Nolan sat on the fooor for a little longer, thinking. Aniyah had gone up and was wandering somewhere else in the house.
'Man, who would've thought all this from a little sleep deprivation. Maybe if I had even more information, Judith wouldnt have died…'
He had considered that Aniyah was lying, but quickly realized she had no reason to. After all, it would be benificial if they stuck together to escape the disaster. Nolan gave a somber expression, and then shook his head. Judith's death was still weighing down on his mind, and not just the fact that she died, but also the gruesome way she went out.
'Damn it, I should be focusing on survival right now.'
Nolan opened the disaster map, and there indeed was a strange greyed out area on the outer part of New York. He let out a sigh.
Nolan stood up, did some stretching, and sat back down. Then he opened his stat menu. He didn't have any time earlier to figure anything out because he regained his sanity just before the middle aged man was attacked. Now he was finally going to find out what a scrap was! The familiar holographic screen displayed before him.
[Nolan Cossack]
[Age: 17]
[Race: Changeling]
[State: Metamorphasis (2/100)]
[Innate Ability: Sound Magic]
[Traits: Social Chameleon, Weirdo, Apocalyptic Prayer]
[Class: None]
[Scraps: Dim-witted bracelet]
'Metamorphasis… I guess I get closer to reaching it the more I kill monsters.'
'…'
'Seems interesting enough.'
Nolan looked down and looked at the scrap.
'Dim-witted bracelet…'
He opened the scraps description.
[Dim-witted bracelet]
[Rank: F+]
[Description: The embroidery of this bracelet come from the tribe of magical cannibalistic dwarves living in the bayou wastes. This piece was specifically made for an outcasted half-breed. Wearing this bracelet grants the user temporary invisibility but will quickly cause the mind to break.]
Nolan shivered. Invisibility was definitely useful, but he was uncertain about how his mind breaking would feel. Eager and cautious, Nolan attempted to summon his new scrap.
'Dim-witted bracelet.'
Suddenly a piece of rusted metal appeared on his wrist. At first nothing happened. Then in the next moment, the rusted metal transmuted into a beautiful red and yellow checkered wristlet that grew around Nolan's hand. Then three tiny pieces of string formed beneath the wristlet followed by an equal numbered amount of small brown and white feathers.
Then everything went black. Nolan had yet to feel his mind begin to break, but was struggling to figure out his loss of vision.
'What the hell? Why can't I see anything!'
Then it hit him. It took Nolan surprisingly little time to figure out his predicament, but fortunately he was an honors student. As an invisible being, light passed through his body without absorbed or reflected. Because his retina was not reflecting light, his brain could not process seeing, hence making him blind.
'Man, out of all times, now was the time for physics to actually make sense?'
Scoffing at the absurdity of the world, he started to count, hoping to find the limit of his invisibility. After around three seconds of equipping the bracelet he felt a tingle in his head, which turned into a sharp pain after ten more seconds.
Nolan continues waiting until the sharp pain became a splitting headache. Still, he kept on, but due to his recent trauma, he was unsure how much longer he could hold on. After a few more seconds, Nolan's mind felt like it was being ripped apart by some higher dimensional being before he finally dismissed the bracelet.
Nolan's eyes began working again, seeing himself covered from head to toe in sweat. He took a sigh of relief and then spoke out loud.
"Forty seconds."
To any other person, forty seconds may have been useless, considering the amount of pain it gave Nolan, but he had sound magic. With his enhanced hearing, he would be able to navigate himself, even while blind.
Aniyah walked back in the room. She stared at Nolan who looked like he had gone to war.
"What the hell happened to you."
Nolan stared at her and then responded.
"Just fell asleep and had a nightmare."
Aniyah let out a silent laugh.
"Sure."
In the next moment, the middle-aged man suddenly woke up on the bed. He stared at the two strangers in front of him. Instinctively, he used his good hand to reach for a weapon but found nothing. Before laying him on the bed, Nolan stripped the man's body of anything that could be used to attack him.
The man shot a wicked glare at Nolan, but then finally noticed his missing hand. His arm layed elevated on top of a stack of pillows. The mans eyes followed to the tourniquet on the bedside table. Initially, Nolan had not planned to use a tourniquet, but seeing the man faint made him panic. The man's face did not soften though. Nolan, attempting to read his thoughts, spoke up.
"You weren't bitten. That hand was ripped off."
The man still did not change his expression.
"Who are you people?"
Aniyah spoke this time.
"We just met ourselves, but we've seen each other before at Carp n' pro."
The man's face finally softened. He seemed a little relieved but still worried.
"You're Zachari's daughter, right? I won't ask how he's doing, but it's good to see a familiar face."
Unprompted, Aniyah responded.
"He got infected, and I killed him."
The man laughed.
"Well that's too damn bad. He was a really good customer. Always tipped me for some reason even as a cashier."
Nolan was astonished by the rudeness of the man but thought better than saying anything. He barely knew these people. The man introduced himself.
"Eugene's my name. I'm from Tennessee, but I've lived here for a while due to some family issues. As a matter of fact those douches in Memphis are probably…"
Nolan didn't really care about Eugene's family situation but listened anyway, as he could be a useful ally. After a rant about the stupidity of city people, Nolan asked Eugene a question.
"Are you a changeling?"
"Huh? Hell to the no. I don't know what those damn things people on the news are calling themselves, but I haven't seen any of it yet, only these zombies."
