XG 18 - Does not recognize his own sister

“Brother?” Nurul Hanani was surprised to see the man dressed in army uniform with a military gun in hand stepped out of the helicopter. Nurul Hanani has two elder brothers, and only her second brother chooses to enter the army instead of the police force like his elder brother and father.

Another man wearing a bulletproof vest stepped out of the helicopter’s pilot seat. He headed straight to Mr. Ember and respectfully greeted him. This ride was obviously arranged for Mr. Ember.

“Mr. Ember, we are now working with the army for this rescue,” the pilot informed apologetically. “The Chief of Police and the Ambassador of Canada’s daughters are here.”

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Mr. Ember said with a smile.

“Huh? Are we sharing a ride with them?” Low Lin Ya frowned and read the new message she received. “My dad told me to follow your brother. That’s obvious… but why did your brother point his gun at you?!”

The army had every man in their base familiarize themselves with the list of symptoms of the infected and have the order to shoot them down immediately. Hafiz’s sharp eye had caught the Malay girl with a very thin frame that no humans could have. She also had a bandaged arm with traces of blood seeped out from it.

“Step away from that infected person!” Hafiz ordered, his gun pointed steadily at the target that was staring at him without moving.

Strange, why was this infected being so docile? All the infected he had seen were aggressive, especially around humans. Maybe because she had not completely turned yet?

“Infected?” Mr. Kwan hissed and quickly pulled Mr. Ember far away from them, closer to the helicopter.

“Surely there is a misunderstanding?” Mr. Ember gazed at Nurul Hanani. “She clearly moves and speaks normally with us for quite some time.”

Even when facing the danger of being shot for disobedience, Low Lin Ya did not move away from Nurul Hanani, gripping her hand tensely. Wong Xue Guo stepped forward, half of her body hiding Nurul Hanani behind her. They were clearly protecting their friend.

"Hey-" Nurul Hanani started, but was immediately cut off.

“Move!” Hafiz yelled at the stupid girls when his shoulder was suddenly gripped tightly until they grew numb. His grip unconsciously loosens and the gun lowered, unable to resist the painful grip from a seemingly harmless woman with the appearance of one that grows up in a birdcage.

“None of us here will become a monster,” Suzie Yap said, with a tiny bit of anger that this gun had been pointing at her daughter. If things went wrong, her daughter could have been shot, and this second chance was useless anymore. Her anger had her grip on the soldier becoming heavier.

“Interfering with the army is a crime!” Hafiz warned and successfully threw off the heavy grip on his shoulder with a twist. But before he could adjust his grip, the gun in his hands was kicked away and fell into a young man’s hands.

Chen Yibo aimed the nuzzle at Hafiz without fear, his posture was textbook correct. No one except for the person himself would know if he really could use the gun.

Wong Xue Guo: F*ck, aren’t you too brave, Yibo!

“Hani, your brother did not recognize you?” Low Lin Ya asked in disbelief tinged with fear.

“Hani obviously lost a lot of her weight. It’s not weird if her family member, especially this brother that hardly returns home, does not recognize his own sister,” Wong Xue Guo said, not hiding her personal opinion.

“Brother!” Nurul Hanani yelled, adjusting her position to look at her brother. “It’s me, Hani! Darn you for not recognizing me! You blind bat!”

The familiar voice and scolding were indeed the same as Hafiz’s sister in his memory. Hafiz’s habit was to look for any danger and deal with them first, so he did not search for his sister’s face among the group. Even if his father said their sister was bitten, he had low hope that his sister would survive, with zero percent of survivors after being bitten. However, he still volunteered to come to save his sister’s friend and to confirm his sister’s status.

“Guo Guo, let Second Lieutenant Hafiz take a look at his sister,” Suzie Yap said and Wong Xue Guo stepped aside, tugging away Low Lin Ya as well.

Chen Yibo exchanged a look with Suzie Yap and then lowered the gun before passing it back to Hafiz, who took it back with a dark look. His pride took a great hit having two civilians overpowered him and even took his gun away. What terrified Hafiz was knowing that he had been constantly in his guarded state, hyper-aware of his surroundings yet he could not sense the woman creeping up beside him.

The rooftop was only lit up with dim lights, barely usable for Hafiz to look clearly at the girl’s features so he pulled out his torchlight from his vest and flashed it at the girl. His eyes shook in recognition the more he examined the girl’s features.

“...Hani? You… you are still alive after being infected? How?” Hafiz had noticed the bandaged upper arm which was still bleeding and verified the truth of the information given by Low Lin Ya.

