Chapter 244: Mei Kidnapped [1]

"What’s happening over there?" Rachel asked immediately, her voice tinged with worry as she hurried toward Rebecca, who stood with a pale, shocked face and trembling.

Next to her, Daisy was crying—smaller, quieter sobs that shook her slight frame.

Rebecca turned toward Rachel as she approached, and her expression morphed into something even more distressed—relief at seeing her sister mixed with overwhelming guilt and anguish.

"Big Si...Sister..." Rebecca’s voice broke on the word.

"What happened, Rebecca? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Rachel asked urgently, her hands immediately going to pat Rebecca’s cheeks and face, checking for injuries or signs of trauma while her eyes searched for any visible wounds.

"What happened here?" I asked, approaching the group as I felt a sharp pang of anxiety spike through my chest at seeing their obvious distress.

Rebecca turned toward me and her expression twisted further into something approaching panic. "I...I..."

She couldn’t seem to form coherent words, her breathing coming in short, gasping bursts.

"It’s Mei...she..." Daisy managed to stutter out between her own tears, trying to explain what Rebecca couldn’t articulate.

"Mei? What about Mei?" I asked, my head snapping around to scan the area.

She wasn’t visible anywhere among the gathered people or vehicles.

Was she inside the camping van? Maybe injured or resting?

I moved immediately to the van and yanked the door open, checking the interior with desperate urgency.

Empty. No sign of her.

"R...Ryan..." Daisy’s small hand grasped my sleeve, stopping me as I started to turn away from the vehicle.

"What happened to Mei?" I asked her directly, forcing my voice to stay calm despite the growing unease. "Just tell me what happened."

"Ryan."

Turning around, I saw Clara approaching with an extremely complicated expression on her face—something mixing sympathy, concern, and barely-contained anger.

She proceeded to tell us everything that had occurred during our absence—everything that had happened to the group we’d left positioned in that supposedly safe road intersection while we worked on clearing and securing the hotel area.

A Symbiote Host named Gaspar had appeared without warning.

He’d attacked their position with overwhelming force.

He’d killed one of Margaret’s people in the assault.

And he’d taken Mei—abducted her and carried her away.

He’d also seized the Alien Matrix device we’d recovered from Jackson Township.

Those were the main points, delivered in Clara’s steady but strained voice.

As I heard the full account of what had transpired, I stood there completely still for a long moment, my mind struggling to process the information—or perhaps more accurately, struggling to accept the reality of what I was being told.

Rebecca’s anguished cries continued in the background, repeatedly saying it was her fault, blaming herself for what happened to Mei while Rachel tried desperately to comfort her and tell her it wasn’t her responsibility. Daisy was crying while being held by Cindy, who looked shaken herself. Sydney was speaking in serious, hushed tones with Christopher off to the side, both of their expressions grim.

Everything felt like distant background noise to me—sounds reaching my ears but not fully registering as my thoughts spiraled.

How did this happen?

How the hell did something like this happen?

Weren’t they supposed to be safe in that position? That’s specifically why we’d told them to remain there—positioned away from the active clearing operations, sheltered behind vehicles, with armed guards watching the perimeter.

That’s why I’d wanted Mei to stay back there instead of coming with us into potentially dangerous situations.

We were supposed to be the ones facing danger and risk. The clearing teams were the ones engaging with Infected and operating in unsecured territory.

Yet everything had gone remarkably well for us—we’d suffered no deaths, no serious injuries, completed our objectives ahead of schedule.

But the supposedly safe group had lost someone and had Mei taken from them.

I remembered with painful clarity the words I’d spoken to Mei this morning—asking her to watch over Wanda and the others, to keep an eye on them and help the vulnerable members of our group.

Would Mei have put herself in danger and felt compelled to intervene if I hadn’t specifically asked her to take on that protective responsibility? Had my request directly led to her being in a position where this Gaspar could target and abduct her?

These were probably stupid, pointless questions to be asking myself. Regardless of my morning conversation with her, Mei had made her own choices and acted according to her own judgment. She was gone now, and dwelling on hypothetical alternate scenarios wouldn’t change that reality.

Another Symbiote Host like me—someone with enhanced abilities and power comparable to my own—who was apparently friendly with or allied to the psychopathic supposed Callighan.

And potentially three Starakian were in Atlantic City area including Kunta.

Why were things escalating and becoming worse than what we’d faced in Jackson Township? How was the situation here becoming more dangerous and complicated than a community that had been completely destroyed?

"Ryan?"

Clara’s voice broke through my spiraling thoughts as she placed her hand gently on my shoulder, her expression carrying deep worry.

"Are you okay?"

I looked at her for a long moment, then nodded slightly—more of an automatic response than an honest assessment.

"Yeah..."

"What do we do now, Ryan?" Rachel asked, glancing at me while still holding Rebecca’s trembling shoulders. "We need a plan."

