"Mr. Bei, please listen to me." The woman followed Bei Tian as he started walking away from the alley. "There are children out there…… hundreds of them."

  "Miss Doe…… do you think I would care?" he said without looking at her.

  "But— "

  "Leave me alone. The next time you involve Kai and the Zhou Family in this nonsense, I will kill you."

  "Mr. Bei please— If you could just— "

  "You used the wrong approached woman. Don’t even think that I would consider helping you."

  "I can help you find what you want."

  Her words stopped him. Seeing this, the woman continued.

  "You wanted to die…… right?"

  This time, he turned towards her, eyes narrowed. The woman’s resemblance towards Lily was making his blood boil with rage. How dare they use her face just to lure him in? "Why would I want to die?"

  "Because…… because you have lived long enough? Because you are alone?" Determination flashed in the woman’s eyes. "You heal fast, you are strong, and no one would be able to beat you in hand to hand combat. Even bullets don’t work on you. Tell me, Mr. Bei…… have you tried shooting yourself in the mouth?"

  His face darkened as she slowly approached him. Then she lifted her head, staring straight into his soul. "Because I did." The woman smiled. "And I survived."

  "Where did you get that face?"

  "Would you believe me if I tell you that I just woke up like this?"

  "No."

  The woman shrugged at his response. "I can’t remember. I woke up in a lab, in chains."

  "Where is this?"

  "Russia."

  "So…… you are saying that you just woke up like this? In chains? How did you survive with all the Russian’s hunting you?"

  "The lab was already destroyed when I woke up. I tried to find out who did it. Then I discovered that a certain computer genius named Qin Yuanfeng attacked the Russians while someone else destroyed the lab. I started researching from there, but the apocalypse happened. Took me years to find you."

  His lips thinned at the mention of Qin Yuanfeng. "I don’t believe you." He said.

  "At least give me a chance to show you what I know? At least…… Maybe ten minutes. Give me ten minutes."

  "How did you get that face?" Again, he asked.

  "What— I already told you I don’t know. What the hell is wrong with you? What’s with this face?" When his face darkened, the woman added. "Alright…… Mr. Bei…… I know about her, but I promise you I really don’t know anything else. I don’t know why I woke up like you or why I look like this. I can’t remember anything aside from waking up. I have some assumptions. If you would just let me— "

  "Lead the way— "

  "Excuse me?"

  He pursed his lips in response. He doesn’t like repeating his words so he just stared at her as if hoping that she would read his mind.

  "Well— Alright." The woman gave a wry smile before she led him into the streets of the colony. This Colony was used to be Shanghai, and aside from the dome-like features that protected everyone from the heat of the sun, the place still looked like the previous Shanghai years ago.

  Of course, there were already metal buildings and flying cars all around but aside from that, everything from the Chinese style tea houses to the museums was almost the same. However, these were only on the outside. The government leaders in this colony tried to do their best to duplicate the previous Shanghai. After the devastation, everything about this place was no longer the same. So, they did their best to reconstruct the previous buildings and make their citizen’s a bit more comfortable.

  "This is an abandoned warehouse." The woman said as she led him to the basement of the two story house that looked more like it was about to fall apart anytime than a warehouse. "Be careful with the glass." She warned him. "The government will demolish this site soon and turned it into another training center for the younger youths."

  "Where are the other members of the DEFIANCE?" he asked.

  "Have you heard of the DEFIANCE before?"

  "No." That was an honest answer. And to be honest, he wasn’t really interested to join this organization. All he wanted was to find a way to end this miserable life.

  "Oh. We don’t show our faces to anyone. Our identities are anonymous."

  He nodded and followed her towards a chained room.

  "I used to live here. Years ago." The woman opened the room and revealed a dimly lit hallway. "No more electricity…… I guess." She walked towards the hallway, her footsteps echoed behind her. "The organization had been tracking the experimentations. I mean…… humans have the tendency to try and research something that they don’t understand. Like the youths who suddenly developed abilities to summoned fire and lightning, special people. However, some people go beyond that."

  "Was it the Russians?"

  "We are not sure. All we know is that the name of the Organization is the Ghosts."

  He squinted. "Spectre?"

  "How did you know?" She stopped walking and stared at him.

  "Was it the Order of the Spectre?"

  "You— " the woman paled, her fist clenched. "You have heard of them?"

  "I am older than you woman…… now continue talking." He frowned as he wondered about the woman’s intense reaction at the mention of the name. She even went as far as using the term Ghosts when it was actually Spectre.

  "Well…… The Spectre started experimenting with infants."

  He lifted an eyebrow. That was indeed something that they would do just for power. "And? What does this have to do with me?"

  The woman stopped walking. "Mr. Bei…… right now…… people like us…… like you and I are not considered normal anymore."

  "I know as much." Sarcasm laced his voice.

  "No, I mean we are strong, we can jump from buildings, we heal really fast. The youths don’t have these abilities. They can summon fire and water, but that was it. They don’t have the strength that we have, the agility, and even the healing capability."

  "And?"

  "Not many people know this. But the Spectre does and…… and they are looking for ways to kill us."

  Surprise flashed in his eyes. "Then, isn’t that good news?" What is better than dying and finally having peace?

  "But they are experimenting with us…… and trying to come up with ways that they could have what we have, even stronger."

  "You keep on saying us…… does this mean there are more people like you and me?" He pressed his lips together when he realized something. "The DEFIANCE is composed of people like you and me?"

  The woman nodded. "And we are being hunted."

  He nodded. Since they wanted to kill him, then he can just wait for them to arrive at his door so they could finally end his misery.

  "I know what you’re thinking but please understand that our genetics had been altered and before they kill us, they would remove our blood from our system and use us as subjects to their experiments."

  Bei Tian snorted. He was a freak. Bei Tian couldn’t even remember when was the last time that he felt any physical pain. Ending his misery is still better than anything else.

  "You don’t care about the children that would be— "

  "Look…… Miss whoever you are." Bei Tian interrupted her. "Spare me the bullshit and tell me the plan. I want the thing that could kill us. I know nothing about caring or being hypocritical. I have lived long enough, and I want this to end. Now…… it’s either you tell me why am I here and tell me everything about this thing that could kill me or…… scram. And don’t ever show yourself in front of me again."