2.14

The entire bottom floor of the dorms was a communal area, specific only to those who lived there. With a kitchen, dining room, and large living space with lots of different sections for students to gather or study. The student rooms except for the top two floors held two students per room, though they were forced to use communal bathrooms on each floor.

It felt like a perfect place to hold up, given the circumstances. If only I could hurry and solve the issue with the meteorite heavily and dangerously infecting the area.

Even those who had already mutated were at risk of falling ill with too much virus in their system than their immune systems could handle. Slow and steady was the best method for humans lacking a System to grow their powers.

"Alex," I found him in the living space, leaning over the back of a sofa, gripping so tight his knuckles turned white. The few who were already in here glanced over at him nervously, though I noticed some looked a bit excited about the drama. I guessed even the apocalypse could get boring. The teens here didn't know how lucky they were to be behind these seemingly impenetrable walls.

He turned up, feigning a smile, relaxing his grip. "I'm okay," he quietly spoke, then pulled out a bottle of water from his bag to drink whilst he cooled down.

Eventually, the others followed into the room, crowding it, hovering around the three carts the guys had wheeled in beside me and Alex.

"What are we going to do with a bunch of blunt swords?" The lass from before stood, arms folded, surrounded by a few others with just as hostile gazes. For such a sweet and innocent-looking thing she didn't half have a sharp tongue.

Her small frame, pale blonde curls, and bright blue eyes could inspire many. However, her sweet-looking face was not even half as endearing to me as Holly's. I could see the black heart beating in her chest, I believed she was the prime example of the words 'green tea bitch'.

I made a mental note of each and every face beside her, trying to find a presence that matched what the trees had felt. I sighed with relief finding none similar, though I could never truly be sure.

"Kylie, what the fuck do you take us for?" Matt quipped, looking back just as aggressively. Luke placed his hand on his shoulder, shaking his head, making his ponytail shake alongside it. I noticed he had quite an androgynous vibe to him and a personality that reminded me of Su Meng.

Focus.

Alex cleared his throat, ignoring the annoying girl's question, and addressed the rest of them.

"Unless we're lucky, the few guns we have gathered so far will run out of ammo, blunt objects take up a lot of stamina, and too few of us have developed gifts strong enough to kill more than a few at a time."

I noticed a few heads nodded in agreement. Considering this was now a world where people had superpowers, I'd seen very little of them in action.

"Those of you willing can sign up to be taught to use the sword efficiently to deal with the dead, I won't force you but I honestly think you'd be stupid to turn down Hannah's teachings."

I gulped, noticing judging eyes all falling in my direction, a few whispered about me to their friends, and some not-so-friendly words were picked up thanks to System enhancing my hearing. I blocked them out.

It was mainly those around that girl calling me a slut or Alex's new sidepiece. Blaming him for being a leader controlled by his dick. They were insignificant and if they wanted to die so be it. I just had to focus on protecting Leo and Holly, who had no choice but to take the lessons Alex had now forced on my plate.

Casting him a brief hostile glance I stepped forward away from him.

"You'll be using blunt swords only for now, as soon as I'm confident you'll do more damage to the dead than yourself we will let you use the sharpened swords from Mr. Peters's private collection. If we run out, we can sharpen the blunt ones. Overall, we have around twenty sharp and fifty blunt swords. It's first come, first serve."

They talked amongst themselves, deciding whether or not to take up our offer. I shook my head at how stupid and innocent the lot of them were. How many had truly endured what was outside these walls?

Those who I'd met yesterday on the road looked eager to learn. Though they had the benefit of seeing me using the swords briefly before I'd raised the tree and knew of my strength. I could count on them in with learning alongside Leo and Holly. I groaned at the heavyweight now falling on my shoulders, and a new feeling of pity and appreciation grew for Alex.

Still, Alex could have at least asked right? I'd only offered to teach them, not the masses. I was estimating their 'small' group having at least sixty of them so far. Though I could imagine in time the group would certainly grow, if the heavy dose of the virus didn't get to them first.

Alex turned to Aiden, "put the swords with the other supplies, then take a list of names and bring it up to me later."

Without waiting for a reply Alex moved to the staircase, his fist clenching tight as he passed Kylie. I wondered what their bad blood was. She had called Oliver by a nickname, so shouldn't they all be close?

"Aiden, when you make that list be sure to ask if they have experience and how much, it'll be better to group them that way."

He nodded his head, obeying me no different than Alex. It filled my chest with a smugness that caught me off-guard.

Was I wanting to be in command to keep everybody safe, myself included, or was I trying to monopolize the power of these few men to fulfill an undiscovered ego?

