Khalifa: Queen in the Apocalypse

Chapter 127: Suffocated (Mild R)

The next few hours were relatively uneventful in the sense that no real threat was encountered.

It didn’t mean that there were no encounters with zombies, of course. On the contrary, they had met a lot of them.

They even attracted more zombies because their armored car roared along the highway, very noisily, hitting some obstacles on the road without care, not inferior to her much-missed monster truck.

However, despite easily attracting zombies, they were relatively safe thanks to the defense system integrated into the car.

Better was the fact that the chassis was very protected and they didn’t have the problem of having to maintain the car too often, as it was with the truck.

There were even guns they could use to kill particularly troublesome zombies through the armor slits. There were a lot, especially bullets. Even if they enjoyed shooting, they could definitely have enough to reach to their respective bases.

"Kylo is so nice to give this to us." Jojo mumbled then shut his mouth immediately when he saw Hugo’s glare from the rear view mirror. "Of course, what’s a good car without a god-like driver." He added, and Hugo withdrew his scary stare.

It was just that, not too long after that, Hugo felt that the vehicle began to behave oddly.

He furrowed his eyebrows, checking the tachometer and the other indicators.

At first, there wasn’t anything alarming. He just felt the driving wasn’t as smooth as before. He reckoned something must’ve just stuck in the wheels, which was highly possible considering the amount of zombies they literally drove over.

However, almost as soon as he started thinking so, the engine started to sputter, and the dashboard lights also began flashing at an irregular rate.

He tried to hit the break, then stepped on it again… and again, but it didn’t respond!!

"What’s going on?" Sid asked, and Hugo was pushing buttons to see what could’ve happened.

He tried to drive as steadily as he could, checking, eventually figuring it out.

"Someone tampered with the engine!" He yelled out, making the others gasping worry.

"Oh no."

"What are we going to do?"

Khalifa, sweating a little in nervousness, immediately closed her eyes in concentration. When it opened, she could see the various particles floating around.

Concentrating further, she focused on the car’s interior and used her ability to check the fuel.

If the majority of the liquid was fuel, and some other substances that mixed well with it were additives, then the particles that were stopping the liquid from doing its job were the opposite.

"Foreign substances were mixed into the fuel lines." She paused, a deep furrow graced her beautiful face. "It’s corrosive."

"What!!"

"Damn it!" Hugo cursed, knowing what this implied. This meant that the Engine would overheat and then lead to its eventual failure.

He couldn’t even just wait for it to die down, because the inertia would definitely be deadly.

"Kylo couldn’t have done this…" Sid said with a frown. An image of an annoying old perverted face simultaneously flashed in their minds.

"It must’ve been Prance!" They thought. He must’ve used his bit of influence to attack them.

"That bastard!"

"When I get a hold of him—"

What they didn’t know was that Kylo had long been annoyed with the bastard, and what he did to Khalifa was the last straw. There wouldn’t have been any leeway for him to move at all.

What everyone missed and underestimated was Suli, Sid’s sister, and her charm not too inferior to her brother’s.

When she realized her brother didn’t plan on taking her with him, she decided to bring a little trouble to the party.

Hugo continued to drive the car forward, knowing they couldn’t bump into these solid walls and cars unharmed.

Jojo suddenly went silent, looking around the familiar streets with a complicated expression. He had worked near here before, and he felt melancholic at what it looked like now.

In any case, he knew this place like it was the back of his hand.

"There’s a river nearby!" He said, and Hugo quickly analyzed their situation.

If they arrived at the shore, then they should reach some sand to slow them down more, there would also be less obstacles.

Hugo nodded and followed his directions, feeling it increasingly difficult to even steer properly.

Because of this, they bumped into too many things, the scratching sounds of metal to metal or metal to rock gritted their nerves.

Worse, the car engine sounded worse and worse, feeling a lot more dangerous. Sadly, they didn’t have much of a choice but to just move forward.

However, before they could even reach the safer parts of the river, the engine gave out completely—its momentum pushing them forward.

A tense moment passed by when the car was left hanging awkwardly as if one tiny movement could send them hurtling down.

