According to the horse man, he wasn't actually a member of the Radius organization at the Underground City. He had the powers of a Radius but just like me and Sunshine, he didn’t want to be associated with them. His name was actually Jesus Hernandez, but my daughter still called him “horse man” on our way back to our training spot.

Jesus told us a bit about his past. He was a former member of the Radius and left due to…reasons he couldn't disclose. Apparently, the group was made up of Captains and Lieutenants. Guys like Kofi and that old hag Teresa were captains while Dante and this Horse Man were lieutenants. What determined whether you were a captain was if your ability could 'fix the effects' of the apocalypse.

I guess forcefields and explosions weren't important enough. Though, I had no idea how electricity and being…really tough were any better.

In exchange for that information, we told him everything that had happened to us in the past week. How I became a zombie, Dante kidnapping my daughter. The Underground City, the Radius–and most importantly, my daughter’s predicament.

Out of all the things we talked about, there was one thing I still needed to know as we returned to where we came from. Something that’s been on my mind for that entire ten minute walk…

“Jesus! Why the hell are you naked in front of my kid!?” I asked angrily, shielding Sunshine’s eyes from the horrible sight. “Put some damn clothes on, already!”

Jesus burst out with a loud neigh, shaking his horse head back and forth. “Seriously? You’re asking me a question about something as irrelevant as that? You could’ve asked about my powers, my amazing horse head! But noo, you want to ask about clothing?”

“Ok, I’ll give you this. You got a good, muscular body, like those professional wrestlers back in our day. But you can’t be-”

“Oooh, I get it now. You’re afraid your daughter’s going to think I’m cooler than you!”

He must’ve thought he was the greatest detective in the world after that half-baked conclusion.

“You are not cooler than me. Isn’t that right, Sunshine?” I gently shook her shoulders. “Tell him how much cooler your dad is than him!”

“Hmm, you’re cool, Jerome. But that sword explosion move was like…really cool!” she exclaimed, her eyes brightening.

“No way! Even cooler than my ability!?”

Suddenly, Jesus appeared before me and brought my hand to his face. “What is your ability, by the way? You said the Radius were really interested in it, but I wonder what a Radion could have that makes it so special.”

I was just about to answer, but Sunshine decided to do it for me. “He can absorb energy and then shoot it out in these really strong blasts!”

“Huh? Seriously?” he said in disbelief. “That sounds cool. Lemme see!”

“I don’t really have enough ene-”

Something was taken from me. Something important. My…arm. My arm!

This guy just cut off my arm! Shit! He was one of them after all!

Before I could process what to do next, another explosion erupted from the man’s sword. But it was different this time. It was silent. Completely silent. A stark contrast to the loud boom it created earlier.

It also wasn't painful–not because the explosion was weak but because I didn't feel anything from it. Neither did Sunshine, who simply stood there with a shocked expression. Did he purposely stop the attack from doing damage? But then why-

Oh, I see what he wants from me.

I aimed the arm stump at the energy, squeezing what I had left there. Then, the stump began to drink the energy like water, a huge amount of power flowing into my body as the environment around us became visible again. Miraculously, with the explosion now inside of my body, my arm regrew almost instantly.

“Wow,” said Jesus, spinning the handle of his katana on his finger. “That was more impressive than I thought.”

“That was crazy! Never do that again!”

“That was amazing! Please do that again!”

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Jesus readied his blade. “Whatever you say, little lady!”

“Hell no!” I screamed, jumping back.

“Yeah, you’re right,” said the horse man, approaching my severed arm. He then picked it up and sank his fingers through the slick, sinewy muscle, the disgusting act somehow intriguing my daughter to come closer to him. After feeling around and asking him what he was doing with my arm for a few minutes, he finally paused. “We don’t have any more time to be fooling around. Especially since there was a tracker inside of you.”

“What?” I made my way back to the two. “Tracker as in…tracking us!?”

“Yes,” he replied, pulling out a tiny black device. There was a green light blinking at its corner. “You two said you left the Underground City two days ago? That is truly unfortunate. You gave them enough time to prepare and follow you to your location.”

