We had directions to the sporting goods store, but the accuracy of those directions, considering they came from several people, was questionable.

Still, we at least knew its general direction. Worst case scenario, we climbed to the top of a building and did some scouting.

We had also packed two days worth of food. If we didn't immediately find it, we'd need to stay the night somewhere.

The location was several miles away. Normally this would be a long distance to cover since we'd be bouncing from building to building.

But with everyone's abilities and items, we decided that a bit more of an aggressive and direct approach was acceptable.

Elijah took the lead, Kait was in the rear, and Kevin stood guard right next to me. They were serious about keeping the pressure off of me, and I felt a little fuzzy at their genuine support.

Like that, we trekked through the city. We tried to stick to back alleyways, but if that wasn't an option then we just marched down the sidewalks. Any zombies in our way were promptly decapitated, and any groups that attempted to close in on us were evaded with a simple entry into a building.

We made fantastic time. We didn't know how far we'd gone, but our list of directions was being checked off one by one. The entire time, my skeleton was constantly gathering Ectoplasm, my stash rising to a whopping 73 Ectoplasm. I didn't use any yet, but I was absolutely planning out its distribution.

By noon, we had crossed six miles, and my checklist had been almost entirely crossed off. We were getting near.

At that time, Elijah suddenly put up his arm and stopped in his tracks. We all stopped behind him.

He pointed, and we followed with our vision. We were on a sidewalk and this street was somewhat thin of zombies. At the end of his finger though was... a Screamer.

I quickly recognized its bloated torso, long skinny legs, and unhinged jaw. It was just standing in the middle of the street, its head on a swivel.

While we were frozen, its head turned toward us. None of us moved, but we were panicked as it reacted violently. It seemed to gurgle and cough, and when air suddenly began to flood its chest...

I found my hand reaching for my revolver, unholstering it from under my slung arm and aiming at the Screamer.

*SCREEEEEE!!!*

Even as it began screaming, I calmly took aim, disregarding the shaking of my eardrums.

*BANG!*

An even louder sound suddenly rocked the city, echoing off all the surrounding buildings. With it, everything turned silent.

I lowered my smoking gun. It had a lot of recoil, but in front of my strength and decent shooting experience, it didn't affect me much.

I looked beyond the revolvers sights at my target. The Screamer scrambled, but since my ears were ringing from the shot, I couldn't make out whatever sounds it was making.

But it was distressed, no doubt because of the giant bloody hole in its torso. An entire chunk was torn out, and blood was pouring from it and dying the street an unhealthy red.

My skeleton, which had been summoned, suddenly rushed forward. It shoved past the lingering zombies in front of it and came down on top of the Screamer, cleaving with its axe.

I could imagine the sound as it split the Screamer down the middle.

----------------------------------------

{[Skeleton Sentry] has killed a [Screamer - Type 1]}

{You have gained [Ectoplasm - Type 1] (x5)}

----------------------------------------

There were no rewards like the first time we'd killed a Screamer, but that was alright. I liked the Ectoplasm.

My skeleton killed a few zombies as it retreated to me, pushing my Ectoplasm count to 80.

"Let's go!"

Suddenly, I was grabbed by Kevin. He pulled me along as we followed Elijah.

With all the noise, zombies would definitely be attracted to this area. That meant we needed to get away fast.

We slipped into an alleyway. I looked back just before we entered, making sure Kait was with us. She was, keeping right on my tail.

Before we turned the corner though, I saw a dark figure perch itself on a building roof. That silhouette that I could see beyond Kait's shoulder sent a small chill down my spine.

We continued on, disappearing into a forest of concrete.

...........

We found the sporting goods store.

It had some zombies in it, but nothing we couldn't easily handle. After a few minutes of clearing the store, we got to searching.

Kevin was in charge of finding the bow, a chore he was more than happy to carry out. As for the rest of us, we wandered and eyed anything that might look valuable.

And well...

"Everything here is valuable..."

I was stumped. There were camping supplies, survival kits, tools, and myriads of other items that were infinitely useful in this apocalypse. And if it were just a bit of supplies, then that'd be fine.

But the entire store was a treasure trove. There was almost too much, and if physically pained me that we couldn't take everything with us back to our hideout.

