Instead of amazement or fright, Denver answered with ridicule. He snorted with a smile. "How could I be more than a hundred percent of a danger? That's too high, even for me. Are you saying I can kill a person by simply touching them?"
[Subject… Denver Turning… is not a hazardous substance. Please re-evaluate.]
Denver laughed out loud. His hands even shook while he handled dangerous cleaning chemicals. It was good that he wore a face mask. Otherwise, he would have inhaled all kinds of fumes with his wheezing. He shook his head and apologized to the voice in his mind.
However, the voice kept mum. It was as if it was sulking from the ridicule it received. Denver could feel its upset from a strange pit in his belly.
The man kept his smile while working on the explosives and traps. He would soon distribute these to a few places and warn people about triggering them. He just hoped that the voice was accurate. If he was that highly dangerous to humans, it meant those marauders wouldn't be a problem to him. That was all that mattered right now.
…
The night soon came, and the alert people could only stay awake for anything. Denver stood at the building's rooftop. He didn't need binoculars to survey the city. His vision might have been dyed red, but it showed him more than what the old guard and the others could catch.
A blue car flashed along the streets a block away from the gates. Denver barely acknowledged it, however. It could be a distraction for the marauders. He didn't know how they operated, but he had to be ready for anything. That mindset would have continued… but the blue car just had to drive itself through the closed gates of the Dandelion Apartments!
Denver's eyes grew wide. The blue car broke an important part of their defenses. However, the driver cared too little. He pulled up in the middle of the empty outside parking. He opened his door with a push and took a small person from the passenger seat.
"Please help! Help me!" The man cried out and ran with the little girl in his arms. What horrified Denver was that… the little girl was the same one he met twice that morning.
"I can't believe this…" Denver ran down the stairs to get to the lobby. "Can mimics control humans? That girl can't be someone's daughter, right?"
[Opening index… Invocator! Categorized as… Source Devourer Class.]
[Error loading index page!]
[Index page cannot be found!]
Denver slowed down. He caught up with his breath. "A what? Invocator? Source Devourer? Don't get too particular. Is she dangerous or not?"
The voice didn't respond anymore. The man regarded it as the little girl silencing the voice. She even acted her best as an injured person.
Denver continued descending the stairs, reaching out to grab the small hatchet from an emergency firehose booth. One hack to the head should do it for something so tiny. However, he knew he couldn't act without anyone else getting suspicious of her.
"Denver! Denver!" The nurse called out from the stairs. Denver figured they only knew they were helping a child. She climbed the first three steps and saw Denver coming. "Hurry, a child needs our help! The gates… also need fixing."
"Let Grandpa and Mr Jones find a way to block the gates for now." Denver reached the lobby with the nurse. She ran to the lounge to speak to the people.
The man looked over at the father in distraught. The little girl lay on the sofa, unconscious and slightly trembling from shock. Taylor held against her chest, and a bloodied cloth caught the blood coming from the girl's wound. Seeing the injury, Denver's hand twitched. His muscle memory was kicking in, but he didn't want to help a mimic…
The blood… Denver saw that the blood was bright red. It couldn't be a mimic's blood. Moreover, he remembered how mimics only take on forms they copied from someone. Could this little girl be the original? The one he met simply copied her face!
In an instant, Denver shifted his mindset. He needed to save this girl if she was human. Since he had a nurse and a caregiver in the lounge, dealing with her wound was quick.
"She lost a lot of blood. Her body will only get colder." Denver let the nurse cover the patient with a thick blanket. "We… we don't stock blood. We don't have the right fridge for it."
"Is my daughter going to die?" The man looked up at Denver. "Please don't let her die!"
Denver glanced at the little girl's pale face. Someone had to get blood to help her. He didn't want to leave the building while under threat. However, a little girl's death would weigh too heavily on his conscience. He glanced at his mother and then at the nurse, who kept looking at him for orders.
They heard a gun clicking as if someone checked the clip. When Denver turned, he saw Ashley holding onto her brother's gun. She looked at him. "I'll get the blood. The hospital is only a few blocks from here, right? I'll take the bike not to attract the marauders and mimics. What kind of blood should I buy? I doubt they'd ask us to take the child there, right?"
Denver's face twitched. He knew it. This sister was too courageous.
"…I can't properly match the blood just from this device. You can take this vial and see if they can help you identify which blood to give." Denver detached a part of the syringe that converted into a small vial. "Don't warm it too much."
"How long do I have?" Ashley received the vial, but she didn't wrap all her fingers around it. "She won't crash in a few minutes, will she?"
Denver glanced at the girl. "She'd have to fight for her twenty minutes. Be careful, Ms Ross. Marauders have marked our building. They might try to block you. Also…"
He got up and pulled Ashley steps away from the sofa. His hand held the gun in her hand and raised it as if teaching her how high to hold her gun. "Keep the gun high and aim for the head. Human or mimic, always shoot the head."
Ashley nodded and ran off to leave. One of the younger male tenants hesitated for a second before following her. They had other bikes in stock. He could simply borrow another one. Two-man cells were always better than going alone. None of them were Denver, who could venture out on his own and make it back alive.
Denver didn't want to let anyone leave this late at night. However, he needed to keep the people's morale high. They were facing an incoming attack. If a girl died in front of them, their spirits would surely suffer.
He faced the group again. However, he noticed how everyone seemed to have stopped. He didn't know if he was the one stuck in a trance instead. Was this another hallucination?
The little girl opened her eyes and stared at him. Their gazes connected, and Denver already knew what was happening. When the voice sounded in his mind, he could only sigh. Was it necessary for him to sacrifice two people for this test?
[Congratulations on passing the last stage of the evaluation! Please wait for the results…]