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The computer room didn't have exactly what I wanted. That being said, I also checked the supplies we brought in. It was another failure to turn up something that could turn into top of the line pc.

That being said, it was still a bright day. I made my way back up to my room just in time to grab something to eat. Well, I ate with the girls and watched this kind of girly drama about this unpopular girl trying to find her way in university. Not something I would have preferred to eat and watch but oh well.

After I finished eating, I slipped on my vest and pistol belt.

"Are you going out?" Riley asked as she paused the TV drama.

"Yes, just going to take a look at some PC parts. Nothing too big." I said after checking the clips.

"Why just wait for all of us to go as a group?" Riley asks like an obedient citizen.

"Well, one. I can move faster alone. Two, I decided to quit being an enforcer." I retorted.

"All because they removed you from being supreme leader, you are going to run solo? Isn't this just throwing a tantrum? Trying to show them how much they need you?" Riley snapped.

"That actually hasn't crossed my mind. I just don't feel like doing things for the group if I don't have to. Before, I needed to go out because it influenced others to do the same. Now I can do as I pleased, which is what I'm about to do." I countered.

"So are you still going to give up on the group? The enforcers?" Riley continued pestering me.

"Yes, if I continue to put one foot forward then someone is going to continue to find faults with the way I lead people. With how I handle potential threats. Thus it is better to remove myself than to become ostracized by frilly sheep who aren't putting themselves in the line of danger." I responded with a calm tone.

"That doesn't make any sense. They aren't.."

Isabella raised her hand as she interrupted Riley. "He's right. A lot of people are frightened of him before had those amazing superpowers. Now that he had the enforcers in hand and his amazing powers, there were gripes and complaints. Him stepping down before it escalated is actually pretty smart."

Riley looked between us as she fought with something to say. I just smiled and walked out the door, whether she wanted to still be there when I get back or not is her decision.

It will only just tell me that I fell for a minor crush built upon sensual acts.

I shook the thoughts away and pushed past the door that led to the bridge. With the heat of summer bearing down, I felt light. I didn't take a car like I had planned to before. Instead I walked along the road. Slowly speeding up into a jog that eventually turned into a full out sprint.

Just the feeling of the wind brushing past me. The scene changed from clear to slightly blurry to completely blurry.

I let out a hearty laugh as I jumped clear of an overturned truck. I came to a stop near the Walmart as I picked up a smell that was odd to me. Odd because I smelt it on the boy from earlier.

I pulled up a map on my phone and typed in the fallout shelter. It took a couple seconds to load but I realized it wasn't all that far from here.

Instead of heading directly there, I followed the scent. The scent took me deep within a residential area we had not cleared yet. Mostly because none of the residents were active on computers or their phones.

The smell got stronger as I walked to a group of apartments with windows shattered and doors hanging off their hinges. Smell of decay was so heavy that it made my eyes water. My barrier covered me and the stench slowly faded away.

"We got a runner!" Some excited voice yelled out.

I turned towards that direction and walked over.

"Girl, you can run all you want but I'll advise you to think about the consequences. If those things catch you, you ain't going to enjoy having your brain eating out. But if we catch you after chasing you for so long, you might not be able to walk tomorrow." The same guy shouted.

I could hear the girl running down the street. I could hear the breath escaping her mouth. Every time she turned around and almost ran into a car by smacking it. The craziest thing was that I could feel her fear, her anger and the building hatred.

A fence blocked me from her, so I jumped on top and took in the surroundings. There were four men in a jeep, two hanging out and whooping with guns in hand. The kid had his feet kicked up on the dashboard as they drove slowly behind a black hair girl that was flatter than mother earth.

Her shirt was ripped and her jeans were a little tight. There were fine smudges of dirt on her face and her hair was frizzy to the point of needing an immediate wash. If I hadn't smelt fresh dug dirt on her, I might have suspected her to be one of those nature hippies.

