Is it Wrong to Copy Abilities in Apocalypse?

22:28, 13 July 20XY.

Clock Tower, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

One of the most iconic places of Dehradun was the clock tower, also known as 'Ghanta Ghar' in India.

It used to stand tall in the center of the city, also known as the heart of the city.

But all that was left of it now was a pile of debris.

*Clank**Thud*

A small piece of rock flew from one side of the debris to the other, falling on the ground with a thud before the one who threw the stone came into view.

He was wearing a loose navy blue t-shirt and black pants, along with black sandals, his curly black hair, and black eyes with a tint of blue.

He wasn't actually handsome, but he wasn't ugly as well; his looks were something you wouldn't remember if seen within a crowd.

"I don't like this silence..."

He muttered as he picked up another small rock from the debris and tossed it toward another big piece of debris.

*Tat**Clatter*

The stone collided with a broken part of the clock tower, clattering down its smooth surface.

"Says the one who prefers silence even in a party..."

A feminine voice retorted from his side, laced with amusement.

It belonged to a slender woman with beautiful features. Her wavy brown hair flowed down her back, reaching her waist, and her eyes, as if the changing colors, would sometimes look brown and sometimes black.

Her body was not that curvy, but not straight as well; he was thin, but her figure was still maintained as if she had poured a lot of her focus on her body.

"You don't get it, Pooja; this eerie silence is unsettling. I would never want this type of silence--a silence where we would have our bodies tense, fearing when a beast would jump on us."

The man shook his head with a sigh as he picked up another stone, but before he could throw it, the woman sitting beside him grabbed his hand and pried the stone away from his palm.

"I get it, Saurav. It's just a bit funny coming from the mouth of a guy who demands the music in a party to get paused because he likes silence."

*Tat**Clatter*

Pooja spoke between her chuckles as she flung the rock at the same spot that Saurav had done before.

This caused the guy to raise a brow before he just raised his palm up, looking at the stars from the gap between his fingers.

It gave him a feeling that he was holding the stars down, and he liked that; he used to do it whenever he felt that he was alone during his childhood at an orphanage.

"What? Did I say--"

Pooja, however, tried to taunt the guy, wanting to get some reaction from him; she was bored of this long silence, after all.

But her words were cut short as they heard something...

*Step**Step*...

They heard steps--slow and measured steps--nearing them, causing their bodies to tense and their faces to turn serious.

They exchanged a look of doubt and suspicion before they jumped behind the boulder-like piece of debris they were sitting on, trying to look for the owner of those steps with a cautious glint in their eyes.

The clock tower was supposed to be a green zone, but who knows what the system would do?

The system didn't give them a single reason to trust it until now; all it did was give them reasons not to.

*Step**Step*...

With tense bodies and clenched fists, they waited for the owner of those steps to enter their view, their eyes filled with hope--hope that it was not a monster they wouldn't be able to face, especially the type that had killed their friends not long ago.

*Step*

Finally, after a few seconds that felt like hours to them, a boy with blood-red hair and a height of 1.86 meters came into their view.

"Sigh..."

A relieved sigh left their lips as their bodies relaxed, resting against each other before their eyes met, and they hurriedly stood up straight with an awkward cough.

"Sorry, I didn't realize."

Sourav was quick to apologize, even though he was not the type to talk a lot.

"It's fine; I leaned on you as well..."

Pooja, on the other hand, just kept her head turned away from the guy as she spoke under her breath.

Saurav, who heard those words, wanted to say something, but before he could...

*Clatter*

*Tap**Tack*

Small pieces of broken debris fell to their heads from the top of the boulder they were hiding behind, causing their bodies to freeze; their heads, as if an old rusty machine, moved upward in a slow and hesitant manner.

They knew that there was someone there; they could feel a gaze on their bodies, and when their eyes finally turned up, they found a pair of frosty eyes scanning them.

*Shiver*

They shivered as they stared into those eyes; it was as if their lives and deaths didn't matter to those eyes.

But soon, that chilling gaze moved away from them, along with the owner of that gaze.

Both Saurav and Pooja, on the other hand, stood frozen still; they still couldn't believe that those eyes belonged to a human.

They haven't been out there to know what the world had turned into; all they did was run--run as fast as they could--and hide.

They haven't seen a single human since their friends died.

They were the last group of humans they had seen; for a while, they even thought that they might be the last pair of humans left alive.

It wasn't that there weren't any humans left; it was just that they were hiding. Even in the surroundings of the clock tower, there were at least 10 people sitting away from one another, not wanting to trust them.

Saurav and Pooja were different as they were really looking for alive humans, but not everyone was the same.

To others, they were a group of two while they were alone, and why would someone who's alone want to risk having his position revealed to a group of people?

Humans were now having trust issues, especially after they saw the real faces of people they trusted when they were exposed to real danger during the tutorials.

Many women found out that their husbands would be willing to sacrifice them just so they could save their lives.

Many men found out that their wives were ready to throw themselves on someone they didn't even know just because that person was stronger.

So many more things like these came to light, and so many people suffered because of that.

Yes, humans are adaptable, and they would eventually forget all that, but time was needed, and that was a luxury they didn't have.

"AHHHHHH!"

Sourav and Pooja, however, were soon broken out of their thoughts by a terrified scream; it was as if someone had seen their worst nightmare, causing their eyes to widen.

They exchanged a look of doubt, panic, and urgency before they rushed out of their hiding spot.

But it was not just them who heard that scream, many other humans hiding in the area, did the same...