Over the next few days, Greg continued to venture out at night, accompanying the cat girl to find the true monsters among the ferals and eliminating them, before returning to the bunker in the morning to spend the day with Sarah. Greg almost felt like he was living two lives with the severe contrast between the two time periods. The night was full of blood and death as he killed these ferals and found the signs of their atrocities, while the day was full of idle chit chat and card games. It all began to feel really surreal the more he thought about it.

The other issue was… Greg was beginning to get used to pain. Like, really used to pain. He still wasn't all that good a fighter, so every night he'd be slashed and stabbed more times than he could count, and if the feral had an ability, he'd even get burned or something. He'd been hurt so much he barely even felt it anymore.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked as she stepped out of the back room one morning to find Greg laying on the floor spread eagle, staring up at the ceiling with a dead expression.

"Inevitably." Greg grumbled. "I've determined that pain is an illusion, and once you've experienced enough of it, it doesn't even distract you anymore… I shoved a toothpick in my eye, and I felt bored."

"Y-you what?!? Why!?!" Sarah exclaimed in horror, backing away slightly.

Greg cocked his head slightly, considering the question. "Well, I've been fighting a lot, so I've experienced a lot of pain, kind of numbing me to it. Kinda felt like testing it. Plus, there's still that period of time between when I get back and you wake up and… I don't think I handle being bored very well… something about several years of having entertainment literally right at my fingertips must have ruined me."

"I-Isn't it a little much to resort to self-harm just cause you're bored?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"Probably." Greg replied with a shrug.

Sarah stared at him blankly for a moment, before shaking her head. "You're so weird."

"You aren't weird enough!" Greg retorted, pointing a finger at her, as if accusing her of some crime.

"Nyeh!" Sarah stuck her tongue out at him as she opened a cabinet, looking at the available food. "What do you want to eat?"

"Whatever." Greg waved absently, before sitting up and turning to her. "Hey, I have a question."

Sarah paused, looking at him nervously. "Yeah?"

"You, uh, do you go to the bathroom?" Greg asked awkwardly, looking slightly embarrassed.

"I-I- what?!? Why would you- are- is this some kind of fetish thing!?!" Sarah stammered, completely baffled, worried he was beginning to give in to her ability.

"Huh? No! No, it's just… well… ever since I woke up, I… haven't had to go to the bathroom. Like, at all. I haven't even had to pee! It's just… is that normal, or should I be worried." Greg elaborated.

Sarah raised her eyebrows at him. "You don't need to use the bathroom? Like at all?"

"Ah, crap, it is weird." Greg groaned. "Shit… well, it isn't like it's going to kill me… though it may cause me lots and lots of pain, which… eh?"

"Maybe you just don't need to? Like how you don't need to sleep?" Sarah offered. "If-if your body can just dissolve a toothpick, it can probably do the same for your food…"

Greg paused, considering the idea. "That's probably true… I don't have a heartbeat either, so clearly my body isn't functioning normally… huh… damnit, why does my ability seem to remove all my favorite bodily functions?" Greg grumbled with a sigh.

Sarah gave him an incredulous look. "You don't have a- You enjoy going to the bathroom?!?"

"Well, I guess I wouldn't say I enjoyed it… but, you know, it gives you time to think, or read, or whatever, no distractions. Very zen, you know?" Greg explained.

Sarah shook her head in disbelief. "You- you're just- you are so weird!"

*

The two of them were playing cards a bit later, when they heard the door begin to open. Greg got to his feet, a wary expression on his face. "Go hide in the back." He ordered Sarah, as he approached the door, ready to deal with whoever came in. Sarah nodded, rushing into the back room to hide. The door creaked open, but strangely, Greg didn't see anyone come in. "That's we- oof!" Greg let out a groan of pain as he was hit in the balls, curling over in pain.

"Sup fucker." Victor greeted him with a chuckle, throwing his arm over his shoulder as he appeared out of nowhere.

"Victor?!? What- how did- you asshole!" Greg exclaimed, elbowing him hard in the side, causing him to laugh even harder. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Didn't you call for an escort to the safe zone?" Victor replied with a grin as he walked to the door and whistled a short pattern. Not much later, Tessa came through the door, followed by four other people, which surprisingly included Casey, and the orange hoodie dude from his Calc class, who Tessa was arguing with.

