Chapter 95

Chapter 95

: A Somewhat Familiar Face

After factoring in travel time and the adjustment period she'd need once she got to the university, Everly decided to set off 7 days early.

Misha's parents couldn't get away, so the plan was for the three of them—her, Misha, and Old John—to make the trip together. However, just two days before departure, Buddy suddenly fell ill.

She was already a really, really old dog, her eyes clouded over with cataracts, and her kidneys and heart were failing in various ways.

This time, they got her to the vet in time and saved her. But after the exam, the vet said Buddy had at most a month or so left. Old John had planned to leave Buddy with Misha's parents while he was gone, but after this, he couldn't stand to leave Buddy's side.

"This might be the last time Buddy has left. Grandpa, you stay here with her. On the way to school, Misha and I will look after each other."

Everly hugged Buddy by the dog bed, resting her head against the whimpering dog's for a moment, fighting back tears as she spoke.

Old John sat quietly beside her, reaching over to gently pat his granddaughter's head a couple of times.

Before he knew it, Everly had gone from a tiny, fragile baby to the healthy, strong, vibrant young woman she was now.

And now, the fledgling's wings were nearly full, and it was finally time to leave the nest and fly.

"Go, my girl. You'll always be your grandfather's pride."

...

On the morning of August 18th, Old John drove his Wrangler over the towering Mount Elamor, to drop Everly and Misha off at the entrance of Senk International Airport.

"Goodbye, stay safe, take care."

"Goodbye, Grandpa. And you too, my sweet Buddy..."

Everly hugged her grandfather and the dog, who was struggling to get up in the back seat, to say goodbye.

After security and a long wait, the plane took off at 2:20 PM. Outside the window, the ground shrank away quickly, and soon thick clouds blocked Everly's view. For the first time in 18 years, she was leaving the land where she'd grown up, and a faint, lingering homesickness washed over her.

At 5:48 PM, after a bumpy descent, the plane landed smoothly.

When Everly and Misha walked out of the airport with their luggage, they were greeted by a completely unfamiliar city.

The next flight from Radyard to Konkard wasn't for another 40 hours. Everly and Misha had to stay in Radyard for a day and a half. They'd booked a hotel near the airport in advance—a four-star place affiliated with the airport, with a double room going for 350 Mido a night.

The hotel wasn't far, and since they'd been sitting on the plane for hours and wanted to stretch their legs, they skipped the taxi and dragged their suitcases, strolling along the road with their phone GPS. As they passed an intersection, Everly turned and happened to catch a glimpse of a somewhat familiar face in a car stopped at a red light.

Blonde hair, blue-gray eyes, pale skin, and an elegant bearing—he had that old-school Britta aristocratic vibe. Everly felt like she'd seen him somewhere before, but she racked her brain and couldn't figure out when, where, or how.

Was he some kind of celebrity...

Soon the light turned green, and the sleek black sedan pulled away, disappearing down the road. Everly looked away, grabbed her luggage, and kept going, reaching the hotel a short while later.

Their room was on the 3rd floor. Before checking in, Everly did her usual thing and snapped a photo of the evacuation map, saving it to her phone.

Horror Movie Survival Rule #3: Always scope out the escape routes ahead of time.

The day had been tiring, so the two girls grabbed a simple dinner at the hotel restaurant, cleaned up, and turned in.

The next day was completely free.

The airport was a bit far from downtown, and since Radyard was a small city, there wasn't much to see. So after a bit of discussion, they decided to check out the nearby Radyard State Park.

The park was free to enter, but things like the cable car, sightseeing boat, and horseback riding cost extra.

Since it was a weekday and the park was far from downtown, there weren't many visitors. The two girls, full of energy, worked their way from the base of the mountain to the top, then took the cable car down to the dock, hopped on a sightseeing boat, and cruised a big loop around the river called "Chata."

By the time they got back on land, they were a little hungry and their calves were sore, but otherwise they were still full of energy.

They found a random hot dog stand and sat down for a late-afternoon bite.

Misha always scrolled through her phone while eating. Mid-bite, she suddenly handed her phone to Everly, signaling for her to watch a video.

The video was shot in a bustling city center, seemingly during rush hour. Traffic was heavy, horns blared nonstop, and pedestrians hurried past with notebooks or bread bags tucked under their arms.

In the middle of all that, a brutal attack suddenly broke out.

The victim was a guy in a shirt and tie, walking down the street like normal, when a ragged homeless man suddenly charged at him from the side. Without a word, he grabbed the guy's shoulders with both hands, opened his mouth, and bit down on his neck.

"Ah! Aaah!"

The homeless guy bit down with brutal force. From the video's angle, you could see a big spurt of blood shoot out of the guy's neck like a red ribbon, splattering onto the people around him.

"Help! Someone save him!"

"Hey, what are you doing, let him go!"

"Police, where's the police..."

Screams erupted as people noticed the horror unfolding on the street. Soon, some rushed forward to intervene, and others eagerly dialed the police.

