"But hey, there's still a silver lining—he can be saved," Luke said, voice calm like he was offering some miracle solution.
The truth? Peyton could be saved—if they somehow tracked down the antivirus. And Luke knew exactly who had it: Ashford's daughter. Problem was, he had no clue where she was hiding. So, in reality, Peyton's chances were about as good as winning the lottery without a ticket.
But Luke didn't care. He wasn't saying this out of pity or compassion. No—his motives were far more selfish.
If he could play the role of the noble "sage" who gave Jill a shred of hope about saving her friend, then maybe she'd start seeing him in a better light.
And once you're in someone's good view… well, doors start opening. In his case, the "door" he was aiming for was Jill's pants.
All part of the grand dream—Luke's dream—of someday being surrounded by beautiful women.
Selene, of course, hadn't signed off on his so-called "harem project." In fact, she usually shot him down with a glare sharp enough to cut steel whenever he even hinted at it.
But hey—opinions could change. People could change. Who knows? Maybe in the future she'd come around.
Luke smirked inwardly. Yep. One day.
"What is it?" Jill asked, eyes narrowing at Luke. She already knew the rule: once bitten, a human is finished. There was no cure. No second chance.
"The Anti-Virus," Luke said calmly, like he was reciting the weather report. "It can kill the infection, but only if it's injected before he loses himself completely and turns into one of those… things."
Jill froze for a moment, the tiniest flicker of hope flashing in her eyes.
"What he said is right," Alice admitted, her voice cold and steady. "But the Anti-Virus isn't something you're going to stumble across in this city. It was Umbrella's most prized project. They don't just leave it lying around. It's gone—cleared out, hidden, locked away. You'd have more luck digging for gold in a landfill."
She wasn't exaggerating. Alice knew Umbrella. If the outbreak had already reached this level, then every important vial, every prototype, every shred of research would've been moved out or destroyed.
The chance of finding a working dose here? Practically zero. That's why she hadn't even bothered to mention it until Luke brought it up—because in her eyes, it was nothing but a cruel fantasy.
"Yep, it's difficult to find," Luke admitted with a shrug, his tone far too casual for the situation. "But we can get it… if we wait for the right time."
The others stared at him with confused faces.
Luke, however, looked perfectly calm. Because in his mind, the plan was already there. Soon, Ashford will call us. If the old man was still alive, he'd be watching the CCTV feeds blanketing the city.
He'd know where his daughter was. And wherever she was… that's where the cure would be. He smirked faintly to himself. The funny thing was—he didn't even fully remember the details.
He only recalled that the girl was trapped in a school. But which one? In a whole city, there wasn't just a single school. Better to wait for Ashford's call instead of running blind.
---
Twenty minutes later,
The group stood in front of a half-broken cellphone shop. The neon sign above flickered weakly. They were gathered near the glass front, but instead of doing anything. Instead, every pair of eyes was fixed on Luke.
Because Luke was standing directly in front of a CCTV camera mounted on the corner of the building, waving his arms around like he was guiding traffic—or summoning UFOs.
"Ashford! I know you're seeing me—call me already!" Luke shouted up at the lens, his voice echoing down the empty street.
The others exchanged looks. Every single one of them was thinking the same thing: CCTV cameras don't even have audio… and probably nobody's alive to watch them anyway.
Alice finally broke the silence, arms folding over her chest. Her brow furrowed as she glanced at Selene. "Is he always like this?"
From her expression, it wasn't a question born of curiosity. It was the kind of question people asked when they were already convinced the answer was "yes."
"Yes. But only sometimes," Selene said smoothly, her tone flat as if she were talking about the weather.
"Sometimes behaves weirdly?" Jill asked, baffled.
"No," Selene corrected without hesitation. "Sometimes behaves normal. Other times… this."
She gestured lazily toward Luke, who was now clapping twice at the camera like a man trying to train a dog.
Terri, who had been filming the scene for her documentary, lowered her camera slightly. Her curiosity finally broke through her professionalism. "So what exactly is your relationship with him?"
The question came out blunt, but honest. Luke wasn't bad-looking, sure, but compared to Selene—who looked like she had stepped out of some gothic dream, elegant and terrifying all at once—it didn't add up in her head.
"Wife," Selene said simply.
The answer landed like a small bomb.
Alice and Jill both turned toward her, eyes going wide almost in perfect sync.
"You're joking…" Jill muttered, staring in disbelief.
Her mind just couldn't process it. Selene herself had admitted this guy was weird. And Jill could also see with her own eyes that he was weird. Yet somehow, despite all that, she still married him.
Alice raised an eyebrow, her face caught between concern and what the hell did I just hear? She had just admitted that Luke was basically a walking oddity, so how in the world did marriage factor into this equation?
The silence stretched. Luke, of course, pretended not to notice. He kept staring at the CCTV lens like he was in the middle of high-stakes negotiations with it.
Finally, Jill sighed and shook her head. "Married to a weirdo… unbelievable."
Selene, unfazed, crossed her arms. "It works," she said flatly.
No hesitation, no shame in her voice—just certainty. To her, Luke's being weird wasn't a flaw. If anything, that was part of why she liked him. He wasn't predictable, he wasn't boring. He made things interesting.