The deck wobbled as Daphne moved, trying to sit up too quickly.
“Woah there, Daph, calm down you're safe,” Grace said, rushing to reassure her having come out of her trance.
Mark moved to her side too. Trying to evaluate how she was doing. Daphne looked dazed, confused, and scared. Grace managed to calm her down, showing her they were currently out of danger and that they had a plan.
‘Did they?’ Mark wondered. He had been out for quite a while so maybe they came up with something.
While Grace was explaining everything that had happened while Daphney was out, Mark pulled up his blue boxes.
Name: Mark Young (22 - M) Level: 2 Next level: 3/4 Stats: Resistance Aura Mana Prana 10 0 9 42 (+15) Unspent stat points - 5 Corruption value: 0.04% Spells: Passive Regeneration(Self)
Two things stood out on Mark’s page right now. One was whether he should spend the rest of his stat points, and the other was the spell he had gotten when he first started moving his energy. With everything going on he hadn't had a chance to look at it.
Now he tried focusing on the spell itself.
Passive Regeneration(Self)[1]:
Through the manipulation of Prana, the user has discovered a way to reinforce their natural regeneration at the cost of Prana. The strength of this ability is based on the user's Prana and Resistance attributes.
This ability can be toggled On/Off
Mark toggled the ability On. He felt a good portion of his prana separating and moving to rest just below his skin. He found it remained there with little to no effort on his part. His back started to itch slightly and he was reminded of the explosion. There was definitely bruising and some tenderness in his back but as the minutes ticked by he felt the stiffness begin to ease.
He checked his Prana levels and could feel they were still going up, slower, but still increasing. So it looked like the spell took longer to heal him but at a significantly reduced cost of energy and it was constant. This spell could be a life-saver, not to mention it was always running in the background. He just needed to manage his Prana levels so as not to run out in the middle of a fight.
The other problem he had was where he should put the rest of his stats, or if he should allocate them at all. Should he save them for emergencies?
He wanted to but he was worried. What if he sat on these stats and could have made use of them to save himself or someone else? He wouldn't be able to regret it later. So he should just use them.
Mark’s attention was pulled away from the screen when he heard Daphne speak.
“Okay, well I wasn't sure what to pick so I just grabbed the first option. Aura.”
“Right well we need to start practicing like the post said, I’ma be over here,” Donny said
Mark looked at him. “What post?”
“So glad you could join us, we have a plan, but I'm assuming you weren't listening,” Grace said.
Mark frowned “No, my bad I didn't hear, what's the plan?” he asked.
“We're gonna follow this video's directions, I sent you the link. Now we're just going to practice feeling for our energy” after which she closed her eyes and held her palm out in front of herself.
Mark looked down at his device, she was doing it again. Deciding everything, without asking for anyone's input.
He sighed and opened the link, deciding to first see what the plan was and whether it was worth pursuing. He pressed play.
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The video looked to be recorded by a bystander. It was of a woman, standing in the middle of a ruined street. She was dressed in a military uniform with short blond hair. The angle of the shot only showed her back to the camera. Calmly she watched as a hoard of zombies came straight at her.
Lifting her hands, blue flames began to pool near her orbiting her person. With a flick of her wrist, dozens of flaming spheres launched themselves at the oncoming hoard. She was killing swathes of zombies with each wave of her hand, but even with all the power and speed, she showed the hoard was growing. Pushing out of buildings, coming from alleyways. Their number easily looked to be in the hundreds. She looked like she would be overwhelmed at any moment. Stepping into the frame was another person.
A man this time, holding a thick piece of rebar and looking like he spent most of his time in the gym. Moved forward, passing the woman. The next second he was dashing straight toward the hoard. Wielding the rebar like a sword. He was clearly an Aura user because he moved like a comic book hero. Wherever he went, destruction and death followed. With such speed, even the camera struggled to keep up with him. Each time he raised his weapon a crunch of bone and metal rang out. Sending the body flying meters away.
Then Mark started to hear the sounds of gunfire as the camera panned to a line of people. The army was here. Mowing down anything that came too close. The camera panned back to the two users. What impressed Mark was not their raw power, though they had a lot for just a couple of hours.
