Dean opened his eyes after some time passed. His mind was now clear and he had a plan for what he should do in the future. He got up and went to look for Harris.
Harris was talking to a group of people when he saw Dean walking around. Dean saw Harris waving for him so he decided to go over.
"Everyone this is Dean"
Harris introduced Dean to the group of 5 people. The group started to introduce themselves.
"You can just call me Roxas, it's what everyone calls me anyway if you're wondering why…"
"Hello oppa, my name is Alice"
A teen girl introduced herself giving a sharp stare to make the boy called Roxas shut up. They both had fair skin and vivid red hair. Both looked the same age of around 17, they were siblings. Although Roxas wanted to continue on with his story, his sister pulled his ears and made him be quiet. It must've been a common occurrence as the rest of the group didn't look that surprised from the siblings fighting.
"Hello I'm Sophia, Harris is my husband. Thank you for helping him earlier"
A gentle woman with blonde hair introduced herself. Her hair was tied with a hairclip with a pink carnation decoration. Her smile was warm and exuded a motherly feel. She was slim and looked the total opposite of Harris who was big and muscly.
"Lucas"
A man around Dean's age introduced himself. He wore glasses and a neat 2 piece navy blue suit. He looked like a typical salary man.
The last person in the group didn't introduce themself or say anything. It was the middle aged lady whose mother was killed outside the store. It was clear she was still mourning her mothers death. Her eyes were red and she was constantly sniffling her runny nose.
"Don't mind her, she just needs some time to calm down. If I remember correctly her name was Kim"
Harris patted Dean's shoulder when he noticed his eyes weren't moving from the woman, he must've thought Dean was worrying for her. Of course Dean didn't really care how the woman felt, he was just trying to see if the woman knew about the fat man in a suit. It was clear from how lifeless she was that she didn't. If she did, she would probably have gone to kill the man.
Dean didn't feel the need to tell her, not yet at least.
"If you don't mind, can you tell me what's happening outside"
The group gave a bitter expression after hearing that. Looking at the expressions of the group, Dean thought it must be really bad outside. Sighing, Harris began to tell what he saw.
"After the blackhole disappeared, we could hear people screaming in joy and celebration, hmm my wife and I were the same. People were going outside their houses and trying to see what had happened. There was no major damage to what we could see, some buildings collapsed and streets had cracks, but nothing as major as you'd think a black hole would cause. My wife and I decided to go to the street. After leaving our apartment building, we met the siblings, Kim and her mother"
"We watched as people left in their vehicles and were about to do the same. My wife works in a kindergarten so our car was big enough for all of us. That was when a car crashed in a building. The driver mustn't have been wearing a seatbelt and flew out the car slamming his arm against a light pole. Me, Lucas and another man went to go see if the man was alright, the other man bent over to check his pulse. He had said that he couldn't feel a pulse we thought it was crazy but he was than attacked"
"The man who crashed was covered in blood after biting the man, he then started chasing us. We saw that other people were attacking others and decided to run away from the mayhem. We eventually saw this building and told other people who were fleeing to go inside"
Everyone's expressions were mixed. Harris's wife Sophia was slightly shaking thinking back to the events. Alice had also paused beating up her brother hearing the recollection, Roxas was crying not because of the story but because he was being forced into a Seiza posture by his sister. While Lucas had an emotionless face but stared dazedly at the ground. The middle aged woman, Kim started crying again which forced Sophia to go comfort her.
"Dean, do you have any idea what's happening?"
Dean gave a questioning look to Harris, he just woke up not long ago. Why would he know what was happening?
Scratching his head Harris continued.
"I'm a construction worker, I know I'm not the brightest of the bunch. I would rather use my body than my head but I'd do anything to protect my wife. You had guessed that those things outside were zombies, please tell us what you think"
Dean had a feeling that if he half assed his answer this man would start to act less friendly with him. He might be cold hearted and not like building relationships with others but he didn't want this man to die, he could tell he treasured his friends and loved ones, he also had the strength to face dangers for others. Dean wouldn't mind being friendly with someone who were somewhat reliable.