I gripped my cane by the throat and held it upside down. With a soft kick off, I flew towards the jeep. The men reacted faster than I expected, they unloaded half their mags into it before I could cut them down.

The end of my cane turned into a thin blade that easily cut through their necks.

I pulled out my pistol and shot the driver as I avoided the kid's weird power that had intense fluctuations but was nearly transparent.

"Fuck! Why are you here!" The kid stream as a series of fireballs had him struggling to defend himself.

The woman on the other hand, had crashed against a car and laid there.

I smiled at the kid as I raised my gun. His eyes widened as he swiped his hands at one of my fireballs. I pulled the trigger and enjoyed the explosive sound. He had a choice to make and he chose to block the bullet. The fireballs hit the truck beside him and sent fire raging outward. The kid swiped his hand to the left as the next round came crashing down.

I turned away from him after sending the third round. The girl was looking at me in a mixture of horror and relief. I walked towards her as the screams of the kid rocketed it with a bunch of hate mail.

"Shouldn't you say thank you to your savior?" I teased as I put my pistol back in the holster.

"How do I know you aren't one of them? That guy seemed to know you." She spoke while moving back.

I stopped and scratched my head. Why did I save her again? My mind came up blank. Maybe it was just to look cool in front of a lady but it seemed to have failed.

Spinning on my heels, I went to check the jeep. It had some decent shit in the back. A few hunting rifles with a spot of rust on two of them. The men had cleaned weapons. You could still smell the cleaning solution on them as well as the gunpowder from recent shots. I collected them all and loaded them into the jeep. Kicking out the former guess in the process.

The woman seemed to have thought better of her run away tactic as she came back to me.

"What? Now you want to follow me? What if I'm no better than they are?" I chuckled.

The woman didn't look embarrassed or guilty, she just climbed in and avoided looking at me. Now while I'm all kinds of ruthless and violent. There was no way I could possibly kick out a woman in need. Just went against my upbringing.

I turned the jeep around and headed for the bunker. Singing along to the silence was my only entertainment.

"Why are we going this way?" The woman asked but I ignored her.

The woman got more scared the closer we got to the bunker but I didn't drive right up to the doorway. That would be stupid. Then I would have to walk back with all my trophies if the tires got shot out.

The fallout shelter wasn't like how I thought or imagined it would be. In my opinion, it should have been on a hill with stairs leading down. Yet, in reality, it was underneath a two story house that had a large brick fence with hedges on the other side.

I hopped the fence and stepped face to face with a patrol guard. He must have been too surprised as he just stared right up until I slit his throat with my cane. I made my way around the building, openly taking out the guards.

I walked through the front door to see a group of men playing spades in the living room. They glanced at me and then one threw out a card and took the book.

"Fuck! I think he's cheating! No way he's this goddamn good at the game." One of the ones with neck tattoos said.

I scratched my head and closed the door, before walking over and cutting their throats. I walked away from them bleeding out the last remainder of their lives.

Bang!

I glance back to see one of the tough guys firing at me while holding his throat.

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"Who the fuck firing in the house?" Someone shouted from upstairs.

I shook my head as I took out my gun and took the stairs two at a time. Three men walked out of rooms pulling up their pants. Soft sounds of sobbing could be heard from within one of the rooms.

"Who the hell are you?" The fat fucker asked right before I blew his brains out.

"Shit!"

Did they think I would let them go? My hand moved faster than they could run. Conclusion, they painted the wall with their brain fragments.

Shaking my head, I checked the rooms to make sure nobody else was hiding. Just women..

It took me a long time to find the bunker entrances. Who would have thought that it was a well concealed door outside in the shed. If one of the women hadn't shown me, I probably would have given up.

The inside was big as in the classroom but a set of beds, cabinets, fridge and couch took up all the room. The only ones inside were more women and kids. Maybe this wasn't the hideout, just the prison?

I turned to the redhead woman that stood behind me with anger etched into her chin.

"That was all of them?" I couldn't help but ask.

