Survivor

A lone zombie was banging on a door with its arm and walking into it, the noise created from within only made it grow more excited.

The cries from within only made the zombie keep its interest towards entering the building.

As it hit the door with more force, another cry came from within as the person inside had been overcome with fear.

Another zombie came close by and started to hit the door too after being attracted by the noise.

Two more figures appeared not long after and slowly walked towards the door where the zombies were trying to get through.

Just as the cries from within became louder along with the noise from the door being hit and the zombies groans, a knife entered the back of the skull of one of them.

An axe was swung with the other hand towards the side of the other zombies head.

Brick let go of his knife and then retreated a couple of steps because his attempt to kill them both had failed.

Attempting to pull out the knife would only take away his focus from the battle which he had initiated which would allow the living zombie to have a chance to grab onto him in a close range. "One down."

The zombie which had been stabbed helplessly fell down while leaning against the door while the other turned around.

There was a large wound on the side if its face while one eye had been completely destroyed.

Due to splitting his focus and targeting two zombies at once, Brick's aim was slightly off so he was not able to kill them both in a single attack each.

It walked towards him but he was quick to stretch out his leg to kick it away.

The zombie fell against the door which caused the person inside to cry out again. "Please… go away!"

The axe was swung downwards towards the skull of the disoriented zombie then continued until Brick was certain that it was finished.

One final swing was aimed at the unmoving zombie to make sure that it was really dead.

The sounds of breaking bones followed as the heads were severed from the bodies and thrown into a bag which was hanging on the body of the zombie which accompanied him.

Brick knocked on the door after dragging the two bodies aside. "Hello. How many are inside? Is anyone bitten or are there any zombies in there with you?"

A female voice came from within and answered hurriedly. "Brick.. is that you? There is nobody with me but my roommate went outside and I have not heard from them. How can you be outside with those things? It is like something from a horror movie!"

"They may be a little scary but you will get used to them as you have been exposed to them more. I have a feeling that they will be around for a long time so you need to get over that fear if you want to live." Brick rolled his eyes. 'Indeed.. the first person I encounter is useless. Lets see.. who is it?'

Among the females, there was one person that came to mind and it was one of the new security recruits who started out at the bottom.

She was three years older than Brick, very friendly towards others and had a likeable personality but she was quite naive which would put her in a disadvantageous position in the apocalypse.

According to the memories of Brick, it was not until later that the rescue came and she hid in her home the whole time.

She was unable to overcome her fear until later when they teams started to form to send out a search and rescue party.

On the way, the team encountered a group of survivors which she intended to help but it resulted in her being held at knife point.

The team were put in a difficult situation and had to hand over some of their supplies to keep her alive.

It was not until later that through many hardships she endured after being taken advantage of, she finally died after being surrounded by a horde of zombies while allowing her allies to escape.

Her allies at that time were not that grateful for her sacrifice and Brick had got into an argument with them after he heard them laughing about it. 'What was the name again? Hmm.. did she awaken a power before her death? Why can't I remember clearly?'

There were some memories that were very clear while some were not but they were from Brick who had lived until the end of the early volumes of the novel.

Most of the memories that were very clear were the ones related to Tanya Reed while most others seemed to be like background characters which Brick paid little attention to unless they were close comrades in arms, noteworthy people close by with the same duty or the people he hated. 'This level of obsession towards Tanya goes beyond simply seeing her as a normal benefactor or someone he works for.'

Another zombie was slowly coming closer but Brick was able to hear the approach, he positioned his zombie between himself and the zombie which caused it to be blocked.

The zombie tried to push past and when its head came into view, the axe hit it on the top of the skull and got stuck. "Hrrr."

One attempt to remove it let Brick know to release it before the zombie tried to grab him, the knife that had been removed from the head of the other zombie had been at his waist but upon stepping back, it had been drawn out.

One step forward and a carefully aimed stab allowed the zombie to give up its final struggle as it fell down with the knife sticking into the eye socket. 'Ah.. I remember now. That ability was quite good but it did not help to increase her physical power or provide any kinds of additional firepower. The higher ups did not favour her too much which is why she was not too missed after her death.

To be honest though.. photographic reflexes or mimicry type powers are always useful. They can learn all kinds of techniques just by watching so their growth speed is fast. If they are given enough time to grow and enough experiences then they can become formidable allies.'

There were all kinds of powers which had awakened within the humans in the novel and many of them could be put into certain categories.

Some had a variant type or special type power which was very rare to appear while there were sensory, spiritual, physical or generation and manipulation powers but most special abilities were the healing, self healing, improved intelligence or memorisation, photographic reflexes, force field, lightning and ice but there were still many more which had appeared in the later stages of the novel.

