"It's turning dark outside…" Says Rick as he glances at the orange gleam of the sunset hitting the mountains outside the window. "Do you think the zombies are sensitive to light? Will they gather around us when we turn the lights on?" Sadly, the deafening silence permitting the room only becomes more significant after Rick's question.
Rick doesn't expect for the others to reply anymore however, he still feels uncomfortable with the silence. He peers outside the window once again and heaves a deep sigh. Slow-moving figures shrouded by the twilight come and go every now and then.
On the couch, Tom breaths softly in an even rhythm as he sleeps comfortably. He used quite a bit of energy today and needs a good rest.
Squatting on the floor, Will has his palms on the back of his father while it glows intermittently. Spreading on the back of his father is the same streaks of glowing lines that appears whenever Will imbues an object with his ability. Inside Liam's body, the streaks of lights explore and search for the energy hidden somewhere within. Once the streak of lines finally touches a resembling ball of energy, it stimulates it to make Liam become aware of it.
"I can feel something faintly. This is amazing" Says Liam with his eyes shut, giving his best to become aware of the energy that naturally resides in him, and tries manipulating it with the same sensation Will had him experience.
"I will pull my energy out now, so try manipulating your energy after that, dad…"
"…nothing is happening" After grasping the energy and manipulating it on the surface of his skin, Liam opens his eyes and scrutinizes it. However, no visible effects are happening, disappointing him. "Maybe something went wrong? How do I know what effects this energy brings anyway?..."
"I also don't know… It's a bit similar to the energy Tommy would emit when he uses telekinesis but something about it feels distinctly not. Dad, try to make something move without touching it…"
Liam glance at a nearby chair and manipulates the energy enshrouding his hands to reach it, but it seems like the energy can't stretch beyond the surface of his skin.
"What's going on? Nothings happening…" Rick looks back and forth between Liam and the chair with anticipation.
"Ah!... It's stuck! It feels odd. It's like it can't go out of my body!..." Liam says with frustration while holding his hands up in front of his eyes.
"It's okay dad, you can already control the energy. It should take time before you can figure out your abilities. Maybe you just need a bit more practice…" Will soothes his father and then beckons Rick to come over with a gesture of his hand.
"Oh! It's my turn? Oh yeah!" Rick hurriedly scoots over and faces Will with eyes gleaming with excitement.
Will make Rick turn around and squat down. Will concentrate his energy on his palm once again and press them on the other's back.
"oh?!..." Rick couldn't help but make an odd sound when something foreign enter his body. Will's energy explores Rick's body slowly, trying to find something.
Rick could feel it spreading from his back, and then to his chest, leaving warmth along the way. It slowly spread to his limbs and his head, down to his fingers and toes. It feels like having a full body massage, but even better.
"Your energy is hiding somewhere different. They seem to be concentrated mostly on your joints, wrapping your bones and onto the surrounding muscles. Interesting. It's largely different from my, Tommy's, or even dad's… can you feel it?" Rick could hear Will speaking behind him however, Rick currently feels too pleasant to pay attention. Having Will stimulate the energy housing all over his joints make his whole body numb and jelly.
"It… It feels so good…" Hearing Rick say it while moaning, Will unintentionally retracted his energy all at once. "Ah!" Rick exclaim from the abrupt change of sensation.
"What the hell! Focus on the energy!" Will smack Rick's back. "Ow!"
"Can you feel the energy from all over your joints?" Will's tone turned rigid, waking Rick from his stupor. "Yes, I felt them. However, it felt so good all over my body… I couldn't focus on it. Can you do it again?" Rick says embarrassed, but his face screams mischievous intent.
Will clench his irritation inside from surfacing. He imbues his energy inside Rick once again but a bit faster this time, startling the other. "There, do you feel them?..."
"Yes. It's there. I can feel it" The energy inside Rick is finally awakening once he got conscious of it. Rick concentrates on it and tries moving them, however, it won't budge.
"Do you feel something different?" Ask Will once he sees Rick activate the energy all over his body all by himself. Will then slowly retract his energy and let Rick concentrate alone for a bit more.
Will slowly slid out of the room while the three are silently doing what they need.
Will return to the room later bringing an item and information.
"Will! Where did you go? You suddenly disappeared without a word!" Rick is waiting by the door with a complacent look on his face. It's clear that he has something he really wants to say.
"I went out to get something. More importantly, did you find out something about your ability? Seeing the smug plastered on your face… I guess you have"
"Oho! You guessed it right! I did find something out. I found out that my body is enhanced after activating it!" Rick proudly said.
