Super strength

We dragged the two Deviants to the living room of the house. Then I took out a bag of salt and placed it on the table.

We quietly observed the Deviants. We had decided to do a test and see whether the Deviants turn in to those blood ghosts when they die or not. Only this time we didn't take out the crystals form inside their bodies. If they had ones, I wasn't sure if every Deviant had one in the first place, it was just a bold assumption.

"Ah, some chocolate cookies would be nice right now." Telos said as he gazed into the distance.

I sighed. Young ones these days are not faced by anything. Can he not see the two corpses in front of him and he's still hungry?

Just looking at them my stomach contracts to the size of a bean. This reminded me. I took out a walkie-talkie from one of the pockets on my utility belt.

I pushed the button and said, "Sunlight, everything good there?"

"It's very calm right now, I don't see any zombies around." Sunlight said as she looked around scouting around the house with Archi.

"Okay, keep on the lookout." I said calmly as we continued waiting. We deduced it was around an hour after the person was killed that the Blood Ghost had appeared. Thus, we weren't in much of a rush. I looked around the house, but it seemed like the aged couple were the only ones that lived here.

One hour later, the three of us were having a chat when suddenly we heard bubbling. We jumped up and looked at the two corpses. It truly had started melting as we had predicted. At this point, I felt like a Prophet not gonna lie.

The smoke started coming and it's as if the blood was boiling, collecting towards the middle point of the Deviant again. I had guessed that the centre of it is where the crystal existed.

It started shaping and around 5 seconds later, two blood ghosts took shape. Screams were coming out and faces tried to jump out from their oval gaseous shapes.

"Die scum!" Telos shouted as he spread salt on the ghosts and grabbed his sword bombarding them with slashes.

We took care of them quite easily and got the two crystals. Afterwards, we got any leftover food that they had in their house. It would be a shame to waste it. Better to have more than less.

We got out of our neighbours' house and saw Sunlight and Archi looking around.

When they saw us, their faces lightened up straight away. I had guessed that they were happy to see us being good and healthy. We were able to get through without injuries.

We weren't simple people after all. To be honest, when I think about the fact that none of us turned in to deviants I can't help but think that our bloodline was indeed special. Our features were quite prominent and as I remember everyone from my direct bloodline were born with similar features. I remember once when I was young I had looked at the family photo and it creeped me out. Every direct descendant had exact same black hair and green eyes. They were extremely handsome as well. It might be a freakish coincidence but still.

Everyone who married into our bloodline, even if one was a woman or a man our features would always be the dominant ones for the kids.

I wondered how my cousin was doing. In truth, I was quite worried about him. Valentine wasn't just a cousin to me, he was a brother.

Anyway, Jason waved at Sunlight and Archi with a smile on his face while I calmly walked back. We went back to our house as it was time to test what kind of power Jason and Telos would obtain. I wanted to test my strength against theirs. This old man wanted to see how he'd do against the youngsters.

We were sitting on the sofas in the living room as we observed Telos who was about to eat one.

The crystal entered his mouth and we saw disgust and then delight on his face. Suddenly the ground trembled a little bit and then it was over.

Weird

"I feel so good!" Telos shouted as he punched the air a few times.

"What's your power?" Archi asked excitedly.

Telos felt around his body, but he had no idea.

"It must be the control of Earth." I said lightly.

"Earth? Old man, how did you deduce that?" Jason asked curiously.

I put on a cheeky smile, clearly, you haven't lived as long as me, "When Archi ate the crystal she was spreading electricity, but when Telos ate one, the ground trembled. Isn't it common logic?"

Hm, Why are they laughing? Well, whatever.

"Let me try." Telos said when he stopped laughing. He got a flower pot and took out some soil from inside of the vase. He held the soil in his palm as he concentrated on lifting it up in the air.

Everyone was so concentrated they didn't even blink for a long time as their eyes were getting red.

Telos hand started trembling a little bit and finally, a tiny bit of soil got lifted up in the air.

All of us were obviously more than happy to see that.

Then an idea sprung into my mind, what if it was actually telekinesis?

5 minutes later.

Nope, it was earth bending of some kind. He still needed a lot of practice because it was still quite useless.

"Okay, let's have a push-up competition now!" This old man's bones were itching.

"Grampa you better be careful, don't strain yourself." Telos said with a cheeky smile.

I grumped, "Grampa will show you that these old bones still have strength in them."

I got on the ground, ready to do push-ups.

Telos competitive spirit also got ignited as he got on the ground.

"These two…" Sunlight sighed and shook her head with a smile.

