"No—no way," George's face went pale as he hurriedly arrived at the burning Drug Laboratory.
Just monts ago, he had been sleeping soundly in his car, the quiet of the night enveloping him.
Then, a loud explosion shattered the silence, jolting him awake along with everyone else in town.
As he drove the car through the hazy road, the sll of smoke filled his nose, mixing with the sharp scent of chemicals.
The night sky was lit up with a fiery orange glow, casting long shadows across the landscape.
Flas licked at the edges of the laboratory, sending sparks into the air.
From above, the dark outline of the surrounding forest lood, with the glow of the fire flickering around it.
'Where is he?' George pressed on through the thick smoke, his eyes scanning the place.
He grabbed a wet cloth and pressed it to his mouth because the acrid smoke already seeped into the air conditioning system of the pickup truck.
"WOOOF!"
"WOOOF!"
"WOOOF!"
Wick started barking and behaving strangely.
"Do you sll Reign?" George asked urgently, trusting Wick's instincts.
"Woof!" Wick replied, scratching the window with his paws.
Seeing this, George opened the car door and followed Wick outside.
The heat hit him like a wave, so he grabbed a few bottles of water to stay hydrated.
Around him, the forest was engulfed in flas, and the Drug Laboratory was barely visible through the thick black smoke.
All he could make out were the walls, their outlines blurred by the haze.
"Hey, where the hell are you!" George shouted.
But there was no response at all.
"Wait, where is that dog?" George asked after realizing that Wick was also now missing.
"Cough—cough—" George's montary lapses caused him to inhale so of the smoke, forcing him to sit on the ground where it was less dense.
After a while, just sitting wasn't enough to mitigate the impact of the smoke.
He crawl on the hard ground, stubbornly refusing to leave.
Despite their differences, Reign was the only one he trusted enough to have the potential to rescue his daughter.
Reign may have been crazy and enjoyed mocking him, but the ti they spent together had been enough for George to grow fond of him, even if just a little bit.
"Woof!" Wick's bark echoed, urging George to force himself to look for the source of the sound.
"Reign!" George exclaid in shock as he saw Wick pulling a dark, burned body towards him.
He knew it was Reign, so he mustered all of his strength and ran forward.
As he approached the burned body, horror gripped him at the sight of the charcoal-like skin, bearing witness to the tornt inflicted by the intense heat.
Not even the skull-faced features were spared, and upon closer inspection, George noticed the absence of the blue flickering light in Reign's eyes.
Regardless, he still picked up the burned body and gently placed it in the pickup truck.
Without wasting any ti, he stepped on the gas and left the place imdiately.
***
5 Days Later.
"Hey, George, are you alright?" llisa spoke up, handing George a cup of coffee.
Her expression spoke volus about the sadness she felt for the fate that had befallen on both George and Reign .
He had ca here, desperate for assistance after that big incident.
The incident had stirred widespread attention, becoming a hot topic of discussion within the organization.
Information surfaced about the presence of Five Divergents in the Drug laboratory, along with the revelation of a special type of banned bomb, making the mission difficulty far more dangerous than expected.
In light of this revelation, the organization acknowledged its oversight in not acquiring sufficient information about the Anigma group.
As a form of restitution, they admitted their mistake and compensated Reign by awarding him full points for the mission completion. Additionally, they offered a bonus of 30,000 Veiled points as compensation for the blunder they had made.
Unfortunately, the man in question was now lying in bed, burned and unresponsive.
They hadn't yet reported his condition to the organization. Instead, they decided to use Reign's spare mask to deceive everyone into thinking that he was still alive.
"Will he be alright ?" George asked.
"He's not even breathing. I think he's dead," lissa sighed, arriving at the only conclusion she could.
"But he's a demon, and it's not like he was breathing before either," George replied.
He knew that Reign was an undead, so the absence of a beating heart wasn't out of the ordinary.
"And look at Wick, he kept on staying here, so Reign must still be alive," George pointed out, gesturing towards the dog who was sleeping soundly on the ground.
"George, dogs are incredibly loyal. Even if their owner dies, they'll keep on waiting for them," she explained gently.
She sensed that George was struggling because he had placed all his hope on Reign to save his daughter.
Now, with his only hope lying motionless before him, he seed to spiral into a state of depression.
"No, I can feel it. He's special. He's not soone to die just like that," George explained, his voice tinged with denial. "A— Anna told that Reign would beco very powerful soday ,he can't die with just a little explosion,"
"George! That was a special type of bomb, sothing that's even banned in Tier 3 cities. No matter how powerful Reign was, there's no way he could survive that!" she protested.
She didn't want to sound heartless, as she had also grown fond of Reign, but they needed to be realistic about the situation.
George didn't reply and just continued to drink his coffee.
Seeing this, she realized that nothing she says would convince him.
The only person who could help George right now was himself.
***
Another week passed, and there was still no sign of movent .
At this point, she was fully convinced that Reign had already passed away.
"We should bury him now," she said gently, placing her hand on George's shoulder.
George looked up, his eyes reflecting a mix of sadness and resignation. "I guess you're right," he replied softly. "It's ti we gave him a proper farewell."
She nodded in agreent, her own eyes misting with unshed tears. "He deserves that much, at least," she said, her voice catching slightly.
Together, they stood up and turned away from Reign's corpse.
CRACK
Startled by the cracking sound, George and llisa quickly turned to look at the source.
"Is he waking up?" George exclaid, hope flickering in his eyes as he noticed so movents from Reign's body.
CRACK
CRACK
CRACK
The cracking sound continued, accompanied by the shedding of the burned skin from Reign's stomach. Beneath it, a reddish skin erged, akin to a snake shedding its old skin for a new one..
"You've gotta be kidding ," She was stunned, disbelief and awe mingling in her expression.
To witness soone who was presud dead coming back to life before her very eyes was nothing short of miraculous.
But the next scene turned their excitent to dread, because as the shed burned skin dropped down, sothing inside Reign's stomach pop out of nowhere.
"SHRIEEEEK!" The sa parasite that Reign had encountered erged from his stomach, but this ti it was larger, the size of a fully adult dog.
"George, run!" llisa was the first to react, grabbing his collar and yanking him towards the door.
Wick, sensing the danger, followed closely behind.
"Lock it!" she ordered as they scrambled to safety.
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