Chapter 172 Been in this before?

Chapter 172: Chapter 172 Been in this before?

When Kai opened his eyes again, he found himself standing at the entrance of their base.

For a moment, he didn’t move. He simply stared at the familiar surroundings. The base. Their home. The place they had fought so desperately to protect.

Behind him stood the rest of his squad, and judging by their expressions, they were just as relieved to be there as he was. Luna stood at the front, smiling brightly.

"Here we are, guys! We conquered!"

Her radiant smile should have made Kai feel relieved. Instead, he felt a strange uneasiness settle inside him. His eyes narrowed slightly.

Something about the scene felt disturbingly familiar.

He looked around, trying to understand why the feeling was so strong. Had he seen this before? Had they already returned to the base?

He couldn’t remember. The memories were there, somewhere inside his head, but every time he tried to reach for them, they seemed to slip away.

"You don’t look happy."

Adrian’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. A small smile appeared on Adrian’s face. "Aren’t you glad we’re back, away from those monstrosities and that sea? Gosh, I’ve never been so happy to leave the ocean. The creatures we fought there were a hundred times worse than anything we’ve seen before in our lives." He shook his head. "What could possibly be worse than that? I almost died."

Kai forced himself to smile. He couldn’t allow them to notice his suspicion.

"I’m happy," he replied. "Is there any reason I shouldn’t be?"

Ethan, who had moved to stand beside them, shrugged. "Probably because you’re making a face like you’d rather be anywhere else."

Kai glanced at him. Ethan’s expression looked perfectly normal. So did Adrian’s. Luna was still smiling. Rowan stood nearby, apparently just as exhausted as the rest of them.

Everything seemed right. And yet Kai couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Luna turned toward the entrance. She knocked on the door.

Before her hand could touch it a second time, the door opened on its own.

Kai’s eyes immediately snapped toward it. His heart skipped.

There it was again. That strange feeling. He had seen something like this before. He was sure of it. But where?

His mind searched desperately for an answer. Why did the events seem familiar, as though he had already lived through them?

He had never been the kind of person who believed in strange coincidences or supernatural explanations for everything. But the apocalypse had destroyed whatever certainty he once had about the world. Now he had seen too many impossible things to dismiss them.

What if this wasn’t a coincidence? What if there was a reason everything felt familiar? And what if that reason was connected to the vines?

"Miles? Astrid? We’re back home!"

Luna’s voice rang through the entrance.

Kai remained quiet. He wanted to say something. He wanted to ask them whether they remembered how they had returned, whether they had used the aircraft, and whether anyone else thought the journey had been suspiciously easy. But he didn’t know how to begin without sounding paranoid.

Then someone spoke. "Why is the door open? That’s strange. And what’s that smell?"

Kai immediately turned toward the speaker. For a brief moment, he couldn’t identify who had said it. The voice sounded familiar, yet there was something unsettling about it.

Before he could figure it out, the smell hit him. A horrendous stench drifted out from inside the base.

Kai’s nose wrinkled. It was foul enough to make his stomach turn.

"What the hell is that?" Rowan muttered. He covered his nose with one hand. "Do they even clean this place? And fuck, did they hide a body in here?"

Nobody answered.

Luna stepped inside first, apparently intending to investigate. The others followed.

Kai hesitated at the entrance. His eyes instinctively moved toward the walls. He didn’t know why he was looking there. There was nothing unusual about them. No strange marks. No moving vines. No roots crawling across the surfaces. Just the familiar walls of their base.

Yet something inside him insisted that he look. It was as though an invisible voice were warning him to pay attention.

Kai slowly scanned the room again. Nothing. He looked toward the corridor. Still nothing.

Then he turned his attention back to his companions. They were moving farther inside, talking among themselves as though they had finally returned to a place where they could rest. Luna was ahead of them. Rowan was following her. Ethan and Adrian were talking quietly.

Everything appeared normal. Too normal.

Kai’s breathing became shallow. He couldn’t explain the feeling. He couldn’t even prove that anything was wrong. But the familiarity of the scene was beginning to frighten him more than the monsters had.

He stared at the walls one last time. Then he whispered to himself.

"I’ve finally gone nuts..." He swallowed. "At last, it’s happening."

And with that unsettling thought lingering in his mind, Kai stepped farther into the base, unaware of whether he was walking into safety or deeper into the nightmare.

AUTHOR NOTE: So dear readers I am about to conclude an arc but I want to make something clear since I am doing all this for your interest. I am putting the crew in too much dangerous situation? It’s an apocalypse but still my first trail and although I love action works I still want to hear from you all. What do you think? The actions and situations are they good? And should I hasten the romance for the leads I don’t know yet but your comments would make me know what to do. Lastly I am encouraging you all that any questions you have done hesitate to ask, some people has criticize this book for so long that I entered depression state. Earlier Chapters I stated anything that isn’t explained will have a reason in the future which I have clarified but they won’t go further and just drag me there, no one gave that an opportunity, they didn’t even go further and I was insulted and dragged so much but it’s well. I won’t go so far as I wanted in this book and would end it before 300 Chapters but to my loyal readers any questions let me know. I would have fleshed out this book but my mental health is at stake so sorry ending it at 280 but I promised a good ending.