Khalifa: Queen in the Apocalypse

Chapter 118: Betrayal

Sid looked at his sister with furrowed eyebrows, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

However, before he could ask what she meant, the couple had already walked near them. Their hands were entwined with warm smiles on their faces. It really stung their eyes.

"Shall we go?"

"Ah, yes, of course!" Suli said with a bright smile, no trace of any darkness at all, happily leading the way. Her face changed so quickly even Sid—the veteran actor—was taken aback.

"Brother!" She said, walking back to him and holding his arm. "Aren’t you coming with us?"

Sid blinked, realizing that they had already walked several meters away while he stood still. "A-Ah…"

Next, they went towards the Medical Bay where a lot of injured people still stayed. This was basically a small hospital even before the apocalypse. And, being an operating academy and barracks during the apocalypse, it was well-equipped and the staff were well-trained.

Khalifa nodded. The more she saw, the more she acknowledged that the base was really doing well, considering the time and the population it had to cater to.

Military zones were also generally self-sufficient. It had water filtration and solar panels. It was the perfect place to be when you’re unprepared for the apocalypse. It was just that the population was too dense, so there were still a lot of inconveniences.

Aside from these, however, the entire thing was as well-managed as it could get.

From what Hugo had been hearing, that guy Kylo had a lot to do with it. Even if he was just a Major—going against a Colonel—he managed to capture the forces and led the survivors to safety.

The capital city was the abode of dragons with people of power, it would not have been easy handling this place the way he did.

Not that he’d ever acknowledge it out loud, of course. Who knew if the woman next to him would shower the guy with admiration?

Anyway, after some time of walking around, they finally decided to go back to their accommodation to have lunch, inviting the girl, who happily obliged.

Along the way back, they passed by an area focused on reinforcing barricades. There were also areas with construction going on. From this, they could see a set of labor forces designated to make sure the barricades were strong enough and that there were plenty of plans to house the upsurge of residents as well.

As they approached their area, they noticed that the people in the barracks area looked a little better than those in the slums and they settled down nicely. Unlike the extremely dirty people in the slum and tent area, the people here were still dusty, but still relatively presentable.

Khalifa’s rice really gave them a good deal. Though it was estimated that Khalifa’s beauty had a lot to do with it.

However, no one was expected to just lay around and do nothing, as the accommodation was ’rented’. That was: everyone was required to do some sort of job or contribution in order to stay there.

To summarize their trip, it seemed that the system was quite organized with people having to pay either supply or manpower in order to live well.

Even rich people and politicians before the apocalypse had to do the same.

And one of these people happened to be watching them.

The man approached them with a frown, eyebrows furrowed with heavy, questioning, looks. He had a streak of white hair, slightly plump body, and a relatively clean appearance showing his status.

Hugo could recognize him a mile away.

Prance Thomas. Trina’s father.

The man looked at the group with sharp eyes. He happened to be near the entrance when this group arrived, naturally aware of the commotion they had caused.

He had been monitoring their location since then, though he didn’t say it.

But after all this time, there was no sight of his daughter and he couldn’t wait anymore and approached face-to-face.

"Hugo?" He asked, pretending to have just seen them. "I see you’re not with my daughter." He said this and his eyes did their group a one-over, with his eyes couldn’t help but sticking on the extremely beautiful woman he was holding hands with.

His eyes glowed with a bit of greed.

Hugo’s eyes narrowed, gripping Khalifa’s waist tightly and pulling her flush to his body.

But Prance was a loving father and a new beautiful woman didn’t distract him from his mission.

"Where is she?"

The atmosphere was tense, and Hugo narrowed his eyes at the two men who were guarding the guy.

"We got… separated early on."

Prance’s frown deepened and he tilted his head a bit, a signal, and the next moment guns were pointed in their direction. "You’re lying. She was so set on you. She wouldn’t have separated from you."

Hugo sneered. "You think being in a city, I would be able to protect another person?"

"You!!" Prance yelled, taking his guard’s gun and pointing the gun at Hugo himself.

Fortunately, several guards came in and diffused the situation.

Interestingly, one of them was the soldier who gave Khalifa a bar of chocolate…

"No fighting allowed sir." He said, very stern, and the atmosphere was stagnant for a while.

It felt like one little change could ignite a gunfight.

Prance looked at them sharply, and then to the soldiers. Reluctantly, he got his men to put the guns down.

"I will find out what happened." He stated, looking at everyone on their side with deep eyes. "Whether you like it or not."

***

The group was silent on the way back to their temporary abode. Sid wordlessly took out their portable stove and began preparing the food, with Jojo helping with the ingredients.

He took out sausages and instant noodles, and Suli gulped. She had been having instant noodles, but (edible) sausages she hadn’t tasted for many days.

Watching her brother cook lunch, she turned her head to Hugo as she schooled her expression back to a concerned little sister. "Are you sure it’ll be alright?" Suli asked them, appearing very worried. "That man is a researcher and he is quite powerful here."

Hugo, whose hand was caressing Khalifa’s curvy waist, turned his head a little to her direction. "Oh? How powerful?"

"Hmm, I’m not sure. But he is entitled to have his own guards with weapons—they aren’t even soldiers. I’m assuming that means a lot."

Khalifa nodded. "It is." She mumbled, worried.

She looked at Hugo with a frown, "What will happen if they find out she’s dead?" She whispered, but Suli could read lips and gaped at them.

Suli met her brother’s eyes watching her and she shook her head, mouthing: You can trust me.

"She did it to herself." Hugo whispered back, patting her head. "She deserved even worse."

No one spoke again after that, and Suli looked down, just eating her food.

"Anyway, we will be leaving tomorrow. We will pay for this room for a whole month."

Sid and Jojo looked complicated, but they also knew the couple went all the way to the Capitol to drop them off. It would be a bit thick-skinned to continue acting like the leech they actually were.

This, however, made the guest flinch, "You’re going?" Suli asked, then looked at her brother who nodded.

"Why?"

"We have our own homes. We just dropped them off by the way."

"What a pity…" Sulu mumbled, "This place lacked beautiful people you see. Beautiful people make everything look better."

Khalifa giggled, "You are very pretty yourself, Suli."

"Thank you."

Jojo looked constipated, before looking at them as if he was going to cry. "Can’t I come with you? I’m really good… I..."

"I’m sorry… I… I know it’s shameless of me to ask, but I’ll be really really good and helpful! I will also help with cooking! I learned a lot from Sid the past few days…"

Khalifa and Hugo looked at each other, and shrugged. "We don’t mind…"

The siblings, though, looked at each other. Sid smiled awkwardly at his sister. "Can you come with us?"

Suli looked at him, conflicted. She looked down at her hands gripping her skirt, deep in thought.

"I’ll think about it." She finally said, pausing. Sid frowned and looked at her deeply. She was so reluctant to part with this place?

Suli, noticing her brother’s stare, sent him a gentle smile. "It was very hard to get here safely. I’m naturally reluctant to go out there again."

"I will seriously consider it brother, I promise." She said, patting his hand. "I’ll tell you tomorrow."

***

However, that night was destined to be restless, because in the middle of the night—just after midnight—their door banged open.

A group of well-armed men arrived, some were even soldiers, and they uniformly flowed into the room.

Each of them had menacing looks and guns, all pointed at them, so neither Khalifa nor Hugo dared to do anything.

"Who are you?? What’s going on?" Jojo asked, looking at them guardedly.

But no one answered him. Instead the middle of the lineup opened like a wave, revealing a pair of people that came in sauntering through the door.

Sid paled at the sight of the person that emerged, the shock making his ears ring painfully.

It was Trina’s dad… and Suli.