Apocalypse: The Ice King Returned

Chapter 33: Separated

"Are you saying that we would have never known that she wasn’t…human?" Clark was afraid as he looked down at Joselyn's dead body. "That’s terrifying. A monster that looks like a human."

 "There’s a chance that we’ll run into others later. And they may be able to trick us again. They’ll definitely try to kill us if we give them the chance.”

"Is there a way for us to tell the difference?"

"It's difficult for any ordinary person to tell the difference. But they have several things that separate them from humans. They are intolerant to light and their blood is green. Their biggest power is reviving the dead and controlling infected people." Luther finished treating Constance's wounds and stood up to wash his hands. Now it was time to let her rest.

Luther found some ways to protect them in the room they were in. He sealed the windows, reinforced the doors, and set a tripwire at each exit. There would be no way for anything to reach them unless the creepers learned to fly.

That night, Clark kept badgering Luther with questions.

"Luther, why do you know so much about doomsday?"

"Are you going to go out with Constance?"

"..."

Luther stayed silent and his thoughts faded away as he looked at his sister’s sleeping face. He thought back to how must the young girl reminded him of Constance before they realized she was evil. If she was the one to choose, she would have let Joselyn live.

Ruby, wait for me.

-----

The next day, when Clark woke up, he found that Luther was busy in the kitchen. He smelled what Luther was cooking as he got up to join him. Luther was making a vegetable porridge that he hadn’t seen in a long time.

"Come and eat." Luther set a bowl on the table, and there were some oats and some mixed vegetables in it.

Clark took the porridge and wanted to eat it. Luther took it from him, "Constance eats first."

Clark blushed and hurriedly replied, "Oh, right! Of course. I’ll let you go take care of your patient and I’ll take care of the food,” Then Clark winked at Luther and smiled.

Luther didn't give any mind to what Clark said. He approached Constance with the bowl. Constance was awake now, and color had started to return to her face. Luther sat next to her and helped her to sit up. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes, much better." Constance spoke softly.

"That's good." Luther used a spoon to feed Constance some porridge.

Luther spoke while he fed her, "Clark, draw me a map of the police station."

"Luther, what are you planning?" Clark wondered.

 "I'm going to the police station today to get some weapons. You stay here and take care of Constance." Luther said.

Both Constance and Clark tried to stop him, “No. Luther. According to that guy Bruce, the police station is dangerous, and it’s infested with infected people. You shouldn’t go alone.”

Luther put down the bowl and said, "It’s my fault that Constance got injured. I don't want you guys to be in danger again. I prefer something happening to me than either of you."

Clark was shocked and he felt a little guilty. Even with his powers, he couldn’t do a lot to help.

"Luther..." Constance struggled to sit up straight.

"It's okay. I can go this time. If we get to a gun in time, then we’ll have better protection. Then we can strengthen our powers enough to keep going.”

"And I’m getting better at using my powers when we fight. I’m sure I can make it to the police station in time to grab a gun, I’ll be okay.”

They wanted to say more to stop him but Luther was already on his feet. "I’ve already decided. I’m going alone."

Constance knew as soon as Luther said this, there was no stopping him. And now she and Clark wouldn’t be able to do much to help Luther, so she stopped trying to fight him.

"Okay, Luther. Just be careful."

"Don’t worry about me. I’ll be back soon." Luther said, "Clark, take good care of Constance. If anything else happens to her, it’ll be your head on the line.”

"Really?"

"I’m dead serious.”

Clark chuckled awkwardly.

"I grew up with Constance since childhood, and she is my only living relative, and I don't want her to be hurt."

Clark responded, "Relax, I will take good care of her. Luther, I don’t know if this nail gun is going to be of much help to you, but it’s useless for us here. And we have those saws we took from the store. So, you should take it with you.”

Clark handed the drawn map to Luther with the nail gun. Luther took both from him, "Don't let anyone in. It's better for you not to leave this room."

Luther gave a final nod to Constance and turned to leave.

-----

The empty streets with ridden with wrecked cars, even the most expensive ones were piled up like garbage. The car interiors were painted with dried blood, and some headless corpses were left lying in some of them.

Luther was far away from Constance. Walking on the desolate street, a dry hand stretched out from under the truck that Luther was passing by.

Luther could see that the zombie under the truck was hiding in the shade. He raised his sword and cut off the head of the zombie who was in the middle of scrambling to get out from under the truck.

In the daytime, the zombies had to hide in dark places. Although Luther didn’t look too carefully, he still paid attention to the shadows to be aware of any other enemies trying to sneak up on him.

After killing the zombie, Luther turned a few streets and found that some infected people on the street were impaled by spears and various other weapons. Some of the corpses were still wet, showing that they weren’t killed too long ago.

Luther continued to move forward and found several zombie corpses. A voice came from the front, and Luther hid beside a small car.

"Ugh!”

"You insisted on coming here to get a gun. Now that Zeke is dead, we’re another person short. If we go on like this, there won’t be any of us left."

His voice indicated that he was irritated.

After a few seconds, Luther heard another voice, "That was because he was bitten by a zombie. If we hadn’t killed him first, he would have turned on us. You knew that when you agreed we kill him. I’m not the one to blame for that!”

They shouldn’t be fighting so loudly out in the open like this. Luther looked and saw there was a small square of grass in front of them. They were five people in total. Four men and one woman. They were hiding behind a large sculpture in the square and arguing. What surprised Luther was that the girl was wearing a police uniform.

"That man was my brother. Of course, you didn’t care if he died. You said you wanted to get a gun. There are only five of us left. There are hundreds of zombies in that building. How are we going to get inside?"

The first man spoke again, but this time he was more impatient.