Wives/Potential harem members
Melissa Shield- Half-Jewish, half-Japanese woman who had a crush on the main protagonist in both of his lives. Her zombie transformation power was one of the strongest in the world and the terrible conditions she went through her first life drove her to insanity. In her second life, she is fully on board with a harem if it means she can be with someone she views as her soulmate.
Vicky Whitney- Rich white socialite girl who views the protagonist as the only way someone like her can survive the apocalypse. She was heavily mistreated in her first life and the protagonist lost contact with her after he attacked their city's leader and permanently blinded him. Her second life she is fine being with him and helping him build the survivor shelter to save as many people as they possibly could together. She views sex as a chip she can play to keep him happy and on her side but she's slowly falling in love with him the longer they're together.
Jade Black- Black-haired nurse from the first timeline. She had a scanning/analysis power that made her a core component of the city's leadership as she could tell what a person could do with their powers on top of her ability to perceive danger from far away. She is just happy to be a part of the group that seems to know what it's doing and is fine taking care of the sick patients the protagonist brought back until they get better.
Ellen Marco- One of the patients who went under intensive brain surgery. Red hair with freckles and possibly the closest figure to a model out of all the women. Who knows what she thinks of the situation as she is currently unconscious and hasn't met any of the people yet. The protagonist attempts to absorb her and learns that she has the potential to gain a power in the future.
Maria Lopez- Mexican police officer that the protagonist pissed off by stealing her pistol which put her on paid leave. She plans to find him before the flood hits but who knows how that will work out. Brash, reckless, and full of herself, she is more prone to doing rather than thinking things through. She spends a good portion of her time on the treadmill and lifting weights to keep in shape as she has a chip on her shoulder and wants to prove that she can do anything a man can.
Friends/Potential allies
Alex Shield- Half Black, half Japanese brother of Melissa. He is a rambunctious, curious kid who died early in the first timeline. Who knows how things will play out for him now that his sister is in a relationship with the protagonist but it'll definitely be better than what happened the first time… Most likely.
Akiko Shield- Mother of Melissa, she chose a new last name for herself and her children after her first husband fled the country because of a Ponzi scheme he did and her family abandoned her after she got pregnant so young and to someone who wasn't Asian. Fiercely protective of her children and stubborn in her beliefs. Slowly realizing the world is going to change with the advent of the apocalypse.
James Hardly- Asian friend of the protagonist. Is currently heading down to South America with the army. He is gay and was heavily bullied in school and the protagonist defended him. Might not be in the story that much until the perspective shifts to South America.
Dominic- Black burly friend of the protagonist, was part of three support people in the first survivor village the protagonist was part of with the other being Duke. He has a power that the protagonist knows but it won't be said until he comes into the story later on. He has a rough, hard-to-get-along-with personality at first until you realize he's a soft-hearted pushover who would share his food with a dog over watching it starve.
Duke- White redneck friend of the protagonist, was part of three support people in the first survivor village the protagonist was part of with the other being Dominic. He didn't have a power but his mechanical knowledge held most of the survivor city together. Passive go with the flow laid-back personality but would flip into an extremely aggressive angry person if he's pissed off.
Victor Creed- Old schizophrenic pastor who gained a power that cured his mental instability. He found out his daughter died in the first timeline and died shortly after from the injuries he suffered in the first few months of the apocalypse. A genuinely nice guy, even with schizophrenia but especially so without it. He someone kept the village running until he died of natural causes instead of being killed like most leaders did.
Alicia Creed- Teenage daughter of Victor. She dies in the first month of the apocalypse as the nurses abandon everyone in the ICU to their own means. She doesn't have a power as she could be stored in the protagonist's space without causing problems. The protagonist rescued her so that her father wouldn't be as heartbroken this time around.
Justin- Lanky white kid with an unknown power. He lived in a mansion inside the gated community the protagonist decided to make his base around. The protagonist doesn't really care about him other than being curious about his potential power. He died in the ICU in his first life.
Protagonist powers
Current stats
Strength 06
Speed 06
Endurance 06
Perception 06
Intellect 09
Each stat is the multiplied average of a normal human. If the protagonist can lift 300 pounds then with six strength, he can lift 1800. With nine, he could lift 2700 pounds. All stats increased by 03 while in zombie form because he has a tier-three core.
Spatial power
Passive growth- Power grows passively without the consumption of zombie cores.
