Chapter 471: Finally No Longer Crazy
Chapter 471: Chapter 471: Finally No Longer Crazy
Edmund Lawson and Leoric Donovan sensed what was coming.
The two of them made a break for the compound gate.
"Holly Morgan."
At Nina Jacobs’s command, two deep purple briars shot toward them!
The sharp thorns sank into their flesh without a shred of mercy.
The two men screamed in agony, but Holly Morgan’s expression was one of excitement.
"I’ll ask again. When was the last time you saw Silas Crowley?"
Nina Jacobs asked.
"It was... at... at Lornwood Base..."
Edmund Lawson shrieked in pain as one of the thorns inched toward his eyeball.
"We were wrong! We lied before!
No! I lied to you! Silas Crowley isn’t dead! Aaaah!"
The two men screamed relentlessly.
Audrey Lewis was stunned.
"Audrey, they said Silas isn’t dead! He’s not dead!"
Gemma Lucas hurried to her side, her voice filled with joy.
"He’s not dead? Then where is he now?"
Audrey Lewis’s gaze shifted to Nina Jacobs.
"What is your relationship to Silas Crowley?" Nina Jacobs asked.
She had always assumed Silas Crowley was on his own.
But the origin of this group was a mystery.
"I... I’m Silas Crowley’s older sister.
I’m sorry I lied to you before. My name is Audrey Crowley."
Audrey Crowley said, wiping away her tears.
Lyra Thorne patted her on the back before adding,
"The Crowley Group... I wonder if you’ve heard of it, Miss Jacobs?
Silas was supposed to be the heir to the Crowley Clan, but the family respected his wishes and allowed him to pursue a career in entertainment.
We’ve been searching for him for months, traveling all the way from Stenmore. We eventually heard he had appeared in Keldorn.
That’s when we ran into these two, who told us that Silas had unfortunately been infected by the zombie virus..."
’The Crowley Group?’
Nina Jacobs recognized the name.
The Crowley Group was one of Drakonia’s eight major defense contractors. While ordinary people might not be familiar with the Crowley Clan, she knew them all too well from her past life.
In her past life, during the second year of the apocalypse, one of Drakonia’s borders was suddenly invaded by a neighboring country. The military couldn’t dispatch weapons and equipment in time. It was the Crowley Group, which had always kept a low profile, that mobilized a massive amount of weapons and supplies to repel the enemy.
Back then, the news board at City D Base had even posted a newspaper from the command center commending the Crowley Group. A few months later, however, she heard that the entire Crowley Clan had been massacred by advanced zombies, leaving no one alive...
She never expected to meet members of the Crowley Clan in Keldorn in this lifetime.
"Please, don’t take it personally.
We only hid our surname for various family reasons.
Is my brother, Silas, really still alive?"
Audrey Crowley even took out her pre-apocalypse ID card.
Nina Jacobs nodded. "He was alive and well the last time I saw him."
"Can you take us to him?
As long as he’s alive, I’ll do anything you ask."
Audrey Crowley pleaded.
"I can, but I won’t be sparing these two."
Nina Jacobs said, gesturing to the two men who were still begging loudly for their lives.
Before Nina Jacobs could even act, Holly Morgan struck.
Blood didn’t splatter. Instead, it was completely absorbed by the purple briars.
Holly Morgan watched as the purple briars grew tougher and sharper, a flicker of fascination in her eyes.
Over the past few days on the road, Nina Jacobs had noticed Holly Morgan’s murderous boredom and had given her a small booklet.
It was a manual on techniques for the Wood Element Superpower. She had been reading it with great relish, and this very move was something she had conceived of while studying it.
’To maximize the Wood Element Superpower’s effectiveness, there’s no need to grow a new plant from scratch every time. I should cultivate a mother plant.’
’And this briar, which has grown stronger by absorbing blood, would be the perfect mother plant I’ve been imagining...’
"Bloodthirsty, but powerful,"
Nina Jacobs commented with a nod of approval.
"Mhm. All I care about is being powerful."
Holly Morgan’s eyes shone. The purple briars had already drained the two men of their blood, and she retracted the vine.
Lyra Thorne and the others watched the scene unfold, their expressions complicated.
"Um... are they really the good guys?"
Gemma Lucas whispered to her companion.
Julian Crowley shook his head. "At least we’ll get to see Silas. We can ask him about it when we do."
"You’re right. It’s just so great that Silas is alive.
Audrey’s finally stopped losing her mind..."
...
An armored RV was parked on a small hill near Tomorrow Base.
The roof and sides of the RV were covered in solar panels.
The sun blazed outside, but inside the RV, Silas Crowley was enjoying the air conditioning as he observed his surroundings.
They had originally found this armored RV in Veridia Town. Since then, an electrician named Mr. Ainsworth had modified its circuitry, allowing the air conditioner to run indefinitely on solar power alone.
"Seems like fewer survivors have been showing up these past few days. Should we move a little further out?"
Silas Crowley remarked, gazing outside.
"We have people stationed at every outpost. If we leave, this spot will be unmanned."
Reginald Sutton replied from the driver’s seat.
"I heard you and Cordelia are together now. You’ve had a thing for her for a while, haven’t you?"
Silas Crowley teased.
Reginald Sutton just smiled, his expression saying it all.
He had liked Cordelia for a long time, and now that they were both settled at Tomorrow Base, he had eagerly confessed his feelings.
"Enough about me. What about you? Any plans once things at the base have settled down?"
Reginald Sutton asked curiously.
Silas Crowley seemed solely focused on increasing his power.
"Plans, huh...
I’ve been thinking about heading back to Stenmore."
A flicker of worry crossed Silas Crowley’s face.
"Stenmore? Is that your hometown?"
Reginald Sutton recalled Silas mentioning it before.
"Yeah. My family should be safe,
but..."
’He was reluctant to leave Tomorrow Base.’
In the third month of the apocalypse, he’d heard a broadcast on a Drakonian channel from Audrey Crowley looking for him. While the message didn’t mention him by name, he knew from it that most of his family was safe.
Keldorn was a long way from Stenmore, and back then, it would have been nearly impossible for him to make it back alive with the power he had.
But now, he was starting to miss them.
’I wonder how my older sister and the others are doing.’
"It’s definitely far. But I heard there isn’t a base in Stenmore, is there?
I think you should bring them here instead."
Reginald Sutton suggested.
’Bring them here?’
Silas Crowley fell silent for a moment.
"They probably wouldn’t agree to it."
Silas Crowley sighed.
The Crowley Family values its roots above all else, and Stenmore is their foundation.
"We’ve got company."
Reginald Sutton spotted a battered bus careening toward them.
It had a horde of zombies right on its tail.
"Finally, some action."
Silas Crowley stretched lazily, arcs of lightning already crackling impatiently around his powerful arms.
The danger trailing the bus was quickly dealt with, but many of the people on board were injured, and the vehicle itself was a total wreck.
"We’ll take you back with us."
Silas Crowley had the passengers board their RV.
But the figure of one of the women on the bus seemed familiar.
The woman kept her head down, her face obscured by a cloth wrapped around her head to shield it from the wind and dust. But when he took a closer look, he recognized her.
"Well, well, if it isn’t Ms. Rowan."
Silas Crowley said, looking with amusement at the disheveled Rhonda Rowan.
They all still remembered the incident at Lornwood Base, when Rhonda Rowan had brought Director Palmer from the relief society to try and snatch Lexy.
’To think Rhonda Rowan would show up here.’