CHAPTER. 24

CHAPTER 24

Timothy smiled and inhaled with a satisfied expression on his face as the smell of roasted meat permeated the surrounding air. Licking his lips with saliva almost dripping, as he looked at the meat hanging from a stick over the fire, natural oil flowing out and a faint golden colour that signalled that the meat was almost ready, he wanted nothing more than to pounce on it. Suddenly a slap on the back of his head jolted him out of his daze while a thin line of saliva escaped his lips and fell to the ground. Behind him Mod stood, with a sicking smile on his face he regarded Timothy before turning his attention to the roasting meat.

"What the hell was that for?." Timothy asked furiously, his elemental glove released a resplendent flash of light while letting out a low sounding hum that seemed to be fed by the intensity of Timothy's anger. Clearly he was truly angered and ready to fight to quell his anger, but was Mod scared of him? - NO!. In an instant, the temperature of the surrounding area rose tens of degrees as his elemental glove also faintly glowed and released a began to hum softly. Without another word, they began to act as the ground below Mod began to crack open. Within an heartbeat, Mod shot into the air in a bid to escape the split area when Timothy suddenly remembered. . . THE ROASTING MEAT WAS JUST BEHIND HIM!!!. Without a waste of time, he pulled the earth back together and completely forgot about Mod while trying to ensure that everything concerning the meat was in perfect order. Not only him was hungry, everyone in the group was. If he mistakenly allowed any evil before the meat before or even after it was completely barbecued, there was no saying what the consequence was going to be for him.

Only Mod had hit him before, but if anything was to happen to the meat, it was undoubtedly all of them that would join hands

to deal with him till they forgot about the meat.

"God saved you that your brains were quick to reset themselves." Joy replied as she hurriedly approached as if in positive reply to Timothy's thoughts on the suffering he would have had to endure. "I was just coming to kick your heads against each other before you separated."

At that moment, the teens were actually out of the sanctuary to get some supplies and hunt for zombie crystals to return to the sanctuary. They had decided to check out pharmaceutical company for drugs and medical supplies when they set up fire to roast their first kill of the day. Normally in the apocalypse, it was a death wish to be doing such outside of a sanctuary, even in sanctuaries it was extremely rare to receive permission to do so because of the risks involved. The teens however had nothing to fear, at the moment they already had quite a few level one combatant zombies crystals with them - say about two to three - and they knew that it would be very hard for level one combatants to bite their brains out. So far as they had seen, they were even stronger than the level one combatants. The countless slow walkers and swifts they had

encountered during the short period of their expedition this time was enough to ensure that ten times their number would disappear if they were weaker, but unfortunately they weren't. it was just so easy to chop the heads of the darned zombies as they rushed forward like some mindless things - which they ironically were.

In the pharmaceutical company, at that moment the teens were slowly walking through a passage that was condemned to eternal darkness by the power outage that was a common problem in the apocalypse. Most probably, the automatic generator powering the company had long run out of fuel after the world wide power outage and had no hope of running ever again, considering that fuel was now even as scarce as gold. At that moment, the muscles of the teens were oddly tense as they slowly and consciously trod through the passage with their weapons at the ready in case of any funny movements from the darkness. At that moment the silence seemed as heavy as a billion ton of gold as the they trod as quietly as possible.

Suddenly, the dark passage suddenly lit up with a bright light making the teens jump in shock as it was coming from their direc-

tion of their backs. Without another second to waste, the surrounding walls were blasted apart by the shockwave from an

halberd. The damaged wall of a room that was supposed to be a store based on the multiple shelves that were arranged neatly in rows and the strong smell of drugs that permeated the surrounding air as soon as the wall fell out. In the dark room, a sudden swooshing sound rang out along with a flash of white as a figure fleetly tried to evade their line of sight. How could the teens let what ever that was to get away, they followed closely on the tail of the figure which darted out of the room the moment they left the door area and followed it. With their recent breakthrough in strength, they also had other benefits like the superhumans enjoyed, except they weren't powered by any form of mutation like the other super humans. Somehow it seemed that the mysterious power sealed within them had prevented them from undergoing the mutation process and was instead bringing them through a different process to the top of the power system. At this moment their speed did not lose out to the speed of the fleeing figure as they flashed through the building with after images that seemed just as real as themselves

before fading like some illusory beings that was just born out of a fantasy. Finally, they chased the figure to the top of the building. At this moment, the figure seemly realising that there was no part of escape finally turned to face them.

