Cyrus knows that help would eventually come from the military, but not for everyone. By the time they arrived, the streets would be a river of corpses and blood.
Those lucky enough to survive by that time would be rescued; he knew that the government intentionally did that because they wanted to weed out the incompetent.
Only those who were able to survive by the time the military arrived were the competent ones.
He knew this because in his previous life, when he was rescued, a few soldiers were drunk and talked about it.
At first, when he heard about this, he was filled with rage and anger, cursing the government for being too cruel.
But after surviving two years in that hell, he finally understood why the government did that.
During such a period of apocalypse, those who are incompetent can only be burdens to the government; resources were limited, and they couldn't feed anyone.
He himself tasted that feeling after taking in a few survivors,just thinking about those ungrateful animals made his stomach turn.
He remembered that when the apocalypse arrived, he ran out of his apartment and hid in a stinking sewer for ten agonizing hours: ten hours of unbearable, suffocating stench, rats, and all kinds of insects, but he couldn't do anything because any sound could cost him his life.
Even when he used worked twenty hours at the construction site, it couldn't compare to the ten hours he endured in that sewer; it was simply unbearable.
Thinking about this, Cyrus's lips twitched as he shook his head.
"Ahhhhhh! Help! Help us! Somebody help us!"
Just then, a sudden scream broke his train of thought.
Cyrus looked out the window just in time to see two heavily pregnant women running down the streets with their huge bellies.
They held each other's hands tightly while a pack of zombies chased them from behind.
Cyrus, when he saw this, raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Two heavily pregnant women were able to survive this long; this is simply rare to him.
He just shook his head and then closed his eyes as the convoy pressed on without slowing down at all, the truck sending all the zombies in their way flying and blood splattering across the road.
"Hey! Those are pregnant women!" A tall blond boy with an athletic build shot up to his feet.
"Aren't you going to save them?" His eyes burned with anger as he glared at Cyrus.
Cyrus just tilted his head, his expression unreadable and cold as he looked at the young boy and then shook his head.
The blond man's disbelief turned into even more fury as he strode in front of Cyrus and grabbed his collar, his face inches away from Cyrus as he shouted.
"Bastard! They're human beings! They're carrying children! How can you be this cruel?!"
Before the blond man could go any further, every soldier inside the bus pointed their rifles at him, barrels pressed against his skull.
His courage immediately vanished like smoke; sweat poured down his forehead as he stood there frozen in place.
"Cyrus's eyes locked into his as his voice, as cold as ice, cut through the tension, "Let go."
The man's grip on the collar slipped as he stumbled back, his face turned pale as a ghost.
His body shook as fear filled his eyes when he looked into Cyrus's eyes; it was as if he was looking into the eyes of a dead soul, eyes that felt more like a graveyard in winter than anything human.
---------
Meanwhile...
"Ahhhh... Marybel, help me...".
One of the pregnant women fell to the ground; the other one, Marybel, without much thought, turned back with tears in her eyes as she desperately tried to help her friend up.
Because of this delay, the zombies chasing them immediately caught up to them, a few meters away from them.
In a swift motion, the woman who fell down pushed Marybel forward towards the zombies as she herself made for the run.
"I'm sorry, Marybel, but I don't want to die," she muttered under her breath with tears in her eyes.
Marybel's eyes widened in horror, not horrified by the zombies but horrified that her good best friend, someone she had known since high school, would betray her like this in a time like this.
The betrayal cut deeper than any zombie bite. Her heart seemed to be cut into pieces.
"Sophie... how can you do this to me?!" This was all the thought that flashed in Marybel's mind.
----------
Cyrus's lips curled up into a faint smile when he saw this; he shook his head and muttered, "Humans!".
He pressed the intercom in his ear and ordered, "Stop!".
The convoy screeched to a stop; turning to one of the soldiers, he commanded, "Go and bring her!".
"Yes, Commander."
The soldier replied and, without hesitation, jumped out of the bus.
Gunfire immediately erupted around him as zombies that rushed towards him fell one after the other.
Within a few moments, he returned with Marybel's body in his arms; her face was ghostly pale, her eyes tightly shut. She had fallen unconscious from the shock, but she was still alive.
He gently placed her on a seat; Cyrus ordered a few females on the bus to take care of her.
The convoy immediately continued its way.
Behind them, Sophie, who had betrayed her best friend, had her fate sealed; a zombie pounced on her from the corner, catching her off guard and biting her ankle.
She screamed as she fell down while shielding her belly with her hands; she kicked the zombie with her foot.
"Help! Ahhh... help me! Marybel, I'm sorry!". Her cries pierced through the air filled with despair and a hint of regret.
But the convoy was already gone.
The last thing everyone saw was her being dragged into the hordes of zombies.
Inside the bus, it was totally quiet; everyone swallowed hard, sweat glistening on their faces, their throats felt dry.
Especially that blond man who questioned himself; now he was shaking in his seat uncontrollably.
Professor Albert, who was sitting behind Cyris, watched him intently; his old eyes flashed with unknown thoughts. After a few moments, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Who are you?"