Were you telling me to recharge? How the hell was I supposed to do that? Let me guess, finger in the socket or plug up my arse?

Jokes were jokes, but it looked like this unknown energy field had saved my life. It would be nice to know how long they'd been chewing on me to drain so much of my charge. But I didn't feel like sticking my hand in a zombie's mouth. Although I supposed I would get that chance in the future. That time I needed to get out of there.

Trying not to make too much noise, I looked out of the hole in the door, glanced around and noticed several other silhouettes on the landing. I wasn't armed. But I could kill at least one of them, and I would be able to cover my back.

With a few taps of my baton on the door, I attracted the attention of an appreciative audience. Waiting for the first zombie to poke through the hole and try to get through, I gave it a few hard blows to the head. Not with a baton, though, but with the only dumbbell that didn't fit in the bedside table. First of all, it's iron. And secondly, it's fucking iron.

Having made sure that the zombie had plugged the hole in the door tightly enough, fortunately, the dead guy was a bit overweight, I went out onto the balcony to go down to the fourth floor. I wanted to search the flat and try to get out quietly.

As I went down, I tried not to look down. It wasn't because I was afraid of heights, I just didn't want to see Mary's body. When I got to the balcony, I was practically facing a zombie child. There was glass between us, of course, but that didn't make it any less creepy. He grinned mischievously and then started banging his head against the glass. At one point I wanted to yell at him: "The balcony door is open, stop attracting attention!" But I think that would have looked really weird.

The child as if heard me and went out onto the balcony. And his zombie parents were running after him. I decided to do what I did on the stairs. I grabbed the zombie kid by the neck and leg, started to dodge its bites and waited for the parents to come out on the balcony.

As soon as they appeared in the doorway, I took a short run and, using my zombie as a battering ram, slammed into the zombie parents and threw them off the balcony. It was only now that I realized I hadn't seen any dead in the room on my first descent. Did they react to the noise upstairs? That's strange.

Well, I would have to check the flat. Maybe I would find a hammer, because a dumbbell and a baton wouldn't do much. I had given up hope of finding a bigger weapon. Miracles didn't happen.

Sayd the man who had been saved by an unknown energy field.

By the way, I also had a hammer in my apartment. But since I had two left hands when it came to repair, I had the simplest and cheapest copy in the cupboard. Which would probably have fallen apart after the first blow.

After looking around the flat and finding nothing of interest, I called Alice.

- Hey. How's it going in there? I've started to get to the car, so I'm hoping to get out of the city today.

- That's great, Matt! And we have the military in the village, about 20 people. So, it's even safer now. By the way, they say the connection should be lost in the next few days. Keep that in mind - she replied, and then, after some thought, asked, - And why did you say that you were going alone to the car? Where is Mary?

- There is no Mary anymore - I replied briefly.

- How no...?

- Alice, let's not talk about it. As soon as I'm out of city, I'll call you. Only phone me in an emergency, OK?

- All right. ....

- I'm off then. Take care.

After I ended the call and put the phone in my back pocket, I decided to grab a bite to eat before the final dash. The only food I had left were the energy bars I sometimes ate after training and a few bottles of water.

After eating the first one, I suddenly noticed that my Energy Field charge had increased by about 10%.

Yeah, so I would be going to have to eat a lot. The only thing left to find out is what exactly would affect the amount of energy restored. Protein? Fats? Calories? OK, I would save the experiments for later.

After finishing the remaining four bars, I got my 10% back in equal parts. I wasn't particularly hungry, but I intuitively wanted to maximize my own defense. Drinking water did not affect this parameter.

I managed to get out of the apartment quietly. There were dead people upstairs, only one or two by the sounds, but I didn't want to attract their attention. So, I went down slowly, fully controlling the upper and lower flights of stairs.

The old man's body was still near the block, holding the door open. Carefully stepping over him, I looked around. There were no other people in sight, except for a dozen dead people walking on the balconies of the neighboring building. Yes, I had some sort of special defense now, but until I knew exactly how it worked, I had to continue to be as careful as possible.

So, I took small steps towards the nearest car and took a deep breath. My Ford was already in sight. One tug and I would hit the accelerator. Let's go!

When I reached the car, I didn't attract anyone's attention. Either the whole crowd in my yard were running up after me to the block, or someone else had led them away. When I was in the flat, I didn't pay much attention to the sounds coming from the street. As time went on, screams, gunshots and even explosions became something of a background noise.