The woman nodded, "they lost a lot of people during a raid today and only those were held back while that psycho kid went out to recruit more muscle."

Oh.. damn easy raid.

I decided to finish what I started, shopping.

"Wait, you aren't going to stay? Take us with you to your group?" The woman asked in a hurry as I started walking off.

"Nope." I said.

"Oh.. okay." She sounded disappointed.

I just smiled and walked off. It didn't really take her long to grab some stuff and follow me. I didn't speak because I didn't want to sound like an asshole. So I reached the jeep and got in.

The black haired girl was gone. Which was fine with me. The redhead got in and I cranked it up. Just as I was about to back up, the black hair girl came running out of a bush. She jumped into the back and I couldn't help shaking my head.

"Who are you?" The redhead asked.

My silence didn't stop her from asking questions.

"Is everybody in your group as strong as you or are you just reckless because of your superpower?" She continued on until I pulled up at a computer store.

I got out and went in. The store happened to be in pretty decent shape. I was able to find some quality products undamaged. No dead bodies either so it was all good. I loaded up the jeep with boxes filled with spare parts.

The trip back would have been peaceful but the woman just wouldn't shut up. She nagged on and on like an old hag. Even when I glared at her, she would pause and continue.

"Do you see that guy standing in the road?" She said as we drove past Walmart.

I sighed and slowed down to a stop. Unlike the girls, I could feel the power radiating off him.

Grabbing my cane, I walked on over to see what this walker had to say.

"You are the one attacking my men?" It asked in a slightly hoarse voice.

I nodded, "that would be me. How can I help you?"

The walker smirked and pointed. Had I not had my shield raised, I think I would have died. Instead, I was just pushed backward.

I pointed my cane and beams shot out just as fast. I could see the shock on the fucker's face but then it turned into a grin as it slammed onto his barrier. Like an old school gunslinger, we traded blow for blow.

That relaxed grin was stuck on its face through the first thirty seconds. Then I caught on to its plan but I couldn't do anything about it. If I moved the girls were dead but moving didn't mean I could dodge its attic anyway.

So for another minute, we traded blows. However, I was using my lowest cost attack. The presence of the sun was helping me recover at the same time. I could last a while longer.

The smug look vanished as the redhead opened fire on the fool. Even though it dealt less damage than my beams, it was still a welcome addition.

It growled and I felt a mighty fluctuation in its body before my body was thrown back. Smashing hard into the hood of the jeep. I struggled to sit up as my right arm was missing at the elbow. The bloody walker traded damage to unleash his strongest attack. Yet, it retreated afterwards.

I touched my arm and sighed. There goes my gaming career. Never going to achieve the pro level now.

My butt slid off the roof and I got back in. I had to use my left hand to shift the car into drive. It felt so awkward.

"Are you okay to drive?" The redhead asked.

"The better question is, can he even feel pain?" The black haired said.

I ignored both and floored it all the way back. I just learned a valuable lesson. That was never to drive into town but walk. That way I could run away from these tough assholes.

It was almost dusk when I made it back. Using my left hand to take out the keys and grabbing my cane, still felt awkward. Luckily, my forearm grew during this time. A little more and it will be fully regrown.

I tapped the boxes with my cane. They floated up and followed behind me as I took careful steps towards the bridge.

My ears picked up an odd sound and I cast my eyes towards the sky. Blacks dots slowly enter my sights. My mouth suddenly got wet as I pictured a horde of birds incoming.

Layla and the other councilors walked down the bridge with a purpose. It made me reevaluate the sound that I was hearing with possible helicopters.

"What happened to your hand, kaden?!" Layla's voice was filled with concern.

"I fought with a crazy walker. Are those helicopters coming because of you?" I changed the subject.

"Yes, we planned on working with them to take back land for the humans." She said with a hint of pride.

"Work together implies an equal amount of work shared between two parties. Why do I feel like this is the perfect plan to get our people killed?" I spoke as I began walking past Marcus who smirked at me.

