Epoch of Twilight

In the Desert City’s mayor’s office at the City Hall, a middle-aged man was frowning while flipping through the documents that he had received today. The sound of the flipping pages filled the room. As the mayor of the reconstruction area, he had to bear with a great amount of stress every day. Within merely six months, the 35-year-old had his forehead filled with wrinkles. He had also lost weight, his bulging tummy during the pre-apocalypse was now nowhere to be seen.

The office windows were plastered by thick, black papers which kept the room warm. The fan did not help at all, as he was sweating non-stop. Due to the lack of power supply in the reconstruction area, even the leader of the city was not able to enjoy the air-conditioning in his office. The production of such luxury for human enjoyment had been curbed a long time ago.

He was scribbling instructions on the documents, from time to time. Suddenly, his phone rang unexpectedly. He took out his phone; it was the director of the information monitoring center. His body tensed up, as he quickly glanced at the clock on the wall – it was 9 o’clock in the evening. Everyone should be off work by this time, no? He had a bad hunch about this. A phone call at this hour would only mean that there could’ve been an accident.

He picked up the call, looking unhappy.

"Is this what you got for me? How could you not have seen this coming?" questioned Mayor Wu.

...

"This is not the first time that this happened. I don’t want to hear your excuses. Go ahead and say it to those dead victims! What I need is a guarantee!" In frustration, he accidentally broke his shirt’s button from pulling onto it in anger. After his venting streak, he hung up. The mayor knew that it was not entirely the safety monitoring center’s fault, but they did not have a better solution for the underground monitor.

...

"Secretary Zhang, it seems like you have been made aware of the present ongoings. The district has been locked down, and the guard troops are making their way there. We are evacuating the people as fast as we can!" he called to notify the party secretary.

He then hung up. Feeling thirsty, he picked up his mug for some water but realized that there was nothing inside. He was frustrated. If this had happened half a year ago, the mug would have been instantly destroyed. But throughout the last six months, he encountered the same thing many times and had learned how to control himself by now.

A while later, he placed the mug at where it was and continued to flip through the documents. Not long later, his phone was ringing again. He took a look, it was the director of the information monitoring center once more. He frowned and picked up the call immediately.

"What! Not only one, but a group of them? How many of them to be exact?" Mayor Wu asked loudly, baffled at the news.

...

"Have you informed Secretary Zhang and Teacher Liu?" he asked, with cold sweat dripping from his forehead. There was a loud noise coming from not too far away, gravel was slamming onto the windows. The glasses were clinking, and the ground was shaking. The door flung open – it was his secretary.

"Mayor, it’s not safe to stay here anymore, we must adjourn to the safe house immediately." said his secretary, in all seriousness.

"No, as the mayor, I have to stay, you should leave now." Mayor Wu hesitated before rejecting. Although he was nervous, he had to remain calm. As the leader of the city, if he even had the cheek to run away, that would be the end of his political status. Or even worse, he would have to lose his life.

It was not the time of peace but rather chaos. From what he knew, there were at least a thousand people who were fired and killed over the years. Some of them even held a higher rank that he did.

I will stay here to protect you." his secretary said, expressionless.

Mayor Wu nodded, he was relieved. He knew that his secretary was not merely a secretary but a level four evolved person. To him, the common mutated beasts would be like killing animals.

Later on, the phone did not seem to stop ringing. He was giving instructions after instructions. Without them noticing, the gunshot and cannon noises were getting intense. The air was filled with the smell of smoke from the guns. The frontline city was different from the rest. It was just a step away from the real war, the last protective barricade of the reconstruction area.

Apart from a variety of powerful defense weapons, there was a master who had been stationed in the city for a long-term period. If the damages and the use of cannons had not been considered, 10 desert crypt worms or even a medium-small beast crowd could have been handled easily. But such instructions could only be used as the last straw, as there was huge political responsibility for that.

A bomb exploded not far away from the City Hall, followed by a loud thud. The dust from the wooden building were all scattered around. There was a buzzing sound in Mayor Wu’s ears. He quietly clenched his fists, and his palms began to sweat.

He stood still as he knew that all this while, he had been lucky. When fangs first appeared in the apocalypse, he was traveling in Tibet with his wife and kids. When he was returning, they were stuck at the airport due to some flight issues. As he noticed that there was something wrong, he applied for sick leave with the unit. He encouraged his wife to do the same, and thus, they began to stay in Tibet for a long time.

In the beginning of the apocalypse, Tibet was still a safe place to live. When the other provinces were falling apart, there were not many changes to Tibet. It was only when Tibet started to become more dangerous, the big immigration had begun. He successfully boarded the first batch of the immigration, and that was the turning point of his career. As there was a major shortage in all job positions, he was given a great opportunity. From a deputy class cadre before the apocalypse, he had become a department cadre in just a short span of two years.

He suddenly recalled the notice that he received from his superior. He turned to his secretary and asked, "Are the survivors here yet?"

Secretary shook his head, "I haven’t heard any news about them."

Mayor Wu frowned, "That should be impossible, I heard that they would be here by tonight."

"Maybe they will be here later, perhaps they had gotten into an accident. Who are those people?" the secretary asked. He thought it was the mayor’s relatives. This had happened before, but as the survivors were getting lesser and lesser, that hardly occurred anymore.

"The message came from the superiors. They are just like you, an evolved human. I heard that they’re powerful." Mayor Wu told him in all honesty. They had a close relationship, as they had gone through thick and thin in the past. Moreover, as an evolved human, his secretary was capable of saving him during critical times.

The secretary got a little more serious. Perhaps a level four was powerful to most people, and his ability was equivalent to more than 10,000 people in the reconstruction area. Those who could impress his superior should be at least a level five or even a level six.

"Let me check!"