Chapter 7 - The First to Volunteer

A few meters from the settlement, surrounded by the torn corpses of enforcers, Fred lay on his stomach. Limbs covered his body, the stench of iron masking his scent, leaving only his bloodshot eyes gleaming in the darkness.

Slowly, he started to move, crouching as he pushed the limbs off of him.

The elk had been gone for a few minutes. He figured it was safe enough to start searching for his people.

That was when Vincent found him.

Wordlessly, Vincent grabbed Fred's ankles, instantly draining the man's blood before yanking him into the void.

A scream barely had time to form before it was cut off.

Inside the void, Vincent noted that Fred was in stasis and kept his grip on his ankles, dragging him back toward the embankment.

The others were peeking over the edge, scanning their surroundings to make sure the elk wasn't nearby. With their ears shattered, they could only rely on their eyes, forcing them to move slowly and carefully.

Vincent emerged fully this time, leaving Fred behind in the void—and nearly scaring Louis into a heart attack.

Louis silently thanked Dan for the night vision. If not for that, Vincent's ghostly pale face would have sent him running and screaming.

"Fred is with me. Let's go back to the bunker."

"We're deaf, Cents."

Angel exaggeratedly waved at him, her voice shifting from loud to a whisper. Unable to gauge her own volume, she mouthed her next words once she had Vincent's attention.

'You lead the way.' She lobbed a white stick toward him.

Vincent reflexively caught it, groaning as his torn muscles protested. The parasite hadn't been gentle on his body.

As he bent the stick, it began to glow. It was a faint light, but enough for everyone to see him.

It took a few minutes to reconvene with the others. They moved carefully, keeping their noise low.

The same process repeated as they made their way to the bunker.

What should have been a short walk stretched to nearly fifteen minutes.

A few times, the elk's bugle echoed in the distance.

Each time, Vincent reflexively vanished into the void, plunging them into sudden darkness.

A collective sigh of relief soon echo as they confirm they were safe.

At last, they reached the bunker. The children went in first, followed by the adults squeezing through one by one.

The space was cramped, built for only three people. But Dan and Louis made it work, dismantling the dining table and empty crates to clear room.

It wasn't enough for any full-grown adult to lie down, but it was safer than being outside.

Vincent finally released Fred from the void. His muffled shout was quickly silenced as Vincent clamped a hand over his mouth. Fred had dislocated his arm in the struggle, and without a word, Angel fixed it.

Fred looked emotional. He turned to Vincent, his mouth opening and closing as if searching for the right words. For a moment, it seemed like he might drop to his knees.

"Thanks, Cents."

Then, without another word, he sprinted to his family, leaving Vincent awkwardly scratching his head.

With that, the shots were handed out—stabilizers for bleeding injuries, regenerative stem cells for internal damage.

"I don't want it. This cloth will do fine."

Angel turned sharply away from the stabilizer in Vincent's hand, her face twisting in disgust. She tore a thin cloth in two, intending to wrap her bleeding thighs.

Vincent caught her wrist.

"I know it's from Stasis, but if that elk comes back, we can't have you limping."

Their eyes locked.

Angel pursed her lips, her hair standing on end as she glared at him.

"Unless you'd rather be the first test subject to see how long someone can last in the void?"

Vincent quirked a brow.

The stabilizer vanished from his hand, snatched away as Angel turned her back on him. He waited. When he heard the soft click of the injection activating, he let out a quiet sigh.

None of these shots worked instantly, and their effectiveness varied from person to person. Some recovered within minutes, while others took an hour at best.

Vigorous activity also slowed the process. In the worst cases, the medicine became useless altogether. Most shots required a stable core body temperature to take effect.

Again, a clinic visit would have offered instant relief.

But few could afford it.

With everyone settling in, attempting to find sleep while sitting on the cool ground, Vincent decided to test how long he could last in the void.

But after only ten minutes, he reappeared next to the siblings.

They were sharing space in the surveillance room, the chair tucked under the table. Three cameras had died, leaving only one still functioning. Though it was glitching, it was better than nothing.