Unexpectedly, despite looking thin and weak, the homeless man had incredible strength. Two burly men over six feet tall rushed in to pull him away but still couldn't free the guy from his bite. One tattooed man even got bitten by the homeless man by accident.

The chaos continued for a while. Just as the guy seemed about to lose all signs of life, police finally arrived at the scene. After multiple warnings went unheeded, they shot and killed the attacking homeless man.

The video Misha showed Everly ended abruptly after the homeless man was shot and fell.

"What is this?"

"This is an assault that happened in downtown Radyard a few hours ago. It's all over the local forums. Scary stuff—good thing we didn't go to the city center today."

"What happened to that homeless man? Why did he suddenly bite someone?"

"I don't know. It just happened, so no investigation results have been released yet, but some people say he might have been high on drugs..."

Was it really that simple...

Everly took the phone and replayed the video. When it reached the moment the homeless man charged out, she slowed it to 0.5x speed and examined it frame by frame. She noticed a prominent scratch on the homeless man's outstretched arm, and his wide-open eyes had pale pupils, bloodshot and glazed over. Rather than a drug addict, he looked more like something infected and mutated by a virus.

Anyway, Everly had never seen a drug addict with cataracts.

Of course, there was another possibility—the homeless man already had cataracts—but that would be too much of a coincidence.

After studying the video, Everly was about to hand the phone back to Misha when her gaze inadvertently swept over a black car in the upper right corner of the video. Her hand froze mid-motion.

Everly brought the phone back, took a screenshot, and then slowly zoomed in on that corner of the video. It was a very low-key black sedan, parked not far from the scene of the crime on the roadside. Although the car had privacy film and the occupants couldn't be seen clearly, the license plate number was one she had seen just yesterday, so it left a deep impression on Everly.

That was the car the blonde man had been in yesterday.

Who was that man, and could he be connected to the homeless man who suddenly went berserk? And what was the deal with that homeless man—did he have an infectious disease, or was he straight out of a zombie apocalypse script...

At the mention of keywords like infectious disease and hospital, a flash of inspiration struck Everly. She remembered—where she had seen the man in the car before—

That was Grant Megan! The descendant of the missing founder of Megan Medical Group, who vanished after the "Butterfly Fall Incident"!

First rule of surviving a horror movie: watch for the clues.

Anything tied to the Megan Group—the ones behind the "Teeth Case" and the "Butterfly Fall Incident"—is never good news. Going by that logic, Everly had every reason to believe Ladiyard would soon be unsafe.

And in horror movies dealing with stuff like infectious diseases or zombie viruses, hanging around crowded places is a death trap.

Everly glanced at the passersby, stood up, and turned to Misha. "This place might get dangerous. Let's head back."

"Yeah."

Everly was super thankful Jack-Field Airport was stuck in a remote corner far from downtown, buying her and Misha some breathing room.

They bolted out of the park and took a taxi back to the hotel.

On the way, Misha scrolled through the forum again. Sure enough, after the news of the homeless guy biting someone, several similar attacks had popped up across the city. Commenters were already wondering if some new infectious disease was spreading and talking about getting out of town.

After entering the hotel, the two of them locked the door, put on the chain lock, and quickly began packing.

Before leaving home, Everly and Misha had carefully sorted their luggage. Essential travel items like driver's licenses, credit cards, and cash were all placed in backpacks, kept untouched, so they could grab and go anytime. The suitcases held less important things—items that wouldn't matter if lost, like spare clothes and souvenirs picked up on the road.

Everly had come back just for her backpack. Since they were heading to a tourist spot today and she didn't know how safe the area was, she was worried about pickpockets, so aside from the panacea, she'd left her ID and cards behind.

As for the suitcase, she didn't care if they grabbed it or not.

The room was booked online, and the fee had been paid in advance. Every second mattered, so they skipped checking out, left the hotel with their backpacks, and took a taxi to the airport.

While heading back from the park, Everly and Misha had already booked the next flight out on their phones. Now, if they could just make it to the airport and get through the wait before takeoff, they'd fly straight out of Ladiyard to a safe new city.

But things didn't go as planned. The taxi had barely pulled up to the airport entrance when a piercing scream came from the check-in area inside. Everly rolled down the window and peered through the glass doors. In the middle of the chaos, a short, stocky guy in a white tee was screaming like a maniac, pinning a young woman down and chomping on her neck.

Next to her, a guy in a suit lay on the floor, blood pouring from his neck, barely alive.

The second her eyes locked onto the guy in white, Everly's face went pale. Her danger radar was going off!

Was it a disease? Or a zombie thing? The infected went crazy biting and attacking people, and it spread through wounds—felt more like a zombie flick. Either way, this airport was the last place they should be! There was still an hour before the flight took off, and that was way too much time for something to go wrong here.

"Hey, change of plans—take us to Ladiyard State Park instead."

Everly turned to the taxi driver, motioning for him to drive off.