Hafiz was the brother in Nurul Hanani’s mouth that always nagged at her for not exercising enough to build up muscles. He even goes to the extent of calling her fat, which he got a head smack from his mother, but his nagging never worked to get his sister to exercise. But seeing his younger sister’s current state where a gust of wind could have knocked her down, he began to regret his poisonous mouth.

Why was he not satisfied with his sister and insisted on turning her into a perfect model where he would feel proud of? It was only at the moment where he saw her suffering did he finally wake up from his demanding expectations that could have driven his sister far away from him forever.

Under his helmet, Hafiz blinked his suspiciously wet eyes. “You should have followed me to exercise and learn some self-defense. You will not look this horrible if you do.”

“I will take up your offer,” Nurul Hanani said and her answer took his brother aback. After a moment of collecting his emotions in control, he nodded his head.

“Second Lieutenant Hafiz, you have the communication device connected to your father, don’t you?” Suzie Yap asked. Her question completely discarded the civilian identity from Suzie Yap in Hafiz’s mind.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Is it a private line without being bugged?”

Hafiz paused. “To my knowledge, yes. This is given to me by the Chief of Police himself.”

“May I speak to the Chief of Police and the Ambassador of Canada?”

“Hold on a moment.” Hafiz went to the side and spoke to the communication device for a short time before returning. He passed the communication device to Suzie Yap, who then followed his previous actions by walking aside to avoid being eavesdropped on.

“May I confirm your identity?” A man’s voice came from the device. “I gave my word this line is private and no one has tapped on us. But my friend, Mr. Andrew Low, is listening to us right now.”

The Chief of Police was having a video call right now with Low Lin Ya’s father, both having the same interest in saving their daughter from the Diamond shopping mall.

“Suzie Yap, mother of Wong Xue Guo, your daughter’s friend. My husband is Charles Wong, the Winter Fruit pharmacy’s owner.”

The man at the other line took a while to reply. “Can I know if Winter Fruit pharmacy has a hand with the virus’s outbreak?”

“None whatsoever. But I have information about this virus that will be useful for everyone. My source is reliable and you may share it among your trusted allies, but I hope my and my husband’s names will not be shared as your informant. Like you, I have my daughter to protect.”

It was best to avoid alerting the snake while they were still gathering allies.

“...It will be difficult to gain everyone’s trust without revealing my source of information.”

Suzie Yap chuckled. “As a show of trust, I saved your daughter, Nurul Hanani, from succumbing to the virus. Without any cure being researched yet, your daughter will be valuable to others. If you form an ally with me, your daughter will not need to live the rest of her life inside the lab.”

“You are threatening me?” The Chief of Police asked heavily.

“I’m not a scientist, why would I do that to your daughter? As for my husband, he only provides funds and keeps his employees in check. He isn’t the representative of researchers. Chief, surely you know human behavior the best when they are facing life and death?”

Suzie Yap patiently waited, knowing that the two big shots would need to discuss her proposal.

“What will you get in return for helping us? Would you not want to gain a good reputation if you reveal the information publicly?” The Chief of Police asked. “Better yet, you can sell your information to our government directly.”

Suzie Yap laughed. “Are you telling me that I could not trust you, the head of the police force that serves the country and protects the civilians from danger?”

“This matter is too big for us to handle.”

“I trust you more than the government that has too many different ears and ambitions. To make this simple, we have a common enemy, the one that spread this virus on purpose. I had yet to figure out who, or how many people are in that group and I don’t want to give myself up before capturing the enemy. But I will need help from anyone I could get, yet be careful to trust those that might be sent over by the enemy.”

Suzie Yap only dared to seek alliance from them because she knew they were not her enemy. They were potential allies that were unfortunately wiped out in the early days of doomsday.

The Chief of Police sighed and stared at the man on the screen with a similar tense expression. Mr. Low finally nodded and the Chief of Police closed his bloodshot eyes.

The police force had been tiring themselves out and even lost a lot of their comrades in just one week. The public was demanding answers from the police that were in the dark about the true nature of human infectious rabies.

The police force had sought an answer from the government, but they remained tight-lipped and vague with explanations, where most of the time would deflect their questions. The police force was the one that took the great burnt from this incident, being shoved to the limelight for being incompetent.

It was only Mrs. Wong that finally approached them with a possible answer and might be the only way to get the police force out of the public execution. Even if Mrs. Wong’s words were dubious, he was willing to believe her than the shifty government that until now was hiding what they knew from him.

He had already developed trauma from receiving reports of his subordinate dying, starting from daily to get worse until it became hourly.

“Thank you for your trust in us. We will accept this cooperation and investigate our people properly.”

Suzie Yap smiled. “Happy cooperation.”