I went inside to the basement and got some alcohol. I cleaned my gloves and the rest of my outfit with it. I wouldn't want to get infected and neither wanted to look like a scavenger. I just hoped that alcohol would kill the virus if there was any. I felt like I was a Germophobe. I could never be too careful, my old geezers' instincts remained.
I was relieved and excited as I held the red crystals in my hands. I cleaned them with the alcohol before touching them, don't worry I wasn't a hypocrite.
The crystals felt very smooth in my hand and for some reason, they looked tasty. It's like making a bowl of instant noodles, but you had to wait for them to cook.
There was only one way to find out the effect. I wouldn't try and test them on my children, I wasn't a monster. I decided to eat one, and if I die they can still live happy for a long time. There was more than enough supplies in the house.
My hands were trembling as I put it in my mouth. It was a little bit bitter, but that was probably because of the alcohol. Soon, it started melting in my mouth as it had an amazingly sweet taste. It dissolved in my mouth really quickly as it became gas. It's like I only breathed in the air.
I focused on the feeling and soon enough I started feeling energetic, but at the same time, I felt some pain all over my body. The pain was quite extreme as my muscles started to contract and expand. They were ripping apart and getting fixed over and over again. My bones felt like they were being pulled apart. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.
I breathed heavily with sweat all over my body. I got up from the ground and as the pain went away, a rush of energy hit me.
I rushed upstairs to look in the mirror, a few of my wrinkles were gone and my hair turned darker. Some of my beard strands even turned black!
Youth!
There was hope! There was hope for turning young again! I couldn't believe it. I looked at the other crystal in my hand as I wanted to eat it. Power, vitality and youthfulness! Everything I ever wished for!
No, I need to stay sane.
I couldn't become greedy, I must observe the effects it has on someone else as well. My researches instincts were still strong. I had to rely on them in order not to get greedy.
I quickly went downstairs and saw my whole family sitting there with blank expressions, still shocked by what happened with the Deviants.
I sighed. There was no time for daydreaming.
I looked at my family as I was in an internal conflict as to who to give the crystal. I thought about it carefully, but then I realised that it didn't matter. I'll just kill more Deviants later and get more crystals. No! After they observe the effect of them they will want to kill them, by themselves!
"Archi, quick, come here." I said.
Archi got up and walked towards me, "What is it, grandpa?"
I gave her the crystal, "Eat it."
Archi looked at the crystal perplexed, "Eat the crystal?" She said, but I could see her already salivating. The aura of the crystal was amazing. Archi couldn't help but think about eating it by herself.
"Yes, eat it quickly." I said as I observed her.
I saw Archi put the crystal in her mouth, then I saw her expression changed to worse and then better. Then she started trembling lightly.
That's when I saw a shocking sight, her hair stood up like she was electrocuted. I quickly grabbed her in shock. That hadn't happened to me!
When I was about to touch Archi I suddenly felt like I just got zapped by electricity and I instantly retracted my hands. Sometimes it's a normal phenomenon, but I didn't believe that it was this time. That's because my hand turned red, it was way too powerful!
Jason and Telos stood up in shock when they saw Archis' hair go up. While Sunlight ran up to Archi and was about to grab her, but I stopped her.
"Wait." I said as I continued observing. Five seconds later her hair went down as if nothing happened.
Only then I tried touching her with my finger and like I thought she wasn't releasing electricity anymore.
"How do you feel?" I asked concerned.
"I feel awesome!" Archi said as she jumped up and down. She was beaming.
"That's good! That's very good!" I said happily.
"Do you feel anything different about your body?"
I saw Archi think about it, "Hmm yeah I feel like there is something different. I felt something really weird just now."
Archi looked at her hand in confusion. She tried to think about the strange feeling she just had. She opened and closed her fingers and then I saw it!
An arc of electricity appeared between two of her fingers. The middle one and the thumb.
Could this be?
It must be some kind of power!
I ran to the side and grabbed a hand-held fan.
"Quickly, concentrate and do that, what you just did!" I shouted excitedly. It was like I was five again and just saw magic for the first time.
"I'll try." Surprisingly Archi said firmly as she held the fan in her hand. She closed her eyes in concentration and I looked at the fan.
One minute, two minutes. When finally it happened the fan started moving. The fan started spinning faster and faster. At this point, we all stood in a circle and observed.
Suddenly the fan went out of control as it caught fire from the battery that started burning. Archi saw this as she screamed out and dropped it on the floor.
I took a glass of water from the table and poured it on top to stop the fire.
