After parking the car and entering the house, Tsuyoshi sat down and Mattias prepared something to eat. They were both tired mentally as this was their first true teamwork and the first time they killed something other than a zombie.
"Bro that was incredible! That thing's head was really hard y'know. I thought my wooden sword would crack!"
"I'm just thankful that nothing bad happened to us. That plan was easy to derail."
"Yeah we succeeded!"
"Yes. Here."
"So what now? We are here in your home."
"I was thinking of making this neighborhood a little bit safer actually. And for that I'm going to need your strength even if I don't like it."
"I see. But you have to say it."
"Say what?"
"Say 'Please help me Tsuyoshi.'"
"I already told you that I'll need your abilities!"
"I want to hear it."
"I refuse."
"C'mooon."
"I already stated that."
"Stating is not enough sometimes y'know."
"It is now so eat up, we have a lot of work to do."
"Haa fine. But I'm going to make you ask for my help eventually. We are friends now so it shouldn't be awkward to ask for help from each other."
"Whatever."
They ate their meal, well if you could call eating from a can a meal, in silence and went out after they took their respective weapons of choice. Tsuyoshi asked for their plan and Mattias pointed towards the street across them. There were wandering zombies there and their numbers were scarce as well, a total of 10 zombies pretty far apart from each other.
"We'll start from that street and continue from there. Streets are our first priority, and then we'll clean the houses one by one. We will have rests after each fight if possible, so to not endanger our lives."
"Okay! Here I go then!"
"Don't be rash. We can lure them one by one."
"A group cleanup is easier though?"
"It may seem that way but think about it; what if you get surrounded?"
"I won't though."
"There's no need to put yourself in meaningless danger. Here, throw this to one of the zombies' head."
Mattias handed a rock he picked up and pointed at a zombie in the street not too far away from them. Tsuyoshi picked it up and threw it. It went pretty fast compared to how he looked like when throwing it. He seemed like he didn't exert much power but the speed told otherwise.
It hit the head of the zombie with quite a force and it stumbled. When it turned towards the duo, growled and started approaching.
"Nice throw. We can kite them like this."
"Why don't you fight this one?"
"Why?"
"I want to see how you fight."
"Okay I guess."
Mattias drew his kodachis and left the garden. The zombie was approaching him slowly, its wobbly steps barely carrying it. The coast was clear, save for the street across them so Mattias was relaxed about there being any nuisances. Mattias waited until there were about 5 meters between him and the zombie and rushed to brandish his kodachis.
It was his first time fighting so his movements were stiff. His steps were all over the place and his control over his movements was awkward. He did manage to get a couple of hits through but his 'fight' consisted of dodging and not getting hit.
Seeing this, Tsuyoshi sighed drew his katana and walked over to them. He beheaded the zombie with a swift swing and looked at Mattias.
"You need training bro. Your movements were, how can I say this without hurting you…"
"Just say it, I can take it."
"Well let's just say that you were moving like a 4-year-old girl trying to do a dance show after she saw a cool dance video."
"Wow."
"Yeah. So let's put hunting on Plan B for today and let's get the basics down."
"Whatever you say."
They then returned inside and picked a wooden sword each.
"I saw you tried to avoid every strike from the enemy. Sure, you don't want to be hurt but sometimes you can't avoid getting hit."
"If I get hit, I'm dead. You know that right?"
"That is why we are going to spar a bit."
"I don't know how to even hold this thing! How do you suppose I'm going to protect myself against your-"
"Okay less talk more move. Here I come!"
Without even waiting Mattias to finish sentence Tsuyoshi rushed at him. He would mercilessly attack his arms, legs and head. He kept on hitting him for 5 minutes straight until Mattias fell down. He was panting and his wooden sword fell from his hand after the first couple of exchanges. Tsuyoshi talked and Mattias glared at him.
"I didn't know you didn't have any history with martial arts."
"Let me finish my sentence then!"
"Don't worry I'm joking. I just wanted to see your reflexes and reaction time. I also needed to see how you move and familiarize myself with you so I can prepare a suitable training routine. Now that I know of these things, let's start!"
"Let me rest first! Thanks to you I don't feel my arms and legs."
"Sure fine! But it is for only today."
Tsuyoshi swung his wooden sword for a while until Mattias was rested enough to move his limbs. They trained until it was night. Tsuyoshi was teaching Mattias about how to properly hold the sword and how to properly swing it. Basic stances and how to react in certain situations. For his easy-going nature and his always joking nature, Tsuyoshi was very strict and brutal when it came to training. He would yell at Mattias if he did something wrong and he would get physical if he failed at it several times over.
But even though he was like that, he was great at teaching. Mattias would learn everything thoroughly with his guidance. He was also very eager to learn this as he would need it for his own survival.
