Mike checked their surroundings.

No zombies had appeared since the ones he’d killed earlier. A few doors were opened to the walkway but most apartments were shut tight.

Inside some of those rooms, were more zombies. In others were students too scared to leave. Every closed door was a gamble.

Mike had no desire to hold people’s hands and explain the way things worked now. Not to a bunch of people who would inevitably refuse to believe him.

He had even less desire to watch them cringe away from his  intimidating new size and looks.

Things would go infinitely smoother with several system users sharing the same story and showing off their new powers. The proof needed to be overwhelming for people to believe the truth.

For years Hollywood had been preparing the masses for a zombie Apocalypse. Absurd as it was, people would accept zombies. It was unlikely the same could be said about game-like leveling and magic skills.

It was easier to ignore closed doors for the time being.

Yunah agreed after he explained his his thought process. She was naturally a quiet person. The idea of putting herself out there to comfort desperate strangers held even less appeal to her than it did to him.

Together they worked their way toward the elevators, hoping to find the girl who’d turned, in front of Sara and her, earlier.

The car was no longer on the fourth floor. Pressing the button they recalled it and waited. It arrived empty, the back wall was covered in bloody handprints. Sitting alone on the floor, in a puddle of blood, was someone’s hand – minus a pinky.

They recalled the other elevator just to check. It was cleaner, without any signs of mutilation. It was also empty.

Conferring quietly they decided to check the girl’s side before risking moving between floors.

As a form of vertical travel the elevators were out. If the power ever cut off they’d turn into a death trap. They really wasn’t a choice. When the time came, they’d have to take the stairwell.

There was nothing wrong with taking the stairs exactly. They just made a lot of noise. Considering the zombies were attracted to noise taking the stairs meant gathering every zombie that could reach them into one big mob.

One on one zombies were creepy and abnormally strong. In numbers they were exponentially more dangerous.

It turned out to be an non-issue for the moment.

As soon as they rounded the corner they found a a half dozen wandering zombies. There were a couple intent on entering an apartment across the way, but the other four were all moving alone.

It was a zombie hunter’s dream. None of the lone zombies could quickly react to any of the others being killed.

Mike took it upon himself to confirm the theory by slamming his bat into the nearest zombie’s shoulder knocking it to the ground. A second blow against its temple settled things.

“Grab the crystal from that one. I’ll go ahead and get a couple more while they’re spread out. Let me know if the crystal works. If it does you’ll go blind for a few seconds. Don’t freak out your sight will come back quickly.” Mike took a breath, visually planning his path through the zombies. “If it doesn’t work I’ll need to cripple one of these bastards for you to knife so you get the credit for killing it.”

He hadn’t really needed to say any of it. They’d gone over the basic plan a couple of times already. None of it was rocket science.

He spoke anyway attempting to project confidence. If nothing else, as long as Yunah thought he was calm and in control she would be less likely to panic and run away. The last thing he needed was to suddenly find himself alone and surrounded by zombies.

Not that the remaining five zombies were enough to worry him by themselves. It was more practice, for the future, than anything.

The bigger a badass people thought he was, the easier it would be to get his way on important decisions later.

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Like for instance on sending groups out to check on the smaller towns nearby. He’d rather not have to go find his family alone. He would if he had to, but having a team watching his back would make things easier. He wasn’t a masochist.

Seeing Yunah nod, Mike smiled grimly and charged the next zombie with his shoulder lowered. It would have been safer to pull up and use his bat. He knew that, but he wanted to test the waters. It was important to know his new limits and to search for more efficient zombie hunting methods.

If the world was full-on-zombie-movie, like he feared, stopping short and killing them with bats just meant taking longer to be overrun.

The zombie stumbled backwards, not quite falling over and Mike took the opening to destroy its knee followed quickly by its brain. The one-two punch of low-high worked great one-on-one.

Unfortunately Mike didn’t think it would once the zombies were packed wall to wall coming at him. By then he’d need to be destroying the brain in one swing, every swing, or running away as fast as he could move.

Moving to take a third zombie on he could hear Yunah behind him shout “I can’t see.”

Smirking he reminded her, “that means it’s working. Give it a second.”