Spatial dimension- An extra sensory ability that allows him to see everything in his storage and aura. Time is slowed down while accessing this ability.
Inventory- A default storage inventory currently at the size of seven cubic feet. It can store anything as long as it fits with the exception of living creatures.
Item duplication- Duplicate up to five pounds of items stored in inventory.
Passive storage item creation- Can passively create items with raw materials over time as if he was actively making them. Has access to all tools he knows how to use.
Vehicle storage- Store a vehicle. The vehicle can have spatial expansion applied and still be storable. Testing proved that campers and boats would count as vehicles.
Power storage- Gain an additional power from the corpse of a powered person. Possibly give access to more powers in the future.
Plant and Animal storage- Can store plants and animals that will make produce that can be eaten.
Teleportation- An ability that was learned through using the spatial dimension power. He moves himself to somewhere else inside his spatial aura.
Time power
Double growth speed- Double the speed at which powers passively grow
1/10 speed/slow for storage- Combination ability that allows the speeding up or slowing down of items inside of his storages.
Slow-mo- Slows the perception of things allowing him to think and act far more rapidly in the process.
Item stasis- Freezes the time of a single item, separate storage
Slow/speed aura- Can slow down or speed up everything in the combination spatial/time aura.
Zombie mage power
Zombie core- Become immune to the zombie virus, can consume higher tier zombie cores, and can grow more powerful as you climb through core tiers.
Zombie form- Gain one point in intellect for every tier your core is. Going into zombie form increases stats by one for every tier your core is.
Bone manipulation- Can manipulate bones allowing him to lift them in the air and shape them to the form he wishes and fire them as projectiles.
Zombie control- Take passive control of zombies. They won't attack you and follow the verbal or mental commands you give them.
Corpse conversion- Convert a corpse into a zombie.
Above are the powers he has currently in the story but he knows what zombie powers he'll develop in the future.
Corpse explosion- Cause a corpse or zombie to explode.
Zombie promotion- Turn a zombie into a general that gains increased intellect and can lead other zombies
Undead aura- Strengthen the undead inside the aura while making humans feel sick and afraid. The closer to the center of the aura the higher the bonus.
Siphon life- Drain the life force from a zombie or human that you can use to heal a human or zombie. Stolen life force can be stored until it's needed.
Zombie ascension- Choose a zombie to make your champion. They gain huge benefits from being chosen.
Resurrect- Bring a corpse or zombie back to life. The corpse can be healed through drain life to decrease the odds of failure.
Chapter 21
Maria Lopez's Point of View
I was pissed. I tapped into the videotape that they brought back from the hospital and I saw who was pushing out the ICU patients. It was the man again! I called my father and mentioned it to him but he was more upset that I had backdoor access to the police network and got mad at me. He told me to get rid of my connection but instead of doing that, I looked into the man who the large man replaced.
It was clear that they were two different people entirely. I met the man and from the camera angles and my up close and personal meeting with him, they clearly weren't the same person… A uglier relative perhaps? That's why I had to visit this Danny Storm and see if he knew anything about the mystery man who could make several-ton vehicles disappear.
Finding out where he lived was trivially easy. Even someone who wasn't a police officer could do it if they just googled around enough. He was pretty boring and I wouldn't have anything in common with him. Boring job and boring social life. Maybe his friends Jacob or James might know something but that was if Danny didn't give the man up… I would have to force him if he tried to hide it from me.
I sat at a red light waiting for it to change to green as I thought about what my father said again. "Listen… You're clearly more interested in this case than others and I'm pretty sure why. You want this to be your CSI moment like the TV shows you love but that isn't how real policework is done, Maria… When you asked to go for a ride-along I should have told you no…"
I slammed my fist on my steering wheel causing it to honk as I was so frustrated with what he said. It wasn't that he was mad at me, after talking with him in the morning after everything went down… He seemed more disappointed in me than anything else. I held back my tears for now. Only after I prove my father wrong and that I can handle these harder missions will I break down in tears of joy.
I pull up to the apartment building he lives at. It looked below average, I was expecting something better with how much the man worked. I was hoping that with the flood coming soon he'd be at home. I wasn't expecting much from the flood, but if his boss did what the news suggested then he'd have taken a long weekend by canceling the next few days.
I went to the wrong floor and was greeted by an old lady who could barely hear me unless I was shouting while a chihuahua barked in the background. Heading upstairs the hallway was crowded. My first thought went to a drug deal going down as I couldn't help but smile at the thought of bringing in two druggies as a bonus for figuring out this assault/kidnapping/grand theft case I was now a part of.
