*New chapter, hope you enjoy.*
It's gonna be a long ride to Croatia. It seemed like all of our survivors were trying to find a way to pass the time. Dan and Will threw down a game of poker, Aiko acted as the dealer of the game, Jose read his book and Luke sat beside them all on some empty seats, playing with a combat knife that he found whilst staying on the train.
An intense stare could be seen on Will and Daniel's faces as they immersed themselves in the poker game. Aiko was focused on the match as well, fully embracing her role as the dealer.
...
"Raise!" Will broke the silence, doubling the number of chips on the table.
"Alright, get a load of this." Daniel calmly called.
"Third!" Aiko exclaimed as she put the 4th card on the table.
Daniel knocked on the table twice, indicating a check. He made a small gesture towards Will, letting him know it's his move.
...
"AGH, fuck it!" Will yelled out of annoyance as he folded the cards to Aiko and smacked his knee in disappointment.
"Heh, two members of our group destroyed in poker," Daniel took a sip of his soda can and turned towards Luke. "Oi, Luka, you up for a game?"
Luke's eyes widened as he was looking out the window.
"I'll have to pass up this opportunity, because..." Luke pointed out the window. Everyone turned their attention to the fields of corn and sunflowers which could be clearly seen from the windows.
"...we are here, ladies and gentlemen! We should be in Osijek in a matter of minutes!"
Everyone's expressions lit up with excitement and relief. This was a long journey, after all.
"Everyone, try not to cause a ruckus. Gather all your things, we're departing soon!" Luke said happily, clapping his hands together out of joy, as well as to get the attention of the survivors.
Everyone hastily grabbed their equipment and met up in the control room of the train.
Luke was the only one in the first wagon until Daniel walked in to check up on him. Luke sheathed both of his swords, both of his SMG's and Desert Eagles. He strapped the combat knife to his belt, grabbed a backpack full of ammo, and turned towards Daniel.
"You seem ready to go," Daniel smirked and crossed his arms.
"I am. I'm going to finally get some answers that I've been desperately searching for." Luke said with enthusiasm.
"You mean about your mother?" Both men paused for a second.
"Yeah. What she did to me and my father raises lots of questions and very few answers. I'm hoping to be able to find out something by going to our old house." Luke strapped the backpack on his back.
"Well, we're right here with you. We stick together no matter what."
Daniel grinned and offered a hand.
Luke gladly took it and smirked back.
The train abruptly stopped.
Luke and Dan walked into the control room, ready to go.
Luke looked around the room.
"Everyone seems ready to go. Now, everyone, welcome to my home."
The survivors got off the train one by one and stepped on the solid concrete floor. It seemed like a desert more so than a town.
"Wow, I am amazed." Aiko proclaimed with sarcasm.
"Croatia's population's always been low, but now it seems like the entire country's dead in the water," Luke said, with a bit of surprise behind his voice. "Was hoping to at least see some infected, if anything."
"Yeah, that part's a little confusing. Where is everyone, infected or not?" Will lowered his rifle a little bit and eased up.
"Welp, let's get out of the station, at least," Daniel exclaimed and started walking towards the train station building.
Luke looked around the entire station. Jose noticed this.
"Is it just how you remember it, Luke?" Jose asked with a cheeky grin.
"Unfortunately, yeah. Nothing's changed." Luke started walking too. "Let's go!"
Everyone hurried up after Dan and Luke. Eventually, they made it to the train station building door. Dan tried opening it the good old-fashioned way. It seemed to be barricaded.
"Excuse me?" Daniel asked in confusion.
He backed up two steps and kicked the door open, knocking the boxes that were blocking the door away.
"This shit's too quiet." Daniel paused for a second.
He felt a touch on his shoulder. It was Luke.
"Cover me. I sense we aren't alone here. That goes for all of you."
Everyone nodded and readied their weapons. Luke slowly walked in, avoiding anything on the ground that could make a sound. He scanned the entire room until his eyesight stopped at the right outmost pillar in the middle of the room. He made a gesture to everyone behind him, pointing at the pillar on the right.
