Reborn as the Zombie King

Chapter 9: The Attack

There was no getting around it Chase had gotten handsome. Genuinely, distractingly handsome, to the point that "zombie" barely applied to him anymore at first glance.

Chloe and Lulu were both staring at him with the exact same slightly baffled expression, like the awkward guy next door had somehow transformed into a magazine cover overnight.

"What, you're both speechless now?" Chase raised an eyebrow. "I look basically the same as before. Just... sharper, I guess."

Every guy carries a small, stubborn confidence about his own face, and Chase was no exception though in his case, it happened to be justified. He wasn't just stronger now; the soft, rounded features he'd carried through years of hunching over a keyboard had resolved into something leaner. Cleaner lines. Actual jaw definition.

"You sound... different too," Chloe said, then caught herself before finishing the thought out loud and it's a good different because his voice had gone from ruined rasp to something low and rough in a way that was, unfairly, working for him.

Chase nodded, already moving on to the next thing on his mind. The theory from earlier hadn't let go of him.

"Chloe I want to test something about your ability. Lulu, go out to the yard and fire the smallest, weakest light arrow you can manage. Bare minimum effort."

Lulu looked confused but complied, raising her hand halfway, expecting basically nothing under normal circumstances, that little effort would barely produce a flicker, let alone a usable shot.

Instead, the arrow tore out of her palm like a laser cannon, streaking clean across the yard.

Chase's mind flashed back to the shot that had put a fist-sized hole through Derek's chest.

"Is that... because of you, Chloe?"

"Wait I have a power? My power is making arrows... thicker?" Chloe blinked at him, thoroughly unhelpful.

Chase sighed and walked out into the yard himself. "I'm going to use the absolute minimum energy I can on my fire ability. Watch."

He raised one finger. A column of flame roared up into the night sky, hot enough that both women felt the heat wave from several feet back.

"I think your power is amplification," Chase said slowly. "You boost other people's abilities. Significantly."

Chloe's hand flew to her mouth. I'm not... useless?

"Try actively cutting us off. Stop supporting either of us, on purpose."

Chloe concentrated, imagining pulling something back rather than pushing it out.

The flame at Chase's fingertip shrank down to a lighter-sized flicker.

Lulu tried her light arrow again under the same conditions this time it came out thin and weak, more embroidery needle than laser.

Chase watched the fire in his hand pulse smaller and larger as Chloe's focus shifted. So that's why she thought she had nothing. Her power doesn't do anything on its own it only exists in relation to someone else's.

He frowned, turning over a new possibility.

He pulled harder on his own ability, letting the flame grow larger, more aggressive.

"Chloe now try to shrink it. Actively."

She reasoned it through out loud: if the flame was shrinking, that probably meant she wasn't pushing energy out anymore she was pulling it in.

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she worked to reverse the direction entirely.

The flame in Chase's hand began, slowly, to shrink.

Chase crossed the yard in two strides and grabbed her by both shoulders, something close to excitement breaking through his usual flat calm.

"Your power isn't just amplification. It's regulation. You can control the output of someone else's ability directly turn it up, turn it down, whatever you want."

"Chloe, that's incredible," Lulu breathed. "Do you get how strong that actually is?"

Chloe burst into tears, the relief hitting her all at once. "I'm not useless. I can actually help. I can help both of you."

Chase understood exactly how dangerous that kind of power could be in the right hands. Controlled properly, a golden core like hers could shift the outcome of an entire fight without ever landing a hit herself.

"You and Lulu are running the same tier of power, by the way. I can read power levels now comes with whatever I leveled into tonight."

Lulu's eyes went wide. "Wait, seriously? My power's on the same level as hers?"

His own light arrows were solid for ranged work, sure, but next to what Chloe could do universally useful, adaptable to anyone standing near her, capable of shutting down an enemy's ability outright with minimal effort they didn't really compare.

"Keep testing it," Chase told her. "You're both operating at the same base level. There's probably more your ability can do that you just haven't found yet."

Lulu nodded, buzzing with the kind of excitement that came from realizing you'd been underestimating yourself.

"It's time," Chase said, and something in his face went cold and still.

He was certain now completely, finally certain that he had everything he needed to make Vanessa's family suffer exactly the way he'd promised himself they would. He'd waited so long for this exact moment.

"I'll come with you," Chloe said immediately. "I can support you from a distance."

"Me too let me test what else the light arrow can do out there! I want to help!"

Chase shook his head. This part he wanted to do alone. He didn't want either of them watching what he was about to become for the next hour.

"I've got this one myself."

Chloe studied his face, recognized there was no talking him out of it, and simply said, "Be careful."

Chase walked out and headed for the estate.

Every step carried the weight of everything he'd swallowed down since the night they threw him over that wall. He pictured their faces Vanessa's, Liam's, her parents' and felt something old and furious rise up in his chest all over again.

As he walked, he gathered every infected within reach, funneling them silently toward the estate, positioning them in a loose ring around the walls.

Inside, Vanessa's nerves had been fraying for the last few minutes.

"Liam, does it sound like there are more zombies out there than usual? Listen do you hear that?"

Normally the infected stayed quiet through the day, shuffling around aimlessly, barely audible. Tonight there was a low, steady moan coming from every direction at once.

Liam frowned, clearly noticing it too, though he covered fast. "That's not possible. There's never been a big population around here. Even if a few wander close, don't worry I'll handle it."

"You're the best, Liam." Vanessa leaned into him, practically glowing. "Honestly, choosing you over that pathetic loser Chase is the smartest decision I've made this whole apocalypse."