"Huh? Thought you were staying there."

Dan looked up from his attempt at fixing one of the cameras, his tools sprawled across half the room.

Vincent shook his head and shifted into a more comfortable position, leaning against the wall.

"The medicine isn't working. I'm not sure if my body is actually in stasis or if the void just rejected it as a foreign substance."

"So it might have frozen inside you."

"Yup. I'll go back once I'm healed."

Angel snickered, popping balloons on yet another yellow burner phone as she sat to Vincent's left.

"That's relative, isn't it? You're still wrecking your body with all that caffeine. You've already got a parasite. Why not stop?"

"Bad idea. Imagine how bad his migraine alone would be," Dan muttered. "He's not just your average coffee enthusiast."

Angel looked up from her phone, staring at Vincent's profile. "What about the parasite? Are you keeping it?"

Vincent's muscles tensed. Her voice was soft, neutral, merely curious—but the question sent his mind into a haze. Memories of the fight surfaced, the raw power surging through his veins.

And the damage it had done to his body.

Dan kept working while Angel waited. The silence stretched for five minutes, yet she only shifted her head onto her knees, watching him comfortably.

Vincent exhaled slowly, the decision weighing on him.

"I can't drag Lola into my death, at least."

Angel held his gaze for a few seconds before returning to her game.

"Then pray Kazuki has a cleaner for you tomorrow."

"...Yeah."

Vincent's voice trailed off, his body succumbing to sleep, worn down by exhaustion and caffeine withdrawal. He hadn't reached his quota today. His last thought was the terrible nausea waiting for him.

...

Six hours later, the quiet bustle of people moving in and out of the bunker stirred him awake.

The group had already started scavenging what they could from the outpost wreckage. They would have to move again—find a place close to Sanctuary but not easily discovered by the enforcers.

Vincent sat up, finding himself lying on a mattress on the floor, a thin blanket draped over him. Testing his body, he realized someone—probably one of the siblings—had given him another shot while he slept. His muscles no longer screamed in protest. Running wouldn't be an issue, though jumping might still be pushing it.

'Testing the void will have to wait.'

Outside, as the sun's first rays pierced through the fog of dawn, Kazuki returned.

He was alone. And he brought terrible news.

"We have no way of escaping the elk. The team is trapped in the cave system of Mt. Tabaghak with my wife and daughter. If they so much as set foot outside, that thing will strike them with lightning. It's a silver lining that it can't fit inside—otherwise…"

Kazuki sat heavily on the ground as someone wrapped his bleeding arm. His face was dark, tense. He was one of those people who needed ten minutes for the medicine to take effect—useless in a crisis like this.

"What's the team's condition?"

Vincent knelt, using someone else's dagger to draw a rough map of the area in the dirt. Based on Kazuki's explanation, the team was stuck near an open field, with a cluster of spires that could serve as cover.

"We don't need to kill it. We baited it away once. We can do it again."

Kazuki's head snapped up. "You baited it?" His eyes flashed with disbelief before his expression darkened.

"How the hell are you guys still alive? That vorvik is huge."

Dan grinned. "We hid while Vincent distracted it."

Kazuki's gaze shot to Vincent, his shock palpable. "Vincent?! You—" His voice faltered as realization dawned. He swallowed hard.

"You're hosting—"

"Temporary," Vincent cut in, irritation flickering across his face. "Which reminds me, Aisha said you had a CX cleaner. Do you still have it?"

Kazuki exhaled slowly, controlling his breathing. His lips pressed into a thin line before he shook his head.

"It's with the team."

Vincent sighed—long and exhausted.

Dan burst into laughter, which only earned him a sharp slap on the back. He wheezed, momentarily losing his breath.

Angel was the culprit. She rolled her eyes before crossing her arms, her gaze settling on Vincent's helpless expression.

Vincent grunted, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees before rolling his shoulders.

"Alright. Guess I'm the first volunteer. Who's coming?"