The two men were whispering to each other as I walked passed. It didn't look like they knew each other. I walked passed them and knocked on the door hoping it was the right place and I wasn't in for another goose chase. Knocking loud enough to startle the two men in the hallway I waited as I heard a plate crash from inside and a man curse.
The man who answered wasn't who I was expecting. A black man came and answered the door, I thought at the very least the suspect was rich enough to live by himself. I pulled out my badge and whispered so the two people wouldn't hear. "Hello. I'm Officer Maria, I'm looking for a potential person of interest. Is Danny Storm in at the moment and do you know when he'll be back?" The man looked confused before I realized he was drunk… At twelve in the morning. Well, he might not have been drunk but he stunk like a brewery and I looked inside and saw half a case of beers on the table.
I couldn't help but get snippy. "Do you know where Danny is? I have some questions to ask him." He realized he was talking to a police officer finally as I put on my firm tone and he answered. "N-no. He put me up in his apartment room to watch these dogs so they wouldn't drown from the flood. I think he felt bad for me too so he gave me a reason to not be out during it…"
Hmm, that wasn't something I'd expect from a person but I wasn't aware my uncle was a pothead. You didn't know until you saw it or someone told you, that he might not know his relative was an insane serial criminal. The man seemed to light up as he answered. "Oh! He… Handed me this piece of paper with where he'd be for after the flood hit.
I couldn't help but sigh in frustration as it was another goose chase. It would have been nice if the criminal was living with his cousin or something and I could have just caught him here. He was still my best chance at a lead. He pulled the paper out and handed it over to me before looking at it. I wasn't going to just take the paper, but I needed something to write down the address so asked. "Do you have a pen and a piece of paper so I don't have to take this address for you?"
He ushered me in. There were six dogs inside and all of them jumped on me. I liked dogs like this more than the small yappy kind. Since I was on a mission I didn't stop and pet them even though I wanted to. As he looked on the coffee table for a sheet of paper before grabbing a pen and piece of notepad paper off the fridge he opened the note up.
I didn't want to intrude but the note had me curious. I read it over his shoulder. "Hey Victor, if this didn't get ruined in the flood or the wash then come to the gated community in Fairview Point Lookout(went with a fake place instead of somewhere real). I think this flood is going to be worse than predicted… Way worse, so buckle down and don't leave the moment it stops raining and wait to make sure it's safe."
That was utter hogwash. The news said it wasn't going to be that big of a deal. If it was really going to be a big deal they'd have said so. *BAM*! A loud crashing noise could be heard from the hallway. I rushed outside to look at the two men who were in the hallway fighting. I went to grab my gun to stop them… But it was still missing!
I just watched. "Y-you mother fucker! That's my wife you're trying to stay with!" I watched as the two men punched and grappled each other. The younger Mexican man was clearly winning the fight. Before I could respond, they dragged the fight to the stairwell and the smaller/older Jewish man snapped through the railing as he pulled the Mexican man down with him. The gap was just big enough that they fell slamming against the railing the entire way to the ground floor.
I had training for emergencies but I couldn't help but stare stunned as the two men might be dead at the bottom. With a shaky hand, I called it in. At least they were still groaning… That was a good sign, right? I wish I didn't quit smoking now. I waited for the ambulance and police to show up, while I got weird looks from my coworkers they didn't say anything to me at the moment. I knew I'd have a call from my dad by the end of the day but this time it wasn't my fault. The black man spoke up. "So… You wanted this address, right?"
Chapter 22
Looks like I woke up before the flood hit. It would be soon though. I could feel it in my bones, the anxiousness of knowing what was to come. My body was attuned to notice small fluctuations in the environment that were the precursors to worse natural disasters. A tight feeling in my chest told me something bad was about to happen… The animalistic instinct to survive was triggered even though I was safe and nestled in between two beauties.
The first usage of teleportation was to escape the tender embraces of said two women. I teleport and expect to be fine but as I do so I feel an extreme lurch in my system that makes me almost throw up. Melissa had her hand on my stomach while Vicky had her arms wrapped around my neck. I felt like I just got punched in the stomach and close-lined at the same time.
Alright… So don't try to teleport with a person touching you. I needed to test it further but having the wind knocked out of me made me wary to try anything else. What if when I tried to teleport through a wall I had a similar reaction… No, my clothes teleported with me, so I could most likely teleport with items but I still needed to test to make sure.