Upon hearing this, I swiped the tracker from his hand and crushed it between my fingers. “Alright, that handles it, right?”

“No,” answered Sunshine. “If they had one inside you, then that would mean there’s a tracker inside me too, right Jesus?”

“Spot on, kid. I was just about to say that.”

“Then where is it? Inside her clothes?” I checked through her hoodie, shoes and pants but I didn’t find anything suspicious.

“Am I the only one who sees that big scar on your cheek?” Jesus asked Sunshine, pointing at the wound. “The tracker would obviously be in there. Though, I don’t see any noticeable stitches.”

“Oh, that’s not from any tracker being put inside of me,” she corrected. “Some big hockey mask guy cut me with a knife-no, a machete.”

“Oh no, don’t tell me Jason did that? That guy was always so…Neeeeigh! Are you telling me that big ass cut healed in only two days!?”

“Yeah, yeah, my daughter’s always been a quick healer. That’s not important right now! How do we find this tracker?”

“Well, I do have this one technique I could use. It was easier to find it in you since your body is made of radioactive energy but I guess if she’s a Radius, then I could try it on her.”

“Wait, you’re not gonna try and cut her, ar-”

“Check her back,” Jesus interrupted.

“Her back…?” I lifted up Sunshine’s hoodie and, to my dismay, there was a long, curved scar on the middle of her back, carefully stitched. “Damn. There really is one inside of her. Those Radius guys just don’t give up.”

“Horse Man, how’d you do that? There was like this…green energy surrounding you. It made my body feel weird.”

“Ah, so you were able to see that, little lady? Eres buena. Basically, I-”

“We don’t have time for some long explanation. How do we get this out of her!”

“We could try one way.” Jesus lifted his horse head a little, enough so that we wouldn’t see his face, and revealed a small mark on his neck. It looked like it had been stitched up by a complete amateur and there was still a red hue underneath the old wound.

He then pointed his sword at the scar and said “I did this myself. Mine was a little sloppy but I’ll make sure to be gentle with the girl.”

My body tensed. “We can’t just do that now.” My voice was troubled. “We would need proper medical tools, anesthesia-”

“Anesthesia?” he cut off, sounding genuinely confused by my perfectly reasonable response. “She doesn’t need anesthesia. The hell are you doing raising a pussy in the apocalypse?”

“She’s nine! We can’t just cut her open without actual medical assistance.”

“It doesn’t matter how old she is, man. It’s time for your kid to grow up and face some real pain. Besides, if we don’t do it now, more of those Radius guys are gonna show up. We probably have one their way over here, right now.”

I knew the guy was right but still…what if we botch the whole damn thing and she bleeds to death! Plus, the tracker is so small, one of us will have to dig through the open wound just to find it. I can’t put Sunshine through all that pain!

I was about to make my final decision on the matter when Jesus randomly began to…float in the air. No, it was more like dangling in the air. First, he can make explosions and now he can fly!?

“Guys, this is a rather unfortunate thing for me to say, but the enemy has found us.”

He spoke in such a lax tone that I thought he was joking at first. That was until he was flung into the air, crashing into a tree a couple meters away from us.

“Sunshine, run! Now!” I yelled, preparing a battle stance.

She quickly obeyed but she only got a few steps in before she was lifted by her neck. “Jerome! It’s a hand! A person is doing this!”

From that new information she screamed out, I had a feeling of what she wanted me to do. I charged toward the invisible figure but when I threw my punch, my fist didn’t connect with anything.

“Why didn’t you just use your finger gun move!?” she said exasperatedly, descending back to her feet. “We trained for this, remember?”

“Yeah, and how did that work out! I missed all my shots last time, remember?”

“Then, I’ll just get him to grab me again and you can-”

“Are you crazy!? What if I shoot you by accident?”

“This is perfect, chicos!” shouted Jesus, leaning on the tree he was thrown at. “Little lady! I think it’s time to see if you can use Energy Sense!”

“Energy Sense…sounds cool! That’s what you used to find my tracker, right?”

“Yep! And it’s the only way you two are gonna win this fight!”

“What do you mean ‘you two'? You better help us out instead of just sitting there!”

He completely ignored me.