"Oh, good… And then what?"
"Huh? What what?" Rick's confidence shattered after hearing Will ask a strange question.
"Then what? What can you do with your ability turned on?" Will knows that fact right off the bat while exploring Rick's body a while ago. The energy couldn't be manipulated directly, however, it seems like it enhances something in Rick that will make him able to do amazing feats. Will suspects that since the energy houses within Rick's joints, onto his bones and muscles, Rick might just be able to have strength far superior to regular humans or something like that. Just like any other kid, Will is naturally exposed to fiction and knows a lot about superheroes and superpowers. He's anticipating what Rick could do now that he unlocked his hidden ability.
"That, I still haven't found out about..." Rick now realizes that Will is expecting for more, making him feel quite ashamed. Will probably knows what himself knows already.
"I tried lifting the table but it doesn't seem to be super strength. It feels just the same… nothing changed. But I can feel something different about my body okay! I feel it in my bones! My body is enhanced!" Rick is very frustrated not having super strength. He was a fan of strength since he was young.
Will, thinks for himself hearing that and suddenly had a realization. "Since the energy is focused on your joints, you must be incredibly flexible now. While the energy spreads to your bones and muscles without increasing their mass, not giving you super strength. Maybe you could do rapid movements now? Super speed instead?"
"That makes sense!" Rick directly agrees with Will's logic. Rick flicks his hands as fast as he can and then, the sensation feels a lot more different from usual. His whole body vibrates and his hands are making buzzing sounds, moving so fast that only blurred images could be seen. "This is incredible! I have super speed! This way no zombies could catch up to me!"
"Great! I was right in bringing you along. We could rescue my mom sooner if I utilize your speed properly…" Will pull the item he brought along from somewhere outside and place it in front of his face.
It's a mobile phone he found in the possession of one of the bodies lying around. While he's at it, he also destroyed their brains one by one before they could turn into zombies. Will opened a social media app and immediately found the live stream broadcast of his mother's colleague since it's trending at the top spot on the platform right now.
"What do you mean utilize?..."
"As expected, they already noticed us from the CCTV. They're clearing up the hallway leading down the stairs. We should go now"
Will softly wake Tom up and tells him that he will meet his mother soon. Then, just like a superhero, they would go home victorious.
"Dad… How are you lifting that cabinet like that?" Will is about to call his father when he catches a strange scene. His father is carrying up the cabinet as large as him against the wall with only one finger of each hand.
"It's light. It really is light! My son, are you seeing this?" Liam is as amazed as the others.
"Wow, uncle! I'm so jealous, you ended up having the super strength?!" Rick instantly disappears and reappears next to Liam, bringing along a strong breeze of wind. This causes the cabinet to wobble like it's made out of cardboard boxes.
"No, no... It's more complex than that. Dad appears to be able to change the weight of the object he's touching…" Will could tell from his perceptive ability.
Liam put the cabinet back on the floor and it only makes a light sound. "You see, I was holding a surgical knife that I found and kept as an alternative weapon. Next, I became very frustrated since I couldn't figure out my ability. I tried various things with no result, but then I realized that the knife suddenly becomes heavier to lift"
"Dad, this is amazing! Even mom is very amazed right now!" Will holds the phone up and shows everyone the ruckus at the monitoring room that's being live broadcast. His mom and the others are monitoring their every move from the second they entered the building. Seeing Rick appear and disappear, Liam lift a cabinet, or even Will fight outside earlier must have been shocking for them.
"Amazing! These people are amazing! They must be here to save us! Claire, they're your family, right? How are they doing that?" Clair's colleague behind the camera is causing the most chaos.
"Let's hurry to the second floor. They're anticipating us for quite a while now!" With that, Will and the others head to the stairs up to the second floor.
Their group only encountered one zombie and dealt with it easily and finally regrouped with Clair and the other survivors on the second floor.
On the rooftop of the hospital building. A young boy is watching the zombies littering around the perimeter on the ground. Wearing a hospital gown, his pale and pinkish collar peeks from the fabric of the loose neckline when the cool evening breeze hit them. His glossy black hair softly sways on his fair forehead and tickled it. The sun slowly hiding behind the mountains left an orange afterglow illuminating the boy's amber eyes, accentuating its luster. The boy's whole countenance is picturing a fairy-like image. If others could only see him, they would be left in awe right at this very moment.
"Black, what do you think happened?..." A winged reptile, the size of a cat sits on his shoulder with its eyes closed. When it hears the boy's words, it only sways its long thorny tail hanging across the boy's back. A peculiar scene of a fairy and a dragon in one frame.