Our shoulders collided and he found out that diamonds were harder than lightning. The poor kid ended up on his ass. It wasn't a good look for anybody but he wore it well.

"Wow, what did you do to piss off that kid?" Miss talk-a-lot asks with a bit too much curiosity.

"No idea. Probably feels upset over being number two." I responded.

If they were going to surrender to the government that wasn't a bad choice had the government shown at one point or another. The ability to handle the walkers instead seemed to be on the back foot from what was shown on TV.

Maybe, I need to make my own base. Just a small group of people until this shit reaches a climax.

Mm, that's what I'm going to do.

I entered my room to see a group huddle around the coffee table looking particularly nutty.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked the only person I was close with, the old man.

He turned to me with a big grin. "About time you showed up." He walked to me before noticing my missing hand. "What the hell happened to your hand?"

"Small fight with my counterpart in the walkers. Why are you all having a group meeting in my room?" I said while scanning the crowd, to realize it was exactly the old group minus a few people.

About eighteen in total with bags packed off to the side.

"Layla brought in the military and we all know that the military is just a bigger gang of civilians. I personally don't trust them but apparently we don't get a say anymore. So we are planning on leaving." The old man said simply.

I shrugged, "I have also considered leaving but have you guys considered what you will be giving up?"

Tyler nodded, "we made this place what it is. We can do the same to the new place. We just want to recruit so many people."

I think I missed a lot of things happening. Maybe it was because I didn't want to be a leader to begin with that I let a lot of signs pass me by.

I turned to Riley to see what she wanted. "What do you think?"

Riley glanced at everyone, "I don't see the big deal in working with the military. We haven't even heard what they want or how the coope will work. So why don't we wait and see if it will be detrimental to us."

I guess we were breaking up so soon. Apocalypse love is so strange. I tapped my cane twice and my clothes flew towards me, landing in a half empty box.

"Okay, I'm leaving now. I don't like waiting for bad things to happen and passively reacting to them." I stated and turned around.

It wasn't surprising that Layla brought the guys up to the meeting room or that I would meet them while heading down.

I walked past the group as they stood in the hallway looking like dumbfounded mannequins. I hit the elevator button and waited for it to open.

"Are you really leaving, Kaden? I thought you didn't care who was the leader? Or is it about something else?" Layla spoke with so much concern that I might have forgotten how she gained her power.

"It's something else." I said as the elevator opened.

I let people board it first since I had a couple boxes floating.

"Can we talk about it?" Layla said after a brief pause.

"It has nothing to do with your plan or thoughts. I just realized that we are too big of a target after fighting with one of their strongest. If I had a group with me, I wouldn't have been able to go head to head and come back. So I'm making the same choice I always make. Separating from what I deem as an undesirable burden to my chances of survival." I let out one of my reasons for leaving.

Layla's brows frowned, "you don't think between you, Tyler, Jacob, and Marcus, that you could defeat the walker?"

The elevator ding and I motioned for the rest to get on.

"No. We would die because they would attack this building to stop us from retreating or dodging as we pleased. Thud means me and Tyler will break first. Jacob next as his wife is behind him. Followed by Marcus escaping if he's smart." I made it seem more courageous than what I really thought.

Marcus would flee the moment he realized that he couldn't win.

"What if we had support from the military?" Layla asked and gestured at the guys in dress blues.

I scanned them and realized that three of them had awakened with abilities. The other four were just normal awakeners.

"If you planned to flee to their base, sure. You would be safe behind the line of cannon fodder but do you expect everybody to want to be said cannon fodder?" I shot down her attempt to turn the situation to her advantage.

I stepped onto the elevator and hid the pain from my forearm growing another few inches. I walked off the elevator and down the bridge, my eyes landed on Sophia who was sitting in the jeep like she just knew I brought it. That annoying playful smile on her face reminded me every time she teased me with a virgin card which was a lie.

The girl knew how to trick men a little too well. Or maybe I just haven't been in that game. I only went for people within my sphere of influence. Whether it was the gym or work, I never went too far from my comfort zone.

