Chapter 13 - Phoenix

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It turns out that the scientist wasn't an ordinary scientist. Unlike most scientists, he didn't see everything from only a scientific point-of-view. After driving for about an hour in silence, Carter, who was usually the silence-loving one, broke the ice.

"So, what's your name, doc?" said Carter.

"I'm Howard. And you?"

"Carter. Carter Torres,"

"Jason Wood," I said, not taking my eyes off the road.

"Angela Martin," Angela said.

"Where're you from, doc?" said Carter.

"Stop calling me doc. I'm not 'doc'. I'm only Howard,"

"Okay, okay, don't trip. Where're you from, Howard?"

"I'm from Nevada. How about you three?"

"I'm from Virginia," Carter said.

"Me too," I said.

"I'm from Texas," Angela said.

"We met in El Monte, 300 miles from California."

"Okay. I met Nicholas Andrew in Seattle. I lived there since my childhood. Nicholas rescued me from my apartment on the 5th floor, which was filled with zombies on the ground floor. I have worked for him since then."

"So, Howard, do you think there's a moral reason for the breakout?" Carter said. All three of us stared at Carter for three full seconds, bewildered at this sudden question. But we all knew we had, deep down, some or the other reason for which we thought the breakout had happened.

The scientist, recovering from shock, decided there was no problem in sharing such personal things with the three of us.

"I believe it to be nature's way of restoring order. With such little population of our contaminating species left, this was the only way of retaining ecological balance. No one knows how the virus started, and it is better if it remains hidden. This destruction is actually the way forward, my friends. Now, the remaining few of us shall establish a much better world, carving it out of our own hands. A better world than the filthy, contaminated world in which we once lived. Or rather, survived. This is actual living, not surviving. What we did before the breakout was surviving."

"I'm all touched and all, Howard, but how do you think we can make a new world with such a few people?"

"Who says we are less in number? We have enough males and females to restore the whole world's population, my friends. Never, ever doubt a human's reproductive capability."

Angela chuckled. Carter and I smiled, too.

After this, all of us talked a lot. Carter had successfully broken the ice, and now all of us talked freely.

Soon, at about 5 p.m., we reached the launch site. The ride to Phoenix had been awkwardly smooth. We encountered about 20 zombies on the whole way. The launch site was surrounded by no walls, but only electrical fences. There were a total of six turrets placed on the edges. The turrets followed the movement of our car, and, detecting no virus, continued looking at a distance for zombies.

Howard, very bravely, got out of the car the moment it stopped. He showed his face at the scanner, and the door opened. I drove with the car inside, while Howard walked to the entrance. I parked the car at a corner, near the fence, then the three of us followed Howard into the launch centre.

Against all our expectations, the launch centre turned out to have about a hundred more people, 80% of them scientists, and the remaining, security.

"Alright, I must leave you now. You three can stay out here," he said, pointing at a door, which he entered.

"That was fast," I said.

"Yeah. Well, I guess it's time to get to a boring job again," Carter said.

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