Sensory abilities were related to each of the senses, instincts and reflexes which allowed people to have one enhanced sense like being able to see further than others or perhaps aim more accurately.

Spiritual powers were more like mental powers which allowed the use of telekinesis, communication through telepathy, manipulating the minds of others, taming animals or being able to cause the zombies to be blind to their presence.

Physical powers were a single enhancement to one aspect of the body whether it was strength, endurance, speed, flexibility or stamina.

Although most had a permanent increase to one area, there were those with similar abilities which allowed them to gain a sudden increase in a physical aspect for a certain amount of time.

For example a speed type would either be faster than others when running while another type would remain the same speed unless they activated their ability which allowed them to run faster than the other speed type but the downside was that they were less efficient with energy use.

Generation and manipulation powers were the types which created and allowed certain things to be controlled like fire, water, wood, wind and earth which were very common abilities that appeared on a lot of people.

When each person stepped into a new stage of strength after evolving, their bodies would be strengthened just like the zombies or animals when they evolved so it allowed people to adjust to fighting those within the same stage and so it was not too imbalanced according to the words of the author.

An example would be a speed power going up against a wind power with the same evolved stage, if the wind power used did not have any increase to their physical body then they would be easily defeated before they could summon their wind and it may be the same when they encounter a zombie because they were not able to avoid an attack from it with their weak body.

Especially in the early stages where the creation and manipulation type powers were weaker and covered less range, they would struggle to survive unless they were part of a team which kept them from most if the dangers.

Some abilities naturally assisted others while others opposed each other so there were some advantages in working as a team with others or in finding someone with certain abilities to counter a target.

Not everyone used the same power in the same way so there were some which had developed the use of their abilities completely differently to others so manipulation types had more freedom of use and could be used in a larger variety of ways.

An example would have been Lucy and Tanya who had opposing powers of fire and a water ice variant type.

After collecting the head and putting it away, Brick disappeared for a while then came back with a zombie which was following him.

He kept his distance and kept hacking towards the arms and legs as he circled it until it could no longer walk or attempt to grab him.

It was dragged outside of the door and Brick banged on it. "Alice, Open up. I need you to help me clean up this place."

The fear seemed to have disappeared a little from the voice inside. "Why would I want to go outside? Those things are out there!"

Brick banged harder. "Hurry up or I will break the door down, if you choose to hide inside there then as an elder, you are setting a bad example for someone like me. If we cannot clear the area, we cannot regroup with the others in the outer walls. If we cannot reunite with them then hearing from those in the inner walls will only be more difficult. Trust me, you will get used to this eventually so long as you experience it a couple of times. Please trust me."

To be able to survive and fulfil his goals, Brick needed people that were reliable, had potential and could be trusted so he was already looking for reliable allies among the workers within the Reed residence.

He could barely be qualified to be able to protect himself in the present so protecting another person would only add to his burden and put him in even more danger so he needed some help.

There were times when working solo was better but there were many more times when a team was needed too.

After a short moment of hesitation, Alice spoke and slowly opened the door. "I.. I am coming."

The moment that she saw how Brick looked, the corpses nearby and the standing and lying down zombies, Alice let out a scared scream and slammed the door closed. "Aah!"

Brick stood on the spot and let out a sigh. "Get out here now. I will give you to the count of three."

He knew that he had to endure a little if he wanted to let her reach her full potential so he continued to attempt to bring her out to experience the new world. "3…2…1…"

Alice shouted. "Alright!"

The door opened and she stepped outside so Brick started by instructed her. "Rule one of surviving these things. Keeping your noise down is important so that you can avoid attracting more towards you."

He then threw over a knife at her feet and continued. "But first you must learn how to kill them effectively without being bitten or scratched while developing habits to avoid blood from getting in your mouth, wounds or eyes. So.."

He walked over towards the zombie which was laying down and pulled at the hair which pulled the head up.

The other knife he had with him was pointed at the temple. "Eyes, temple and the neck are the easiest targets to stab but the back of the skull can be targeted too if you can get behind. If you have a shorter blade then go for the eyes or temple to allow you to attack the brain.

Do not hesitate to attack them when you see them as humans because the moment you hesitate to kill them, they will not hesitate to kill you. If they go down, keep your distance or attack them again to make sure they are dead before going near them and exposing your legs to them. Now hurry and come over before more are attracted to this place."

Alice hesitated to pick up the knife which was at her feet but she listened carefully to Brick's words