They trained for a little while after the sun set and had their meal. Mattias showed Tsuyoshi to a room and after closing his own door and sat on his bed, he opened the radio like he always did. But it was still fruitless as there was just silence.
After a sigh he proceeded to sleep. He woke up to the sounds of thunder. The clock was pointing at 8 am. It was chilly as it was still raining so he wore his hoodie. His whole body was aching because of the training yesterday and he had trouble getting up and walking.
When he managed to exit his room and walk downstairs, he saw Tsuyoshi was already awake and was training. When he saw Mattias Tsuyoshi smiled and spoke enthusiastically.
"Good morning bro! Ready for a morning workout?"
"Really? How do you do that because my whole body is burning in pain."
"I'm already used to it and you will be as well. You have to work your muscles now or else you will feel a lot stiffer tomorrow."
"Fine just let me drink some water first. I feel like I ate shit while I was sleeping."
"Haha! I was the same!"
After stretching his muscles Mattias joined Tsuyoshi in training. It was the continuation of yesterday. They went over the basic stances until Mattias could do them without thinking and went ahead to test his skills. When they went out to hunt zombies, they saw the weather got a lot worse.
The clouds were black and were illuminated from within by thunders. There was the occasional lightning strike and the wind was faster compared to yesterday. The rain got slower but was a lot denser. If someone was out for about an hour in this weather, they were getting sick for sure.
"Let's not stay too long out. If we get sick it will be hard to get better."
"It depends on your performance bro. If you kill fast, you'll get to go inside that sooner."
"So, you say you won't hunt?"
"No! Of course I'll hunt! But a lot lesser than you so I can keep my eye on you. As I want you to kill at least 20 zombies today."
"20? That'll take a while."
"Alone."
"Alone? Are you-"
"It's on you. Let's start!"
"Haah. This guy."
They went ahead and started hunting zombies. Tsuyoshi was already used to killing zombies so he made quick work on them. Mattias on the other hand was slightly nervous as this was his first time facing a zombie face to face.
His grip on his katana was firm and his gaze was locked on the slowly approaching zombie. He was using katana today because Tsuyoshi ordered him to. The techniques for kodachi and katana was different and they trained for katanas. So it was logical to use it.
Mattias was standing his ground, waiting until the zombie entered his action range. He was adjusting his breathing and was getting his heart ready.
"Hah!"
He attacked at the zombie as soon as it was in range of his katana. He swung fast and katana hit its shoulder. Mattias tried to pull it back but it was stuck.
"What the fuck?"
The katana was stuck and this was making him nervous. He tried to pull the katana but was failing. The zombie was moving with each pull.
"Shit!"
He pushed it away when he saw this. But as he was still holding the katana the zombie didn't go far and stopped after a step back.
"Just kick it bro! It's stuck to the collar bone. If you kick it while pulling you'll have an easier time pulling it out."
Mattias tried what Tsuyoshi said and kicked the zombie while trying to pull his katana. And he really did pull it out this time. He staggered backwards and regained his balance after five steps and retook his stance, firmer this time.
"Let's do this!"
He charged at the zombie and struck at it. He hit its head this time and cleaved it in half. After a final low growl, zombie fell to the ground and lay motionless. Mattias was panting but from excitement this time.
He looked at Tsuyoshi and, while smiling, lifted his katana high and cheered. Tsuyoshi was also happy for him and reacted in turn. But their excitement was short lived as there were still zombies around and their cheering voices attracted them. They then nodded to each other and continued their work.
Their daily routine became light training in the morning, zombie hunting on the streets until after noon and heavy training until night. They also got the cars out of the road if there were one, searched them for valuable things and then just left them there. They were no mechanics so they didn't know what part would be useful for what and they didn't have back up containers to store the gasoline in them.
This kept on for a week until the streets in their 20-minute walk area was rid of zombies. They were currently resting in their home after their final hunt on the streets. They deemed it enough when they could walk for about 20 minutes straight on the main street. They also barricaded the roads with unused cars so that zombies couldn't wander in their safe zone.
"Now we can relax for a while, right?"
"There are still some houses we need to search. Our immediate surroundings are okay but we still didn't enter some houses on the next street and we haven't even touched the next street from that. So, we'll continue that for now."
"Haah fine bro. Let's just eat. I wanna sleep."
After they ate their meals, they each went to their respective rooms. Out of habit, Mattias opened the radio after he sat on his bed.
"*chuckle* Why am I even doing this now? There won't be any-"
But his words were cut in half as he heard someone speaking. His headphone was proving him wrong in real time as his eyes became blank.
"Greetings and salutations survivors! I hope you're doing well. Thank you for tuning in. I'm Z-Man and you're listening to 'Radio Survivor'!"