- From hell? When I drove out of town, I thought there were hardly any zombies on the road, - I said politely.

- That's because the dead don't like light, - Lex explained. - And just to be clear, they not only dislike it, but they also can't stand it. It doesn't do them any visible damage. So, they hide in blocks, subways, shops and so on. That's why people who have locked themselves in their flats can't get out. They'll be eaten the first time they try.

Now it all made sense. When we drove up to my house in the morning, the yard was still completely in the shade, so the zombies were walking quietly in the street. And after that, they were all safely squeezed into the block, where I almost laid out a red carpet for them.

- So, will there be a sweep of the blocks?

- To start with, yes. The military does it too, but psionics never hurt. By the way, I still can't figure out what kind of class you are. Your aura is weird, like it's double.

- Honestly, I have no idea. I only got my powers this morning. I haven't even had a chance to figure out exactly how they work.

- Well, at least describe it so we know what we're dealing with.

- I don't know. I've got some kind of energy field around, protecting me. At least I woke up from being gnawed on by zombies, but I didn't take any damage other than a charge reduction.

- I've never heard of it," Lex said thoughtfully, "I guess this is a new class. You can think of a name for yourself, you'll be a pioneer. Shall we test your abilities?

- I'd like that. But first I'd like to take care of my family.

- All right, now go back to the military officer who stopped you and give him all the information you have. Who, where, how many people, contact details. I'll get the group together to see what you can do.

After discussing everything with the Lieutenant Colonel, who had collected all the necessary data from me, I called Alice and explained the whole situation to her.

- I'm really confused. What superpowers? Matt, are you delusional?

- Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you didn't believe me?

- All right. I see. Shall we wait for your call?

- Well, I'm going to call anyway. But Lieutenant Colonel Allen should contact you about the evacuation. Remember his last name. I gave him your contact details.

- Got it.

Half an hour later I was back at the van, where a team of three men, not counting Lex, were waiting for me.

The first was a man as big as a bear, with a name John. By God, he was a really big man! And he was a handler. They got their name because they could take control of zombies and animals. John was able to control more than two at a time. However, considering that he started with one, one could conclude that this ability was being trained. It was believed that their powers did not work on ordinary people. But no one had accurate information on that yet. I would definitely hide such abilities.

The second character's name was Lurry. A pumped-up guy with short dark hair. As he looked, he was about my age. Yura was telekinetic. Blowing up zombie heads from a distance, repelling or attracting them was his specialty. And each of these effects used energy, just like mine.

By the way, it turned out that there were the calories that restore energy. So, mayonnaise was my best friend that time. I could carry a mini fridge around with me to be immortal.

The last person on the team was a girl called June. The girl was a pretty brunette of about thirty-five, with a pleasant figure and a charming smile. And like Lurry, June was telekinetic.

After greeting everyone, we went to the nearest forest, where we decided to test my abilities.

- John, hit him once, - Lex said, pointing at me.

- What's that for? - I asked. - Not that I was afraid, I've been boxing most of my life, but I wanted to understand the meaning of what was happening.

- It's simple. According to what you said, the energy field takes all the incoming damage for you. Now we need to understand how much and what you will feel. And what should we start with, if not with a mundane fight?

- Makes sense, I agreed. - Come on, you can hit.

Ivan swung and hit with all his might. It was obvious that his punch was not staged, but hi had a lot of power. Instead of feeling pain, I only saw a 1% reduction in my energy field. My opponent, at that time, screamed and grabbed his arm.

- Fuck, I feel like I hit a tree - shouted the big guy.

- Matt, what do you think? - Lex asked, taking out a notebook and writing down the new data.

- I felt nothing, not even inertia. It took away one percent of charge.

- I see, so there's no point in melee combat with you. That's a big plus. Shall we keep testing?

- Let's do it. I want to know what I'm capable of before I jump into the thick of things. So, let's test it in a safe place.

A knife was the next test. Lex, who was skilled in knife fighting, skillfully stabbed me several times in different parts of my body. No matter where the stab went, the standard 5% was taken away. That was great too.

The axe took 8% of my energy. The bat took 3%. The gun, which was the most frightening test, took 40%. I don't know how the damage was calculated, but I had to remember the numbers. We decided not to test the larger calibers for now, just to be safe. We were killing zombies, not heavily armed people.

