ã€ŠThe Last Zeus: Book 1- The Beginningã€‹


 Ch 1 - Peace, is no more.

    In the burning heat of summer, a man could be seen waiting on the bus stand. Well, it would be inappropriate to call him a man, as he was only seventeen. But, his stature and the contemplating look on his face gave him a mature presence. He was waiting for the 2 pm bus, as were 20 other people.

    Some may find it crazy to be outside, when the temperature is near 60 Celsius but these people were used to it. Most of them were salarymen, with odd working hours. Once their shift was over, their offices required them to vacate their working spaces for those who had the next shift. But it was a common scene now a days. With bots taking over most of the manual labor and human population showing no signs of slowing down, these conditions could be considered quite luxurious. At least they had a job, unlike many others.

    But our protagonist, Roon, wasn¡¯t happy with this. He didn¡¯t want to spend the rest of his life slaving for companies or doing measly jobs. Yes, these people were good, they had a job, putting them in the upper stratum of the society. Yet, this was not enough for him, he didn¡¯t want to run around under the scorching sun when he was 45. So, he was enduring it now, at the age of 17, when most of the youths his age would loaf around in the government shelters, spend the stipends they get for useless shit with the mind set ¡®It¡¯s alright. We¡¯ll think of work when we¡¯re 30, now is the time to live life to its fullest¡¯ then get kicked out of the shelter at 20, reproduce for 40 years and then return to the shelter at 60. While some of them might work like these salarymen here, but he thought otherwise. That was the reason he travelled in this dust filled oven, when he could be resting like the other¡¯s his age. He had to attend classes that were annoyingly situated in different parts of the city, as he hoped to get a high position in the administrative sector of the society. But just because he thought differently didn¡¯t mean that he was in a different condition than these people. He felt the heat just as much as them.

    ¡®Ahmeda this time of the year, has been damned by god. Ugh, I¡¯m sweating from my bums now.¡¯

    As they were sitting there, a kid was hawking newspapers for 10 uns per paper.

    ¡°Fresh, fresh, the world will end soon. Read, read, the real 2012 approaching. Fresh, fresh, the world will end soon.¡±

    ¡°Shut up. Shoo, you¡¯re ruining the mood here. Your mother will end if you keep shouting.¡±

    A bald uncle started shouting at the kid. The heat was already too much to handle, and here this kid was shouting shit, and making the already irritable atmosphere more uncomfortable.

    ¡°Yeah, my mom will end?? Surely your mom didn¡¯t end it when I was with her, how do you think you were born? Thank me.¡±

    The kid started doing obscene actions, which further aggravated the middle-aged man¡¯s mood. But it brought a smile to the others on the stand. Even Roon was smiling, as he looked at the kid. He was certainly unregistered. His parents must have left him unregistered as they thought it to be too much of a hassle. So now he can¡¯t even get into a shelter, and his parents were most certainly unemployed, the need to sell papers. In this matter Roon, thought himself to be quite lucky. As both his parents were working he could stay with them, and they were earning enough so he didn¡¯t need to stay at the shelter, even though many of his friends did. But this kid was the unluckiest. He was about to be beat up by the middle-aged man, but as if an angel was looking over him, the bus arrived. Seeing the bus, the middle-aged man let go of him, and hurried to the bus in hopes of getting a window seat. As everyone was boarding the bus, Roon called over the kid and asked him for one, and paid him a 20 uns bill, letting him keep the change. The boy¡¯s face lit up, and he bowed in a practice manner and like spokesperson giving his speech, said,

    ¡°Remember, the world is ending. The real 2012 is here. Our planet Terra, will no longer be the same.¡±

    Roon too, played along with him, and with a mesmerized look on his face clapped like the charmed audience usually does. The boy seeing this gave a toothy smile and pointed to the bus, which had already started its engine. Seeing that the bus had already started Roon, ran and boarded just in time.

    Inside the bus he saw that all the seats were full. Except for one, next to a girl. She had a good face, and a nice figure. But Roon wasn¡¯t specially interested in that, what he was interested was in, was the seat that was empty. He looked around and saw that quite a few people were standing. Not sitting next to the girl, as the seats in this public transport were very congested. So, to not look like perverts who were taking a chance with this belle, they chose to keep standing. But of course, Roon wouldn¡¯t think like that. What¡¯s the point of looking good in front of people, you aren¡¯t going to interact with for even an hour. Screw their opinions. With that line of thinking, he threw himself on the seat, without the slightest bearing of a gentleman. The girl next to him made a face but he still didn¡¯t give squat.

    ¡®Beauty, or Miss World, if I won¡¯t be seeing you again, then fuck your opinion.¡¯

    Seeing an ugly faced bastard, taking the chance that they¡¯d given up, and shamelessly sitting on the place they¡¯d left empty on purpose, made a few men go green. Of course, neither was Roon ugly, nor a bastard, but that wouldn¡¯t stop them from cursing him.

    And the last straw was, when the belle didn¡¯t ask him to get up, and went back to doing her own stuff.

    After some period of oscillating, one man couldn¡¯t take it anymore. He was a man in his 30s and he didn¡¯t look like your regular salaryman. He was well dressed, cool jacket, stylish trimmed hair, expensive clean sneakers, really, not a speck of dust on him. One would wonder what he was doing outside, at this time of the day, in a public transport. And this rich, tall, playboy was standing in front of Roon.

    ¡°Hey, I got here before you mate.¡±

    He said in a commanding tone.

    ¡°Oh, great. So?¡±

    But Roon, looked on. Expression less. He even felt like saying, ¡®Then you should¡¯ve sat here when you had the chance¡¯, but he didn¡¯t. Getting into unnecessary conflict wouldn¡¯t benefit anyone. So, he just kept staring at the guy, and the guy eventually backed off, not furthering the conversation. But he kept glaring time to time.

    As the bus kept moving, Roon decided to involve himself in the paper he had bought today. They were becoming increasingly rare, even extinct in few parts of the globe, with the advent of digital media. And this one had an intriguing article. ¡°The End of Earth¡± by Michael Freeman.

    ¡®Hmm. Interesting, the author even has a second name. Freeman? Let¡¯s see. ¡°It is with deep regret that I write this piece to inform my fellow humans, that Earth maybe facing its greatest crisis yet. It is not intelligent robots or the TY3 virus as we¡¯d predicted through our fictions and imaginations. This threat is very real, they are Aliens. I know it may sound fantastical, or the mumblings of a high dosed hippie at first. But I implore the reader to finish this article before forming any views about my claim. For the last year, we have been observing the occurrences of strange and unexplainable phenomenon, that have baffled the greatest minds of Earth till date. While I would like to discuss each one of them in detail, time is short, so I will present to you with only a timeline and the most important events. It started when the AutoSatV90, our greatest achievement situated in the asteroid belt, sent a photograph of monoliths, that looked as if designed by intelligent minds, crossing the asteroid belt. Soon after, we lost all contact with AutoSatV90. Then continually, we lost any form of contact with our satellites situated in our neighbor planets Mars, and Venus, within a period of 2 weeks. It was followed by strange phenomenon across the globe, which included, but were not limited to twisters and whirlpools in extremely unlikely points in our oceans, increased incidents of animal aggression, and the rapid growth of many forests in this year, which was lauded by many and accredited to the environmentalist groups of North Zihan. But I find this situation a bit worrying as the locations where these phenomena took place, had people claiming to have seen ¡®Huge Black Monoliths¡¯ flash in and out of existence right before these phenomena occurred. My friends, I won¡¯t criticize the government for suppressing this matter as they were doing their best to avoid public unrest. But I had to get this out somewhere so that someone knows, that something is coming. To the reader I would like to say, there is not much you can do, except being careful. So be as careful as you can, for precaution may save your life, and many others.¡± Wow, that was creepy. So, conspiracy theorist huh? No wonder he had to publish a paper, no private domain would possibly publish this on their net portal.¡¯This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Just a he had finished reading the article, the bus bumped and the backpack he had kept on his side leaned a bit on the belle who was sitting beside him. She made a face as if she had eaten poop, when the bag met her skin. She started cleaning her arm where the bag had touched her. Sure, the bag had some dust on it due to constant and rough use, but it wasn¡¯t infected or something, ¡®Wear full sleeves if your skin is that delicate.¡¯ was what Roon was thinking. As he was about to return to his own business, the woman with a slight smile, asked him in the gentlest tone possible.

    ¡°Do you mind? I¡¯m getting really uncomfortable.¡±

    Roon being the well-mannered citizen of the world, took his backpack and kept it in his lap, which surprisingly made it more comfortable, availing more space for him to spread.

    But the woman kept staring at him, her smile had now turned to a forced one. Roon feeling that she wanted to say something, took the initiative,

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    He asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m really uncomfortable with this.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s why I kept the bag in my lap.¡±

    ¡°No, I mean. I know what you¡¯re thinking. Haven¡¯t you had enough fun already, you know sitting next to the belle, even our shoulders touched sometimes, now if you¡¯ve had enough could please just go. I¡¯m really not comfortable with you sitting here.¡±

    Roon gave an incredulous look to this woman. He wanted to lecture her about the delusional and self-centered bitch she was. But she was probably older than him, and if he caused a commotion then the idioms would probably take this case as some kid with hyper active hormones assaulting a beautiful young lady and stuff like that. So, he chose the most pragmatic response in this situation.

    ¡°Look lady. This seat was meant for two, and this is public transport. If you want to leave then no one¡¯s stopping you, but I am not budging from this place till my stop comes.¡±

    ¡°You really won¡¯t leave?¡±

    The woman asked him again, and he just shook his head in response.

    ¡°Okay, you leave me with no choice then. PERVERT, PERVERT here. Somebody help.¡±

    She started shouting like crazy. And before Roon could relax his raised eyebrow, a lot of people turned their attention towards them. First ones being, the chivalrous men who had given up the seat for the comfort of the lady. And the rich guy was even better, without trying to analyze the situation, he jumped at Roon.

    ¡°Whoa there mate. Easy with the lady alright. What do you think you¡¯re doing?¡±

    He started speaking in a loud voice, and attracted even more attention towards them. Now everybody was looking in Roons direction.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do squat.¡±

    Roon replied with a calm tone. This was turning into quite a bit of hassle, which in turn was annoying him even more.

    ¡°Well, we all have an idea of what you were trying to do, don¡¯t we? What do you have to say ma¡¯am?¡±

    ¡®Ma¡¯am? For real. Did he just call her ¡®ma¡¯am¡¯? ¡®

    ¡°Yes. He¡¯s a pervert. He was being very shifty right now. And when I asked him to move, he shamelessly refused.¡±

    ¡°See, there we have it. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll take care of it in a jiffy. You, there. I politely ask you, please get up.¡±

    Roon was still making the ¡°The Fuck?¡± expression he was making in the start. This was too much for him to process. But the rich guy, took his silence for him accepting his guilt and being frozen up due to shame, and fear. He asked him again, this time confident of his achievement,

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°So what?¡±

    ¡°So, get up and get lost. Best if you get down at the next station. And have some respect for women. Next time I hope you don¡¯t get so desperate as to try things in a bus.¡±

    With that the group of men who were behind him, the ¡°chivalrous¡± people burst out laughing. By this time, as Roon had finished processing what had happened, he let out a sigh, and fetched for something in his bag.

    Then he took out Tic-tac¡¯s from his bag, and started munching on them. The rich guy and company were left standing there as they were thoroughly ignored. After standing there for some time rage started bubbling in the rich guy. He asked with his voice trembling,

    ¡°Hey, why haven¡¯t you left the seat?¡±

    ¡°Huh, don¡¯t want to.¡±

    To his rage filled question, Roon gave a dull reply. After seeing his reaction, the girl exclaimed,

    ¡°You really are shameless, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Haha, you got that right!¡±

    To her exclamation, Roon gave a toothy smile and a cheesy reply.

    The man had had enough. He stopped controlling himself and grabbed Roon by his collar, and forcefully lifted him up. As getting physical got Roon very uncomfortable, and he to in a fit of anger pushed the man. But it appears the man had some training in martial arts, as he stabilized himself and gave a quick jab to Roon¡¯s stomach. Roon had the air drawn out of him as he struggled to breath. Seeing his condition, the man started smirking, but before he could completely enjoy his moment of victory, Roon unexpectedly punched him near the groin. But as Roon had no inkling of martial arts or any fight sense, he was off target and ended up hitting the man¡¯s thigh, which did little damage, but angered him a lot. He again grabbed Roon by the collar and started thrashing him, on his face. While Roon started feeling dizzy, he didn¡¯t let go of his consciousness, and with great timing spit in the man¡¯s eyes. This action took the man by surprise, and gave Roon the window he was looking for as he kicked the guy in his tenders, and punched his face with all his might, which sent the man down, but even exhausted Roon as he was currently feeling, terrible pain in his fingers. Obviously, he¡¯d punched wrongly, which in turn damaged his hand. But Roon was not one to stop here, he tried getting to the guy to thrash him again, but was tackled by other people as they broke the fight. As most of the public started crowding in the narrow section of the bus, to look at what had happened, the bus came to a sudden halt. Everyone was surprised as the break was too sudden and caused a lot of people to fall. They started questioning the driver, but most of them were still looking at the two bruised mails, one of which was requesting medical assistance. But their attention was shifted, when the driver announced,

    ¡°Oi everyone. I think we have a problem here. The bus has stopped working for some reason, I¡¯m trying to access the bus¡¯s digital interface but that to has stopped working. So, I¡¯m gonna must ask you to arrange for some other means of transport, as I¡¯ll have to call the company office now and they¡¯ll send someone to check it out and it¡¯s going to take some time.

    ¡°What! The hell man, I have to get to work, I¡¯ll lose points if I¡¯m late.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and I just got off work. My wife¡¯s waiting. Do something.¡±

    And all the people started bantering like they usually do. The driver was in a tough spot, but there was nothing he could do. The smart ones started calling, but they couldn¡¯t get any signal. The bigger problem was, they were stranded on a flyover, and there was no cab that would wait on a flyover at the wave of a hand. So, they were all in a tough spot. As people started getting off the bus, everyone seemed to have forgotten the brawl that had happened. Even the rich guy let it go. He only sent some sharp glares at Roon. Then, one of the passengers shouted from outside,

    ¡°Everyone, you have to see this.¡±

    As all the public started gathering outside, Roon too, followed them, and what he saw left him flabbergasted. Outside he could on the flyover, cars were stranded, not just stopped, like a traffic jam, literally immobile. Not even one of them working, and all their drivers were outside trying to call or do anything, but they had no signal. Also, this wasn¡¯t just the scene on the flyover he was on, from up there, everywhere he could see, all the places had the same thing repeating. All vehicles shut, and the people struggling with their phone. But this wasn¡¯t enough to flabbergast him, what had him wide eyed and open assed, was what he saw in the air. A Big Black Monolith.

    ¡°You¡¯re fucking with me, right?¡±

 Ch 2 - First Time Ever

    There it was, hanging in the sky, like a single domino, that thing that he refused to believe in. That black monolith. Astonishing it was, as it hovered there.

    ¡°You¡¯re kidding with me right. Hey, if this a hidden camera gig, then it¡¯s not funny. C¡¯mon guys, you can all come out now, very funny. Haha, you had me. Now c¡¯mon, out you come.¡±

    Roon refused to believe what he saw, and thus approached at the conclusion he found most plausible, but even as he kept shouting stuff that was supposed to end this gig, he only managed to earn weird looks from the surrounding people.

    ¡°Hey, did I hit your head too hard, did you lose a screw or two back there? The hell are you shouting?¡±

    The rich guy commented from behind, who was, for some reason, accompanied by that woman from before. But as it would be too much of a burden on his fragile brain to converse with fools, Roon did what he did best. He ignored them splendidly, and approached the driver.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯ve had your fun, and I¡¯m sure you got some really good shots of my reaction, but can you just end it now. I¡¯m on a schedule and this isn¡¯t funny anymore.¡±

    ¡°The fuck are you talking about. Get outta my face. O Lord, has the heavens wrath descended upon us. May Lord forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.¡±

    ¡®The prayers not even complete. Fuck, The Hell? No bloopers or Just for Gags? Is this actually real?¡¯

    With that thought in his mind, Roon decided to call for a cab. But his phone wasn¡¯t working. There was no signal.

    So instead of being all panicked and irrational about it, Roon decide upon a pragmatic approach.

    Maybe, it was not a hoax, not a blooper, no Just for Laugh Gags.

