PART:2

Slowly making every step on his foot, he quietly, "How am I still alive..." Jake asks himself, he has passed over 6 current streaks of going outside and returning in one piece, while the other is dying. 

"What is the meaning of this work anyway..." Scratching his arm, he has reached the point where the carrier separated. Whenever there's nothing to take him back to the bunker, the armored vehicle will return to the path they passed. "do we just go out to end our life, and end humanity faster?" looking back and forth, in the distance, there's nothing beside broken and ruins, 

"I wonder what my friends are doing now...?" As usual, things happened every day, he could not change his fate besides letting the strings burn.

waiting and waiting and waiting, finally, a carrier came, looks like luck was on his side. the vehicle stopped, the AI of the ship spotted him and opened the door for him. Jake doesn't want to stay out any longer, so he gets on and lets it bring him home, despite all the people inside being murdered most brutally and ruthlessly, 5 people, one spine being ripped from the front, one head missing, one limbs where gone, one being looks like been cut in half. Their captain was gone, and his vital sign on the monitor was 0, maybe he had been assimilated by the H.rC. The carrier had a hole in the top, it looked like it had been slashed at the speed of sound, and then the machine entered to eliminate the survivors inside. Jake watched the time and event from the screen of the vehicle. "damn... they managed to finish the mission... but couldn't make it out alive..."

the ride was not so comfortable, maybe Jake was alone in the chaos that had cooled down long ago. regroup and return, back to the safe zone, back at the bunker, just like he expected, everyone looks at him with the questioning mind and eyes. 

"is he-"

"every time..."

"Lucky or cursed"

many compliments he doesn't want to hear, Jake can only ignore and move on. 

"did you get it?" a tall man stood in front of him, armed from top to bottom, he must be the Colonel of the bunker, he was only 54 years old, talking with a calm and reasoning voice, he didn't want to push the boy too hard. "the core from your mission I mean"

Jake: "Yes sir" From his bag, a green core has been taken out and handed to the one leading the armry of survivor. 

Colonel: "Thank you for your help kid, I know this mission is death row, but what else can we do besides waiting" he looks around, seeing the condition of the bunker and the "human" who was still alive inside. "they choose to be the one who will help the rest, they know they already dead, and don't want to see their life end when the time end..."

Jake: "That's why I want to die..."

Colonel slightly shakes his head, "Go get some rest, you don't need to work like us, live your life fruitfully" he walks away, heading to the carriers to check their condition.

Jake ever since his parents sacrificed their lives for him, every day he always sees their death in his dreams.

[next day]

at the living quarters where survivors do whatever they do during their free time, Jake is also there, waiting for his friends to come, they have messaged him to hang out, after 2 whole months.

Jake is resting at a round table, playing games on his phone to waste time, it's very lucky for them during this time when far-range communication seems to be eradicated. 

"Hey man!" a voice startled Jake, he quickly looked up, seeing a 16-year-old boy with a girl who seemed at his age.

Jake: "John, Cornie"

John looks very positive, even tho he was parentless like Jake, and Cornie. "I heard you go outside again, is that true?" his brown hair and green eyes make him look different, but the outfits are the same as the rest, warm jacket and long jeans. 

Cornie: "You shouldn't go out Jake, we told you many times" Compared to John, she was calmer, and chill, with black hair and slightly blue eyes, she wore a short T-shirt and skirt, she looked completely different from the survivor around.

 John: "Yeah, you shouldn't go out again, dude"

Jake let out a tired sigh, "I know, you two told me a lot, know my mental health problem and physical problems, soo... what did you do during those times we haven't seen each other?"

John: "We just be together, helping whatever we could"

Jake: "Girlfriend and boyfriend stuff?"

John: "Haha, you know"

Cornie also giggled, friends of Jake's are a couple, he didn't know when they started to be together, but he didn't mind.

Jake: "Living is so boring, especially since you have to live like there's no tomorrow during quarantine in a tight place"

John: "You got a point, but there's nothing we can do, if the infection doesn't break out, we could enjoy our teenage life, but hey at least we're still alive"

Jake: "So what are you guys gonna do this morning?"

Cornie: "We want to go to the observation station to see the outside view, seeing the world condition"

John: "You wanna join?"

Jake: "Ehh... sure, I don't have anything to do anyway"

John: "Nice, c'mon, we go now!"

Jake: "Wait what? now?"

John: "Yeah! Let's go dude" he takes his hand and pulls him out of his chair, John and Cornie then force him with them, they both share laughter while Jake is uncomfortable for a bit, but he soon joins them, he doesn't want his friends to be down for him.

going up from the deep of the bunker by the main cargo lift, the three continue passing through many paths leading them to the top of the base, the observation area is a one-way small dome of thick glass, from the outside looks, it has been covered by debris of a building, the dome show them a view of the left side of the bunker.

the view outside is nothing besides ruins, their bunker is at the side of a sector where less tall structures can be seen, with this placement area, the machine-human less notices the safe zone.

