Chapter 55 Day One | Lessons Learned

—Marysworth Hospital | 2 Hours Before—

Evalyn walked with Ray, the rude soldier, to the main ward of the eighth floor.

The more they walked, the grimmer her face got.

"You get it?" Ray scoffed.

Screams were coming from rooms on every side. Nurses were treating fellow nurses in areas protected by soldiers using silenced assault rifles identical to the one Ray carried.

The walls were riddled with bullet holes, and blood from bodies dragged from rooms lined the floors.

Evalyn took a deep breath. While she wanted to pity the people, Kaze's voice kept resounding in her head, stuck on repeat, haunting her like a broken record.

—

"You can't save these people, Evalyn. If they're not on my list, they'll be dead by next month at the latest.

You can only save the women with techniques from defilement and pray the remainder will get the sickness sooner than later."

—

She couldn't save them, but she could save her mother. Yet they were forcing her to fight, making her immeasurably angry.

"Don't you feel bad whatsoever?" Ray asked in the elevator to the seventh floor.

"Don't you feel bad for holding my mother hostage to force me to do your job? My mother is one of these people." She responded with equal coldness.

"You act like your mom's the only person that matters." He scoffed.

"You're wrong." Evalyn replied, "I'm the only person that matters. So shut the fuck up and stop taunting the person you're forcing to do your job."

Ray stopped walking and trembled in anger. "You fucking—"

The elevator door opened, and a commotion filled their ears.

"D-Doctor Leemon. What aren't you doing!?" A nurse in purple scrubs screamed.

"Shut the fuck up!" Doctor Leemon, a man with messy brown hair and a blood-splattered lab coat, yelled, "You act like you're the only one that matters!"

"That's not true!" She screamed.

The man grabbed her by the hair.

One soldier raised his weapon.

"Put her down, or I'll shoot!" He yelled in full camo, "I'm fucking sick of all of you! Whining, bitching, hurting each other!"

"Oh, yeah?" Doctor Leemon scoffed while turning to the man, still holding the woman by the hair.

"Calm down, Palmer!" A soldier yelled at the first man.

"Shut up, Vince! This is between me and this sick freak!" Palmer yelled.

"You soldiers are animals!" Doctor Leemon yelled while grabbing the woman and holding her against his chest, "Prove to me if you're an animal and shoot me!"

"Drop the woman!" Vince yelled.

"What did I tell you, Vince!?" Palmer yelled while turning and pointing his gun at him.

Vince immediately grabbed the gun barrel with his left hand and used the butt of the assault rifle in his right hand to smash Palmer's skull.

When the man hit the floor, Doctor Leemon started laughing uncontrollably.

"See!?" He yelled, "Animals. Just like this fucking woman!"

"EVERYONE, STOP!" Ray yelled while pointing his assault rifle at them.

Evalyn watched the scene with Kaze's words narrating it.

—

"What do you think the word apocalypse means? A time where humanity bands together to fight a joint enemy?"

—

Vince immediately raised his weapon. Ray tried to shoot, and Vince did as well. However, the former was faster, more accurate, and pulling the trigger.

Evalyn watched the exchange in slow motion and waved her hand at ghostly speed.

"W-What the fuck is this!?" Vince yelled as his arm froze with a thick layer of ice.

Ray didn't need to ask. He looked at Evalyn, whose eyes were cold and murderous.

"You're all animals!" She yelled while waving her hand.

The soldiers' legs froze, and they dropped to the ground. Doctor Lemmon's feet froze, so she didn't affect the nurse who fell to the floor.

"What the—" Palmer tried to yell, but he choked as a gust of frost entered his lungs and dropped to his knees, gasping for breath.

"You're more dangerous than the patients." Evalyn scorned, "Now get your shit together. Take me through the hospital so we can subdue people; if you try this nonsense again, you'll all die."

Primal fear washed over everyone present, including the nurse in purple scrubs she saved.

Evalyn's eyes were colder than ice when she waved her hand again.

The Qi in the original ice reacted to her new technique and shattered without harming the people further.

Everyone dropped to the ground.

Vince gulped and stood up slowly with empty hands raised. Palmer stood up, recovering.

Ray looked at her with contemptuous eyes. However, he was grateful she intervened because his target was faster at the trigger.

"Now let's go. I'm getting my work done early and leaving." Evalyn declared coldly, "So let's get the situation under control immediately."

Doctor Lemmon narrowed his eyes. "Do you think you can order me around?"

"Yes. I can." She replied apathetically.

"Hah. The arrogance!" He scoffed, "What would give you such an absurd theory?"

