DAY 5 CONTINUED

The room door was half opened so I pushed it open as I angled my body out of the doorway. Nothing came rushing out, so I moved and checked the next room. It was also clear. I would come back and gather supplies.

I marched out and closed the door. Moving to the next one, the moment I pushed the door all the way. A sucker ran out, growling as he took a swipe at me. I grabbed its wrist, spun and flipped it over my head, bringing my hand up and the knife down into its face. The angle somehow was perfect enough to kill it.

Not questioning the good grace.

Straightening up, I headed into the house and spotted a bike behind the couch. Should be tools in the house, eh. I searched a bit more carefully this time and found a sledgehammer, bat, and a few other tools. Nothing that really saved my life in a crisis but I did take the sludgehammer. It could be used to take out knee caps and crush skulls without getting into close engagements.

Actually on second thought, the bat is lighter and I can swing that couple times in succession compared to the hammer. Take out the legs of runners, then stab them. Simple.

I expected a few more corpses to show up but nothing. Tsk, they are really going to make me search the building.

“I should have asked how I would know when I had an ability or not? Fuck, thinking about the wrong shit then.” I cursed at my stupidity and marched into the third and final apartment on the bottom level. The door was closed but wasn’t locked.

I guess people feel secure in this neighborhood. Good to know before this crazy crap went down.

“Hello?”

The sound of feet thumping the ground as someone ran towards me were very obvious even if half the floor was caperted. I stepped out the door way and back to the side. Winding up to swing as the fucker came out the door, my bat came down on his kneecap. The good thing about people who run, they tend to have one leg up high and the other out forward.

The corpse landed on the ground sideways and I dropped onto his chest and slammed the knife into his eye. I looked towards the doorway as I hard thumped on the tiles and saw a kid with red eyes. He jumped at me and I dropped to my back bringing my feet up as I gave him a lift right over me.

I came up onto my knees and grabbed the knife, yanking it out as I stood up in crouch. The kid also crouched low as he watched me. None of that movie zombie snarling shit or just mindlessly running at you to get you.

He looked like a predator ready to pounce the moment I showed weakness. Kind of wish I was a jedi right now, could scorpion his ass with a ‘get over here!’

I moved so that the doorway wasn’t directly behind me and I could pick up anything coming out. I took a step towards it and it rushed me. A quick spin kick and its head snapped to the right as its momentum followed it to the ground. I quickly dropped onto it, not even stabilizing myself first. Several quick jabs to the ear, it stops moving. I climbed up, kicked it over and stabbed it in the eye for good measure.

“Holy fuck! Didn’t I retire from this shit?”

I wiped blood from my hands and took a step to the apartment when I realized my chicken was still in the oven.

Making a snap decision, I left the apartment alone for now and high-stepped it back to my apartment like a horse doing a funny canter. I frowned at the water that spilled into the doorway, a lot more considering my feet moving through it and sending waves crashing in.

I closed the door and locked it before taking off my wet jogging pants. Tossing it down, I rushed to the stove and checked on my chicken. Using a fork to make sure it wasn’t all pink since it wasn’t burnt at all.

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Sighing, I checked my phone before walking into my room to grab some shorts. I caught spots of dried blood on my face and hurried into the bathroom to clean it off. I turned on the facet as I grabbed a small towel, the moment I stuck my hand under the water to check if it was hot or not when a terrible burning sensation spread from my hand to my arm.

“Shit!”

Jerking my hand back, I stared at it. The water felt cold, why the hell would it burn me the next second? I stuck my other hand underneath and it felt a little warm now but nowhere near as hot as before.

“Am I losing my shit?”

Shuddering, I reached back down to wet the towel but the same feeling came the moment my right hand touched water. Hissing, I stuck the hand underwater and kept it there.

“Is this maybe my ability? Feeling shit ton of pain?”

Cursing the dumbass who developed this, I watched in rapt fascination as black lines spiral up my arm in a weird pattern. It reached part way up my forearm then the pain stopped and I lifted my arm out from under the sink to take a closer look at it.

“Tribal tattoos, huh? Not bad looking but what does this do?”

I waved my hand in front of me but nothing happened.

“Ab-kadda-bra? Open? On? Fire? System help?”

Not a single useful thing. Whatever.

I grabbed the towel and soaked it before scrubbing my face. Repeatedly drenching the towel as pink water went down the drain. I didn’t linger around after my face was clean, and went to start prepping the rest of my meal.

**

I snapped up and like before I found myself laying on grass. I jumped up and scanned around to find that guy sitting down in his usual spot.

“Hey, I forgot to ask, how do I work my power?”

The guy coughed and looked embarrassed.

“Oh, right. My bad. I forgot to inform you but your power works by conscious thought. I’m sure you played games where the character used mental energy to perform crazy and cool attacks? It's the same for your ability. Give it a try. Just think, defense.”

The guy waved his hand and a large bus came slamming down towards me. My eyes felt like they were popping out as I took a step back but then I still had decent clarity of mind. I held up my right hand and thought block.

A large transparent, black hand extended out from my shoulder, copying the gesture of my arm. I spread my fingers as if I was about to slap someone and wanted my hand to cover every inch of their face. Then I swatted the bus out of the air with a crazy grin plastered on my face.

“Hm, from what I can gather. It seems to be that you have some kind of aura power. I’m not that greatly informed about this type of thing but seems to be what it is. You should google psychic aura and experiment but I should warn you. So far we all seemed to have a limited duration definitely during the early days.” the man pulled out a cigar and begin lifting it up.

“I think the first two weeks of practice it was like ten minutes of usage. After that it slowly grew but for the oldest of us, it only has been about four months. Three months for me. Also, you should feel that you are slightly stronger, faster, and smarter than before. However, I have to warn you because someone just thought he was God and died. These grey-skins aren’t zombies like in the movies.”

I played around with my shadow hand then stopped upon hearing him be serious for a moment. Not like movie zombies? A reflection of the lil kid acting like a hunter came to mind.

“They will adapt just like how you are adapting to your power. They will get stronger the longer they live and they will become a nightmare to even people like us. Oh, don’t believe that bites and claws will turn people. Myth apparently the white nerds concluded that they drank your blood and then transplanted some kind of drug into you after your blood was all but gone. As long as you have a large amount of blood, you will be fine.”

Oh, make sense actually.

“So do you have any words from the government? Like when are they going to clear this stuff up?”

The guy laughed, slapping his knee.

“Clear up? This mess?”

He laughed harder and I frowned.

What’s so funny about that?

The guy turned somber all of a sudden.

“Dude, the government fell already. The virus turned six out of ten people and yet people are still turning as we speak. Until it stops raining, then this mess won’t be the end of it but good news. Rain is supposed to let up in a couple of days. Then you can run out and save whoever you want. And I have to go.”

The field vanished before I could ask the questions I wanted to.