Author's Note: My brother kept on bugging me to post the next chapter... Let's do this...

Chapter 12: I’ll Be There

Today was Sunday…

It’s been a while since we’ve passed the university belt. We’re currently on Katipunan Avenue and a few miles farther to Quezon Memorial Circle. As I’ve predicted, there were almost no zombies in the western area as the horde travels to northeast. Since we’ve been in Katipunan, we’ve only encountered 10 zombies scattered and wandering aimlessly on the road.

We’ve killed these stray zombies in order for the others to gain experience. We also gained experience but we didn’t level up because the experience points were too diluted and there were 31 of us to share. I should have changed the EXP sharing to just equally only to five of us original members but it’s too late now. Anyway, we won’t be their guardians forever and they needed the boost from us in order for them to survive in the future.

[Wait!] – Dianne

[What is it?] – Miguel

[Uhmmm... I don't know how to pronounce the monster's name...] – Dianne

[Spell it then…] – Eric

[G-N-O-L-L…] – Dianne

[Gih-Nol?] - ???

This is why I hate extras. They always ruin the suspense. Why couldn’t they just shut the hell up?

[Gnoll… You mean a gnoll with a G? What does it look like?] – Miguel

[They looked like dogs that can stand upright. They’re level 13 there are at least 50 of them in their band.] – Dianne

[They’re too many. Find us another way…] – Miguel

[On it…] – Dianne

Unlike the university belt, the rotting human corpses lying on the road weren’t zombies. I couldn’t begin to imagine how many humans already died. There were monsters everywhere and they probably massacred every human they saw. Now it got me thinking, how does a monster spawn? Can a monster give birth to a baby monster or they can just appear out of thin air like magic?

For hours, we continued to move in silence on the eerily silent road filled with rotting corpses. I looked up in the sky and saw the sun in the west. It must be 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I told Dianne to keep an eye for any place big enough for all of us because in a few hours, the sun will set. We didn’t want to travel at night.

Like the university belt, there were a lot of ruined buildings. Though some of them looked good enough to cover our heads for the night, most of them looked it’s about to collapse. After a few minutes Dianne finally found a suitable place for us. It was a two-story building that was used to be a clothing store.

I was getting exhausted because I was carrying Claire on my back for hours. Claire was heavier than I thought and my back was aching for a rest. These clowns couldn’t take a hint that I needed help. Well, it’s okay. My STR was increased by 1 just by lifting her for hours.

Eric and Melissa kept glancing at me with teasing smile on their faces. I think they believed that she’s my girlfriend. I didn’t really mind since I never had a girlfriend. There’s not even a rumor that I had one in the past.

It’s fun to pretend that I have one on my back but it was also depressing at the same time. The thing is it will never be true. Even though it’s not impossible for her to fall for a bloke like me, the chance of getting hit by a lightning twice in a row was much higher than Claire being my girlfriend. God even gave me a prophecy that I would die a virgin.

“Someone barricade the doors and the windows…”

Eric took out some wooden planks in his inventory and gave it to the others as they barricaded the doors. Seriously, how many wooden planks did Eric have? I have no idea.

The second floor has a big storage room filled with boxes of shirts, pants and other clothing. Our group and the others decided to use this room to rest while some of the members will take watch for the night in the first floor. There was enough space for all of us to lie down and sleep.

Eric, Melissa and Dianne took out their beddings and pillows from their inventory and rushed towards the space near the windows. In the end, Eric won the spot while Melissa and Dianne fought for the right to second place of the spot like children. Claire and I didn’t have a choice but to take the spot near the walls but a bit far from the windows.

“We’re here… You can let go…” I said to Claire as I lowered myself to the ground.

“…”

Claire didn’t answer.

“Claire? Hey, wake up…” I called her again.

“What’s happening?” Dianne asked as I put Claire on the ground.

I shook Claire to wake her up. “Claire!”

Eric and Melissa noticed that there’s something wrong. They rushed to our side as I continued to wake up Claire.

“What happened?” Eric asked.

“She’s not waking up…” I responded.

“Claire! Come on, wake up!” I could hear her breathe. I placed my hand on her forehead and on the side of her neck. She has a fever and her pulse seemed to be weak.

“What’s wrong with her?” George asked.

“I don’t know...” Dianne said as she held Claire’s hand.

“Please wake up...” She cried.

The others surrounded us as they asked what was happening. I ignored everyone as I was desperately trying to wake her up. I knew it. There’s something wrong with her; terribly wrong.

“She was bitten by a zombie, wasn’t she?” Gerry asked.

“Y-yes...”