He paused his advice, stepping up to give a full-bodied, measured, swing against his newest zombie punching bag.

The blow connected with a sickening smacking sound and the zombie’s head separated from its body, now more jellied brains than solid matter. Mike’s smile grew, even as his stomach lurched.

“See the wheel of light?” He prompted as he searched for the fourth loner zombie. Spotting it moving around the walkway toward him he started toward it at a fast walk.

“It’s there,” Yunah sounded relieved and Mike allowed himself a soft laugh.

“What you didn’t believe us?” He teased, but whether from embarrassment or nerves she didn’t respond.

The zombie shuffled into range of his swing and Mike leveled it. That left the last two at the door he thought to himself looking up to find them. He cursed as he saw they were missing.

Given that the apartment’s layout made the girls side one big square with an open air drop in the middle, it wasn’t hard to spot the missing zombie couple. They were headed right for poor blind Yunah and they were much closer to her than he was.

Cursing his lack of awareness Mike took off running.

Leaping the rotting corpses he was pleased both with his unexpected speed and his newfound agility. Even if he’d trained for years, without the system he would never have had the grace he was showing in his mad dash to save his newest companion.

In the end the suspense really wasn’t that suspenseful. Only a level two and already Mike was several times the man he had been. Even he underestimated his growth. Rounding the last corner he flew into the two zombie women taking then to the ground. A rough approximation of jujitsu aided by muscles that could now easily bend rebar and two necks snapped within moments of each other.

Mike stood, panting as Yunah gasped. He turned to see her looking at him and how close the zombies had gotten to her. He shrugged with a laugh.

“Sorry. I was having too much fun I guess.” He offered.

He was completely missing what Yunah was gasping about in the first place. In the time it took for her to join the system he’d killed all five of the remaining zombies. The last two barehanded.

Without anyone to compare him to he came across looking like a monster.

Yunah was glad he was on her side.

Still misinterpreting their little exchange, Mike, felt an awkward need for small talk. So he asked, “What was your reward?”

“Huh?” Yunah looked at him confused.

“Check the exclamation point in the top right.”

Her eyes unfocused as she followed his directions. A heartbeat later a cube of blue light formed in front of her. Yunah reached out and touched it causing the cube to dissolve into particles of light.

Floating where the box had been was a single edged sword. Basically a katana it had a straight spine and held an imprint number stamped into the blade, suggesting it had been mass produced.

Despite possibily being from a factory line it was still an amazing sword. With a guard of golden metal and a hilt wrapped tightly in red leather and capped with a golden pommel cap, the blade shone with a dull business like shine.

Yunah – excited – took it in hand and began to work through what seemed to be a kendo kata. The sword whistled through the air. As Yunah moved fluidly her speed grew along with her grace.

Suddenly she stepped toward a nearby room and struck out. Her blade flashed through the closed door like it wasn’t even there. A kick sent the bottom half into the apartment.

Before Mike could stop her she darted inside. He heard faint noises of a struggle but by the time he followed her in Yunah had dispatched two zombie coeds.

“I claim these two. If you’ll let me have another one of your kills I’ll be a level two. You can take the rest and you should make level three. Then we can go back?”

The way Yunah talked it was all a question. But she surprised him anyway. Had she changed so much just from joining the system? The Yunah of earlier in the morning wouldn’t have been half as impulsive. And she definitely wouldn’t have presumed to offer directions to him.

The new Yunah didn’t bug him though. Her plans were solid. Mike didn’t want to be in charge so much as he wanted to avoid following an idiot.

As soon as his Mom and sister were safe he would gladly become someone competent’s number two. Even being a faceless grunt wasn’t beneath him as long as the person at the top wasn’t carelessly risking people’s lives.

And Yunah hadn’t even made her plans demands but suggestions. Which made Mike smile. He could definitely work with her.

But he really would need to watch people who joined the system and observe their changes. It might not always be for the better.

Yunah had been shy to the point of it being a problem. Her suddenly becoming more confident and communicative was a great thing. On the other hand if it was someone already confident, they might come out disastrously arrogant.

Maybe he was worried over nothing but he’d feel better if someone was paying attention. It was better than everyone ignoring the potential problem staring them in the face.