Chapter 3: The HiveMinded

After watching a good few action movies Kline has a rough idea about how guns work. He checked the side of the gun and pressed the button above the ammo cartridge, the cartridge easily slid down, 9 bullets. Click! a satisfying sound resounded through the gun as the cartridge slid back into place. Kline looked at the side of the gun to look for the thumb safety lever, there was none. The 92 was made without a safety lever and had to be redesigned as the 92S to meet safety regulations, of course, Kline would never know that. He took a deep breath, "Damn it, why do I have to play the hero" he whispered to himself. Kline's hands didn't stop shaking as he grasped the handle of the gun with more force. 'Damn It! Damn It! ok... there are 6 of them while I have 9 bullets, I can only afford to miss 3 times. They all have guns but only 1 of them is actually holding a gun.' Kline continued to hesitate for another second then ran in on his next deep breath *inhale* BANG! He managed to land a shot on the one holding the gun. His shot landed in the shoulder. Kline made the mistake of hesitating which caused him to not hit his target. The 'man' quickly reached down to grab his gun, but another BANG! quickly followed, the 'man' laid on the floor dead.

A red particle flew into Kline.

[Adult Male Killed]

[82%]

A large amount of Exp filled his bar.

"The hell, Kid?"

The 'man' that was on the woman stopped and faced Kline, it seems he hadn't done anything to the woman yet, you could count her as lucky. The man had a cliche scar running over his eye and muscles that throbbed whenever he moved.

The woman's eyes had a new found vigour "HELP US, PLEASE!"

'Please, God! maybe he can help us' She needed something to believe in.

"Listen, kid...You seem a bit too 'innocent' to be holding a gun, how about, you put that down and ill let you have a go with this girl, hell you can even go first. Since you are putting your neck out to save her, she a crush or something?"

Kline continued to stare at the 'man' his hands no longer shaking. It wasn't that he was now okay with killing humans, no it wasn't that. In fact, he still feared to become a murderer...

"I take it she isn't then, here she's all yo..." BANG! A hole appeared directly in the centre of his forehead.

Right now, he wasn't killing humans. The 'mans' body flopped to the ground. 4 left. BANG! BANG! BANG! 2 left, Kline missed one of his bullets, both remaining 'men' jumped towards their weapons to compensate Kline quickly followed through with another. BANG! 1 left. Unfortunately, he had already grabbed his gun, which he now aimed at Kline. The man who had been originally pinned down kicked the one holding the gun using the leg that hadn't been shot, because of it the bullet missed Kline. Without missing a beat, he followed through with a final shot. The last man fell to the ground. Kline's knees finally caved in, it felt like a large overbearing pressure had been released from upon his shoulders.

[All Basic Abilities Improved]

[All Basic Abilities Improved]

[21%]

His body shook and trembled greatly, strength and pain once again filled his muscles, but instead of just being his arm, this time it coursed through his entire body. Although it wasn't as painful as last time, it was much more manageable.

"Hey, you okay?"

The woman asked Kline, now that he got a better look at her, she was attractive and young. She had Velvet coloured hair and matching eye colour.

"Im...okay...check on your boyfriend there"

the woman slightly blushed but it was expected because of the misunderstanding.

"H-he isn't my boyfriend, and you're right" As if she just realised, she ran over to the man

She checked up on him and then lent him a shoulder as they both hobbled over to me.

"I think it's best we save the introductions for next time given the circumstances," Said the man, he too was handsome and had a smart and elegant aura about him.

"We heard about the building of a dome, a protective place of sorts a few days ago on the news. We thought it would have been for an impending war and not this" The man said as they began to move in the direction of the dome. Kline's body was no longer in pain and felt invigorated, he could barely run as 1 step sent him further than he assumed. After a while of running, Kline became used to it. Although he wasn't tired or out of breath, The other two were.

"Damn *huff* you an athlete?"

"No, no haven't you guys evolved yet?"

"Evolve? no, we hav...MOVE!!!"

Kline became confused at the sudden shout, his body once again felt heavy and he felt a tingling sensation from his right. The world had become slower, he turned to face where the sensation was coming from. It was an ape. It was directly near his face with only a hair's breadth distance. Panicking at the sudden appearance he sent an elbow into the chin of the ape out of reflex. Weak. The resistance felt unnaturally weak. The ape flew back fast and hard and eventually landed on the ground, well most of it at least. The head landed a bit further away.

"WOW, that was amazing."

"Jeez, is this a result of the 'evolution you were talking about? I had seen those apes before, they had the ability to dodge bullets. How is it you are able to compete with that?"

"That's true, and so how do you evolve?"

'It was too easy' This ape was much slower than the last. 'Have I gotten stronger? No that shouldn't be the case I should then at least be as strong as the ape. This ape also looks ...smaller?'

Kline looked down at his arm.

[HiveMind Grunt]

'HiveMind?'

Kline then looked up and saw hundred's if not thousands of eyes blink at him. It was still late at night so he hadn't noticed them before.

'Holy...Hell'

"Listen, both of you...move backwards and then run"

"What, why?" The woman asked, the man, however, just nodded.

Kline took 3 steps backwards and then shifted into a sprint.

He ran ALOT faster than he himself expected.

He turned to see if they were keeping up or not. Of course, they weren't. The man's leg was still injured causing him to fall and drag the woman down with him.

The woman froze in fear and panic, the man pulled out the handgun he had taken from people that had shot him. The woman turned to face Kline, tears now falling down her eyes, she shouted

"DON'T LEAVE US"

He could leave them, they'd slow the apes down and give him enough time to escape. He could outrun the apes anyway. The smart choice would be to leave.

"DAMN IT FINE, JUST RUN AWAY" The man shouted.

An ape had finally caught up with the man and woman on the ground. Its nails about to sink into the flesh of the man, since he was holding a gun the apes decided he needed to die first. The man aimed the gun at the ape but he knew it was too late, he wouldn't be able to shoot in time. He closed his eyes and felt the nails grip into his neck.

The man finally laid to rest as death took him.

The woman screamed.

At least he thought he should have died. He opened his eyes to see that the nails he felt were from the woman gripping onto him. Something soft and warm embraced his arm. Although his arm was in comfort his neck wasn't as lucky. "my neck, it hurts...nails...sharp"

The man barely managed to say.

"Cleo...You're alive *sniff*" The woman was crying and seemed scared so Cleo returned the hug.

"It's okay Kristy...I'm still alive"

He suddenly remembered...why was he still alive? He finally looked up and saw the muscular man they were running with and who should have left, gripping onto the head of the ape, he was wearing a black t-shirt and camo jeans. His black hair fluttered in the wind. He wasn't handsome but right now, he looked unbelievably manly.

The man smashed the head of the ape into the ground, causing a small fissure to form underneath the now, unmoving ape.

"How touching, but you better get up and help before I really do leave you"

Yes, the smart choice would have been to leave but...

"Thank you," Cleo said.

Kline was an idiot.