D-Day (2)

It didn't take long before everyone ate their fill and sat back at the chair, relaxed. Looking over the clock and noticing it was already past two, Nikolas realized that it was time to get down to business.

"Here we are… a few hours before the start of the apocalypse..." Nikolas broke the silence bluntly, drawing their attention. His voice sounded a little rough, emotionless. But he didn't fail to send waves of emotion through those around the table. "There's no easy or pleasant way to talk about this, and I know you still have questions about whether it's true or not. Thank you for trusting me so far, but everything will prove true today. We will overcome any and all difficulties this damn apocalypse throws at us together!"

Nikolas looked deeply into the eyes of each of those present and was sure of all his actions so far: That small group, of only four people, were all who had one hundred percent of his trust. Emilia, his mother, had long dark brown hair that matched her kind eyes. At her age, around forty she was slowly becoming apparent with some wrinkles on her forehead. Now, she looked at her son with concern, that look only mothers could pull off.

Reginald, the father, had thick dark square hair and thick eyebrows that were now furrowed. He was always worried, even retired, with the safety of his family and everyone around him. It was a kind of concern ingrained in his being, even relaxing he was always alert, it had become instinctive. Now, after seeing how his son had changed, that instinct was even more present and that was one of the factors that made him train with Master Yuemura.

Erick, young and cheerful, always full of out of time jokes, was now sitting at the table with a serious face. Similar to his father, he had a big nose and a wispy beard. His shoulders were broad for his age, a reflection of years of training in the gym and where his strength came from. He faithfully believed in his older brother and knew that their lives would be at risk in the next few hours.

Last but not least, Nikolas looks into his master's eyes: sharp and deadly as hidden daggers. He could feel that the old man was preparing for battle, he had seen that look thousands of times, like a hawk capturing every detail of its prey. For a moment, Nikolas wondered if he looked the same when he fought. He had never looked in the mirror in such a situation. Anyway, the man had his long white hair tied back in the typical samurai bun and his wrinkles showed he was well into his sixties.

Taking all that into his mind, Nikolas spoke:

"I know I've been telling you about some things in the future, but now I have to get them in order. Certain things will be basic knowledge for everyone in the future, and therefore it's important that you keep them in mind..." He took a deep breath, and continued after everyone nodded in agreement. "The first thing we're going to find tonight are the Spawns: This is how it all begins! At midnight tonight, the first of many..yes of many, will spawn a horde of Zombies. One for every human being on the planet to be exact."

"Tha- that means more than…" Emilia started, but was cut short by her older son.

"Yes, more than seven billion zombies will appear out of nothing all around the globe. The more populated the city, the more zombies will appear, quite obvious actually." Nikolas half joked the second part as he saw the incredulous faces of the group. "For us, this city is a pretty good start, not too big nor too small."

"But… Considering this information, we would have over a million zombies across the entire island! How can that be of any good?" Reginald asked, somewhat annoyed, that number was not small. In fact, he couldn't even imagine how much space all these zombies would take up. This only made him even more concerned about the safety of his family, perhaps he should have forced them to move to a distant farm as he had suggested days ago.

"I'll soon get into that, it is related to how humans can become stronger…" Nikolas tried to lighten the mood as he sensed that his father was becoming overly concerned. "I don't intend to put our family at risk, not without planning, not more than necessary. Anyway, let's get back to the first Spawn. Those Zombies will spawn in an unoccupied place exactly one meter anywhere around each person! That means that a zombie can appear behind or even above you!

As he saw his father frown even more, before they could react, Nikolas gave them one simple solution:

I know it sounds bad, but there is a small way out: leave only one spawn location. It's simple, after dozens of tests in the future, it was discovered that spawns happen mainly in the four main orientations: Front, back, right side and then left. Always in this sequence, if all these places are occupied, only then can it appear above or below. We're not here to discuss why, but this is how we're going to deal with this first wave of zombies: We'll stand side by side, with our backs to the wall. So, we'll just have to wait for zombies to kill it."

"Hm!" Erick nodded. "Kill them with a blow to the head... like in the movies, right?"

"Indeed… and that brings me to our next issue: The System." Nikolas looked at them and noticed they were taking the info pretty well even though fear was apparent in Emilia's pale face. At the same time, his father showed a taciturn expression, his brother was grinning enthusiastically and master Yuemura showed a stoic face. "Some people assumed that it was a god's blessing, others said it was the demon's works but I'm not going to get into that discussion, it makes no difference for us."

Nikolas shook his head, dismissing his own thoughts that were going further ahead into the future and focused once more at the reunion.

"In short, the System is what made it possible for people to survive and grow stronger! It has some game-like mechanics, telling your attributes, levels and abilities. However, it does not come for free: you MUST kill a zombie with a weapon to unlock it and, unfortunately, you can't use a firearm for that! That's why I insisted so much on learning the sword, not only for me, but for you."

Nikolas looked intensely at his father and his brother at that moment. He knew they wanted to become stronger, for different reasons. Nonetheless, that was a hard and long way.

"After that, killing zombies with cold weapons will give us experience points that can be used to level up and develop our skills and strength…" He stopped suddenly after noticing that everyone was looking stunned at him, his brother particularly had his mouth agape. Even master Yuemura couldn't help but to look weirdly at his disciple. "I know it may sound stupid to talk about games in situations like that, but... "

"STUPID!? That sounds awesooome!" Erick exclaimed out loud and held up his hands, fists clenched. "I'm going to be the strongest!"

Surprised by this reaction, the family couldn't help but laugh. This time it wasn't an 'out of time' joke, apparently the boy was serious about it.

With a slight smile, Nikolas felt his heart warm. It was nice to break the tension in the air.

[I missed those laughs!] He thought while determination flashed out in his eyes, determination to become stronger, stronger than he ever was.