The Origin Warden

chapter 14 : Smith POV : big mouth

“I heard you claim you can make cars run again?”

Smith stared at the frightening bald man who looked like a gangster. He raised his hand and scratched the back of his head nervously.

“Well yes, something like that.”

“Something like that?” The gangster raised the eyebrows he did not have with a frown, apparently dissatisfied with the answer.

“Give me a clearer answer. Can you or not?”

Smith patted the hood of a four wheel drive jeep beside him and said impatiently and nervously,

“Man, you have to understand that Origin Energy only affected technology like electronic chips, while mechanical components are outside the range of its influence...”

The loud banging sound startled him, making him stop speaking with a frightened expression. The gangster lifted his hand from the hood, leaving behind a clear handprint on the metal!.

“Smith!. That’s your name right? Please keep these physics lessons for someone else...”

“Umm actually this isn’t physics...” Smith shut his mouth and swallowed his words when he saw the dark look the man with the skull tattoo on his bare chest was giving him. Even his bald head had a strange tattoo resembling a dog’s head.

He shrank in place and nodded repeatedly.

“Yes. Yes, I can make cars run again.”

“Good, let’s go...”

“Go where?”

The gangster let out a mocking laugh.

“Of course we’re going to get the things you need to make all the cars here work again!”

“What?!!, are you insane?!” He shouted emotionally but quickly realized his current situation and spoke in a low voice while looking around at the group standing there carrying different firearms.

“Uh, I mean guys seriously, do you want to take the only person capable of making cars run again on some damned adventure?”

A man in his early thirties with an ugly scar stretching from his left cheek down to his neck agreed with him. He patted Smith’s shoulder, making him tremble slightly, not from the man’s grip but merely from cowardly reflex.

“Julian. This weirdo is right, it’s better to leave him here.”

Smith nodded his head like a chicken and threw a grateful look at the man who spoke, then at the man called Julian with a look saying listen to your subordinate man!.

Julian cast a sideways glance at the man who spoke and said coldly,

“No. He’s coming with us...”

Then added while beginning to walk away from the group,

“You have 10 minutes to prepare.”

The scarred man patted Smith’s shoulder.

“Well. I tried, but don’t worry even if you come with us nothing bad will happen to you. Every member of the group has already awakened their latent powers in addition to this here...” He pointed at the long firearm hanging from his shoulder.

“I’m definitely going to die,” Smith muttered, feeling like crying over his current miserable situation.

He watched the group leave to prepare, then looked around at the dusty cars that survived the chaos taking place aboveground. Their owners never got the chance to take them out of the garage.

He let out a whining sound and weakly hit his head against the surface of the car hood until his eyes settled on the handprint left on the metal hood.

“I should have stayed in my room. If only the damned food hadn’t run out...”

Smith could not help remembering how he ended up with this suicidal group. When everything started 8 days ago, he had been sleeping deeply because of his night job when he was suddenly awakened by loud knocking on his door and inhuman screams.

And because of his cowardice, something he was proud of, he stayed in his room and refused to go out especially after seeing the horrifying sight from his window of humans devouring each other, and worse were those strange monsters, some of them the size of a damned car.

Unfortunately after 7 days of staying in his room, his food ran out forcing him to go outside in search of food.

Smith could not help putting on an ecstatic smile before wiping it off his face just as quickly as it appeared.

He remembered how the System interface appeared before him when he managed to kill one of the zombies. He truly thought he was the chosen one or the main character until one of damned Julian’s followers appeared like an ominous shadow, and because of his fear of the gangster he hurriedly mentioned that he knew how to make cars run again.

When he arrived at the place where they lived, Smith could only curse his big mouth and immediately regret telling them he could make cars run again.

It turned out Julian and his group had cleared out a large apartment building and turned it into a shelter for people, or rather a small settlement whose leader was Julian.

Smith released a long sad sigh then summoned the System interface, something he had stared at hundreds if not thousands of times. Perhaps he was waiting for some miracle to happen.

Name: [ Smith Mish ]

Level: [10/1]

Rank: [Dormant]

Origin Energy: [10/3]

Attributes: [Physical] [Spiritual]

Points: [0]

He stared at the strange runic letters that somehow he could easily understand, and how?, Smith guessed that the System was translating these letters for him.

He let out a bitter laugh.

“I’m only level 1...”

“According to Eric’s words, a person can awaken their superpower, umm or rather what he called latent powers, when they reach level 10...”

While Smith was lost in his thoughts, Julian returned accompanied by his trusted assistant, his right hand man Eric.

Julian approached with steady steps. He wore dark green armor resembling medieval armor. The armor covered most vital areas while the remaining gaps were made of dark gray cloth.

In his right hand he carried a metal helmet the same color as the armor but with faint black lines in the forehead area. There was only one opening in the helmet, the eye area.

Beside him, Eric, the scarred man, wore brown leather armor. Julian’s presence completely overshadowed his, but Eric had no desire to stand out.

He raised his hand and said in a loud voice,

“Alright boys, gather up. It’s time to go.”

Julian placed the helmet on the car’s surface and stared with his gray eyes and a faint smile at the fat young man before him.