Hary silently crept close. Since he was just visiting priestly in his lab, he did not even have a weapon in hand. For now, all he had was his powers. He rolled up his sleeve revealing his metallic arm.
Liquid poured out forming a small dagger.
'This will do...'
This place was in between a huge farm. Most likely the owner was the farm owner but since the farm was destroyed it was nothing but a small lowered land with a depilated house in the center.
He dashed towards that place.
"Stop! Raise your hand! What are you doing to him?"
The three youngsters looked at him, startled. "s-sir... we... we are not doing anything,"
"Let go of him first," he glared at them both.
The three youngsters let go of his legs and rams. He carefully pulled the older man, who looked unconscious towards him and checked his breath.
He was alive..
"g-goos.... wine...." the man mumbled puffing out his stinky breath right on his face.
Hary scowled a bit. This man's breath definitely reeked of alcohol.
"Sorry... sorry my dad has a bad habit of drinking until he's unconscious.... we're sorry.. for disturbing you,"
Hary sighed loudly. "You have proof he's your father?"
"We... we don't have any documents. If you think we are mugging him, please don't misunderstand. Our dad rarely carries anything valuable. He goes around until he drinks it all..." one of the taller youngsters said.
Harry did not even take a good look at them. His eyes were always on Prisitsky who was standing in the bright sun, panting. "Fine, fine. Take care. Don't create a fuss next time,"'
"Yes, sorry sir," the three bowed.
Hary walked away with a sigh.
"What is it? Did you save that person?" the doctor shouted from the road.
"Yeah, he's an old drunkard!"
"Oh,"
He got close to him and gently wiped the sweat off the doctor's face. "sorry for making you wait," he lowered on one knee facing away from him. "hop on. I'll take you for a ride."
"You're words sound so promiscuous," he mumbled climbing on him.
Even now holding him like this Hary's heart started to ache. This grown man weighed nothing... his thighs and his whole body were just bones.
Through the clothes, he could feel all those bones poking him.
His eyes slightly focused on the makeshift bag the doctor carefully held in hand. 'meteor rock.... where can I find more... what else can he eat? Won't the virus in it infect him? won't he get worse after eating it.....'
So many questions plagued his mind.. but there was no definite answer.
No one knew how this virus will interact with the doctor's aliment.
'I don't even know what his ailment is....'
"Hey..."' he tightened his hold on his neck. "are you sure there's no one else there?"
"Just three youngsters dealing with a drunk father...." he assured him.
Prisitsky hummed doubtfully.
"Don't worry, everything will be okay. Mister Prisitsky, do you remember the hospital you were stuck in for a while? It had a detailed mapping of the meteors' shards' descent routes. If we follow it we can find a few more rocks for you."
"...."
"how much do you need to eat? One rock per serving? Is it enough? If not, we might have to find a lot more than these small pebbles. How about a huge 300 square foot rock. I saw one when I was in the city. we can somehow revive it in the name of science. But I'm not sure if the soldier will be willing to come out. I lost a lot of men in this mission."
"....."
"Doctor?" he glanced back.
Prisitsky was looking at him with a strange look on his face.
"Is something wrong? Do you feel sick?"
"Why are you helping me? why... I disrespected you, treated you like shit.... why..."
Hary was perplexed. The answer to this question was something he still couldn't comprehend. 'Why... why indeed...'
"You are our resident scientist. Without you, Qian will.."
"Stop spewing shit. Tell me the truth... why..."
Hary could not say... because he himself did not know...
He silently walked away from that place with the question still playing on repeat in his head.
*****
"Are they gone?" the older man got up spitting out the liquor from his mouth.
"ah, why did you spit that out. it's my valuable last sip of whiskey!"
"Shut the fuck up, we almost got caught! That's why I told you to lift him up, you bastard!" he slapped the taller hooligan in the head.
"Boss told us not to touch him. What if he throws me in his weird vortex for not following his orders!"
The older man spat out again. "What if we got caught by the soldiers? Do you know who that was? That was general Hary. He is gaining popularity in the settlement. If he had found out what we were doing we would have all been thrown out to the zombies."
He walked in and peeled off the sack from the unconscious person's head.
"He's knocked out, right? What did you say his powers were?"
"Strength. I heard he is very strong." The shorted hooligan whispered, wiping his sweat.
The older man cussed out loud. "How do they expect us to tie this man up? He can easily snap the binds and escape. You, go find me a piece of rod or something. We'll weld it in his hands."
The one who remained silent till the just tossed a small pouch. "Use this instead. Every four hours. Or you will have a very angry bull in your presence." He said his piece and left.
The older man glared at him. "Who is he, huh? Where did they get this punk? Form central jail?!"
"um... he's one of the three criminals.. Who was captured last year. He was known as the killer doctor."
The old man trembled slightly. "Fuck those psychopaths?! Why... are we even dealing with them? They are fucking crazy?!"
The shorter man nodded. "But all the men following boss are criminals. I wonder how he even convinced them to follow him."
"Him? He's a crazy man as well. No wonder those crazies run after him,"