Chapter 34: Futile Rescue
Complete darkness. A familiar, empty void surrounded Adam’s consciousness. The system window materialized before him, its blue light a stark contrast to the blackness.
[Host Adam has been killed. Sending to respawn point.]
The words were a cold, final punctuation to another failed life.
His eyes snapped open. He was back in Sophia’s bed. This time, there was no confusion, no moment of disorientation. He acted instantly. He swung his legs out of the bed, his movements so silent, so fluid, that they didn’t stir the sleeping girl on the floor. He crept to the bedroom door, opened it just enough to slip through, and then closed it behind him without a sound.
He rushed down the stairs, his enhanced speed and agility allowing him to move with a preternatural quietness. His mind was a maelstrom of thoughts, but one memory was crystal clear, a horrifyingly vivid tableau burned into his brain.
He remembered what he had seen in the last loop. When he had reached the shop, the three masked men were already there. And on the floor, just in front of them, was the body of Sophia’s mother. They had killed her first. That was the thud he had heard. He had to hurry. He had to get there before they pulled the trigger.
Just as in the previous loop, as he reached the bottom of the stairs, Sophia’s younger sister stepped out of her room. She saw him, a strange boy rushing down the stairs of her house. But before she could even form a question, before she could scream, he was gone, a blur of motion down the corridor. He heard her footsteps start after him, but he didn’t have time to worry about that now.
He moved towards the shop at the front of the house, the small business that connected their living quarters to the main road. He knew Sophia’s mother had opened the shop early this morning, a part of her daily routine.
In the previous loop, the three men had entered the shop suddenly. Sophia’s mother had been surprised, but she had maintained her composure. She had tried to talk to them, to ask them what they wanted. It was then that the man standing at the very back had raised his silenced pistol and shot her without a word. Her body had fallen to the ground with a soft thud. That was the sound he had heard as he was fumbling with the side gate. The timing had been a matter of seconds.
All of this raced through his mind now, a high-speed replay of his last failure. He reached the end of the corridor, the entrance to the shop just ahead. He peered around the corner. He saw Sophia’s mother. She was alive. She was standing behind the counter, a look of confusion and fear on her face, but she was talking to them. He saw the three masked men, standing just inside the doorway. And then, just as he had remembered, he saw the man at the back slowly raising his pistol.
Sophia’s mother, who was talking to the man in front, caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. She began to turn her head, her face transforming from confusion to pure, undiluted terror.
But this time, Adam was there.
He burst from the corridor with incredible speed. He threw his arm forward, wrapping it around Sophia’s mother’s waist. He pulled her back, away from the counter, and lunged to the side.