“I need to go back down,” Tala told Troy who nodded his head, limping toward the elevator right along with her.

Her ankle hurt, but it was nothing she could not handle.

Besides, this was not close to the worst injury she suffered, so she knew her ankle would heal. Not instantly. It would take a few hours. Half a day. Her SR energy would go down and she would eat all she could to replenish it. And sleep. Sleep would do her good. But first, she needed to go out and find the group. She was not ready to lose anyone anymore.

“You do not look good. Are you sure?” Troy asked her.

“I have no time to waste. I need to go. You secure the place after me,”

“Will do.”

She turned her backpack over the front table, emptying it all out there, the boxes of different medicine piling up and a few bottles of the energizer drinks she got out of the pharmacy.

“But you’re hurt. Don’t you want Lorain to look you over?” Drew asked from behind.

“I told you! Stay next to the radio! I feel it’s all wrong. I know I need to go,” she sighed and just like that pushed herself toward the elevator.

For as big and old as Lorain was, she came running toward Tala very fast.

“Let me see your ankle,” she asked her. "Please, Tala, you do not need to be so tough."

“Nothing to see. It’s just sprained,” she said and lifted up her running pants revealing her ankle that had already swollen to the size of an orange.

“This does not look good. You have to get off your feet,” Lorain insisted. "It's the only thing that can help you."

Tala smirked, as if Lorain could ever understand. If she only knew, she would probably freak out, probably would call her a freak, maybe even try to kill her. “I’ll be fine. Just give me that tape,” she said, pointing to the medical tape Lorain already had in her hands.

“Take the shoe off, and let’s…”

“No. No time. Just let me have it,” Tala said and grabbed the tape.

Certain that it would hurt a whole lot more to take the shoe off and then put it back on, Tala just taped her ankle over the sneaker a few times, giving her some extra support there.

“We need to go,” she told Troy as Lorain shook her head in disapproval.

“Please take care of yourself,’ she said before the elevator door closed.

“I do not know what to tell you,” Troy said as he pressed the button to take them to the third floor.

“And of course, they all needed to go,” Tala talked to herself. “They all needed to carry all that stuff. How convenient. You guys lock yourself down. And if there’s trouble, let Drew call me.”

“You think they are after us?”

“Who the hell knows?” she asked and then got interrupted as the system gave her the best news of the day.

[Congratulations.

You have been approved to be raised to Class 3

Additional benefits and options are available]

“Okay, so what are my new benefits and options?” she muttered to herself, unable to restrain her excitement of her numbers finally being processed.

[Benefits:

Maximum Health will be slowly increased by 200 points.

Maximum Total Energy will be slowly increased by 500 points.

Options:

Communication with the system in any human language or dialect.

Obtain the Maximum of 5 Special Abilities]

She expected nothing less from Health and Energy capacity upgrades as the similar thing had happened when she went from Class 1 to Class 2. However, she was aware that the upgrade was not instantaneous but took a few hours to gradually increase. So, her attention got swiftly turned to the Options.

“Okay… so I can talk to you in Japanese now?” she asked, speaking Japanese.

[Please Select A multi-language option to be able to communicate with the system in a language other than English.]

“Okay, select the multi-language option,” she muttered in English, earning her a strange look from Troy.

[Multi-Language Communication Option Selected Successfully]

“Great, now nobody can understand me anymore, right?” she said in Japanese.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

[Update: It has been established that the beings you refer to as zombies are not approved natural creatures for your planet.]

“What does that mean?”

[Rewards: For each termination of the zombie creatures you will be awarded 50 Agent Marks]

“Cool, so now, I get rewarded for killing them. Should have allowed me that earlier.”

“Is that Japanese?” Troy asked her.

“Yes.”

“You like to talk to yourself, don’t you?”

“Sometimes,” Tala answered.

“You know, you can always talk to me. I may not… be a well-educated guy, but, I’ve always been told that I am a good listener.”

“It’s okay, Troy.”

“No, I’m serious. I really appreciate what you are doing for everyone here… You... are like the smallest of us, and still, you do the most. It's rather incredible. Maybe we do not tell you enough how much we appreciate it.”

She decided not to interrupt him. She figured he needed to talk, let her know how he felt, remind himself how he should feel, and make himself feel better that way.

Not that it mattered. She knew she was all alone in this.

So, while he talked, she decided to look at her current Levels.

[Special Skill Levels:

The Blacksmith’s Strike Ability: Level 4

The Run of Antelope Ability: Level 3

Dogs Scent Ability: Level 2]

She did not regret picking her Blacksmith’s and Antelope's abilities and raising them quickly since they allowed her to navigate the zombie world and fight them so much easier. But the dog scent was something she was still struggling with, often wishing she did not need to smell things the way she could.