No, It was their coordination, where the Aura user moved, the flames seemed to dance around him. When the zombies started getting too close to the woman. The Aura user was suddenly there, right beside her. Killing his way through, leaving a small safe pocket in the hoard. The hoard was rapidly and systematically dispatched. Until the only two left standing were the users.
They turned around and made their way to the camera. The woman was beautiful, with a cute mischievous smile on her face. While the man looked toward the camera with a charismatic grin. Mark was perfectly happy in his sexuality to say he looked handsome. They were both in their early to mid-20s.
‘Damn where are they getting these people’ Mark thought. When they got close enough the woman started talking.
“Hello everyone my name is Samantha Dureal, we know you are scared and you're probably all dealing with your own shit right now. However, know that you are not alone. ”
Her voice was bubbly yet reassuring.
“As of eighteen hundred hours today, an unknown system has taken hold in our world. We are doing everything we can to avert this disaster. But the United States military needs your help. Help us fight back. Take up arms if you have them.
You will notice the system has given everyone access to abilities beyond anything we could have imagined. Use them. You should first find a safe space and try to detect the type of energy you chose at the beginning of this.
If you didn't don't worry there are still things you can do to help.”
She paused, turning her head towards the man, and the camera moved to him he gave off a more stoic, authoritative air.
“Hi, Jonathan here, please, this call to arms does not mean you can go wild. Continue listening to your local enforcement agents. We are currently setting up defensive locations around the city.
Focus on parks and wide open areas, populated districts will be danger zones as any human killed will come back up as one of the dead. There are several rendezvous points located on the document at the end of this video. Start making your way to them. We also put all the information we have gathered on the different types of energy and how to use them in the same document.”
Jonathan paused, he looked as if he just remembered something important.
“Oh and know this, if a friend gets bitten we have reason to believe that they will not turn. It's still early so this information could be proven wrong, however, there have already been too many trigger-happy accidents. Please don't make any hasty decisions. We're only going to get through this together. Stay safe and keep moving toward the safe zones. We’ll keep you updated.”
The video ended there.
Throughout the entire clip, he looked strong yet relaxed and while he wore a military uniform he lacked the discipline of a trained soldier. So did Samantha really, maybe they were just a couple of randoms that got pulled into the PR team. The battle before was clearly a demonstration. One to reassure people.
The fact that people were raised after death was not good. That meant that on top of the hoards of sludge zombies, they were also going to have to deal with anyone that went down too. This was such a mess. Mark was curious about the bite thing as well. If people followed the advice of movies then killing someone who was bitten could have become a common occurrence. Only for them to later discover it was never going to happen. Mark shivered.
He brought up the comments to see how people were reacting to the video and the answer… Pretty well. While he expected chaos and disorganization. The reality was that the government was surprisingly quick to react. On top of that people were responding positively. Sure you got the odd troll, trying to sow doubt. Along with the crackhead conspiracy theorists saying this was all a plan by the government. But overall people were actually commenting positive reactions, or the government wasn't allowing negative comments to see the light of day.
Not really he didn't care one way or another.
Mark opened the file. It contained a map of the whole country littered with blue and red dots. Blue being meetup points. Reds were dangerous areas. Along with a three-page letter on the system.
He looked at the map first zooming into his area. The nearest blue dot was near the center of Brooklyn in Prospect Park. Cursing under his breath, he tried to remain calm.
Even if they had a boat that could cut out a major portion of the journey. That still left a large amount of ground to cover on foot.
Although this could still work, it just seemed so far down the line. There were so many things that could go wrong along the way, but… It was still the best choice he could see. He could not envision hunkering down somewhere and trying to wait this thing out. The system said this was wave one, who's to say something bigger and stronger won’t come along and slaughter them all? No, they needed to be with more people. There was strength in numbers and sadly this was the best plan they had right now.
Mark looked up, Donny and Grace and Daphne were all sitting with their legs crossed and eyes closed.
Donny was breathing at an irregular pace and sweat was beading on his brow.
Mark was worried but he didn't want to interrupt them.
Right now everyone is working to increase their chances of survival, he should be doing the same. He opened the document the military had provided. Glancing up at the moon, Mark hardened his resolve. They were going to survive the trek through the monster-infested city and come out stronger on the other side, they all would.
He’d make sure of it.