Finding Noah

6th June 2023

"So it looks like disappearing people are a normal thing now." Ali said as he just lay on the ground, and started bandaging his cut. Even though he looked at the buildings nearby and even till the next street he found nothing.

No sign of Shashi or anything else. Just perfectly normal empty buildings with a few zombies here and there.

He couldn't understand a clue about how Kevin, him and now Shashi just go whoosh in the air. Is the wave teleportation thingy still working or it was something else, he wasn't sure. So he could just give up on it for now.

''I'm still not far away from that base Haven, let's just go back there and see if that bastard returned there." Ali thought and stood up. Looking down at the messed up bandages he did he could just sigh.

'As long as it stops the blood, right.' He said, and started walking away. His blood flow has already gone down a bit, and heartbeat is a little slower, courtesy of the infection he could guess. But that actually works in his favor, at least now he won't bleed out to death.

He picked a large metal crowbar from one of the houses he was searching for Shashi. The hook part of it could just smash those zombie skulls more easily, making him not move around much and risk wasting his bandaging again.

After walking for a while, he could see the school base at the front. Going inside a building and looking at it from the height, he could see that their base was deserted now. Zombies were still roaming around everywhere, but he didn't see any sign of life elsewhere. Maybe some of the survivors were still hiding somewhere inside, but he couldn't find them without checking everything himself.

He stopped looking and decided to take a look at that place himself. Maybe he would find someone and ask them if anyone knows anything about Kevin.

He saw some people standing and roaming outside the base, probably waiting for the horde to clear so they could go and loot supplies. Since a lot of them were turned into infected now and were still roaming in the school. But Ali ignored them and directly walked inside.

When Ali reached the school base, he didn't have to worry much about the zombies. Well, except for the ones who came close to him, and tried to bite him, others still ignored him from a distance.

'Looks like the perks of being bitten huh. How the hell do they even sense it.' Ali thought as he killed one of the zombies who came too close to him, and started snarling and trying to bite him.

Just like that Ali walked among the group of zombies, not making any large noises and avoiding getting surrounded. He first went towards the halls and the stores where everyone stayed and kept the supplies. Many of the food and other things were still there, but when he looked further down the halls where weapons and bullets were stored, he found nothing.

Someone probably took all of them while escaping. Though there weren't that many to begin with. It was all from a couple of police stations their group had raided. And found something in their normal raids.

Ali just walked towards where Kevin stayed, hoping to find something there. The bastard used to stay in the principal's office, he couldn't guess what was that audacity. Maybe he just needed to show that he was the boss, I guess.

After searching through all the stuff, drawers and everything, he found nothing that could help him with anything. He did find a pistol and a few magazines under the sofa, so he kept them. But nothing that could help him locate Kevin.

Until his eyes fell on a photo placed under the table. It was of two guys and a girl playing outside. All their cheeks were covered in cake. One of the guys was obviously Kevin, and the other guy looked somewhat similar to him too.

'His brother maybe' Ali thought but his doubts were confirmed when he turned the photo and saw the date and details written behind it.

[Happy birthday big brother.

Noah]

Seeing the wish written in a handwriting which was definitely worse than his own, Ali had a smile on his face. After all, he had seen Noah a few days ago during one of his raids, if he was sure about it. At that time he never thought this was gonna be Kevin's brother.

'Noah, huh. Let's see if you're still there.'

Ali laughed and started walking out. He heard some sounds in the area down the halls, thinking it was some of the survivors who still lived and hid themselves. He decided to deal with them first, before going for Noah.

The sound of screams and gunshots soon rang out from the school halls, attracting all the zombies back inside, while scaring the people waiting outside.

Soon he came out of the school with a gun and walked away like nothing happened. His clothes that he changed just in the morning, were dyed in blood again. But there was a smile on his face. A very cruel smile capable enough to scare off anyone who watched him leave.

"Kiara and Liebe - I found you bitches. Just wait for me." Ali said, as he laughed loudly again.

