Making my way to the rooftop entrance, I used Radar again but this time not limiting it to just organic matter, just in case the zombies didn't register for whatever reason.
Thankfully it seemed that wasn't the case, there just weren't any in the range of my Radar.
'I'll use my Radar every few seconds. I don't want a zombie to sneak up on me. Or a person.'
Opening the door, KA-BAR in hand, I slowly made my way down the stairs before reaching the topmost floor's door. And a quick sweep of the Radar let me know there was nothing near the exit of the floor I was about to enter, but something on one floor down in front of the exit of the stairwell.
'Can't make too much noise. Don't want them to come up looking for me.'
Slowly opening the door to avoid any creaking, I laid eyes on a hallway that led to an elevator with one door on each wall, leading to apartments.
Closing the door behind me, I made my way to the left door and saw that the door handle had a bloody handprint. Focusing my Radar in the direction of the apartment let me cover the whole thing and let me know nothing was there.
Doing the same thing in the direction of the other apartment, I got something right at the edge of my Radar.
'Two zombies. Didn't catch them before because my range wasn't enough. I'll take care of them first before searching the apartments.'
Opening the door I immediately heard the sounds of zombies.
'Let me test out the armor I've been thinking off. Though I suppose calling it a coating would be the more accurate term. And once I get used to this, I can start to work on using my PK to enhance my condition. Baby steps, Matt. Baby steps.'
First, I manifested my psionic energy then I thought about covering my body in a flexible yet durable coating, which it did, slowly though since it was the first time I was trying it.
After a few moments, I could feel a coating around my body. Then I tested it by moving my arms around to make sure it wasn't impeding my movements.
'Okay. I don't want to test it against a zombie bite without first testing it beforehand. Let me try to stab myself.'
Using my knife, I attempted to poke my arm only for the knife to be stopped by the coating. And slowly applying more pressure let me know it could handle a good amount of force.
'I don't think it can handle a bullet just yet, but it should work fine with zombies.' I thought as I slowly made my way into the apartment, being careful not to knock over anything or step on anything.
The zombies had pinged on my Radar toward the end of the apartment on the right, which seemed to be the bedroom.
Now outside the bedroom, I slowly opened the door.
CREAK
'Shit.'
GROWL
The zombies that were just laying there stood up and started to make their way to the door.
With my PK, I created a long and thin needle-like construct and moved it to skewer both zombies through the brain.
'Zombie rotisserie.' I thought at the sight before slowly putting the bodies on the ground.
'Now to loot. Scavenge. Sounds better. Less criminally.'
First checking the closet for anything interesting, I only managed to find clothes that didn't fit me. But I did find a pretty sweet backpack which I promptly took because it would be weird for me to not have one in the apocalypse.
I then moved on to search the nightstand, finding nothing, the bathroom where I found a first aid kit and some pills, the kitchen where I found some unopened cans of food, and the supply closet where I found nothing useful.
'Not bad. Now onto the next one which will hopefully have a gun. Not that I need it. I just want one.'
Using my Radar again before exiting the apartment, I found nothing, so I exited before slowly opening the door to the unsearched apartment.
'Phew. This place looks way more luxurious than the other one.'
The first apartment was big compared to normal apartments but it still looked normal. This one, however, was full of luxurious things almost to the point where it was tacky.
Ignoring the decor for the moment, I began to search the place.
Cans of food, lots of pills, a bigger first aid kit, a random assortment of toiletries, some blow, matches, lighters, cigarettes, two flashlights, batteries, jewelry, a map, and a gun.
'Smaller than I would like but can't complain.' I thought as I checked out the gun which I had found inside the nightstand next to the blow.
I wasn't a gun expert by any means but judging by the looks, and the etching on it, it was a .22 LR Snub Nose from Smith and Wesson. Oh, and it was pink. The handle was, anyway.
Along with the gun, and the blow, I found a big box of 200 rounds of standard .22 LR ammunition.
As I was loading the gun, I heard the faint sound of gunshots.