Then I came to realize, zombies will never be zombies in the first place if they couldn’t infect anyone with their bite. I used [Observe] on her to see her status but her status was showing ‘Exhausted’. It didn’t show any debuff or disease but there’s no doubt that Claire was infected. That’s for sure.

“Has anyone of you been bitten?” I asked.

“No...” The others also shook their head.

Shit. What do I do? I’ve always been calm in any situation but right now, my mind was in chaos and I couldn’t think even straight.

“Claire?” Dianne called. “Claire! Oh god... I’m glad you’re awake!”

Claire slowly opened her eyes as she gained consciousness. Her skin looked pale as a corpse and her veins were slightly visible in her neck and wrist.

“...”

I was speechless. Is this it? Did she finally turn into a zombie? I placed my hand in my sword’s hilt just in case.

“Wh... What’s up?” Claire said weakly.

I let out a deep sigh. I was glad that Claire was still alive.

“What... happened? Why... are you... crying?” She asked.

“Y-you’re... going to be alright, Claire...” Dianne said as she embraced Claire.

“Can we talk for a second?” George asked me. “You too, Eric...”

Eric, George and I went outside the room.

“I think she’s infected...” George said. No shit, Sherlock.

“Yes... I know...” I responded.

“What do we do now?” Eric asked.

“From her looks, I don’t think she has that long...”

“What are you suggesting, George?” Eric glared at him.

“I-it’s only a matter of time until...” George stopped as he saw Eric clenched his fist.

“Look, I know that she’s a friend of yours but... my point is if it happens that she... turns to one of them, it’s better to separate her from the others...”

“...”

I placed my hand on Eric’s shoulders to stop him from punching George in the face. It’s only natural that he’s in denial but fighting with each other will never solve a problem.

“He’s got a point. Besides, Claire will need a quiet place to rest...” I said to him.

Eric nodded and unclenched his fists as he calmed down.

The three of us went back to the room as Eric and I approached Claire.

I held her pale hands and smiled. “Hey Claire... How’re you doing?”

“I feel like... shit.”

I laughed wryly. “Listen… uhmmm… we’re going to move you to the other room so you can rest. It’s more quite in there…”

“Will I... be alone?” Claire asked as she frowned.

“No...” I answered. “I’ll be there too...”

She nodded as she smiled. “Okay...”

Eric approached her and carefully lifted her up. George and I followed Eric as he carried Claire to the other room. Melissa and Dianne also followed.

Dianne prepared Claire’s bed and Eric put her down on the bed.

“I don’t... want to lie down...” Claire said as she tried to move by herself and leaned to the wall.

“You should rest.” I told her.

“No...”

I held her hand. My hand glowed in green light as I cast [Heal] on Claire. I felt the effect of the mana drain of the spell. I opened my eyes but Claire’s condition didn’t change. Even after I exhausted all of my mana, [Heal] didn’t have any effect on her condition and she still looked very pale. The others were silent and looked dejected as they saw my skill failed to work.

Attribute(s) gained:

+5 MP

I activated [Meditate] to recover my MP and to think more clearly. I tried to analyse again everything I know about the zombies.

Even if they’re rotting and severely dismembered, the zombies can still move around and attack. If you do enough damage on their brains, they will cease to exist. Was it a virus? From what I know, a virus cannot naturally reproduce unless they’re inside a living organism’s cells. Though still possible, I doubted that virus was the cause. Perhaps bacteria? They’re living organisms right? Antibiotics might work but I’m not sure since I’m not a doctor.

“Is there a pharmacy nearby?”

“There’s one nearby... I think we passed it about an hour ago.” Dianne responded.

“What’s the plan?” Melissa asked.

“I want you to get antibiotics...”

“Are you sure it’s going to work?” Eric asked.

“It’s worth a shot...” I answered.

“Alright, I’ll do it...”

“I’ll come with you, Dianne...”

“Me too...”

Dianne, Eric and Melissa prepared their gears and swiftly left the room to get antibiotics from the pharmacy. George also left the room so Claire could get some rest. I stayed with her just to make sure she’s fine.

I grabbed my bag from my inventory and tried to find a piece of cloth that Claire can use. I found a clean washcloth and a towel. I wanted to use it if there’s an opportunity to take a bath but I haven’t used it since I got it from the restaurant. I also took my bottled water for her to drink.

“What are you doing?” Claire asked.

“Your body temperature’s too high. We need to cool you down…”

I grabbed my bottled water and used my mana to absorb the heat from the water.

“Here, you should drink a lot of water…”

She took a sip of the cold water but she’s having difficulty of swallowing and holding the water bottle by herself. I insisted that she needed to take in more fluids so I held the bottle and helped her drink little by little until the bottle was empty.

