Chapter 18 : Shocking Discovery

When they came back down about an hour and a half later, Reyes was grinning from ear to ear.

She welcomed Molly and offered her food, she even showed her a room for herself and this change in attitude made Lee and Molly smile as they knew what had happened.

They sent Clementine out to play while Christina's screams and moans became horribly loud, it even gave Molly shakes.

 (Two months later)

 Calvin was practicing his saber by killing walkers far away in the horde, he was moving fast, he was moving so fast that we couldn't even see the blade of the Katana.

His hair had grown since the start of the apocalypse and he had started to make dreadlocks out of it.

He had also taken advantage of the gym and his muscles had grown in size and much more than Lee in just two months and his already great strength had increased further. He was bigger, stronger and much faster.

 Molly had also been given her training session with a specialized program by Calvin himself, he intended to make her a special part of his guard and at the moment, she, Lee and Reyes were facing the walkers right in front of the converted truck.

They all wore riot gear and fought off the horde with a simple trick that Calvin had given them but that had changed their lives.

It was a front-kick, the walkers were slow and had very poor balance, anyone could kill one easily by pushing it away with a kick to the chest before finishing it on the ground.

 Faced with the horde, they understood why Calvin had made them go through all these bodybuilding and endurance exercises, they were physically stronger and could fight for a long time, with more speed and avoiding unnecessary movements, they fought much more efficiency.

Reyes wielded two Japanese Yanagiba knives, sharp, strong and very pointed which gave him the ability to dig the blades in and remove them from the walkers' heads with ease.

 Molly wielded her ice ax and pushed the walkers back with Spartan kicks. Clementine was standing on the roof covering them with a silenced pistol.

The girl had grown and was very effective with a gun, she was even better than a trained soldier thanks to Calvin's advices but mostly because she had a real knack for it. 

However, after Calvin himself, the most tyrannical in this massacre was Lee who quickly wielded two hatchets with which he killed each walker in one blow, he managed to either cut off part of their heads or easily decapitate them.

The power of a blow depended on the strength of the striker; Lee had gained strength, speed and dexterity.

Swinging these weapons several hundred times a day even made it possible to erase the weight of these weapons, making movements more fluid and instinctive.

 « ENOUGH FOR TODAY, GO BACK!! » Calvin shouted and they nodded before running towards the truck, quickly climbing to the top with three ropes attached there for them rope climbing exercises they then made.

On the other hand, they were strictly forbidden to step on the solar panels of his "KING" , they were of the best quality and Calvin would certainly kill anyone who damaged them.

 He continued his massacre right in the middle of the horde before starting to run in a certain direction while slashing his way to attract the walkers with it, he then climbed the buildings to disappear from their sight.

 "He's definitely not human…" Molly said, shaking her head slightly. Lee, Clementine and Reyes had already gone downstairs when they heard the sound of the bell tower in the distance as well as some car alarms far from their area and the horde began moving towards the sounds.

 Reyes: He's fast!

 Lee: He's become even more cruel since he trained with us and his program is definitely crueler than ours.

 "I want to become strong like Calvin too..." Clementine said while pulling on Lee's shirt.

 Reyes: I'm sure he'll teach you too like us when you're older.

 When Calvin came back later, he found the others eating so he went to clean his sword before going to take a shower to come back, eat with the others and he had some news to share with Molly.

 Molly: Boss, what exactly are you?! Some kind of mutant? A super hero ? A guy we experimented on?

 Cal: Why?

 Molly: Your physical prowess, it's clearly abnormal. The others apparently don't dare to ask you so...

 Cal: I'm just a Black guy, it's not until today that our physical prowess is at the peak of humanity.

 Reyes: My love, can you answer seriously? She's right, I didn't dare ask but the question has always been on my mind.

 Lee: Me too, Calvin.

 Calvin: Okay, the truth is I don't know. When I woke up from my coma in the middle of the epidemic, my body could do all sorts of extraordinary things naturally. To myself it's a mystery because I was just a drug dealer.

 Molly: So you're telling us it happened just like that?! Is it hard to believe?

 Calvin: In a reality where the deceased rise again to eat the living, my case is difficult to believe?!

 Reyes: Are these the only changes?

 Calvin: I don't know what kind of person I was deep down before all this. I have memories of my life but not of what I felt. I woke up with a background that assimilated directly into this new world and I didn't know if I was a good person deep down or not. Anyway, let's talk about something else. Molly?

