Silas sat with A.J who had apparently not been awake as he had thought he was in his dream, Alex too sat beside A.J. It seemed that only Alin was able to get sleep after Silas' jump scare.
"It's too quiet." Alex said eventually.
Silas nodded, remembering how he had thought the same thing in his dream, "it seems we're the only ones to have dealt with a zombie."
"Do you think it still hasn't reached us fully?"A.J asked. "The infection I mean."
"Possibly." Silas agreed.
"Maybe we're the only ones who fought one with only three people and we made the most noise because we had such small numbers." Silas suggested.
"If that were true," Alex said, "we'd have had the staff and our neighbors at our throats for all the noise."
"Now that you mention it," A.J added, "if it weren't for the alarm, I would never have woken up."
"You didn't hear anything else?" Silas asks, "no thudding doors or loud screams?"
"Not a peep," A.J confirmed.
"So then," Alex finalised, "we really are the first ones to deal with these," she waved her hand in a vague gesture, "zombies."
"And we didn't make much noise either," Silas said, as if it were an achievement unlocking the next level in a game.
"Don't you think we should start stocking up on food and supplies?" Alex asked, "like Alin said."
"How would we get them?" Silas asked, "we aren't exactly millionaires."
A.J rubbed his neck."Yeah about that."
Alex turned to him, "what you just so happen to have a couple billion in the bank?"
A. J frowned, "weeell not billions per se, but my grandma did invest in 2500 shares in Apple. Back when my family still didn't realise America was a hell hole and still lived there. That's worth somewhere around $20 million today. Dunno what that is in pounds. But I turned 18 last year ands I have a good few millions in my bank, what with me being second in line to my deceased brother and my dear dad passing only six months before he."
"Seems legit," Silas said, "but won't people be questioning why four teenagers are buying millions of lighters and deodorant spray cans?"
"I know a few cleaning detergents that can become highly toxic when mixed together," Alex suggested, having years of nagging mother lectures to back her up, "I hear hydrogen peroxide and vinegar are particularly corrosive. Mixing a few of these in spray bottles would be much more subtle than lighters."
"First of all," Silas said, "how do you know that? Second of all do you know how to make chloroform?"
"Why do you want to know that?" A.J asked, mostly joking but slightly on edge.
"Alcohol and bleach," Alex answered, not quite recalling how she knew that one.
"Wow," A.J said, remembering all the action movies he watched when the hostages to be were drugged with a chloroform dipped rug, "that easy?"
"Yeah."
"Even still won't people question such a purchase in such a large quantity from one person?"
"Okay, look. If you're that worried about it," A.J said, "I'll transfer a million to each of your accounts. We can draw straws over who does weapons, food, drink whatever. Problem solved."
"Sending £1,000,000 to people you barely know is bound to raise questions." Silas said.
"In all honesty, I don't care what people will say. It's not like they're going to care in a couple months anyway. I'm sure the apocalypse will reach its peak by then."
Alex got a sudden flash of a forgotten conversation from her dream with the child in the hoodie. She hadn't quite recalled what was said, but it felt like it was triggered by the word "peak".
Silas nodded, "I guess I'm just trying to put off the end of the world for as long as I can."
Dea's scythe tapped the puddle of water, making it go from murky brown to ocean blue.
"Why did you talk the girl?" Dea asked in a tone that sounded both irritated and uninterested.
"Jealous?" Heerfu smirked, earning a scoff. Which always sounded interesting when it came from the 1000 voices that made up Dea.
"I mean it's so rare that astral projectors stumble across us," Heerfu stated, "and besides. It's not like she'd remember she was informing us. "
"At least you got something useful out of her." Dea said, dipping her scythe in the water once more. It bubbled, "we need to speed things up."
"You mean you do." Heerfu corrected, "things are going quite well from my end."
"You didn't have anything to do with my slow progress ," Heerfu asked accusitavely, "did you Dea?"
"You offend me my dear Heerfu," why would I possibly try any sleight of hand to win a bet against the little old goddess of joy?"
Heerfuu hummed.
"Anyway," Heerfu continued, "I thought you were on their side. Didn't you want them to live?"
"I have a plan," Dea said simply, "but you know what they say about eggs and omelettes."
"Ah."
"Why did you decide to stick on the parasite's side anyway?" Dea asked curiously, "you chose first after all, I'd assumed you would side with the humans."
Heerfu smiled, " I've tired of them. They need to face their mortality more often. Most of them are brats. They could be a 50 year old business man or a 17 year old part timer. Yet they all act as if they own the Earth. Like they can get her to produce more oil if they keep dumping trash on her. And then they pretend they aren't selling out their own to help further their greed." Dea's scythe dipped a little further into the puddle than last time, making it stop bubbling, but turn a dark blue, the kind you see in a midnight sky.
"If you're so against them, why am I the one giving the parasite it's immunity to vaccinations and mixing it with a pinch of the flu? I am the one who has to help them overcome this little gamble after all."
"It's not like I have the power to do so. Any pathogen I touch becomes a lymphocyte or a platelet. Besides, if you do it, it would be so much harder for mother dear to come up with a cure for it, what with you two being natural opposites."
Meanwhile in the sacred library, home to every bet ever struck by a deity, a chuckle rang from a shelf on the second floor, "this should be fun."
YOU ARE READING
The Final Gamble
Science Fiction"Look at that thing," Silas jabbed his weapon at its burning, writing corpse, "look at it closely." "Is that thing human?" Alex got her first good look at it. Its haunting yellow eyes. Its pale face, blue like a corpse. Its limbs moved around, clu...