    Everything that¡¯s happening, is true. As all the people, around didn¡¯t appear to be deceiving him, they were genuinely, equally surprised about the situation. Also, he had a strange feeling in his gut, that all of this was true.

    ¡®I mean, c¡¯mon, vehicles throughout the city have stopped working, no one can do that for just a Blooper, and then, there¡¯s also that.¡¯

    He looked at the monolith. He was sure that no one, at their current level of technology, could use that just for entertainment purposes. So, despite his rationale suggesting something else, he decided to go with his gut for once and believed in what was written in the article. He became very wary of his situation and started analyzing his surroundings.

    He saw that people around him were trying to take pictures of that colossal domino, but none of them were very successful, because the camera was showing empty sky in the position where the monolith was supposed to be.

    After some time passed, everybody felt a tremor. But this wasn¡¯t a movement of the earth, it was something else, it was ¡°air?¡±. The air around them was vibrating. It wasn¡¯t something like a storm or some sort for fast moving wind, it was literally the vibration of the air around them, which in turn made them feel as if they were encapsulated by a massage chair.

    Roon, found the air ¡®massage¡¯, quite comfortable. But that was only for him, maybe because he was high on adrenaline at moment, because the others were not taking it very well. Many of them were on ground, writhing and squirming, as they felt sharp piercing pain through their bodies, as if it was a million needles stabbing them. Luckily, their predicament, didn¡¯t last long as the Monolith started glowing, and released a mixture of resonating black, green and blue light wave, then without a sound, and any sort of physical distortion, disappeared. The air stopped trembling and the pain went away after it¡¯s disappearance. Gradually the people started getting up and contemplating what had happened. They were feeling different, their surroundings felt different. The air felt denser, viscous even. Some were still having difficulty breath, and some were on a high. Many felt better than they were feeling before, they felt as if they had gained clarity, as if high amounts of dopamine were delivered very quickly. But this feeling gradually died down, and many of them wanted to post about all of this on the social network, being the social butterflies they were. But to their disappointment, their phones had gone dud.

    Nearly 5000 people, and their phones got bricked at the same time. This had Roons brain circuit in haywire. His mind went into overdrive as he tried to make sense of the situation. The last few words from the article were constantly echoing in his head, ¡°Be very careful¡±, ¡°There¡¯s not much we can do¡±, ¡°The world may end¡±. So, when everyone was marveling at what¡¯d happened, and what they¡¯d felt just now, Roon observed. He observed everything very, very carefully. It was good that he was on the 2<sup>nd</sup> level skyway of the city, it gave him a very good vantage point.

    Ahmeda, despite being a metropolis and occupying the huge swath of land that it did, the 3000 sqKm still fell short for all the industries and activities it housed. It was a hub for many transportation, and export businesses being close to the ocean, and thus faced huge amounts of traffic, which was difficult to accommodate. So, the authorities decided to implement the sky way infrastructure which was developed a decade ago. It had three levels, ground, 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup>. On the ground level were mostly pedestrians, and the unemployed populace, which had access to medical and general facilities for most of their basic needs. Entertainment industries were near absent on the ground level, except for a few historical monuments, such as the Museum, Library, or the St. Peter¡¯s Stadium. The rest of the ground level mostly consisted of docks and the storage facilities for the manufacturers on the 1<sup>st</sup> level, or the goods for export. Level 1 mostly consisted of factories and some laboratories for the government. It also hosed the Bio Park that Ahmeda was proud of, consisting of animals from all sorts of environments, in a common environment that could sustain them all, without caging them, also this was the only area that was accessible to the people of the ground floor. The 2<sup>nd</sup> level was where most of the human industries were. It consisted of the entertainment, information, educational and administrative sectors. Of course, the medicinal facilities on the 2<sup>nd</sup> level of Ahmeda were things to boast about. The only building that connected all 3 levels were, government shelters and buildings, and a few bus depots.

    So, as Roon observed from a high point, which was a flyover on the 2<sup>nd</sup> level, he could see most of the city, and what he saw, brought a single thought to his mind.

    ¡®That¡¯s a lot of people.¡¯

    He could see that a lot of people, including the ones on the 1<sup>st</sup> and 2<sup>nd</sup> level, had come out to witness the strange stellar object. The ground level was always full of people, so he didn¡¯t mind that, but the people of the 2<sup>nd</sup> level coming out in this scalding

    heat was something to be surprised about.

    ¡®Huh, heat? Yeah, it isn¡¯t hot anymore.¡¯

    With this thought, Roon looked up, and what he saw, left him speechless yet again. Clouds had appeared in the sky. Dark grey, ominous clouds, and they had appeared without a sound. Whenever such a huge and dense cluster of clouds gathered, they were bound to make some thunder. But these ones were creepily silent.

    Seeing, this soundless force of nature, a sense of foreboding welled in him, which he couldn¡¯t quite explain, and on an impulse, he decided to go back in the bus, followed by many other passengers, few chose to stay behind, still gawking at the incredible phenomenon they were witnessing.

    As Roon got inside, he saw that his previous seat was occupied by the rich guy who he had so gloriously beat up, and next to her was the ostentatious bitch. They seemed to be getting awfully close, but he would not waste his mental faculties on trivial matters, so he did what he does best, ignore them. He found a quiet seat in a corner and started organizing his messed-up thoughts.

    ¡®Fuck. This is so messed up. *Phew*, need to breathe, need to breathe deep, need to calm down and KILL ALL THE MOTHERFUCKERS I SEE AROUND MYSELF. *Phew*, that was a very violent thought, and helped me calm down. So, the facts. What do I know? I know, that a conspiracy theorist thinks that Aliens are invading and black monoliths are raising hell around the globe. The Motherfucking fucking cursed, cool looking monolith actually appeared, which was witnessed by at least thousands of people including myself. It can¡¯t be a gag, no one hires 5000 people for a gag. As all of this is real, so I guess every fucking thing that runs on electricity has stopped working, the bus and the phone included. Nothing I can do bout that. Then some shit happened and monolith disappeared, and the air is now heavy. What do I do? Stop breathing? It feels like shit. Yup, calming down made me no better than a minute ago. Fuck it.¡¯The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    He was brought out of his trance like monologue by a disturbance at the bus gate. It opened and four people 3 people entered, all men. They were dressed like your usual corporate worker, and they were the ones who¡¯d stayed out when everybody was returning to sit in the bus. And the noticeable thing was, they were all soaked. Literally, wet from head to toe.

    A little girl approached them,

    ¡°Did you go swimming uncle?¡±

    The man in is twenties replied in a gentle tone,

    ¡°No sweetie. It rained, can you believe that, it actually rained in the middle of summer.¡±

    The little girl quickly shook her head, refusing to believe him. That¡¯s when her mom called her,

    ¡°Christie, get back here, stop troubling the uncle.¡±

    The man replied with a smile,

    ¡°No its alright. Hi, I¡¯m Jacob.¡±

    ¡°Hi, Natalie.¡±

    As Roon observed this movie like slice of life scene, he didn¡¯t smile like he usually would, because right now, he was busy observing every tiny detail he could, about every person in this bus. He observed that there were, 26 people on this bus excluding him, with 18 of them dressed as office workers, 13 men and 5 women, a black kid that looked about his age, an old couple, a mother and daughter, that rich guy, the bitch and a scholarly man in his 40s who looked like George Clooney acting as a professor.

    These were all the people in the bus at the moment. Who should he be wary of? What could possibly endanger him? Because the alarm like echoes in his mind were still ringing, and the pit like feeling in is stomach was making him more uncomfortable by each passing moment. So, he focused on the only thing that stood out. The three who had just entered were wet. Why were they wet in the middle of summer? Yes, it was raining, but it was more like a flash rain. It rained heavy and sudden, but it was already coming to a stop. Also, the air conditioning of the bus should¡¯ve been enough to dry them by now.

    ¡®Wait, why is the air conditioner working? Also, the lights, the lights of the bus are still on. The fuck, so electronics are still working?¡¯

    He immediately tried his phone, but it was still a dud. So, with nothing new, he decided that the worries were tricks of his minds and put in the back of his head.

    It was 5 pm soon. The sun was still as bright, a gift of summer. A few people suddenly fainted. It could have been attributed to a heat stroke this time of the year, but the ones who¡¯d fainted were the ones who were out in the rain, and they were frothing at the mouth. The strange thing was their eyes were wide open as if they were awake. They weren¡¯t even blinking. As everyone, started crowding around them, the scholarly man, who looked like George Clooney, shooed them away, and started examining the unconscious ones like a medical professional.

    ¡®So he was a doctor.¡¯

    The doctor, asked some people to help him lay them on a seat and they did. After laying them on the seats, the doctor started examining them.

    ¡°What is it doctor, will they be alright?¡±

    Natalie, the woman with a kid, pestered him. To which the doctor replied with a calm voice.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s just a normal case of black out. These three probably work in a very stressful environment and today¡¯s events may have pushed them to the edge.¡±

    The doctor¡¯s diagnosis was very ambiguous, but no one paid attention to it, except for Roon. He approached the doctor, and talked to him in a low voice, for the purpose that no one else hear their conversation, but of course that was his thought only, how could any normal human not hear something so close. But for most part, they didn¡¯t care about it.

    ¡°Um, Dr¡­.?

    ¡°Who. It¡¯s Dr.Who ¡°

    ¡®For real. The fuck.¡¯

    Due to the bizarreness of the events today, Roon almost believed him. But off course, the other party was joking.

    ¡°Hah. I¡¯m kidding. It¡¯s Dr. Patrick August, and before you arrive at conclusions, I am not a doctor of medicine. I am a physicist, and the reason I¡¯m qualified to examine them is because I am versed in many fields, biology being one of them, and I certainly am the smartest guy in this room.¡±

    This statement from August seemed to have earned weird looks from many of the passengers, but no one seemed to be in to mood for a debate.

    ¡®So, Sheldon Cooper it is.¡¯

    Was what Roon thought but of course he won¡¯t say it to the doctor¡¯s face.

    ¡°So Dr. August, you said that it was a simple blackout, but why are they frothing at the mouth.¡±

    ¡°Well, the frothing at the mouth may be caused due to trauma or epilepsy. Probably trauma. But why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°There are reasons. Are there any other symptoms that strike you as strange?¡±

    ¡°There is the receding heart rate, which is dropping at alarming levels, which should have resulted I their death by now, but seeing as they haven¡¯t died yet, this is an extraordinary case, which I didn¡¯t want the fragile minded, panicking passengers of this bus to know about but now they do. So may I ask again why are you so interested and why are we whispering?¡±

    Seeing that the low volume hadn¡¯t served its purpose at all, Roon spoke in a normal tone.

    ¡°Because I think that we should throw them out. I can¡¯t exactly explain but I am getting a bad feeling from them being here.¡±

    Hearing Roon¡¯s opinion all the passengers gave him different looks, most of them were disgust, with the rich guy looking with contempt, the doctor contemplating and the woman, Natalie, looking like she would eat him alive.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you throw yourself outside, you shallow pervert.¡±

    And as if a dam had burst, everyone started cursing at him, only the doctor maintaining his calm.

    ¡°Wait. Everyone quite for a moment please.¡±

    His voice held a certain calm and authority that seemed to work every time he spoke.

    ¡°I think I can understand what you¡¯re thinking. Are you hypothesizing that it is some sort of communicable bacteria?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, something like that.¡±

    ¡°Bullshit.¡±

    The rich guy burst into action. With him as the cue people resumed their cursing.

    Seeing him wake up, the little girl Christie, started giggling happily and announced,

    ¡°Mama, uncle is awake. Mama.¡±

    But after she was ignored by her mother who was busy cursing Roon, she went to Jacob who still had the blank look on his face. She went there and started pushing Jacob.

    ¡°Uncle, see it¡¯s me. Boo, hihhihi. Uncle?¡±

    As she got no response from Jacob she was a bit perplexed. But her perplexity was soon replaced by fear, as Jacob started grunting, and as he slowly acknowledged her presence, he bit her, and started chewing.

    ¡°AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH¡±

    This time her shrill cry was enough to grab everybody¡¯s attention. As the passengers looked at her and Jacob, they had a variety of reactions. Seeing the healthy young man of 25 chewing at a girl of 5 in ecstasy, and her flesh and blood in his mouth, the people added their own screams to accompany her. Most of the passengers backed away from that spot, which was quite easy considering that Jacob and others were laid near the end of the bus, close to the exit. And for some time, no one moved. Even Natalie was only capable of shouting and pleading for help. Seeing as no one was going to help her child, Natalie decided to move on her own, her maternal instincts taking over, she bashed into the now beastly Jacob, who in turn refused to let her go. She managed to wrench her daughter out of the monster¡¯s grip, but that in turn made him focus on her. He let go of Christie and took a nice big bite out of Natalie.

    As everyone watched on in terror, Roon¡¯s body moved of its own accord, and despite his sane mind saying otherwise he, ran and flung his backpack full of books, that weighed at least 4 kgs, at the Zombie. Yes, he¡¯d decided to call it a zombie. That¡¯s what his instincts were pointing at before, and that¡¯s the conclusion he¡¯d arrived at now. His attack caused the zombie to stagger and that gave the mother daughter pair enough time to run to the other end of the bus. But the zombie seemed to be unaffected as it changed its target to Roon, which in turn made him shriek like a 3-year-old, and run back to the end of the bus, all the way to the driver seat.

    It was then that the rich, and doctor got into action. With the rich guy running and punching the zombie in the stomach, which was as ineffective as Roons actions, and he repeated the same course by running back. It was then that August who was calmly walking towards the zombie, picked up the old couple¡¯s luggage and tossed it at the zombie¡¯s feet, which made it fall. Then he, picked up another of the couple¡¯s luggage and place it precisely between the zombie¡¯s shoulder blade, and then, sat on it. This to the surprise of everyone had rendered the zombie immobile. He¡¯d displayed an astonishing use of human anatomy.

    ¡°Someone, kill it. Now.¡±

    Again with his authority filled voice he commanded, but this time no one moved. The rich guy tried to deal with it, by stomping and kicking on its head, but stopped his efforts when the zombie nearly bit him.

    It was then that something struck Roon, like lightning.

    ¡®There are two more. Shit, we have to make it quick.¡¯

    Then despite his unwillingness to risk his life, his mind went into overdrive, and he quickly looked around the driver¡¯s seat. There he found a toolkit, out of which he took a wrench, and then rushed to the zombie and August. He built his momentum as he ran and struck at the zombie¡¯s head.

    But, he missed. He nearly hit August, and nearly let go of his weapon when the rebound from hitting the floor came. He tried again and again like mad, but most of the attempts futile.

    ¡°From the side. Change your position.¡±

    Following Augusts order he changed his position and unleashed hell upon the monster¡¯s head.

    He kept hitting, and hitting, till nothing but red filled his vision. His hands didn¡¯t stop, and he felt as if he¡¯d been hitting forever, until a calm voice entered his ears,

    ¡°It¡¯s alright lad. The deed is done.¡±

    Roon saw that the body was no longer moving, but he didn¡¯t wait to analyze the situation, as he had another thing going on in his head. He ran and quickly opened the door, the summer¡¯s hot wind greeted him, but he ignored that, and dragged the, fortunately, unconscious men and dropped them out of the bus. There he also caught a glimpse of the bus driver who¡¯d stayed out to assess the situation of the bus, standing there in stupor. But when he saw Roon, as if a beast that¡¯d encountered pray started approaching him, but he soon tripped himself and fell. His motor senses seemed to have been damaged.

    Roon quickly closed the door, and again analyzed his surroundings, this becoming a habit of his now. He saw that many people were looking at him with fear, but most of them weren¡¯t paying their full attention to him, they were looking at Natalie, and Christie, and August who was standing with them.

    Then Roon, saw the piece of art he¡¯d made out of the head, which was now nothing more than pulp and more pulp. After Roon ensured that there was nothing endangering him at the moment, he collapsed, his vision turning black.

 Ch 3 - That Mysterious Character

    When Roon woke up, it was night. He saw that Sheldon Cooper, no, Dr. August was sitting next to him, and most of the passengers were huddled close to each other, sleeping, with him and August at a distance from them.

    He saw that August had kept his eyes closed and seemed to be meditating? Yes, August was meditating, and some white substance in very little amounts was going in and out of him, very slowly.