This boy is a resident in a private suite on the top floor of this hospital. He has always been sickly and needs constant medical attention since he was young so he basically lives at this hospital.
When the zombies suddenly started appearing in the building, the boy survived because of the protection of the nurses he is very close to.
Going back a bit to that time.
An elevator bringing along five zombies was released to their floor and causing chaos. It immediately spread since many nurses tried to help the injured people not knowing that they would turn into man-eating monsters soon.
"Ari, what is happening outside? Can you hear that?" A beautiful boy on the bed reading a book asks a young female nurse who's fixing up the wrappers of the medication and a glass of water on a tray.
"Maybe a patient is being hard to handle?" The nurse smiles softly.
The nurse went on her way to put away the used objects and perhaps gossip about what is going on. However, down the hall, the chaos is only getting stronger and stronger. Death screams and exclamation filled with fear fills the whole floor.
Later, the boy's nurse whom he already regards as a family came into the room and informs him about the dangers that are about to come.
During this, a man with bulging veins all over his body suddenly grabs a nurse waiting for them by the door. The nurse struggled and bashed the man with a metal cane on his shoulder however, not feeling any pain, the man continues acting violently.
Another nurse grab a utility table and hit the violent man with it and place it between him and the attacked nurse.
"Sean, we have to go! Come on, can you run for a bit?"
The boy nod and went along with the nurses. However, along the way, Aria, the nurse was grabbed by a zombie. Seeing this, Sean's ability activated at the last moment. A dragon from his imagination materialized with a concentration of his energy and pounced on the zombie before it could bite Aria.
Their group successfully escaped to the rooftop. Never again went down since then.
"I still can't believe you become real Black. A month ago I started seeing you however, the others couldn't. I even had to get checked by the therapist and a CT scan… You were too real for me and I still keep seeing you even after any medication. It's because you're real all along…"
"Sean! Great news! Some amazing people are in the building right now and rescuing the survivors on the second floor. We have to tell them that we're here and ask for help. Those loud explosions earlier must have been caused by one of them. Come on look!" Aria scoots over to Sean, showing her phone to him.
"Wow. I still can't get over that you have a dragon friend. We all got so worried when you started describing detailed stories about him and thought you're suffering from a mental disorder…" Aria scrutinizes the small dragon on Sean's shoulder. The texture and reflection of its scales are as real as they could be. Its movement doesn't seem to be animated and could only be described as alive and an actual being.
"Thank you so much for saving me back then Black…" Aria wants to pat the small dragon however, it blocks her hands from getting too close with its long tail.
Sean watches the live stream and witnesses two boys about his age and an adult man holding a toddler meeting with a group of survivors.
"They're a group of one man and kids, why are the other survivors celebrating too much?..." Sean doesn't see them as amazing as what Aria said. They don't seem to belong to the military. They don't even have many items with them, probably fewer weapons too.
"They're amazing! I saw it as well as the others… I know it's hard to believe, I still doubt it even after seeing it myself. But zombies already appeared and your dragon friend turned out to be real too so I'm really open about anything right now... This cute boy's hands were glowing and were doing something to the other two earlier. The man who seems to be the father lifted a heavy cabinet by himself, and the most notable one is the other boy. I don't know if it's just the camera glitches but he could appear and reappear everywhere! It was too surprising when the CCTV couldn't capture him when he was moving from one place to another… We have contacts with the other nurses and doctors down there and Jessi is talking with them about our situation right now. We only need to hear their response to our rescue request"
"Is that so? That's great… However, the situation all over the town isn't any different from ours… Where should we go?" It's already dark and dangerous all over the town right now. Their situation isn't as optimistic as Aria's tone.
The origin of the zombie outbreak comes from a certain mountain near the town. From within an undiscovered cave, dark energy surged forth from the depth of the earth. The surrounding living creatures after being exposed got corrupted by it and transformed into horrifying undead. These undead creatures were left undiscovered for weeks since no human has been going to this part of the mountain for the longest time. These uncontrollable creatures corrupted the ecosystem and spread rapidly to the whole mountain.
The nearby farming villages felt something strange has been going on with the mountain. The old folks in the villages are superstitious and claim that it was done by a curse which the younger generation naturally doesn't believe. The other residents just brushed them off as rabies. While they became cautious, they never prepared enough for what was about to come.