"Sigh, I watched the elderly woman stand back up after being bitten by that man"
Everyone was shocked hearing that, Kim had even stopped crying and was now staring straight at Dean. Dean saw that his words had gained everyone's attention.
"Before I continue, take what I say next with a grain of salt. There's just not enough information right now. After being bitten by an infected person their saliva probably has a disease, virus or some other way to make someone come back to life. I don't know which it is, but whatever it is causes them to enter a berserk state. They don't feel pain and are undead, which is probably why they don't have a pulse. The man with a missing arm didn't even stop when his arm flew off…shit"
"What is it?"
"Someone was covered in blood when the arm flew away"
Although Harris didn't immediately realise what was happening, the others were able to.
"AHHHHH!!!"
A girl's scream could be heard throughout the store.
"Shit, we need to go find weapons. Right now"
Dean ran around the store looking for things to use before heading towards the screams. He didn't want to stay with the group as they would slow him down or question him what to do. He briefly looked back and saw Harris explaining something to his wife and group. Dean decided to take action by himself.
After grabbing some tools he could use, he ran towards the screams. There he saw the bloody woman on top biting a man and a little girl next to them who was probably the one screaming.
"I'll grab the girl, do it"
Dean had grabbed an aerosol can and lighter, pointed it towards the two infected and started to light them on fire. The woman didn't show any sort of form of pain. The woman stopped biting the man and looked towards Dean with bits of bloody flesh in its mouth abruptly rushing towards the person who was stopping it from having its meal.
Dean had to dodge from her, she was fast. She wasn't just a normal zombie that could only slowly walk like in shows. Dean was scared, but he knew that if he didn't want to die he would have to kill it. He had to be calm and weigh his options with the little information he had.
The infected lady threw herself at Dean. Dean was able to watch the scene in slow motion, he felt like he was able to see how it was going to attack, the minute changes its body made before charging at him. He moved his body dodging the infected's attack with a few centimeters from its charge. He was amazed about how accurate he was seeing things.
Dean continued to dodge the infected rather easily with his body and new found senses. He felt glad that he had made a fitness regime that kept his body in shape. Although his new senses were great he could slightly feel how tiring his focus was making him feel. The adrenaline in such a dangerous situation was causing him to be extra reflexive.
He had used up nearly the whole can when the infected finally collapsed. Looking at the body Dean was repulsed. Its hair was long gone leaving a burnt scalp, the skin was also mostly gone which let Dean see its now charred pink flesh. However the little skin that was still there was charred and festering, pus and other disgusting liquids were slowly leaking out of the body. The smell was horrendous. Dean felt like if he licked his lips he would taste a bit of human fat that was in the air, he didn't want to find out. Dean felt like vomiting, but he had to check if his enemy was dead. He wasn't an idiot to believe he had killed it just yet, he would double tap it just to make sure.
He took a knife out and stabbed the head of the infected. He made sure that he wasn't close enough for it to jumpscare and bite him. He didn't want to be one of those people in a story that stupidly died due to negligence. The infected moved and tried biting him when he stabbed its brain, although the burnt flesh looked horrible it was still able to move with vigor, he was glad to have checked. He went back over to the body of the man that was attacked first and stabbed his head as well. He didn't want him to rise up and force him to fight again. Just to be sure, he waited 10 more seconds at a distance from the body in case it got up.
Dean looked around and saw that people had rushed over here and were looking at the scene with disgust. Most people had run away to throw up, but some stayed deep in thought. He even caught a glimpse of the fat man in a suit spewing up. Dean looked around and saw Harris with the little girl, he couldn't help but think of him as a giant next to her.
Dean had a faint smile on his face that no one managed to see. He was laughing at the scene of seeing a giant comforting an ant. He also felt more alive than ever in that battle, his body was shaking reviewing his very first battle. He had felt scared facing danger that could kill him, but all he could feel now was excitement. This stale world was finally going to change.