    What surprised him, was that he could see little white mist like substance everywhere, albeit in very small amounts, thinly spread, but somehow he knew it was everywhere, and when Roon thought that it must be mist, then he was surprised to find that when he wanted to look at something, then the mist miraculously disappeared and he could see very fine details, that he couldn¡¯t before.

    Moreover, he could hear stuff, that was incomprehensible, his skin felt itchy, and the variety of odor was making him nauseous.

    ¡°Shit!¡±

    The moment he tried to get up he fell again. Feeling the disturbance, August opened his eyes and beamed at Roon.

    ¡°Ah, you¡¯re up.¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately, yes.¡±

    ¡°Well, before the others start noticing, I¡¯d like to have a treacherous, mutiny type discussion with you, for which I stayed up all night. So,..¡±

    Not letting him complete his sentence Roon, who was still in a bit of stupor, said,

    ¡°Wait, What¡¯s with the smoke in the bus? Did you people burn something?¡±

    ¡°What smoke?¡±

    ¡°This, smoke. That¡¯s annoyingly everywhere, and keeps disappearing from time to time.¡±

    ¡°Oh, hoho, hohoho, that is brilliant.¡±

    ¡°Okay, one last question. What else do you feel, that is different? I¡¯ll need to you be very specific about it. Something that you think is new?¡±

    ¡°What? I don¡¯t know, my head hurts, I feels exhausted, I haven¡¯t eaten anything since the morning, but I still feel like throwing up.¡±

    ¡°No, not all that. What do you think has improved?¡±

    ¡°Well, um, I can see in more detail?¡±

    ¡°Hmm. So, senses it is. But it is too simple for an improvement, are you sure this, is it? What about your other senses?¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know, I mean you seem to be speaking too loudly, I also hear a lot of noise, my skin feels prickly, and I can smell that a thousand rats died in here.¡±

    ¡°Hoh, that¡¯s amazing. Okay, but don¡¯t tell anyone about it. You can if you want to but I suggest you don¡¯t.¡±

    And with that August, turned and made an announcement,

    ¡°Hey everyone, he¡¯s awake. And fortunately, not a zombie.¡±

    The passengers of the bus eyed him for a second, but soon went back to sleeping, their faces looked like they¡¯d been forced into commando training for a week and nothing could distract them from their precious sleep. Only the rich guy, who was cuddled up with the belle from before stood up, and approached Roon.

    He put forward his hand in a shaking gesture, which Roon reluctantly took,

    Then the rich guy clenched his hand with unbelievable strength,

    ¡°William Bracken, I hope we can put our differences behind and work together in this precarious situation. You were very brave back there. I look forward to our cooperation. Glad you didn¡¯t turn into a zombie.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, me too. I¡¯m Roon by the way.¡±

    Even though Roon¡¯s hand was being crushed, he managed to keep a straight face. But the redness of his face was enough to destroy his tough guy act.

    ¡°So Roon, let me ask you this, what powers did you get?¡±

    Hearing this question startled Roon, and he was about to spill the beans, when he looked at August and saw him gesturing a no with his mouth.

    This kind of action would¡¯ve been caught before, but the Roon now didn¡¯t need to look at August directly to observe each detail, so he responded nonchalantly,

    ¡°Powers?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you didn¡¯t. It¡¯s a pity. It seems that I¡¯m the only one till now. Yes, my friend, when I killed my 5<sup>th</sup> zombie, I gained the power of enhanced strength, and a skill of ¡°Muscle Boost¡±.¡±

    ¡°Skill? Wait did you say, 5<sup>th</sup> zombie, how many have you killed today?¡±This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    ¡°I lost count at 10. Well then, I¡¯ll have to get some rest now, I¡¯ll let Dr. August here bring you to speed.¡±

    The last line was said while facing August.

    ¡°Sure.¡±, was August¡¯s reply.

    With that, the rich guy, Billy, who seemed more muscular than he was in the afternoon, went and sat next to the belle.

    ¡°So, shall we?¡±

    Saying that, August pointed to the door. Seeing which Roon was scared silly,

    ¡°Dude, didn¡¯t we throw two live zombies out there? Also, what about that mother and daughter pair? And who knows how many of those there are out there?¡±

    ¡°Ah no. We cleared them, during your untimely siesta, for which you have yet to thank me. But, who¡¯s counting.¡±

    Saying that he stepped out of the door, and Roon followed him.

    There was a certain chill in the night, yet Roon found the outside much more comfortable, and he also saw that the white mist was more abundant out here.

    ¡°Umm, are you sure this is a good idea, won¡¯t we be attacked by zombies?¡±

    ¡°If, by zombies you mean those cute little things, who don¡¯t know of your presence till you¡¯re 3 meters to them, and who trip at every attempt they run, and put out their head first, instead of holding and biting. Yeah, I think we¡¯ll be dead the moment we lay eyes on them.¡±

    ¡°You know, brash one usually die early in the movies.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but this isn¡¯t a movie. Also, we don¡¯t get powers in movies. But after reading that article you had back there, I think it could make a brilliant plot. You want some?¡±

    August offered Roon a cigarette, which he politely declined.

    ¡°You read the paper?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did. And now I understand why you were so frantic at that time.¡±

    ¡°Hmm. So, what happened after I got knocked out.¡±

    ¡°That, is not important. What is important, is what are you seeing or feeling right now?¡±

    They had a staring contest till they reached the edge of the skyway, where August kept smoking, till he had to take the initiative to talk,

    ¡°You are not speaking before I answer, are you?¡±

    To which, Roon only nodded.

    ¡°*Sigh*, Stubborn pup. Well then listen. After you blacked out, the mom and child had a risk of turning, so we killed them. The idiot helped me. Then we went out to assess the situation, where there were a lot of easy to kill zombies. The idiot killed most of them, so he has more developed body, and he got a skill. Then you woke up at night.¡±

    After having a staring contest again, Roon spoke up.

    ¡°It¡¯s lacking a lot of details, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°It is a general summary.¡±

    ¡°Who is the idiot?¡±

    ¡°The one you met before.¡±

    ¡°Okay. What is a skill?¡±

    ¡°It came out as a ball of light, and became a skill for him when he touched it.¡±

    ¡°Hmm. Shit. I don¡¯t like him.¡±

    ¡°Me neither. But most of the passengers do. You done asking?¡±

    ¡°No, wait. What did you feel when you killed that mother and child?¡±

    ¡°Nothing much. I¡¯m a pragmatist, but I am certainly not proud of my recent actions.¡±

    As he was hearing all of this, with his very strong imagination, it added to the previous scene Roon had witnessed just before fainting, and it acted as a final push for the stuff in his stomach, that he dropped from the railing, all the way to the ground level.

    ¡°*Bleagh*, *huff* *huff*, Sorry, I just felt like barfing and I just, *bleagh*, *huff* *huff*.¡±

    ¡°And you said you were empty stomach.¡±

    August stood at his side and offered Roon, a handkerchief, which he gladly accepted.

    ¡°Are you done with your questions now?¡±

    Roon nodded.

    ¡°So, what do you see or feel?¡±

    ¡°I already told you in the bus.¡±

    ¡°Yes about that. Let me help you understand it. My hypothesis, is that your other senses, such as smell, touch, and hearing haven¡¯t degraded, but have been enhanced.¡±

    ¡°..¡±

    ¡°Before you interrupt. Listen to this, you must be thinking that I am speaking very loudly right now?¡±

    Again, Roon nodded.

    ¡°But the fact is, per my hypothesis, your brain suddenly has too much influx of information which it is unable to properly process. Try, blocking out all your senses, and focus on only your hearing, and try to recognize as many sounds as you can. Be very calm, now try to focus on the sounds that you don¡¯t hear very often, but are familiar with.¡±

    Roon did as asked, and focused his mind. Instead of trying hard to focus, he let loose, and just relaxed his breathing, and then, he listened. Which worked.

    ¡°It¡¯s working.¡±

    This caused August to be surprised, as it wasn¡¯t child¡¯s play to block out one¡¯s senses. But he still chose to play along and asked,

    ¡°Okay. So, what did you focus on.¡±

    ¡°Not exactly focused. I just let go, and I am only ignoring the winds sound. Most of the noises stopped when we left the bus, but if you want to know, then. Right now, I hear my voice, your voice, my heartbeat, your heartbeat, which is creepily uniform and regulated.¡±

    ¡°Well, the yoga lessons I took were very effective. What else do you hear?¡±

    ¡°Well, I hear¡­¡­. A pig snoring, and it¡¯s quite musical. Someone must be an artist in that bus.¡±

    ¡°See, I told you that it was an enhancement.¡±

    ¡°Okay, then what is this white mist I see all around.¡±

    ¡°About that it isn¡¯t actually visible, it¡¯s just that your sense towards qi is so sharp, that your brain manifests an image for your ease of processing.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, you may be right about that. When I concentrate on seeing something it does tend to automatically disappear. And qi huh? So, you think it¡¯s some sort of energy, and I have some sixth sense or something?¡±

    ¡°Something along those lines. Did you see me meditating?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I did, and that white mist was coming near you for a second but then it dispersed very soon. But I think I saw some of it present in your body that was moving around. Although the one in your body is really thin, like piece of paper thin, and I can¡¯t see it normally but I know it¡¯s there.¡±

    ¡°Yes, then I¡¯m certain it is qi, because I don¡¯t actually see it, my senses are not that sharp, but I can feel it, moving inside me and when I killed the zombies. So, that we can be sure of. Well Roon, anything else you got?¡±

    ¡°No, nothing else.¡±

    ¡°Well then, if we¡¯re on the same page, let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡°Um. Wait, why can¡¯t we tell it to others?¡±

    ¡°Because most of them are enthralled with the idiot¡¯s charisma, and while it is not a bad thing, he considers himself to be the protagonist of an apocalyptic genre light novel. Which in turn, will compel him to eliminate you for certain reasons if he thinks you¡¯re too powerful. So, let us just enjoy his leadership, and hope that all of us live long fulfilling lives. Okay.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°Then let¡¯s go.¡±

    Then they went inside the bus. Augusts blithe atmosphere suggested that they were on a picnic, but Roon couldn¡¯t have been more solemn. He¡¯d sensed many things, that he¡¯d chosen not to discuss, his reasons only known to him Maybe because he didn¡¯t trust August, maybe he didn¡¯t trust anybody, maybe it was something else. But this night certainly won¡¯t be relaxing for him, that much was sure.

 Ch 4 - Mr. Miyagi

    Hot, sweaty and out of breath, was Roon¡¯s exact condition. He was running at speed he shouldn¡¯t be capable of, i.e. as fast as a pro athlete, yet it didn¡¯t bring about any form of pride, for his group was being chased by a horde of flesh craving monster.

    ¡°Was this your definition of cute?¡±

    Asked Roon, to the man who¡¯d convinced him of the safety and benefits of an expedition, bringing him away from the safety of a public bus.

    ¡°I think they got faster. Maybe hastened adaptation for locomotive capabilities.¡±

    ¡°You think. They¡¯re running like Usain Fuck Bolt, and you ¡°think¡± they got faster.¡±

    August ignored his further abuses, and ran faster than others, towards a truck.

    ¡°William, here.¡±

    August pointed to truck, and gestured for William to follow him.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The truck.¡±

    ¡°What about the truck.¡±

    ¡°Use ¡°Muscle Boost¡± to flip it over. We can set up a barricade.¡±

    ¡°Good idea. I was thinking the same.¡±

    With that he ran up to a trailer and with all his strength started pushing at its head to align it in manner to cover the whole of the skyway, thus barricading the zombies. Anyone who saw the scene would find it stupid. A man trying to push a trailer, but no one in the group uttered a word.

    What they were seeing, left them baffled. The trailer was moving, a 4-ton trailer was being moved by a man. But the man too, was not normal. He looked like a white hulk, without purple pants.

    ¡°That is his skill? Why ae we running away then? Just let the big monster lose on the small monsters.¡±

    ¡°The duration is short, and it exhausts me. Wouldn¡¯t mind doing it otherwise.¡±

    Came the reply from William, as he lay on the floor. Apparently, this skill took quite the toll on his body.

    But his rest was deserved, as the trailer now blocked most of the road and the zombies were not smart enough to use the gaps to proceed. They kept banging at the trailer, with two of them being stuck in the gap at the rear.

    ¡°How many do you count?¡±

    August asked Roon, who was still struggling to breathe.

    ¡°You said, it was going be safe? You said they can¡¯t sense us till we get close. You said that they can¡¯t walk properly? Then why is it like this?¡±

    ¡°They were like that yesterday. They seem to be evolving, or adjusting. I don¡¯t know for sure but, what I said was true.¡±

    ¡°Oh, so just because you¡¯re not sure, I nearly got killed.¡±

    ¡°Hey, relax kid. It¡¯s normal, the monsters get stronger as we level up. Don¡¯t worry, once you level up a few times, it¡¯ll be a cake.¡±

    The reply came from a different man. He was middle aged, hairline receding, splendid potbelly. But he didn¡¯t seem perturbed by their current situation, as he jovially talked to Roon.

    ¡°You MOTHER FUCKING IDIOT. You think this is a game. You think dying is a game? Fucking, knobgobbling duffer.¡±

    ¡°Hey, watch your mouth bub. I was only saying, that it¡¯s gonna be okay.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s gonna be okay huh. Sure, bullshit. With that jolly grin of yours, I know how you¡¯re feeling. Before this you were probably the kind of cad who was disappointed whit the world and masturbated all day, played games, got wasted and was a sucker in the office. Well, guess what? I had a life, I was happy with the world. So, I cannot take delight in this cocked up situation.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you.¡±

    It seemed as if Roon had hit a sore spot, because before he could speak much more, he was feeling impacts from all sides of his head. The middle-aged man, who couldn¡¯t have touched him with his fitness level, was already on top of him and beating him silly.

    ¡°You had a life? Where is it now? It is a game now. If you can¡¯t accept that reality, then why don¡¯t you just die.¡±

    ¡°Hey, leave him. He¡¯s going to die like this.¡±

    A woman in her thirties came to his rescue. She too, displayed unnatural strength for her stature as she managed to get the man off Roon. Then she tended to him, asking him to stay awake, but Roon wasn¡¯t paying attention to her. This was the third time in two days that he got beat up.

    His mind went back to today morning, when everyone was getting ready to leave. Listening to August¡¯s description of the monsters, he thought it would be alright as long as he was a little careful. So, the group of 5 men and 3 women packed their bags with improvised weaponry and went out to explore, their objectives being, scavenging for resources and checking a level 3 tower.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    It was all good in the beginning, easy to kill isolated zombies. Despite him getting the lowest no. of kills with the excuse being ¡°You¡¯re low level, so you need less xp to level up.¡±, Roon found the situation comfortable. Also, it wouldn¡¯t be wrong to call the situation gamelike. Because through Roon¡¯s observation, whenever a zombie was killed, the white mist stuck on its body would dissipate in the air, some of which would be retained by the people standing near it. Almost like xp in a game. Moreover, more white mist stuck on a person, the greater his overall attributes became. This was also the reason he lost to an unfit uncle despite his tenacity. The white mist, or ¡°qi¡± as Dr. August called it, was present in greater amounts on the uncle. Almost like a game.

    Except, it wasn¡¯t, a ¡°game¡±. When everything was sailing smoothly, they reached their destination. The nearest level 3 tower. But, what took them by surprise, was that the number of zombies near the tower was an unprecedented high, 64 was what Roon counted. And though they were all not a mob, but they were concentrated around the tower gate.

    Now, the problem with the tower gate was, that it was built on open space. It allowed for only one vehicle at a time and the space allotted was 100 sq. meter. So, if they tried to rush in, getting swarmed was a possibility. Also, for the dwellings of level 3 citizens, entry to each infrastructure would be in the form of one person at a time, i.e. they must stand at the entry, present their lv 3 identity and pass, and then they¡¯ll be granted passage. This whole procedure took 20 seconds, by that time they¡¯ll be swarmed by zombies. But the tower was their only hope as they didn¡¯t find any edibles or water in other vehicles, they did find zombies though, locked in their cars.

    So, for these desperate civilians, they tower was their only hope, as being a government facility it was bound to have long lasting packaged food, and surplus of water cubicles as the government employees had to put in very long hours, sometimes days in their work. Also, the chance that there would be arms in the building was very high, so if they could just get in somehow, then they¡¯d be able to overcame this precarious situation with ease.

    But how to do it was the question. How do they get in? The answer to it, unsurprisingly, was the use of bait. And for the honorable position of course, Roon was selected. August being the only objector.

