Harris and Sophia returned to the base. They immediately told the group the people they came across and to be extra careful. Dean wasn't that surprised. He was the main reason why the supermarket had been successfully attacked and abandoned, it would've been a shame to see everyone die just like that.
'I guess he's grown'
Dean looked at Harris. Harris didn't have the look of hesitation that he carried the past day. Dean nodded his head silently that one of the strongest in the group was no longer going to burden the group by helping others.
Dean would let it go once that Harris had helped Sang Woo. However if Harris didn't learn from his mistakes Dean would've just left the group. He didn't really need to stick with them now that he was powerful. However what made him like this group was that the group's wills were strong. Everyone in the group had a past that made them resolve their actions. This was what made them easily choose to kill zombies unlike other people. It would also let them grow fast to be more cold hearted towards others they don't know.
Dean didn't mind going with them to get supplies from the police station. Though he would then leave the group to adventure alone. It was his goal to grow overwhelmingly strong and being with a group would only drag him down.
Some time passed, Dean had decided to leave with Kim Hannah and Lucas. He was mostly healed but he mostly came out to learn about the surrounding buildings. He also had tests that couldn't be done inside.
The group didn't talk that much. The trio were people who weren't the social type and only talked when necessary. Lucas was often too busy with his job to socialise with people while Kim Hannah was too busy working and looking after her mother who had a disease.
Kim Hannah continued to jot down notes about the surroundings in her notebook while Lucas was fighting a zombie. She would note how the limbs acted when severed, the differences in blood, the mobility of a zombie and how they sensed their surroundings. It was very precise things such as the thickness, any coagulation or if the body would function with no blood.
"It's weird…all the zombies are able to move without blood. Their muscles don't get tired and they don't seem to need rest. They're basically perfect super soldiers, I wouldn't be surprised if another country had engineered them "
Dean replied to her statement.
"Who knows. It's not like any government would announce that they had made super humans. It would spark a war with other countries to get that information and make their own. If instead it turned out that they had made zombies it would make other countries isolate that country in fear of wide spread infection just take Raccoon city for example. They would most likely have nuked that place if push comes to shove"
Lucas had a questioning look on his face.
"Raccoon city?"
"It's a fictional city"
"Ah, I see"
The trio once again returned to silence. Dean would instruct them where a zombie was. He could now faintly sense 50 meters around him, it was in a super blurred way which he couldn't discern things but he could guess from how it moved. A zombie would walk in a lifeless way and not have any need to rush and would be in the open.
Lucas would stab a zombie accurately in its joints stopping it from moving momentarily. He had learnt some basic anatomy from Kim Hannah and got a rough sketch of a human body's joints. He still missed some attacks not hitting the right spot but he would safely retreat and lunge his spear at the head. He was very precise in his movements and Dean thought he would be good as a range fighter.
Kim Hannah was fighting in a similar way. She would aim for vital spots such as the tendons and heel to make a zombie fall, she would kill it after making some notes and dissecting its body.
Dean was standing on the disc 10 meters off the ground. He was training moving in the air and testing his balance. He would jump off the disc and spring himself forward, the disc would shatter from the force he created pushing off it and he would then make another disc in the direction he was moving. He needed to practice moving in the air as it could be a huge advantage. He would stop himself with that disc and make another one as his foot hold. He kept repeating the same movements as the duo fought with the zombies below.
The duo looked at him with awe. Kim Hannah wanted to conduct various tests with his portals but Dean had declined. He didn't want others to know the ins and outs of his abilities, especially someone who was used to researching various things such as Kim Hannah. He wanted to keep his powers mostly a secret.
The group went around the streets taking out any zombies that Dean could sense. He would occasionally create portals and attack by throwing a knife into killing some zombies if the group they encountered was too large. He had grown more proficient with using them and felt his mastery increasing. He just wished he could create more portals as it was tedious to only kill one zombie at a time.
The group returned to the base and ate food with the others. Night soon arrived and the group decided to sleep.
Dean left with Kim Hannah.
"Follow me closely, it should be dangerous where he is since I tied him up in a random building near the supermarket"
"Sure"
Dean and Kim Hannah stealthily made their way towards the supermarket. Hordes of zombies were bunched up in the streets the closer they got. Dean would separate with Kim Hannah and go the opposite direction they planned to go. He would then make a loud noise and gather the attention of the horde on him. Kim Hannah would sneakily make her way towards their goal, she couldn't help Dean whatsoever and could only avoid alerting the zombies of her presence.
Dean would catch up to her by moving in the air with his discs. He had improved greatly moving in the air and had no problem moving straight, it was another matter to maneuver and dodge in the air but he was happy with his progress. They did this a couple of times till they finally arrived.
The two walked in the building.
"Here you go, he's all yours now"
Dean smiled with a mischievous smile. He pointed to a room and walked outside.
"Oh, right. You only have tonight, we should be heading to the police station today and it wouldn't be good to have extra baggage that'll only slow us down"
Kim Hannah slowly made her way to the room. Inside was the man who had killed her mother. Royce was tied up in a chair. He was worming his body in the chair and was constantly struggling to break free. His desperate sounds of panic and fear barely made its way out his gagged mouth.
Kim Hannah grabbed her knife and started to cut the man's skin. Royce screamed in fear at the new sensation. The cold metal blade that slowly pierced his skin made him shiver. He screamed louder as the blade cut through his clothes and made his skin bleed. The blade was dull, it was normally a bad thing but Kim Hannah could only be more delighted that the poor weapon was actually helpful in this situation.
She removed the blindfold on the man to show him the face and reason why he was about to experience pain. She looked at him coldly.
"I'm going to make you regret killing my mother"
Royce shuddered at those words. He clearly remembered pushing the old lady to the ground and never thought that saving his own life was such a mistake.
Kim Hannah was a surgeon so she had great knowledge about the human body. She was skilled at her new experience of torture. She cut all the places that would inflict the most pain but avoid blood loss or making Royce faint. She stuck toothpicks in Royce's fingernails and wiggled them once they were in. She cut his tendons and scraped the blade slowing peeling his skin off his body. Royce's muffled screams made her happy.
She removed his gag and let him talk to her. It was a torture method that Dean had told her about. To let the subject talk and hope that they could leave with their life. She continued with the torture and let Royce plead for his life as much as he could.
Since Royce was no longer gagged, his screams were heard around the street. Zombies flocked around the building, where Dean was waiting by the entrance.
"Time to start grinding"
Dean had his deal with Kim Hannah to let her torture Royce. It was for her to write as much information as she could in a notebook for him. Things such as first aid, human anatomy and her findings about zombies. He was planning to leave the group and wanted as much information he could from them. The internet was no longer working and he couldn't easily find information anymore unless he went to a library or hospital. His request to ungag Royce was to attract zombies to the building. He wanted to train and the best way to improve quickly was to put oneself in a dangerous situation.
A hundred or so zombies soon flocked towards Dean. Dean calmly jumped into the air and stood on a disc. He then fell to the center of the horde and started to rampage. He would pierce a zombie's head with his spear and throw his knife at another head, then making a portal near his knife he would grab it and repeat. His brain was flooded with information from his surroundings. His mental energy was draining at a rapid pace but his strength was growing exponentially in comparison.
His attacks were becoming sharper and more accurate as he fought. His portals were no longer being used to only block and redirect attacks, but were now being used to attack enemies in unpredictable locations. Since his senses were in a sphere shape he could make a portal at his foot and kick a zombie while attacking two other zombies with the spear and knife. Dean also attacked through his portal to hit any zombies that tried to enter the building.
Every time he moved corpses would appear and soon started to fill the street through the night.