"Okay start counting!" I said and started doing push-ups. Push-ups were essential not just for punching strength but for swinging the sword as well. Thus it could determine which one of us was currently stronger. Of course, this would take all day if we were just doing them simply. Thus we were competing in the number of push-ups we could do in one minute.

Our hands shot out and bent like pistons, not just the power but the speed was also incredible.

"55, 56, 57, 58…" Sunlight and Jason tried to shout them out at the start but afterwards, they just started counting in their mind as they looked at the watch.

"Stop!" Jason shouted and we jumped off the ground still full of energy. It was merely a warm-up to us at this point.

Incredible.

I never felt so strong and never thought it was humanly possible to do so many. I was almost jumping off the ground with every pushup.

"Well?" Telos shot up from the ground also excited as he looked at Sunlight and Jason.

The two of them just stared at us shocked.

"Telos did 102." Jason said quietly.

"Father did 120." Sunlight mumbled as well.

"Ha!" I laughed out, I wanted to shout, 'suck it', but I had to act my age.

I patted Jason's shoulder, "It's alright I am sure one day, you the younger generation will surpass me"

Sunlight stared at my devilish smile and understood that I'd never give up. She still didn't know she could get younger from the crystals. If she knew she would beg me to go hunt for them right at this moment.

Now I was completely sure that my power was strength or body advancement or something like that. With my current age and physical activity, it would be impossible to do this. Not to mention Telos was a professional Kendo Fighter as well as MMA amateur, he would definitely be able to do more push-ups.

My physical ability got greater and my mind felt a lot clearer as well, it was like I was 20 years younger. The effect of Apocalypse and the red crystals were quite extraordinary. I just hoped that there were no side effects.

I looked at Jason as now it was his turn. I threw a crystal to him and he popped it into his mouth, it was like he was taking the red pill.

Suddenly the lights got dimmer and started blinking. A lot of stuff around the house started shaking. Right then the flower pot on the table started hovering in the air.

"Dad got telekinesis!" Archi shouted excited.

After the vase hovered in the air for 5 seconds it dropped and Jason opened his eyes.

I looked at my stepson excited. A truly extraordinary family I've got…

"Good, very good. I am proud of all of you." I said happily.

"There is still an important thing I need to tell you. These crystals also rejuvenates you. I am pretty sure you can get back to your prime with these. Although further testing is needed." I said calmly and observed their faces. Jason's and Sunlight faces gleamed. They were already 36 so they were long past their prime in physical abilities. Although they did maintain them pretty well.

"Really? Okay, let's go save some neighbours!" Sunlight said proudly like she wanted to become a hero.

"Wow, mom you have no shame…" Telos sighed when he heard his mom say that.

Everyone laughed while I smiled cheekily. I knew this was going to happen.

Just then I heard something. Something wasn't right. I rushed to the window just to see a horde of Deviants sprinting. In front of them was a man running away from the horde. It seemed like the horde was chasing after him. Actually, it was quite incredible to be able to run from them.

Unfortunately, the poor guy was dead for sure.

I was furious that he brought this horde of Deviants here. When he dies all these Deviants are going to start patrolling around. It might even be impossible to get out for a while.

"How unlucky!" I couldn't help but start swearing.

"What are we going to do now?" Sunlight stared at the man outside the window who just tripped over. He was dead meat. Within seconds his body got torn apart.

"We'll have to stay inside and observe their actions." I said as I looked at the Deviants with my eyes burning. I couldn't believe my bad luck.

Afterwards, we observed the zombies the whole evening and saw no clear movements. The only clear thing was that these Deviants do sleep and do patrol. They don't seem to stay in one place all the time.

…

The next morning I woke up to look outside and saw that the Deviants had dispersed more or less. Maybe while I was sleeping they chased after someone else. I went on to the roof to observe more clearly and saw the whole neighbourhood swarming with them.

At the very least it was better than just having them all in one group. It would be impossible to kill them otherwise. Now it would be possible to maybe attract them one by one and kill them.

As I looked around I noticed in the sky some black dots were moving. Then I started hearing the sound of rattling. 6 Helicopters were flying in the distance. They seemed to be united army helicopters.

They had probably dealt with the situation at their place and took rest and are now moving out.

In truth, I was still surprised that Electricity and water were still working. Although I don't believe that it will last for long. Depends on how well the army will manage it.

They flew off in the distance, who knows where they were flying. I just hoped they will get internet back on somehow. This would make communication between people better and people would be able to help each other.

I looked into the distance and released an arrow that hit the house furthest away from mine. This sound attracted the Deviants towards that place as they started looking for the bolt crazily.

Time to hunt.