    So, it was set. He became the bait, while others planned how to take out the zombies from behind.

    That was until they found out that these were ¡°Zombie 2.0¡± and could shove it up their asses with ease. So, everybody made a run for it, with one smart cad going for the entry gate. What the cad didn¡¯t predict, was the malfunctioning of doors due to the power cut, which got him killed. Although, it did help with the groups escape, but the scene of a person being dismembered and cannibals chewing on his guts, did not leave much scope for his already fragile mental health.

    And now, here he was, beat up, tired, and smelly. Only he knew what he¡¯d give for a bath. Right now, he was thinking about giving up. Death would be a good escape. Better than being chewed upon. He would no longer need to run.

    But the image of his smiling parents wouldn¡¯t let him. Yes, he had to survive. For there was a chance that his parents were safe, they were on a tour of Trenni, the city of temples, and from his knowledge, there was usually a gap in the appearance of the monolith, so they were definitely safe. They¡¯d need his support in this new dangerous world. He cannot leave them to fend on their own. Thus, he resolved to get stronger. His thoughts weren¡¯t the noble sort like saving humanity or protecting everyone, but they were enough to inspire him.

    ¡®I cannot give up. I will not give up. I will be strong. As strong as that skill.¡¯

    With that thought in his mind, he developed his resolve.

    He went to August, who was now standing on the flipped trailer, safe from the horde.

    ¡°There were 64 of them at the tower gate. I count 31 here.¡±

    ¡°Seems like you need to be knocked up before you¡¯re in the mood.¡±

    ¡°¡­.. (¡® _ ¡®)¡­¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t, go there¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t. You have weird thinking. I never thought that way.¡±

    ¡°Okay, 31 here, so it seems they are still not that keen on chasing. What else?¡±

    ¡°The white mist sticks on the people near the zombie at the time of death.¡±

    ¡°Elaborate.¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re close to 1 meter on its death then the mist that sticks to you is maximum. Reduces with distance, none at 5 meters.¡±

    ¡°Call it ¡°qi¡±. And you¡¯re saying that it doesn¡¯t go to only the one who kills it. It just spreads randomly.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but the killer usually gets the most, but even that is not more than 1/5<sup>th</sup> of the total amount that is released upon death.¡±

    ¡°That is good to hear.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°That reduces the possibility of us being monitored by an intelligent system. As it does not work on effort and reward basis. Good that¡¯s great to hear.¡±

    ¡°But doesn¡¯t that mean others can feed off our efforts.¡±

    ¡°Can you understand the implications of a controlled reward system? It would mean that reality has turned into a game, and you know that an admin can delete a player any given time. How would you feel if that were the case?¡±

    ¡°¡­.¡±

    ¡°No need to feel down. Cheer up, there¡¯s a huge possibility that we¡¯ve escaped that fate.¡±

    ¡°So, what was it that you wanted to ask?¡±

    ¡°How strong would one need to be, to protect someone in this world?¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s subjective. But an ideal answer would be, you can¡¯t. You can never be strong enough to protect. You need to keep getting stronger surpassing yourself, because remember. There is always something stronger. There is no such thing as a peak, there is no such thing as a valley.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. Hmm. Well, I was expecting something like, as strong as Goku, but, yeah. That works as well. Nice, deep, philosophical stuff.¡±

    ¡°So, is that all?¡±

    ¡°Umm. Yeah, how do I get stronger?¡±

    ¡°Why do you think I would know that?¡±

    ¡°Cause you¡¯re like that character from movies, who¡¯s all mysterious and that sort, and can supplement and push the main character forward while being really strong himself. You know, like Gandalf, Prof X, or Dumbledore.¡±

    ¡°Though I do not understand what you¡¯re talking about, but very well. You may seek my counsel, but you¡¯ll need to promise me something.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°That you¡¯ll have faith in me. And will follow my command to boot. Also, before you start thinking that I will use you as a sacrifice in a precarious situation, let me ensure you, that you are a very valuable asset. You may not understand it now, but there will come a time when you do. So, I implore you, do have faith in me.¡±

    ¡°So, you¡¯re like Miyagi, just more polite.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Enlighten me, Master.¡±

    With that he ¡®cupped his hands and bowed¡¯.

    ¡°Very well. Then be strong. Go.¡±

    With that, August pushed him down.

    ¡°Daniel, Welcome to Sparta.¡±

 Ch 5 - A Long Day

    ¡®Hmm. I¡¯m surrounded by zombies.¡¯

    ¡®Zombies, eat humans.¡¯

    ¡®Getting eaten, will probably hurt.¡¯

    ¡®It¡¯ll hurt then I¡¯ll die.¡¯

    ¡®Well, Shit.¡¯

    Surrounded by zombies, obstructed from behind.

    ¡®Who¡¯s idea was this again? Ah! Yes, I got Miyagied. Well, there¡¯s only one thing I can do.¡¯

    Roon knew this was a test. Despite what the ¡®Crazy Son of a Bitch¡¯ had done, he knew that the other party harbored no ill intent. As for the reason of his certainty, we¡¯ll learn about it on a later date.

    ¡®Then there¡¯s only one thing I can do.¡¯

    He raised his hands, tilted his head, and went limp. He started walking like a zombie.

    ¡®It¡¯s working. Get me an Oscar. It¡¯s working. Booyah.¡¯

    ¡°I think they lack the class to appreciate your art. But they were moved that¡¯s for sure.¡±

    The flock of mass murdering cannibals eventually got conscious of the alien presence, and despite not being very aggressive about it, slowly started moving towards Roon.

    ¡°I think your cheap imitation pissed them off.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you.¡±

    ¡°Jokes apart, I have a hypothesis. I think that they are only capable of reacting to heat signatures or motion. So, my suggestion is, don¡¯t make any sudden movements.¡±

    ¡°Fuck, are you treating them like snakes. Snakes don¡¯t bite off a chunk of your flesh. They poison you or swallow you whole, but they don¡¯t rip you to pieces.¡±

    ¡°I also think that they react to vibrations in air.¡±

    As if conforming to Augusts theory, the zombies started pacing towards Roon. And as any sensible man would have reacted in this situation, Roon started climbing up the trailer. And as if part of a performance, the zombies started sprinting towards him.

    ¡°If you try to climb here, then they¡¯ll bite you in the back. Here, take these.¡±

    August threw a pair of metal rods right at his face, and in the process of catching those, Roon had to let go of his attempts at climbing. Now, as any insane man would have done it, he turned to face hell. Of only 5 zombies, the others were still a distance away and not minding the commotion made by him.

    ¡®Okay, only 5. I can do it.¡¯

    ¡°What am I supposed to do?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get hit. And hit when you can.¡±

    ¡°Sounds almost easy.¡±

    ¡°It is.¡±

    ¡°Only if I was Wolverine. Fuck it.¡±

    As the zombies rushed towards Roon, his blood went cold. A group of people rushing towards someone with hostile intent, is enough to scare them silly. Let alone people with flesh and blood stuck on their teeth, with 2 of them being so hot, he could¡¯ve lost his virginity to one of them.

    And the fear building up inside him, acted as a catalyst to unlock Roons potential. The fear of pain, the fear of death, the fear of leaving his parents alone and worried, the fear of dying a ¡°VIRGIN¡±.

    ¡°Aaargh.¡±

    The zombies grunted.

    ¡°Nooooo. FUCK YOU MEGAN FOX, YOU ARE DEAD, BUT I WISH I WAS BORN IN 21<sup>st</sup> CENTURY, THEN I WOULD HAVE FUCKED YOU. AHHHHHHHHHHH.¡±

    To the monster¡¯s grunting, he responded with his own messed up, stalker like roar.

    This weird and creepy shout attracted the attention the rest of the group, they too climbed up the trailer, and were alarmed. What they saw left the whole group worried, except for August and the middle-aged man, with whom Roon had altercations previously.

    He was snickering, gloating at Roon¡¯s immediate peril. But what he saw next, left him baffled.

    As the 5 zombies rushed towards Roon, he slowly started losing consciousness, due to the sheer amount of stress and fear he was going through. But it was this fear, that in turn allowed him to sustain himself. His head cleared of all thoughts, apart from Augusts last instruction. ¡°Don¡¯t get hit. Hit when I can.¡±

    ¡®Okay. Don¡¯t get hit, hit when I can. Don¡¯t die a virgin.¡¯

    As the first zombie neared, his conscious blurred, and he started acting on instinct. His senses sharpened to the extreme, and he could perceive the zombies every movement. From the twitching of its fingers, to the movement of his calf muscles and even the saliva dropping of its mouth.

    Roon, knew where the attack was coming from, and where it would be going. So, using his hyper senses, he could grasp the weakest point of this zombie, behind its neck, the area connecting the spinal cord and the head, there the ¡®qi¡¯ was very thin.

    He dodged the income attack in a crude manner, as he lacked any sort of martial arts training, but he succeeded in getting behind it, and with a heavy movement, hit the monsters weak spot.

    The zombie immediately crumbled, and the qi from its body was dispersed in the environment, some of which permeated Roon. Roon felt his physique improving, albeit a little, but it was improving.

    Then he turned to face the remaining zombies, who had now unwittingly surrounded him. The 4 of them, were coming at him from all sides.

    To this, he responded by taking a posture he found appropriate, and waited like a jaguar, ready to pounce at the slightest of opportunity.

    ¡°Bring it on.¡±

    He whispered, but this whisper contained his resolve of not dying a virgin.

    The first zombie made her move, her dress was down, and the previously perfect white peaks were jiggling, but the image of her blood-filled mouth, destroyed any lewd notion that Roon could have possibly fostered.

    He closed his eyes, and yet he could perceive every movement of the zombies more clearly. He felt that the different zombies, had different places where the white mist was thin, and now something even more amazing was happening in his brain. With his eyes closed, he could visualize the blurred image of zombies in 3d. He could perceive them from all directions, and he could see ¡®Red Spots¡¯ on those figures. So, he gained a landscape perspective of his location, and he instinctively knew, that the red spots were weak spots of these zombies. And if he managed to land a hit on one of them, it¡¯ll cause considerable damage.

    So, like a practiced kung fu master, he swung the rods around a few times, and then the zombies fell.

    His moves were rough, untrained, and lacked finesse. But to the others it seemed like he was Bruce Lee.

    ¡°I won¡¯t die a VIRGIN. AAAAAAHHHH.¡±

    With his victory and the sense of satisfaction achieved, he could help but shout his weird mantra.

    The middle-aged man was sweating bullets. He felt as if Roon was toying with him. He didn¡¯t know that the superhuman skill he¡¯d shown was recently acquired. But his expression again changed to that of elation, for he saw that the rest of the horde was marching towards Roon, to which their leader, William, reacted by jumping down, his muscles bulging unnaturally.

    ¡°Go, someone take him go.¡±

    Roon was frozen stiff in his place. He could see the zombies coming, but despite how much he urged his body to move, it refused. All his muscles were convulsing, and there was a sharp pain in his head.

    He was pulled back by August, who with the help of others got him on top of the trailer.

    Form there they saw the carnage William was causing. With every kill, the amount of qi in his body was improving, and with the increased amount of qi, his skill ¡®Muscle Boost¡¯ improved as well. Which in turn allowed him to punch zombies like gunny bags.

    He managed to knock down a dozen or so zombies before he retreated. He couldn¡¯t kill any of them because of the zombies¡¯ tenacious physique. These, were tougher than the ones he was hunting before, he was unable to one punch k.o. them. So, he looked at the flopped kid, vigilant.

    These monsters obviously gave higher amounts of qi, thus after killing 5 of them he must have accumulated a lot. And his display of fighting ability, he certainly had a skill that he¡¯d hidden.

    ¡°So, you had a skill?¡±

    William asked in a heavy tone.

    Seeing the situation develop like this, left Roon with a wry smile. He certainly didn¡¯t get the so-called skill. If anything, then it¡¯d be like a sixth sense that¡¯s developed in martial arts movies. Also, he¡¯d already lied about not having any powers. So, this development was not very good for him.

    ¡°You acquired the skill when we were hunting in the morning, right? Something related to martial arts maybe?¡±

    This question was posed by August, and Roon being the smart chap he was, immediately understood his intentions.

    ¡°Yes, I got it in the morning. It was a passive skill, called ¡°Fight Sense¡±, I didn¡¯t tell you people because the atmosphere was very tense. You know, being chased by zombies and all.¡±

    ¡°Okay, but then why did you jump in middle of the zombies?¡±

    To this question Roon felt short of an answer. Should he rat out his spirit guide? Didn¡¯t they form a pact, just 20 minutes ago? Well, he did throw him down to die.

    ¡°I pushed him. I wanted to see his capabilities.¡±

    To his dilemma, August brought an end.

    ¡°Okay, but you need to understand August. I know you are the smart type character who thinks the best interest of the team, but we are comrades. You should, at the very least inform the team of your actions.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    ¡°So anyone have any ideas?¡±

    ¡°I think we should return to the bus.¡±

    Said a woman. She was the one who¡¯d saved Roon from the beating. She was wheat colored, tanned, brown hair, hazel eyes and an overall fit stature. She was wearing a white shirt and pants, indicative of her job as a corporate employee.

    ¡°And why do you think we should do that Jada?¡±

    ¡°Why? Why you ask? Don¡¯t you see that except you and this kid who is suddenly going kapow on the zombies, none of us can survive if we are obsessed with the tower. Don¡¯t you see, the zombies have improved. We¡¯ll die at this rate.¡±

    ¡°But, if the zombies are improving, then aren¡¯t we bound to die if we don¡¯t level up.

    Also, we haven¡¯t got a single piece of food or water, or anything for god¡¯s sake.¡±

    Her complain was addressed by the middle-aged man.

    ¡°Yes, Jerry is right. And Jada, for your observation, of Roon and William being the only strong members, I commend you. Now, I have a simple battle plan, it should also fix the lack balance in the group.¡±

    Dr. August, had a certain intrinsic authority in his speech, that others usually agreed to. And till now, since the start of this ¡°Apocalypse¡±, he was calmest of the group, and his plans made a lot of sense.

    So this time, his battle plan was simple. Firstly, he informed every one of the number of zombies, telling them that he counted approximately 70 zombies, half of which had followed them here. So, despite the zombies improving and increased speed and ferocity, they still lacked the ability to maneuver in between the heap of cars on the skyway. Therefore, all they had to do, was use Roon as a bait, get William to knock down the zombies, then the weaker members would earn free xp from them.

    Using this method, they reached their previous location, in front of the tower gate. The clearing was still filled with zombies. Although their numbers were reduced by half, three dozen zombies were still enough to gobble up this group.

    At this point, August brought Roon away from the group.

    ¡°Yo! What are you doing? Wasn¡¯t our sensei student deal supposed to be all secret and ninja, or special agent type? Everyone will know like this?¡±

    ¡°What? You¡¯re delusional. Three things, 1) Not your sensei, 2) You sound like a cheating wife, 3) The only secret you need to keep is your ability to sense qi, your other abilities can be showed off on your whim. Also, I¡¯ll need you to bait all these zombies while set up a barricade here.¡±

    ¡°Why me? Why don¡¯t you ask He-Man there?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll need his skill to arrange the cars in a closed formation. It is impossible to enter the tower without sufficient time. Here keep this bag, it has enough water to last you for a day. You need to buy us at least two hours.¡±

    ¡°How do I know you won¡¯t abandon me and the other passengers and go in the tower by yourselves.¡±

    ¡°We are clueless about the situation in the tower, so we would want to go in at our full strength. As for the passengers, they may be useful in the future. So, I won¡¯t abandon them unless necessary.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Tell me what you are hiding? You know something about this situation that we don¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°A lot. But now isn¡¯t the right time. I¡¯ll tell you everything in due time. Now, go. Return when the sun is just above the horizon.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    Roon knew that August was harboring many secrets. But he also knew, that prying may earn him false information. So, he put aside that thought and focused on the task at hand.

    The task of leading the zombie horde by the chin may sound daunting, but it would bring no harm if he was on the move and went through the skyway traffic. Also, this may turn out to be a blessing if he managed to kill a few of them.

    The white mist, or qi, or xp, as everyone was calling it, seemed almost magical to Roon. He knew, that there was no such thing as magic, only unexplained phenomenon, but the increase in physique proportional to the qi or xp accumulated was nothing short of magic to him.

    After killing those 5 zombies, Roon was already feeling like a new man. He felt better in every aspect. Even Williams skill when utilized by him, would force the surrounding qi into his muscles and then when the skills ends, a little of his personal qi would be leaked alongside, which would replenish with time.

