Bad Premonition

The moment that Nicole's lips touched his own, Grant suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

He quickly pulled away before taking a small leap backwards to put some distance between Nicole and himself.

Seeing his reaction, Nicole suddenly became flustered and embarrassed, "I am so sorry! I do not know what came over me!""

Grant chuckled awkwardly, "It's okay, don't worry about it. You have just been through a traumatic experience and you might still be a little lost.

I am glad you seem to be doing a little better though.

If you'll excuse me, I have things to take care of in the aftermath of the attack. Please rest here as long as you need.

And do not worry, this does not change the fact that I will keep my promise."

And with that, Grant basically sprinted out of the room.

Nicole watched him disappear out the door and off down the hallway with a somewhat sad and depressed look on her face.

She didn't really have any feelings for Grant but she had discarded her own personal feelings when she had thrown herself at Andrew in order to survive and she had assumed that the same thing would work with Grant.

Though that did not appear to be the case, which made her regret her actions.

While Nicole was lamenting and reflecting on her actions, Grant was quickly making his way towards the main entrance to the hospital as if running away from some terrifying monster.

[What the hell was that?! I know I'm good looking but no one has ever kissed me out of the blue like that!

Why do I feel so guilty about it too? I feel like I just cheated on my wife or something and I'm not even in a relationship with anyone...

Strange..]

Grant continued to replay the event over and over in his mind as he walked out of the building.

He couldn't shake the feeling that he had somehow just done something wrong.

"GRANT!"

"What? What?! Is there a new enemy attack?!"

Grant suddenly became vigilant and scanned the area looking for enemies.

As he looked around, his eyes finally landed on Zach who was still sitting on the steps of the building. He was looking at Grant like he was a crazy person.

"What is wrong with you Grant? I called your name like seven times just now, did you not hear me?"

Slightly embarrassed, Grant tried to play it off like it was no big deal but Zach kept staring at him for a few seconds before he chalked Grant's eccentric behavior up to the fact that Grant was just a tad bit out of his mind considering the weight on his shoulders.

"Well whatever, doesn't matter, Tom asked to see you when you were available. He is at his house."

"Oh, alright. I'll go visit him now. Thank you for letting me know. How are you feeling by the way?"

Zach reached up and grabbed his shoulder where he had been wounded before he spoke, "Besides the fact that I am absolutely dead tired, pretty good actually. I can't believe how effective those potions are at healing wounds. Somehow we really need to stock up on those. They could be extremely beneficial in saving people's lives."

Laughing at the fact that someone else had the same idea he did once they saw the power of the potions, Grant simply waved his hand and began to walk away.

"Way ahead of you bud, I already have a plan for that. If we can use modern medicine to save people from minor illness and injuries in conjunction with potions to cure severe wounds and illness, we might just live forever my friend!"

While walking away and laughing at the mere idea of immortality, Grant disappeared down the street heading towards Tom's house.

While watching Grant walk away, laughing at his own joke, Zach suddenly had a bad premonition.

[Imagine that guy living forever... may god and the rest of the deities have mercy on the souls of his future enemies and friends alike...]

After walking for a few minutes, Grant arrived at the location of Tom's house which was currently being guarded by a few men with guns.

At first, Grant was confused by the guards since all of the prisoners had been released on the basis that they commit no more crimes and repent for the ones they had already committed, but he realized that unlike himself and some of the other people in the camp, Tom was simply a normal person with absolutely no strength to his name, so the guards were there to protect him.

[This is such a waste of manpower... Sherlock, remind me later, but we should talk about any monsters that can be bred in mass quantities and are relatively harmless so that we can artificially level normal people a few times to increase their safety and productivity.

At this point, being a normal people serve no purpose since we have to waste so many resources protecting them..]

{I already have a few ideas. We can discuss it later though. Your friend seems to have realized you are here.}

Grant looked up to see Tom walking out of the door to the house and gesturing for Grant to come inside.

Once inside, Tom and Grant sat down at a table but before Grant could ask what Tom wanted to talk about, an older lady, about the same age as Tom appeared with a tray carrying a coffee pot and a couple of mugs.

Seeing that Grant was confused by the lady's presence, Tom realized that he had yet to introduce her to Grant at any of their previous meetings.

"My apologies for not introducing her to you sooner Grant, but this is my wife Betty."

Betty simply smiled and nodded her head once before she said, "It's nice to meet you young man. Tom has told me much about you. Thank you for saving us from Andrew and then the ants. You are an impressive young man."

For some reason, Grant felt that although she was saying nice words and appeared kind and friendly, she was actually scolding him.

It was like he could sense a veiled sense of disappointment in her tone and expression, but he couldn't quite figure out why.

Since it did him no good to think on it, and the lady appeared to pose no threat to him, Grant simply ignored it, "It's nice to meet you too Betty. Is that coffee you have there? How did you guys even manage to get that?"

Tom coughed a few times before finally answering, "Well.. my son actually.. he found a propane stove used for camping with a few canisters one time when he was out hunting and he gave them to us. We use them to cook meals for the people of the area.

And then on special occasions we will make coffee with it as well. I thought you might enjoy a cup, but maybe I was wrong?"

Grant wasn't really a coffee drinker himself, but he didn't want to be rude so he lied through his teeth, "Ah yes, I would in fact enjoy a cup. Thank you very much."

After pouring cups for both Tom and Grant, Betty kissed Tom on the cheek before disappearing into the room that she originally came from.

Grant took a few sips of the coffee as a good will gesture before setting it on the table in front of him.

"Alright Tom, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Taking a few sips himself, Tom finally got to the reason he had invited Grant in the first place.

"Well, as you probably already know. We lost some people because of those ants. What you may not know, is that we actually lost quite a few people.

122 to be exact.

Not all of them are confirmed to be dead, some are still missing and may in fact turn up alive, but I thought it would be best to let you know."

"Shit... that's more than I thought... how are people reacting? Are they upset that we didn't do more?"

Tom shook his head side to side before speaking again, "You're wrong. Rather than being upset, they are grateful, at least the vast majority.

Yes, some are grieving the loss of their loved ones and may blame you or the other warriors, but unfortunately, loss is something that has become a common occurrence in this world and people are adapting quickly so that number is few.

Seeing the warriors of the camp fight the monsters right in front of their eyes, and realizing that they were nothing but a burden, people are burning with a fighting spirit all of a sudden.

In the last half an hour alone, more than 100 people have already signed up to join the fighting force."

Grant was extremely surprised to hear that, but confused at the same time.

"Wait, why are these people suddenly brave enough to sign up to fight now? Why not when The Path first emerged?"

Tom took a few sips of his coffee before setting it back down on the table and taking a deep sigh.

"Let me ask you a question in response, Grant. And forgive me if I am overstepping a bit here, but what was your first thought when you saw the state of the world and realized that things had changed?"