By the time I reached the apartment, only Leo and Holly were in the communal space, playing a board game on the coffee table. They both looked up at me, then pointed down the hall. Good kids.

"Alex?" I knocked at the door but opened it not caring to wait for a reply.

"Ah, Hannah," he sat on the edge of the bed, head buried in his hands. He feigned a smile again, pulling up that mask.

I wanted to tear it off and see what was going on inside that pretty head of his. The grief in his eyes was all too familiar, matching the painful ache in my chest as I realised everybody I'd ever known in my short life was gone.

Even if I were to meet Jianyu and Lex again, who was to say we'd even recognise each other without lowering our guard? Our Systems naturally shielded other systems from detecting them, either hiding completely or mimicking the original soul.

To any other immortal, I was for all intents and purposes Hannah as her soul still resided inside this body, sleeping, waiting for that all-important choice to follow me to the void at death.

I found myself crouched before him, hands resting on his knees. I wanted to comfort him like Jianyu had done many times before to me as Zhiyue. Mimicking the actions in my memory I ran my hand along his thigh as if stroking a cat. Stopping when I noticed a weird glint in his eyes.

"Don't force yourself to smile for me," I said softly, "don't hide your pain from me like you do the rest." I wanted him to open up to me, to trust me, to follow me.

"How old are you?" He asked, still not opening up, but at least that pathetic attempt of a smile was gone.

"Twenty-two."

Wait, that was my old age. If I correct myself now what would he think of me?

"Hey, you're my age?" This time his smile seemed genuine. "What month is your birthday?"

At the time I paused to think hard about when Hannah's birthday was. Unlike Zhiyue's which was in the spring, Hannah was an Autumn baby, "October."

"Mine is November," he laughed, though it had a bitter undertone, "I'm finally not the oldest one here."

Technically he was right, according to System I was over six hundred years in total. Still, I couldn't shake the guilt lingering at my small white lie. At least it seemed to make him happy.

"Why am I not as happy as you about that?"

He laughed, lying back to look at the ceiling and avoid my eyes.

"The majority of them are barely fresh out of high school," he sighed heavily, hands rubbing his face, "a bunch of rebellious, ignorant, naive brats. Thankfully there are still quite a few senior students, who help me keep them in check, but as you can see from before…" he didn't finish, only rubbed his temple.

I knelt up on the bed, placing my hand on his head, trying to use System to make him feel better and ease his headache.

"There's only Matt, Ethan, Luke and Aiden left from our surf team," he stared vacantly at the ceiling, "each time we leave I am scared. What if I'm the only one who makes it back this time?"

There were tears in the corner of his eyes as his voice lowered in volume with each word he spoke. I poured more energy through my fingertips, finding them unconsciously tracing along his jaw and wiping away the tears from his eyes.

He raised his hands, enveloping mine, giving me a warm smile. "Thank you Hannah."

My face blushed heavily as my heart raced in my chest. Stupid teenage hormones. Stupid weakness to handsome faces.

"Cannot blame that one on your body this time Host," System teased.

"You go away," I shooed it away. The last thing I needed was for Alex to catch me spacing out deep in conversation with the voice in my head.

I needed him to be able to trust me, lean on me, use me, and see my worth. So he would be willing, push come to shove, to protect me and mine. Just as he did his teammates and the ungrateful brats here.

Feeling the atmosphere derail from my intentions, I cleared my throat, remembering what System had said about the meteorite earlier.

"Did you know about the meteorite nearby?" I asked, pulling my hands slowly out of his.

"How do you know about that?" he frowned.

How could I explain? That the voice in my head told me so?

"I overheard someone mentioning it earlier." I lied, wishing it would be my last towards him. Though I knew that was impossible as long as System remained a secret. I missed communicating with Lex or Jianyu, where I never had to filter my words for fear of being misunderstood like this.

He shook his head, "it's north of here and I strongly suggest you stay clear of it, it draws those fuckers in no different than a flame draws in moths. That's why no matter how hard we try more and more keep coming from south of here, lingering once they notice us or hear those idiots fucking around."

"Oh," I scratched my neck avoiding eye contact, "I need to get to it though."

He sat up, his hands grabbing mine again, tightly, "why?"

"I-I just need to get to it, it's important."

He looked at me as if I told him I wanted to jump off a cliff.

"Leave it, whatever it is, it's not worth it," he shook his head again, though his face was tense, staring into blank space, deep in thought.

He knew how strong I was, more so than most of the bulky, muscular men around him, so was it really that dangerous to go? What else could I do?

If I didn't it was only a matter of time before more and more of the kids succumbed to the virus, there was no telling how many would make it out alive.