Suddenly, not far from me, a child's scream was heard. Quickly assessing the situation, I did not hesitate to rush towards the child who was trying to escape from the disfigured fat man who was chasing him.

The boy was about five years old and was clearly running in my direction. All I had to do was protect him from the walker in time. Although they should probably be called runners. Except for the fat one, of course, who was somewhere in between.

I didn't know what I was thinking, but as I let the child pass, I swung my fist at the dead man's temple. And just before I made contact with his head, time seemed to slow down, and I saw a message in front of me:

Reinforcement is recommended. Should I use it?

YES!!!!

How much percentage charge should be added to the striking force?

Uh-..... Let's do five percent. That should be enough.

Stolen novel; please report.

Well, yes, it really was enough, even with a bit of overkill. To put it mildly. As soon as my fist touched the zombie's head, it exploded like a watermelon, showering me and the boy.

- Fuck... There are clothes to throw away now," I said sadly. - Kid, come quickly behind me!

Luckily for me, the boy was very focused and didn't get hysterical, so we quickly piled into my Ford Focus and drove off.

That time we had to get as far away from the region as possible, and there I would think about the next route. I also had to decide what to do with the child. Should I give him to Vikki and Paul? They had many women; someone would take care of him. We should find out what was wrong with his parents first.

- Boy, what's your name? - I asked him, wiping his face with wet wipes on the way. - Put your belt on, by the way.

- Max, - he replied, obediently complying with my request. - Uncle, tell me, are you a superman? How you blew up this psycho!

- Well, I'm not sure about superman, but I'm definitely not a Supergirl. Let's just keep this a secret between us, shall we?

- Okay, he nodded.

- So, you're Max. And my name is Matt. I'd shake your hand, but I'm driving. Tell me, Max, where are your parents and why did you run out of the block?

- Our family tried to get away yesterday with the men in green, but they didn't stop. Then some psycho attacked my mum and dad. I was scared, but I knew my dad could handle it. It was just the two of us running home. Dad said Mum was going to the shop and would be back soon. At first, I thought he was talking nonsense, but then I actually saw Mum walking down the street. When I started calling for her, Dad quickly pulled me into the room. I think they just had a fight. And then we saw you today. My dad told me to run to you, but he stayed in the block. I think he wanted to hit the psycho who attacked Mum. I wanted to protect Mum too, but Dad shouted at me to go on. And that he'd catch up with us later. He will, won't he?

I felt a lump in my throat.

- Of course, Max. He'll catch up.

Strangely enough, the journey through the city was no problem at all. The only hiccups were in carefully avoiding abandoned cars. There were no zombies in sight for some reason.

There were posters on the houses:

"Here is the living!!!"

"Help!!!"

"There are children here."

And so on. From time to time someone looked out of the windows and waved their hands. At first, I honestly tried to remember all the houses where I saw the living. But then I gave up that ruinous idea. It was easier to tell the military something like "There are a lot of living people in this direction".

In fact, there were already people on the Belt Parkway I could pass the information to. There was a tank and a Command Post Carrier on the side of the road, with soldiers on top of their armor.

When I drove past them, they sort of looked at my car, but didn't really pay any attention. So, they probably wouldn't going to do anything bad.

When I arrived, I told Max to sit quietly in the car. I got out and went to the military.

- Hello, men, who can I talk to? - I asked, raising my hands to show that I was unarmed.

A thin man, about forty years old, jumped down from the armor and walked in my direction.

- Alone? - he asked, squinting at the car.

- No, I've got a child with me,' I thought, thinking that if they wanted to harm me, they'd have torn me apart with lead.

- A child, you say. How did you get out? - he asked sullenly. - No one has been out of the city for twenty-four hours.

- It just happened. Can you tell me what's going on here? Is there a refugee camp?

- There's a checkpoint down the road. You can find out where to go. Will you be part of the army? A lot of people have deserted, we're understaffed. And civilians have to be pulled out somehow.

- I wanted to go to Sent Louis. I've got a family hiding in a village there.

- Everyone has a family," sighed the soldier, - That's why people ran away.

- Well, thank you for your answers and good luck.

- See you later, man.

A few miles later there was indeed a checkpoint. And it was obviously hastily constructed from concrete blocks and cars placed around the perimeter. It turned out to be some kind of outpost with a gate at the entrance. I was stopped before entering, the car was inspected, my temperature checked, and then I was let in. They asked me to park the car on the side of the road until they had completed their inspection. They said they would let us go through as soon as they finished.