Aiko and Jose guarded the window, Daniel was not far behind Luke and Will positioned himself behind a table. They all pointed their weapons towards the pillar.
Luke quietly drew both of his Desert Eagles and started slowly approaching the pillar. When he got close enough, a shadow came out from behind the pillar. As soon as it revealed itself, Luke's eyes widened and he quickly shoved it back behind the pillar and he quickly dashed behind it himself. Shots from all over the room started firing towards the pillar.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE, EVERYONE!" Luke yelled out, whilst protecting the figure. The fire stopped.
Luke slowly grabbed the figure and walked to the middle of the room with it.
It was a doctor. No, more like a nurse. It seemed like she was on the younger side of age.
*"Whoever you are, I need your help, I'm begging you."* The nurse started speaking Croatian.
Everyone walked into the building whilst putting their weapons away.
"Welp, ain't this convenient? Can you speak English?" Will directed his question towards the nurse. She looked at him with confusion in her eyes and just said one word.
*"Please."*
*"It's alright, I'm Croatian, too. Tell me what's happened."* Luke grasped the nurse's shoulder and calmed her down a bit.
*"We were tasked with finding any remaining infected or survivors and transferring them to the hospital."* She brushed her hair away from the front of her face.
*"KBC (Official Hospital in Osijek) Osijek?"*
*"Yes. If you're willing, I can take you there."*
*"We're more than willing. I'm Luka, by the way."*
*"Eva. We have an ambulance truck, come along."*
The nurse turned around and started walking towards the front parking lot of the train station.
The rest of the survivors stared in confusion, all making the exact same face.
"Put a sock in it, guys." Luke snapped them out of their confusion. "This is a nurse from the KBC, the official Osijek hospital, where I used to be treated, too. We will make our way there and hopefully meet more survivors there, too. It seems like she was tasked with finding infected and/or survivors in the city and bringing them there. Either way, let's go check it out." Luke started following her and everyone quickly followed.
"Has Croatian changed at all or is my Russian just rusty?" Daniel tapped Luke on the shoulder and asked.
"You're probably rusty." Daniel pulled a sad face. "The society of Croatians isn't advanced enough to ever make any kind of important change happen, at least it didn't seem that way, so they kept the language the same."
After a minute, they made it to the ambulance vehicle.
*"You kept mentioning we, but where's the plural? You seem to be alone."* Luke questioned with an eyebrow raise.
*"Oh, well, I just got used to saying we, I guess. There's more of us back in the hospital. One of you can ride up front, and the rest can go in the back."*
*"Alright, I'll ride up front, everyone else can go in the back."*
The nurse nodded in confirmation and got into the driver's seat. Luke turned towards the group.
"You're all riding in the back of the ambulance, by the way. I'm riding upfront."
Luke said and quickly climbed into the vehicle. Everyone else made their way in.
"We're good to go." Daniel gestured with a thumbs up.
Luke let the nurse know and they were on their way to the hospital.
...
About halfway through the abandoned city, Luke asked the nurse some questions.
*"Any signs of hope in curing this infection?"*
The nurse took a moment to answer.
*"Not that we're aware of. We're working on evacuation plans, and you guys can help out a lot with those."*
*"We planned to make it to Belarus and the hospital could actually help us with that. We could armour up enough vehicles, depending on the supplies, and just drive the hell out of here."*
*"That would be amazing. If we could get our patients to the evacuation zone, they might be of good use in finding a cure."*
*"Yup. Well thought out."*
A silence occurred for a few moments.
*"Any patients with the last name Reynolds?"*
The nurse paused to remember.
*"Actually, yeah. We have an older anorexic woman who got infected around 2 days ago. Are you her son? I see a few similarities."*
*"Is her name Macayla?"*
*"Hm...yeah, I believe so."*
Luke paused for a moment.
*"Yeah. That's her."* Luke said in a serious tone.
An awkward silence filled the air, but the group made it to the hospital within a few minutes.
Everyone got off the ambulance and made it inside the hospital. They were guided by the nurse.
Luke looked around the hallways.
*"Absolutely nothing has changed in this god-forsaken hellhole."*
*"Yes, the majority of our culture stayed the same for years, I'm told."*
They made it to the third floor, where a bunch of doctors were stationed.
