Mary approached, sobbing.
"I knew you were okay." She hugged him and cried, and Adel's eyes filled with tears as soon as the moment of longing subsided.
She looked at him.
"What happened? How are you here? Where were you? And why weren't you answering your phone?"
During this conversation, people heard screams in the distance, and fear quickly returned.
The screams indicated that there were living dead in the crowd.
Amir quickly climbed onto the car. It was clear that there were fleeing crowds, abandoning their cars and heading back. The sound of gunfire intensified.
Adel knew exactly what was happening; he had experienced this very situation in the hospital before his escape. Amir looked around; the madness seemed to be spreading faster. Adel shouted at them, "Get back in the car!" He grabbed his sister's hand, and she yelled at Amir to get back in the car.
They stopped in front of the car, and Adel wanted to drive because he knew a shortcut, or so he said.
So they got back in the car as the screams grew louder.
Malik looked at the woman and the child from a distance, while the atmosphere was dark amidst the woman's screams for her husband.
"Move it!"
Mary said to Adel, and the car began to shake. Then Adel looked behind him, changed direction, and drove off the road onto the sand.
The car sped up, and Malik looked back as chaos began to reign. As they moved further north, they could see the road more clearly, and the undead began to mingle with the living.
Adel took out his walkie-talkie and listened to the police calls. What they were hearing was even worse than expected. Chaos had erupted in most of the cities, and even the police were calling for help to escape with their families.
It was terrifying. There were some police officers trapped by the undead outside their station, and another man was being held with his family, desperately seeking help, along with other terrifying stories.
Mary asked Adel to turn off his walkie-talkie, but he replied,
"I'm trying to hear if any survivors have reached a safe place on the plateau."
"Is your GPS still working?"
Amir replied, "No, mine's not working," and Mary echoed this, but Malik responded, "Yes, mine is working."
Everyone looked at him in surprise; how could their phones have stopped working except his?
Malik read their faces and replied,
"I'm a technology expert, a computer science graduate."
"Move north again, towards the plateau."
Adel looked at Malik in the rearview mirror and asked,
"Can you show me a farm in the middle of the desert, or will the signal be lost?"
Malik sensed something was wrong and that he was important enough to warrant changing course into the heart of the desert, but he quickly replied, realizing he had taken too long to respond.
"Yes, of course I know. I have programs that can help us..." In the middle of Mars, even?
Mary looked at him suspiciously.
Is there anything better there than the plateau?
There's no better or worse after what happened. Everyone is responsible for themselves. This is a move to calm people down and take them somewhere far away until they understand what's going on.
They looked at each other.
Mary said,
"What do you mean? This is a lie."
Adel looked at the rifle in his hand and said,
"No, it's not a lie. There might be some safety there, but not for everyone.
And if someone manages to get there, it won't be a simple matter of survival and everything being rosy. This is still a long story."
Malik interrupted him.
"So why are you taking us to this farm?"
He looked in the mirror and said,
"You know, when you want to hide something, where's the best place?"
He paused for a moment, but no one understood him, so he answered himself.
"In front of everyone."
No one answered, not understanding what he was saying, so he continued.
This whole story probably started there.
Amir asked, "What story?"
Adel replied,
"This epidemic started in this village, and if we could go there and find any evidence, we might find something to stop what's happening."
Everyone fell silent for a moment, overwhelmed by the information and the gravity of the situation.
Mary asked anxiously, "So how do you know there's a solution there? And how do you know there aren't any problems there?"
Adel remained silent, as if he didn't want to reveal everything, but then he said,
"This walkie-talkie I have has been with me since the beginning of this story. I know there were attacks and wars there, but things are quiet now. I know a long story—I don't have time to tell it—that confirms it started there."