Chapter 7: Desert

The car moves faster than the usual cars that Ryo saw in his shelter. He is surprised by the speed of the car but is also interested in the all-around makeup and design of the car.

In regards to sound, both Ryo and the man in black were silent with nothing more than the sound of the car engine and the sound of the friction between the car wheels to the ground constituting noise. 

After ten minutes of riding in the trunk of the car, they had now come out of the forest and reached the desert. It took some time but the mysterious man finally said something.

"My name is Kurayami Katakuri a member of Black Steel Shelter's Grateful Undead corps and leader of squad 13. State your name and affiliation." The man said without hesitation or any sign of stooping.

"I'm Ryo Ezra from Green Dew Shelter" Ryo replied without hesitation.

"Umm, mister Kurayami may I know where you are taking me" Ryo said with a sense of humility in his voice while a drop of sweat dripped down his cheeks and as he gave a fake smile.

"We are going to Black Steel Shelter" Kurayami replied.

"And where exactly is that?" asked Ryo

"You'll find out soon enough" replied Kurayami.

Kurayami stopped talking and instead directed his attention to Anya who was driving.

"Yo Anya. How much longer till we get there."

"I'm so bored I could just run instead" said Kurayami.

But just like the first time he talked to her, she remained silent and simply raised her left hand off the wheel and mimed the middle finger towards Kurayami. And just like before Kurayami became silent.

"Yo kid. Tell me how you got your powers, what your powers are, and why your shelter isn't registered in the GUD (Grateful undead) corps database." Kurayami said while pointing at Ryo.

"Firstly I don't know how I got my abilities from. Secondly, I don't feel like telling you what my powers are and thirdly I don't know what the GUD corps is you fucking moron" Ryo said with his face riddled with anger and voice filled with spite.

Without any sign of warning, Ryo received a slap to his left cheek. He tried to talk but was rewarded with another slap. He tried to talk once again but this time didn't receive a slap but a punch that sent him flying out of the car hitting the floor and dislocating his left arm, prompting the driver to stop the car.

"What the fuck was that for" Ryo said harshly.

Ryo was in pain from dislocating his hand but didn't give it much thought. He simply used force and put his hand back in place with a sharp thrust from his other hand.

"Seams like your mouth is quite sharp so let's play a game shall we? We are currently in Drauga territory and it will take us at least an hour to reach Black Steel shelter. The game is simple. You will chase after this car as it drives at full speed and try to get on before the Drauga get you. Luckily there aren't any Drauga here presently so you might be fine right? If you fail to get into the car you would most likely die. Good luck okay."

Kurayami seemed to be vexed by Ryo's last comment and decided to cause some trouble. One could tell this through his face which seemed to reflect the likeness of the god of mystify Loki while emitting joy from tormenting someone. Truly a fascinating face to make.

"tttvroom"

The car made a sound and then started to move once again. But this time it was moving faster than ever with speeds that would make the sports cars of our world look like playthings.

As the car started moving it made way more sounds than it did before which seemed to attract some zombies to the scene.

Out of fear and desperation, Ryo quickly follows the car as fast as he can. The car was fast but not as fast as Ryo's top speed so he quickly caught up to the car and took a huge leap into the air in a direction that would make him land directly on the trunk of the car.

When Ryo was about to land, Kurayami got up from the trunk in a way that one could only describe as trilling. He then looked Ryo in the eye as he was falling from the sky. When Ryo was finally about to land, Kurayami simply flicked his wrist which sent a gust of air rushing towards Ryo making him fall onto the ground. At this point, Ryo had now realized why Kurayami was laughing the way he did. It wasn't because he thought that Ryo couldn't make it back to the truck but because he wouldn't let him get on it easily.

This sent Ryo into a fit of both rage and excitement. The excitement of the idea of him winning this challenge was simply intoxicating.

Ryo quickly got up and began to run again. This time he ran even faster than before and overtook the car once more.

He then stopped and waited for the car he was now ahead of to reach him while he took a tackling stance.

Till now Ryo was curious as to just how much force his body could take and it was a good opportunity to find out.

"Run him over Anya" Kurayami said with a hit of excitement in his voice

The car came at him with no intention to stop. Any normal person would have gotten out of the way but Ryo didn't. He stood there with the intention of taking the hit.

Kurayami smiled and acknowledged Ryo's will.

"Let's see just how much of a hit you can take" said Kurayami.

Kurayami extended his hand and touched the ground sieving through sand. His eyes gave out a faint glow of purple and instantly the sand started to change from solid to liquid making waves around the tires of the car. The waves settled and turned solid again and just like that Kurayami made a road that was as shiny as glass.

The friction of the car to the sand was almost nonexistent at this point and the speed of the car doubled.

Kurayami then touched the car and gave it a more streamlined body.

With an almost frictionless road and a streamlined body, the car became faster and faster until the car and Ryo finally collided 

"BOOM"

The strength from the car and the defense from Ryo make an explosion of sand clouding the area. In a flash, Ryo was sent flying and the car kept moving.

It seems that Ryo was strong but not strong enough for this challenge.

Ryo was sent flying quite far away. He landed on the ground with quite a big boom.

"Tch, seems like I wasn't strong enough" he says while rubbing his bumped head as he sits on the floor.

When the dust settled, Ryo was met with quite the scare.

Standing around him were 3 zombies ready to pounce and a whole hoard of them right behind him.

"Once again, I'm fucked" he says while laughing with a stone-like expression on his face.

To be continued