"Yes! Found it!"

Suddenly I heard a shout. I made my way over to the excited Kevin.

He was holding a bow. A compound bow, specifically, one that was definitely powerful. Bows often had different draw strengths, and he had picked the strongest one.

Along with bows were all kinds of arrows, from rubber tipped to razor tipped. He took these as well. Although he could only use his ability with an empty bow, there was no reason not to have backups.

I nodded as he plucked the string of his new toy.

"Fit your requirements?"

He smiled. "Any bow would, really. I just need something to launch arrows. Now, I can finally use my abilities."

He messed around a bit more with it. He found himself wanting to take more than one. I was of like mind. In fact, if we could take every bow and arrow in this place, we could arm a small platoon of archers with reusable ammo. That would increase our strength tremendously.

Occasionally, my mind drifted back to that silhouette I saw. A stalker whose eyes I swore were targeting us like a predator...

I told the others about it, but we hadn't spotted anything on our way here. It made me even more worried.

At some point, Elijah and Kait made their way over. Kait grabbed one of the other bows, and seemed to read my mind.

"I wish we could take all this stuff..."

"Yes! How much better off would we all be with this hardware?" I let out a grunt. "Do we really have to leave all this behind?"

"The only way we could transport even a fraction of this stuff would be with a truck." Elijah pondered.

My eyes suddenly lit up. "I saw trucks outside the store. They were all parked. If we could find the keys... Perhaps the corpses? Maybe one of them owns one of the trucks."

Kait jumped. "I'll start looking!"

She ran off excitedly. Elijah frowned though.

"Even if we get one of the trucks, driving is a problem. The streets are covered in crashed cars."

"Do you think maneuvering around them is a possibility? We could even ram some. Plus, some of the streets are rather clear. Get through the congested areas and we'd be fine. Zombies aren't an issue either." I threw out some possible solutions.

"Maybe." He glanced through some windows that gave a view of the outside. "If we get the right truck and move carefully, I don't see why we couldn't at least try."

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

"In that case, let's find these keys and start picking out items we want." I turned and looked at the corpses along the floor. There were always many human corpses that riddled the place, but we always subconsciously ignored them.

At that moment though, we heard movement. All three of us spun around. And because I thought it was that stalker zombie, I summoned my skeleton. Kevin even conjured an arrow in his bow, drawing it back with surprising reflex. It seemed like he was taking to his ability well.

When we all saw the source of the noise though, we stopped in our tracks.

It was a boy, no older than 12. He looked at us with a hand axe, holding it with intimidating intentions yet betrayed by his terrified expression.

I recalled my skeleton that stood over him like a monster. Elijah walked over to him the next moment, though maintaining a suitable distance.

"Who are you, kid? What's your name?" He squatted down, lowering himself.

"L-Luke."

"Hello, Luke." He smiled, trying to look as friendly as possible. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"I was hiding..." He stammered, seemingly unsure of what to say. "I was... I wanted to find help..."

"Help? For what?" Although it seemed like a stupid question considering the apocalypse and all, both Elijah and I could tell that there was something else going on.

Luke looked around warily, lowering his axe and tone. "My... friends. We don't have any more food..."

"You have friends? So there are survivors." Elijah's eyes widened. He suddenly stood up, walking up to the kid.

"Take us to your friends. We can help them." He spoke seriously, perhaps with a bit more of a commanding tone than he intended.

But, hearing that they were willing to help, Luke noticeably brightened up. He nodded before walking, waving for us to follow.

Elijah walked beside the kid. It didn't take long for him to lead us to a back section of the store we hadn't seen before.

He opened a door, and I imagined the scene inside like rats scurrying away from sudden light.

There were eight people by my quick count, and all of them were huddled within this small office room. There was one adult woman, and the rest were kids besides one teen. That teen even held a spear, pointing it at us in obvious defense.

"Luke!" The kid with the spear snarled, looking at us warily. He didn't look older than 15. "I told you to stay inside! I also told you to stay away from outsiders!"

The teen's spear moved more toward Luke, as if having dubbed him an outsider as well.

For a moment, I looked past the teen, my eyes falling on the woman inside. She was slumped against one of the walls, pale and weak. Her stomach was also bulging... she was pregnant.

