System Of The Undead

Chapter 288: Trapped

Bella spent quite the time in the cave, she searched for a way out for hours but to no avail.

She didn’t have any success and knew she had to leave this place as soon as possible or this could be her grave.

She had no interest in dying in a place like this and the glowing piece of rock before her.

She sat on the floor, exhausted as she needed to conserve her energy to the fullest.

Bella had nothing to show for her life, she tried to live a life that would redeem her but if this was where she died, would it be such a bad thing?

She wanted to know what was so special about the rock, she had heard stories about it but this was her first time coming into contact with one this big.

Bella couldn’t explain it but she was drawn to it and found herself walking towards it.

Maybe it was because she was tired but her body wasn’t as strong as it should be.

She got up and began to walk towards the fragment but she stopped herself from making contact with it upon hearing a sound.

She didn’t know what kind of zombie wiped out her mercenaries but it must have been a strong one for it to take them all out.

One had sacrificed himself to save her, his last action was to secure her safety as one could mistake this as an attempt to take her life but he had no reason to.

This would be far-fetched, Bella looked above the cave and noticed the walls had rough edges that led to a small hole above her.

"Don’t tell me I have to climb it?" Thought Bella but this was the answer, she had to because there was no other probable exit so this was a risk she had to take.

She had to climb the walls but the height, if she dropped or lost her footing after climbing a certain height, the fall would leave her scarred.

There was no doubt about that but she had no choice, she had to give this a shot or she would rot away here.

Bella tore a piece of her cloth and wrapped it around her hands, she made sure it was protected because she knew that trying to climb might damage her fingers.

And if she should fall with her fingers damaged, there would be no way for her to give it another go.

Bella took a deep breath and began to climb the wall even though she had no experience with wall climbing; the dents in the wall gave her a solid hold.

She had the upper body strength to carry herself and that is what she did.

Bella climbed carefully but the higher she got, the more fragile the walls got but she noticed it had fewer impressions as it went further.

These weren’t natural, it was made by someone but how did they get high enough to do this?

And why did it not extend to the hole, she was too high to come back down and realized that she was stuck.

However, the room suddenly shone brighter forcing Bella to look down at the source of this phenomenon only to realize that the rock was glowing even brighter but that wasn’t what caught her eyes.

The glow extended below the ground and Bella realized that this included the inner walls.

"What the...!" Bella thought as the impressions she had used to climb began to close up.

Cutting off her retreat and trapping her but she soon realized this was the least of her problems as the wall her fingers were barely holding onto softened, sinking her fingers inside.

Bella knew she had to get out of this, even if it meant her falling because, for whatever reason, this cave had come to life and tried to keep her here.

She yanked her fingers away from the wall and fell right down and the fall wasn’t pretty.

Bella managed to maneuver onto her sides, if she fell on her back, there was no telling what would have happened to her spine.

She couldn’t risk it as that would put her out of commission for a while and ensure that she died here as there would be no one to help treat her.

Bella fractured a few ribs despite breaking the fall with her hands, which also took injuries but it was negligible.

Bella was in pain but she had landed dangerously close to the fragment, a couple of inches more and she would have landed right on top of it; potentially due to the top being composed of multiple sharp tips.

"Damn it!" Bella said, staring right at the glowing fragment, there was nothing that could be done at this point.

She had to accept that it would take more than this to escape this hole but what shook her to the core was the fragment had affected the surrounding.

She didn’t know what she walked into but something told her she was never leaving and she could very well be right. Bella was stuck.

-

Sam had made contact with a strange woman that Jason seemed to have directed, he didn’t understand what was going on but this confirmed that he wasn’t crazy.

Sam was surprised that Jason was speaking to them but there was something about this woman before him, she was sick.

A lot sicker than he was but he wondered if it was as a result of the fragment or not.

Sam was impressed but he needed to understand the overall objective of this gathering.

Sam nearly killed this woman despite her being stronger than he was on a physical level due to how long she had been exposed to the fragment.

Unlike Sam, she didn’t resist the influence and this came at the cost of her health, as it took a nosedive the moment she came in contact with the fragment.

But that was when she began to hear Jason’s voice, the fragment swayed desires and influenced a human until they were robbed of their willpower to resist.

However, Jason interceded, how remains unknown but the humans that were slowly robbed of their will have not been influenced by Jason’s desire to protect humanity.

Sam was able to resist the influence so he still had his will intact even though it was unknown if the alter ego he was developing was as a result of Jason’s will.

Others came, it wasn’t just them and in no time, the area was filled with more than ten people which was surprising.

Sam didn’t know there were these many people that had come into contact with the fragment and lived but there was none like him.

They seemed strange, Sam didn’t know why but they didn’t feel like people.

There was no life in their eyes except for the lady he had confronted but this worked in their favor.

Sam didn’t know how he knew half the things he did but he just did, it was like Jason had transferred all this knowledge into him without him even being aware.

"I am sorry about earlier, I didn’t know who you were," The lady apologized to Sam.

"Hah-aha! It is fine, just don’t do it again or I will kill you," Sam’s tone was playful but he meant the words coming out of his mouth.