"I told you it'd be safe! It's a damn safehouse!" Tessa was grumbling.

"Did you see what happened to Mark's team?!?" Orange hoodie retorted. "How could we know it had nothing to do with the situation in here?"

"Greg!" Casey exclaimed, launching herself at him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I can't believe you're okay!"

"Yeah, hey Casey." Greg patted her back absently as he looked at orange hoodie. "You said something about Mark's team?"

Orange hoodie frowned. "Yeah, did they stop here? We found them ripped to shreds and shoved into a dumpster nearby… Do you know anything about that?"

"How could he know?" Tessa scoffed, rolling her eyes. "He's been hiding in here the whole time!"

"You don't know that! Maybe he heard the noise and peaked out!" Orange hoodie retorted, before turning back to Greg. "So? Did you see anything?"

"I suppose you could say that, seeing as I'm the one who killed them." Greg nodded.

The entire team paused, looking at him in shock. Casey even let go of him, taking a step back as she gave him a cautious look. "Greg, this isn't the time for jokes." Tessa scolded him, shaking her head.

"No, he's serious." Victor commented, giving Greg an evaluating look. "I assume they deserved it?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Greg nodded. "Tried to rape a little girl. No bueno."

"Ah, good. Well done." Victor nodded in satisfaction.

"What? No! Did you see the condition their bodies were in?!?" Orange hoodie exclaimed. "They were ripped apart by some kind of feral! This guy could not have done it. Seriously, stop kidding around and tell us what really happened."

"No, I did it. Turns out, in addition to being nigh unkillable, or maybe just plain unkillable cause I really have not found the limit on this thing and believe me, I've had the opportunity to really explore… What was I saying? Right! Turns out I can also transform into things my ability has… dissolved, like the sharkman." Greg explained. "I'd show you, but… I'd have to take my pants off."

Orange hoodie paused, processing that information for a moment, before shaking his head. "Okay, even so, you're asking me to believe that Mark and his entire team tried to rape a little girl? I'm not buying it. They were good guys! They were always out here, working hard for the safe zone, even though their powers were weak! People like that don't just decide to rape someone! Where even is this little girl, huh?"

Greg gave him a weird look. "You just do not do well when things aren't the way you expected them to be, huh?"

"Dude, nailed it!" Victor commented with a clap. "I've been looking for a way to explain that for months now."

Casey groaned. "God, I forgot how annoying it is when you two get together."

Tessa, who'd been watching this entire exchange with a slight frown, shook her head and interrupted. "Greg, where is Sarah? She's not… she's okay, right?"

"Oh, yeah, she's hiding in the back." Greg explained, pointing his thumb over his shoulder, before glancing at the three other guys, particularly orange hoodie and Carlos. "One issue though… see, she does have this ability which makes her… well, slightly kind of irresistibly attractive to the opposite sex. So, control yourselves, or I'll kill you."

"I'll help." Victor chimed in with a grin. The girls didn't say anything, but they couldn't help but give the other two guys strange looks.

"Alright, Sarah! You can come out now." Greg shouted back. Sarah peeked around the corner nervously, before hesitantly stepping out. Quickly walking over to hide behind Greg's back.

"Fuck me." The guy Greg didn't know groaned, turning around and facing the wall, leaning against it with both arms. Orange hoodie just stared at her with a slightly dazed expression, before the girl Greg didn't know elbowed him in the side, causing him to flush in embarrassment.

"Man, that's an insidious ability." Victor clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "If you hadn't told me, I might have had to kill myself as a vile pedophile."

"Right? Imagine how I felt before she told me. I can't even kill myself! How terrible would it be to be an immortal degenerate?" Greg replied in agreement.

Victor patted him on the shoulder. "You have suffered, friend."

Greg grinned, shaking his head. "Not your friend, buddy."

Victor let out a short laugh, before retorting. "Not your buddy, guy!" And they both burst into laughter.

"For the love of- How are you two able to joke around like we're still in college, while these two seem to be struggling just to keep their pants up?" Casey asked, rolling her eyes and gesturing at the other two.