Sighing, I put my things in the back and climbed into the passenger seat. I tossed one glance at the door but it was futile. Maybe the death of her parents had her thinking differently. Thinking towards the extreme. Foolishness.

I gave directions as we headed towards a forest reservation. Why? Easy accessible wildlife. I can eat meat as much as I want.

"Why didn't you force Riley to come? I'm sure she would have forgiven you after a couple of days." Sophia said.

"Even if I force her to come. She would still end up leaving to become cannon fodder. Since I can't have my way, I might as well let her pursue what she really wants." I said as I flexed my newly grown hand.

"Sounds like you are giving up on her. You should have followed her to the battlefield." Sophie sounded just like one of those wise old women that sit in saloons.

"So it's okay for the man to give up everything to do something wrong but not okay for the woman to drop a wrong ideology for what's right?" I shot back.

"Who is to say what you are doing is right and what she is doing is wrong?" Isabella just hit me with that pointless question.

"If the military has taken the mindset that they need a certain type of people to fight these walkers then who will they grab? The crazy part is that she probably realizes their goal as the highest person was wearing a major badge. Which means it is the local garrison idea to nab awakeners to fight for them." I shook my head and glanced out the window.

"Wow, love the excuses people make when they are guilty." Isabella three me a teasing gaze.

"As her friend, aren't you even more guilty? I at least value my life and choose to make a stand that leads me to living a little longer or dying under my own weight." I shot back.

Isabella shook her head, "just like a man who wants to bring someone else down to your level."

I snorted and pointed at the last row of houses that ended in a circle. Behind the last two houses was a large lake that had a river spilling off into it. Towering trees huddle on either side and mountains barely could be seen over the tree crowns.

Old man rushed over to me before the car even parked. "You can't be thinking of taking this as our nest?"

"Exactly. We can see around us clearly and if we raise the ground, we can prevent attacks. Funnel them into the street where we can crossfire." I waved my hand as I explained myself.

Amala and Jacob walked towards me next. "Is this place cleared? I thought we left some people behind last time."

Jacob shook his head, "that was further up. This area is cleared."

I waited until everybody gathered around to start off. "The house in the middle is going to be mine. Since the window is directly overseeing the entire front section and the back is also doing the same."

A lady I didn't recognize because her looks were basically average. She was like the perfect TV mom that was a background character.

"The five two stories houses have three bedrooms each. We have twenty-two people even. Only I have two kids, the rest have one or none."

I nodded at that assessment. "So with me and Sophia, that's one bedroom. Who else is interesting staying with us?"

Redhead raised her hand, "me and Natalie can share a room."

"Me and my wife can stay in a room." Jacob said.

I nodded and wrote down our names in a booklet. I turned to the house on the left of it. "Next house is also two stories. Tyler and his wife plus their son. Leave half a room and another whole."

We quickly cut through this and each family was basically loaded into that circle without going past. We did a preliminary clearing before moving bed sets and other minor things into the house.

When I walked out of the shower, Sophia was glued to her phone. She sported another pink set of sleep wear that made me take a nice long drink of her round thighs leading to that soft ass.

"You talking with Riley?" I asked.

She nodded, "you were right. The army did ask for volunteers and Riley volunteered. Chris says a lot of the second wave guys feel like they are about to be put in a camp status. Limited food and what not."

I shrugged and ran my hands over her thighs. She playful swatted them aside as I put a knee into bed.

"Are we going to survive on scavenged food?" She turned to me with a smile bigger than life.

"Well, the old man and his new girlfriend happened to pick up about a hundred of each seed. With my ability, I can cut about a month worth of time down. Which means we can survive off fresh food." I said as I worked my way up to her lips.

"Oh, so you actually had a plan and this wasn't some spur of the moment shit due to Layla taking your spot." Isabella said as she turned her cheek, allowing me to peck her cheek bone.

It was a spur of the moment decision based on my very real support abilities.