Chapter 3

My eyes widened as I felt our lips meet in the middle of the warm, humid room. As soon as I realised, I pushed Michael's body away. I don't blame people for meeting or kissing their loved ones, but I didn't want to kiss a man who meant nothing to me.

"What the hell Michael! You freak!" I snapped at Michael, wiping my lips to remove the kiss marks.

Michael looked at me with a gentle yet sensual gaze. He was very handsome and dashing, I'll admit, but that didn't necessarily make me crazy about him.

"I love you, Alice. Ever since I first saw you and your family foraging for food on the plains of the Earth. I pitied you for the miserable life you led with them. As luck would have it, they offered you to our base. I took the opportunity to save them,' Michael said. I've had these feelings for a long time, I'm sorry for being so rude. But I really do love you very much. I'm sorry."

I still think it sounds a bit ridiculous, love? Is it so easy for him to say he loves me? But I have to think about Michael's words and not overreact.

"I'm sorry if I seem strange and annoying, but as you know, I've had these feelings for a long time. So please forgive me. I will act accordingly afterwards. Thank you," Michael said and walked away, lowering his face slightly.

Seeing that he was quite depressed made me feel sorry for him, especially since he also said that he had had feelings for me for a long time. Whether that was true or not, I felt sorry for his expression right now.

I sat down and thought, he's been helping me a lot for a while now and doesn't expect much from me other than the game I get out there. I was beginning to think that Michael wasn't lying about his feelings.

A few days later we arrived for our planned hunt in the X-Line area. The seven of us were armed to the teeth. Pistols, fibrinium nets, steel ropes coated with freeze-resistant fibre and a shield that could withstand hard blows and was like a non-liquid liquid.

Myself and a few others then travelled by drone, which could carry 3-4 people per drone unit. The drone was designed to take us to the X-Line area. Michael's goal for this expedition was to retrieve a diamond that was indicated to be antimatter. The substance is used to generate massive electrical power in our armoury and headquarters. Resources such as petrol had been used up and could no longer be extracted due to the alien invasion.

"Here, a jacket for you. This jacket has been specially heated, don't forget to wear it. It will be very cold there. The temperature on X-Line has reached over 100 degrees Celsius," Michael said, handing me a technologically advanced jacket.

I accepted the jacket and smiled, Michael continuing to pay attention to me, although he would move away after that. He seemed to care about me, but deliberately kept his distance.

"Michael!" I ccalled to Michael before he walked away.

"Hm? What's happend?" Michael asked.

I held my breath, as if it was hard to speak, but I thought it was time to reveal this.

"Thank you," I said.

"For?"

"Jacket and ...."

I dropped my words, took a deep breath and continued. "I have the same feeling with you."

Michael's eyes lit up even more, he seemed very happy that I had made such a statement. He approached me, took my hand and touch it lovingly. He kissed the back of my hand as he looked at me lovingly.

"Do you want to be my lover?" Michael asked.

I just nodded slowly and looked at him shyly. Seeing that, Michael's smile became even more obvious and he immediately pulled my neck back and kissed me tenderly. We actually exchanged heat and saliva from the kiss.

"Thank you, darling. From now on we are lovers," Michael said. "I promise to always be by your side. You'll promise me that too, won't you?"

"Hm? Do you want me to promise? Of course I will. I promise to stay with you, right?" I said.

Michael's expression became strange. "Hm, that's not what I mean. Yes, that's the content of our promise, I mean something more specific."

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously.

"Well, you promise to do something if I ask you for a favour. You want to make a promise like that, don't you?" Michael asked, looking for reassurance from me.

I was reluctant to refuse, Michael seemed very hopeful, even though the agreement he was asking for sounded strange. But in the end I agreed to his request without thinking about Michael.

"Yes, I promise. Aren't we lovers? What's there to doubt?" I assured Michael.

Not long after that, we arrived at the X-Line area. As we expected, the area was even more terrifying due to the extreme cold, not just snow but huge, hard chunks of ice like mountains. In fact, the place looked more like the North Pole than the North Pole itself.

My colleagues and I quickly got out of our drones using the equipment we had brought with us. Michael's antimatter diamond detector didn't take long to pick up the diamond. What made it difficult, however, was the journey to the site, because the weather was so extreme.

"You take the front," Alice.

I was surprised, I wasn't sure I was up front. But being behind on the climb must have been just as difficult, so I finally gave in and took the front.

Once we had climbed to the top of the icefall, we fired a cannon that quickly melted the ice. To our delight, it didn't take us long to get our hands on the antimatter diamond.

Now it was my turn, Michael and the other two went into the giant hole, the four of us took the diamonds and put them into a container which was tied to a rope wrapped in freeze-resistant material. When everything was ready, it was the four of us' turn to climb back up.

"Geez, but there's a power drain. It's as if the strength of the rope has been reduced by a few percent. It's best if no more than three people can be pulled by this rope," said Shane, one of the colleagues who went up with me.

"Darling, you can wait here for a while, can't you?" Michael said as he held both my arms. "I'm sorry, darling, I don't mean any harm. But it's more dangerous if you go with the first group. The chances of the rope breaking are greater. But if you go up alone, the weight of the rope will be less. You trust me, right?"

The look in Michael's eyes was reassuring, and I shouldn't always be prejudiced against others, especially since Michael and I had become lovers. I should try to trust him more, I thought.

"Yes, I do. Please be careful, don't fall or slip," I said.

Michael and his two colleagues climbed slowly and carefully to the top of the hole where the others were waiting. I looked down at them and prayed that everything would be all right.

Once the three were safely up, I thought it was my turn to go up.

"Have you made it up yet?" I shouted from the bottom of the hole.

When I reached for the rope, it was pulled away so quickly that I didn't have time to grab it. Seeing that, my heart skipped a beat and my body shook.

"Guys? Why is the rope being pulled? I haven't had time to go up yet," I shouted again.

There was no reply from up there, I tried to wait patiently. But it had been several minutes since the rope had been pulled down.

"Oh my God, they can't have left me, can they?" I said worriedly. "Michael! Help me, I can't get up!"

I saw Michael's head peering into the hole I was in. But strangely, instead of helping me, he was grinning and laughing at me.

"Silly girl, you're too stupid to be fooled by us. Now feel free to languish down there, soon there will be a band of robbers who will enjoy you. I've sold you to them for a pretty penny," Michael said and walked away, leaving me here alone.