I got a bit of a haul from my neighbors. I had an increase in my ramen reserves, bringing my total up to 20, a couple more water bottle packs, a pack of cigarettes, some beer bottles, and, ooh! some ground beef. I found it in a mini freezer alongside the beer, and I also found some chip packets. I reckon I could survive a week with my supplies if I used them carefully.

As much as I want to stay here in my home forever, I don't have the luxury to. I want to find out what happened to the world; where did these zombies come from? Are there people like me that survived? If so, where are they? So many questions yet no answers. To get those answers, I have to step outside and find them.

Even if I don't want those answers, the zombies probably won't leave me in peace; someday there is going to be a zombie or, God forbid, multiple zombies that are going to pass by my house, and when they see me, they're going to want to know how I taste. And despite all those issues, there is one even bigger than them, FOOD! I can't exactly make food out of thin air.

So I have to go and seek out food; the best place would be to go to the store. The store is just down the street, left to my apartment. Even though it's close, there are bound to be some zombies around the store.

It's best if I have a better weapon than my bloody pan, and secondly, I need to have some medical equipment for emergencies. Too bad I don't have something to make a proper bludgeoning weapon out of, or would a sharp weapon do as well. In the movies, a zombie wouldn't go down as long as its head remained intact. I'll have to test that theory, but at least I can make some cloth armor to protect me from the disease.

I collected various fabrics from my neighbors, and I'm now covered head to toe with a makeshift cloth armor. This should protect me from the disease. It's about time I head out now... I can do this; I already killed two zombies; what's a few more, right? anyway.

I also had myself a makeshift cloth bag in order to carry stuff in case there isn't a bag at the store. I also cleaned my own carefully; I would've liked to clean it more properly, but I had neither the time nor the resources. I had brought my kitchen knife to test my theory on the first zombie I found; hopefully it would be a success.

I removed the leaning mattress from the guardrails and put it back as I stepped down on the stairs. When my feet started to make noise, I tried to walk more silently and finally reach the end. Looking around both ways, there was one zombie facing the other way on the left side of the apartment. Ahead of the zombies, there were loads of zombies at the North West of the apartment, apparently fighting each other and well eating too.

I took out my knife, held it with both hands, and got close to the zombie; it was hunching; it's back there looking around and sniffing repeatedly. It started walking ahead; I quickly got close to it; it started turning its head, but a second too late as I had pierced its forehead with my knife.

As it let out some moans and started to fall. I had concluded that my test had succeeded. I was growing concerned for myself. I had started looking at people as just zombies, something to kill. I was losing my sympathy for them. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I gotta focus or I'll get killed. I started walking ahead and heard chewing and groans with moans.

Shivers went down my spine. I walked slowly towards the source of the sounds. I peeked from outside of the alleway and saw a slightly obese, bloody zombie eating the legs of a human. The zombies face was bloody; it kept on chewing; it bit off huge pieces as if to swallow them whole. What was strange about it was that it didn't eat the clothes, only the flesh, and even from the flesh it left out something. It showcased a degree of intelligence that the previous zombies didn't have—no wait, the third zombie! It was sniffing and was hunched down on purpose.

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How did I miss that? They aren't mindless. Then why were those ones from before so different? They acted as if they were dazed like ZOMBIES! but these ones show animal-like behavior. The third zombie was acting as if it were hunting.

The realization dawned on me: they are slowly becoming intelligent! But why weren't the first ones like them? Is it a time thing? Were they zombies not long enough? My future is getting more bleak by the second. Calm down; I'll deal with things one at a time. I stepped inside the alleyway, careful not to make any noise.

I made my way towards the back of the zombie; slowly but surely I got there. The zombie did freeze up sometimes, scaring the hell out of me. Turns out it was... I didn't exactly know what it was doing; it just sometimes stared at the flesh in annoyance and then stopped eating a part of that flesh, but when it was done eating that part, it would eat the part it didn't like. Either it was smart enough to make minor plans like that or it was just that hungry. No matter what it was? It did not let me have peace in my mind; pessimistic thoughts kept popping up in my mind about how I'm certainly doomed, but I tried to ignore them every time.

When I finally got behind it, I took a deep breath in and raised the slightly bloody knife above my head and lodged it deep inside the zombie at the left corner of its skull. The zombie went down with a silent grunt, but it's death didn't give me the peace I wanted. There probably are thousands, no, tens of thousands, of zombies just like this one. What am I going to do?! When I don't even know how the virus transmits.

Calm down, Aiden, clutching my head with both hands and closing my eyes. I inhaled and exhaled slowly and repeatedly to calm myself down. After regaining some peace in my mind by not thinking of my possible short future, I... noticed something.

I noticed that everything was outlined with some sort of transparent color, something that if I didn't actively look for it, I wouldn't find it.

Observing this spectacle, I completely forgot about my bleak future. The dead zombies were also outlined like everything else was. I went towards the zombie I just killed, beside it the remaining piece of foot it was muching in before, and then saw the outline from up close—it's so... strange. Amazed, I tried to look even closer at the foot, but finally, I gave up my determination for not getting in contact with zombies and tried to touch the outline. A decision I came to regret as I got hit by a sudden headache.

"ARRGH! groaning painfully, I clutched my mind with both hands, letting the pan fall to the ground. It took a few moments in reality, but for me it felt like hours. Admit all of the pain; I got a few visions and a huge load of information in my head.

I looked towards the area where the remaining foot that I touched was, but it was nowhere to be found. The visions were of exactly that foot. The vision showed me everything about it; I had seen and even now see the piece of flesh in my mind, but it was different than my thoughts, imagination, or memories.

It was like a 3D model of that flesh piece; it appeared way too real to be my imagination. Did I manage to absorb it or something? I played around with it, and eventually I tried to focus on it so it would get out of my head, then something wet plopped in front of me.

I opened my eyes startled; in front of me was the same missing, half-eaten piece of foot. A bit of blood also dropped on my clothes. Did... I do that? Am I hallucinating? Carefully I touched the piece of flesh, but as soon as I felt it, I quickly took my hand back. I stared at the piece of flesh. Oh my God. I really made that appear, whispering to myself.

I only imagined it to be normal like the other copy of itself, but instead it appeared in front of me. I still have it inside of my mind with nothing changed. What exactly did I do? Did I somehow store it in my mind and bring it back? No, that can't be it because I still have it in my mind with nothing changed, or did I make a copy of it appear? I tried to repeat what I did that caused it to appear, and something dropped right at the same place.

The possibilities are endless with this. Where did this ability come from? Since when could I do this? So many more questions that just pop up by the minute, but they remain unanswered.

However I got these powers doesn't really matter in my situation; I might just really survive in this world. With this ability, I reckon my food problem should be gone, that is, if this ability is as good as I think it is, which it probably isn't, but still, I now have hope in this hopeless world.