*"Eva? Who are these people, what are they doing here?"* A tall, scruffy male doctor walked up to the group and questioned the nurse in a threatening tone.
*"Calm your tits, Scrabo-breath."* This got his attention. *"You wanted more survivors, didn't you? Here we are. I'm the only Croatian here, though. The rest aren't natives."*
A moment of silence occurred.
*"Do you speak English?"*
*"Yes, I do."*
"Welp, good. You can now inform the rest of my group of your evacuation plan. But before all that, I'm here to visit Macalya Reynolds. I'm her son, Luka Reynolds. I don't think you have to worry about the infection. We're all immune as shit."
The doctor answered after a second.
*"Eva, take him to his mother."*
*"Understood, come, Luka."*
*"Be right there."*
Luke started walking towards the nurse, but he turned around to the group of survivors.
"Don't worry guys, you'll all know the evacuation plan. This doctor will explain it to you. I'll come back later to confirm all his points. I won't be gone for long."
He turned towards the nurse and started walking out of the room. After a little bit, they made it to the room.
*"Welp, here we are. Room 27, Macalya Reynolds."*
*"I appreciate you."* Luke started to open the door. *"Oh, I can make my way back. You can join the rest of the group."*
The nurse nodded and left.
Luke fully opened the door and entered the room. He shut the door behind him carefully and slowly turned towards her.
...
Yup, that was her, alright. A bit of pale skin and infectious symptoms, but that was her.
"Tch. Somehow I knew you'd turn into a Witch, just because of your weight and depressive state." Luke walked up to the wall that was placed opposite of his mother.
She was awake, but couldn't respond due to her infections.
"Typically, it takes an infected 2 weeks to turn into a special infected. 2 days for a common. So you still have a bit to go. Who knows? We might even be able to save you."
She mustered up an even cheekier and more intense stare than before.
"I had a gut feeling you were here. It's why I'm here talking to you. I made it all the way out here to get some answers since I got the worst feeling that we aren't going to make it out of here alive."
This got her attention.
"I found a group of people who genuinely want to survive this shithole apocalypse with me. But that's not why I'm here. I'm kinda glad you can't answer me for once."
She made an upset face.
...
He took a deep breath.
"You've ruined me. You've sent me off to America to meet my father, after all those years of mentioning him. I was ecstatic to meet him, but the company you sent me to never even heard of him. There was never a Reynolds working at their company. You made up the story of my biological father's travel to America to cover up the fact you and your former gang members killed him."
Her eyes widened, but she didn't seem like she was denying it.
"You went on and off trials in court due to that. He died when I was 2 years old, and you were covering it up ever since. You never even got what you deserved. No justice was done. You simply murdered him for your self-benefit. I can't possibly explain it. No sane person could. If you're wondering how I figured it all out, you left my birth certificate in my luggage by accident. Plus I found one of your former gang members while on a holiday in Europe."
Luke paused for a moment and lifted his gaze firmly towards his mother.
"You're just a fucking bitch. I've always known that, and that's too light of an insult to call you. You are a psychopath. A fucking manipulating piece of shit. I have so many things that I wanna physically do to you, but the only thing keeping you alive is the fact that we're evacuating out of here, and you might be useful for curing the infection. If you end up turning, I will put you down myself."
Luke looked out the window and noticed the beautiful sunset.
"You are everything that I never want to be. And I hope to meet you one day in hell. Then I could show you how much of a disgusting piece of shit you are."
Luke started to walk out but stopped.
"Yeah, I do hope I can make it to hell, even if it's just for a brief moment. You have no idea how much you've ruined mine and my father's life. I hope you rot in hell."
He turned around, looked her dead in the eye and spat next to her bed. Luke left the room and walked towards a big window at the end of the hallway. He stared into the bright sunset and sighed. It was finally time to leave everything behind.
*Think I'll leave it off there for now. Lots of shit planned, and I already got the ending figured out. Earliest you can expect the ending is probably after the next chapter. The next chapter is the evacuation plan towards Belarus, the armoured truck escape. You'll see how it goes from there.