Chapter 43: The world has changed

Ember woke up the next day with Aiden’s arm wrapped possessively around her waist.

After last night’s events, she had fallen asleep. She didn’t feel it when Aiden picked her up. She didn’t know when he cleaned her or when they went back to the room. All she knew was that she woke up clean.

She turned to look at the man who hadn’t woken up yet. She smiled softly, remembering last night. Shaking her head slightly, she thought to herself, I really shouldn’t make this guy jealous.

Yet at the same time, she wondered if she should try another way to get him angry. The contradictory feeling made her laugh.

“Seems I didn’t do a good job last night.” Having just woken up, his voice was gravelly, and Ember found it intoxicating.

She noticed the difference in their personalities after Aiden was linked to the Covenant Engine. Whether he was always this jealous or not, Ember thought it was a change. He wasn’t usually so aggressive.

And for her, she noticed herself getting horny at the drop of a hat. It was easy to ignore it before, but now, as soon as Aiden looked her way, she would feel that familiar ache.

“It was a job well done. You almost split me in half. Did you want to kill me?” Ember asked.

“Never,” he rumbled, pulling her closer to him and smelling her hair.

She could feel his half-hard penis against her ass. The thing was growing rapidly.

“You and that thing need to go back to sleep,” she said.

“This is morning wood, madam. Who told you it’s because of you? I have no control over this.” He said while rubbing his penis against her ass.

Ember didn’t entertain him. She didn’t forget what day it was today.

“We need to get up.”

She pulled away from him. He let her go. She walked to the bathroom to get ready. When she came out, she saw him standing by the window. He was naked, and his face was blank as he looked outside.

Already dressed, she walked up behind him.

That’s when she noticed it.

The closer she got to the window, the more she knew something was wrong. The smell in the air was different. It smelled…like rusty metal.

She got to the window, standing beside Aiden, and she saw it. Her breath caught in her throat. This was not the world she remembered. This was different. There was something wrong…something very wrong.

The shrubs from yesterday are already half a person high. Trees that should be ornamental, small, have now turned into monstrous hulking trees found deep in forests.

“Fuck!” Ember shouted, her hand flying to her mouth.

And then they heard it. A blood-curdling scream. They shouldn’t be close enough to anyone to hear them scream, but the sound was there. It chilled them from head to toe. It didn’t sound human, but it was.

She pushed Aiden, telling him to go put on some clothes while she rushed to the other three people’s rooms.

She didn’t get far when she saw them already barrelling towards her.

“What the hell was that?” Alex demanded, his voice tight.

Ember didn’t answer. She didn’t have one that wouldn’t frighten him. She didn’t say anything. Instead, she invited him back to their room. She wanted them to have a serious talk. They needed to figure out their strategy for what was to come.

On the way, she asked, “Did you look outside?”

She received a negative answer.

“We only heard the scream and ran out.” Adrienne’s soft voice cracked as she spoke.

“Well, you need to see it.” Ember opened the door to the room, showing a fully dressed Aiden.

He was standing by the window again.

The newcomers went to stand by the window where he was looking out. They saw the monstrous growth of trees. They marvelled at what the place looked like, so full of green.

Then they saw something move. It didn’t move quickly. It was slow. It seemed to be limping. It wasn’t walking towards them but towards a house on the lower section of the hill. The same place the scream came from.

No one dared to breathe as they watched the thing pass. After one had passed by, they saw another. They knew what they were, but they never expected there would be a day they would see them.

The problem is, they didn’t look like the ones in the movies. If it hadn’t been for the grunting sounds it made when it passed by, they wouldn’t have even thought they were zombies.

Ember had warned them before. They didn’t decay instantly. They looked like people who had zoned out or were sleepwalking. Their skin was tinged blue, and their eyes looked like they had been covered with cataracts.

That’s exactly what they saw. Although they weren’t able to take a close look, they knew.

“What the fuck?” Ivan spoke. His face was pale, his hands trembled. His legs shook. He gingerly walked towards a chair before sinking into it. “This has got to be a dream,” he muttered.

Ember looked at him, scowled, and walked towards him. “Weren’t you Mr Brave when you heard about the sex base? Why aren’t you brave now? I told you this would happen.”

Well, not everything. The trees are a surprise, even for me.

“We need to think about things rationally right now. Fear won’t get us anywhere. Take a deep breath and collect yourself. Even if the end of the world has arrived, we still need to eat.” Aiden took charge at this moment.

He didn’t wait for anyone else to feel faint; he ordered them out of his room. He wanted to take a bath and think. They weren’t the only ones who were shaken up by this.

The calmest person in the room right now might actually be Ember, who had a few memories of what the world looked like in her previous life.

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