1: 11 PM
Jenna alighted from a cab at the front of a huge gate. On it was written, Eden One, Eon for short. It was the project her father died for. One her uncle claimed as his.
She squinted at the sun. It wasn't this bright and hot when she left the house. Sweat was already soaking through her top. Jenna knew it wasn't normal, but she shrugged it off as the weather warming up for the coming disaster.
She stood by the steel gate, watching armed men roam the premises. One of them saw her and walked over.
"State your business," the armed man said, stopping a few feet away from her, separated by the gate. His rifle hung loosely, but not carelessly.
Jenna let her eyes roam past him, taking note of the cameras that were mounted on the walls, the reinforced watchtower at the far end, the double-layered electric fencing… the security was too tight.
"I'm Jenna Churchill. My uncle asked me to join Blake after school."
The man frowned slightly, a suspicious look flashing in his eyes. "As a Churchill, you should know what's going on."
Jenna nodded immediately.
How could she not know that her cousin was dead, and relatives were mourning and turning the city upside down to catch her killer?
Wasn't that why she came? To take advantage of the chaos?
"Yes, I'm well aware," she said, looking emotionally downcast. "That's probably why he sent me here, to keep an eye on things in Blake's absence."
The man's brows drew even closer. But he didn't object. Instead, he spoke into his earpiece, reporting her presence to a higher authority.
After a while, he pushed the gate open for her.
Meanwhile, De Warden's vehicle had stopped few meters away from the gate. The sound of fingers slamming against the keyboard rented the stagnant air in the car, as Shin once again wiped their traces from every security camera along the way here.
They'd changed their car's plate number and sprayed the vehicle wine, but it wouldn't hurt to be extra careful.
"We've been following her since." The bald-headed guy glanced at De Warden through the rear view mirror. "Is she the one?"
No matter how hard he tried to reconcile the petite young lady to the enemy his boss had gone all out for, he couldn't quite make the two images overlap.
The girl who had just walked through those gates looked fragile. Not like someone worth risking their freedom over.
Others have arrived at Maddadas, a city where their freedom was guaranteed, where no law enforcement would dare cross into, yet their boss have chosen to stay behind in a city crawling with law enforcement.
In a city where that girl's death had ignited a manhunt that stretched from the slums to the upper districts.
All for a weak girl who wouldn't survive a slap from him? Bald head just couldn't understand De Warden's obsession with the girl and the ring.
However, De Warden didn't respond to him. Instead, he said to Shin.
"Lock into their system, I want to see what she's up to."
"Yes, boss. Just a minute, let me round this up."
Meanwhile, after Jenna was allowed into the premises, she locked eyes on the warehouse. Five containers had just arrived. They were offloading boxes into the warehouse.
Her fingers twitched, and a grin spread across her face.
She couldn't wait anymore.
"Em, Big Brother, is there a restroom around here? I'm pressed," she said, shifting her weight slightly as if embarrassed.
The guard blinked.
"…There's one in the east wing lobby," he replied after a second. "I'll take you."
Jenna gave him a grateful smile.
"Thank you."
The east wing wasn't far. Just a two minute walk from the warehouse. Along the way, Jenna was calculating how to beat time.
Once she was inside the female restroom, she stood by the mirror, admiring her body once more.
She'd seen what she looked at in the mirror this morning, but the sight of her face again brought back bad memories.
She was pretty, and pretty faces has never been a good thing in the apocalypse.
She snapped out of it, saying.
"System, let's begin."
There was no dramatic countdown, neither did the System waste words.
Just—
Click.
The restroom lights flickered once.
Twice.
Then everything went black.
Outside, a sharp pop cracked through the air, followed by a chain reaction of exploding transformers. The buzz of electricity died mid-breath. The air conditioning shut down. The cameras lining the hallway froze on static.
In the watchtower, the monitors glitched.
Inside the warehouse, forklifts arranging cartons into racks froze mid-lift.
For one suspended heartbeat, the entire Eden One went completely still.
Then chaos erupted.
"What the hell—?!"
"Backup generator!"
"Check the grid!"
Boots thundered across concrete.
Jenna didn't waste another second. Her two hours was counting.
"Activate invisibility."
Her body shimmered, then vanished.
[SSS-Rank Invisibility activated. Remaining duration: 05:00.]
She stepped out of the restroom.
The guard who had escorted her was already sprinting toward the control room, barking into his earpiece.
Jenna moved fast. She sprinted with all her might toward the warehouse.
The compound now buzzed with alarm. Electric fences were down. The warehouse door was wide open.
Perfect.
She slipped inside and gasped.
The warehouse was gigantic and sparkling clean. Everything was organized in endless racks according to categories.
It seemed Jenna got the wrong warehouse,or maybe her knowledge of it was wrong.
She'd thought it was a warehouse for storing antiques alone, but it seemed this was the Churchill's giant warehouse they talked about in the news.
The warehouse doubled as a storage for not just antiques but other supplies.
Antiques for the auction house were displayed in temperature-controlled glass sections, each tagged and catalogued.
Food supplies for the resort were stacked in neat industrial rows. There were imported and local grains, cartons of canned goods, cartons of freeze-dried packs of vegetables and fruits, packs of bottled water, boxes of purified water for the creme de la creme, spices, and more.
Animal feed for the ranch occupied an entire wing, labeled by weight and nutrient grade.
There were even specialty sections for crates and cartons of luxury liquor and beverages, gallons of generator fuel, cooking gas, private security armaments…
"Did we also run a security company?" she mused.
It wouldn't be farfetched, considering how heavily guarded this place was.
Or...
Her eyes sharpened. Did any one from her uncle's side regress too? Was this a stockpile?