Excursio

*shuffle*

*rustle*

"Well that's about it, Tsuyoshi. You won't find any more than that."

"I was sure there was some left from the other day though!"

It was the day after their last day of house cleaning and their first and only encounter with other survivors in the neighborhood. They were having trouble agreeing over their leftover supplies and how many of them are left.

"Dude I'm telling you! We had more than this!"

"You do realize how much you eat right? To properly feed you we have to spend 2 meals' worth of food in 1 meal. Even I'm becoming similar to that as I'm training with you as well."

'Plus there's the other training.'

"Haa really? I've never realized!"

"Because the civilization does not crumble regularly y'know? We have to find new resources."

"What about the ones we've looted recently?"

"You mean the ones from the nearby houses? It is too small of an amount to call it reliable. Let's calculate."

"Uugh! I hate math!"

"Maybe that's why you can't preserve. We still have some from your dojo and adding to that the resources we looted, if we continue like how we are then we might be able to survive more than 1 month."

"What?! That is not that long right?"

"Oh it is plenty enough, if we were travelling instead of staying in one place. But here we are, creating a safe haven for ourselves!"

Mattias spread his arms and spun around once to emphasize what they were doing for the last half a month. The streets were rid of zombies and they looted all the houses off of their food, save for the one with the family. Their house now had a lot of things excluding the food. They had new lamps, curtains, even furniture! Even though Mattias was against it, Tsuyoshi still carried them to the car saying:

"It won't feel like a home without good furniture!"

So they carried them to the house. They also trained every day, making Mattias more proficient with the katana and kodachi. His body also got buffer in the process, making him carry the once impossibly heavy couches around with ease. His combat judgement and instinct became sharper and his hesitation to cut once-alive humans melted away. Thinking about the phrase 'mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body)' he decided to read a lot more and delve more into the mysterious power in his body. He trained every night before sleep since his training got became mere spars and practices.

He could move the strange energy in his body a little it around with difficult but he discovered he did it with ease when he urged it towards his eye. This made his eye sight better and he could see the details of things better but in turn consumed a lot of stamina. His limit was 10 minutes per day and if he tried to get over that limit, his eyes became bloodshot at best. Even though he tried to breach this limit there was something holding him back. He thought about cultivation in some Chinese novels he read and named that 'something' a bottle neck.

'If those novels are correct, I need a faithful encounter. That or I need to get close to dying, which I don't want.'

He kept this from Tsuyoshi as he still had his doubts about this power being safe or not and he already had his doubts if Tsuyoshi was aware of this energy and using it. He always thought that his strength was above human levels as some of the things he does is plain impossible for normal humans. His stamina is almost never ending, Mattias didn't even see him panting for once! His strength is over the top as well, he punched a hole in one of the houses they looted when he missed a zombie and hit a wall. After that punch his hand was just a bit red and that was all.

'Something is not adding up about him. Maybe he is already using it?'

"What are you thinking about bro?"

Tsuyoshi's voice brought him back to his senses. From Tsuyoshi's point of view, he was just looking at the empty space for no reason for a straight minute. He was naturally curious.

"About where we could find more supplies."

"And?"

"I have an idea but I'm not sure how good it is."

"If our situation is as you say then we don't have much of a choice I think."

"That's right. That more reason I don't feel good proposing this idea.

"So? What's on your mind?"

"To find more supplies, we might have to go downtown."

"There? But you said it was dangerous, didn't you?"

"I did and after 2 weeks I think it got more dangerous. Under normal circumstances we shouldn't go there at all, not even come close to it. But now, we have no choice."

"How about we search our surroundings a bit more?"

"Think about it, Tsuyoshi. We searched every house in 300 meters radius. That is a lot of houses and what we got is just enough the fill the cracks between our teeth. We need more if we want to stay here and alive. We also need other things."

"Like what?"

"Weapons and transportation."

"But we already have a car, and weapons too!"

"That car is too weak and too open. We are doomed if we are ever caught between a horde of those things. And if we ever leave its side for looting another place then we can wave our looted things bye bye! We need something that can take a couple of hits that can hold our things safe inside. As for weapons, we need ranged weapons. That fast monster we killed on or first week can kill un in one hit if it gets close. I suspect that was just a weak one as well."