The very beginning of the apocalypse isn't a good time to splatter me on a wall or get cut in half by teleporting where a table is. I was hoping that the unconscious woman would wake up soon. It was thought that most powers gained were based on the person's personality. My first girlfriend could control animals and she ran an animal rescue center before the apocalypse happened. I don't know why space was chosen for me…
Dominic could control water, which didn't make much sense and there were a few outliers on how people gained powers, the rarer the less it had to do with the person, but it still held true most of the time. I made my way downstairs and I made myself a big breakfast. Starving in the first timeline wasn't going to happen now. Unless something went catastrophically wrong, which wouldn't happen, I was now a walking farm on top of everything.
The genius farmer who 'convinced' me to buy the pigs was someone I had to save. If I could find someone with a farming power that would be amazing for the future of our survivor base. I flipped the omelet as I thought about what other powers I deemed necessary. The truly powerful powers were of course added. Anyone with any strength would always be a boon as they would make the base safer. Even the metal manipulation fucker I was going to kill was someone I deemed important enough to make into a zombie general.
Lightning, fire, wind, earth, and water. Elemental control powers were always good to have. I didn't know any that were in this part of the country when the flood struck though so I'd have to wait. Speed power was the most useful but it was always good to have a dumb muscle-brained strength user as backup, in my opinion. A science division so I could start producing the serums and perhaps even perfecting them further. The basic necessities with water, food, and shelter were covered, and it left only powers I wanted for convenience.
A cleaning power, a enhancement power, and a healing power were the most quality-of-life powers I could think of. There were also the powers city leaders had to look for. Plant manipulation was great for base defense, it worked as an early warning system, helped grow food for the shelter, and made the plant manipulator more reliant on staying in the spot their plants were so they would be less prone to betrayal.
I couldn't really think of any survivor cities that didn't just have a powerful person as the leader. I couldn't think of any survivor towns that did it in a way that made living less painful for the lower-tier survivors… Even after the apocalypse the powerful decided who and when to fight and it was almost always at the detriment of the lower class survivors.
I only knew people I needed to kill, I would try to get every powered person I could on my side and hope that I wouldn't be sabotaged in the process of helping humanity crawl back to the peak of the food chain. Infighting had effectively doomed humanity, it would still trudge on and might have made a comeback but as the zombies kept getting stronger the people who could fight against them kept becoming less and less.
I heard about a survivor who functioned as a mobile power supply. She couldn't use electricity or anything like that back just by being around her your electrical devices would recharge. She died early on though to weaken the survivor base she was part of. Anyone who had any real usefulness to the city would either have people trying to poach them or assassinate them.
It was only after people lost the one good thing the city had in the form of letting them use phones did the base collapsed. I didn't remember her name, it was just another story of someone dying unnecessarily in a contest of who would end up on top. I was already useful enough to make the base one of the best in the world, no not even that. I was strong enough to defend the utility I brought which made it if not impossible to kill me far too costly to do so. This might be the only base that survived the entire time, if it didn't then the next base I set up would be almost as good.
I still needed to practice, I needed to plan and I needed to prepare to head out into the flood after I felt ready to. Right now it seemed terrible, but this was the only time in the next year you wouldn't need to worry about going out and being hit with hail, frozen to death from a cold snap, or being picked up by a tornado. I pulled out a huge block of bone I made out of all the spare bones. I had more control over this than I really had any reason to this early into its usage.
Even the super-strong powers took some time to learn. I could somehow do it effortlessly, whether it was the knowledge I gained beforehand I use control bones like a seasoned veteran. Shaving off a sheet I began to roll it up and shape it into a ball. Not only was that hundreds of bones but it was also compressed. It was hard enough to compete with iron on durability while being lighter than metal.
I shaped the bone into a mask before shaving off another chunk for a chest plate. I could survive being shot but having a bulletproof bone vest was a safe bet for something I'd need to make in the future. Making a full set of armor was my next mission but I got a strange message. "Miss Vicky… Your ex-boyfriend Jake is here and he's refusing to leave the premises until you talk to him."
The guard just yelled it into the door. It was something that Vicky told them to do when something important came up. It was unorthodox compared to the rest of the high-class residents but that was the difference in learning that someone was right there or having to wait until they were in range of the com, which was just inside the main entranceway.