Finally, June came up to me and bit my arm.

- What are you doing? - I was surprised.

- How does it differ from biting a dead man? - she suggested logically. - How much did it take?

- One percent too. But I think it would be different with zombies. I mean, it's not just a simple bite. Maybe some kind of poison, I don't know.

- So, let's take a trip and check it out? - suggested Lurry, who had been following our conversation in silence. You'll be our tank, in game terms. Maybe would it be the name of the class?

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

- Eh, I was thinking of calling myself "Man of Steel".

- I think that name's already taken, Lex said. - Let's get on with the briefing. I'd like to have at least one house cleaned up by the end of the day.

An hour later, we were back inside the city.

- Lex, do you see anyone? - I asked as we passed the houses.

- I can't see that far yet. My range is about 50 meters at the most. I hope to increase the range of the ability soon. Now we're going to a block of flats where there's a ham radio operator who's managed to contact our base. He says there are at least 30 survivors in the building. They've been able to communicate through the balconies.

- I see. How far are we?

- Already there," he nodded towards the settlement. - We've only got a few hours. Then it'll get dark, and the zombies will come out. But I remind everyone once again: They can still hunt you in the sun. So, we'll be as quiet as possible. We will use weapons only as a last resort.

I decided not to spread the word about my enhanced punching power, just in case, and to keep an ace up my sleeve. So now I approached the building with a real club in my hand. I'd ruled out stabbing and slashing weapons for now, for fear of them getting stuck in a dead man's body. Hammers were a bit heavy for me. A big guy like John could swing such a thing. And it was still morally difficult to go into battle with an ordinary hammer. As for cold weapons, I had no other choice.

Of course, we were all armed with firearms, but it would be foolish to use them when many creatures might run away at the sound.

The building we were approaching had four blocks and only one entrance inside. No, there was a fire escape, but according to the inhabitants it hadn't been used for a long time. So, we decided to go in the front door.

Lex went to the door, put his hand on it and closed his eyes.

- There are fourteen, fifteen... twenty-two zombies on the ground floor. I see three more on the stairs. It's very dark further.

- Any survivors on the second floor?

- More on the fifth, eighth, ninth and eleventh - said Lurry.

- And who locked the front door? - I decided to ask - Not the zombies.

- I don't know who they are. It doesn't matter now," said Lex. - Here's the plan: Lurry, June, most of the dead crowd together around the lifts, and there are only a few at the entrance. So, blow the heads off the far ones. If you kill three, reload quickly, you'll be covered by military men with police shields.

They nodded.

- John, pick the bigger ones in the crowd and follow under the old scheme. Matt, for the first-time act intuitively. If the energy field starts to drop sharply, let us know, we will cover. Are you all ready?

When everyone was ready, Lex opened the front door with a jerk and let me in. I hit the first zombie with the shaft as I couldn't swing it. The first zombie fell down and was immediately hit by Larry's hammer. The main problem at first was that my eyes were still not adjusting to the darkness. However, I decided not to be distracted by unnecessary thoughts and turned on a real conveyor belt, killing zombie after zombie. From the corner of my eye, I occasionally saw the heads of the dead explode, or a zombie grab another by the hair and slam its head against the wall. The latter seemed to be done by John. So, this was what the Handler's power looked like.

With the ground floor cleared and the passage to the stairs blocked, we decided to retrieve some resources. Judging by the fact that I had 14% of my energy drained during the massacre, I got a few bites. When you didn't feel pain, you didn't pay attention to little things like that.

John took the dead outside to avoid making a tomb inside. And he did it with the hands of large zombies under his control.

- Let's take them outside and burn them. Dead people must be destroyed. Whether humans will ever repopulate the city again, I don't know.

- Won't the fire attract more dead people? - I was careful.

- We'll set it on fire when we're ready to go.

Lex joined us again.

- Has everyone eaten? Recharged? John, I'll leave you five fighters to keep you busy. Then you can get on with clearing the stairs.

- Got it.

- Guys, you're going to have to work harder there too. There are as many on the stairs as there were on the ground floor. So be careful. Matt, are you OK? Have you dialed with your powers?

- So far, so good. I'll go first.

- OK. We'll take the stairs first, then the floors!

