The Phantom: Code Breaker

Chapter 39: The Choice

"Markus? Markus!" Reiko is shaking Markus's shoulders to wake him up. He saw what happened to his son after he was forced to get out of the VR from Markus' monitor.

"Hey Marky, wake up!! Please... Dad's here ... please wake up... hang in there son..." he brought his son to his chest as he removed the headgear. "Hey, it's all done. You've won, c'mon, you just have to wake up, son!" Reiko exclaimed and did everything to revive the helpless kid. He tried to resuscitate as he pressed the wound on the kid's side to stop the bleeding.

Reiko managed to get to his son right before he fully fell to the abyss when Kirk was finishing him. He knew that the fight continued and that his son is in a dire state. He was about to lose his consciousness but his son did something to get him back from the VR.

Markus, on the other hand, was slowly losing consciousness. He fell on his knees as the under his feet is slowly succumbing to the abyss. He is also losing himself in the real world from all the blood that was lost thru his wound.

Kirk gained his consciousness on the other unit but he's not fully aware of his surroundings anymore. He stood and said, "I will... not let you... get out of here alive, Markus! This is not yet the end." then he pushed something under his chair and he collapsed.

"What are you saying?" Reiko saw Kirk pushed something. It was some kind of a trigger placed under his chair. "What was that?" he kept his son close to him. He can feel him breathing slowly and turning cold.

Reiko heard a sound and looked around to find where it came from.

"That was near..." he looked more and he noticed it was from a bag under his son's chair. He opened it and saw the laptop blinking red. He opened the lid up and the timer started, flashed on the blue screen.

3:49

"A bomb? Seriously?!" Reiko exclaimed and stood immediately away from the bomb. He turned away and left the laptop in front of the monitor. He went straight to the exit and carried his son outside the cafe, not noticing the headgear hanging on his arm.

"The building was already shaking from the earlier explosion and it might really bury them down when the bomb on the laptop will explode as well," he muttered to himself.

Reiko looked for the kids he left before going to Markus, then he heard from the smoke and dust from the falling debris, a familiar voice shouted.

"Ol' man! Oi!, we're here, are you alright?" Dave shouted; coughing, waving his right injured arm at Reiko.

"Mr. Reiko!" Cassandra exclaimed.

He and Cassandra were carrying Louige on their shoulders, helping him to walk on his feet.

"I'm glad, you're all safe..." Reiko replied with glee in his eyes. He can't believe how blessed they are to get out from all this mess but he still has a cold feeling. His son on his arms felt lifeless that it made him look pale as well. "...Get out of here, fast! The building will explode, soon." He added and he led the kids to run away from the building.

"Hai!" they all shouted.

When they reached the middle of the alley, a loud bang shattered the cement behind them. The collapsing building brought dust and gusts of dirty wind. The building exploded and buried whatever's left under.

They ran past the alley and reached the highway. He looked around for help and a Charlotte running towards them with distress.

"Thank God you're safe!" Charlotte exclaimed. She hurried towards the group and hugged Cassy and Dave. "Louige, you're injured. We should get you to the hospital immediately."