"How do you know all these things?"

"Before I met you, I was in downtown and that place was full of those fast things. They were faster than the one we killed and they became like that earlier. I think this points to something close to evolution. They were hunting other zombies."

"Do you say that they cannibalize? That's gross."

"I think they get stronger by eating each other. And with the numbers I saw there, I suspect a few really strong ones have emerged."

"Then why are we even going there?! We should stay the hell away from there!"

"There is no better place to find supplies other than there. The closest place is hours away."

"Then why don't we go-"

"It also comes with the risk of being stuck there, or getting robbed here. We just have to be on the road for about 15 minutes if we are slow. We also don't have much of a choice there as well."

"Whatever man! We have already established the fact that you are the brains of the group. So let's just do whatever!"

"Get ready then. We have a road trip ahead of us."

"Tell me what to do."

Mattias was planning to go looting 2 days from then to make ample preparations and location research. He took inventory of their supplies and various other survival necessities, their weapons and their conditions and finally he looked up places of interest in his map application with his phone.

He's first priority was weapon and medicine so he was looking for drug stores and gun shops that are not too far from each other. His next target was a good car dealer that used to sell specialized cars than can even stop bullets. The broadcasts of Z-Man came in handy this time. As he can talk about anything that can come to mind, he also touched upon the subject of good transportation. He told the names of some of the car companies that sold them.

He made ample preparations during these two days. His 'shopping' list was long and every place they could find these things were clearly marked on his map and were written if his battery died. He chose at least 3 places for every thing in the list in case they were looted. In the morning of the road trip as he liked to call it, they didn't practice. They only did small exercise to stretch their muscles and to be in their top condition. They had their breakfast in silence and got in the car.

"So bro, where's our first destination?"

"I think having a bigger car from the start will help us. I have a couple of galleries in mind for that, we'll be going to one of them now. There is a truck there we can make use of, made with a different technique to make it resistant to force."

"You made your research!"

"I have to if I want to survive. Let's go, we have to make use of the daylight."

Mattias started the car and started driving with the wind hitting them from all directions. The drive was unusually calming. Maybe they were getting ready for the worst, knowing full well what they were doing was fatal. The sound of the rain beating their wind shield also added to this effect.

The streets were eerie. Just two and a half weeks was enough for Japan to become like a ghost town. They drove among the empty streets; not even zombies were around for a while. The wild animals were wandering around, they ran away when they heard the car engine.

The clouds were especially gathered on the city and as they approached the rain became faster. They could see thunder cracking inside the clouds and a thunder would strike down the Earth occasionally, making it look like the lair of an evil wizard in those fantasy movies and books.

"It sure got worse by the day."

"I wonder if there are any one left there. What do you think bro?"

"I don't think anyone would be left alive. There is nothing but zombies around."

"Don't be so pessimistic man! I'm sure there are some people left there!"

"That was me being optimistic. Pray that we don't come across any living person. We could get robbed."

"How is that being optimistic?"

"Because I met survivors when I came by here the last time. Guess what happened? I almost got killed."

"Oh… Sorry."

"This is our reality now. There's no one to uphold law so we need to look out for ourselves. Even our lives are at stake.

"Shit man what happened to you? You weren't like this two weeks ago."

"I grew up Tsuyoshi. That encounter with those survivors taught me not to trust any one other than myself. That horde of zombies taught me that everything was fair for survival and the time I spent with you taught me I had to fight to gain the right of survival."

"…"

Tsuyoshi was silent after this. Mattias didn't follow up with anything as well. They just drove forward. They finally entered the city and were looking around to find something. But there was a single problem.

"It is eerily quiet here don't you think."

"What do you mean bro?"

"There aren't any zombies around. Even inside the buildings."

"Wait! I know this."

"Really? What might it be then? Enlighten me."

Tsuyoshi stuck his head out the window and took a look around. They were in an intersection of 4 roads. The cars were moved around and there was a big open area in the middle.

"Big open area. No monsters around."

He got in once more, looked at Mattias and spoke in a serious tone.

"This is a boss room."