The people that he found in the school turns out were the lackeys of Liebe. Yesterday they managed to run away from the academy, after Kevin pulled his little energy blast thingy and opened a path between the horde. They all went to a place nearby and stayed there.

Since they ran for their lives yesterday and didn't have anything with them, instead of going on raids and looking for stuff everywhere, Liebe just found a few of his men to come here and take back everything he could find. The bastards even had a secret way out made earlier, yet no one else in the base had any idea about it.

But after having a nice talk with them, Ali managed to know where they were hiding. Though he was disappointed that Kevin wasn't with them, for now the information about that bitch was enough.

Since the place where he saw Noah was far away, he took a bicycle and decided to ride till there. It reminded him of the day when he woke up first, when he was going around on the bicycle just like this with Kiara, and the way he found Emily easily that same day. It probably didn't feel much at that time, but now, that moment was the one he missed the most. Maybe if he didn't take Kiara with him that day, none of it, none of it would've happened.

The more he thought about the past, the more hateful he felt. But now he knew where that bitch and her bastard of an uncle was, he would just have to count all his revenge on them.

His brain started thinking of all the ways he would torture them. Of all the things they did and all he suffered because of them.

If not for Kiara betraying him, Aarvi would've known about everything at the very beginning. Brian wouldn't have betrayed them to please her, and Emily would've been fine, his team of guards wouldn't have to die so he could escape.

If not for Liebe, he never would've even gone to their base, and all this would've never happened.

The fact that made him rage the most was that he saved all of their lives. He saved Kiara, Brian and Liebe - everyone. Yet they all chose to help that bastard and have him suffer.

''I'll kill you all. Just wait for me." Ali said as he looked at the knife near his waist. It was the knife that bastard Brian had stabbed in Emily's back that day. Even though he killed Brian later on, but Kiara still lived. And that's why he always carried this knife with him.

Just so he could plunge it right into her and have her know how it feels. Have her suffer the pain Emily would've felt.

He clenched his hands on the handle tightly, as his fists started shaking in anger - he felt the intense hatred and hunger for everything. It was like deep within him, something inside of him was just crying and vying for pain and destruction.

-ahhhh- He let go of the bicycle handle and held his head, as pain suddenly hit him. He fell down to the road and kept squirming there.

The painful seizures he had in the morning were getting a little annoying now, as they just came too suddenly and would make him go nuts. The infection was probably eating away at everything within him, but the thought of that one sweet moment of revenge, that's what kept him sane even under all that pain.

"Just a little bit more. Just a little. They'll all die by my hands." Ali said as he pressed his hand on his wound on the stomach, opening it again. The sudden physical pain finally managed to calm his brain and nerves a little. "Just a little."

Walking forwards Ali managed to find the place where he saw Noah. It was at a community center, where around a dozen or so people were hold up together, trying to form their own mini base.

Ali just kept standing outside their gate with the dagger in hand, thinking something in his mind. A part of his brain begged him that Noah was innocent and he did nothing, that he already killed enough innocents yesterday, that he shouldn't do any more harm and let go of his hatred and just rest.

Yet another part was screaming at him, to just kill everyone. To wipe out everything. That none of this should even exist anymore. That there was no meaning behind anything anymore. Since he suffered, this world should suffer along with him.

And that voice won.

Ali jumped over the wall and walked inside. And soon enough the sound of carnage started echoing again.

(Read ch3 again if you wanna know how he killed Noah. And what the process of that torture was.)

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{ - Ali knowing about Noah, was actually one of fate's arrangements, while Ali was still considered a stepping stone. In one of the scenarios when Kevin was supposed to kill Ali, Ali would then tell him about Noah, beg for his life and run away. After all, a stepping stone always lives longer, just so he can get face slapped many times. But since stuff went haywire and Ali just went full on nuts, and skipped to being the main villain. Let's just say bad luck to fate and Noah.}