    This to Roon, felt like a billion possibilities. So, he would try to kill few on this trip, if possible.

    Then Roon, started making noise to attract the attention of all the zombies, while others hid behind various vehicles. He banged the two rods against each other and waved his hands in exaggerated manner which attracted all the zombies. Then he started running.

    As Roon kept running, the 30 or so zombies followed him from all around. As he was running, he picked up four sharpened rods August had made for him. God knows how he did it, but he managed to make double sided pikes out of the four rods. With them, two tied to the bag, two in hand, he left.

    As Roon was leading the zombies through the maze of metal boxes (meaning cars), he encountered many zombies suddenly pouncing on him from the most unexpected of places. But because of his new-found ability of being able to perceive everything in 360 degrees, he could calmly react and counter the sudden attacks. This new ability of his was quite useful, it combined all 5 of his senses and some other 6<sup>th</sup> sense to give him a spherical perception of everything in a 5-meter radius.

    ¡®I¡¯m just too op. I¡¯m like awesome. Just need some zombie to drop a skill like that of goldilocks and I¡¯d be unstoppable.¡¯

    ¡°Woohah.¡±

    He couldn¡¯t control his excitement. This was the case with this new energy. It provided possibilities, made one feel intoxicated. But complacency brings disaster.

    Roon, now moved at a jogging pace. He would sometimes go through a gap, in which zombies were bound to stuck, and earn an easy kill. With this process, he¡¯d whittled their numbers to 27. Although, killing 8 one at a time was nothing to be proud of, as he¡¯d already killed 5 in one shot. But that was when he was in battle mode, that state with red spots on zombies, which was now eluding him. No, matter how many times he tried, he couldn¡¯t find the weak spots of these monsters again. The ones he¡¯d killed were all done by hitting the head.

    Eventually he arrived at the trailer they¡¯d flipped to barricade the zombies, the other side of which was void of them. He got on the other side, lied down and let his body lose. This constant session of sprint had taken its toll, despite his body being improved by qi.

    He drank some water, and then went to stand on the edge of the sky way. From here he could see the ocean, a few hills and the greenery near the beach. Watching this serene panorama would¡¯ve made his heart peaceful, were it not for the reality of the situation. It still seemed like a dream, a nightmare. Just yesterday, he was a youth attending tuitions, and today he was pleased at the thought of killing something. Just this thought was enough to make him puke, which he did, he dropped everything from his empty stomach on the streets of the first level. But as he hadn¡¯t eaten much since morning, he was only barfing water. He stopped himself. He had to stay hydrated, so he stopped himself. He suppressed these introspecting thoughts and focused on the task at hand.

    He decided to stay here for nearly an hour or two, then return when the sun would near the horizon. So he sat down, and breathed. He copied August¡¯s meditating form but to no avail. But he tried nevertheless. He understood the importance of qi, and he would leave no stone unturned for using it.

    Roon was broken out from his shoddy meditative trance by a muffled banging sound. He looked around and found that the sound was coming from a distance. It didn¡¯t sound like the movement of a zombie, as the sounds were coming in a pattern of Dum Dum Dum, like something was banging on toughened glass.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Following that sound, Roon arrived at a car. It was a Suzuki 2V09, Z edition. But that was not what caught his attention, it was the inside that surprised him. Inside the car he saw a man in the driver¡¯s seat, and two kids, a boy and a girl both unconscious, in the back seat. The man was knocking on the window frantically. Roon could see that the man¡¯s hands had turned blue, that¡¯s why he was knocking with his elbow.

    When the man saw Roon, he started shouting like crazy. Through the soundproofing system of these generation 20 cars, and by reading the man¡¯s lips, he could make out a

    ¡°Open the door. We¡¯re stuck.¡±

    Roon didn¡¯t take much time to figure out what¡¯d happened. The console system of the car got fried with others, and these were the next generation cars which didn¡¯t provide an option to open the door manually. It provided the luxury and protection for the upperclassmen. It was said that even sniper bullets couldn¡¯t pierce their glass, and they had computer operated doors which could only be opened by the biometrics of the owner, both from inside and from outside.

    Who would¡¯ve guessed that the ultimate vehicle designed to ensure security of the user could turn into the cause of their doom. Who could¡¯ve guessed that machines with separate power sources could be shut down together. But it happened, and here they were, suffocating to their ends.

    That would¡¯ve been the case, had Roon not come. One of the courses Roon was taking tuition for, was Engineering. So he had an elementary understanding of mechanics and electronics. He figured out a way to open the door.

    The thing about electronic doors was, they didn¡¯t open towards outside, they slid back in the gap to open. That was exactly what made it difficult for the man to get out. Because no amount of kicking could open the door. For this, Roon held a Rod with both hands, and using his newly acquired sense, located the lock of the door and pierced it. Of course, he didn¡¯t succeed in his first attempt. Just because he could see it, didn¡¯t mean he could hit it. But, after 4 attempts and loos of a pike, he succeeded in opening the door.

    As soon as the door opened, the man took huge gasps, and wheezed a few words.

    ¡°K¡­ s¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Kids¡­.. Et a k..s. (Get the kids) ¡°

    ¡°Oh, oh yes. Kids. Wait.¡±

    Roon quickly got the kids out of the car, and placed his hands near their hearts.

    ¡°They¡¯re alive.¡±

    The kids were unconscious, but alive.

    ¡°Thanks,¡±

    The man lied down, gasping. He had escaped a perilous fate.

    Roon offered him one of the water bottles, which he gulped down without any qualms. The other bottle Roon hid. He had to save some for himself as well.

    ¡°Thank you. You shall be heavily rewarded for this service.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think your reward would be worth much.¡±

    Listening to Roon, as if lightning struck him, the man crumbled, broke into tears. He wailed like his soul had left him, and he wept till he could no more. He wheezed again, the started sobbing.

    ¡°Hey, you alright?¡±

    ¡°She turned.¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    The man narrated his story to Roon.

    His name is Takeo. He was the Head of IT department, for West Orient, basically a high-level government employee. He was on a vacation, and taking his wife and kids to the museum. On the way, their car stopped functioning, just like others. The wife was feeling irritated, therefore she got out of the car. When he spotted the black monolith in the air, he felt a bad omen and tried to get to his wife.

    But then, the air suddenly clutched him, and he couldn¡¯t move. And when he got to move, the door of the car wouldn¡¯t open. He checked and found that the car wasn¡¯t functioning anymore. It¡¯s light, vents, console, everything was down.

    So his wife decided to get help, but to no avail. Then it started raining due to those unnatural clouds. And his wife was offered shelter in another lady¡¯s car. She sat there till the short rain ended, and decided to give him and the kids company. But then, she fainted. People crowded around her to help, but more joined the ranks of fainted ones. His wife was the first to wake up. He was delighted, the kids were delighted. Yet she wouldn¡¯t respond to their joyful calls. She stood there, like a statue, and when the old lady from before touched her, she bit her. The children had to witness the horror of their mother turning a monster, and he watched helplessly, as his wife was human no more.

    ¡°They wept all day, till they fell asleep. They haven¡¯t woken since.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for you, Takeo. But there isn¡¯t much you can do. I suggest we go back to the group and if we can get in the tower, we should be able to sustain ourselves till help arrives. You used to work there, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The administrative tower is a good place to fortify. And if we can get to the second level, we can even acquire arms.¡±

    ¡°There are arms in the tower?¡±

    ¡°Not many. But if we get to the second level of the city, then we can use the lv 2 skyways to get to a military research facility nearby. It should have adequate arms for few weeks, months even.¡±

    Takeo, said all this with a blank expression. He was still in a daze, trying to deny what had happened. In hopes that it was all a nightmare, that she didn¡¯t leave him forever, that he¡¯ll wake up to her smile the next morning. That, it would all go away. But he also knew, and understood, that all of this may be real, she¡¯s gone, and that void she left in his heart, will always hurt. Maybe, if he could just leave it all behind, and let it go. Maybe, the pain will go away if he¡¯s no more. He, was contemplating suicide.

    ¡°Hey, think about the kids.¡±

    This one sentence from Roon, woke him from his stupor. Yes, he couldn¡¯t leave the kids. They were the proof of their love. Proof of her love. He will not leave them alone.

    ¡°Yes. The kids.¡±

    He looked over the kids, and his eyes watered. But he held those tears back. He couldn¡¯t be weak. He couldn¡¯t falter.

    Roon looked at this strong man with a sense of respect. Not many could maintain a stable mental state after a similar experience.

    ¡°We should go now.¡±

    Takeo got some mountaineering cable from his car, and a duffle bag containing first aid. As he tied the girl to his back, and carried the duffle bag in one hand, and the boy in other, Roon offered to carry the boy, to which he reluctantly agreed.

    As they were leaving, Takeo gave one last look towards the direction of his car, one last moment for her memory. But he¡¯d resolved to live, for the kids.

    They soon arrived at the trailer, it was becoming a sort of checkpoint now, and with Roons help got on top of the trailer, where Roon put down the boy.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Put her down.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll face zombies from here on. Do you want to risk the kids?¡±

    ¡°No. Then what do you suggest we do?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll have to figure out a way to kill all 27¡­¡­ of them? Not, 27 of them. Wait here, would you.¡±

    Without waiting for a reply, Roon jumped off the trailer. The cause of his alarm was the reduced number of zombies he was seeing. Maybe August and company were done with barricading and had come to his aid. But the reason of his alarm was something else.

    When he¡¯d gone to the other side, he had counted 27 zombies. And now, all the zombies had gathered in a single place. But their numbers had reduced to 18, and were still dwindling, the reason for which made his skin crawl.

    The zombies, were literally devouring each other, and the qi on them was increasing. Though not exponentially, it still was increasing. And by now Roon understood one thing, qi equals strength, so the concept of stronger fearless horde of man eating monsters, was bad. Very bad.

    ¡°Shit.¡±

    But be it providence of the universe, or gift of his enhanced vision, Roon was able to observe the buffet from far enough, without engaging the monstrosities and return to the trailer safely.

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    Takeo was tending to his kids when Roon returned. He didn¡¯t show it on his face, but he was inwardly relieved that this apparent angel did not abandon them.

    In this extreme situation Roon did not give in to his primal urge to throw a tantrum or display exaggerated aggression. He did, what he did best. He breathed, and then he breathed more. After which, he told everything he¡¯d observed till now, and all his conjectures to Takeo. Of course, he excluded the ability to perceive qi due to Augusts repeated warnings.

    ¡°So, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t experienced them first hand, so I cannot say it for sure. But you said their numbers are dwindling, but their strength is improving.¡±

    ¡°Well, they aren¡¯t getting stronger per say, but they do become more swift, and more aggressive.¡±

    ¡°Hmm. Well, certainly this situation is not good for us. Getting through 25 pandas is easier than bypassing a single rabid dog.¡±

    ¡°You have weird imagination, but yes the analogy is accurate.¡±

    ¡°So what can we do? Do you know of the year 2081, Dravidian problem solving algorithm used in object oriented programming?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do. Something about keeping the desired result as constant, and fine tuning variables to achieve it.¡±

    ¡°Well, not exactly but I think you get the gist of its elementary structure.¡±

    ¡°What of it?¡±

    ¡°I suggest we use that approach for this problem.¡±

    ¡°Fine. What do we fix as the constant?¡±

    ¡°You tell me.¡±

    ¡°Okay. We need to make sure that the kids can cross without a confrontation with the zombies. Second priority should be the extermination of these evolving monsters before it¡¯s too late. Third, earn as much xp as possible because these ones looked juicy.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry? What was the last one?¡±

    Roon blabbered on without much thought, and now he was in the same situation as morning, with him playing the role of that middle aged neet, Jerry, and Takeo in his position. This man who¡¯d lost his wife, would certainly explode if someone called this apocalypse a game.

    Some part of him, truly did consider this a game, and that made him sick of himself. Death of so many could not be a game. But with all the power ups, and monster hunting type scenario, it was difficult not to think of it as a game.

    Roon put off these unnecessary thoughts, and concentrated on the problem at hand. Whatever happened, he could not abandon these children. It was just his nature. To people, he could be cold when necessary, even woman. He didn¡¯t believe in all that gentleman sham. But for children, he had a soft spot. The incident from the bus weighed heavily on his mind. It had nothing to do with him, who was knocked out at that time, it was out of his hands. But he felt it none the less.

    So when he could do something about the situation, he certainly wouldn¡¯t allow another hatchet in his conscience.

    While Roon was contemplating his plans, Takeo, gave him a brilliant idea.

    ¡°How about we use the rope to trip them, and the pick them one by one.¡±

    ¡°Takeo, you are not a genius. I am, hahahaha.¡±

    To Roons sudden outburst, Takeo could only respond with a perplexed expression.

    The sun was still raining blaze when Roon decided to engage the zombies. He, couldn¡¯t wait till dusk. Although he could wait for the zombies to finish themselves, as he saw only 13 now, with the rate of 5 dead per hour, this should be a cake walk after a period of 2 hours. But that one zombie going through a shocking metamorphosis, compelled him to act.

    A single zombie lay on the ground, its body twitching, muscles bulging in strange manner, and immobile. One would have assumed, that with the recent behavior of these cannibals, they should have cleaned him up by now. But, they didn¡¯t. On the contrary, they even delayed their meals to observe this brother of theirs.

    Seeing all this, and the churning qi around this prostrate zombie, Roon had an ominous premonition. If this was like a game, then this zombie was probably going to turn into a boss monster. He hastened his movements, and enacted his plan.

    ¡°Hey, fuck face. When was the last time y¡¯all brushed your teeth? My, shit that I had to do in an abandoned car today, smelled better that your mouth.¡±

    And sure enough, his provocation and banging of the metal rods worked. The zombies chased him like rabid dogs. Also, his conjecture had been true. The zombies did get faster, and more aggressive. Though they couldn¡¯t match is speed, they could run at the speed of an average human. Moreover, Roons body had improved a lot due to qi, that was the reason he could maintain his speed, otherwise he would¡¯ve exhausted himself.

    But the problem now was, that the zombies were not hindered by the previous simple obstacles that seemed so daunting for them before. They were now jumping over cars to hunt Roon. This had him terrified.

    So he increased his pace as he again moved in the direction of the trailer. Takeo was standing worried on the trailer. As Roon saw him he smirked, then he ran and picked up his insurance from a car, and then he jumped over the skyway railing. The zombies followed him unperturbed, as they too jumped of the railing and down to the 1<sup>st</sup> level, becoming splatters of blood and gore.

    Takeo watched the movie like scene unfold, with a wry smile. This boy, was crazy.

    Roon looked at the zombies fall to their dooms. And made an expression when the sounds of their hitting the floor reached him.

    He was hanging on a rope, suspended from the skyway. His plan included, First, assessing the abilities of the zombies and whether the simple obstructions were enough to impede their movements, Second, if they could cross easy obstacles, then use this mountaineering cable tied to a car, and trick them into jumping of the third level, which worked. The zombies lacked even the tiniest instinct for survival. Thus, this plan worked.

    But watching the zombies plummet, Roon had another thought in his heart,

    ¡®*Sigh*, What a waste of xp.¡¯

    He immediately reprimanded himself for having such thoughts, but his real feelings still the same. He could¡¯ve used that boost he¡¯d get from killing these things. That right there was a lot of concentrated qi, going down the drain. But, he also doubted his chances of killing them all without getting bit.

    ¡°Hey, pull me up.¡±

    He called for Takeo.

    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡±

    Came the reply.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Because two of them stayed behind. And they are now trying to get on the trailer.¡±

    ¡°Well, fuck. Kill them.¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    Not responding to Takeo¡¯s last question, Roon started a frantic effort to climb up the rope. Which proved to be surprisingly quick. Maybe the qi was more that he gave it credit for.

    What Roon didn¡¯t know, was that this was a common phenomenon happening with many people in this city. The qi, energy or whatever one may call it was recently introduced to the system of humans, and their body was still in the process of adapting to it. Also, in doing this, the human body was modifying itself at a rapid pace with the help of qi. This led to the sudden accelerated growth in physical attributes, which would eventually stunt when the human body finally harmonized with qi.

    So, what Roon was experiencing right now was due to the qi he was accumulating by killing zombies, and also, because his body still had a long way to go before it harmonized with qi. Thus, in a way, his enhanced sensory abilities could also be attributed to this. He was worried, and was carefully analyzing everything when he was first introduced to qi, or this new energy. So, his body modified itself observe things more carefully. As for the skill William found, we¡¯ll take about it in the future.

