Chapter 210 Loyal Dog
William was totally blindsided.
With his spidey senses from his past life and the mental boost from the Mind Parasite, he typically detected threats with the precision of a bloodhound. However, on this occasion? Nothing. No inkling of danger crossed his senses.
Just before the ground beneath him went kaboom, he gave it a light tap and sprang sideways, sticking to a nearby wall. A pistol, juiced up with Homogeneous Strengthening, popped into his hand, aimed right at the hole in the ground.
Screams echoed from below, both dudes and chicks.
"Mr. Reed!" someone hollered, all panicky.
"Let go, damn it!" a guy cursed.
"Don't pull! It hurts!"
"I'll kill you!" the guy cursed again.
"Gemma, stop it!" a woman shouted.
"Burn her, burn her!" another dude yelled.
The chaos below made William frown. Was this a freak accident?
He listened for a sec and realized something was going down below, and he was smack dab in the middle of it.
Quietly creeping to the edge of the hole, William peeked down and saw a bunch of people huddled near a bed.
What shocked him was a woman with half her face and shoulder charred beyond recognition. The smell of roasted flesh hit him like a punch, making him wanna hurl.
Her exposed eye was filled with pure hatred and loathing, shaking William to his core. This chick didn't give a damn about life or death. Someone like that, even if they were just a regular Joe, was scary as hell.
"As long as you let go, I'll spare your life," Zane said, trembling in pain. He didn't dare move, scared stiff of making things worse.
William zeroed in on Zane's hand, which was on fire, ready to torch the woman but worried about getting burned himself.
"Gemma, stop it," a woman tried to pull Gemma away, but a dude kicked her. With a regular physique, she immediately had a bunch of broken ribs, hit the wall, and started puking blood, her eyes losing their spark, like she was saying goodbye to the world.
"Let go, or I'll blow your head off!" Another guy pointed a gun at Gemma, ready to shoot.
Zane waved his flaming hand at his lackey, shouting, "Get out, get out of here! You wanna kill me?"
He was really freaked out his lackey would shoot, making Gemma go all kamikaze before dying.
This all went down in less than 30 seconds. Zane, panting, gradually calmed down. "I'll give you two choices: let go, and I'll give you a bottle of Evolution Elixir, and we forget this ever happened. Or, I'll kill all your women and find your evolution secret. I'll tear down your villa, including the basement, until I find it. Don't push me!"
Zane's killing intent was off the charts.
William watched quietly. He knew this chaos was because people were new to being Evolving persons. Their skills and mindset were still stuck in peacetime. If they had survived the apocalypse for a few years, they’d have a hundred ways to kill this woman instantly. But then he heard "basement."
Gunshots rang out, and bullets from William's enhanced pistol hit Zane's flaming hand. The power stunned Zane, and red liquid and bone fragments splattered, landing on the surrounding men and Gemma's burned face.
Time seemed to freeze.
Zane stared blankly at his blown-off hand. A few seconds later, he let out a gut-wrenching scream.
William landed lightly, firing twice more, blowing the heads off two guys. One was a pro, his ears enlarging upon noticing William, while the other instinctively reached for his gun.
William's rule for threats was always to eliminate them immediately.
The villa door swung open with a bang, and a group of men stormed in. Some froze in shock, while others instinctively prepared to strike. However, when faced with William, their efforts proved futile. The remaining survivors, gripped by fear, huddled against the walls, too petrified to make a move.
"Face the wall, squat down, and hold your heads," William ordered coldly.
They complied immediately. The corpses in the room made it clear that disobedience meant death.
William walked to Gemma, pinched her chin. The disfigured woman collapsed, her face covered in blood, looking terrifying.
"Gemma!" Brittany cried out.
She glanced at William in horror, then rushed to support Gemma, tears streaming down her face.
Of the four women in the room, one had been killed before William arrived, another during the chaos, leaving only these two.
"Tell me, where's the basement?" William pointed his gun at Zane's head and asked coldly.
Zane, still in shock over his lost hand, looked blankly at William.
William's finger twitched, ready to pull the trigger.
"Wait..." Gemma, despite her dire condition, struggled to sit up, exuding a fierce aura.
