EPISODE 7: The first Wave 2

The car speed up on the road and starts running over few zombies that are standing in the way, the large horde gathering all over the city only get larger by the minute. More zombies rush out of the buildings as more people who turned while still inside their apartments rush out.

As they drive down the road, the sound of growling from the zombies only continue to intensify and compete with the roaring of the engine.

Alex was driving past the heart of the city where there are a lot of sky scrapers and other very tall buildings, a zombie suddenly fell from above right in front the car. Alex hit the brake hard that the guy in the front seat almost broke his nose from hitting his face on the truck’s dashboard.

“Son of a bitch! You almost killed me!” The man shouted at Alex but after turning to see that Alex’s attention is elsewhere on the road right in front of them.

“Nobody stopped you from strapping your seatbelt on bitch face! Now shut up before I kick you out.” Alex said without looking at him, having his gaze still fixated to right in front of the car.

The man turned and looked through the windshield while holding his nose.

He saw the broken pieces of the legs of the zombie that fell on the road, the zombie’s torso seems intact and even with its legs breaking and flying off to the side in pieces, the zombie was crawling and growling at them.

Out of curiosity, the man reached his hands to the door handle and Alex instantly turned around and looked at him with murderous eyes. The man instinctively retracted his hand and instead grabbed the seat belt and strapped himself up.

“Good call from you. Not just now but do not ever try to open the door this vehicle without my permission, I will kick you off I don’t need to remind you what that means, right?” Alex said and the man turned around and swallowed hard.

Alex shifted the gear stick and stepped on the gas, turning the wheels sideways and driving forward, running over the zombie dragging its torso on the road. As they drive around the block, more and more zombies keep jumping off the rooftops and falling straight to the ground.

“Shit! These must be the idiots that were staying on the rooftop to watch the clearest meteor to ever pass this close to earth, but they turned into zombie while there and are now following the sound of the car engine and jumping off the roof. It will be a disaster if any of them fall on the truck, everybody hold in tight!” Alex said and shifted the gear stick again and stepped in the accelerator hard.

The car instantly gained speed and the engine roared even louder, drawing the attention of all the zombies on the roof of all the buildings nearby, making them jump down towards the source of the sound.

From the upper side of his side windshield, he could see the zombies falling so he tried as best as he could to avoid them with the truck but some of the zombies were already falling from the front and from the back. A zombie fell in front of them, slightly hitting the bonnet of the truck and almost made Alex lose control of the vehicle, the car wheels crushed the zombie’s head as it runs into a group of zombies that have already fell from the roof.

Alex managed to drive them out of the district with the truck covered in blood and the wheels in bits of zombie remains that they have run over. He did not stop the vehicle at all or even slow it down until they were on the highway that leads straight out of the city.

Every street they passed, they will see so many zombies that they have completely blocked the roads and it will take nothing less than a large truck to pass through them. Now that they have gotten on the highway, they can see the every road overflowing with zombies.

As he drives across the cars on the road that have either lost control and collided after the drivers passed out during the infernal rain or get trapped inside after they rise again as zombies, Alex noticed that Elise and Edith were busy turning nervously and wanting to ask him where they are going but do not want to distract him from driving the vehicle.

“The cities are the worst places to be now and when the zombies mutate. Zombies are humans and the places where the most humans are found are cities. But in a few weeks from now, we will still have to come back to the city, do you know why?” Alex asked.

“Why will we ever do that? I can’t see any reason for that other than reckless behavior.” Edith said.

“Not particularly. People have to get back to the cities because that is where supplies are. That is where food is and other important tools that we cannot just make in this kind of situation.” He explained.

After a few hours of driving on the high way, Alex finally stopped the car near a large water tank situated near the road, he finally turned to them and said.

“We will be making a bit of stop here to get water and stretch our legs from sitting for too long in the truck, I will get us some drinking water from the tank, you should each pick a gallon each and follow me, keep your eyes peeled and do not wander too far from me. Although this place is relatively out of the city, that doesn’t mean it is devoid of zombies that can end all our lives if we are ever careless.” Alex said.

He got out of the car and opened the door for Elise and Edith, after they got out, the man in the front with him also got out. Alex pulled out three small gallon and handed each to one of them before he grabbed a fifty liters large plastic jerrycan and the three of them start to walk towards the water tank.

They arrived at the tank and Alex was more happy than anyone of them to see that the solar panels on the tank that power it to draw water from below the ground are still functional and there is clean water in the tank. They each fill their containers and begin are about to start walking back to the car when Alex noticed a sign board for a city side zoo. He turned around and climbed the top of the tank, enhanced his vision and checked around to find the zoo a few miles from where they currently are.

After zooming the vision the closest he can, noticed that all the other animals in the cages have been butchered and this is when his system suddenly dropped a window in his vision.

New mission available:

Defeat the two zombie apex predators on the loose in the area

[two tigers and a male lion from the zoo have turned to zombies, defeat them to complete the mission]

Mission duration: twenty four hours

Rewards: formless blade ingredients

Penalty: ????????????????   

“Stop everyone! Don’t move. We are near the zoo and it looks like there are a few tigers that are missing.” He said, but before he could close his lips, he saw the male lion approaching from the distance. The hair on its body has completely fallen off from turning into a zombie and its eyes are red as lasers.

Alex jumped down immediately from the tank and shouted. “Elise, Edith. Get on the water tank right now!”

Elise dropped the water gallon and grabbed the ladder to the water tank, started climbing it immediately. Following her right behind is Edith and the man they have helped and brought with them from the hotel.