But we overestimated our strength. The stairs were wide enough, and the zombies jumped at us from the upper floors. But the main reason for the failure of the operation happened when we were between the third and fourth floors. Some of the apparently desperate survivors from the first floor thought that since we had passed them, they were abandoned. So, they rushed through the corpses gathered in the hall to the military, letting zombies go to our backs. I later learned that only one teenager out of eight survived.

- Go down and enter the hall! - I shouted, realizing that our team could be heard somewhere on the floor below. How could there be so many of them behind ours backs?

When I saw that one of the soldiers was already being torn apart, and that the percentage of field charge was already dropping, I realized that there was no point in further conspiracy. So, I let go of the mace on the head of the next dead guy and switched to melee.

Enhanced Strike is recommended. Should I use it?

YES!

How many percentage points should I put into the Strength of Punch?

Well, I'll use one percent this time.

Even that percentage was enough to put decent dents in the heads of the dead. Opening the door to the hall, I dispatched two zombies with a two-handed slash and turned to help the military man who was holding the dead with his shield.

- Come here,' I waved at him, still swinging my fists.

- He hadn't made one step into the hall before a dead thing lunged at him from the side and bit him in the face.

- Fuck! - I swore, slamming the door before he could get in.

Luckily there was only one more zombie on the floor. It was crawling towards me, leaving a long trail of blood behind it. As I ran up and killed the dead man, I saw that someone had nibbled away at his lower body. That time I needed to eat something to renew the energy field and send a signal to my people. I hoped they were all right.

After quickly refreshing myself with chocolate bars and restoring my energy charge, I started to check which apartment I could enter to get to the balcony.

According to Lurry, there were no survivors on the third floor. So, I wasn't afraid of a stray bullet in my back. People were nervous these days, you know.

Luckily for me, one of the flats was unlocked. Either the tenants had fled so quickly, or something worse had happened. It didn't matter at the moment.

- Lex! I don't think we thought this plan through properly! - I yelled from the balcony as I saw the guys near the entrance.

After that my phone rang immediately.

- Why are you shouting? Do you want to call the whole neighborhood? - The commander hissed. - Where are the men?

- Dead. What are we going to do? By the way, you should leave now. We've made enough noise, and the dead are starting to move in your direction.

In fact, hordes of zombies were moving towards them from all sides. So far, they were moving slowly, as if they weren't sure which way to go.

- Will you stay there for a while? - Lex asked. - We'll come back for you tomorrow.

- Get out of here! They're coming!

The soldiers quickly piled into the trucks and sped off. I was back in the zombie-infested building.

I spent the night in the flat, talking to Alice. As darkness fell, people on the balconies kept their heads down, so I heard nothing from the survivors.

My family's evacuation was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. A large group of tanks was now gathering there, heading for New York. It was like a caravan. Well, as long as they were safe, I was completely calm.

When we finished talking, I even tried to watch a film on the laptop I found in the flat, but it ran out of charge quite quickly and there was no electricity.

But something caught my attention. First, I heard a scream coming from the building opposite. As I approached the balcony, I could see that there was some commotion in the upper floors of the building. Who was screaming so loudly up there?

Then someone was grabbed and thrown off the balcony right in front of my eyes. And then there was a wild laughing that stopped only to throw another person over.

They were throwing a family off, the bastards!

I thought I knew where I would be going tomorrow, after we would have cleaned this house!

And then something happened that I would never forget.

The phone rang in the middle of the night and woke me up. I knew immediately that something bad had happened when I saw it was Alice calling me.

- Yes?

- Matt! - my wife whispered - our village has been attacked. Military men have been killed; the dead are running in the streets. We don't know what to do... I'm scared.

I jumped up and ran around the room.

- Where are you hiding now? - I tried desperately to think of something.

- Now...wait...there's someone walking around - she said in a trembling voice. - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Dad, take Kiara away!!!!!

The next thing I heard was the clatter of a falling phone, followed by the sounds of struggling and screaming.

- Alice....

After about thirty seconds, all was quiet.

- Alice....

I didn't hang up; I just held the phone to my ear. Just until I heard the sound of shuffling footsteps from the other side.

I didn't have the strength to scream or cry. I hadn't saved them. Not my wife, not my child. And all the emotions raging inside me now demanded only one thing.... KILL!