"I’m going to find Mei and bring her back," I said, turning around.

"Then we’ll come with—" Cindy started to volunteer.

"Alone," I cut her off immediately.

"No, you absolutely are not going to start this pattern again, Ryan," Sydney spoke up sharply, her voice taking on a serious, almost angry tone as she gave me an intense stare.

I could sense it was a mixture of frustration with me trying to handle everything independently again, and also genuine concern about Mei’s disappearance. It wasn’t like Sydney and Mei were particularly close friends—they didn’t spend much time together or share deep emotional bonds. But obviously after three months of living together, sharing dangers and survival struggles, everyone in our group felt genuinely concerned when one of their own was taken.

But that concern wasn’t the actual issue preventing group action.

"I...I’ll come along too," Rebecca said suddenly, looking at me with red, tear-stained eyes. "It’s my fault this happened, and I need to help fix it. I should—"

"No," I cut her off, perhaps giving her too sharp and cold a look—one that immediately silenced her as she shut her mouth and shrank back slightly.

I was extremely upset, and unfortunately that was bleeding through into my interactions regardless of whether people deserved that harshness.

Not a single thing could end peacefully in this godforsaken world, could it?

"Ryan..." Cindy looked at me with obvious concern.

"This man Gaspar is a Symbiote Host, and from what Clara described, he’s not a recently awakened one with limited control," I said, forcing myself to explain the reality rather than just issuing commands. "He deflected bullets easily, you said?"

I glanced at Clara for confirmation.

She nodded grimly. "Yeah, he was using some kind of barrier made of what looked like hardened skin or organic flesh—I don’t know exactly what it was. We rained bullets down on him from multiple angles with concentrated fire, but nothing penetrated. And he killed one of our people easily, almost casually..."

Her voice trailed off as she glanced toward Margaret’s group, who had stayed positioned near their vehicles.

They all looked genuinely traumatized by what they’d witnessed—faces pale, eyes distant, bodies exhibiting the shock of people who’d just experienced sudden, brutal violence. Margaret was moving among them, trying her best to provide comfort and reassurance with limited success.

The children in the group were literally crying, clinging to their parents while struggling to process what they’d seen.

"He’s likely much stronger than me based on what you’ve described," I said bluntly. "Which means you won’t be any help in a fight with him. You’d just become liabilities I’d need to protect, which would get us all killed."

"What about you then?" Sydney shot back, glaring at me with genuine anger. "If he’s stronger than you are, do you have some kind of intention of going on a suicide mission? Because that’s what this sounds like!"

"I have something that makes gaps in raw strength and ability completely irrelevant," I replied meaningfully, holding her gaze.

The Time Freeze ability.

I was obviously counting on that crucial advantage if I had to directly face Gaspar in a fight. It was the only edge I possessed that could potentially overcome a more experienced or powerful Symbiote Host.

Sydney fell silent at my words, along with the others who understood exactly what I was referring to—Rachel, Cindy, and Christopher all knew about my time-manipulation capability and recognized I was planning to rely on it.

I genuinely didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks when facing another Symbiote Host with unknown capabilities. I already considered my own abilities provided by Dullahan to be strong and dangerous, so I didn’t even want to imagine what this Gaspar might be capable of with more experience and development.

I would not take the risk of losing anyone else from our group. This situation was far too serious and the opponent too dangerous to gamble with other people’s lives.

"And where are you even planning to look?!" Sydney asked, her voice rising stronger "Atlantic City is huge! You can’t just wander around hoping to stumble across him!"

"Marlon told me the general area where Callighan’s people operate," I explained. "Around the Absecon Inlet and Marina District. I’ll search that territory."

"You’re going to get yourself killed, buddy," Christopher said, giving me an extremely complicated look that mixed concern with reluctant understanding.

"I won’t take stupid risks," I replied, then hesitated as I tried to control the emotion threatening to overwhelm my voice. "I just... I need to at least confirm that Mei is safe and alive. I need to know."

"You can’t go completely alone, Ryan," Rachel said quietly. "At least take just one of us with you. Someone to watch your back."

I shook my head decisively.

"You guys need to stay here and help Margaret’s people get settled into the hotel we’ve cleared," I said, turning away from them toward the camping van. "It’s already getting dark. They need protection and organization, and you’re the ones who can provide that."

I reached down toward my hand axe attached to my belt, intending to check the weapon before leaving.

But my hand trembled noticeably as I grasped the handle—a visible shake I couldn’t quite control.

What is this sensation coursing through me...?

"Ryan."

Cindy’s voice was soft as she suddenly grasped my trembling arm, stopping my movement.

She gave me an intensely worried look.

"I won’t take any unnecessary risks," I promised her, placing my other hand over hers and squeezing gently. "I’ll be back safely. Don’t worry about me."