    So, with his enhanced muscles, that he currently thought were magic, Roon made an easy task of the rope climbing. When he was finally on the skyway, he saw that Takeo was no longer on the trailer, and one of the zombies was hanging on its edge, trying to pull itself up, and the other was jumping to get hold of the edge. It looked comic, to some extent, with the one jumping being a woman¡¯s zombie.

    Before he could take any action, he saw Takeo climb back on the trailer and kicked the nearly successful zombie on the head. It was a soccer kick, the zombie was unable to get for some time after that, and the other one was still jumping.

    Seeing Takeo return, brought smile on Roons face. He had been sure, that given Takeo and his kids¡¯ circumstances he would retreat away from this area, before the zombies could cross the trailer.

    But he returned. Although leaving Roon alone to deal with two of them wouldn¡¯t have caused much problems for him, but it was a matter of principle, was what Roon thought.

    He quickly took care of the jumping zombie, and then turned to the zombie that Takeo had knocked.

    ¡®It seems that a strong enough blow to the head can even knock them out. But they won¡¯t die unless the blow is too strong, or their brain is penetrated. But there are other ways to kill it as well.¡¯

    The way to kill a zombie, was to sever the brains connection with rest of the body, which could be done through damaging spine or few other areas that he¡¯d seen in the hyper battle mode this morning. This zombie was not dead, that much he could see from the qi gathered around its body. But it was taking time to recover from the blunt force trauma to its head. At this opportunity Roon tried to do an experiment.

    ¡°Hey Takeo, come here.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Just come here.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    Takeo started getting down on the other side to get the kids, which made a vein pop on Roons head.

    ¡°Just leave the kids for sec and come here. We¡¯ll get them later.¡±

    To Roons shouting, Takeo turned a deaf ear. Roon didn¡¯t understand the anxiousness in his heart, how worried the father was for his kids. He couldn¡¯t let them leave his sight for even a second. If something happened to them while he was inattentive, he didn¡¯t know what he would do then.

    Seeing that Taeko, was going to take his own sweet time, Roon decided to hasten his experiment, as the zombie was already showing signs of activity, it would soon wake up.

    So, in line with his hypothesis, Roon kept his hand, at the zombie¡¯s heart, where he found the qi to be densest. Then he stabbed it in the neck and killed it.

    This time, as he¡¯d kill the zombie slowly, and not it the heat of the battle, made him want to throw up again. The sound of metal against flesh, was nauseating. But Roon did not throw up. He had a feeling that this would be the norm in the days to come, and he must get used to it.

    But the gloom from these thoughts was over taken by the success of his experiment. The qi that dispersed in air upon a zombie¡¯s death, followed the path to his body through his hand and was absorbed. Though 50% of it was still dispersed, being released from his body, he managed to retain 50% qi of a zombie who was eating other zombies. This was nearly the same as he¡¯d gotten after killing 5 of them together in the morning.

    He wondered, if he had been touching each zombie at the time of kill. How strong would he be now?

    But again, he berated himself. His teenager mind was still considering these precarious circumstances as a game.

    ¡®I¡¯d be dead, if I¡¯d been touching each of them.¡¯

    He chuckled lightly, and gestured Takeo to stay here. All the zombies, the route to the tower had been cleared, except for one. The one that was metamorphosing. He wouldn¡¯t risk the children, so he thought of using the same method of tricking it to jump to its doom, if required.

    Roon laughed at his drastic change. Just in the morning, he was cursing August for endangering his life, and now he was risking himself for others. Was this how Heroes were born?

    Nah, he probably wouldn¡¯t have done it if the kids weren¡¯t involved. Just the thought of little kids getting slaughtered was enough to give rise to a strange, uncomfortable feeling in him. That feeling was worse than death. Also, his father had thought him since childhood, ¡®Good and Evil are an illusion, only a matter of perspective. But when someone can willingly let a kid be hurt, that is moment one loses their humanity.¡¯

    It was only one of his father¡¯s many teachings, but this one had made an impression on him.

    ¡®This has nothing to do with the loads of xp and the potential skill I may get for killing the boss.¡¯

    Maybe this sudden transformation to a brave hero could also be attributed to his gamer side, which was constantly appealing to him. Or maybe, the hormones in his adolescent body, combined with the effects of qi, were giving rise to temporary moment of adrenaline driven courage.

    On reaching the place of zombies feast, he saw that the zombie was still down, and still convulsing. Only, it seemed a bit bulkier, and blood was leaking from its pores, part of which had already clotted and formed a scaly, blood colored layer on its skin. But it was still convulsing like half an hour ago, and wasn¡¯t showing signs of waking up soon.

    Roon delighted with this discovery, repeated what he did with the previous zombie. He put a hand on its back, and drove the rod through a soft spot in its neck, piercing the brains connection with the spine.

    When he was expecting the warm flow of qi in his body, he suddenly felt a jolt, and found himself crashing in a car. His ears started ringing, and everything blacked out for a second or two. He was in a daze, in stupor trying to figure out what had happened.

    His head was hurt, and some of the blood was flowing in his left eye. His body was wracked in pain, that he registered a bit late. And through the fleeting moments of clarity, he saw a brown hulk, trumping like an elephant as it made his way to him.

    It was the zombie. Somehow its body got even more buffed and it was making its way toward him, uncaring of the pike lodged in its neck. As he neared him, it waned and crashed right in front of him.

    Apparently, zombies had no drive for self-preservation. Its only aim, was to feed. That too, this one failed at.

    But Roon wasn¡¯t faring much better either. He too was straddling between conscious and un-conscious. As he saw the white mist about to disperse he managed to touch the body in time with great effort.

    Large amounts of qi passed through Roon. While 75% of it dispersed, he still got more than what he¡¯d got from all the zombies combined. So, in short, the qi stuck to his body, at least doubled.

    But the qi that he acquired didn¡¯t have the miraculous effect he was hoping for. His wounds didn¡¯t recover as he was hoping to.

    Yet at the same time, as if the universe was in a playful move, a white yellow colored, orb of light floated from the zombies body. It floated there, peacefully, but Roon could feel with his perception, that it was slowly dissipating. Again, with great difficulty, Roon managed to extend a hand to the object of his desire since morning. Then, white light covered his body.

    ¡®Roonmon, evolve. That was a bad pun. I feel like hiding my face from myself.¡¯

    But soon after, the information of the skill left him stumped.

    ¡®Am I in a XianXian novel or something?¡¯

    The skill read,

    ¡®Cell Regeneration Boost.¡¯

    ¡®So basically a healing ability. Hmm. Is someone toying with me? But I like it.¡¯

    ¡°SKILL. MY OWN SKILL. CALL ME OOOOOP.¡±

    He tried shouting these words, but wasn¡¯t able to complete them.

    Then he focused on the information that was flowing in his head. The usage and methods of ¡®Cell Regeneration Boost¡¯ were imprinted in his brain like he¡¯d known them from the time of his birth. He understood the cause and effect involving the qi and skill, but the principle behind the phenomenon was absent from the data, leaving him perplexed.

    But, he thought, this was no time to worry about that, he applied the method of making qi like water to fill his wounds, then turning it into threads to seal them.

    Yet the result was, his qi like water was qi like crumpled paper, and his qi in form of threads was qi in form of moderately crumpled paper. After all, qi was a new concept to Roon. The fact that he could move qi, despite the usage of a skill, should be applauded. It was only now, that Roon understood the difficulty of Augusts actions back in the bus.

    But as he was using the qi heal his wounds, his eyelids got heavy and he drifted into comfortable sleep.

    ¡°Hey, are you alright. *Slap*, hey wake up.¡±

    Roon opened his eyes with great difficulty, and before he could fully open them, he had to close them again, as he got slapped.

    He immideately caught Takeo¡¯s hand, and then massaged his numb cheeks. He was probably slapped many times.

    He then opened his eyes two look around, and saw two more pair of little eyes staring at him.

    ¡°Hello¡±

    He said to the kids, who were now awake.

    ¡°Hi.¡±

    The girl timidly responded, while the boy only waved his hand then hid behind Takeo¡¯s leg.

    Roon then turned to Takeo.

    ¡°Water.¡±

    He demanded. He then checked his surroundings, the sun was already halfway through the horizon with a deep orange color. He finished his bottle, and asked for more water, to which Takeo smiled wryly and looked at the kids.

    Roon understood, and didn¡¯t bother with it. They got up and started moving in the direction of the tower. This time a bit more relaxed because Roon was sure that their path to return should be void of zombies. To which Takeo only nodded but didn¡¯t allow himself to get lose, as he maintained vigilance for any zombies.

    Roon¡¯s theory was soon proven wrong, as they met 2 stragglers on their way back, but these were not as ferocious as the ones they were facing before.

    Soon, they reached the area where the entrance to the tower was located, and where they¡¯d made a shoulder height barricade by arranging flipped cars.

    ¡®Shit. His skill is more Over Powered than mine.¡¯

    He jumped over the barricade and then Takeo passed him the kids, and then came across himself.

    Roon saw August and company standing near the glass tunnel gate, and they were talking to someone. Roon also observed that they had brought all the passengers from the bus, while he was gone.

    When he neared the group, William asked,

    ¡°Where¡¯s the hoarde? Did you lose them all?¡±

    ¡°The zombies aren¡¯t coming, it¡¯s a long story. Where¡¯s August?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s there. I see you brought company¡±

    William pointed at the counter for passing through the gate, August was fidgeting there with the circuit wires he¡¯d managed to pull out somewhere from the counter, and opposing to him behind the glass door, inside the tower, was standing a man in black suit.

    ¡°I found them.¡±

    Roon gave a lose introduction of Takeo and his kids, and their meeting. Some girls went to meet the kids, as they were really cute. Also, the girls took extra glances of Takeo, as he looked slick, and his cold detached eyes had a certain appeal to them. What¡¯d they have felt, if they knew they were appreciating a feature he¡¯d earned after being widowed.

    Roon had nothing to do with social dealings as he went straight to August.

    ¡°Any success?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Can we get in?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Ready to tell me everything?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    With August¡¯s this reply Roon¡¯s face scrunched.

    ¡®Fuck, let me just beat up this son of bitch. *Sigh*, no, don¡¯t beat up Mr. Miyagi. Cmon Danielle Kun, you can do it. Don¡¯t get violent with him.¡¯

    In the moment of Roon¡¯s introspection, August signaled something two the man in black, to which he nodded and disappeared in the tower.

    Then August finally looked at Roon, made eye contact with him, and asked

    ¡°So, which skill did you get?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been a long day Mr. Miyagi. A long, long day.

 Ch 6 - An Evening To Talk On

    ¡°How can you tell?¡±

    Asked Roon, still grimacing over the man¡¯s apparent omniscient behavior. And seeing Roon in a dilemma, all August did was smirked.

    ¡°I can¡¯t. You did. Quite the gullible one, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Hmm. Fuck. Well, guess what. I won¡¯t be telling you, or anyone for that matter.¡±

    ¡°Wise decision. So, what else did you have to discuss?¡±

    ¡°Well, about that.¡±

    Roon told him everything he¡¯d seen today.

    ¡°Well that is indeed bad news. And you¡¯re saying that the mutated zombie, nearly one shot you with half a step in the grave. Hmm, then you must¡¯ve got a healing skill from it.¡±

    From August¡¯s accurate guess, Roon felt a sour. Just now he¡¯d been cocky, and claimed silence about his skill, yet in just few minutes he¡¯d spilled the beans indirectly. How? Was all he could think.

    ¡°Don¡¯t sweat over it. It was simple deduction.¡±

    ¡°I know. So what do you suggest we do now? What is the situation inside the tower? Who was that man you were talking to?¡±

    ¡°The situation inside the tower is controlled, and that man is a security agent. Can you call that man you saved, what was his name?¡±

    ¡°Takeo.¡±

    ¡°Could you send him over?¡±

    ¡°Do I look like a lackey to you? You can¡¯t order me around.¡±

    ¡°Please.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    Roon fetched Takeo, who¡¯d been eyeing August for quite some time now. Seeing the way Takeo was looking at them, Roon felt something was off. Also, he didn¡¯t need to fetch Takeo, as he walked to them of his own accord.

    ¡°Are you Dr. Patrick August?¡±

    ¡°That would be me, correct. And good timing, I heard you were the west section¡¯s IT Head¡­¡­..¡±

    Before August could complete his sentence, Takeo jumped at him in an attempt to punch him. Anger was evident in his every action. It almost felt like August was the embodiment of everything he hated.

    ¡°Motherfuckers¡­ You knew that¡­..¡±

    But before he could act or speak any further, August, in a practiced manner, landed a chop on his neck. Which, to the astonishment of Roon, made Takeo swoon and he immediately went limp on the floor.

    ¡°Did he have any recent grievances?¡±

    ¡°His wife turned a zombie in front of him.¡±

    ¡°Figures. Carry him, the door will be opening soon, and we will talk inside.¡±

    Seeing Takeo faint, many of the group came running, his kids especially worried.

    ¡°Papa! What happened to papa? Papa!¡±

    The girl, Yumiko, got hysterical as she saw the state of her dad, and the silent boy, Negi, started pulling at Takeo, his tears flowing relentlessly.

    Their dad was their only support in this world, the very idea of something happening to him, devastated them. All they could remember was the family¡¯s unanimous decision for a visit to the museum, falling asleep on the way, and waking up in their father¡¯s arms, then they had to walk on the road, and found a smelly body, and an unconscious big brother who their father said was going to help them. They knew that their father was tensed, and kept quite because they were good kids. They only asked their father where their mama was, and he said that she¡¯d gone out to complete some work. They knew he didn¡¯t want to talk, so they didn¡¯t ask any further.

    Then they arrived at papa¡¯s office building, and saw a lot of cars broken and thrown here and there. When they arrived, a lot of uncle and aunties who were smelling like dead rats came to greet them, but they didn¡¯t scrunch their noses as I would¡¯ve been impolite. Also, they could forgive them as one of the old uncles was showing them magic, by taking out a coin from their ears.

    Then their father said that he¡¯ll be back in a minute, and came here and fainted. They couldn¡¯t do anything about it, except cry and irritate and do the stuff that children do.

    But to sooth their hysterical and close to meltdown little kid hearts, and for everyone¡¯s questioning gazes, we had Roon, the prot¨¦g¨¦ of all fraudulent gentlemen present in the pretentious high society.

    See the thing about Roon was, he wouldn¡¯t give a twat for people¡¯s opinions he wasn¡¯t going to have long term interaction with, because he¡¯d need to have a twat, to be able to give one, but his inexistent twat is not the point of this paragraph. The point is, when Roon understands, that he is stuck with certain ¡°humans¡± in long term, which was certainly the case given the apocalyptic theme, he is capable of changing his personalities faster than Mystique from X Men, becoming extremely polite and gregarious. And the sad part is, it isn¡¯t a case of multi-personality disorder. No, it is the same man, displaying two very different behaviors per the situation, none of which is the real him, how tragic.

    But, as said before, being the prot¨¦g¨¦ of the pretentious high society has its own perks, like right now.

    Roon, <u>like the very faithful friend who covers up in front of our parents, the butler for the masters, or the lawyers who provide perfectly logical explanations for the correctness and reasonability of rich peoples¡¯ crimes</u>, could handle the situation with few words, as excuse was an indispensable item in hypocrites¡¯ arsenal,

    ¡°Dehydration.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    Everybody looked at Roon as if he¡¯d said something absurd. Most people were looking at him like he had something to do with this, including August the culprit. Even the kids who were crying like crazy had their tears paused right in place, to listen to this smelly big brothers explanation.

    ¡°I think its dehydration. Don¡¯t look at me like that, makes me feel like I sucked all the water from him, which has more than 1 interpretations. God, why did I say that last line. Listen, he had nothing to drink, since last night. And today, the sudden exposure to hyper activities, resulted in building up of fatigue which led to this.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­.. (o _ o) ¡­¡­.¡±

    ¡°But child, in case of dehydration, the person would usually lie down and then swoon if it is severe. His drop was to sudden, look, he even fell on his face. I think it may be something serious.¡±

    An old black man, in light brown casual shirt and pants pointed out. No one was convinced with Roon¡¯s explanation, but only the old man found it worth speaking. After listening to the old man, the kids were once again worried to hell, and were looking at Roon with glistening puppy eyes, as if he¡¯d just asked for both their kidneys.

