OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 206: All Dead

Chapter 206: All Dead

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***

A running Emma looked to her left, eyeing Jake for a moment.

"Do you think he'll be fine?"

Jake scoffed.

"I'll say this for the fifth and final time; it's Emir we're talking about; he'll be fine. And you

seem to be forgetting that Lyra's there with him; do you think that she'd risk anything happening to him?"

"No... b-but-"

"Stop. We're about to reach their hideout; be prepared for the worst."

They were rushing through the slums, crossing dimly lit streets, toppling buildings, and thrown about trash, mixed in with the sleeping homeless.

They turned right at the end of the street and arrived in front of what once appeared as a warehouse.

The gate was destroyed, and the courtyard seemingly bombed; as for the warehouse itself... Its fate was the same as the outside.

The entrance was obliterated, with severed limbs strewn about and inner organs covering the broken floor.

Blood was all around the two, coloring the ground with a mosaic of reds.

But soon another color was added to the mix as Emma's mouth let out a rainfall of vomit.

Jake almost joined her; however, his grim face loudly gulped down the rising food and breathed deeply, a futile attempt at calming himself.

The stench of death and gore enveloped him.

It was a horrifying testament to the brutality they had walked into.

Devastation on another level.

It spoke of a ferocious battle, or perhaps something far worse...

A massacre.

Jake proceeded to silently step forward, avoiding a severed head lying to his right.

Getting deeper into the warehouse, he looked around the place, spotting many bullet holes that showed themselves on the walls.

Despite the nausea he felt, he kept himself steady, his jaw clenched tight.

His eyes continued to dart around, searching for any sign of Kiera.

And sure enough, he had found her.

Just outside the office room.

There she was...

Unmoving, lying in a pool of blood.

Around her were her closest family.

Jack, Sarah, Evan, Hiro, and Leo.

They had all shared the same fate.

Jake stepped forward, bridging the distance between them in a few steps.

He didn't know what to say, feel, or think about this revelation.

Jake hadn't expected all to have survived...

Yet a few of their own died too-six of them at that.

He simply couldn't believe it.

Tip-Tap.

Jake soon heard footsteps echo behind him, and his body stiffened, expecting a fight...

Only to turn around and see an approaching Emma.

She dragged her feet on the floor, her face showing absolute disgust at the scene before them.

He nodded towards her and turned around, his body approaching the office.

What unfolded before his eyes was the stuff of nightmares.

Five dead women, each strapped to their own chair.

One had her eye sockets spooned out, with old blood dripping down her face.

Another had her ears, nose, fingers, and toes cut off, with her arms and legs twisted at her sides.

The one next to her appeared similar in state, except that it was much worse.

Her broken limbs were no longer attached to her body.

The fourth looked similar, except for having no skin, as if it were peeled off.

The last on the right appeared to be relatively unharmed, only missing a few fingers.

Jake's heart broke as he realized exactly what happened here.

The vomit that he struggled to hold at bay was finally let loose as a multitude of thoughts crossed his mind.

'Why?'

'Why us?'

'What did we do?'

'Why?'

'Why?!'

'WHY?!'

"

'...Emir should know.'

'They wanted information.'

'They wanted Lyra.'

'Alex...'

'He did this.'

"...GOD DAMN YOU, ALEX!"

Jake bellowed with remnants of vomit still in his mouth.

The Liberation Army came here for information, and they got it, only after killing everyone in

the process.

It was them!

They were the ones at fault!

Yes, it wasn't his fault for not protecting them...

Thud!

Startled, he stepped back away from a body that hit the floor next to him.

Jake then realized that it was Emma, and a thought immediately came to his mind.

'No way....'

He rushed towards Kiera, lowering his hand to her neck.

Thump.

He recognized a pulse in her.

"....Emir."

And he heard her whisper.

Jake immediately did the same to the other five and felt their pulse as well.

They were all alive.

He immediately took out old-world medicines from his rucksack, shoving them into their

mouths one by one.

"Thank god..."

Jake murmured as he set his back on the red paint that covered the floor, extremely happy at

the news.

His eyes soon grew tired, however, as the roller coaster of emotions he went through fried his brain, causing him to join them in their slumber.

-

Emma, Jake, Kiera, and the rest of her gang stood outside the warehouse, not able to handle a

second longer in that place.

After a deep and long breath, Jake asked:

"Do you know what exactly happened here?"

A trembling Kiera responded with a shake of her head.

"...W-we were preparing to run away; me and the guys decided to spread out and find

somewhere we could hide, but when we came back....."

"T-this, this is what we saw."

"Any others?" He calmly asked, in an attempt to hide his nerves.

Jake's unreasonable guilt was slowly starting to get to him, but he kept his emotions at bay.

He needed to appear composed in front of Kiera, otherwise...

All hell would break loose.

"Y-yes, we've got some more that are still out there searching...."

"We... we didn't call them in yet."

Nodding to Kiera's words, Jake looked over to those in front of him for a moment and then

spoke in a solemn tone:

"Call them in now; we need all the help we can get."

"It would take too long for us to carry their body... parts to the graveyard, and we can't stay

here for long."

Kiera's answer was silent acceptance, as she too knew of the danger of staying there right

after an attack.

No matter how sad it was to part ways with her family like that...

She had to leave. Emma joined her side and wiped away Kiera's growing tears.

"C'mon, let's go. You don't want them to hate you for leaving them exposed like that for so

long, do you?"

Kiera sniffled and nodded, gesturing for her crying gang members to follow as they again entered what they once called home.