"It's quite simple really." Victor shrugged. He pointed at Greg and himself. "The strong." He then pointed towards the other two. "The weak. Of course, we already knew Carlos was weak to women." He commented, waving at the guy who seemed to be actively praying as he leaned against the wall. "Jakey-poo over here though…" Victor shook his head and clicked his tongue. "I'm disappointed man."

"Shut up, Victor!" Jake growled, clearly getting himself under control. "It was a momentary lapse!"

Victor opened his mouth to continue, when the girl Greg didn't know interrupted him. "Lay off, Victor. You know Jake wouldn't actually do anything. He's embarrassed enough."

"Fine, fine, if you insist." Victor raised his hands in acquiescence.

With all that nonsense out of the way, everyone began to settle in for the night, planning on heading out in the morning. They decided to split up, the girls hanging out in the back and the guys hanging out in the living room. As much as everyone seemed to be able to resist her influence by this point, it didn't seem like a good idea to force everyone to actually do so for an extended period of time.

Once they were alone, Greg gave Carlos a serious look. "Are you going to be okay man? I'm not going to need to… you know, right?"

Carlos shook his head. "No, no, I'm not worried about doing anything… it's the thoughts man, the thoughts! Girl gets into my imagination, she'll never get out. I don't want that, nope, nope, no sir!"

"Don't worry Greg, Carlos will be fine. He's like a puppy. Full of emotion, but innocent at heart. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body." Victor explained.

Greg shot him a look that said he didn't quite buy it. "Jake said similar things about Mark's group too, and I know what I had to do there."

Victor shook his head. "Jake isn't the best judge of character. He thinks doing good things means you're a good person, like the majority of charities weren't tax shelters."

"Oh, he's one of those people. Gotcha." Greg nodded along.

"Guys, I'm sitting right here!" Jake exclaimed in exasperation. "And how is that wrong? Good people do good things!"

"Yes, but not everyone who does good things is a good person." Victor explained. "It's like everyone who works gets paid, but not everyone who gets paid works. The result does not determine the reason. Lots of people do good things solely for personal gain."

"Of course, the majority of people do what they do for at least some personal gain. Just the way life works. Even doctors who sincerely want to help people want to be paid for what they do. It's a rare person who is willing to give their all without asking for anything in return." Greg agreed with a nod.

Jake frowned. "But what about people who give money to the homeless? Or volunteer at charities?"

"Oh, people will do little things for others, don't get me wrong. I'm talking about dedicating their life to helping others, like Mother Theresa or something." Greg explained.

Jake shook his head. "So what, everyone is just out for their own gain? No one's just doing things out of the goodness of their own heart?"

"Uh, duh? I mean, you pretty much have to work for personal gain. Even if you want to be charitable, you need to have something to be charitable with. Someone who can barely feed themselves doesn't have the time to go help build a house for free. You can only give from your excess. That's just how it works." Greg replied.

Jake continued to think about it, getting lost in thought while Victor turned to Greg. "So, what have you been up to? Tessa told us she found you on campus, but not much else."

"Well, that's pretty much it honestly. I've apparently been asleep since the Apocalypse happened. I went from sitting in class to waking up to this girl in my face and everything going all terrifying." Greg answered.

"Seriously?" Victor checked Greg over. "Huh… you'd never know."

"How about you? What have you been up to?" Greg asked.

"Oh, you know, surviving. I got out of the initial chaos pretty cleanly due to my ability. I can go unnoticeable, so I can stand right next to someone, playing the violin, badly and they'd never know. It does lose some effect at longer distances, but there aren't a lot of ferals who can attack at long range, so it doesn't particularly matter.” Victor explained. "Anyway, eventually I met up with these guys as they were escaping campus. They'd grouped up because Casey and Jake were in class together when shit went down, and Jake found Carlos and Brittany because they were friends, while Tessa was Brittany's roommate."

"Brittany is the other girl?" Greg asked, interrupting.

"Yeah. Anyways, as fate would have it, we'd all managed to become supers. Casey got pyrokinesis, Jake got telekinesis, Carlos can make force fields, Brittany can make illusions, and I assume you already know Tessa's ability. Our abilities let us survive as we moved from place to place, finding food where we could, until eventually we settled down in the Downtown Clan, forming a team and venturing into the danger zone for supplies." Victor finished blandly.

"Neat." Greg nodded in appreciation.

"You are both terrible at telling stories." Carlos commented, shaking his head.