There was a good chance you wouldn't receive the message, that's why Vicky told them to come up to her house and yell in if she didn't answer the buzzer call. I sigh as I think of how to deal with this. Did I go out and show him he doesn't have a chance now? He's probably here to outlast the flood…
Chapter 23
I walked out and greeted him. "Hey Jake, how's it going?" He smiled at me, then looked confused at my new size, then got really pissed off. "You son of a bitch! It was you!" He feigned like he was going to attack me but was stopped by the guards. Before I went back in time I could beat him in a fight, but now he stood no chance… No, even if he attacked me with a gang and all of them had weapons I could win.
I smiled at him, as wrong as he was for betraying me in the previous life, I still had many good memories from before the apocalypse with him. "It's good to see you." Even with him being extremely mad at me at having realized I was probably the one who told Vicky, my new body and the cheery act I put on threw him off tremendously.
He turned and left. "Fuck this. We're done, don't try to talk to me." That was it, the entire thing came down to a few words, which is the most realistic outcome. He was always a coward and I had to defend him in school more often than not when his mouth got him in trouble. No one knew that the world was going to end, he was just looking for a safe place to wait it out and he thought he'd get right back to being a bastard after it was over.
I sighed and watched him get back into his truck and leave. I moved to head back inside when I heard someone scream. "Freeze!" I look at the person and don't recognize her right away. "Umm… Who are you?" Her face went from tense to disgusted as she told me. "I was the police officer whose gun you stole." I couldn't help but laugh. "You picked a terrible time to come here. Do you see those clouds on the horizon? In less than thirty minutes the floods going to hit here. You should go home and come back after the floods are over."
I knew that it would last a month and that the police would have other bigger problems to deal with than a vehicle thief. "Where are the people you took from the ICU?" I was taken aback by how they linked me to that. Of course, the hospital would have cameras. "They're resting inside. You won't understand right now but if you head to the hospital after the flood it'll make sense to you."
She was dressed in civilian clothes, that was one of the reasons I didn't recognize her right away. Her black woolen sweater hugged her breasts so desperately I could see the fabric stretch to handle the large burden. It looked like she'd have to grease herself up to fit into the jeans she was wearing, they hugged all the curves in the right places showing off everything. If she bent over I bet I could make out the outline of her pussy, they were that tight.
She looked like Eva Mendes, even down to the beauty mark, except it was on her right cheek instead of her left. Young, her youthful appearance had me guess her to be in her very early twenties… I didn't recognize her so she must not have made it very far in the apocalypse, if she's a police officer that would m-. "Look at your phone! Do you have any messages from the police chief?"
My sudden seriousness had her questioning me with her eyes. I had already escaped by distracting her and she might have thought it was similar to the same. I sat down before saying. "I'm not going anywhere until you check your phone." With me putting myself in a worse position to run away, she finally relented. I remembered another thing that I learned from gossip a few months into the apocalypse.
The police went to a prison break after the power was knocked out at a jail and all of them died to the prisoners. Hopefully, we still had time to save them. Who knew how many evil-powered individuals came out of that prison that made the world worse? Having a police force around at the beginning of the apocalypse might quell some of the worse parts of what happened after the initial flood and cold snap. Her breath hitched as she said. "I got to go right now. Don't go anywhere I'll be back after I handle this." I stopped her.
"The flood is coming your car will only make it until the first wave. Give me twenty seconds." I ran to the back of the mansion at a speed that no human would be capable of before storing the boat I stole in my vehicle storage. Running back without her seeing what I did she just looked confused again until I told her. "I'm ready, let's go."
She questioned whether or not to take me but the urgency of the situation had her go with the flow. I outpaced her and took shotgun in her muscle car… How the hell could she afford a muscle car? It didn't matter right now, it was a thirty-minute drive to the prison and that was if you weren't heading directly into a flood. She asked a ton of questions about why I did all those crimes but I had no reason to tell her. The truth wasn't believable, even if I showed her that I had superpowers she'd just believe that and not that I was from the future. I didn't plan on telling anyone I didn't completely trust the actual truth.
She slammed on her brakes coming to an immediate stop as she finally saw the flood heading towards us. It didn't look threatening but it wasn't waist-high water being pushed but sludge. The front half dug up dirt and was full of other things besides water. One part had a bunch of cars and trucks being pushed to the side. She looked fearful, the flood was pushing all the vehicles and slamming them against the buildings on the side. Some of the vehicles were flipped and destroyed by the flood.