Few villages around the mountain became villages of zombies overnight. These kinds of villages usually have more elderly who loves the farmer's life while the younger generation went to the town where there are more opportunities to pave the path of their desired life. Leaving the villages with only a few able bodies.
Another problem is that the villagers used to farm life are a bit uneducated when it comes to the zombies that no one naturally even expected to begin with. The zombie invasion was only known to the public a few days later when a hiker was corrupted by the miasma and was miraculously able to go back to the town, only then turned into a zombie to spread the outbreak. Such coincidence must be the play of fate.
All settlements closer to the mountain have the worst situation right now. When the government got a hold of this information, they immediately moved to prioritize and focus on gathering as much personnel and ammunition as they can in a small time frame.
Seeing the scale and momentum of the outbreak, the authorities could only unanimously make the hard decision of sealing the whole area off from the nearby cities and other towns before the outbreak could spread any further.
The borders on the nearby city and other towns are strictly refusing the fleeing residents from the infected town causing chaos and cries for mercy. The president of the nation personally announced the declaration of martial law publicly right this day for the first time in the last nine decades. Suspending the normal civil rights of the citizens and heightening the authority of the military. Everyone must strictly abide by the new regulations set up by the authorities to control the sudden zombie outbreak.
Unfortunately, official rescue is still a long way from saving the town for the time being, and there's a possibility that it wouldn't happen at all.
"Honey, Will, Tom!... A-and Rick too! You're safe!" Claire run down the flight of stair as fast as the wind and pounce at her husband.
Liam seeing his wife practically flying at him put Tom down and catches her with open arms.
"I lost my phone while running to safety, but as soon as I borrow someone else's and call you, you weren't answering! I was so worried…" Clair sobs and then check her husband's constitution. Seeing some blood stains on him, she worries once again.
"I'm sorry honey. Don't cry I'm here now. I and our sons are safe"
"I know… come on upstairs. It's too dark down here"
The survivor's faces show their gladness when they finally meet Will's group.
They exchange information and help each other create a plan for their next course of action. The man with his daughter in a hospital gown seems to have mastered military intelligence and is leading them.
Their first problem and the most crucial one right now is solid and liquid consumption to supplement their health and energy. They don't know for how long they will be stuck here and can't just wait for the military to take action since they might not come any time soon. Leaving themselves hungry will leave them having no energy, and they might not be able to act accordingly when the crucial situation calls for it.
"Um… Mr. Sampson, a colleague of mine called just now. There are other survivors on the rooftop watching us from the live broadcast. They're asking for help… what should we do?" A nurse meekly informs the Leading man of their group.
"Are they properly sealed and safe?"
"Yes. I think so… for now at least"
David Sampson considers the info about their current situation and as expected, they shouldn't venture and save others hastily. Since the ones on their rooftop must be in a safer location than them, they should prioritize their own first.
It seems like everyone could still go on without eating for now, but sooner or later, they would reach the limits of the human body without consumption. Especially the liquid water that their bodies deeply need. They should act now while they still can.
David picks the able men and women and then hands them roles. Some are given the task to search for any food or water nearby, some are tasked to search for possible things that could be utilized as weapons, while a few are to act as lookouts near the barricade leading to the upper floors and the windows to monitor the situation outside.
"It's too dark right now. We don't know whether the zombies would be attracted to light but we don't have another choice but to try. The visuals given to us by the CCTVs aren't enough to proceed with our plans faultlessly. There might still be zombies lurking down the halls. Does anyone have a flashlight? We could do a simple test on the zombies outside"
"I have one…" Will put down his backpack and take out a small flashlight. Then, Will hurriedly closed the bag before anyone else could see what was inside.
Will have some emergency rations but they're exclusively for his family's use. It's not certain that they will be able to get food immediately, and if they did, will it be enough for the fifty-plus survivors? He needs to prioritize his family's needs first before these strangers he basically met for three minutes.
David silently stares at him. It looks like he noticed that there is some food in the bag but it seems that he won't ask for it unreasonably. He simply stands up after receiving the item and then tests the beam of the flashlight to see the reaction of the zombies on the ground.
"It was right to be cautious about this. The nearby zombies are gathering towards the light…" David mutters as he watches the zombies acting like madmen towards the beam of light projecting on the ground. Will peers down on them silently as well.
The others also start arriving one by one to see the situation outside the window and exclaim their worries with troubled faces.
"You're a decent person… I know you have a few questions regarding me and my family. I could tell you a few since what I want the most right now is to keep my family and friend safe. I need more helping hands to keep it stay like that..."
David looks at Will with mysterious eyes. "You're very mature for your age…"
"I get that a lot" Will replied nonchalantly.
