Inside the Ironhowl X4, the cabin was warm and still, insulated from the chaos of the outside world. Raven leaned back in her seat, tearing into the rotisserie chicken with gusto the juices flowing down her chin, chewing in silence as she watched the blood-soaked road through the windshield. Beside her, Alara sat cross-legged in the passenger seat, hunched over a neat pile of zombie Nucleus Cores that clicked and rolled gently in her hand before she brought them to her mouth, crunching each with a quiet, satisfied smile. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Outside, Metal Mouse continued his grisly harvest. The steel beast scoured the field to retrieve cores, his powerful forepaws sweeping aside broken limbs and guts as his scanners recovered every core. When he found one, he opened his jaw and tossed the pea sized ball inside his mouth, where it slid down his throat into an internal storage chamber. With the area swept clean of cores, he began to scale a nearby light pole, its rusted base groaning beneath his weight.
Raven paused mid-bite and tilted her head as she watched him. Metal Mouse climbed like a squirrel—albeit a squirrel built of weapons-grade steel and powered by an overengineered AI script. Each steel claw left visible dents in the pole as he climbed it with unbothered strength. Halfway up, he reached one of the still-living zombies impaled through the chest by the broken metal light pole, and with zero hesitation, he yanked the core from its head by piercing it with his paw.
"I think that AI I wrote for him has a little too much spunk in it trunk." Raven mused
Alara looked up for a moment, blank-faced, then returned to her pile os sancks vaguely wondering if this one is cherry flavor of if thats just blood. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Raven gave her a side glance, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Your Stage 1 evolution shouldn't be far off. Between this endless buffet and the system's enhancements, you should be able to express yourself more in a few days' time."
Alara gave Raveb no reply. Just more continued chewing her cores. Hmm, this one is cherry. Alara thought to herself if she could think.
She watched Alara a little longer, frowning. That name tag on her chest when she first found her in the mall that said hi, my name is Alara.
It was February 15th now. Alara has been with her for weeks and she is no closer to finding out who Alara is. Raven wanted answers not out of suspicion, but out of sheer curiosity. Finding Alara in the mall was not just a random coincidence. Someone put her there but the question is who.
Raven leaned back and mentally tapped into the connection only she seemed to possess: the frozen internet. A ghost of the old world, locked in a digital stasis since January 10th. She brought up an interface and scanned a live image of Alara, capturing her profile and feeding it into an archived reverse image search.
No matches.
She uploaded a fingerprint she had taken a few days ago with a scanner. No results from the FBI. No hits in the CIA database or NSA either. Nothing in Interpol or foreign databases. She widened the parameters. Broader facial scans. Contextual employment records. Emergency services logs. Hospital admissions. School enrollment birth certificates the only result.
Nothing. Not even a birth certificate.
Raven's jaw tightened. "This is not just unusual... it's impossible."
She frowned deeper, biting her lip. No one has this kind of invisibility unless someone went to great lengths to hide themselves. She turned to her last resort and asked aloud, voice low and cautious:
"System... what was Alara's background before I found her?"
There was a brief pause. Then, a system notification appeared in her mind.
[Apocalypse Ascendancy System Notification]
The host must discover her girlfriend's past by herself. Please proceed with extreme caution.
It is recommended that you wait until Level 5 before pursuing this search further. Failure to heed this warning may result in dire consequences.
Raven blinked, then sat in stunned silence. A cold weight settled over her mind. The system has never given a warning like this before.
Outside, Metal Mouse dropped from the light pole with a thud and resumed collecting cores. Inside the cab, Alara finished her current core and gently picked up the next one, smiling faintly with glassy eyes that never once stoped watching Raven.
Crunch.
The sound cut through the silence like a blade.
Raven looked at her again, heart heavy with thoughts she couldn't voice just yet. Whoever Alara was before the world ended, it's been purposely hidden from her view and the public's.
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