The End Of Life

Mark heard his friend's advice and slowly nodded. He supported Kevin's thought process of advising them to stay, instead of following them to the unknown, with constant danger. He looked at Suzie, who was quietly thinking and wanted her to stay with both of them. He cared for her but knew staying in the camp was better. He could only sigh, thinking about his conflicting opinions. 

"Well, you heard what he said. Think about it hard these next two days. After that, we can talk about it once again. The mission is very important right now." Mark leaned back on the couch. The living room was completely silent as Mark closed his eyes.

Daisy, who came into the living room, rubbing her eyes and yawning, broke the silence. She sat beside David and asked, "What are you guys up to?" Looking at the rest in the room. Suzie shook her head and said nothing before quickly changing the topic. 

They continued to talk, and it didn't take them long until Ray also joined them. But they stopped when someone knocked on the door. Ray, who was the closest to it, opened it and noticed it was his friend. 

"Ray, come on, man. I thought we were going to spend some time playing games today. You didn't even show up for lunch. Come on, we can join a game or two if we go now." Said Jacob. 

Before Ray could appease his friend, Suzie walked up and said from behind, "Uncle Jacob. What games are you guys playing?" 

Seeing her, Jacob exclaimed and said, "Suzie, you are finally back. Your dad would constantly talk about you every day, worried about you. When did you guys come back? How was your journey?" As he noticed Mark and David too. They were the people who told and sent them to the camp, so he didn't forget them. 

"Yeah, we came back today, and it was tough but was ok." Jacob felt happy for his friend seeing her smile again. He saw how broken she was when she left with her friends and how depressed his friend was. Now that she was back, he also noticed how normal Ray looked. 

"So uncle, what games were you guys talking about?" She asked again, curious about the games.

Jacob laughed and replied, "Oh, the games. We found an old roulette table recently and brought it back here into one of the flats. So we started playing it for some fun and stress relief. I and your dad planned to play some more today because we were free. But I never expected you guys to come back."

Suzie looked at her father, who looked like a kid who got caught doing wrong. He silently tried to explain, "It's nothing. Only a few times for stress relief." He was anxious because he knew her daughter didn't approve of his gambling. Ray was a bit of an addiction when it came to gambling. He would go out once in a while to play a few games. But both his daughter and wife were against it and he eventually stopped. 

Suzie, contrary to his expectations, simply nodded with an understanding smile and said, "It's ok dad. You don't need to explain it too much. I just hope you don't get too into it. You can go play now, we have two days more to spend. People must be waiting for you." 

Ray immediately smiled and reassured her daughter's worries while also hugging her. He turned around and went out the door. But he turned back and asked David, "David, do you also want to come. It will be fun. You guys too." And looked towards Mark and Kevin. 

David felt it was an okay way to relieve some stress and so nodded. He stood up and Kevin also stood up along with him to go and spend some time relaxing. Mark remained seated, not opting to go out. He was never an out-door person and always kept to himself before this. The three of them followed Jacob, leaving Suzie, Daisy, and Mark in the house. 

Suzie and Daisy quickly separated themselves as they went back into their room. Mark remained seated alone in the living room, with his own thoughts. He closed his eyes as he thought about what he should do the next two days. After feeling the excitement he had been long waiting for, staying in the room like his old self was boring. 

As he continued to think, he suddenly remembered the strange powers he discovered a few days ago. Because they were in a hurry to get back to the city, he didn't have any alone time to conduct the experiments he wanted to. 

The power he was the clearest about was the yellow fog he let out from his hand as it burned on Suzie's injury. The yellow fog was able to cure the zombie scratch but he paid the price for it, pain. He had shivers sent down his spine when he thought about the splitting headache he got after he unconsciously used the powers. This was obvious from the sealed yellow ball he saw.

The other power he guessed was something similar to pausing time, or at least that's how he noticed it. When he screamed on top of his lungs at the zombie which jumped on Suzie, the time stopped. He noticed the Zombie pause and then continued to scratch Suzie. If the phenomenon didn't happen, they might have lost Suzie. This power was most likely from the darker purplish-black ball.

"I should probably go out and test these two powers in the next two days, while I am free. I already said David to take the Jeep tomorrow, so if he arrives early then it's tomorrow, if not the next day." He sighed and stood up. 

He walked into his room and slowly laid down on the bed once again. Closing his eyes, he exhaled in relief and went back to sleep.