4 Direction

We were now outside. Problem was, we didn't know where to go. GPS map on our phones didn't work.

"We need a map." I said

Going downwards to the end of the street we arrived at the crossroad. It was going left and right. Hundreds of monsters were on the left, while on the right around 3 dozen and a bookstore. Luck was on our side.

Going on the sidewalk where the bookstore was we encountered only a few of them. I checked the door. It was locked, which meant that there were people inside. Currently were working hours. After a few knocks, someone came. Good thing I didn't need to use my ability to get inside.

Guy that came seemed to be in his fifties. I could see his unwillingness to open the door. Our appearance wasn't that great. Our clothes were dirty and stained with drops of blood, and our white spears were covered in black blood changing its color.

He was thinking. A few seconds passed but fortunately, he opened the door.

"Get in quick."

I went in with Tyler following behind. His name was Mark and he was the owner of the bookstore. In the center, there were few people, most of them scared and looking at us worried.

I told him what we needed, a map. He wasn't sure about giving it to us but second glance helped. We were looking scary and he had many copies of them, he decided there was no reason to risk it.

With the satisfied look I placed country and city map into a backpack, Tyler also demanded to get copies for himself, he looked much scarier than me.

"Where are you going! Outside is dangerous!" One guy asked us just as we were about to leave.

"We need to get out from the center before it gets overcrowded. I would advise you to do the same."

We were already in luck that it wasn't overcrowded. Most zombies had unmovable legs or just couldn't get out from their crashed cars. But considering suddenness and their above-average TV show stats it was expending fast.

"Stupid kids." Said the same guy.

We were again outside. People decided to stay in a currently safe place. Mark didn't want to let us go in the danger. He was a nice guy.

Between here and our home was a 700km long walk. Approximately 150 hours of continues walking, not considering resting time, eating, zombies and obstacles on the road. Driving a vehicle was almost impossible, traffic was worse than ever.

I decided to split our plan into many smaller destinations, Tyler agreed to this. Oil refinement factory was the first one, it's walls will come in handy and was at a doable distance considering the current time of 5 PM. Then we further split this into even smaller destinations, taking a break to replenish stamina and strength.

Our pace was good, we separated three to five of them at the time, of course with me still at the front. However, instead of it being 60-40 for Tyler it was now turned around as I got more confident with my thrusts.

After fifteen minutes we decided to take our first break, we already fought at the hotel and on the road to the bookstore, going for fifteen more minutes was already good.

Most people were hiding in their houses and glanced at us through the windows as we passed by. I tried not to pay attention to them and focus on zombies. I was very surprised at my quick adapting to this whole thing. Guess getting abilities, three days before, and thoughts of my family helped me.

We picked which house we wanted to stay in. The main reason for it being 2m high garden walls. We went around the house looking for an open window since the door was locked. Bingo, the window was open. Our hope of no one being there was answered.

Once inside first thing that caught my eye was a family picture. On it was a couple with two children, a boy, and a girl. The boy looked to be around my age and girl around my younger siblings age of thirteen. All had genuine smiles, not fake ones on most of the photos.

We searched on both floors. What we thought was useful we placed in the center of the living room. The only real thing which we found useful was a baseball bat. Tyler and I, again, had the fight over who would take it. But I used the same tactic as he did on me. I killed more.

We proceeded to the kitchen. In the fridge, there were few cans of tuna which we split fifty-fifty. Same as in the hotel, we cooked raw meat from the fridge to not waste supplies. Seems like we could enjoy the comfort of eating meat some more.

Preparation and eating took around 25 minutes, now ready to keep going. A baseball bat was sticking out of the small opening I left on the backpack. I sharpened my spear onto the foundation wall. A spear was already shorter for 20cm than when Tyler made it. I knew I will need a new weapon soon. Yes, metal baseball bat will come in handy but I preferred something with a sharp end.

"Alright, ready?" I asked Tyler

"Yea."

To be honest I didn't like Tyler that much. But I felt it was better than being alone. We were now again on the grass. There was a group of four blocking the gate.

