Jack’s POV
I reluctantly released Sam from my arms, and asked him if we could talk, he nodded his head in agreement and sat on his bed, I really wanted to sit next to him but I figured that I already scared him more than enough with all this drama that I have made, and I was thankful that he accepted to talk to me in the first place, and I didn’t want to push my luck any further so I sat on a chair next to his bed.
Sam looked nervous and restless, he glanced at his phone and said “I think you should start talking so you can go back to your house quickly, I heard there is a bad storm approaching, so it’s going to be dangerous very soon to be outside.”
At that point, I was 100% sure that he knows about the apocalypse, but not sure how much does he know about it because he was a zombie, and I was not sure if he turned directly from the shard or if it has happened later, so I decided to be honest with him about the apocalypse, and lie - for the time being - about how I know him, so I cleared my throat and started talking “So, by storm, you mean the zombie apocalypse, right?”
He tilted his head a little and looked a little surprised and confused, he kept quiet and I think he was contemplating whether he should lie or not, finally, he nodded his head hesitantly, so I continued “Can you tell me, what do you remember about it? Oh, and by the way, you can remove the sunglasses; I already know that you are a zombie.”
As I said that I prepared myself to catch him if he tried to run, and make sure to convince him that I mean him no harm, but strangely enough, all he said was a soft ”Oh” then he removed the sunglasses and looked at me with a sad expression before asking “So, after our talk is over, are you going to kill me again?”
I looked at him terrified, I would rather kill myself than do that again, I shook my head violently and said quickly “Of course not, why would I do that?”
He kept looking at me with the same sad expression and said “Ok, to answer your question, I remember everything about the apocalypse.”
I looked at him with shock clearly shown in my face, what did he mean by he remembers everything? Wasn’t he a zombie? When did he become a zombie?
Before I could think anymore, he gave me a faint sad smile and talked again “Since you know about the apocalypse, I’m guessing that you came back in time too.”
I just nodded, so he continued “In the original timeline, oh, that’s what I named the period of time before I came back in time.” he chuckled embarrassed so I smiled at him.
‘I really want to eat those lips of his’ I thought while staring at his lips, before pulling my thoughts back to the topic and encouraged “A suitable name indeed, I guess I will call it that too.”
He smiled and said “That will make it easier, so, as I was saying, in the original timeline when I opened the door for you, a shard fell from the sky directly into my heart, which from what I gathered was the source of the virus, so it was like I took a super dose of the virus, I’m guessing that made me somewhat different than other zombies.”
I looked at him confused then asked him “What do you mean by different?”
He sighed and answered “It will take a lot of time to explain everything, to sum it up, even though I don’t know how much exactly the other zombies can remember about what happened or what they did, I can remember everything, from the first day of the apocalypse until I died, even though I didn’t have full control over my actions during the first a few years.”
I could see the pain and regret on his beautiful face, which pained my heart to no end, but since we didn't have much time I couldn’t ask about all those details, so, I went straight to the point and asked him “What are you planning to do?”
He kept quiet for a minute or so before replying “I’m not sure, the only thing I’m sure about is that, I’m not going to stay here in this city again.”
I wondered what he lived through during the original timeline, I could see on his face how much he was hurt and broken, ‘I couldn’t be with him last time, but I’m sure as hell that I will make it different this time, I must make sure that we will meet again soon since I can’t take him with me as he is now.’
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I rearranged my thoughts, looked at him and said “Well, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Jack Ross, I live nearby, but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore with the apocalypse coming, my father is a general in the military, he is responsible for the base in ‘A’ city, so I have to go back to the military base before they drag me there again.”
I smiled faintly at the thought then continued “Anyhow, as we both know, starting today and for the next week or so the city will be dangerous for both, humans and zombies. I suggest that you stay at your house for the first week, and by the end of the week, most humans in the city will be dead or already left, so it will be easier for you to move freely in the city.”