Inside we were greeted by a young smiling girl. This is the kind of person who usually worked at the reception desk and could only evoke positive emotions from visitors.

- Hello there! Can you fill in a questionnaire for you and your child? It's simple: where you're coming from, the purpose of your trip, whether you have weapons, etc. If you're a psionic, be sure to mention that. They're very much appreciated here and get special allowances.

- Wait, wait, not so fast, - I replied and took the question papers from her. - Who are psionics?

- Oh, you don't know? - The girl had clearly been resurrected - such people began to appear on the second day after the start of the zombie apocalypse. Usually persons see flashes of lightning, whether they're in a building or outdoors. Then they black out, and when they wake up, they get a psionic ability. I don't know how true that definition is, but it's kind of stuck.

So that's what I am now. I am psionic.

- Well, so far there are three types of psionics. Telekinetics, Manipulators and Trackers. But if you haven't felt any powers, you're probably not one of them, so don't worry about it. It's just that there have been no survivors for 24 hours, so I thought you were someone with powers.

- Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you.

- No, no, no, no. - She protested, "You misunderstood me. I'm just very interested in the subject, that's why I started talking. I'm sorry if I offended you.

- Don't be silly, I was only joking. Can I talk to you for a minute? Max, wait for me here, OK?

When we got a bit further away, I asked the girl.

- What's your name?

- Ruby.

- I'm Matt, nice to meet you. Ruby, can I leave the child with you? There's a refugee camp. I have a long, dangerous journey ahead. I don't want to take the kid with me.

- Do you want to leave your child? - she asked in shock.

- No, it's not my baby. I picked him up on my way out of city. His parents were bitten, I heard.

- Poor little thing, she breathed out.

- So, what do you say?

- You can take him to Hudson. The town there has been cleared out, with a considerable military presence, and a sort of safe zone has been created. Children are greatly appreciated now.

- Thank you, - I said, shaking her hand.

I filled in the forms quickly enough. Ruby entered the data into the computer and gave us permission to pass through the outpost. Twenty minutes later we were approaching Hudson.

There were a lot more soldiers waiting for me than outside the outpost. One of the soldiers waved his hand to indicate that I should slow down.

- Is something wrong, commander? - I asked the soldier as he approached the car.

- Get out of the car - he replied briefly.

I didn't like the tone of his voice, but there was nothing I could do. I was not strong enough against two dozen soldiers with machine guns. In fact, I couldn't even stand up to one machine-gunner. Fucking Rimbaud.

Next to the car came a woman and a man in a long coat.

- This is Goldie - the girl was introduced to me - she will take care of your child.

The civilian, who was clearly in charge, spoke next.

- Don't worry, the boy will be fine. And we just need to have a little talk to you.

- Have I done something wrong? - I asked cautiously.

- You haven't. It's all right, don't worry. Come with me.

We got into the wagon that was behind the Command Post Carrier. The man offered me a seat.

- According to your profile, your name is Matthew. Is that correct?

I nodded.

- Matt, do you know anything about psionics?

- I see, - I sighed. "How would you know??

- I'm glad we didn't have to discuss this for long, - he nodded in agreement. - You just didn't have a chance, because I'm a bloodhound.

- And can you sense psionics?

- Not just psionics. I can smell the living, the dead and large animals if I have to.

- I see. So, what's going to happen to me? What's your name, by the way?

- Just call me Lex, he said. - Nothing's gonna happen. They'll register you and then make you an offer you won't be able to refuse. You know, there aren't many psionics. There aren't more than a hundred of us in the Southeast.

- I'm going to refuse anyway. I have family in Sent Louis, and I need to get to them.

- Wouldn't it be easier to contact the military there and bring them here under protection? And you can help us in the meantime. It seems to me that would be the safest option for your family.

I liked the idea in principle. It wasn't even the fact that my family would be transported under military protection. I was more concerned about the time it would take to make the journey. It used to be about 13 to 18 hours, depending on how much you were in a hurry. Now it would definitely take longer. Anything would be able to happen on the way. Still, the offer was very tempting.

- And how soon can it be done?

- As soon as we both agree.

- Fine. What will be required of me?

Lex frowned. He seemed to be thinking of an answer.

- First of all, to get the people out of the hell that's going on in the city.