One of Nolan's wandering thoughts clicked.
'I guess that's why I got the credit for the zombie he killed.'
Nolan then spoke again.
"Eugene, I'm gonna give you your knife back now. Don't do anything stupid."
Eugene scoffed.
"Watch your mouth, boy."
He took the knife, feeling its edges, before attaching it to his belt. Nolan watched and then left the room, leaving Aniyah in there. Walking to the kitchen of this house he opened the the cabinets, grabbing some peanut butter, bread, and a bag of mini marshmallows. Nolan made a sandwich, and put it to his lips before stopping.
'Since when did I raid houses?'
He looked at the sandwich. Nolan was unsure how long people who lived here would have until they returned home. Of course, there was also the chance that they'd never be able to, or that they were dead. Still, for now, Nolan thought it'd be best if he only stole from stores. He walked back into the room with Aniyah and Eugene.
***
After sitting with each other for a while, Aniyah brought up the idea of sharing information with each other and their next moves.
Nolan gave a recap of all he had seen with the zombies, excluding his experience with Judith. The thought of replaying that memory ached his soul. Everything Nolan mentioned had aligned with the other's experiences. The steel-like skin, the jumping, everything. The only unique experience was the screech he heard the first zombie make.
Nolan also learned there was a difference between infected teihiihans and infected humans. Infected humans were slower than the teihiihans, but the teihiihans were much smaller than humans, excluding the mutant Nolan had seen.
After gathering this new information, Nolan mentioned he was going to move toward the inner city. He had initially considered trying to leave New York, even though there was possibly a border, but that possibility was all Nolan needed to stay. In truth, Nolan was still very eager and excited of this new world he was living in, despite the fear and despair he had experienced.
Next, it was Aniyah's turn to explain. From what Nolan gathered, she had experienced the same system and was staying with her parents while attending community college in Queens. Her parents chose not to flee the disaster because they wouldn't have been able to bring her grandma with them.
"Well that's if she was still here when we found her…"
Aniyah continued. Her father got attacked on the second day when he tried starting the car after finding out the grandma had died and began turning after an hour of being bitten. Aniyah didn't know what to do, because she hadn't seen anyone become a zombie before. He ended killing her mother, and Aniyah had to put him down using her fathers hunting rifle. She ended up seeing Eugene get chased, which led her to them earlier.
Eugene and Nolan sat in silence. Nolan thought to himself.
'That was worse than I imagined.'
Nolan wanted to express his sorrow in some way, but he had never been good at that, so he just gave a simple nod. Afterwards, he turned to Eugene.
Eugene dim hose not to explain how he had been surviving til now. For some reason he had no access to any guns, despite the store he worked at, but in the foreseeable future this would remain a mystery. Nolan was about to make a suggestion but thought better of it. He could travel with these people, but they could still easily betray him. Besides, he didn't know how they would plan to live on through the disaster and trust was not something that could be gained easily. Eugene didn't look like the type to repay his debts.
Almost instantly though, Nolan changed his mind.
'Right, how could I be so dumb!'
There was strength in numbers, and even though they could sell Nolan out to get away from some zombies, he could just avoid these situations with his hearing. Plus, he never wanted to be in a helpless situation again. Plus, Eugene being normal could help him achieve his [Metamorphasis], given that he could take credit for the kills. Nolan spoke up.
"Are you two open to traveling with me? With boundaries, of course?"
Aniyah's head tilted. She raised an eyebrow.
"Go on."
Nolan continued.
"We can travel with each, strength in humbles and all that, but I know for sure neither of us trusts one another completely- achoo!"
He sneezed, then wiped his nose on his shirt and continued. He pointed at Aniyah.
"Firstly, we need to tell each other our abilities."
He used words like "we" and "our" to convey it like it was an equal exchange. Nolan didn't really have to say what he could do, in case it would backfire. There's also to say Aniyah wouldn't either, but she already seemed like a very open person, telling her full story since the beginning of the disaster. Nolan knew she was probably smart, but he didn't think she could tell easy lies.
Then Nolan looked over to Eugene.
"And you need to take us to your gun shop."
"Can't."
"Why?"
"That junt got overrun on the first day. It was my day off too. Believe me, I've already looked for an opening."
He looked at his hands.
"It's kinda hard to do it with this body, mane."
Nolan considered it, but it didn't look like Eugene would refuse him anyways. He turned back to Aniyah.
"We'll?"
Aniyah thought for a moment. Her expression was tense, but then turned worrisome.
"Ok… I have a close friend who lives in Manhattan. I was going to move towards that direction, but I have one more request."
"At some point I'm going to ask for a something and won't take no for an answer. It won't be something life threatening, but it ia important. You'll need to give it to me."
Nolan sighed and agreed reluctantly, despite the ominous request.
"Great, my ability is [Weaponsmaster]. It kind of speaks for itself."
Nolan thought for a moment, and then responded.
"My ability is [Spatial Awareness]. I can predict what will happen in the next few moments in a certain area."
Aniyah looked at him and nodded. Eugene stood up.
"If you're going to Carp 'n' pro, I'll go too, but I'm done as soon as I get some guns."
Nolan shrugged.
"Ok."
The group gathered their bearings, and headed to door, opening it to the two zombies outside that Nolan heard getting devoured earlier. Only, one corpse was still perfectly intact.
Nolan walked closer and looked.
'That's interesting.'
Only the zombie that had been shot was devoured.