John: "Hhhmmm, the surroundings are depressed, I think the sky will rain soon"

Cornie looks at the gray sky, and the clouds "Well that's not good"

John: "What do you see Jake?"

Jake: "H.rC...."

the group of friends' attention is caught by those machines from afar, three of them observing the surroundings scanning the area for any life form they can turn into one of them. it's just a normal sight to see every day, watching the world crumble each second.

John: "I wish this nightmare would end soon..." his voice slowed down.

Jake let out a sigh before leaning his body on an iron podium. 

Cornie: "Hey guys look at this" She's holding a thin notebook, found inside this place, containing only a few pages.

John: "What it is Cornie?"

Cornie: "I don't know, I found it under the broken chair here" She flipped it open "but it caught my interest when I saw this.." inside the notebook, there was a model design of something, named DC-404.

John: "Hmm, is this an H.rC? Why does it look soo... human" he takes the note from Cornie, Jake also looks at it, seeing the design. 

Jake: "Is someone trying to create..."

John: "Nope, there's a date here, 3/2/2130, this thing, if I understand, is over 150 years old"

Cornie: "Woah.."

Jake: "This year is 2294, it can't be alive at this point"

John: "Huh what did ya know, this thing uses the infection substance as blood"

Cornie: "Wait doesn't that mean the infection happened long ago?"

Jake: "No, we were born 15 years back, and we saw the world still normal until we hit 10, so the infection started after 159 years"

John: "That long?! damn, although it is a theory. let's see.." John flips the page, most of them were designed of core from a very young age, until, the last page when they notice a design of a core with the shape of a girl, this one has quite a similar name to the first one"

Jake: "Wait hold one... the ink looks..."

John: "Yeah, it's like someone has drawn this and wrote the details, about 2 or 3 months ago"

Cornie read the description under the picture, "The combination of core and Cube, this one is the next generation of DC-001 and DC-404, faster stronger, and better, the potential of her still a mystery the last time I saw this one was somewhere at this bunker, or outside area, she is the one who can save humanity bring salvation to us. seeing her like her father really brings back the memory of his golden age. this could be the last thing I can remember when my time slowly ran out, if we could bring her to the place where it all started, maybe the world could be saved" Cornie catches a breath.

John and Jake listen to her while seeing the information this notebook has, compared to the rest, "she" is more "special"

John: "I wonder who is that"

Jake: "Save humanity? doesn't seem about right" he flips the page, and behind the last paper, a mystery coordinated with the line "wakes her up" has been written with faded black ink. everyone looks at each other wondering, where is that, and what will they do with this.

Cornie: "Maybe we should put this back... I don't wanna startle everyone" *awkward Giggle*

John: "Good idea... Jake?"

Jake used his phone and took a picture of the coordinate "Just in case"

John and Cornie thumb up, and finally they all return to the underground area, finding something to do to kill time.

that night, when everyone had returned to their flat, Jake was also inside his room, the light from the lamp shining on the table where he was thinking about something, thinking about what the notebook said:

"Should I" "Maybe I shouldn't" "My friends would be sad"

letting out a tiring sigh, he fell onto the bed to look at the ceiling with an empty head, away from the madness thoughts he would cause. 

"Maybe I should forget this, I am too tired for this crab" he switched the light off and went right to bed, tomorrow he would need to work again.

when all things went into silence, when nothing could happen, on his phone, the screen still showed the coordinates he took. 

"wakes up" a very distorted voice goes up from the phone, Jake couldn't believe what he had just heard, immediately got up, and checked the phone, he whispered

"Hello..?"

"save... her... wakes... her... up..." the phone without any reason, showing him these words, "you... need... to... do... this... for... him... for... everyone" Then it shuttered down.

Jake is flabbergasted about what just happened, it seems like something wants him to get to the coordinate, a task has been given to him, a mission. "this could be a trap" he thinks, "but... I don't want to rot down here..." the sudden change of mind like someone has changed his fate.

that night when everyone is dreaming, Jake slowly and sneaky makes his way up the bunker blast door, seeing the guards and personnel patrolling around, for whatever reason, he has sneaked through and into a small vehicle that looks like a pod covered with armor. place his bag aside, with the pistol and supplies he has to go out on this one-way journey. the moment when he grabs the control panel, the bunker door suddenly opens, alerting the guards.

"hey, what the! Shut it off!!"

the pod started up on its own, taking Jake while he was still surprised about what just happened, outside the dying world.

"Hey! STOP!" even the guard could not stop him the moment his pod slid through the door, the bunker shut tight locked them inside, and allowed him to make his path to the "girl" he would need to wake up.

"It's like something is helping me... I don't know what I am doing anymore:"

the pod went into stealth more, passing through the cold night, under the moonlight when death could be around the corner, Jake looked at the phone which was normal again, he could only hope he could make it there without being dead. the red light from the ruins and even outside, the hunters seeking their next target.