Everything was fine, fortunately, the battery didn't explode or anything like that.
"Archi actually gained the power of electricity after eating the crystal!" Telos exclaimed.
"Indeed, it's pretty unbelievable… I ate one as well but it didn't seem like I gained anything except strength." I said concerned.
"Grandpa then maybe you gained super strength as your power." Telos said with his eyes beaming.
Suddenly my eyes shot open in realisation. It's possible very possible! Although such a thing was hard to compare. Right, Telos was really strong, I'll make him eat a crystal as well, and then we'll compare in strength.
"That is indeed interesting, it seems like killing these Deviants are worthwhile after all." Jason spoke interested as well. He was a man after all and which man didn't wish to possess great power. He wanted to protect the family he couldn't just let the old man do all the work. How would his son see him if he was too weak?
Actually, Jason was quite strong himself otherwise Sunlight would have never married him. The two of them were school sweethearts and met each other in a Judo Club. They've also done Judo as a hobby ever since. Jason himself he was a Judo Nationalist in the past.
"Grandpa we should go deal with some deviants, I want to see what kind of power I would get!" Telos said excitedly. He was already imagining himself shooting fireballs out of his fists and shooting lasers from his eyes.
"Who said I will let you?" Sunlight humped, she didn't really care about such things. For Sunlight family safety was the number one priority. Now that she heard they wanted to go hunt Deviants for superpowers, it sounded quite a bit ridiculous to her. Although, I could see the shine in her eyes, she was definitely interested in them. She was my daughter after all.
"I'm tired, let's rest and have lunch first then we can decide what to do." I said and picked up the hand fan and threw it into the garbage. I cleaned the floor and went to sit down on the kitchen chair.
"Then I'll make dinner." Sunlight said and went to do her thing.
"I'll help her."
"Me too."
Jason and Telos said dejectedly. Like father like son. Women rule the world after all. Sometimes I think whether Sunlight was the head of the family and not Jason.
An interesting idea came to me as I saw Archi still practising.
"Can you try and make it shoot out from your finger or your palm?"
Archi's eyes gleamed as she targeted at the wall. She tried once. Twice.
Twenty times later, a small sparkle went out of her palm and dropped on the ground.
I instantly burst out laughing.
Archi looked at me in anger as she pouted.
"It's fine for now your power is not that big, but with practice, you should get better. Maybe you will be able to power all of our electrical devices with electricity." I said while trying to comfort her.
"Or kill deviants with lightning from your hands!" Telos shouted in excitement from the side while at the same time cut onions.
Everyone started laughing, somehow there was a peaceful atmosphere even though I almost got killed by a deviant and the whole world turned in to chaos. Maybe the only humans in the entire world who currently felt peaceful were in this house.
…
"Are we really going in?" Telos asked.
I nodded my head.
"Old man leave this to me, I'll be the vanguard you look after me with a spear." Jason said this. I obviously didn't mind.
"Well, my back has been cranky recently. If you, a youngster want to, then go on." I said with a cheeky smile.
Jason kicked the door and rushed in, while I and Telos were behind him with our spears. We didn't know if we could actually fit with them, but for that, we had our swords prepared as well.
Just behind the door stood an ugly looking Deviant. Hard to say if it was a man or a woman before as it was deformed beyond recognition.
Jason stabbed with his sword towards its neck while I and Telos stabbed its side as we pushed the Deviant towards a wall behind it.
The Deviant got stabbed on to the wall before it could grab on to Jason. Jason took out a short machete as he held on to the sword with the other. He slashed with the machete towards the Deviant sliding the Machete on side of the sword. The machete accurately cut off the already half cut neck as the head slid down.
"Behind you!" I shouted as a deviant rushed at Jason from the other room.
I took my knife. There wasn't enough space in the corridor for any kind of wide swings. I rushed at the Deviant and kicked it on its stomach. The deviant knocked back as I jumped on it and stabbed the monsters' neck furiously. It tried to grab me and scratch me, but it didn't have enough time, strength or intelligence.
As it died I sighed a breath of relief and looked around, Telos and Jason rushed to my help, but I didn't need any.
"Old Man it's good that I didn't make your daughter cry next to you." Jason looked at me half smiling half not. I looked at him strangely. I didn't realise that I held a knife in reverse position and was wearing a black outfit that was now covered in purple blood. I totally looked like a serial killer.
I then looked at the Deviant. It actually looked quite human, it was an old granny around my age.
I patted the Deviant's shoulder while sitting on it.
"It's alright we lived a long life so no need to be vengeful." I said just in case she starts haunting me.