Alex realized that he must keep the fight with the lion away from the tank if he doesn’t want to put either of his sister or Edith in more danger than they already are, so he turned on his evolver power and opened his status window.

“Activate system power, speed!” she muttered and instantly, he launched forward in a superhuman speed towards the lion. Upon getting closer to the lion he utilized the last bit of rune energy in his body to transforms his fingers into the claws of a horned owl, and hardened his skin all over the body.

As they clashed with the lion, it jumped higher than he was expecting and bumped him hard enough to send him flying the direction he from. Alex twisted himself midair and landed in his feet. He pulled his other hand to the side and transformed it into a large hammer shape.

The zombie lion caught up with him, attacking with a hit from its paws and a bit to Alex’s neck. But as the teeth of the lion hit his skin, most of them broke and Alex used this opportunity to grab the lion’s arm. With his left hand which has the claws, he cut the leg off. And with the hammer he had transformed the right into he slammed the head of the lion to the ground.

“You may be a level two zombie, but you are not an evolver. Even if you are, I have additional system powers that can match your tenacity! But you do not even understand what I am saying so let me get you out of your misery.” Alex said to the lion and raised the hammer shaped hand, growing two large spikes at the head of the hammer and slamming it into the head of the zombie lion without hesitation.

A small system window popped/

Apex predators killed: 1/3

This is when Alex heard the growling of the two tigers left in the area for him to defeat to complete the current system mission.  But he realized that he cannot use his evolver power anymore because he has drained all of his rune energy.

In the last few seconds left before his transformation comes undone, he transformed his legs into an angle that would make him have the ability to jump as high up as he can and coupled the jump with his enhanced speed system power that does not require rune energy.

Alex jumped so high in the air that he was essentially in the sky falling in the direction of the water tank. He saw the two tigers have surround the base of the tank and thank goodness that tigers do not climb usually and these were massive and large tigers seldom are good climbers.

He landed on the side of the tank and drew the attention of all the two tigers to himself.

“No more hard skin or any transformation evolver powers. That means I cannot depend on these anymore.” Alex said and draw out his katana. “Now come at me you miserable creatures, you are already dead so come let me put you back there once more!” Alex shouted and the two beast zombies charged at him with full speed.

Alex draw two pistols and pointed each at the two tigers waiting and watching for the right time to strike. As the tigers get closer and closer, he fired three shots on each tiger and both of them fell instantly.

“No matter how tough a zombie of this level is, if you blow their brains out they will still be immobilized for a while. A bullet of this size cannot completely kill it so you have to completely smash the head or cut it off to kill them.” Alex said. He grabbed his sword and walked to each of the zombie tigers, raising the sword and slicing their heads off.

A system massage was displayed.

Congratulations, you have completed the second story mode mission.

Apex predators defeated: 3/3

Reward: Cut open the heart of the killed zombies to harvest rune blood essence.

+ 5 physical strength

Player will be notified when next mission is ready.

Alex closed the window and looked to the top of the tank.

“We have to get going so get down now and grab the water containers.” He shouted.

He walked to the bodies of the dead zombie tigers and pulled out a small blade, cutting the chest of the tigers and pulling out a small reddish orb that glows.

He walked back to where the lion was on the floor with a smashed head and did the same on it, but what he got is a black orb instead of the normal blood rune essence. He activated clairvoyance and check each of the crystals he obtained and he saw that they could are to be swallowed to create the foundation for activating the formless blade.

When he walked back to the tank, he saw Edith and Elise standing next to the man that is with them on the floor bleeding from his leg.

“What happened?” he asked.

Elise turned around and said. “He jumped from the tank and landed on that scrap of metal, one of its sharp edges grazed his foot. It must have cut a surface artery, he is bleeding all over the place.”

Alex looked the man in the eye and activated clairvoyance once again.

Name: Yojiro Cain

Powers: none

Whereabouts: was cheating on his girlfriend with a married woman in the hotel when the apocalypse happened.

Intentions: To use you and survive for as long as he can, won’t mind sacrificing all of you to survive.

Alex closed the system skill window and said. “Elise, use your rune energy and heal him. If the nearby zombies smell his blood, we will not be able to hide from them if he keeps bleeding all over the place.”

Elise has been waiting for this exact moment, she was nit enjoying the fact that a man was bleeding and she could not help him at all. She walked to the man and activated her power, knelt down next to him and placed a single drop of her blood on the wound.

Immediately, the injury begin to heal like a miracle and when it was done, not even a scar was left.

“What exactly are you people? You were jumping like crazy before and now she just healed my wounds. That is not something a normal person is capable of doing.” The man said.

“You should be grateful we are helping you rather than naively asking what we are like you don’t trust us. If we were bad people you would have been dead a long time ago.”

Edith was staring at him very intensely and said. “You think I am cute? If you mean cute like your girlfriend who you cheated on with a married woman, I will have to warn you that I will not show you mercy is I catch you anywhere near me!”

The man suddenly started breaking sweat profusely.

‘What just happened? Did Edith just read his mind? Her innate power will definitely be very useful for our survival.’ Alex thought and the next thing he notices is that she was now looking at him and blushing.

“Let’s get out of here before the wave reaches this place.” Alex said and they all carried their gallons back to the car, load them into the back and get in.

Alex started the car and continue their journey.

“Our next stop should be the prison yard, our temporary destination, we will grow stronger there for some time before we leave.” He thought in his mind as he steps on the gas, running over a couple of zombies on the road.