 Molly: Boss.

 Calvin: When was the last time you saw Crawford?

 Molly: About a month. We have everything here so I didn't need to go far. Besides, your training didn't really leave me much time.

 Calvin: They all died in Crawford.

 Molly: WHAT?!!

 Calvin: They're all dead and given the state of the bodies, it happened about two weeks ago.

 Molly:…

 Calvin: You can go see if you want, I don't know how it happened but it was predictable. An insurrection or an epidemic certainly took place but I'm betting more on the epidemic. Rotting corpses can bring diseases and these geniuses have made a whole barrier that cuts them off from the world with rotting corpses. No one could leave or enter.

 Molly got up and immediately went out to see for herself and Calvin stayed behind to explain to the others what it was all about. He already had plenty of medication and especially antibiotics to prevent this type of situation, so for his group, he feared nothing.

 (3 months later)

 « Again ! » Lee said as he got up from the ground, he had just taken a beating in close combat from Calvin who was training them in combat against humans.

Calvin knew a lot about combat techniques just after having touched self-defense manuals, military close combat and others. For three months he sparred with his men wearing protective gear because the best way for them to become stronger is not only to know the techniques but also to practice them first among themselves but especially against Calvin himself who was far faster and stronger than them but he was the perfect training partner.

 Indeed, being used to facing someone faster and stronger made it possible to brutally and effectively increase reflexes as well as perception and reaction time.

They did bare-handed combat sessions but also with close-range weapons. Knife, kukri, hatchet, ax and other weapons that they were accustomed to with through repetition, they all had to face Calvin with these weapons and they increased their skills quickly.

 Winter had long passed and the group was preparing to leave, Clementine wanted to see her friends again and Calvin, under Christina's advice, had the project of building a solid, strong and stable community. They loaded the vehicles with everything they could before leaving.

 They spent two and a half months on the road up to Atlanta, making a few stops to look for survivors and found many. Their group had become a convoy including the King, the bulk van containing the resources of Calvin and his men with Lee and Molly, two school buses containing the 83 survivors they found and a van filled with food for these survivors.

The food had been found by Calvin and the others (Instinct + luck = always finds what he wants).

 These people had been found in Statesboro, Swainsboro, Dublin as well as Macon and all had decided to follow Calvin who was able to win their allegiance by taking care of them just by finding a lot of food.

They had seen what he was capable of in battle and knew that with his team, Calvin could protect them.

However, it had been made clear that no weak or useless survivors would have his protection so his men had begun teaching the survivors how to fight and use firearms effectively. They had no shortage of target practice with all the zombies on the road.

 Finally, they were going to arrive at the farm soon and Calvin asked Lee to drive them there. He said he was going to meet them there the next day but he had things to do in Atlanta.

He had one thing to do for Clementine who had given him the address of the house where she lived there. It was a surprise for his birthday.

 Calvin left them and left on foot and although the others were a little worried, they remembered what he was capable of so they continued on their way.

By damn luck, Calvin found a motorcycle nearby with its driver turned zombie and stuck underneath. He was apparently a survivor who had been in an accident so Cal finished him off, took his keys and started the fully functional motorcycle before leaving for Atlanta.

 The next day, on his way back, Calvin had taken another route to avoid a horde and stopped at a station where he refueled the motorcycle, the fuel was still good and he took the opportunity to search the station and see if he can find anything good there.

He found some useful things but while rummaging in one of the rooms closed from the inside that he was able to open, Calvin made a terrible discovery.

In a very small room, Duane and Sophia were there, lying on a small, very thin mattress. They were dirty and emaciated.

 Hastily, he checked their pulses and the children were still alive. He tried to wake Duane but he was in a very advanced state of exhaustion and as for Sophia, she could only open her eyes slightly.

 "Cal…you…came back…" She said very weakly before falling asleep from exhaustion. Cal wasted no time and left, returning later with a car and putting the children in before leaving for the farm.

 He quickly returned to the farm with the car and Reyes who knew it was him rushed towards him with a worried face.

 Reyes: We haven't found anyone and the farm looks like it's been abandoned for too long. There is-(interrupted)

 "Not now sweetheart, I have two kids who need urgent intensive care…" He said as he took Sophia and Duane out of the car.

 "Oh my god…" Christina recognized them and helped Calvin take them inside the house and two of the survivors who were in the medical field, one of whom was a pediatrician, immediately arrived to offer their help.