Zombie Apocalypse: I Have Safe Zone Superpower-Chapter 602: Mutated Fish

Each word felt like a nail sealing his fate. When the confession ended, silence filled the room.

Frank knew. He was finished.

Later, with what little mercy remained, he was allowed one final meeting with his son.

When Jade entered, Frank looked up, his eyes already brimming with tears, his usual arrogance completely shattered.

"I know I was wrong..." he whispered, his voice breaking as tears slid down his cheeks.

Jade stood still, his chest tightening painfully as he watched his father like this.

Even now... even after everything... the man before him was still the one who had raised him, who had once stood proudly behind him since childhood.

Frank lowered his head, his voice turning soft, almost pleading.

"I don’t want to stay here..." he murmured. "Can you... Do something? Can you get me out of this...?"

Jade’s eyes widened slightly, disbelief flickering across his face.

’This... this is what he called me for...?’

For a brief moment, he had hoped, foolishly, that his father had changed, that he had called him here to apologize, to accept his fate with dignity.

But instead... He was asking for help. Asking him to interfere.

And Jade knew exactly what that meant.

If he went to Ivy... if he asked her for this favor...

’Everything between us... will be destroyed... beyond repair...’

At that moment, Jade understood something with painful clarity.

’Even if I truly am her soulmate...’ his throat tightened, the thought heavy and suffocating, ’...there is no way I can be with Ivy in this life if I do this.’

Across from him, Frank avoided his gaze, his eyes shifting away as guilt flickered deep within them.

He knew exactly what he was doing; he knew he was destroying his own son’s happiness, and yet, he still chose himself.

’It’s just this once...’ Frank convinced himself, clinging desperately to justification.

’As long as Jade gets me out of here... once everything is under control... once Ivy is beneath me... I would let him marry her anyway...’

He looked back at Jade just in time to see him stand up.

Jade’s face was strained, his expression tight, as if he was holding back something fragile that threatened to break at any second.

"I’ll leave first," Jade said quietly, his voice low yet firm. "I heard enough."

The words fell like a final verdict.

Frank’s expression shifted instantly, panic flashing across his face.

"Jade!" he shouted, his voice cracking as desperation clawed its way out.

"If you walk out of here now... then don’t ever call me your father again! I won’t accept you as my son!"

Jade paused for a fraction of a second. Then he chuckled.

But the sound... it was hollow. Empty. Almost lifeless.

"It doesn’t matter," he replied, his voice calm in a way that felt colder than anger.

"You stopped being my father the moment you asked something so absurd of me."

With that, he turned and walked away.

Behind him, Frank’s voice echoed through the corridor, loud, frantic, breaking apart with every call.

"Jade! Jade, come back! JADE!"

But Jade did not stop.

He simply kept walking as the guards dragged Frank back into the depths of the prison, his voice gradually fading into the distance.

Inside the cell, as the heavy door slammed shut with a dull metallic clang, Frank stood there, frozen.

For the first time, doubt truly crept into his mind. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

’How... did I end up like this...?’

All he had ever wanted was power.

Power to control. Power to stand above everyone else.

’I didn’t ask for much... did I...?’ he thought bitterly, his hands trembling slightly. ’Just enough to rule... to dominate... and now... I’m nothing but a prisoner...’

Meanwhile, Jade stepped out of the prison.

He walked a few steps forward before his vision blurred. Tears.

They welled up quietly, slipping down his cheeks before he even realized it.

He tilted his head upward, staring at the sky. The sun hung above, but something felt... wrong.

It no longer radiated the same warmth.

Its golden glow had dulled into a faint, lifeless orange, as if even it was being suffocated by the world below.

’Is it just me...?’ Jade wondered, his brows knitting together slightly. ’Or is everything really... fading...?’

Elsewhere, far from the base, Silas and his team had already left the cave, only to be greeted by the terrifying flood.

None of them had expected their luck to be this terrible.

Henry gripped the edges of the boat tightly, his knuckles turning pale as he watched the rising water and the relentless rain hammering against the surface.

"This... this is worse than I thought..." he muttered, his voice tense.

The boat beneath them creaked softly, rocking with every wave. It looked fragile, almost laughably weak, but surprisingly, it had endured everything so far without a single crack.

It was given by Ivy. And that alone made it trustworthy.

Still, all of them were cramped together, their bodies pressed close.

Reaching the base was proving far more difficult than expected.

"Six hours by car..." Henry muttered under his breath, his jaw tightening. "And we’re moving at this speed..."

The realization made his chest sink.

At this rate, reaching the base felt nearly impossible.

If it weren’t for the small glowing spheres Ivy had given them, the ones that protected them from the infected water, they wouldn’t have survived even this long.

The zombie-infested flood brushed against them constantly, yet it could not harm them.

For a brief moment, that gave them a chance to breathe.

But that moment didn’t last. Because something else emerged from beneath the water.

Something far worse. The surface rippled violently.

Then... A splash.

A creature shot out of the water, its body twisted, its mouth lined with jagged, unnatural teeth.

"Watch out!" Amelia shouted.

Mutated fish.

They were nothing like the ones they had known before.

They leapt repeatedly, snapping at the air, aiming for skin, for blood, for anything they could tear away.