I stuck my hand out the window and summoned the boat while storing her muscle car. I tossed her into the boat while picking up the end right before the wave struck. It tried its best to push me back but with my superior strength, I could handle it. Putting the boat down onto the water I kept pushing against the wave as I finally climbed on the back and started the motor.
There was no way she'd have made it to the prison break, but she wouldn't have been looking for me off duty if I hadn't committed the crimes. She'd have been at the prison and died with the rest of them… Or worse, she was an extremely attractive woman after all. No, she'd have died because she'd have been firing at them. Speaking of which. "Here's your gun back… But do you want something a little bigger for this? We don't know what kind of state the prison will be in once we get there."
I handed her the pistol but also an AK. She wouldn't have made much of a difference, they still would have lost but with me… I should probably make her some armor so she doesn't get murdered in a second. "Hey… Can you take over and drive this? I can make you some armor if you give me enough time." She swaps places with me as she figures out how to drive, I make the bone armor I was planning to in the future.
It'll limit her range of motion but make her almost bulletproof. Only a perfectly placed bullet in her eye would kill her in a single shot. Making the bone armor loose was the best bet for now, having it custom-fitted would work but this way it could just go right over her clothes. Her arms could be hit but that wouldn't kill her, same went for the bottom of her legs.
The armor looked imposing and scary, but it was made for more practical purposes. I could fuse the bones together and make hinges with them so the chespiece flared up covering her neck as well. The bottom half was thin strips of bone that formed more of a layered curtain resembling a dress than a true protective sheet of armor, adding two layers would make it harder to move in but it would help guarantee that a bullet wouldn't bypass one layer as the person stepped forward.
It didn't look like bone armor you'd see in the game but actual armor consisting of three pieces. The helm had a ski mask on the inside so it wouldn't rub or smash against your face if someone hit it with a bullet. It looked more like the Punisher helmet than an actual skull with slits for air forming the skull-like structure. It was slapped dashed together and I knew I could make it far better if given enough time but it should do the trick.
Chapter 24
Amnesiac's Point of View
I was dead… Or I should be. The power I had that should have recovered me didn't work for some reason and I was stuck in this state fluctuating between life and death. Before I knew it I was pulled out and could feel my body begin to recover again. Then I felt a sudden pain in my head as my powers grew weaker. I was going to die, my powers weakening I struggled desperately to recover enough so I wouldn't die before passing out…
When was the last time I could think this clearly? I wasn't sure. I just knew something was wrong. I felt… Weak, incredibly weak compared to what I was capable of before. I knew I was strong but… Who was I? I… I didn't remember. I just knew I was in a fight, then something happened and now I woke up with an incredibly terrible headache.
I went to get up but could barely move. Every muscle felt like it was on fire and I just sat there waiting for my body to recover… I didn't know why I knew it was possible for me to recover but I did… Except I wasn't. A life-threatening injury would only take minutes to fix before but now I had lost whatever power that was. I was weaker and had my powers stripped from me, what else could have gone wrong?
As I felt around I could feel another body. I was killed and tossed away like all the other dead people. A sad smile went across my face. Yeah, with my luck that sounds about right. I couldn't remember a single thing about me but I got the vague sense that my life had been absolute shit up until the point I woke up and couldn't remember how shitty it was.
I had to get up, no matter how bad it hurt I needed to get up and run. Staying here wasn't going to help and if someone found me I might end up right back in this pile permanently instead of just temporarily dead. Leaning forward took all my energy. I would have thrown up if I had anything to from the sheer pain alone. Every movement became easier and easier as I managed to make it to my feet.
The pain from standing up almost made me black out. I took a baby step. Moving a single inch at a time, the pain I felt grew less and less as my body began to recover. It wasn't the same power I had before, not nearly as strong but I could feel myself slowly recover. I knew it was faster than a normal person but maybe one hundred times slower than what I was capable of before. Still about ten times faster than a normal human.
What was I? I moved to the steps leading out of here. This was it, this was where I'd be caught and thrown back down to die here. My instincts drove me to remain as silent as I possibly could. The house was nice. There was no creaking of the wood being old or sign of the wear and tear you'd expect to see from… From what? From the houses not being maintained? I couldn't remember.
I just knew this house was built more luxurious than what I was used to and I didn't have to worry about stepping on a squeaky floorboard like I would a more shoddily constructed one. It was too bright… I just noticed this place had lighting… Why would that be surprising though? I didn't know.