In it were three Runners, which was rare. Matching my opponent's pace I accelerated forward, using mine and its momentum I made quick work of its brain, my attacks were now faster than its reflexes. Retrieving my spear I stepped back, with two chasing.

Going for the farther one and doing the same as I did with the first. I wouldn't be able to get into the attacking position before a zombie would bite me. It was on purpose. Tyler stabbed it into the head with his halved spear.

Even if it looked like I wasn't worried I was in full alert mode, ready to layer my arm at any given moment. I didn't know if humans turn into them after getting bitten or screeched and I didn't want to test it.

A quick death was awaiting a slow one. Our teamwork was improving.

We kept going and took care of many groups. However, one we fought now was different. Runner, slow one and zombie with wings. The wing was around 30cm. This was the first one we saw that had wings. Runner fell quick, one with wings was also slow. First to an attack, of the two left, was him. I used the same strategy as with all of them.

But it didn't work. It was able to fly in the air. Just a few centimeters of the ground, but it was enough for me to miss its brain, instead spear was in a throat. I was confused at the decision of flying instead of ducking down like others, but I blamed it onto its small intelligence.

I held a zombie from moving with my spear, Tyler finished other slow one and also killed one on the end of my spear.

From all fighting we did, I now had more information. The only way to kill them was destroying their brain, stabbing them in the heart did nothing. They didn't feel pain. Runners, how I decided to call them, were in minority compared to the slow ones. They kept the ability they had as a human, I wasn't certain about this since I didn't know anyone before they turned into one but it was most logical. About 30% of zombies were Runners which accounts for how much there were humans with strengthened legs.

I split slower ones into two groups, those that had higher strength in their arms and others that had currently unusable abilities. The thing that scared me wasn't growth in their powers but growth in their intelligence. Not just that they could use strategies but then Mages, how I decided to call all humans that could feel infinite energy, would come into the play.

For humans, before the second apocalypse there was 1 Mage per 5 people, which was probably even more for zombies since the weakest ones, in the beginning, are Mages. If groups we fought against had long-range attacks, it would look completely different.

***************

[Few hours later]

We didn't count our time good, we were behind the plan. Fighting for 45 minutes and resting for ten was impossible. Many streets were impassable because of the overwhelming number of monsters. And we couldn't hold up to 45 minutes of fighting so it was lowered to 30.

Food and water weren't as big of a problem as we initially thought. Water was still good, so we were able to fill water bottles at every home and if we got lucky we found some food. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything useful.

Electricity was still working, so every time we made a break I would take the phone charger, in that home, and put my phone on it. I called my family once, Mom and my younger twins were at home and unfortunately, Dad still wasn't.

We encountered few people but just passed by them hoping to get to the factory in time. However, that wasn't possible. Instead, we decided to sleep in the house. With garden walls and similar inside as the first one. Tyler and I picked rooms next to one another and slept.

"Yawwnnn" I just woke up, my arms and legs were aching, with most problematic being the shoulders. My battle yesterday was too intense.

I slept without a shirt, as I came to my backpack, to take only clean shirt I had, I noticed something. It was open. Running and dropping on my knees next to the backpack I started to madly search it.

"F*ck!" The only thing in it were my shirt, maps, and one book. Next, to the backpack, there was something that made my anger go to another level. It was a half-broken spear.

"I'm so dumb! F*ck! Why did I trust that guy!" I'm gonna be honest, I already saw him as a teammate, we fought for hours with our lives on the line. But it looks like he was just using me, nothing changed from that first fight in the hotel.

'Why didn't I lock the door. Why am I so dumb. Why!' Fact that there was a key in the door just needed to be turned once annoyed me even more. I started to shake and my eyes became watery. I never felt dumber and played in my life. Shaking and teary eyes were from pure anger.

'Stop. You don't have time for this. Come on, deep breaths. Anger won't help me, crying won't help me and no one else will help me. I can't trust others so easily.' Control over emotions was important. What was done was done. I needed to learn from this.

Yes... I was again at the beginning, I didn't have food, water or anything besides a small knife and half of a plastic spear, but I had something else... New mentality and experience.