t want him or Catalina to know.
Catalina glanced at him. For a mont, it seed she was about to tell him not to antagonize these people. However, she took his side instead.
“We’ve patiently answered all your questions,” she said in a soft but firm tone, returning her gaze to Silvia. “Now it’s only fair that you do the sa.”
Silvia opened her mouth, clearly ready to fire back with another sharp remark. But then she seed to catch herself. She took a deep breath to regain her composure and finally said what she should have said from the very beginning, “No, we didn’t shoot down any helicopters. We had no idea there were even so flying over the city.”
She now spoke with confidence, as if she had settled on a narrative to push. “Why on earth would we shoot down a helicopter? We’ve been waiting for sothing like this to happen for a long ti. We all want to get out of this damned city!”
Most of her people nodded in agreent. Jake knew that what Silvia said made perfect sense. However, he couldn’t help but notice a fleeting shadow in her gaze. She quickly looked away from him, focusing on her people, as though avoiding his eyes would keep him from reading the truth in them.
Jake wasn’t sure what was going on, but one thing was sure: Silvia was definitely hiding sothing from him and Catalina.
“I don’t believe you,” he said calmly, intent on gauging her reaction.
“Are you accusing of lying?” she snapped, her voice sharp.
She appeared resentful, but Jake couldn’t shake the feeling that her indignation was feigned, and her outrage was nothing more than an act.
He shifted his gaze to her people standing behind her. So managed to keep a poker face, others looked confused, and the rest avoided Jake’s eyes entirely, glancing anywhere but at him.
These people were definitely hiding sothing, and they knew more than they were willing to reveal. It was ti to find out what they were keeping from him and Catalina. Jake looked back at Silvia and invoked his Mind Reader ability.
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