150 The Premonition (1/2)
Day 5- 5:31 PM – Parking Area, Queens Row Elementary School, Queens Row Area A, Bacoor City, Cavite
'This is the second time.'
Mark inhaled deeply as he tried to slow down his fast beating heart.
”Gege, are you ok?”
Mei's voice echoed from above him. Mark woke up gasping and covered in cold sweat that made Mei who was watching over him surprised and worried.
As he was blankly staring at the air while trying to calm down, he did not realize that Mei was looking straight at him from above. Feeling her soft thighs beneath his head, he realized that he was still sleeping on her lap. It was fortunate that he was not the type of person who suddenly sits up after waking from a nightmare or else, it would not be surprising if he accidentally bumped his head on Mei's.
”Gege?”
Mei called out once more as Mark did not respond though she realized that he was now staring at her face. There was a faint blush on her cheeks but it was overwhelmed by the worry apparent on her face.
”I'm fine.”
Mark finally responded as he slowly propped his body and sat beside Mei on the sofa. Still, he did not realize that his eyebrows were tightly creased.
'It looks like that we can't escape it.'
He thought as worry filled his mind.
”Gege, you're not fine.”
Mei spoke from beside him as her hand holding a handkerchief extended towards Mark's forehead. She wiped the drops of sweat that formed on his forehead despite the fact that it was cold inside the vehicle.
Her gentle touch seemed to clear Mark's mind a bit. He glanced at her with a thankful smile.
”Did Gege have a nightmare?”
Mei asked noticing his glance.
”I wish, it's just a nightmare.”
Mark answered with a troubled expression.
His answer obviously caused confusion on Mei's part. She could not help but stare at him with a questioning look.
Mark saw her expression making smile bitterly. He took out his phone and seeing that it was already past five-thirty. At that moment, his stomach grumbled. He clutched his stomach as he realized that it was almost evening and he had not eaten lunch yet.
Mei did not hear his stomach grumble but seeing him suddenly clutch his stomach, it was not hard to guess what he was thinking about. Without saying anything else, Mei moved towards the back of the car and unplugged a two layered USB lunch box from the socket. After taking a plastic spoon and fork from a bag, Mei made her way back to Mark's side and opened the lunch box.
Inside the top layer of the lunch box was pork and beans fried rice and on the bottom layer was chicken soup. It was obvious that the pork and beans on the fried rice and the chicken meat on the soup came from the canned goods they brought from the City Mall but it still looked and smelled good to Mark who was hungry.
After Mei handed the food to Mark, he started to eat leaving his worries for later.
”Did Odel bring this food earlier when I'm sleeping?”
Mark asked as he remembered that there was no lunch box there before he slept under Mei's coaxing.
To his question, Mei nodded.
”Gege is sleeping too deeply that you didn't even wake up when she brought the food.”
Due to Mark's hunger and increased appetite, it did take too long for him to finish his food. Mei then took the emptied lunchbox and moved the lunch box to the back of the vehicle and had it washed later.
”Gege, what do you want to drink?”
Mei asked as she opened the small refrigerator.
”Hmm. Get me the iced coffee.”
Mark drunk the iced coffee Mei handed him while contemplating. The premonition this time was way clearer than the last back when he woke up in Firenze after his second evolution. He did not know why but Mark was a little bit glad that these premonitions appeared when he needed it the most.
This premonition caused him to know the urgency of the situation and what danger they would encounter in the near future. Unfortunately, that future was too near that it would likely happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
And what the premonition showed him…
…was the total annihilation of his group and everyone with them.
Military vehicles overturned, soldiers in panic, he even saw Irene who had her body split in half. This vehicle they had was overturned and crushed along with everyone inside. Captain Dela Rosa was being helped by a Mutator Mark did not recognize but both of them also perished under the hand of the huge monster.
He lay on the pavement unable to move. He had been severely injured that his regeneration could not keep up anymore. His bones broken, his skin was lacerated and parts of his body were bleeding profusely. He could only watch everything unfold in front of him.
Odelina, Abbygale, Laelaps, that Four Horned Beetle, Emika, Mikio stood in front of him to protect him despite the fact that they also had several injuries inflicted on their bodies. Mei and the girl he had just saved earlier from death were crying tending to his wounds.
One by one, they all perished and he could only watch.
Finally, the huge monster stood in front of them with only Mei and the little girl left to block it. Of course, they also died and it was without a complete body.
At that moment that he could only feel remorse and he only wanted to follow their steps to the afterlife, the crystal that was supposed to be crushed inside the vehicle flew out and shielded him. A sudden force suddenly pulled him away and that was the time he finally woke up.
Everything that happened was too clear for him this time that it even made him feel that it was really happening. The pain in his body, the blood of his comrades that splattered on his face, everything felt so real and the smell of blood was also suffocating. Rather than feeling that that scene was a view of the future, he felt was waking up was him going back to the past.
”Gege?”
He was delved into that scene once more when Mei's voice snapped his mind back. Mark looked at Mei's worried face and shook his head awake. Rather than delving himself back in that horrible scene, he should rather think of a way to prevent it from happening.
Seeing the worry in Mei's face, Mark could not help but stroke her hair gently.