"If you hear the beep, that means something is moving around outside. You can turn on the cameras with this button here to check." Will instructed his grandpa in his office on the second floor. "If someone shows up, you can call us. We shouldn't be too far away today."
"Come back for your meals, I am getting bored with eating alone."
"Sure, we'll come back for lunch today."
Will left the room while his grandpa played around with the surveillance setup. Broski was downstairs staring at the chicken curiously again. After tossing a treat to Broski, Will and Donny left the house, got into the armored SUV with the cargo trailer attached, and went off to hunt corpses for his grandpa's evolution.
As they were driving, Will caught a flash of rainbow in the corner of his eye. He turned to check what it was and found Donny on his phone.
"My strength went up by plus one." Donny exclaimed.
That rainbow should have been from his phone connecting to the Neural-Chip.
"If I knew it would raise this fast, I think I might actually look forward to working out everyday." Donny said with a smile. He was enjoying the feeling of seeing the results of his efforts so soon.
"Enjoy it while you can, it will slow down after you raise your stats a couple points and you'll have to work hard again to reach your body's new limit. Make sure you're eating enough too."
When they were about to ready to head back for lunch after half a day of hunting, Will caught sight of a transparent rainbow light flash in from the distance, into his radio, and his grandpa's voice came out at the same time.
"We'll be back soon." Will replied and signaled for Donny to ignore the zero he was calling out to and to get into the car. "Are they the same people from last time?"
"What do they want?"
"Tell them to wait."
Will and Donny returned to the compound 15 minutes later to find a beaten up minivan parked outside the gates. The minivan had been reinforced so that the windows were mostly covered up and the front had a makeshift plow attached. Despite those reinforcements, the minivan was covered in blood, dented, and scratched up all over.
Will could see through the reinforcements and counted that there were four people inside—a man, a woman, and two children.
An unshaven and gaunt looking man opened the driver door and stepped out.
"Lawrence Palmer." He introduced himself when Will and Donny also stepped out. He turned to look at the fuel tanker parked out front. "I was wondering if you have any gas to spare for me and my family?"
"Sure, we got lots." Donny said after exchanging glances with Will.
"Oh, bless you. We didn't get the chance to fill up the tank before this whole mess, you don't know how much this'll save us." Lawrence said with relief on his face.
"It's not too much trouble. I doubt we'll use it all up before it expires." Donny shrugged. "Where are you guys heading anyway?"
"We heard on the radio that the military have set up a refuge at the stadium in the city. We thought we'd try our luck there."
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Donny gestured at their beaten vehicle.
"It's a rather embarrassing to say, especially after the whole coronavirus business, but we hadn't prepared our household for any emergencies. So we were left with no choice but to make the trip."
"Why don't you guys join us for lunch? You look like you could use a break." Donny extended an invitation.
"Really? Thank you very much, it would be much appreciated." Lawrence said with joy, looking like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
"But you'll have to leave any weapons outside, and we'll have to check your temperature before you come inside. My friend is a little paranoid." Donny said, winking at Will.
"No, I understand. You can never be too careful in these times."
After being introduced to the Palmer family, Will and Donny led them inside, where the family met Grandpa Wong and Broski, who were glad to see other people for once. Broski, especially enjoyed it when the kids tossed him pieces of eggs.
The Palmer family had the chance to relax and eat some "real food" for the first time in a while. After lunch, Will and Donny escorted the family part of the way to the stadium. They drove ahead, attracting the attention of the zeroes or pushing aside mobs and abandoned vehicles that would have been trouble for the minivan. The difference between the armored SUV and minivan with makeshift reinforcement was apparent.
"That was nice, wasn't it?" Donny asked once they parted with the Palmer family.
"Let's finish up for the day." Will said turning the car around.
"Come on, you need to lighten up. I don't think I've heard one joke from you since you've 'returned'." Donny said. "Come on bro, tell me a joke."
"..."
"Yo mama is so fat..." Donny prompted when Will remained silent. "She absorbed the Metamorphosis Pod instead."
"..."
"Ah, buzzkill."
Donny didn't notice when Will turned his head away and hid a slight curve of his lips.
They drove over to the park, taking another route this time to avoid running into people, and the two dug a large pit to dump the bodies into before they covered it up and returned home in time for dinner.
----------------------------------------
Because of the time spent with the Palmer family the previous day, they hadn't collected enough corpses, and Will estimated that they would need to collect a little more today before they had enough for his grandpa to evolve.
Will and Donny spent the morning hunting, and after lunch, Will drove his grandpa towards the park.
"You're finally taking me out?"
"You've been complaining so much, I got tired of hearing it." Will replied.
"Cheeky little punk." Grandpa raised a hand in threat as Will laughed.
About 10 minutes after he left, he received a radio call from Donny.
"What do they want?" Will asked.
"Sit tight, I'm coming back." Will immediately turned the car around and sped back to the compound.
"What is it?" Grandpa asked in worry.
"Whatever happens, stay in the car and keep the doors locked."
"I'm almost there."
When Will turned onto the road into the compound a few minutes later, he found the gate wide open.
"Stay here." Will told his grandpa and exited the car.
Will raised his riot shield and pulled out his pistol as he approached the gates from an angle. Just before he entered, he noticed a burst of rainbow coming somewhere from the trees on his right into the compound.
When he peeked inside, there was a pickup truck parked in front of the storehouse with people loading up the cargo bed with things from the storehouse. Will noticed that one of the men had been trying to pry the front door open with a crowbar. One of the bulletproof windows next to the door had turned almost completely white from all the cracks in it.
Almost all the men had stopped in the middle of their activities, and some of them were holding onto their ears as if they were listening to something. They all suddenly turned in his direction at the same time.
Looks like they have a lookout. Will pulled back and hid around the corner. He reached for his smoke grenade and tossed it over the wall.
The men instantly started shouting. Once the smoke had spread enough, Will sprinted inside with his shield raised, using his infrared vision to find the one man who had been trying to pry the door open. Will found him halfway to the truck and tackled the man to the ground.
"Don't move." Will pointed his pistol at the man's head while he raised his shield to cover him against the others.
Will could see the rest of the men raising their weapons at him. They were all armed with hunting rifles or pistols and looking at him through the gaps in the smoke.
"How about we talk this out?!" One of them called out. "John, you alright?"
"Could be better!" The man underneath Will replied.
"How about you let my buddy over there go and we all go our separate ways!" The first man said.
While the man was talking, Will could constantly see the burst of rainbow going back and forth between one of the men at the pickup truck and their lookout. The direction the rainbow travelled in seemed to be changing.
Donny chose this moment to come outside with his own shield raised up.
"How about you get off my property." Will said.
"Just as soon as you let him go."
Now, Will realized that the rainbow was moving towards the entrance of the gate, and it was moving very quickly. He turned to see another pickup truck pull up next to the SUV. A woman was in the driver seat and the passenger—a man, got out of the vehicle and aimed his gun at Will's grandpa through the window.
"Now, how about you get off my property?" The man said with a smug look on his face. "Or the old timer gets it."
Seeing all this sent a pulse of anger through Will.
"What do we do?" Donny asked.
Will took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Alright."
He pulled his pistol off the man underneath him and stood up. A few of the men in the back lower their weapons, relief on their faces that things didn't get out of hand.
"Hey kid, nothing personal. We're just trying to survive out here." John said as he heaved himself up off the ground and dusted his clothes off.
"Right." Will turned to Donny. "Take care of my grandpa."
"What?" Was all Donny could say before everything turned completely chaotic.
Bang!