I made my way up to the door and looked out as someone sat at the table and ate breakfast… Fully cooked bacon and eggs. It had my mouth watering and I almost, ALMOST rushed over to consume it, screw the consequences. I didn't though. The beautiful woman was barely wearing anything, her silk sheer top barely went a quarter of the way down her back and her pixie-cut hair was the only other noticeable detail I could make out from her back profile.
I moved to leave and almost ran into someone. I couldn't help but feel a connection as I looked at them, they felt similar to someone I knew. The familiarity was also felt by the other person as they asked. "Mom! Do I have an older sister you didn't tell me about!?"
..................................................................
I took in a deep breath as I scanned the entrance of the prison. There was about two feet of water inside the first room but with each door, there was progressively less. It would take a few hours for the entire water to reach an equal distribution. That meant they were all still fighting inside then, or they'd already left. I was hoping it was the former. My facial protection wasn't as bulky as hers. It was more like a welding mask that could be flipped up or down. I was too accustomed to gunfire and wouldn't put myself in danger with my powers.
Pulling my mask down I looked at her. She looked like an actual threat, like someone I wouldn't want to fight if it wasn't necessary. I would avoid her if she was walking down the road patrolling it, especially if it was a group of skull commandoes and not just her. "First room is clear, move up." I spoke as I entered staying crouched. The water pressure tried to hold the door closed but with my immense strength, I could keep it open until we both made it inside.
The water rose another six inches as the door slammed itself shut when I stopped holding it open. I didn't know when we'd see the enemies but my training kicked in nonetheless. Another foot of water and I might not be able to open the door until the water equalized on both sides of it. Scanning the next room and it was wear the cells were. There were people inside, prisoners. The only one with a gun was in the back.
"One in the back. Ten O'clock with a gun. The rest are unarmed but don't drop your guard. Entering in 5,4." I raised my hand as I counted down the three, two, one and kicked the door. Our sudden entrance had the man with the gun jump up in fright and I shot him when I saw him begin to point the gun in our direction. It was smooth and effortless for me to kill. It wasn't so for my 'partner'. "Y-you just killed that man?"
She whisper yelled at me as I answered. "Him or us, I choose us every single time. Doubt gets you killed." I pointed my gun at the ones on the left. "What are your crimes and where are the police?" The older man raised his hands. "Embezzlement, he's in here for selling drugs, the two over there are for armed robbery and the guy in the back is for tax evasion. I didn't agree to this, none of us did. We were in here for less violent crimes. They kept us here at gunpoint so we wouldn't run."
I thought about it, these few were probably fine. "Stay here and don't come up behind us. Don't try to escape or you'll just flood the building faster." We made our way past them and into the main part of the prison. Someone was watching the door and I didn't stop to scan this one as the door was open. The gunfire gave us away and they were waiting for us. As the bullet struck my head I hid back in the doorway. I couldn't help but smirk because I was hoping someone would be stupid enough to shoot at me. It made what I was about to do more justifiable. "See? That's why you always shoot first and ask questions later because your enemies won't be willing to talk things out when they get the drop on you."
I pulled the bullet out of the dented mask as I shaped some bone chunks I kept in my pockets and began to form them into spikes. "Unfortunately for them, they squandered their chance to take me down." I fired my spikes out drawing cries of pain from the few that were visible the second I popped my head into the room.
Chapter 25
The room was filled with prisoners. I could make out about three dozen but I noticed something else. Some of them had a wavering to them that made them harder to make out. I think those were the ones who'd gain power in the future… And I also noticed that the police officer behind me and the prisoner who spoke also had that wavering aura around them.
I was still learning about my aura. It wasn't rapidly evolving, I was just not an expert on its usage. I needed to find out why I could see them but I couldn't see the person in the gunshop unless I mentally went into my mind space and looked around. It was possibly because the door was open, or possibly because these were enemies who knew about me, or I could check for people before but just didn't notice the first person. I'd have to do more testing to determine which it was but right before a gunfight was a bad time to try new things.
