Chapter 11: Infighting

Alex raised an eyebrow, thinking he had heard her wrong, and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Brian, Terry and Riley frowned when they heard what she had said.

They didn’t even know her, so they weren’t too sure where she got the idea that it was an obligation for them to do so.

"Felicia, stop." Patricia tried to stop the student but she didn’t.

The student, Felicia, went on and said, "I mean, you are here already, might as well keep us safe while we wait for the authorities.

"My boyfriend, Joe, will be here soon anyway."

The other students nodded their heads to what Felicia had just said.

Alex stared at her.

There was no need for any words when you had absolute power over someone.

"Well... As a man, don’t you think that you should..." she stammered and stopped when she saw his intense stare and the blood that was still on his knuckles.

After a few moments of silence, he glanced away and shook his head.

Dealing with her would be a waste of precious time.

Either she thought that he could be pressured by her, since he and his friends weren’t violent without any reason like Jack and his men, or she was still unable to realize that the ways of the old days were gone now.

These pretty women’s days of being worshiped and given leeway in many things just because they looked good were over.

In a way, he enjoyed seeing them behave as they always had before, thinking that it would still work.

Reality would teach them a lesson very soon, but Alex wasn’t interested in staying around to find out.

He had so many things on his plate, and time was of the essence.

Alex glanced over at his friends and said, "We better get back to our dorm."

The three of them nodded their heads at him and they stood up, getting ready to leave.

When the other students saw them do so, they panicked.

It was the first time that their posturing didn’t work.

The thoughts of what happened earlier with Jack came back to them and they gave Felicia a stare.

If only she had shut up earlier, they thought to themselves.

"Please stay and help us."

"We are not like her. We will pay you for the help when things go back to normal."

"Yeah. Please ignore her."

"Felicia, apologize to him now!"

They chastised Felicia and begged for Alex and the others to stick around.

But even with how the other students were begging, Felicia refused to get down from her high pedestal.

When the other students from the Business Building saw what she did, they got to her, with two of them holding her arms and one of them standing behind and pulling at her hair.

They tried to force her to come to Alex and apologize to him.

"You shall pay for this when Joe arrives!" Felicia struggled and cursed at them.

She was being restrained by some other lowly students while one of them messed up her hair and forced her to apologize to Alex.

Never before had she been so humiliated in her life.

Tears rolled uncontrollably down the sides of her eyes.

Patricia quickly stepped in to stop them.

"Stop! We better secure the building first instead of fighting among ourselves," she said and she shook her head vigorously when sweat suddenly appeared on her forehead.

The urge to go into a slumber was great, but she knew that she couldn’t do so at the moment.

Alex saw their infighting and how fast they had turned on each other without any warning.

He figured that they might perish much earlier than he had expected. In times like this, working together for survival was of the utmost importance.

After seeing enough, he didn’t want to be involved with them anymore and he started walking.

They had taught him that, in the future, if anyone approached him for help, it was going to be transactional.

Only when the other party could offer something of value to him, then he would consider helping or just barter trade with them.

Otherwise, his and his friends’ survival was his first priority.

When Brian, Terry and Riley saw him walk away, they quickly followed closely behind.

Terry stopped for a moment to turn around to give a last look at Patricia.

She was the one that he had asked Riley to come to the Business Building for, but with what had happened, he wasn’t too sure of his decision now.

He gave out a long sigh before he caught up to the others.

Their way down the stairs was relatively uneventful and when they reached the entrance, Brian grabbed the fire extinguisher that was by the lift.

After they were ready, the four of them made a dash back to their dorm building.

The birds swooped down at them but with prior experience, they knew how to handle the birds easily.

Alex swung his baseball bat and he took out a bunch of the birds.

Brian sprayed the fire extinguisher at the birds while Terry and Riley waited for the opportunity to take them down with the mop and broom.

"I have so many goodies in my room and this is the best you got out of it? And why aren’t we using our abilities?" Riley complained while he stabbed the bird that was coming at him.

"Where did you keep them? We could only find two survival knives in the drawer. As for not using our abilities, Alex said that there are eyes in the buildings around us. It’s better to lie low for now," Terry said and swatted the birds away with the mop’s head.

He was satisfied when the birds got dispersed by the mop and said, "See, it’s weird looking but it’s effective."

Riley’s lips twitched as he couldn’t refute him.

It was indeed effective.

Seeing how they were bantering, Alex rolled his eyes at them and said, "Stop talking and run."

Brian nodded his head and added, "This fire extinguisher can’t last much longer."

He pressed the trigger and the fire extinguisher gave out its last spray at the birds which had largely scattered away from them now.

But it was not a big deal anymore.

They’ve arrived back where they came from and the students in their dorm building looked down at them from their windows with astonishment.

Alex and his friends were the first ones that they’ve seen walking away and getting back safely.

Others who had tried turned back within a few meters when the birds started to attack them in numbers.

Finally, when Alex got into the dorm building, he glanced around and said, "We better barricade the entrance with something first."

From the battle with the larger rats earlier, he knew that bigger mutated beasts would come sooner or later, so they had better be prepared.

The others nodded their heads and they started to push whatever they could find to barricade the entrance.

Brian took out his phone to check on any updates from the officials but he frowned when he saw that the mobile network was gone.

There was no connection anymore.

But that was not all. ℯ

Alex glanced out of the entrance and frowned when he saw a dark fog covering the area.