After she finished, she coughed for a bit and I pat her back. I used [Water Manipulation] to summon water and put it in the empty bottle. I poured some lukewarm water to the washcloth to damp it.

“Uhmmm… I need you to take your clothes off, if that’s okay…” I said to her.

Claire nodded as she tried her best to take her shirt off by herself. Of course, she couldn’t do it so I helped her. What an irony. Back in the restaurant, she was forcing me to get naked so that she could inflict more pain but now, I was helping her to get naked so that I can give her comfort and take care of her.

Even though her skin was unhealthy pale, I couldn’t help but to stare at her gorgeous figure. Unlike in the restaurant, Claire was confident with her body as she stripped in front of me. She looked proud back then but now as I looked at her body, she’s blushing and shy and couldn’t even look me straight in the eyes. She must be feeling vulnerable.

As the awkward silence continued, I gently rubbed the damp washcloth on her body. First, I washed her face. She flinched as the damp cloth touched her neck and nape. My hand holding the cloth slowly went down to clean her chest. She wasn’t complaining and breathed heavily in response.

I gulped. I couldn’t take my eyes off her rack. I knew that her situation was dangerous but looking at her impressive breast made me forget about it. I didn’t know anything about breast size but I can tell you that it’s impressive.

My hand probably overdid its stay on her chest so I moved on to her arms and her underarms. I poured more water to the washcloth then proceeded to wash her flawless legs and her thighs. As much as I wanted to wash her groin, I didn’t know if my heart can take it any longer so I told her that it’s necessary to wash it. I gave her the washcloth so she can wash it by herself.

“I-I need help…” Claire said as she tried to take off her shorts.

Shit. There’s no way this is happening. This must be a dream. It’s good that the others weren’t here to bother us. I was sweating heavily and my heart was beating like a drum as I slowly pulled down her shorts. When I pulled off her shorts completely, I tried to sneak a glance and I saw a piece of thin black cloth called panties and it was covering the Holy Grail itself.

Claire proceeded to wash herself, albeit rather slowly. Of course, I turned my back as she did it because I would suffer a heart attack and my eyes will burn at the sight of Grail. I’d be wise to prostrate in the holy presence of the Holy Grail and revere its godly magnificence. I cleared my mind and activated [Meditate] to wash off the remnants of the filthy and inappropriate ideas.

“I’m done…” Claire said.

She handed me the damp cloth. My mind was in turmoil as I tried to decide whether to keep the sacred relic for ‘future use’ or place it on her forehead to give Claire some comfort from the fever. Claire clicked her tongue as she shook her head and glared at me. Damn it. She knew. *Sigh*

Since I had no choice, I poured some cold water to desecrate the sacred relic and placed it on her forehead.

“You need to rest.” I said as I assisted her to lie down on her bed.

“Thank you…” She stared at me and gave a slight smile.

“You’re welcome.”

Claire closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep. I touched her neck and it seemed that her temperature cooled down for a bit. Though she still looked pale and sickly, her condition improved slightly. I held her hands and focused my mana to flow inside her body.

My mana became an extension of my senses as my INT was at the point where my mana sensitivity was beginning to show. Even though I’m not a doctor, I could sense that the cells inside her body were slowly deteriorating. I sensed the microbes in her lungs and throat; perhaps this is common cold? Maybe but it may have caused the infection so I killed it with my mana.

I also found parasites inside her intestines. They looked like worms and I also found some larvae. I surrounded the parasites with my mana and killed them with heat. I didn’t know what kind of parasitic worm it was but it’s definitely not tapeworm.

After I was done clearing everything that I suspected to be the cause of Claire’s sickness, her cells continued to deteriorate. I tried my best to spread out my mana throughout her body but I couldn’t find the one that causes the infection. I panted and my vision blurred as my mana was exhausted again.

You have gained a new skill.

Cure Disease [Active] Beginner Lvl. 1

Effect: Diagnose and cure diseases by using mana. It is possible to cure an undiagnose disease given that the caster has destroyed the cause of the disease. Sufficient knowledge of anatomy and pathology is required to diagnose a disease.

MP Cost: ??? (Depends on the disease)

Disease Diagnosed:

• [Common Cold]

• [Not Tapeworm]

Attribute(s) gained:

+5 MP

Though I’ve learned another skill, I cursed at myself for failing to cure Claire. I didn’t know what to do anymore. I let out a deep sigh and cleared my mind as I activated [Meditate] to restore the lost MP.

