Zerra was outwardly expressionless, but she was numb inside. Her eyes followed as Scott sat a little farther away from his mother, talking to her like they were discussing weather.
"Mom, I brought you some more meals. I know that you like it fresh," Scott muttered softly, his gaze held a trace of regret.
His eyes peered at the large plastic bowl in front of his mother. "There is still some meat left in your bowl. I will get more for you later after you finish."
She glanced at the bowl, then shifted her gaze away from the zombie and the lunatic. There were human hands there; one even still had intact fingers.
Her gaze collided with Cassias’ side profile. His face was now expressionless, but his eyes still appeared unfocused. She wasn’t sure whether he had extricated himself from the illusion or not.
"Our new additions, Miss Zerra and Mr. Virethorn, will keep you company, Mom..." Scott whispered again.
They would have looked like a genuine pair of mother and son discussing his new acquaintances if not for the eerie atmosphere or the mother’s appearance.
She was wearing torn clothes. The fabric’s original color was no longer unrecognizable. Her face, especially her lips, was coated with dried blood. She would occasionally let out hissing noises and inhumane growls.
"Do the people here know that you keep a zombie in your barn?" Zerra shot him a look.
"Shut up!" Unexpectedly, he exploded, glaring at her. As a result, the zombie let out beast-like sounds and tried to free herself from the rope, crawling on the ground.
Of course, she was unsuccessful. Because not only her feet and hands were bound to each other, there were two ropes connecting the rope on her wrist to the pillars on each of her sides.
Realizing that he had been overreacting, Scott composed himself. "My mother isn’t a zombie. Watch your words, wench."
Her mouth twitched. She challenged in a provocative tone, "If she isn’t a zombie, why don’t you release her?"
Scott glared at her as if his eyes could spit fire. "She is not in her right mind right now, but if I keep her long enough, she will recover someday..."
There was a look of hope in his complicated eyes, filled with a sliver of regret, then determination.
"Zombies recovering their minds?" Zerra asked as if she had heard a joke.
"Of course." He clenched his fists.
"Who told you that?" She narrowed her eyes. Someone must have instilled such thoughts in his mind, and she had a vague guess who it was. "Jake?"
"No, it’s not him," he muttered sullenly. "He came with Jake... he is very knowledgeable. Jake introduced him to me. All his words proven true so far, so he must be correct. My mother will wake up again."
There was a flash of struggle on his face when he saw the unconscious people on the haystacks, but soon it was replaced by ruthlessness.
Zerra pursed her lips. Her scalp went numb after she contemplated his words. What was this? Things kept going out of control. Besides the two main protagonists and her, was there another person who regressed from the future apocalypse?
She hadn’t lived that long, after all. As for reviving a dead person–zombie, even the Celestial God couldn’t do that. Unless there was something she didn’t know yet, some kind of hidden rule or condition.
"What is the person’s name?" Her eyes held seriousness.
Scott ran his hand through his hair. He scrunched his face and scoffed. "As if I would tell you. I have talked too much with you today. Don’t think that I am foolish enough to always fall for your tricks."
Inwardly, Zerra clicked her tongue in disappointment.
"Keep my mother company, Miss Zerra." His lips pulled up into a satisfied arc, then looked outside the barn. "It seems that your brother has returned. I will make sure that he will be joining you soon."
Scott walked toward the door with brisk steps. He closed the door before he left, humming slightly on the way out.
Zerra bit her lip and sighed. That foolish elder brother of hers most likely would fall for Scott’s trick. She gave him ten minutes, and...
"Your animal has mutated, Scott? Are you sure it’s not dangerous? We should call others."
Her lips twitched. She overestimated him. Less than what felt like ten minutes, and Laziel was already in the bag.
"Go inside." Scott ordered. "Miss Zerra and Mr. Virethorn are already there."
"Alright." Laziel revealed himself at the door, stepping inside. He looked around, then his face morphed into shock when his eyes landed on his companions. His footsteps halted.
"Scott, what’s the meaning of this?" He raged, and his voice rose. He took a few steps back toward the exit. "What did you do to Cassias and Zerra?!"
At least he wasn’t foolish enough to join them directly and deliver himself inside. Seeing Cassias and Zerra’s fate, he knew he couldn’t defeat Scott, a level three fire ability user, by himself.
Zerra, however, already guessed the ending. Still, she kept her senses alert to any movement in the surroundings.
Scott grabbed Laziel’s shoulder directly and threw him inside. "Go accompany them."
He didn’t even bother to tie Laziel up, obviously looking down on him. After pushing Laziel, he closed the door again.
Yet the moment Laziel’s body tumbled inside, he crouched down. His face showed deep fear, and his body shivered. He clutched his neck as if someone were strangling him.
He was instantly trapped in the illusion.
Zerra narrowed her eyes. She considered shifting into her fox form forcefully at the risk of overexerting her spiritual power. But...
She turned to Cassias, her gaze full of uncertainty. Was the male lead so easily defeated?
"Cassias." She called out, bumping her shoulder with his. He still didn’t respond; his gaze was empty.
Having no choice, she wriggled and dragged herself closer toward him. After much struggle, their shoulders touched each other. She hissed at him. "Wake up!"
"If you don’t wake up, you and Laziel might become the zombie’s next meal." She muttered beside his ear in an attempt to shake him awake with her voice.
She had pondered deeply about it. Their situation was hopeless unless someone could untie the rope and get them out of here.
Regarding the fellow team members... if the three of them were missing, wouldn’t they go to find them? Scott most likely had prepared a countermeasure for it since he dared to lay his hands on them.
He might use the illusion to hypnotize their team members, making them believe that they were already dead, or that they had joined them back to their vehicles. Then, by the time they were already far away, they would only realize that some of the team members were missing.
After so many casualties just for this mission, would they go back just to rescue three people? Darren and his people might do that, but Henry wouldn’t.
Scott must have known that their group of two forces had internal conflict. Thus, he made the best use of it.
"Cassias, wake up." She bumped her shoulder with his again, desperately.
She had found the source of the illusion. It was a mutated mushroom that grew on top of the damp haystack. There was a lot of it in this room. She was familiar with its use.
Scott only needed to let them inhale the powder on its mushroom cap, then hinted that the three of them were gone. Others would believe it. It must have been a powerful mutated fungus to be able to confuse someone like Cassias.
Just as she pondered all possibilities in her mind, she sensed something wrong. The zombie, which was originally bound by rope, broke free.
The zombie launched itself at the oblivious Laziel.