This tiny movement—their breathing—didn’t work for them, tilting the vehicle towards the water instead.

"Fuck!" Hugo yelled, holding Khalifa’s hand as he opened up all the windows and unlocked the doors so they could easily jump out. The other two also cursed, ready to jump out the door as needed.

The car fell down the low bridge and they felt their stomach drop as they fell. They immediately went out, jumping, with Khalifa immediately using her ability to cushion their fall.

The van was heavy however, and they found themselves sucked in by the current made by it sinking.

Khalifa called on the power of water to fight against this small current, freeing them all.

"Khalifa!!" Hugo yelled as he saw her struggle. She shook her head, telling him she was fine.

They struggled to swim a little but eventually reached the surface.

Unexpectedly, there was a little eddy under the surface of the river, and she found it a bit too late and she was already captured by it.

Using much of her power, she created a wave to push the three men—who were fortunately a distance from the eddy—nearer the shore. At the very least, they shouldn’t get captured like her and just cause her to get distracted.

Khalifa was pulled in by the current. She tried fighting against it but her ability was limited against such a strong force of nature.

The men yelled, trying to swim to her direction. She saw this and frowned, knowing there was very little chance they’d survive this, unlike her.

In that instant she let her instincts control her body and used her ability to push them back, far from the pull of danger.

She used her last bit in an attempt to cover herself with a protective bubble, taking some air from above the surface, before she was completely overtaken by the damned current.

However the momentum pushed her further into the current, and she hit her head against the sinking car that had also been sucked by the strong waters.

Bang!

The bubble burst that instant and, coupled with the lack of air, the impact soon made her lose consciousness.

As her vision darkened, she couldn’t help but think:

Am I going to die?

***

Tap, tap, tap

When she regained a tad of lucidity, Khalifa felt herself being carried by strong arms.

It felt like she was floating, gently held by the wind. She struggled to open her eyes, and only managed to open it, just a bit.

Soon she felt herself being placed somewhere soft, but she was still too hot. Then she felt her clothing slowly being stripped away and she hummed in comfort that did not last as long as she’d like.

Khalifa felt her body so incredibly hot and she knew it was due to her overexertion of her powers. And because she went beyond her limits, the effect was still particularly worse.

"Hmmm~" she mewled, desperate for something to soothe her discomfort.

"So hot… so hot… hmn. So uncomfortable…" she sobbed, "Help… wuuu…"

Soon, an extremely cold touch found her forehead then her neck.

Her half-dazed state could tell it was a pair of hands. Hands that were too cold, but it soothed her hot body so much.

She shivered a little and she frowned when it separated from her skin. "Don’t go…" She said, hands extending, trying to get it back to where it belonged: Her skin.

And the cool hands found their way back to her body, touching everywhere, comforting.

"Ha… ah… good."

She guided it to her neck and she wrapped the arms around it, feeling comforted as she embraced it as if it was a very nice plush toy.

When that wasn’t enough, she traced the arms, finding the hard chest, burying herself in his cold embrace.

Ah, much better.

But… she needed more, more, more…

By instinct she just rubbed her body against the cold body that seemed to have frozen.

However, she soon felt cold weight on her and, like her, started rubbing into her body. She felt her legs being opened, and their contact becoming more and more intimate and cool.

"Ah… good…" She mumbled, comforted by the cool friction the strange body provided her.

She wanted to see, so she laboriously opened her eyes. However, she was too weak to speak, her mind was too dizzy, and her sights were too blurred to be certain.

All she could tell was that she seemed to see a familiar set of curls.

.

.

.

"... Jacob…?"

____

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

First of all, THANK YOU FOR READING THIS FAR! We have now reached more-or-less the last leg of the story (not including the indefinite amount of Side Stories)!

My announcement though is not this. The thing is… I wasn’t able to write many chapters after this! This means from now on, the chapter updates would be reduced to about 3x a week. I’m sorry! I promise to complete this story within the year though!

THAT SAID. In order to be fair to the lovely LOVELY readers who purchase Privilege, I will definitely GREATLY LOWER the prices so that they’ll still be worth it.

Hope to see you to the end guys! Thanks for your support so far!!