'Must be Merle. He was shooting zombies from the roof of the department store before he got handcuffed and left for dead. Good riddance.' I thought as I tucked the gun into the back of my waistband.
'I'll stay in this apartment, but l want to clear out the building first. Don't want any surprises. But before that let me rest for a bit and drink some water, I'm thirsty.'
~
"Finally done." I said as I plopped down on the couch.
After resting for a bit, I made my way through each floor clearing any zombies and taking anything that might be useful.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
And a few hours later, I ended up with a good amount of food, an assortment of medical goods, some books to kill my boredom, another pistol, and a few more bullets. Plus 63 fewer walkers to kill.
[Mission]
- Kill 1000 walkers (66/1000)
"At the rate I'm going, a month should be enough. Though realistically it'll take less than that." I said as I took out a can of corn to eat.
"Now I just need to cover the windows, barricade the elevator and stairwell entrance, and wait till nighttime to take some things, which shouldn't be long now."
After finishing my corn, I covered the windows, went to the other apartment, and levitated out some furniture to block the elevator and stairwell entrance before setting a vibrating alarm on my watch and taking a nap.
~
BUZZ BUZZ
"Oh yeah, I needed that nap." I mumbled as I tapped my watch to turn off the alarm and stood up to stretch, feeling refreshed and ready to take on the night.
'Before anything else, gotta pee.'
~
'Much better.' I thought as I wiped my hands with some wet wipes I found on one of the lower floors.
'Plan is to sneak around and put some cool thing in my inventory while also taking care of some zombies. Normally, nighttime would be a bad time to be doing anything without visibility, but thanks to my handy-dandy watch, it'll be no problem.'
Twisting the watch face until it got to an option called Spy-Glasses, I then pressed it before the watch rearranged itself to a pair of glasses.
"Awesome." I said with a dopey grin on my face as I put on the glasses.
'Now with these, I'll have Night Vision, making my plans much easier to execute. I'll also do the Camouflage function so I can blend in and be mostly invisible.' I thought as I used my eyes to navigate the many functions before activating Camouflage.
BZT
'Did it work?'
Walking over to a mirror, I could see that I wasn't in it.
'Cool.' I thought as I waved my hand, and saw a blur appear in the mirror where my hand's reflection would be.
'So too much movement screws up the hologram. But walking at a normal pace should be within the limitations.' I thought as I tested walking at a normal pace in front of the mirror and not seeing anything.
'Good. Now I can be out in the street with more confidence. Let's go.'
After quietly exiting the apartment, carefully moving the staircase blockade, and slowly making my way down the staircase, all the while using Radar, I made it outside.
'My Radar is pinging like crazy. Must be at least 50 walkers in my range. I'll take the tank first before killing some.'
Even though I was camouflaged, my steps still made noise and I still had a scent so I still carefully made my way to the tank.
Fortunately, the zombies that were devouring the horse earlier had somewhat dispersed so I didn't have to deal with a horde of them all at once. But there were still a few lingering around the tank and judging by how they were looking in my direction, they smelled me.
So, a quick PK needle to the brain later, and four zombies were dead and, like always, gently laid down so as not to make noise.
Before moving to touch the tank, I quickly took a look around to make sure no zombies had noticed anything.
With no sign of them moving, I approached the tank, put my hand in it, and stored it.
BANG
GROWL
'Oops.'
I hadn't noticed that there was a body on the tank, and my putting it in my inventory meant the body fell and hit the ground, causing zombies to move in my direction.
Keeping your cool when a swarm of zombies is rushing you is not the easiest thing in the world. Even if you have psychokinesis.
But I managed to keep calm and began to kill the zombies using another technique that I had been wanting to try, PK Cutting, which is forming the psionic energy in the shape of a razor-sharp and thin crescent blade.
Cutting the zombies was a lot messier than using a needle construct to pierce the brains but it did allow me to kill them much faster. And if I continue training, I will eventually be able to kill hordes of zombies with just one swing of the blade.
After a few moments, the swarm had been culled and the smell had intensified.
'Ugh, got to move or else I might puke again.'