He nodded his head slowly so I continued “Try to find something to make you look more human-like, especially your eyes, so you can disguise yourself as a survivor and come with me. Even if you looked a little different nobody will ever think that you are a zombie. We will meet again after ten days near the woods, keep this walkie-talkie with you, it has a ten kilometers radius, I’ll contact you again on the tenth day.” I finished speaking and gave him a walkie-talkie.
He hesitated a little before taking it; he then looked at me in the eyes and asked me seriously “Why would you do that for me? Why would you help me this much?”
He looked confuse and full of doubts, so I tried to find the most logical thing I could think of to convince him and replied in a serious tone “Well, two hands are better than one hand, you have already experienced the apocalypse before so I’m sure you have so many important information and experiences that you can help me with, also, you can go to dangerous places full of zombies with ease and I think you are strong, so it’s a win-win situation for both of us.”
He looked at the ground thinking for a moment, while I was praying that he would believe these reasons that I gave him, suddenly, he stood up with a faint smile on his face and offered his hand for me to shake, I took his hand and shook it happily, as I heard him saying gently “You got yourself a deal.”
We talked for a few more minutes and made some more arrangements before I had to reluctantly excuse myself. I headed to the door and waited for a minute until I saw the fucking sun was turning blue, and just as I thought, the shard that was supposed to hit Sam didn’t fall this time around, I cursed Leo and made my way to my car.
On the way to my car, I turned my head to look at the apartment one last time with a smile on my lips, happy that everything went well with Sam. Just as I turned again to continue walking, a pair of strong hands dragged me to a military car, I rolled my eyes at them and thought ‘Here we go again.’
Since I wasn’t in shock this time around, I decided to play dumb and started to make conversations and asking about the situation and what was happening and faking fear. Don’t judge me, if I act calm and happy while the sun is blue over my head, they will label me as crazy.
I faked freaking out a little and then pulled my knees to my chest and put my face on my knees and covered it with my arms, I could hear them pitying me, while all I really was doing was trying to take a short nap, like I said, don’t judge me, I was tired.
It took us more than two hours to reach the base, there was chaos everywhere, people were afraid of the change in the sun’s color. It will take between four to six hours after the infection to turn into a zombie, so it was still safe, we still had about two hours before the zombies start to appear.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell them to take precautions, not that it would help much anyway, but something might be better than nothing, however, nobody was going to believe me and they would think that the sun affected my head and turned me crazy, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and play along.
I tried to follow what I did during the original timeline, so I went to the same room and shut myself in, planning my next move and of course, I didn’t forget to search for Sam’s file in the computer and printed out his photo once more, for safekeeping purposes *cough, cough*, anyhow, after about two hours or so, the screams and shouts started, I looked from the window to see how bad it was, I watched for a few minutes and decided to wait.
When the chaos reached its peak, I sneaked out of the room; I could see blood and body parts a few meters away from my door, I collected some guns and ammo from dead soldiers lying on the floor and put them in my space-storage.
I turned the corner and saw some zombies eating a screaming soldier, I could see the tears in his terrified eyes, I waved my hand and sent a wind blade to his throat killing him instantly, after that I killed the three zombies and collected and stored all the guns and ammo they were carrying.
I kept a gun in my hand in case I ran into some soldiers because it was going to look unnatural to walk unarmed in a situation like that at that period of time, it was going to take about a week or so for the first ability user to appear, so for that time, gun it was.
I kept going until I reached the warehouses, I opened a food warehouse and collected everything inside it, after that, I went out and closed its door again, then I used my fire ability to melt the locks to make sure that nobody would be able to open it, after all, in the middle of the chaos no one has the time to try and open damaged doors, so they might look less suspicious in situations like those.
I went from one warehouse to the next one, I collected food, ammo, arms, everything I found I stored in my space-storage, of course, I kept a few warehouses so the military can take some supplies with them when they leave the base.
After I finished all the things I planned to do, I sneaked back to the room and waited for my father’s orders to leave the base, which would be around ten at night.