The Crawford's Multiverse of Madness

Chapter 53 - I Forbid Death Upon This Day

"I have been attempting contact for the past six months, we have already lost valuable time," The Red Queen said with a bit of urgency in her voice.

Was an AI supposed to have an expression in her tone? Have they been asleep for longer than they initially thought?

It was confusing for Zeel since AI's in his Universe had become an entirely different race altogether.

But from his observation, this Universe was still a couple of thousand years from achieving that feat.

"Okay, Speak!" Zeel decided, earning him a disgruntled look from Alice.

Truly, all she wanted at the moment was to take a bath and relax.

Working the moment you woke up from stasis chambers was not conducive to her mental health.

'Who am I kidding?' Alice thought.

Nothing she and Zeel have ever done could be considered healthy.

Whether it was their relationship or being so bored they toyed with zombies sometimes.

Ever seen a zombie deathmatch? Not many people have.

"My satellites show there are 4,472 humans remaining on the surface of the Earth, they will cease to exist in under 48 hours," The Red Queen reported, the urgency in her voice not easing a single bit since the conversation began.

"What do you want from us?" Alice questioned the projection feeling a bit disheartened at the discouraging numbers "Did you come to gloat?"

"No, quite the opposite, in fact, I want you to stop me..." The Red Queen said as she dropped a bomb that made Alice and Zeel simultaneously use their nanites to check her source code, which she let them do freely.

The Red Queen was truly laying all her cards down on the table at the moment. Zeel currently had free reign on all pseudo-essential Umbrella files.

"So she has gone crazy?" Alice asked Zeel uncertain of The Red Queens' motive since she was originally the one that wanted to exterminate the entirety of the human race remaining on the surface of the Earth.

"We don't trust you," Zeel replied, hacking into the satellite and doing an investigation of his own.

"Even if we did it's already too late," Zeel said as he noticed the remaining human bases were about to be impacted by a coordinated attack, an attack that would no doubt wipe them out in a couple of hours.

"Given our history, I would be surprised if you did," The Red Queen replied "But unless you intervene the slaughter will be complete. There will be no survivors,"

"Stop the bullshit, you of all people should have already calculated the odds a couple of times over," Zeel said as he interrupted The Red Queen.

Zeel hated being treated like a fool because he knew the situation was unrecoverable at this point.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked Zeel confused about his sudden outbreak.

Alice knew that even if Zeel was heartless, he would never drive an entire race to extinction without a proper reason.

Zeel was heartless, but also very practical.

What would he gain from humanity's extinction? Absolutely nothing, this she was confident of.

"Minimum Viable Population, it is the number of people you would need to restart the entire human race from just a few.

The magic number is about 160 people – so basically a small village, but that number can be brought down to about 80 if social engineering was accounted for," Zeel said as he leaned back into the chair.