Sloane closed the door behind her.

She never knew that jogging could become this stressful.

The humanoids had been staring at her through the windows as she made her way across the block, some were in pairs, most were thankfully alone.

If she were to confront the former while looting, she's going to need to deal with not one, but two humanoids at the same time, and it would have been fine if the damn things weren't so cunning.

But they were able to easily learn and could intellectually adapt to the situation depending on what they were dealing with. There's even a good chance that they knew what she actually was.

Did the humanoids know about the dreams? Or at least humans with those types of dreams. They would, right? Come to think of it, what were their origins? The humanoids that is.

If it was from a place where humans with dreams like hers are common place, then they'd know of her capabilities.

But if they spawned out of nowhere... It doesn't really change anything as the humanoids would still act cautiously since they now know she can fight back.

But back to the stars, did the humanoids also have those kinds of dreams?..

That would be concerning, but they haven't shown anything so far to clue her in that that was the case.

Sloane sat on her work bench and picked up her box cutter, she's been practicing how to carve since learning that crosses actually worked yesterday. It made her curious if other religious symbols also had an effect.

She'll stick with what she's proven to be effective right now though, which were crosses, but over time, she'd go and check if symbols beyond that also had effects.

Sloane firmly pressed the bud of her thumb against the box cutter's handle, she stared at the piece of wood in her other hand and tried to remember the kind of things the christians used in their symboletry.

Leaves and vines are common place among those, but she wasn't sure what those symbols specifically meant or if she could even carve them in the first place.

Did vines represent Eden? Or were they a representation of the crown of thorns that Christ wore during his crucifixion? Sloane wasn't sure.

She was confident that her assumption of that was definitely wrong though.

Sheep were also commonplace among christian symboletry, and so were shepherds. Wait, what about snakes? In the sense that those were also common.

Did putting snakes on the cross meant bad things or were the effects based off of what they did in the myths?

If either was the case then the lying snake should represent the entirety of sin, or maybe it just represented deceit? Temptation maybe?

Sloane wouldn't touch that- or any other symbol with negative connotations, - for the time being, the risk was too much.

She could find a holy bible in one of the houses to better her understanding of the symboletry and the religion as a whole.

She still remembers one of the families being a persistent jehovah's witness who wouldn't stop pestering her family and a few others about joining their church, they never accepted but hey, it was the thought that counts.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Honestly though, Sloane kind of wished they joined, at least that way she would have died much quicker when her parents were convinced that doctors weren't going to help her.

Homeopathy, at least, didn't give anyone false hope. Well, they did, that's their main selling point.

Her suicidal tendencies aside, would joining that stupid religion cause her to have people around her who didn't care about her disability for once?

Probably not...

She continued carving the cross, she didn't know where she'd put this yet, probably in her own room, but it won't be the cross that she will be carrying with her, she wanted hers to be more intricate.

She wasn't really sure if adding details to these crosses or making them more refined would add to their deterring effect, but Sloane hoped they did.

She had those extra jewelry she looted, she could use those without lessening the effect right?

It's not really stealing if the ones who owned it are dead... It was mainly grave robbery- or archeology rather- but! But she at least avenged the owners. And that's what counts.

Probably.

Sloane put her box cutter down and replaced it with sand paper, she began smoothing out the wood, little by little, the cross turned angular, its surface smooth.

She had wood polish too, but she won't be using that. Not for now.

Sloane carried the cross up to her room, where she then nailed it to the wall opposite to the window. It faced the window directly, hopefully, none of the humanoids would feel encouraged to stare at her through it.

She went downstairs and headed over to the garage where she exercised, she worked on her arms using the dumbbells, did squats for her legs, and just exercised until she was exhausted.

After resting for a bit, Sloane went back to exercising and walked over to the punching bag. She glared at it while tying rags around her fists.

Sloane went into the punching stance taught to her during previous self defense classes and threw out a jab. The hit barely moved the punching bag.

She did it again, this time lowering her posture and striking with her core and shoulder utilized.

It had more of an impact but this was hard.

Sloane remembered the instructor saying to just continue doing it until it becomes second nature and Sloane thought that what he said had merit.

So, she began to do so.

She moved around the punching bag in small hops before suddenly stopping, ducking low into a stance, and striking it with a punch.

Sloane winced- that- did she pull on a muscle just now?

She moved back to the chair and sat down, she rotated her shoulder in rough circles, wincing every time a surge of pain electrocuted her body. She did pull on a muscle.

Fuck.

Sloane groaned and hung her head low, she stared at the ceiling in exasperation. What the hell did she do wrong? Why did she pull on her muscle? Fuck it hurts...

She closed her eyes and let herself relax, this should be doable. Somewhat. Actually, she can use this couldn't she? She'd know the limits to her reach thanks to the pain.

Sloane continued moving her arm as she rested, she stretched it, rolled it, helped it keep the blood flowing through constant movement while letting her get used to the pain.

When she felt that she could go back to exercising again, she went back to the punching bag, ducked low, and struck it with a jab. That was not bad. The pain that is. Her punch could use some work though.

She did it again, and this time, she got a rough idea for why she pulled on her muscle earlier.

Sloane straightened her posture and winced as pain came from her shoulder. She didn't move her arms that time around, only her hips and lower back.

She assumed that she must have strained her shoulder by putting too much tension from her stiff back. And not only that, the distance between her and the punching bag as she punched is also a variable.

She repositioned herself using the length of her outstretched arm as a basis, when she was at the maximum range for her reach, Sloane pulled her fist away from the bag and went into a low stance.

She released a punch. It didn't reach, it made her back flare up in pain.

Sloane bit down at the yelp wanting to escape her lips and closed her eyes as she kneeled on the ground, she nursed her shoulder with one hand and held her mouth with the other.

She got up and walked back to the chair.

What was the problem this time around?

Stepping forward. Now she knows why the self defense instructor told them to take a step into the opponent's direction while throwing a punch.

It adds power and shortens the distance. That was a detail she had missed.

Like before, Sloane rolled her shoulders and stretched her arm while resting, it helped alleviate the pain while she waited for her muscles to recover.

It took a while until she was able to get back up and start practicing again.

When she was able to, Sloane put in the things she learned and taught herself into her strikes and her jabs became so much more efficient, they actually had weight to them now too.

She started moving, this time slowly instead of immediately going fast like an idiot.

She did things carefully, learning about which positions strained her back, what body movements caused pain, and what kind of improvements she can make.

Slowly but surely, Sloane learned how to move during an attack, circling her opponent, then stopping, dropping into a stance, and striking at them using a jab.

She soon incorporated which direction to go into and what distance to stop, and after that, started experimenting more with the types of movement she can make while circling the bag.

And all of this was done in a slow, deliberate, yet careful fashion.

Sloane did eventually pick up her speed, but it had been hours since she first started practicing.

Her sweat, which had all dried up, began to moisturize her skin again as she punched, moved, and circled the punching bag.

The pain from her back was easier to ignore now too.

She will not be able to exercise for the next few days because of it however, that much was obvious.

And that was fine, she didn't really mind, she'll practice how to shoot things in the meantime. Her aim should be something she works on next anyways.

That and also loot cars left in the streets for gasoline.

A.R had told her how to empty gas tanks using nothing but a hose.

It was easy too, all she needed to do is suck the gasoline out of the hose and let it flow, afterwards it would continue to keep flowing right as long as the hose is pointing down from the gas tank.