The Dead Frontier (2)

As Glen untied the unfamiliar boy, he was feeling elated.

Some might say it was bad manners to enjoy someone else's misfortune but he couldn't help the way he was feeling. It had been months since he last saw a still breathing human being to talk with.

"Watch your ba-" as the boy was about to warn him Glen took out his Navy Revolver from his holster, shot the attacker right between his brows and then put his gun back to its holster in one swift motion.

It was so fast that the boy didn't even get to finish his warning. The boy thought he might have encountered a god in human skin. Glen's drawing speed didn't look humanely possible.

What he didn't know was that, according to Glen this speed was still on the slower side of the spectrum.

The world record for fasted gun drawing speed was 0.208 and it belonged to a guy named Ernie Hill.

Glen on the other hand took somewhere between 0.7 and 1.1 seconds. On days he felt good he could go as fast as 0.4 seconds but that was his limit.

The fact that Glen was in his late twenties didn't help either. His body was deteriorating. For people living in peaceful and modern times late twenties might seem still young but for someone living in wild west he was basically an old fossil.

For a person being treated with modern medicine their bodies might stay in top shape till they are in their thirties but for Glen who lived his lived on horseback it was impossible to stay at top shape. Not to mention the fact that he didn't have access to modern medicine, so some simple illnesses like common cold was enough to leave sequela in his lungs.

The ancients were right. You only knew something's importance when you lost them. Still if he was asked what he missed most about modern civilization he would answer flush toilets without hesitation.

He tried building one himself when he was younger but he only managed to get the seat right. As for the plumbing system it was impossible to make for someone like him.

It truly was uncomfortable to do his business in the wild. There was one time he was almost bitten by an adder while picking flowers.

Not to mention the time he used dead nettle as toilet paper. Now that was effing torture. He almost considered suicide just to get rid of the pain. And that should be saying something considering he was still surviving well in a zombie apocalypse.

So yes! You don't really understand the value of the things you have until you have already lost them.

At this point the sun was almost set and Glen started to hurry. Darkness was more advantageous for the zombies.

Of course, it wasn't just because it was harder to see at night otherwise it wouldn't make for a good plot point... right, his life wasn't a book. They were right in saying that loneliness makes you go crazy.

Back to the topic, thanks to invention of 'light bulb' mankind has conquered the darkness. Yes, prior to light bulbs there were still torches and gas lamps but neither of them were as effective and as efficient as the light bulb.

Unfortunately in his current world light bulb wasn't invented yet. Well he was not even sure if it would ever be invented but that's beside the point for now.

The point was his current world was going through Wild F*cking West! Cool right!? There are natives, bandits, rangers, sheriff and the whole package! So there were no light bulbs in the Wild West... as far as he remembered.

Well, he was not exactly sure if this time period could be called Wild West or Frontier in the first place. After all the continent he was standing upon was not named America, it was called Albrecht. There were also more obvious giveaways.

*Bang*

Like those zombies.

Anyway the name of the continent -Albrecht- should be enough exposition for now. The rest will be revealed as long as the plot calls for it.

After untying the boy Glen immediately dragged with him to escape. It was so dark that he could barely see his own hands.

Right, the darkness. The reason zombies become more dangerous and no it wasn't because of the poor visibility. If it was as such Glen had experience with night raids so he could still hold on but the problem was in a more fundamental level. And in order to understand it we need to talk a little about the zombies. Now buckle up kids and get ready for a zombie biology lesson.

Now, in his last life Glen was definitely not an expert biologist. Heck he wasn't even an amateur biologist so all the things he will mention will be from direct experience rather than dissecting zombies.

Number one; Zombies die when you shoot them in their brain. A no-brainer right? Get it brains! Hue hue hue hue hue. Anyway ,*ahem*, here is the important part. They can also be killed if you shoot them through their heart.

Glen still didn't figure out the reason for that yet but this was against your common zombie apocalypse sense so he was sure that there was a correlation or a hidden meaning behind there.

Maybe the virus, fungus, parasite or whatever the heck that infected the people also had something to do with their hearts. Unfortunately he didn't have access to modern equipment so he wouldn't be research any deeper than this... who is he kidding? Even if he had those equipments he would understand jacksh*t about the cause.

Number two; aside from their hearts zombies do not have any other organs in their body... maybe that's why they can only be killed that way?

As for what happened to those organs there was a high chance that they rotted away or they might have even be eaten by those weird maggots that appear on their bodies.

Number three; the older a zombie is the weaker it is. From what he has seen till now zombies were in a constant state of decay so the older a zombie was the weaker he was. That makes places overrun by zombies a long time ago prime location for looting... at least it was supposed to which brings us to the next lesson.

Number four; the zombies gain inhuman strength and speed during the night. Yes you read or rather heard it right! These were not your average shambling zombies. I mean sure, during the day they were exactly that but during the night they become an almost different monster entirely with super speed and strength.

In this aspect they were similar to zombies from Will Smith's movie "I am Legend". In that movie zombies couldn't come under sunlight or they would burn due to skin sensitivity or something.

However Glen's zombies unlike Will's do not burn during the day, instead they get a buff during the night.

It was also a curious phenomenon that the older a zombie was the stronger they get during the night which creates a weird situation.

Zombies who rotted so much that even a kid could kill them become so strong that it was hard to imagine they were the same breed.

Of course, during the night the younger zombies also get a buff but not as much as the older ones. Basically the strength of the buff they get from the night depends on how long they have been infected for which also correlates to how much their body has rotten.

Sigh, the worst part is because his timeframe was similar to Wild West he couldn't even expect or rather hope for a cure to be developed. Maybe he should really consider just passing away to the next world.

No, even though there is a zombie apocalypse this is actually a good time frame to learn how to wield guns. According to Zerem he would reincarnate into similar worlds to his origin dimension so he would have access to guns in most of them just like now!

As Glen was lost in his thoughts the duo finally arrived at Glen's secret hideout and settled down.