I moved beside Elijah and Luke. "Elijah. Give that woman some food and water, now. And find out how's she's doing."

"Stay away!" The teen shouted before thrusting his spear forward. Elijah raised his arm, and the spear poked his coat. It couldn't pierce through, merely nudging his body.

At the same time, I grabbed the spear. My face was twisted in anger as I yanked it forward and kicked the teen in the gut, sending him to the floor without his weapon.

He gasped as the wind was knocked out of his lungs. I ignored him for a moment, patting Elijah's back. "Go. Check her."

"Got it." He nodded, hurrying over and bypassing the other scared kids.

With that, I looked down at the teen who had barely pulled himself up to his hands and knees. He was coughing, in pain yet scared enough to conjure strength and back away from me.

I followed him as he pushed himself against one of the walls. He looked up at me, using rage to mask his fear.

I squatted down, taking on a threatening stature. "Have you calmed down? Considering this spear is an awakened weapon, you've killed your fair share of zombies. Impressive, but you should know that your fellow humans aren't the enemies."

I smiled a bit and looked at the spear in my hands.

----------------------------------------

{Black Spear}

Type 1

Stage 2

Damage: 16 - 28

Durability: 130/130

A Black Spear forged through the fires of vengeance.

Remarks: A valuable weapon for some, an over-glorified toothpick for others.

----------------------------------------

I was impressed that a kid could get his hands on such a weapon. It was a good quality spear about two meters long, a good size for the teen.

The teen didn't seem to like my remarks though, snarling in anger.

"It's the apocalypse, dumbass! You can't trust anyone! Everyone could be an enemy."

"Seriously?" My face turned incredulous, almost smiling in disbelief. "Everyone could be an enemy? You know, you're still a teen, and I'm not too much older than you, so I'll save you the speech as to why you're stupid for believing that."

I move forward a bit more, pressuring him and getting in his face. I don't know why, but teenagers like this irked me in an indescribable way.

My voice got lower. "The apocalypse has indeed come. The world is facing a crisis never before seen throughout all of history. All sense of order has been thrown out the window. But that doesn't mean we cave in to anarchy. Answer me this! When an enemy attacks you, what do you do?!"

The teen recoiled at my raised voice. When he didn't immediately answer me, I yelled again. "Answer me! What do you do when an enemy attacks?!"

"F-fight back..." His voice was small and showed how scared and uncomfortable he was.

"Obviously!" I didn't back off. "Well guess what? Zombies have appeared all over the world! Humanity is now under attack! This is a war! And during a war, what do you not do?!"

This time, I didn't wait for a response. "You don't! Attack! Your! Allies!" I annunciated every word, as if drilling it into his brain. "What kind of sick son of a bitch do you have to be to automatically assume everyone is your enemy?! When our nation, our world, is attacked, we stand up, band together, and fight back! We don't stab everyone that offers help!"

After letting out those words, I stood and backed off. I looked over at Elijah who was still checking on the woman. "How is she?"

"It seems she's a bit sick, but otherwise fine. She hasn't woken up though..." He answered back.

"Well try and wake her. She needs to get food into her system, especially with a baby. Here, give her my stuff." I tossed my bag over, Elijah catching it and opening it for the supplies within. Since I wasn't fighting on the way here, I had carried most of the supplies.

As Elijah got to shaking the woman awake, I turned back to the teen. "Get up."

He did as I said, pulling himself to his feet. Though, he seemed much more timid than the boy who only recently tried to spear a human.

I shoved the spear into his arms. "We're here to help, and whether you like it or not, you're going to receive our help. And from now on, I better see that spear pointed at zombies, and zombies only. Your energy will go into helping those around you, not being a reclusive asshole who grounds people to a dark office room."

"...I was helping..."

"What was that?" I frowned as he muttered under his breath.

He turned his head up, raising his voice. "I said I was helping! I kept them safe!"

He pointed to everyone in the room. I glanced at them before looking back at him deadpan.

"Starving them doesn't seem like helping. Luke told me you guys ran out of food. What were you going to do, huh? You told them not to leave. You told them not to go looking for outsiders. Were you going to somehow steal a bunch of twinkies and feed everyone? You were holed up inside this room. Doesn't seem like you were helping to me!"