    ¡°Uncle, may I know your name?¡±

    ¡°Bappy Lahiri, why?¡±

    ¡°So, Mr. Lahiri, the thing is, I am a very active, and ambitious young man. And all the time, which I don¡¯t devote to studying, I read medical articles on the net. So, when I say that he fainted due to lack of water in his body, and I am not saying it loosely, he probably did faint due to lack of water.¡±

    After Roons counter argument the light in the children¡¯s eyes returned. The children of Orient, especially those of the upper echelons, were quite informed. Thus, despite not knowing the exact intricacies of the phenomenon ¡°Dehydration¡±, they knew it wasn¡¯t quite serious, because whenever the kids at school got sick, and their maudlin parents insisted on the doctors checking them thoroughly, the doctors would say ¡®It is only a case of mild dehydration¡¯, and their friends got well, very soon. So, if papa only had dehydration, it was going to be alright.

    ¡°But child, I was a paramedic, and I ensure you it¡¯s not dehydration.¡±

    ¡°Fuck why are you so insistent. You say you were paramedic, I say you are old, So why don¡¯t you just accept that its dehydration, you snaggy old bugger. (Just look at those kids, they¡¯re going to cry themselves to death, then someone will have dehydration, so why don¡¯t you just fucking accept.)¡±

    The last line was said with teeth shut like Adam Sandler so that the kids don¡¯t understand, and finally the old man made a face like a bulb had lit up and he said,

    ¡°Oh yeah. My bad, my bad. It does look like dehydration. Kids, your daddy only needs to drink some water and he¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    The crowd too made a some ¡®Ooohhs¡¯ and ¡®Aaahhhs¡¯, and chimed in.

    ¡°Yes, only dehydration¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all good. Fun fact- Dehydration is way better than historical conditions of cancer, or ebola. And for people who don¡¯t know what cancer or ebola is, it was existent nearly 60 years ago, now they¡¯re dead. Only good things like dehydration are left, nothing to worry about.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Just a diminutive case of dehydration. We were worried for no reason.¡±

    All the adults present joined in to cheer up the 4 and 3 year olds, with one of them providing historical information so that dull minded readers could understand the approximate timeline of the stories plot.

    With all said and done, the kids cheered up, their worry for their father, lessening a lot. The passengers from the bus were now looking at Roon with kind eyes. Everybody loves the guys who cares for the kids. Even William despite maintaining his vigilance, now had a better opinion of him. Few of the ladies were even beaming at him, to which he responded with his own humble and dry smile, and rubbed the back of his head like the innocent teenager he was.

    What the public didn¡¯t know was, although half of the reason for his whole fa?ade was his concern for the kids, the other half, was exactly what the effect we observed. He was now in the good books of the people, they felt more positive about him, they found his actions very goofy, but that also made them lower their guards. He also helped ease the tensed atmosphere.

    Roon had read many historical records, which was also the source of his Karate Kid, X Men and Big Bang Theory references, he felt fascinated by the times when men made movies, delightful pieces of fine arts. This interest, in humanities history, and analysis of numerous psychological dissertations, led him to grasp a basic understanding of human-social functionalities.

    The thing that he understood now, after facing the perils of travelling alone in this zombie filled city, was that one needed a group for survival, for example if Takeo hadn¡¯t come and woken him up, then despite the miraculous effects of ¡°Cell Regen Boost¡±, he would have died. Maybe that was also Augusts purpose in sending him on the trek, a way of telling him ¡®Alone? No matter how op, you¡¯d definitely die in your sleep or when you go for a shit.¡¯

    Thus, to improve his chances of survival, he now took the initiative to fit in. He also now understood, why William, the one who he considered an idiot, was so proactive in social interaction. Only the image August portrayed in public, perplexed him.

    ¡®August certainly is smart enough to understand this basic rule, then why does he not take pains to gain the peoples trust? Maybe they already trust him given how smart he is.¡¯

    While Roon was engrossed in these seemingly useless thoughts, the gate to the tower opened, and what baffled him, was that it didn¡¯t open and close in 30 seconds like entries to all buildings at the 3<sup>rd</sup> level did. It stayed open, like it was permanent, and that was enough to stump these people, they were also thinking how did it open without a pass? Well most of them were, a few of them were not stupid, and those were thinking, how did it work without electricity?

    To all these questions, no one gave an answer, and as the black coated man urged everyone to come inside quickly, no one bothered to ask. As everyone went in, William did the courtesy of picking up Takeo, and when the black coated man saw the fainted guys face, he panicked, and said something on his communicator, that too an electric item, after which a group of men came rushing out with a stretcher, and put Takeo on it and ran back in. Then a man in blue t-shirt came, and went straight to the kids. The kids also ran towards him and hugged him.

    ¡°Uncle Shinni.¡±

    They said, and started crying in his arms.

    ¡°Shh. It¡¯s going to be alright. It¡¯s going to be alright, I¡¯m here now. Where¡¯s your mom?¡±

    ¡°Papa said she had some work to do. So she left.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that so. Alright no problem.¡±

    The man named Shinni, obviously understood what that meant. Takeo, was his boss, and he often brought his kids to the office. So, he¡¯d developed a great bond with these kids, and was crestfallen at their loss. He too was worrying about his family, which lived here. But there was nothing he could do about it; the moment the black monolith had appeared the tower had been shut down. Even now the security personnel ¡°requested¡± him to stay in the premises of the tower.

    The kids pointed to Roon and said something to the man, who then walked over to Roon and shook his hands.

    ¡°Shen Lohara.¡±

    ¡°Roon.¡±

    ¡°I thank you for your service.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it.¡±

    ¡®It nearly cost me my life, and all you got is thanks. Bitch.¡¯

    Was what he thought, but avoided speaking. He was hoping to get a gun in this precarious situation, had to maintain a good relationship with the government. Of course, he didn¡¯t know that poor old Shinni with his paygrade, wasn¡¯t entitled to a gun for himself, let alone provide one for Roon.

    Had it been before, it would have been easy to get a gun. But after all electronics got spiked, there was no hope to get hold of functioning gun. After all, the guns worked on the principle of electromagnetism, so it was only after watching all the devices functional in here, Roon felt some hope.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you later. I¡¯ll have to go and check on my boss now.¡±

    After he¡¯d left with the children, another man in grey suit came out and greeted everyone.

    ¡°Greetings everyone, I¡¯m Darret Haba, the Chief of Law Enforcement and a Rank 3 Marshall in the Ministry of Defense. As many of you may already know it is my responsibility to keep the city of Ahmeda safe. You are our first batch of survivors, which I am glad about, and I hope there¡¯ll be many more like you. I will keep it short, I welcome you to the pride of Ahmeda, the Administrative Tower, we have enough food to last us for a month, still I would advise you to be sustainable. That was all I had to say, now I request you to pass through the check and enter this stronghold.¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Seeing someone of authority, the passengers felt a load lift off their shoulders. This had been a very stressful period, and finally having someone to rely upon made them feel good. So, they quickly, got in a que as asked, Roon and August being the last ones.

    It was going to take some time because everyone was being checked for bite marks, apparently, they knew that the bitten ones turned zombies, and in the process of doing so, they were also asked to strip. For which the ladies hesitated at first, but agreed when they were provided with separate booths and female inspectors.

    Still, it was going to take some time for checking 15 men, thoroughly. So to pass time, August choose to entertain Danielle, err, Roon.

    ¡°You were great back there. Great performance.¡±

    ¡°Fuck yourself.¡±

    ¡°No, no. I¡¯m not being sarcastic. You understood my intention of sending you away, alone, and devised immediate measures to pacify your previous inconsistencies. I commend your intellect. You¡¯re not bad for someone your age. Master Kumar.¡±

    ¡°Fuck you sideways. Just because you know about my family does not mean I¡¯ll be flustered and suddenly start talking to you.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it to be like that. Also, if you don¡¯t feel like talking then you don¡¯t need to. And the reason I mentioned your family was because your father and I could be considered friends, of some sort.¡±

    With that, August went quiet, and no longer involved in a conversation.

    About Roon¡¯s family. It didn¡¯t have an incredible background involving some sort of huge organization or some sort of conspiracy. His mother was a Ph.D. His father was a scholar, from whom the Ministry of Education, Research and Human Resources sometimes seek counsel, and most of his advices weren¡¯t even implemented. His father professed simple lifestyle, that being the reason Roon was travelling in a bus, when he could have gotten a cab. His father even suggested that Roon go to the Ahmeda¡¯s 1<sup>st</sup> level and experience the true human society, to which his mother strongly objected.

    He had to thank his mother the next time he met her. Had he been down there, he¡¯d have to face millions of zombies, instead of the tens he faced today.

    But, family history aside, Roon was thinking back to what August had said. Yes, August didn¡¯t mean to imply what Roon had said, he¡¯d only retorted in the way he did because he didn¡¯t have anything else to say, that¡¯d be just as nasty. And now he started to feel that his resentment for the man was unjustified and immature, if he overlooked the few life-threatening encounters he had. Yes, the rage really was quite childish. After all, he¡¯d benefitted from it in the end.

    And yet, like all gentlemanly hypocrites, he couldn¡¯t possibly admit to his fault.

    ¡°Say, how do you know my father?¡±

    ¡°Oh, the oath of silence broken so quickly. Laudable determination you have there.¡±

    THIS, made Roon go nearly BERSERK.

    But, being the pacifist he was, he calmly replied.

    ¡°Dude, just say how you know him?¡±

    ¡°Hmm. Well, I could be said to be admirer of sorts. I being quite accomplished myself, find it hard to register people as intellectual, but your father is one the few, who I did. You too, appear to be quite promising.¡±

    ¡°So what, you only hang out with toppers of the Orient competitive exams, or something like that?¡±

    ¡°No. Just because they can process information much quicker does not make them intellectual. And you my friend are too young to understand the concept of an intellectual.¡±

    ¡°Oh, Cool. Hey, I got one question for you. Actually, I have many, like are you a secret government agent, are the aliens already among us, is this a huge conspiracy by the government, or are you the leader of all Aliens trying to convert me to join your side. But, for now, do you know how the electronics in this building are working? Or was it just cars and phones that got shut down?¡±

    ¡°No, the thing is, the monolith that you saw, releases electro-quantum radiation of a very low frequency, thus disrupting the flow of electricity, with subtle alteration at the nucleic level. This causes the flow of electricity to be stunted, and most of the matter impede transition of electricity. Don¡¯t confuse them with insulators. The affected matter has its planar wavelength altered thus it can¡¯t even register electricity. Very sophisticated tech. Just this is ahead of us by at least 400 years, and we haven¡¯t even figured out all of it, if we do then maybe we¡¯ll find them o be even more progressed.¡±

    ¡°¡­..¡±

    ¡°But luckily, the prevention of their assault was not, 400 years in the future. We were able to, with the primitive methods of ¡®cause and effect¡¯ experimentation. The solution we came up with, was isolating a confined space, with the help of radio-ionic compact fiber materials, and charge it with a pulse of hyper fueled electromagnetic waves, thus ionizing it. That could disperse the effects of electro-quantum radiation, at the price of nucleic fission, which can be controlled because we used the radio-ionic compact material to build the isolation barrier in the first place. So it¡¯s a single use object, a costly single use object, but it works.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­..¡±

    Roon, was silent. He didn¡¯t know when August had gotten ahead of him in the queue and was simply staring at August in deep thought. Which August presumed to be a sign of ignorance.

    ¡°*Sigh*, Oh boy. Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d have to use the plebian exclusive explanation. Listen again. Come Black box, magic wave, Ooooh all stop. Come Safe box, half magic barrier, magic wave come, half magic barrier to zero magic barrier, Oooohh Safe box no stop. But half magic barrier gone. Get it?¡±

    ¡°Fuck you doggy style. Just because I am quiet does not mean I didn¡¯t get it. I got the gist of it, I was just pondering over it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, good. That¡¯s good. Giving thought to fact is a good sign. You have a mind suitable for research, I¡¯d thank your genes for that. Except for all the ¡°Fucks¡± that you chant.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, about that. Don¡¯t ever tell dad¡­¡­.¡±

    Before he could complete his sentence, he noticed that it was their turn to be checked. August, who was now mysteriously positioned in front of him, was just about to undress, when Haba stopped him.

    ¡°Wait. Sir, might I ask, are you Dr. August perchance.¡±

    ¡°In flesh and blood.¡±

    ¡°Oh, then you certainly don¡¯t need to be checked. Are you infected, Sir?¡±

    ¡°Ah no. Most certainly am not.¡±

    ¡°Oh, good. And this young man?¡±

    ¡°Him. A friend of mine, and I can vouch for him. He too, is not infected.¡±

    ¡°Oh, very well then. These two don¡¯t need to be checked.¡±

    The last part, Haba said to the two security agents.

    The inside of the tower left many people gaping. It was also the first time for many of them to have entered it. Roon was one of the few people who was unruffled, the reason for which, was the educational tour his dad had personally taken him to. It was accompanied by a detailed explanation of the administrative procedure that he was forced to comprehend, and all the features of this behemoth.

    Roon knew that the dimensions of the tower were as follows, approximately 3500 meters high, and a 750-meter radius. Has 5-star lodging, food, and entertainment. Providing the best service for government employees wherever they went. The 3<sup>rd</sup> level, consisting of 250 floors, and 6 sectors is completely dedicated to the administration of the city, and partly of the state of which Ahmeda is the economic capital. There wasn¡¯t much information about the 2<sup>nd</sup> level, but it is said that it is completely dedicated to research including forbidden atrocious ones, and has many conspiracies about it. The 1<sup>st</sup> level of the tower, as everybody knows, consists of the government shelters for juveniles and elderly. It also houses the public schools, as opposed to the conduct of private and singular educational practices preferred by the beau monde of the planet.

    Roon¡¯s father too, insisted that his education be done in a school, and not home like those snobbish buffoons. School, he said, helps build character. Thus, Roon could be considered quite knowledgeable about the ¡°Administrative Tower.¡±.

    But, all of this wasn¡¯t the focus of his mental faculties. He had something to tell August, and it was very urgent.

    August had disappeared some time ago, and it wasn¡¯t until three hours later that he met him. Meanwhile, they¡¯d been provided separate rooms for each person, and the food too, was to be delivered by butlerobots, to their rooms. August was heading to his room, when Roon found him.

    ¡°Dr. August, we need talk.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. You were saying something about the next time I see your father.¡±

    ¡°I was going to say that, please don¡¯t tell him that I curse a lot, you know ¡°Fuck this, Fuck that.¡±, he finds cursing obnoxious, and all. But that¡¯s not what I¡¯m here to talk about.¡±

    ¡°Then what do you want to talk about.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s about Mr. Darret Haba.¡±

    ¡°What of him?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll have to start from the beginning. There¡¯s an ability of mine, that I haven¡¯t told anyone about.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°No, not the healing one. Not ¡°Cell Regen Boost¡±, there is something else that I haven¡¯t told anyone.¡±

    ¡°I know that as well.¡±

    ¡°¡­.. (* - *)¡­¡­.. Is that so? And why do you know everything? And yet you choose to disclose nothing.¡±

    ¡°I did tell you about the barrier, it¡¯s a government top secret. And, as for knowing everything, and still not telling you, that is because I¡¯m¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. *Whispers* Batman.¡±

    ¡°You know, I¡¯ve read in history papers, that in 2020s nearly hundred years ago, that was a really popular form of comic conversation known, as Meme, and ¡®I¡¯m batman¡¯ was really popular. So, thank me that I¡¯m an avid reader of modern history, else any sane human, would consider you FUCKING DOGSHIT SENILE.¡±

    ¡°Haha. My apologies. I forgot that people don¡¯t appreciate good humor these days. Your dad does. He¡¯s also smarter than you. The reason I¡¯m like this is because I¡¯m like Gandalf. And I mean to use it as an analogy.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Gandalf is acceptable, with all the cryptic vibe you give. Yes, he is acceptable.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Gandalf is acceptable. But the question, are you Frodo? Or Aragon? Choose Aragon, Frodo is a wuss.¡±

    ¡°Aragon? Frodo? Wasn¡¯t Gandalf with Bilbo?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you don¡¯t know bout Lord of The Rings. No, problem. Did you read The Hobbit or watch the movie?¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­. No, I kinda just, played the virtual reality game. It was fun. You know, nice story and all.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s, how culture dies. Never mind I¡¯ll take you to a Repository of Ancient documents, they should have the book there.¡±

    ¡°Shit. Stop. We¡¯re deviating from the topic here. And now I¡¯m going to speak nonstop, lest we deviate again. Listen, I also got a 7<sup>th</sup> sense yesterday. It is one that lets me feel the intentions of the party in question. It¡¯s only to the point of like good or bad, and not very accurate. But I felt a really cold intention almost chilly, from Haba, when he was talking to you, which I somehow know is bad, or malicious intent. And every time I talk to you, I feel like a warm, light emotion coming, and I know there¡¯s some good intent. And I didn¡¯t talk about it before because it sounds so gay. And I won¡¯t think about that because then I feel nauseating. And before you ask me what I feel from zombies, it is nothing. Absolutely nothing, it¡¯s like they don¡¯t give a fuck about me, but they still want to eat me.¡±

    ¡°Well, that is a lot to figure. I can¡¯t find a suitable explanation for your abilities, yet. But I do suggest that we procced to my Room and continue our discussion on the topic of our interest, modern history.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡­¡­ I just told you, that the most influential, most powerful man in the city has ill intent towards you, and you want to talk about modern history?¡±

    ¡°Most influential, maybe. Most powerful, certainly not. And my friend, rest assured, I fear neither. So, want to continue our chat?¡±

    To this arrogant, yet confident and convincing claim, Roon had nothing to retort with.