—

"Laws won't save you from the strong. Only personal strength and power can do that."

—

"Because I have power." Evalyn replied icily, "Law and soldiers once protected you. Well, the soldiers are here, and they no longer have power. Therefore, you're in my hands."

"You arrogant bitch! I'll—"

The man stopped talking when a non-lethal chunk of ice hit him in the skull, knocking him out.

All the soldiers lifted their guns, but by the time they aimed, crystal daggers were gazing at each of them.

They could feel their eyes drying from the fog coming off them like dry ice.

"This is your last warning." Evalyn declared in a venomous tone.

SHIIIINK!

The daggers sliced down simultaneously, cutting their barrels in half.

Everyone stared at her in disbelief.

"Are you fucking mad, woman!?" Palmer roared, "Don't—"

He dry swallowed after he felt a knife gliding across his skin, cutting him and freezing the wound shut.

"You three tried killing each other with those toys." Evalyn asserted murderously.

"So what good are they for protecting people? If you have them, you'll end up dead.

Especially you. I just saved your life, and you haven't comprehended that."

Beads of cold sweat built up around Ray's forehead.

The same was true of the other men, who realized that the woman around them wasn't playing games.

"Now shut up and take me around to get this place under control." She said with a lethal gaze.

"As of this moment that's your only purpose in life. You'll end up like that man or worse if you don't."

Everyone nodded hesitantly.

"Let's start with A Ward." Vince suggested.

Evalyn nodded, and the other two did as well.

They departed and walked down multiple halls leading to the next ward at high speed.

The soldiers walked around with trembling eyes because her blades were at their necks.

Evalyn could see the hatred in Ray's eyes. She refused to let him go; if she had a stronger stomach, she'd have killed him.

Every time they entered a ward, she froze the people attacking others in thick ice. She's let those in the hospital sort out what to do with them.

The group spent six hours clearing the rooms and halls on the first seven floors, crippled by her unwillingness to kill and slaughter people.

Evalyn checked everyone's Qi channels to differentiate between the panicked and the sick.

However, she stopped before long, as it was clear that most of the staff would get the sickness sooner than later, and so would the patients.

It was pointless. So the blonde arbitrarily helped when asked to expedite the process.

Another hour was spent cultivating to regain energy. Combined with the time it took to set up her mother and process the paperwork, it had been eight hours—it was time to get her mother back.

When they exited D Ward on the second floor, she heard a screaming woman down a side hall.

Evalyn turned around and ran down to the hall. "You three, come with me or I'll kill you!"

The soldiers immediately turned and followed her because her blades surrounded them. She wouldn't let them leave her sight, especially Ray.

"Please, Doctor Miser! I don't want this!" A nurse in green scrubs yelled against the wall as the doctor pinned her against the wall.

"Why not, Lisa!?" He yelled, "We're going to die anyway! Don't you want to have sex one more time?"

"N-No, I don't!" Lisa yelled.

Evalyn turned the corner as the man reached up to grope her.

"AghhhhhhHHHHH!" Doctor Miser screamed. He stared at his arm, shaking violently, covered in ice that released an eerie fog, "W-What is this!? Isn't this—"

Before he could look down the hall, a block of ice smashed into his skull, knocking him out.

Unlike before, Evalyn knew exactly what she was doing. She wouldn't let the man trample her reputation after seeing her, and she wouldn't let him defile her in the same way Kaze wouldn't.

However—

The blonde turned to the three soldiers next to her, staring at her with trembling eyes.

Everyone could hear Doctor Miser breathing, but he was in far worse shape than Doctor Leemon. He would likely die without a doctor, and one wasn't coming.

They realized how easily she was willing to leave a mortal wound and were shaken.

More importantly, Evalyn stared at the shaking woman on the wall with an ice-cold glare. The experience shook the woman to the point she wouldn't move.

—

"I already killed the first people that tried to defile her. However, she fell to the ground, having a panic attack.

Men rushed her, thinking they killed their friends or that she was a cultivator."

—

The lesson that Kaze taught her at the apocalypse party had deep connections to the scene unfolding.

Doctor Miser was a liability. He returned stronger and would trample her reputation further, worsening her mother's situation.

The shaking woman was unwilling to move. Soon people would show up and see Doctor Miser next to her and assume she was responsible.

She didn't want to think about what could happen to her.

Lastly, the three next to her were liabilities. Especially Ray, who had a direct connection to the people guarding her mother.

Everyone could jeopardize her mother's life in the witching hour.

A last set of words flashed in her mind alongside a memory.

—

"The world is simpler now. Don't help people; if you're forced to act, don't leave witnesses."