As I moved away from the corpses and up the street, I saw a duffel bag full of guns on the ground.
'The bag of guns. They come for it the next day but get into a fight with a local group. Then they split the guns with them because they turned out to be good people taking care of the elderly. I could take it right now, but it might complicate things. I'll leave it. It's not like I need it. Who knows, I might run into another bag of guns.'
So I continued to go away from the tank, killing zombies and taking anything worth taking which wasn't much.
And after walking a few blocks, I heard the sound of a group of people walking.
'Those aren't zombies. Their steps sound too organized. Not to mention there would be growling.' I thought as I used Radar in the direction of the steps.
And the information I got confirmed my suspicions, it was a group of people in formation, steadily making their way in my direction.
'I don't know what military precision looks like but it's definitely that.'
Even though I was Camouflaged, I hid behind a car and waited for the group to pass me by. They were humans and they hadn't done me any harm yet, so I wasn't going to start something.
After a few moments, I saw the beams of flashlights appear followed by the group. And looking at them, I could tell they were military or at least experienced.
They wore hoods and masks and were armed with what appeared to be M4 Carbines with silencers, and were methodically sweeping their surroundings as they moved through the streets.
Curious to see if their formation was just a facade, I used my PK to move a rock and make some noise.
CLACK
Instantly, the ones facing my direction shined their light in the area the sound came from while the rest of the group stopped moving.
After not seeing anything, they whispered something and kept moving.
'I got what I came for and I can go back to the apartment, but now I'm just too curious. I'll follow them for a bit and see what happens.'
For about an hour, I followed behind them and saw them enter some buildings, scavenge supplies, and kill zombies.
And just when I was about to leave, I saw them enter an alley to rest before they started praying. But they weren't praying to God or a deity, they were kneeling and praying to one of the men.
'A cult? Already?' I thought as I got closer to them to hear what they were saying.
"Brothers and sisters, we are nearing our objective of the night. I expect you all to execute the plan to a tee. There is no room for mistakes. God is with us tonight. He has led us to this place. He is showing us the way." said the one who I assume is the leader since they are all kneeling in his direction.
"Yes, Pope." they said.
'It is a cult. But what's their objective? Going off of fiction tropes, they're ex-military turned raiders/bandits. If they start killing people in front of me, should I do something?' I thought before going into thought about what I would do if that were to happen.
'I'll decide when the time comes.' I thought as I waited for the group to finish their weird prayer.
"Okay. Let's move out." said Pope as they all got back in formation and moved while I followed.
A few blocks later, they stopped in front of a church with boarded-up windows.
Pope gave orders with his hands and the group split into three before they started moving again. One group was going through the front, and the other two moved to go in from the left and the right, respectively.
The main group waited in front of the door until the other two were in position then Pope, who was in the lead, kicked open the door and the group rushed in.
'Fuck.' I thought as I saw them start shooting the people who were hiding in the church including the children.
By the time I snapped out of my shock at seeing them kill the inhabitants of the church with no mercy, the deed was done and they had begun looting.
And I got angry. Angry at the cultists for killing them like they were killing ants, but more importantly angry at myself for not acting faster and letting those people die.
With anger clouding my mind, I could feel my psionic energy about to spill out, wanting release. And if I held it in any longer, it would do me more harm than good. So I gave it a release.
SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT
"What the fuck?!" yelled Pope as he saw his fellow members ripped apart and tossed aside like trash.
Anger still clouding my mind, I undid the Camouflage and approached Pope, the once so proud man now reduced to a sniveling shell.
"W-what the fuck are you?" he asked before I lifted him up by choking him with my PK.
"These people did nothing to you. Just like you they were trying to survive. But you took it upon yourselves to kill them. And I will do the same to you." I said before breaking his neck and dropping him.
Looking up, I laid eyes on a statue of Jesus crucified covered in blood, and looking away from the massacre.
Walking over to the inhabitants of the church, I gently picked them up before taking them outside where I used my PK to dig individual graves for them and bury them.
"I'm sorry." I said before walking back into the church, retrieving the weapons the raiders had, and leaving.