Chapter 95

- Narrator -

"Xenon, are you there?" Xenon was interrupted by the buzzing of the walkie-talkie on his belt.

"Yes. Where are you?" He answered eagerly, having finally seen a way out of this situation.

"We're about thirty minutes away from where we crashed. I brought the cavalry with me."

"Good. The others have already grown impatient. They've started luring the walkers away from the spot, which means they'll be here soon. We'll do our best to delay them."

"Roger that." As soon as Shane finished, he spoke to the cars nearby through the talkie to go ahead to help them. Not all the vehicles they brought were fast, especially when comparing old trucks to the more modern SUV models.

"Change of plans, We'll do our best to harass them before the others arrive. Keep your distance, you don't have to hit them, just pretend to try and keep taking cover." Xenon instructed them on how they would deal with this situation, before he separated the group in two, each going on a side of the road to force them into a tough spot. It's not easy to fight with guns when you have nowhere to take cover. "Oh, and let's return the favor. Aim at the tires and gas tanks when you can. They're not getting out of here alive."

They unanimously agreed with him, each holding a grudge over the endless minutes of walking they had to endure because of them. Xenon was stationed a bit further away, fully intent on making use of his scope and the range of his DMR. The others did the same, except those who felt particularly brave, or who were rather confident in their skills with guns, namely Daryl, Richard, and John.

"Are you alright?" Xenon asked Amy who was stationed next to him, doing her best to look sharp but failing miserably to do so.

"Yeah." She nodded wearily. "I'm just tired like everybody else, nothing a few days of sleep won't fix, don't worry."

"Sorry about that." Xenon offered.

"Don't be." Amy shook her head. "I knew what I was getting into, and I don't regret it. I won't be knitting by the fire while the men fight for me."

"If you say so, Lyanna." Xenon chuckled, shaking his head at the reference he easily recognized.

"Lyanna?" Amy looked at him suspiciously. "Who's that? Is she your ex?"

"Yea- Wait, what?" Xenon looked at her with wide eyes, not expecting this turn of events.

"Unbelievable..." Amy looked at him incredulously. "To think you'd call me by your ex's name... And here I thought I was your first girlfriend... I'm wounded..." Xenon looked at her with narrowed eyes, while Amy's facade of disappointment was slowly crumbling under his scrutinizing gaze before she started giggling at him, her eyes tearing up slightly.

"Sorry, sorry... I'm joking. I know who Lyanna is." Xenon sighed then smiled. He was a bit glad she was laughing, even if it was at his expense, knowing it was her way to let go of the stress she'd been building up for a while. Though if he was honest with himself, he hoped they'd find a better way to de-stress.

A comfortable silence settled between them, as they waited for the enemy to arrive. Amy seemed to be in deep thought, her mind drifting out of this world as he had a dreamy expression on her face.

"Say, Zen, what do you want to do after all of this?" Amy suddenly asked, startling him. He looked at her for a bit, before pondering seriously upon her question. Indeed, what did he want to do after this? Frankly, he didn't know. His whole plans circled around surviving in this world, but that was out of necessity, more than anything else. Zombies were certainly exciting at first, it was one of the many scenarios he dreamed about before like many other people. But he already lost that excitement. They weren't even challenging anymore. Fighting people undoubtedly was. But it wasn't what he truly wanted...

What excited him the most was magic. The possibility, the thought, the potential... Everything about that word gave him a mind-erection, yet the closest he's come to real magic was his body enhancement technique: [Empower]. But any advantage such skill would've given him was significantly reduced because of the nature of the fights that usually took place... Gunfights. Physical prowess was almost irrelevant when a single unavoidable bullet impacted him...

Yet he never gave up hope. He constantly thought of ways to increase his magical prowess, but it all boiled down to the same answer: he needed the right environment. If the system wasn't going to give him the first push in the right direction as it did with [Empower], he had no way to acquire magic, as it wasn't something he could truly interact with. But what if he "could" interact with it? He had no doubt he would eventually figure it out given the right circumstances. But how was he supposed to interact with magic, when it is a concept that has never existed in this world, to begin with? 'Change the world setting.' is the ultimate answer.

He needed to figure out how to get to the next one. The system clearly said, in its moment of sentience, that going to other worlds was not far-fetched. There are clearly some conditions to be met before he could move on. But for the life of him, he could not figure out what they are. He was already at a level where this world was hardly a challenge, and with all the preparations his group has made, it would only grow easier with time.

"I don't know." He admitted. He knew he couldn't tell her about his special background, special abilities. That would be dumb beyond belief. It's not that he didn't trust her (although it was a major reason because he truly could not trust her with a secret that big), it's more along the line of it being counterproductive. He had nothing to gain from sharing his deepest secret, and everything to lose. "I'm still only thinking about surviving for now. I haven't thought that far ahead in the future. I can't afford to make plans when I don't know if I'll survive to see the next day." Amy didn't know how to answer that.

"Wow... that was morbid." She finally remarked. "Are you supposed to encourage your subordinates, inspire confidence and all that." She giggled.

"Perhaps." He said thoughtfully, before looking into her deep blue eyes. "But I don't think I need to wear a mask in front of my girlfriend. We're supposed to be honest with each other, yeah?" A look of surprise graced her face, before she smiled warmly at him, nodding in agreement. "I'd kiss you if it wasn't for our delicate situation." She said jokingly.

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of time for that later." He smiled in amusement, but it all disappeared when he noticed the sound of a car engine slowly getting louder and louder. "They're here."