David quickly stitched A.D.'s arm, his voice firm. "Stop doing this. Their sacrifice will be in vain." A.D. could only sob, the grief overwhelming.
An hour later, David returned with some food, offering it to A.D. "Who are you?" A.D. rasped, his voice raw. "Why did you save me?"
David tried to deflect. "A.D., first, you need to eat." He picked up an apple and pressed it into A.D.'s hand.
"You're a player, aren't you?" A.D. asked, his eyes suddenly piercing.
"What player?" David feigned ignorance.
"I'm also a player," A.D. revealed.
"Really?" David sat down beside him, a flicker of genuine curiosity in his eyes. "What is going on? I can't understand this game. Only that we have to find the cure."
"This is a game," A.D. stated, his voice regaining some of its old authority, "and you have to live at all costs."
"How do we find the cure?" David pressed.
"I don't know," A.D. admitted, "but we have to." He then looked at David intently. "How did you find me? I thought I was alone."
"I was seeing you on screen," David explained. "When I woke up, I was in a lab. A lab assistant and secret keeper to July, the director of this place and the lab. But she was killing people who came for refuge. She locked them in that village, and they all died."
"What?" A.D. exclaimed.
"But she didn't find the cure," David added. "Where is the lab?"
"It's...!" David began, but then the ground beneath them began to tremble. An earthquake struck, violently shaking the house. A.D. and David lost consciousness.
Chapter : A New Beginning
When they awoke, they were in different places. A.D. found himself on a construction site, while David was in another, much larger lab.
"You came here," a voice echoed through the hallway of David's new location. Flores, the director of this central lab, stood before him.
David woke with a start. "Huh!" He looked around the hallway, confusion turning to fury. "What is this?"
"David, come here," Flores commanded.
"Huh! Yes, I'm coming," David replied, still looking frantically around, searching for A.D., but he was nowhere to be found.
Flores walked into the lab, speaking as he went. "This is the central lab. Where you worked before, that was just a branch." David followed, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. Inside the lab, Flores looked at him. "You have to help with the testing."
On the other hand, A.D. woke up pinned beneath a zombie, pushing it desperately. Suddenly, a girl appeared and struck the zombie's head with a wooden bat. It fell, lifeless. She extended a hand to A.D.
A.D. ignored it, pushing himself to his feet. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"I can't understand anything," the girl said, her voice bewildered. "I was at my house, started playing a board game, then lost consciousness, and now... I'm here."
From behind them, a horde of zombies advanced, their roars growing louder. A.D. grabbed her hand. "We'll talk later, but right now, we have to go!"
They ran, past a deserted landscape of endless sand. A motorbike stood abandoned. "There!" A.D. pointed. "On the bike!"
They reached the bike. A.D. swung onto the back seat. "Hey, drive it!" he urged.
"First," she retorted, "stop calling me 'Hey, you!' I'm Jane. And second, you want a girl to drive a bike?"
"Nice to meet you, Jane, I'm A.D.," he said quickly. "And no, I don't know how to drive a bike." The zombies were getting closer, their roars chilling. "If you want to live, please hurry up!" A.D. stood up, forcibly sat Jane on the bike, then swung back onto the passenger seat. "Go! Go!"
"This isn't fine!" Jane protested, but she started the bike, speeding away as the zombies shambled behind them. "Whose are these?" she asked, glancing back.
"They're brain-dead people," A.D. replied.
"What?" Jane gasped.
"Zombies!" A.D. clarified. "Stop asking questions and be fast!"
After three grueling hours, the bike ran out of gas. Night was almost upon them. They abandoned the bike. Two lights flickered in the distance.
"Look, there's a saloon," A.D. said. "We have to go there."
"What saloon?" Jane questioned. A clinic was also visible, some distance away. "No, we have to go to the clinic. It will be helpful."
"No, saloons have fewer people, so we can take refuge there easily," A.D. argued.
"No, the clinic is best!" Jane insisted.
"Okay," A.D. conceded. "You can go there."
Jane walked towards the clinic, her face falling as she peered inside. It was full of zombies. Just then, A.D. grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the washroom door within the clinic. One zombie was inside; A.D. pushed the door forcefully into its face, knocking it down, and they scrambled into the tiny washroom.
There wasn't much space, only enough for two people to sit or stand. They huddled together for hours, eventually falling asleep sitting up, Jane's head resting on A.D.'s shoulder through the long, terrifying night.