Conrad did not move at all. He said expressionlessly, “Commander Fenton had us wait here specifically to block your way.”

I thought I misheard him. “What?!”

“Eira, I must say you act very well. You and June trying to deceive us is one thing, but dragging a young child into this is another.”

Conrad took Poppy from me, placed her in the car, and addressed me coldly. “Commander Fenton saw through your and June’s scheme long ago.”

Poppy kicked and struggled and tried to come back to me.

“Please save my mom!”

Thick smoke billowed in the distance. It faintly mingled with heart-wrenching screams.

Conrad’s eyes flickered, but his anger only intensified.

“You involved this young child in your lies!”

With that, he locked me inside the car, too.

“Conrad, I’m not lying! Your family’s desperately waiting for you!”

I pounded desperately on the car door as my heart filled with despair.

Conrad drove me to the Southern Base.

But as soon as we reached the entrance, we saw crowds of people fleeing with weapons.

Conrad rushed forward to ask what was happening.

“Someone saw the Central Base surrounded by zombies! We’re going to rescue them!”

Conrad’s face paled. He spun the car around and sped away.

When he drove us back to the base, the sight before him kept him frozen in place.

The base lay in ruins, littered with the corpses of ordinary people, and the air was thick with the pungent stench of blood.

The air-raid shelter was an even more gruesome sight. What had once been a refuge was nothing but crumbling walls and debris at present.

Conrad stepped onto a puddle of blood.

The elderly woman who always greeted him with a smile at the base was now nothing but a severed head. She had been devoured by zombies.

“How?! How could this happen…” Conrad’s voice trembled. He tried to reach out, but his arms refused to move.

He knelt on the ground and sobbed uncontrollably.

A young team member suddenly collapsed to his knees and trembled as he picked up a pair of glasses that had snapped clean in half.

Those were his mother’s reading glasses! She had poor eyesight and never went anywhere without them.

He clutched the glasses tightly. The glass shards cut into his palm and spilled crimson blood.

“Mom! Mom!”

Despair and self-reproach washed over the crowd like a tidal wave.

Some wailed uncontrollably, others knelt on the ground and hit themselves across the face in anguish.

Some clung to each other. Their tears mingled with bloodstains streaming freely down their faces. Under the pallid emergency lights, they formed a heartbreaking scene.

I slid down the wall and sank to the ground. My heart ached so intensely that I could barely breathe.

Looking down in one corner, I saw a body torn beyond recognition.

The red string that I had given her was still tied around her wrist. It was the one that I had braided myself to protect her and her baby.

It was June.

I had arrived too late!

I collapsed onto the floor as tears streamed down my face.

Just then, Castiel strode back with an arm around Liana.

They walked in as they teased each other.

“So, Liana, isn’t bathing together more comfortable?”

Liana flushed crimson with embarrassment.

However, Castiel did not seem to care.

“Good thing we didn’t listen to Eira. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to bathe so peacefully.”

Seeing the two about to get all cozy again, the grieving young adults in the city could not stand it any longer.

They grabbed their weapons and closed in on the pair.

“Castiel, didn’t you say the zombie siege was fake? My sister and my mother are dead!”