Chapter 4 - In the City

As I walked out of the forest I walked in a random direction hoping to find a place to bunk for the night.

'I really should have thought about this before leaving.'

I continued walking until I found a city. It was in ruins, random cars were everywhere, some lit a blaze, parts of the walls of the houses and stores were destroyed.

And then I heard growling coming from an alleyway. I turned my head to see a bipedal wolf next to a corpse of a woman dismembered and pieces of the corpse seemed to be missing.

It charged at me with its sharp claws and teeth.

Ever since the apocalypse started everyday I had at least one fight so I at least knew how to do basic combat.

I sidestepped, evading the attack. I grabbed the side of its head and pushed it down then I activated my ability by burning its head. However that wasn't enough to kill it so it got back up pushing me away causing me to tumble quite a bit.

Half its face was charred and parts of its fur was still on fire. It ignored the fire on its face and charged at me. I tried the same strategy but this time it knew what was gonna happen. It swiped at me creating scratch marks on my chest so I had also dropped the egg off the floor, luckily it was durable or else it would have been broken.

"Not the first time something like this has happened." I muttered.

I grabbed a random metal pipe on the floor and heated up the tip of the pipe making it extremely hot.

This time I ran at it with the pipe in hand slamming it right on the top of the head. It backed away and its movement became wobbly like it was drunk. I took advantage of this and continued hitting it in the abdomen, head, and legs. Finishing it off with a point blank to the face, grab while using my ability burning it and killing it due to built up injuries.

I walked forward, grabbing the egg, and began walking.

On the way I encountered different monsters, many in various sizes and abilities. Most were easy to deal with as I avoided the stronger ones.

  I walked around until I saw a supermarket.

  'Might as well check if there's scraps.' Every scrap of food mattered in the apocalypse.

  As I entered I saw rows of isles seemingly empty. There were carts everywhere, some flipped over. There was a strange scent in the air as I walked by hoping to see a part of the store unlooted. Then I heard music, it was some type of japanese music and it didn't sound human.

  "What is that?" I pondered as I muttered.

  Deciding to find the source I walked towards the storage area.

  'Wait, this area should also have supplies that weren't stocked on the shelves yet.' I happily thought.

  I ran into the room but then I tripped over some string, falling forward. I tried to get up but then purple gas filled the room. My body felt an indescribable type of tiredness.

  'Sleeping gas?'

I then fell back down and before knocking out I saw someone in a trench coat, with a gas mask. I woke up to see myself hanging upside down from a metal beam in an unknown warehouse. There was a gag in my mouth and my hands were cuffed behind my back.

  I tried to burn the handcuff hoping that maybe it would melt but I knew it wouldn't.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you." An unknown voice echoed from a speaker next to me. "You see, you've been hanging there for about two hours. I think your head should be hurting by now."

  As they said that I felt throbbing in my head that caused me slight discomfort

  "You see this egg of yours interests me, so if you tell me where you got it from, I'll let you be on your merry way out of here. Without the egg of course. Who knows if it's the only one."

  I stayed silent as I waited for them to realize.

  "Oh yeah, I forget to ungag you"

  A rope dropped down from the roof, and the same person who wore the gas mask. They walked towards me and used a gloved hand to take the gag off my mouth.

  "Now speak." It seemed as if they had a voice changer.

  They seemed to only be 5'4. Their entire body seemed to be either obscured from view or covered in cloth.

  "What are you staring at." I didn't know if they were angry or embarrassed due to the voice changer. "Now tell me, where did you find this egg."

  " I won't be saying a thing."

  "If you won't respond, I will have to use other methods to make you speak. I'll give you three seconds."

  "Fine." I said, "On one condition, you let me down."

  "I'm the one keeping you captive, what right do you have to make deals?"

  "I'll kill myself by biting my tongue and in the end you wouldn't know where I found the egg."

  "I would still have the egg so it wouldn't be much of a loss so go. Do it. I don't believe you have the courage to."

  'They saw through my bluff. I'll have to use Plan B then.'

  "What if I say I have a treasure map that can only be revealed by my superpower."

  "I'm listening." The clothed person responded with their ears perking up.

  "Let me down and uncuff me and I'll show you it."

  "Seems fair to me, but remember I can easily dispense that sleeping gas again if you try anything weird. This place is also closed off so don't even think about escaping."

  The clothed person started to untie me, letting me down. As I sat down the headache spiked but faded minutes later. During that time they also uncuffed me.

  "Now show me the map. I've given you enough time to recover from your headache." They demanded.

I put my arm out and an orange light started to appear from it.

"Oh is it appea-"

  Before they could even finish their sentence I thrusted my palm into their face doing a point-blank blast of fire. They stumbled backwards revealing a charred and teared mask. White skim could be seen through the cracks.

  "You ba-"

  I cut them off again and I punched them in the gut. Causing a groan escaped their mouth. I continued to beat them using some occasional fire punches or kicks, causing even more teared and charred pieces of clothing.

  "YOU SON OF A-"

  I punched them in the face pushing them back onto the ground.

  "You really need to know how to shut up." I stared at their covered face.

  "You know what screw this." Then greenish gas started to flow from their wrist.

  They seemed to have the power to produce and control gasses.

  'Is that poison?'

  To be safe I decided to take a deep breath before holding it.

  'Wait it's a gas with chemicals right? I should be able to do "that".'

  Heat flared from my wrists as the fire came in contact with the gas.

  BOOM CRACKLE CRACKLE

  The cloud of gas exploded sending both of us backwards in opposite directions. I crashed into a shipping container behind me hurting my back. The arm that came in contact with the explosion was bloody and charred.

  'Damn it. Seems like I won't be using this arm for a while.'

  I put it inside one of my pockets in my jacket so it can rest in there.

  I tried to peer through the smoke hoping to see the figure.

  "That really hurt Mr. Flame."

  As the smoke dispersed there was a girl with violet hair, purple eyes, short figure, with pure white skin.

  'She compares to the members of Jake's harem, but that doesn't matter right now.'

  I walked towards her preparing to fight.

  "Oh, want to hit a lady like me even more, how dastardly."

  "Just because you're a girl doesn't mean I can't kick your ass."

  "Oh what are you gonna do, beat me with that single arm of yours?"

  That's when I noticed it. There were no injuries on her except a few bruises and scratches. Only the injuries from me punching and kicking her were visible.

  'Are you serious? How strong is she? It might be better to run.' I decided to try to find the egg and dip.

  I looked around the room hoping to see it. There it was in the corner of the warehouse, the black scaled egg. I dashed towards it.

  "Oh you're not stealing the egg away from me now." The girl appeared in front of me, in between me and the egg.

  I ran towards her trying to throw a punch.

  "I won't be getting beaten up now. Here have a smell of my new product. A pink gas went up my nose as I inhaled it in.

  'Crap. That was a bad idea.'

My head started to feel light headed as I saw four identical versions of the girl.

  "Now it's your turn to figure out which one is me." She roared as all of them rushed at me.