After a few minutes, my MP was full again and I tried to use [Cure Disease] one more time and this time what I saw was different. I focused my mana to see her mana core inside her. I remembered that I read something like this in the book: Magical Laws and Theories for Dummies.

The mana’s natural color is white. The white color is the result of all different kinds of mana mixed in the mana core. Just like combining red, blue and green color, you’ll get white color. Though I didn’t know why the mana stones that we get from monsters have dark color but it is a ‘common sense’ that mana’s color is white according to the book.

I looked at Claire’s mana core and saw that the dark mana was corrupting the color of her mana. I injected my mana directly to her core to dilute the dark mana inside but Claire’s mana core was large. The dark mana has spread throughout the core and continued to spread faster than the flow of my mana.

I injected my mana all at once until my MP pool was exhausted and I had to wait to restore it again.

Attribute(s) gained:

+5 MP

I opened my eyes and Claire seemed to be getting better. She looked less pale but still pale nonetheless. The dark mana was spreading faster than my mana recovery rate and all I did was to give her more time.

It was too late to save her and I realized that Claire’s fate was sealed… I cannot save her... I failed…

I stood up and looked outside the window as I found nothing else to do. The sun was still up but it was covered by dark rain clouds. Distant thunders can be heard outside as if the heavens itself was furious at my incompetence.

As I stared at the rain clouds, I was thinking about the days I spent with Claire.

Like I said before, we had less notable interactions with each other. That’s because we hated each other’s guts. We hanged out with our mutual friends: Dianne and Eric but still, we showed our mutual hate to each other.

Dianne and Eric thought that it was our way of showing friendship to each other so they ignored the aggression between Claire and me. They were wrong. Insults were thrown and egos bruised. We never even bothered to hide our hate nor did we pretend to be friends.

Though we had mutual hate, we also had mutual respect. She’s probably the only person that I respected other than my family.

There were times that Claire and I never showed aggression to each other. We always studied together for our common goal to get high grades and our names be written on the Dean’s List. During those times, I’ve always felt something different about her. Like a momentary respite in our never ending war, those were the only times that we considered each other as friends.

Our goals in life were similar and that was to be the best. She’s my enemy. My competitor at everything. Like Superman and Bizarro, Dumbledore and Voldemort. She was my antithesis.

Despite everything, why do I feel sadness in my heart? I felt sadness whenever she shows her beautiful smile at others; whenever she looked happy with Dianne and Eric. There were times that I wished that she would also show that kind of face whenever she looked at me. Just like what she showed me earlier this morning...

Why do I feel that if she dies, my world will become a lesser place?

Have I unintentionally fallen in love with her?

Suddenly, a drop of rain fell in the window glass. The rain drops were tapping on the window and then the rainfall became heavier. There was a music coming from the other room. A guitar playing and a voice of a male singing a song

♪ ♪ ♪ When you wake up each morning and you feel like calling...♪ ♪ ♪

The voice was familiar. It was Gerry.

♪ ♪ ♪ I'll be there for you… ♪ ♪ ♪

“Miguel…” Claire called me as she sat in her bed.

She looked like getting weaker by the hour. I approached her and sat beside her.

“What is it?” I asked.

Claire stared at the distance and asked. “Am I going to die?”

♪ ♪ ♪ When the road seems uncertain and you can't stop the hurting… ♪ ♪ ♪

My throat felt tight as I felt pain in my heart. Her question seemed to trigger the stabbing pain. I didn’t understand why I felt it.

“No...” I shook my head. “You’re not going to die…”

♪ ♪ ♪ I'll be there for you… ♪ ♪ ♪

Tears gushed from her eyes and sniveled.

“I don’t want to die…” She sobbed.

♪ ♪ ♪ When there’s no one beside you… ♪ ♪ ♪

“Shhh… No, no… You’re not going to die…”

“I don’t want to die…”

♪ ♪ ♪ I’ll be there to guide you… ♪ ♪ ♪

I lifted her head with my hand and looked her in the eyes. “Look… I won’t let you die. Okay? I promise…”

♪ ♪ ♪ Catch you each time you fall… ♪ ♪ ♪

Claire stared at me with her teary eyes and looked down as she placed her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and cherished her warmth. She continued to sob in my arms as I embraced her tightly. The nausea swirled in my stomach and my head felt like it would explode at any moment. A tear fell from my eyes like the first drop of rain. I was powerless to do anything to keep her from her fate. It was hopeless.

♪ ♪ ♪ When the stars won't shine anymore… ♪ ♪ ♪

“I will do everything… I won’t let you die… I promise…”

♪ ♪ ♪ I’ll be there… ♪ ♪ ♪