Code Collector

Chapter 103: Black Light

They were sitting in front of each other, neither of which knew what to say. Allen and Jeremy let the time passes by, only hearing the sound of the clock on the wall.

Tik. Tok. Tik. Tok.

"Why didn't you tell me that hou were laid off?" Allen finally asked, breaking the deafening silence. "You acted like you were okay, that nothing happened."

"That's because nothing did happen," Jeremy chuckled. "You're overthinking this."

"Jeremy, you lost your job," Allen spoke softly. "Even Gwen lost hers. What will you do now?"

"Form a group," Jeremy said. "You told me earlier that you work alone, but no one works alone. I could be your assistant or something. You don't need to pay me too. I receive a hefty amount of money from my father, so I don't worry about cash."

"W-What do you mean?" Allen asked. "You want to be my assistant?"

"Yes," Jeremy smiled. "I could run errands for you. Errands that would be too suspicious if a normal Hunter would do."

"Such as?"

"Breaking into the government offices," Jeremy said quickly. "People knew my father, and the higher ups knew of my existence. If I go to places that are restricted to most people, it would be great, don't you think?"

"No," Allen shook his head slowly. "I don't think so."

"You're overthinking this," Jeremy grinned and chuckled. "Just let me help you. I'll do whatever task you send my way, as long as it's within my capabilities."

"R-Really?" Allen asked. "Well, I do have a lot of stuff to do and deliver. Your help would be great."

If he doesn't want to lie to himself, Allen had no use for Jeremy. He was a one man parade that can do whatever tasks he wanted to do. He was Allen, Dante, the Wandering Trader, and the Primordial Snake Bearer all at once and he didn't have any issues.

But then again, he fate doesn't always spin in one direction. There are times that fate is questionable, and even if you used all your cards, you're still on the losing end. Maybe Jeremy could be of help, after all. In the future, there could be use for him.

For now, Allen have to talk to the other person that was greatly affected by the incident. When Jeremy left, he went outside and knocked on the door next to his unit.

"Gary?" Allen called out. "Are you inside?"

Allen patiently waited for a couple of minutes, only to receive no answer at all. He knocked on the door again, hoping that he'll hear a word from the man. "Gary? Are you inside? I'm going in."

Without any more hesitation, Allen opened the door that was surprisingly unlocked. He entered the dark room and searched for the switch so he could turn on the light. The place seemed cold, as if no one had been here. The lights were off and the silence inside was deafening.

Click.

"Gary!" Allen gasped after seeing the man laying unconscious on the floor. His body was sprawled beside the sofa while his phone was smashed beside him. Actually, the entire room was wrecked as if a beast had raged inside. "Dude, what happened?"

"Claudette?" Gary called out. He ran his fingers on to Allen's face, making the boy shiver from the cold touch. "Hannah?"

"You need to wake up," Allen said and shook the man awake. Gary was ways bigger than him, so he was trying to figure out how to carry him on the bed. Even with Allen's strength, carrying unconscious giants would still be hard.

"Gary, why the hell are you doing this?" Allen asked. He gave up on carrying Gary and was now dragging the man on the floor. He knew right where the room was since everyone's unit was the same. He placed the man on his bed and stood beside him, trying to wake the giant up. 

"Why did this all happen?" Gary muttered. "Was I a bad man? I only wanted the best for the group, and then we ended up dead."

Allen could hear the misery in Gary's voice, it was obvious. From the reports, Gary and his team was close to each other, so losing them took a huge toll in his mental health. It didn't feel good just by hearing it, Allen couldn't think of the one experiencing it himself.

"Take a rest first," Allen said to Gary even when he knew that the man couldn't hear him. 

He watched the man that was laying on the bed. His outfit was still the same as last night. He didn't even bother taking his shoes off, so Allen took it out for him.

"You know," Allen found himself speaking as he took out Gary's shoes. "Maybe if the Fire Dragon Incident didn't happen, we would get to be friends."

He found himself finallt accepting the memories that surfaced. Little by little, his concept of his reality was now based on the memories. After all, he didn't have memories before he got the power of the Snake. If he tries to remember clearly, he couldn't find anything.

All he knew were words and the same plot over and over again. That he was an outcast and his teammates wanted him out of their group. But when he tries to remember a memory on when Kyle and the others try to hurt him, he would fail. That was because they didn't.

His misery of losing Alice created a new form of reality in him where he was alone and nobody was his friend. The grief altered his mind, creating hatred and deep sorrrow that created a hole in his heart that he could never fill up.

That was because the hole was fake. No matter what he does, his thirst for revenge would never be quenched. But now that the truth had unfolded, he realized that the hole was a pit of never ending darkness, and that it wasn't worth anything to him at all.

Allen laid on the bed beside Gary. He looked at the gray ceiling and chuckled to himself. "You know that? We're kind of the same. We're miserable, and we're sad because of our teammates. You lost everyone, and I lost only one, but it didn't hurt as less."

"Although death is inevitable, and sooner or later we're all going there, it doesn't stop us from trying to avoid is as much as we can," Allen continued. "Sadness won't bring them back, revenge won't bring them back, nothing will ever bring them back. But we have to keep fighting and living our life to the fullest for them."

He sat up and looked at Gary who was now awake, "What are you saying, Dante? And why are you on my bed? Don't be weird."

"You're not living a single life, Gary," Allen said. "You owe it to Claudette, Hannah, and the others to live as much as you can. Because you live for six lives now."

"Oh," Gary was silent. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to remove the dried up tears. "You lost your team before?"

"I lost one important person," Allen replied. "She was the only one I could rely on. She was basically my rock."

Gary nodded, "I understand."

Allen stood and offered his hand. "Let's go. You need to eat something."

"I don't want to go out," Gary groaned. He laid himself back on his bed and buried his face on the pillows. "I want to stay here and do nothing."

"I'll cook for you," Allen said. "You can just stay in the living room or something. Want anything to eat?"

"Stir fried chicken," Gary groaned. "And fried chicken, buttered chicken. Everything chicken."

"Cool," Allen said. He pulled Gary out of the room and jumped after seeing someone else there. There were actually three people there. "What are you doing here?"

"I felt like you guys wanted to eat chicken, so I bought some," Gwen said. She nonchalantly walked to the kitchen and placed the bags of groceries there. "I saw these guys outside Dante's unit, so I invited them in."

"I actually didn't leave," Jeremy said awkwardly, looking away in embarrassment. "I thought you still needed someone to talk to."

"And I wanted to stay here until I leave for tomorrow," Jack said. "It's nice to be here with you youngsters. It makes me feel young again."

A knock on the door interrupted them. Allen was the one who answered it and scrunched his face after seeing Sarah. "H-Hey. I brought beer. Beer is good with chicken."

Gwen shrieked and pulled the other woman inside the unit. Everyone, apart from Allen, laughed at this. Suddenly, the gloom of the incident just from a day ago seemingly vanished and everyone was now closer.

The Fire Dragon Incident was supposed to wreck connections and relationships using death. But after the victims overcame it, they got stronger and their bond was now closer than ever.

The night came and the entire camp's lights glowed with a black color. The screens of all the TVs, phones, and monitors went blank, making everyone panic. There were signs of something like this that happened before.

When the lights turn green, it was natural; when it was red, it happened during a hunt; and when it's black, it was orchestrated.

"Primordial Dragon Bearer, Drake Nelson has been killed by another Hunter."