Maybe with time, I will learn how to control it better, she thought. I should not just give up on it just because... the stuff now smell worse. If I could only have a turn-on and off switch.

She went back to the options of new abilities they offered her. Now, with the dark setting in outside, one attracted her attention the most.

“Give me the Night Vision,” she said, feeling all excited to see how much difference it would make now that the streetlights were all gone.

They landed on the third floor and went to the side window. Troy unlocked the door and then went to open the window. From the opened window, they dropped a huge rope that went all the way down. They had designed this way of getting out of the building, hoping to attract the least amount of zombie attention.

Not forgetting to put on her biker’s gloves, she turned around and looked at Troy who followed her behind.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked her.

“You know I need to go,” she said as she threw her rucksack over her back. “Drew should let me know if he hears anything from them, okay?" she said and looked at the street below. A pair of zombies were limping on the building opposite. She would land long before they could come to meet her.

Sliding down, feeling the rope burning her skin through the gloves, she asked for her Standings.

[Standings:

Missions Offered: 247

Missions Accepted: 52

Missions Completed Successfully: 40

Missions Completed Partially: 9

Missions Failed: 3

Health: 50/100

Total Energy 40/100

Karma: +250

Mana: 0

Agency Marks Total Earned: 3,900

Penalties Earned: 550

Agency Rewards Available: 2,400 Marks]

That was all as she expected, so she went to check her energy stats, just making sure that her feeling a world better already was adequately represented in it.

[RR Energy 50 percent]

“That’s what I thought. I’m ready to go,” she said, stopping herself from jumping down as she already made it three-quarters way down.

Once she touched the ground, she gently straightened herself, putting more pressure on her ankle.

The zombies had raised their heads and started to sniff the air. So, she scurried away from the building, hearing how Troy was already lifting the rope up. Then she broke in a soft run, first limping, then feeling more comfortable, more confident, ignoring the pain that slowly started to subside, then decided to test to see how fast she could go.

But the pain instantly shoot up, almost crippling her to a stop, and she decided that maybe it was better if she did not have to sprint at all.

“A bicycle, yes, that’s what I need. That’s on top of my list now!”

The sun had disappeared, and the last of its light rays got swiftly lost. A distant fire gave out some light, but she had no problem with the darkness. It seemed it was not getting dark at all for her.

“If this is Level One, what would I get with Level 3? Damn, I love those abilities…. Well, almost all of them.”

As she scrolled her eyes over the surroundings, watching for signs of danger, she monitored her energy. At her present slow speed, it did not move down at all. Not surprisingly. From past experience, she knew she could run like that for an hour without any problem.

Once she tried to bring her energy all the way down by running the stairs up and down. But that was very confusing and painful once her energy dipped below 10 percent. She felt so light-headed, almost ready to pass out.

“If I hit zero, maybe I would not even be alive. Who knows? Maybe I’ll test it again once I get better. Just to know my limits.”

The Observation Deck was in the building about half a mile away. Just thinking what could have gone wrong made her feel very agitated, not understanding why her crew decided to do something so stupid.

Why not wait for me? Why not talk over the radio, and ask me for my opinion? They probably thought I would disagree. It’s Frank. It must be him. I’m going to kick him out of my group. First, beat him up good. Smack his head against a wall, then tell him to hit the road. Let him go and join Mario, if he’d have him. Always fighting me for authority. Tired of it. Just can’t have this. Still…

As she steamed, another thought occurred to her.

Maybe there is a good reason behind all of this. Maybe something I do not know. For so long I thought I was so smart, just to realize, I was so stupid. Howey was right. Can't assume I know what I can't know.

She heard it long before she could see it. The distant sound, becoming recognizable, coming fast. She turned to her left, stopped at the intersection, waited, and then saw in the distance. With a nearby building still burning, the fires gave out enough light that she did not even need her special ability to see it clearly. A block away, coming next to a big emptied space were three bikers. They were driving slowly, leisurely, with a hoard of frenzied zombies running after them.

At first, she did not understand why they did not just speed up and drive away, and then she saw how careful they looked at all the zombies behind, calculating to keep a certain distance between them, keeping their speed just right.

“Shit, they are driving them onward,” she said and cursed Frank again, reaching in her backpack for her deadly hammer.

“Like a cattle. They are driving them like cattle,” she concluded as it was obvious the bikers could just drive away any time they wanted to.

One of the bikers spotted her and turned the bike instantly to the right, toward her, speeding up and moving away from the group. She saw a shotgun in his hand. He comfortably had it placed over his knee, pointing it upward.

She instantly turned around, tried to look for a cover. But, there was only the rubble of a collapsed building fifty yards away.

Too far, she thought seeing the biker lifting his hand up with the shotgun going over his head, and suddenly, she was not quite sure she was going to make it.