"I was making sure they didn't attract enemies!"

"Attracting enemies is a necessary risk! Staying in here without doing anything is no better than killing yourselves!"

"Jack..."

Suddenly, Kevin grabbed my shoulder from behind.

I stopped and turned around, glancing at him before letting out a sharp breath and walking off.

"I'm going to find Kait. Take care of that pregnant woman, and feed these kids. Start preparing to sleep here for the night. We're not leaving anytime soon."

I disappeared into the store with those words, leaving Kevin to sigh and start handing out food to the emaciated children.

...........

I heard some footsteps, but I didn't turn around. I continued staring off into the distance from atop the roof, seeing If I could spot that stalker.

Elijah appeared beside me. He kept silent for a while, perhaps formulating his words.

"...You didn't have to be so harsh. I wasn't even hurt."

"It wasn't about you getting hurt," I responded almost immediately. "Humanity is at risk of going extinct, and that stupid kid wanted to attack his own."

"He's 15, Jack." He sighed. "Put yourself in his shoes. A 15 year old in high school suddenly collapses in pain one day, only to find that the people around him have turned into zombies. He had to personally kill zombies in order to get that spear. I'd say he's done far more than any 15 year old should."

"I don't care." I spoke directly. "He needed to use his brain. He should've been looking for help, for food, in order to keep himself and those kids alive."

"He was stressed!" Elijah turned his whole body toward me. "What more should he have done? He's not at fault!"

"Yes, he is!" I turned as well, anger twisting my features.

"I don't care that he's only 15! I don't care if he was stressed! This is the damned apocalypse! His actions were going to kill those people! I can already see it! He would've waited, too scared to venture outside, and would've become weak from lack of food. And when he finally did leave out of sheer starvation and desperation, he would've been too weak to fight any zombies, ending with his death. And with him dead, all those children could only wait to starve to death inside that room. Or maybe wander out themselves in search of food only to get eaten by zombies!"

I snarled. "He needed to do more! As the only one capable of taking care of those people, it was his responsibility to ensure their wellbeing! The only alternative was death for all of them! So it doesn't matter that he was stressed! I'd rather him be ten times as stressed as he is now, fighting for his life in order to feed those people, instead of giving in to the pressure and letting them die! It's a shitty situation, but that's the world now!"

My breathing was labored, and upon finishing, I pulled back with a deep breath. My gaze turned back to the landscape beyond, as if I were trying to hide something.

Elijah took a long look at me, eventually shaking his head. "Yea, it's a shitty situation..."

He paused for a bit, letting a breeze pass before opening his mouth. "Are you worried about the people at the store?"

"Obviously." I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "There's too much that needs to be done. We need supplies, we need weapons, we need to expand, and the zombies are going to be getting stronger... Just getting a system in place to manage everything is a convoluted process."

"You know that's a job for the adults right?" Elijah suddenly smiled.

I looked oddly at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're taking on the jobs that adults should be. And I mean people like our head coach. A 20 year old shouldn't be trying to form and lead a community in this hellish apocalypse."

'Just like how a 15 year old shouldn't be killing zombies.' I seemed to subconsciously finish his sentence in my mind.

I scoffed, perhaps at both him and myself. "Hey, I didn't see anybody else stepping up."

Elijah scratched his head. "You didn't really give them a chance... but yea, I get what you're saying. Still, that's a lot to take on."

"Well someone's gotta do it, and we're the ones with powers now. Besides, you've been taking the leadership role too." I glanced at him.

"Not like you've been." He shook his head. "I've just been doing some talking and fighting. You've been figuring out all the survival stuff. I'm actually impressed with how much you know."

"It's not a matter of smarts." I rebutted. "It's just a matter of seeing what we need to do and articulating it. I'm sure everything I've said would've been thought of anyway."

Elijah sighed. "Give yourself more credit, Jack. It's not easy to do any of what you did. There's a reason good leaders are scarce... Anyway, let's head back down. Night will be coming soon, and I think everyone's ready to lock themselves in a room."

"Alright."

I nodded, and after taking one last look at the landscape around us, followed Elijah back down.