"Your group seems to be able to do mysterious things. I'm not sure about you and that little kid but I can feel you're nothing simple too… are you going to talk about it?"
David's sharp intuition and decision-making ability amaze Will, making him want to depend on him more. It's not like Will wants to monopolize the knowledge about the matters regarding abilities and how to awaken them. But Will initially decided before all of this not to carelessly dissipate this information for it might land in the wrong hands. Many things can be done when you have superior power after all.
Especially now at the crucial time when the normal ordinance won't reach them. Even conscience might not even have an effect on a person's psyche since it's a matter of one's life and death. Just like himself, Will knows that a person can become as selfish as possible to keep himself and his precious ones protected.
But as for David, Will is confident that it wouldn't be the case like that. David just seems to be enshrouded by a heroic aura.
With that, Will tells that every person has abilities and there's a possibility that it might awaken. However, he could awaken them with his ability even faster. David calmly listening is as still as water on the lake. Will have no idea what he's thinking.
"I don't know what's the exact effect of your ability since I've only encountered a few awakened ones. I still don't have that many bases to judge it. But I can tell that yours have peculiar properties to it… So, what do you want to happen? As you know having more with abilities increases our survival. Plus, there's no reason for you to deny this opportunity to possess your own exclusive weapon"
David side-eyes Will and then heaves a sigh.
"What? I can tell you're convinced. What's stopping you?"
"It's not about that. You're a very strange one. I'm trying to see if I can actually trust you…"
"Is that so?... I've never been called strange once. But let me tell you. You can trust me since we have a common interests. We both have something we need to protect… Come on. You know we're racing against time"
David just laughs and then walks towards an empty room. Will follows along and tells his family that he has something to discuss with David privately. They're not stupid. They know right away that David is a trustworthy person and knows exactly what Will is going to do, so they let him go without asking much.
After a long while, David came out of the room and now is an ability user as well. With this, they could make flexible improvements to their plan.
"Does anyone here desperately needs some water? The looting team only found a few so you need to understand that we need to conserve them and only consume a little at a time. For the time being, I'm going to make a special team to go to the canteen on the west annex and bring food as much as we can. The western annex is still full of zombies. But you shouldn't worry. We have a group, well, a family of amazing people with strange abilities as you already know, and guess what? So as every single one of you. There's a chance that you will awaken them if only you believe in yourself. Protect yourselves and never forget this. You dying to the zombies means more trouble for us survivors!" David left a dark humor at the end of his speech to ease the tension of the others. This makes them laugh albeit confused about the part where David talks about abilities. However, these people could believe even the most absurd nonsense that might come out of David's mouth right now. That's how much they believe in him.
Except for one person. A teenage girl glares at him with loath overflowing from her eyes as if she's cursing him. Most of the time, she just sits on the corner by herself and wouldn't listen to anybody else.
Claire notice the girl's anger and could only watch her from a distance with sympathy. Although it was very cruel to leave her brother in a coma back then, they couldn't make any hasty moves. Most of them were panicking and in no right frame of mind. The other floors have a lot of people injured from getting bitten by the zombies and there's no telling when they would turn into one too. They could only watch as all the other people on other floors slowly get killed and turn into zombies.
The teenage girl already stopped watching the monitors as soon as the zombies invaded the fourth floor. Too scared to see them reach the floor where her brother is located. She doesn't even know if he's still alive.
Once she finally calms down a little, she realized that they could have gone and gotten her brother and bring him to this safe place seeing the relatively moderate rate of the zombies infecting speed down the floors. She realized she left her poor unconscious brother alone and selfishly saved herself first. Her guilt-ridden heart couldn't handle it and channeled it into anger toward David. An obviously capable man who could have helped her get her brother, but just didn't want to, to save his own ass.
The other survivor could sympathize with her but to be honest, her brother would still be a dead man anyway. With all the complicated situations that happened, bringing her brother here while keeping all his life support wouldn't guarantee he would still be okay. Plus, if they did succeed and brought him here, her brother would still just be a dead weight. A lot of the survivors here also have some of their acquaintances or friends who are now walking dead. So, they didn't really want to deal with her any longer.
David's special team to go to the canteen consists exclusively of Will's team to be expected. The ability users have the highest chance to succeed in the mission without suffering from any unexpected setbacks. David is reluctant about bringing the five years old Tom, but after hearing what he is capable of, he could only resign to himself and bring this small powerhouse with them.
"Okay, ready? Let's go as planned!"
End of chapter