    ¡°Fine, you¡¯ll be ordering the food.¡±

    ¡°Very well.¡±

    As they got to August¡¯s room, they saw Takeo, victim of August¡¯s undue violence, and Roon¡¯s distasteful jesting.

    ¡°Ah, I was expecting. Head of IT, Orient West. You¡¯re quite praised at the Centre.¡±

    ¡°Did you people know?¡±

    ¡°Hmm. Again, that incessant imputation, of me being in cahoots with the government. Might I remind you, I am just a consultant, nothing more. And before you develop and further misgivings, I invite you to join me and my friend to dinner.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    Was Takeo¡¯s only answer. He chose to not be very active, lest he lose himself in rage. It had only been a day, to his wife¡¯s death. And one of the possible culprits, had appeared at the same time. How, could he possibly calm down. But there was nothing he could do. He was much weaker than August, and he also couldn¡¯t commandeer the tower security to act against Top Priority Personnel. Not like it would make much difference if he could, they¡¯d still be beat by August.

    They sat in a room, that was the most luxurious Roon had ever seen. It had ochre yellow lighting, expensive wallpaper, carpet so soft Roon took of his shoes, and all kinds of luxuries he could imagine. Including, but not limited to, automotive chair, mobile jacuzzi, and all in one couch. Every kind of luxury, his stingy dad asked him to refrain from. His father¡¯s philosophy being, ¡®The moment we indulge in these, we¡¯re not humans, but potatoes.¡¯. Right, his father was, he realized today. Because as soon as he indulged in these machines, he felt like a vegetable. A comfortable vegetable, no doubt about it. But a vegetable none the less. And his current mental state wouldn¡¯t let him. In this apocalyptic setting, Roon understood, that sloth and complacency, would be one¡¯s greatest enemy. So, he enjoyed this feeling thoroughly, but also ensured that it didn¡¯t become a necessity.

    While Roon was indulging in a full body massage, Takeo and August called for him. They had to discuss a matter of private nature (not sex), thus they asked Roon to go away. Well August did, anyway, Takeo was much more polite about it. August thought that maintaining the mystery in front of the non-governmental new guy would make for good fun. And now they called him.

    And as Roon was too lazy to move, in his comfortable full body massage bed, he did what he¡¯d always wanted to.

    ¡°To the Hall.¡±

    He commanded the massage bed to take him to the hall. He moved, in a house, without using his legs. Something his father, would have never allowed. That too, a massaging means of transportation.

    ¡°AAhhh. What¡¯s up people? This feels gooooood. You¡¯ve got to try this; I am going to fall asleep any moment.¡±

    ¡°I am kinda like the boss of this place, so yeah, I have tried that, a million times. And it¡¯s not that good. But yeah its fine.¡±

    Was Takeo¡¯s wry answer. August on the other hand, was much more blunt,

    ¡°What are you? A 5-year-old. Stop being immature and behave your age. Now sit upright so that we can have a serious discussion about some very serious matters.¡±

    Being target of sarcastic and direct insults, Roon lost all interest he had in the bed. He sat up, wore the new clothes he¡¯d stolen from the wardrobe, and sat on the dinner table.

    With a clap of Augusts hands, a lot of food was brought in. Pasta, lasagna, chicken, sashimi, noodles and some stinky tofu, just as Roon liked it.

    ¡°So, everything all settled between you two?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we did manage to clear up the bits of unwarranted misgivings we had, and have also come to an agreement.¡±

    ¡°So, what did you want to tell me?¡±

    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t Takeo did. He feels he is obliged, considering that you saved his and the children¡¯s lives. Just tell him you need to know nothing.¡±

    ¡°Dude, tell me everything you know. I NEED TO KNOW.¡±

    Roon pointed his finger to Takeo. To which Takeo responded with a bit gloom tone.

    ¡°Dr. Augusts tells me you¡¯re a funny man, Master Kumar. I too have witnessed your ingenuity in life threatening situations. And while I do understand that comedy is your brains mechanism to prevent a breakdown in these traumatic times, I suggest you listen to what I say, very carefully.¡±

    To Takeo¡¯s request cum insult, Roon didn¡¯t take much offense. Also, he¡¯d have paid great attention on this conversation even if Takeo hadn¡¯t said that. Despite all the jesting, he was very vigilant of everything, even August, as he didn¡¯t know whether his sense could be a perfect judge of character. And it was also as Takeo had said, comedy was his way of coping with stress. So, when Takeo asked him to get serious, he only nodded.

    ¡°Good. You have read the paper, published by Mr. Michael Freeman, yes? It is my pseudonym. And before you ask any questions allow me to complete. The information in the paper is only half true. The details about the black monoliths and activities are correct, but there have been no public sightings of them. The reason for that being, the memories related to the monolith are expunged from the populace of that particular area, not even one is spared. And by a not even one, I mean the government is very thorough in its work. Only ups are spared, and that too only due to their special circumstances. Now, there are many things I cannot tell you about now, ups being one of them, but rest assured if everything goes well, you¡¯ll know about it in due time. What I would like to tell you, is that your parents are safe, because the appearances of monoliths are separated by periods of 4 to 7 months. The last thing I¡¯d say is you have a bumpy road ahead. Just, prepare yourself.¡±

    And after that, Takeo spoke no more. Suddenly, the noodles seemed way more interesting than social interaction.

    He was a broken man, this much Roon understood. But he also understood, that with these words, he was trying to repay the debt of a life. So Roon didn¡¯t take these words lightly, he analyzed each interpretation very carefully, and then started simple speculation. Many things became clear to him after this, and he speculated further and created many scenarios. When he reached a point where he could speculate no more, he did his usual.

    ¡®What gives! Later.¡¯

    And exactly at the moment he finished introspecting, a rasp knock sounded at the door. The door automatically opened to reveal, Mr. Darret Haba, he had come with a bottle of wine.

    ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t expecting you to already have company, Sir August. Guess we¡¯ll have to share our gloom then.¡±

    He pointed to the wine bottle in his hands, and smiled amiably as he came over the table. Everyone returning his smile, except for Roon.

    He felt an uncomfortable chill when the bulky Mr. Haba, sat next to him. He also saw the Magnetum 208 pellet shooter strapped around his waist. It was the peak of modern day weaponry, with it ver 3.4 electromagnetic propulsion, and cobalt-carbon ammunition, it was fast, silent and deadly.

    As the continued to talk, the casual atmosphere got more friendly, and everyone was cracking jokes and using subtle humor.

    Only Roon could feel, that Haba exuded frightening coldness to Roon that he could not feel in his body, only mind, and August too had started to emit a chill 5 minutes ago, though it was lessening by the minute, August seemed to be pacifying by the minute. And Takeo, was still entrenched in his noodles.

    At some point, Haba, poured the wine, which earned a ¡°Noodle¡± and ¡°Minor¡±, from Takeo and Roon respectively. Only August poured a glass, and started taking a sip.

    ¡°Haha. Patrick, I must say, that you helped me a lot today.¡±

    At a point god knows which one, Haba had stated getting all cozy with August. So much so, that under the effects of Alcohol, he¡¯d went from ¡°Sir August¡± to ¡°Patrick¡±.

    ¡°Hmm. How so?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean how so? You brought accurate intel of the situation outside, and helped take care of the many monsters we¡¯d have to face. I don¡¯t know how to thank you. Also, your idea of sending 4 teams instead of one, to the transmission center, I don¡¯t know how to describe the genius you are. Tremendous, truly, tremendous.¡±

    With that he started shaking his head like an innocent country hipster, but the coldness in him only continued to grow. While August, who was now pacing around the room, on the other hand felt completely normal to Roon, except for the slight chill, which could be dismissed as subtle disliking from Roon¡¯s 7<sup>th</sup> sense standard.

    ¡°So, what message did you send for the hq?¡±

    ¡°Everything. All about the rain, the zombies, and how killing them gives easy xp. And the usual protocol data, of the monoliths timing and all official details.¡±

    ¡°Well, good. Good,¡­¡­.¡±

    While in midst of completing his sentence, suddenly a knife appeared in his hand, and he stabbed Haba in the neck, thrice. As he was standing behind Haba, it looked like a coiffeur ready to shampoo, if not for all the blood flowing out of Haba¡¯s neck.

    ¡°Triple Tap. Always works.¡±

    Was his nonchalant comment afterwards, as he smirked at Roon.

 Ch 7 - Always The Government

    ¡°Are you crazy! You killed him, you fucking killed a man. Not counting, that he¡¯s the highest authority in this tower right now, but you killed another human. Shit!¡±

    Roon¡¯s voice was filled with hysteria as he yelled at August, his voice becoming hoarse by the end of it. But strangely he didn¡¯t feel the urge to vomit as he¡¯d felt when he¡¯d been killing zombies. Maybe it was because he didn¡¯t do it himself, or maybe it was his body adapting to death, that he didn¡¯t have a biological response for this manslaughter, but his mind was a whole different story.

    He¡¯d been killing since morning, and despite how appalling the sensation was for him, knowing that it was for his survival gave him some relief. But August, this man who he¡¯d been considering his guru, his guide, the nice ¡®Old Man¡¯ character from movies, had just committed a murder, and his only reaction was a smirk. His eyes didn¡¯t hold the slightest of malice or killing intent as he stabbed the knife through a man¡¯s throat, like he was cutting cabbage.

    This nonchalance made Roon¡¯s hear grow cold, which in turn gave birth to fear, a lot of fear.

    Roon kept yelling at August, but all that energy was wasted, as the culprit was immersed in his inspection of the victim¡¯s body.

    August splendidly ignored Roon and lay the Haba¡¯s body on floor. Then he started stripping him, and checked each pocket each fold of his clothing. When it appeared that his search attempts were futile, he gestured Takeo, who was just as relaxed as August, to help him.

    Takeo, pushed aside Roon, who was getting more frantic every second, and as if him and August had discussed previously, like a play, and as if it was the most natural thing to do, held the body¡¯s head firmly to the ground. After which, August slashed at its neck a last time, after which the head came apart, the esophagus along with it. This made Roon pale, and he ceased his cursing and looked away.

    And the Dr. wasn¡¯t done yet. He continued with his dissection, till he managed to rip the body¡¯s lower jaw off, and with a delighted expression separated something like a bead from its molar, and ate it, without any qualms about its previous location.

    After he was done with this improvised post mortem of the murder he committed, he turned to the only gloomy person in the room,

    ¡°So lad, you were saying something. I was occupied previously and didn¡¯t pay much attention to it, I beg your pardon for my rude behavior.¡±

    His voice contained a hint of delight and a mocking tone, despite polite dialect which he was speaking. Roon didn¡¯t answer him, as he continued to stare at the floor, the carpets design acting as a good distraction for his disturbed mind.

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m sorry. I had to do what I just did, and it was urgent as well. If you drink that wine, you¡¯ll understand.¡±

    ¡°What are you trying to say?¡±

    Roon asked in an aggravated tone. August¡¯s actions had left him vexed, while this computer like man was certain to be of help in this precarious situation, after his last act, Roon didn¡¯t know if he could trust him. But the answer to his question didn¡¯t come from August,If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°It means that the wine was poisoned and if he didn¡¯t eat the antidote by the time he did, he would be no more than a vegetable, and we¡¯d have a bullet in our heads as a gift from Haba.¡±

    This answer shocked Roon, although he knew that Haba had bad intentions against August, he didn¡¯t think that he would go as far as to kill him. To him, willingly killing a man without any reason was something unimaginable. Despite all the brawls he got in, or the recurring conflicts, this boy who was born in the 22<sup>nd</sup> century, couldn¡¯t possibly think of a scenario where a person would kill another.

    ¡°Don¡¯t sweat over it, your life experience is shallow. Just trying being chill about everything, and stop giving a fuck about every little thing that happens. You behave like a wuss, MAN UP.¡±

    Dr. August¡¯s voice contained a lot of mockery, which made Roon feel insulted. Yet, he couldn¡¯t find the words to deny him. Yes, he had been killing, and sometimes he even took pleasure in it, so he couldn¡¯t judge others.

    While Roon sat there dismayed, Takeo was vigilant of August. Despite his fluid actions in aiding August, he wasn¡¯t in on the murder, it was only after August started searching Haba¡¯s body, that Takeo with his IQ of 180, understood that poison was at play. But the reason behind the poisoning was still unknown.

    So, despite August being the potential victim, he was still wary of him. Thus, with a doubtful mindset, but in a knowing tone, he asked August,

    ¡°Won¡¯t you tell us the other reason for his death.¡±

    To this sudden inquiry, August replied in a praising manner,

    ¡°Ah, head of IT, wonderful deduction. Yes, there were more than one reason for his death. Two. First, he is a pawn of the people who would stop at nothing to cause me harm, Second, he is an idiot.¡±

    August¡¯s tone was merry, as if he was listing reasons to buy a car. But this didn¡¯t fare well for Roon. It only caused him to become more depressed, as he said in a weak manner,

    ¡°Heh, so he had to die because he was an idiot. Is that all?¡±

    But August, seemingly unaware of Roon¡¯s spiritual predicament, continued in an apathetic voice.

    ¡°Yes, him being an idiot would be very detrimental for us. You see, when I met him in the evening to give a rough outline of the city¡¯s situation, he dispatched a team to report the situation to the HQ, and given how he was planning to dispose of me, he probably didn¡¯t inform the HQ that I was in this city.¡±

    When August was finished, Roon and Takeo were staring at his face. They didn¡¯t understand what he was trying to convey. Even Takeo, who knew a little about the governments inner and secret workings of the government, didn¡¯t get what August was trying to imply. And seeing, that the two were still perplexed, August in a patient manner explained,

    ¡°Well, do the two of you know about the first Artificial Virus Epidemic that occurred in 2056?¡±

    This sudden question lit a bulb in Roons head. He was an avid reader of historical texts; thus he knew, that the epidemic August was talking about, happened in 2056 in China, now a part of the Orient Union.

    Thus, as he began to speculate the meaning behind August¡¯s words, Roons throat ran dry and in a hoarse voice he answered.

    ¡°In 2056, the Chongqing province was hit by a hyperactive virus which had the symptoms of HIV, but was more easily spread, with simple touch. At first the government were hesitant and confused about the situation, but after one year, when they couldn¡¯t find a cure, they panicked. One of the generals suggested a nuclear strike, but was immediately rejected and deemed crazy. After another year of the province¡¯s lockdown, one of the generals carried out a nuclear strike, after which he committed suicide. The epidemic ended, there were a few stragglers but they were immediately isolated. The cure was found, but it took five years. And 30 years later, the scholars estimated, if the nuclear cleansing had been done earlier, the loss to life would have been much less.¡±

    After Roon finished recalling history, he fell quiet. Now he understood, and so did Takeo, if the government know that they are facing an epidemic, they wouldn¡¯t send a rescue team. Their only logical response should be a nuclear cleansing for the whole of area, and they would prevent any possibility of a huge epidemic.

    But what they didn¡¯t understand, was how did August come into picture, thus they asked, Roon still in a dazed manner,

    ¡°But what does it have to do with you?¡±

    To this question, August maintained a teasing smile.