"I'll tell you, but I want him!" she demanded.
"Gemma!" Brittany screamed. The basement was their only asset, their only means of survival. She couldn't imagine what would happen if it were discovered.
"Please, just hand him over, and I'll do anything," Gemma pleaded, her voice steady despite the pain. She crawled in front of William, her eye burning with pure hatred.
William understood. This was a blaze of retribution, a choice between perishing with unresolved matters or unleashing a torrent of vengeance. Gemma had made her decision, opting for the latter.He pulled out a knife and tossed it to her.
Gemma picked it up, half-raised, and crawled to Zane, stabbing him straight up.
Zane instinctively tried to swat her away, but another bullet from William blew off his other hand.
The sound of the knife piercing flesh echoed in the room. Everyone except William turned pale, their lips trembling.
What kind of hatred was this? To make a woman seek revenge so calmly, without hysterical madness or venting curses?
Blood flowed, drenching Gemma, but she smiled, her disfigured face making it eerie. She seemed to enjoy the feeling of revenge.
Zane finally couldn't stand it. His legs gave way, and he knelt, facing the woman he had just humiliated. He wanted to resist but had no strength, only able to watch himself being attacked.
A group of women and some men appeared at the door. It was clear they were not with the women, as the two sides were distinctly separate. They looked at William with evasive glances.
Gemma raised her head, looking at the increasingly weak Zane. She lifted the knife and slowly pushed it into one of Zane's eyes. As the knife pierced his brain, Zane took his last breath.
"Clarissa, I promised to reveal the basement's secret," Gemma said, looking at Zane's corpse as if admiring her masterpiece.
Clarissa's face twitched. After a moment, as if making a decision, she took a deep breath and walked into the room. Seeing the bodies of her two sisters and Gemma's miserable state, she bit her lip hard, a trickle of blood flowing down, quickly wiped away.
"I can tell you what you want to know, but I have conditions," Clarissa spoke up.
William smirked, "I don't think you have the right to negotiate with me."
"We're not afraid of death!" Clarissa suddenly shouted, pointing at the bodies and Gemma. "You see this? This is our future. Death is a relief. I don't know you, but I have what you want. I'll give it to you, but I have conditions. Otherwise, kill us all. It's better than living like this!"
William glanced at the women, disheveled and emitting a foul odor. Their eyes, initially shocked, had returned to numbness. They lived purely on instinct, waiting for fate's final judgment.
He had seen too many people like this in his previous life. For them, death was sometimes a blessing.
"They're yours," William said, pointing at the men. "But if what you know isn't what I want, you'll all join these men in hell."
Blood and screams erupted in the room!
"I can't think of any value I have to you," Gemma said, covered in blood, leaning against the hallway wall. She didn't understand why this man had carried her out of the room alone. Her gaze passed through the door, looking at her sisters who had turned into demons, with a shared sense of pleasure in her eyes.
"Didn't you just say you'd do anything?" William asked, a smile of interest on his face.
Gemma finally shifted her gaze to the man a few years younger than her.
"Besides sleeping with you, I can't think of any use I have. But in my current state, I probably don't suit your taste. And I seem to be dying."
William nodded. "Indeed, you don't suit my taste, and you are indeed dying."
He continued, "Tomorrow, at the latest the day after, this place will be my territory. I need someone who will completely obey me, someone to do the dirty and hard work, someone covered in the blood of those who resist me, someone who stands in the dark to intimidate my future enemies, someone who sells their soul to me."
"With me, you won't die. But, are you willing to be that person?" William's tone carried a hint of seduction.
Gemma looked at the young man with a peculiar gaze, suddenly feeling as if something had opened before her.
Scenes from the beginning of the apocalypse flashed in her mind: betrayal, violation, rampage, perversion, brutality...
Gemma coughed, spitting out a mouthful of blood. She supported herself on the ground, slowly straightening up, then stood in front of William.
"Sounds like a devil's call, but I like it." Gemma slowly raised a hand, saying, "You need a dog, right? Fine, I'll be it."
Gemma, considered one of the most loyal to William in the years to come, stood for the first time before the man she would follow for life.
Years later, she would be known by survivors as the Loyal Dog.