Four of the prisoners were clutching parts of their body, those parts were the parts that had a bone spike stuck in. One unfortunate person pulled his bone spike out and then passed out from blood loss. He'd be dead soon unless someone bound the limb and he got medical attention… This wouldn't happen because he was the stupid fucker who shot me the moment he could instead of trying to talk. He wasn't the one who removed the bone spike…
Bone spikes formed again as I pushed them through the doorway before launching them at more people. It flew at a speed slower than a bullet but faster than a thrown weapon, two hundred to five hundred mph, somewhere in that range. The finger-sized spikes wouldn't kill until they were pulled out because I wasn't aiming for vitals. It meant that as long as they gave up and didn't move around they'd live, if they tried fighting back and the spike pushed itself out, they'd die.
I didn't want to fight. Even criminals served their purpose in the apocalypse, especially if they had a useful power. I was trying to spare them but they were the most aggressive ones out of the group. Six became five as one panicked and fired before the gun recoiled up and he fired again killing himself. It was hard not to laugh at how green all these criminals were.
Some of them weren't holding the weapons correctly, and half of them hadn't fired a single shot. Two men had pissed themselves and most people who were injured by me were crying from fear and confusion. One finally spoke. "Please stop! We just want to leave!" I yelled back sarcastically. "Then where are the police sent in here to stop you? You could have left already but didn't, why?"
It was silent for a few seconds as the man tried to think of a lie to tell me before he tried to speak. "B-because… We *hurk*." I hit him in his throat with a bone spike. I was done playing around. "Everyone put down your guns or I'll kill you." I waited a few seconds and heard a few guns fall to the ground. It wasn't nearly enough so another non-powered got a spike to his throat.
I had a decade of learning from the leaders to get them to listen to me. Everything I did was to minimize the casualties on both sides. If I had to choose who lived it would be the police but I didn't know where they were. If they had killed all the police then not many were making it out of here alive… The real reason I wanted to keep them alive was that killing someone before their power activated was a waste.
If I waited for them to gain power and then killed them I'd get stronger zombies out of the deal. I could only control ten zombies so that's all I planned to raise right now until I grew in level. I was going to be very picky with the zombies under my control until I got commanders. Zombie generals could command other zombies which would increase the amount of zombies I could control.
It was a snowball effect. I would be able to command twenty zombies next level. Then fifty, but my zombie general could control five. The level after that I could have two zombie generals who could control ten while I could control one hundred. Three zombies who could control twenty while I could control two hundred. Four zombies controlled fifty while I could control three hundred and fifty. For the final rank, I could have five zombie generals who could control one hundred and I could control five hundred myself. A thousand zombies aren't much unless every single one was hand-picked with a power.
I heard more people drop their guns. There was only a single person who would become a powered in the future who still held a gun in his hand. I kill the two other non-powered who are still holding a gun. "Last chance to drop that gun before you get a spike through your heart." With him dropping the gun I moved into the room with a few spikes floating above my head to show I was still prepared to kill.
A man stuttered out. "W-what the fuck are you?" I smiled which none of them could see because of my mask. "Just some guy who got lucky." Since I revealed myself, someone thought he could quickly pick his gun up before I would notice. I was close enough to store the gun before he could reach it. I'd have killed him if he wasn't powered. "Policewoman. Come back me up. Now, I'll ask once again. Where are the police?"
She ran up while the prisoners looked each other in the eye wondering if they should tell me. Until another one of them got a spike in their brain. One finally broke. "Please! Stop killing us… The police are locked in the armory downstairs." My eyes went wide as I ran toward the opposite side of the room. The building was flooding, I don't know how they got downstairs in the armory when the prisoners all had guns already but if they're stuck down there they'll drown to death once it fills with water.
I stored all of their guns as I ran past as another thought he could take me out by punching me when I was running past him. Without breaking stride I ducked the blow and knocked him down with a single blow. He wasn't unconscious but his head was definitely spinning after a blow like that. Perception was the sleeper stat people forgot about.
Strength, agility, endurance, and intellect were fairly obvious stat increases. You get stronger, you can lift more, you get faster you can run faster, and so on. If someone gained perception their senses would improve, not just the five normal senses but perfect control of their body through coordination, a stronger sense of hot and cold which helps them know when the weather is about to change, and even the sixth sense that warns them when someone dangerous is about to happen.
Perception specialists were known for one thing. Being cockroaches, they're the hardest to kill outright. Even more than endurance-focused powers. It didn't help that most perception specialists were cowards while endurance specialists were brave. It made it seem like someone had eyes in the back of their head because they kind of did.
I kick the door leading down to the armory and see that it's mostly flooded, only the top foot of the room was left before they all drowned to death.