"HUH!!!." The teenagers groaned while their faces distorted from the totally mummified look of the creature. The creature was a zombie alright, but it was definitely one of the unfortunate ones who were slow to turn after getting infected and were surrounded by countless zombies. Its face was ripped off in several places where the teeth had sunk in, the entire lower gum was exposed as the lower lip was totally gone. The right ear had lost a bite and the right eye was missing with only an empty eye socket left in its place. Most probably, in an attempt to escape the encirclement it had fallen on a chemical that was simply very lethal to the skin because its hands - which it had most probably used to break its fall - had dissolved in certain parts like about two or so fingers and its lower chin was totally gone too. It was dressed in a lab's overall - which was supposed to be white but was now covered in red in certain parts - so it was safe to assume that the zombie had been a worker at the pharmaceutical company before the apocalypse. Looking at the mutated long arms that resembled that of apes in lengths, the

razor sharp teeth that was on display and the cracked mouth that was slightly opened and was ozzing suffocating breath, the teens were pretty sure that it would be a long time in the apocalypse before they would have to see such a gruesome sight.

Totally fed up with the sight of the combatant, Larry spared a quick glance at his friends before turning to the zombie again. Tightening his grip on the handle of his halberd which released a low humming sound in resonance with his feeling, a slashing sound rent the air. The attack however wasn't from him, beside him Rose had the utmost look of disgust on her face as she looked at the combatant. Her whip wasn't coiled around her wrist at that moment, it was completely stretched out beside her and was ringing with a shrill sound. The ugly combatant however didn't remain idle in the face of the attack, with a swift moment of its feet it evaded the whip by moving to another part of the roof. At that moment, it was even preparing to attack.

A large ball of fire was released in the direction of the teens while it took the opportunity to put more space between them and itself. The zombies were hierarchical creatures, those of lower strength would never oppose a stronger one except for self defence. At this moment the ugly zombie could feel the vibes emitted by the teens and knew that it couldn't possibly defeat them. It only wanted to get away from them as fast as possible to ensure that its crystal was not taken away by them. Taking the only available option that was before it, it leapt off the roof to the ground below . How could it know however that there would be more trouble waiting for it below?.

At that moment, Mod and Timothy launched attacks at it in the air before it landed. The zombies could not feel pain but a lot of energy was required to protect damaged parts of their body, the zombie let out a furious roar as it was unable to dodge the attacks in the air. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as a ball of fire actually landed on the head of the ugly fire combatant. At the same time, layer of the earth directly below the combatant suddenly shot up to connect with the lower body of the zombie almost totally crushing it as the sound of bones breaking sounded through the air. At that moment, the zombie completed its fall and actually completed the crushing of its legs bones due to the force with which it landed. A roar escaped its mouth as its single eyes widened. It seemed to be panicking as it began to crawl as fast as possible away from the

teens. However, the teens had no plans of letting the zombie get away, Mercy manipulated the air around her and floated into

the air, lifting her axe she readied herself and aimed in the direction. Strongly reinforcing the axe with the force of the air

pressure around, she enhanced her speed to the fullest and shot towards the zombie as fast as a sniper's bullet.

*Crack* The sound of skull splitting filled the air as the head was cleanly cleaved through by the axe to reveal a red crystal that was supposed to notify that it was of the fire attribute. Picking that the crystal, she raised in the direction of the roof to let her friends know that she had gotten it. A smile crept onto her face as she saw them loosing their previously serious expressions as they began to jump about excitedly on the rooftop as though they had forgotten about the zombie they just fought a moment ago - which they had of course forgotten!.

At that moment however, as the teens danced and laughed at the jokes of one and other as they walked back the way they came, in a certain room in the darkest part of the company, a pair certain being suddenly opened its eyes all the while letting out low growls. The teens however were totally ignorant of that, they walked down the various floors till they came to the ground floor and exited the building. There Mercy, Mod, Joy and Timothy were already waiting for them with a perfectly roasted meat that had been cut into several pieces and was looking as appetizing as a killer dish that would probably only be served in paradise.

At that moment, they suddenly remembered that they were too hungry to chat or joke when there was food before them and

pounced on the poor pieces of meats without the slightest bit of etiquette or even pity for the poor animal that they were going to feast on. How were they to know that at the moment they were in the worst situation they could every be in in their whole lives?, at that moment they were in the most unsafe place they could every be. But of course they knew nothing of that, all they wanted to do was to eat to their fill for the main time before they began to worry for the future.