Chapter 59: Voice message
Miles stared somberly at the last line on the screen.
It was a grim prospect, to say the least. Although he’d suspected the snow to be an anomaly in its own right, he had never connected it to ghouls.
Though it did make sense in hindsight. All ghouls had some degree of frostbite. They also weren’t affected by any of the rules laid down by the principal or the hallway illusion. If they were servants of a greater entity, it would explain that, or it could just be that anomalies didn’t affect one another.
Regardless, the worst part of this was that it would only get worse with time. More anomalies on the rank of Kosmos? Just one alone had been enough to shatter modern society.
It was, in all manners, a slow march to extinction. In a few months, too, if the timeline Gaia had given was anything to go by.
’There’s still a chance.’
She’d said so. Regardless of how small it was, it eased his mind a little when he considered Henry and Anna. They weren’t set to die.
’Right...’
Just that thought brought back the fact that he hadn’t checked the calls from earlier. He resisted the urge to do so immediately; it wasn’t time for that yet.
In some dark, decrepit corner of his mind, a thought crawled up. What if they betrayed him too? Just like Jayce?
They didn’t have a reason to, but once the idea appeared, it spread through him like wildfire.
He shut his eyes tightly, forcefully suppressing it. If they were fake too, then what would he have left?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
"Miles, did you see something?"
Ryan’s voice came from behind him. Miles glanced at the boy, opening his mouth to explain before closing it and shaking his head.
"It would be better if you see it for yourself."
The class rep could only nod slowly at that; he seemed to understand it wasn’t a good thing from Miles’s tone.
"Are you done?"
"No, there is still one more thing I have to check."
He looked back at the screen, mentally closing the letters menu before looking at the last capability. Upgrades.
The word popped up, and just like the others, new lines of text appeared below it.
[Upgrades]
[EGO: None (Unlockable(0/0))]
[Skills: Delusion(Unique) Lv1(0/100), Cold resistance(Common)Lv1(0/100)]
The skills section was greyed out,
’Likely because I lack enough points to perform any upgrades.’
He turned to the only portion he could select: EGO.
The text automatically highlighted itself, new lines appearing below it.
[Unlock EGO?]
[Y/N (Caution: Be sure you are in a safe environment before accepting)]
Miles stared at it for a moment before declining. The others still had to check the pylon, plus it wasn’t like he was in a rush at the moment.
’At least there’s a way to unlock EGOs.’
They weren’t completely stranded.
He stepped back, and Ryan stepped up next, placing a hand on the surface of the pylon. With that, Miles turned his attention off the boy, only to be met with a bunch of questioning looks from the others.
He didn’t reply; they’d see it soon enough. None of them pressed a question to him either.
Walking off to the side, he leaned against the wall there, feeling the chill from the concrete slowly seep into his back. He still felt sticky with all the dried blood clinging onto him, and his stomach had also taken to giving him constant reminders about the meager meal he’d eaten this morning.
He did his best to ignore all of it. He stuffed a hand into his pocket, rummaging through it before dragging out his phone.
Its screen had cracked during the scuffle. He could only hope it wasn’t completely dead.
Switching it on, the colors on the broken parts of the screen were completely corrupted, but beyond that, the rest of it still looked fine. He tried swiping it open, only for his bloodied thumb to slide off its screen.
’Damn it.’
He rubbed it violently against his trousers, then tried again, finally opening it up.
The device only had ten percent of its battery left. His notifications showed four missed calls, all from Anna.
He tried calling Henry first.
"The number you have tried is not reachable at the mom..."
He cut the call before it could finish, switching to Anna’s line. The same message played again. In the end, he gave up and went to the messaging app.
There was a message, one from Anna. Although the signal was currently dead, it seemed to have made it through before that.
’What happened to Henry?’
It was a voice message. His hand hovered over it, hesitating, those irrational fears rearing their ugly heads again.
Then he tapped it.
"Miles! Miles!..."
The storm roared in the background over Anna’s panicked, breaking voice. The rest of the room perked up at the sound, so he reduced the volume.
Things were moving around her.
"The mayor’s friend is here. H-he said they are evacuating everyone to the nearest shelter now; it’s in Lincoln. Henry told him about you, but he didn’t listen. He said he wasn’t supposed to come this far, he only did because of the mayor. Uhk..."
She went silent, her voice devolving into grunting. Sounds of a struggle overlapping with the storm.
"Miles... They want us to leave you. Leave me alone... I’m not going. You can’t leave me... I said I’m not-"
Her voice cut off suddenly, as though someone took the phone away.
"Miles, can you hear me? It’s Henry."
He sounded somehow even more exhausted than he had last night. His voice shivered as he talked.
"I think Anna’s told you everything already. They aren’t letting us wait for you. I’ve been using her phone because my battery is dead..."
The man trailed off, recollecting his thoughts before continuing.
"I’ll wait for you here, Miles. If you can find a way out, I’ll be in the town hall waiting. If you can’t, then I will go looking for you. When we meet, we can find a way to get to Anna’s shelter. She’s in safe hands; there are some kids her age in the convoy along with the neighbors. I trust the mayor with my life. She’ll be fine."
"In my life, I have let almost everyone down. I was ignorant about that fact for the most part, until very recently when you came along, Miles. I’m not going to let you down too."
He went silent after that, leaving only the sounds of the blizzard for a moment. Then he added,
"I’ll give her phone back now, and find some place to charge mine. Let’s meet up quickly, alright? Don’t want to keep her waiting on us too long, you know how she gets. See you later, Miles."
The message ended there.