Searching For Gold

Alex watched the video feed from his laptop screen.

On the screen is his father's car which was parked at the middle of the road.

The camera Alex hacked in to is situated on top of a traffic light and has a fixed view of the location.

"There! They're out of the car!"

The camera captured a glimpse of his father and mother running out of the vehicle rushing with odd weapons in hand.

His father held a long iron pipe while his mom held a frying pan.

He zoomed in to the figures and confirmed that they're his parents even with the slightly pixelated quality of the footage.

Moments later, his mother appeared on the video carrying a little girl on her shoulder.

Seconds later, his dad appeared and ran quickly to the car like he was running away from something.

His father got into the car safely and closed the door just exactly as an agile small figure dashed on the edge of the frame towards the door.

A gray pitbull stopped at the door and rammed continuously.

It shook its head every time it went for an attack, clearly affected by its action.

Alex tried to glean whether it's a zombie pitbull or just a crazy dog but can't really differentiate based on its actions.

The pitbull tried a few more times but failed miserably.

After failing consecutively and possibly getting a concussion, it stopped ramming the door and started running around the car looking for a way in.

When it couldn't find anything, it stood in front of the damaged door and started barking.

"That crazy dog! Why is dad not driving away?!"

Alex became stressed watching the events.

Few minutes passed with nothing happening until when the pitbull suddenly stopped barking and looked far into the distance.

It lowered its tail and slowly backed away before springing to a full run.

A couple of seconds later, three zombies zoomed in the screen as they ran after the pitbull.

After a dozen more seconds, the door opened up and his dad's figure appeared.

He agilely hid next to a rear end of a pickup truck and surveyed the area.

Seconds passed by before he called the people inside the car to come out.

After a brief chat, his parents went off the highway and into the woods.

"Why would they do that? Is there a problem with the car? Is the traffic ahead so bad they had to walk on foot?"

Alex watched the rest of the video in case they came back.

When nothing happened after a few minutes, he decided to increase the playback speed of the video.

As he finished the rest of the video, he learned one of the possible reason why his parents had to leave the car and walk on foot.

There's a wandering horde passing by on the highway!

Zombies slowly appeared on the camera and walked through the highway in between the cars.

It only took several seconds for the screen to be filled with zombies and around five minutes for them to pass by.

"So they run fast if few in numbers and they walk slow when in huge numbers." Alex thought to himself.

"Can they run even if they're a horde? Well, nothing's stopping them from doing that. They're probably just getting hindered by each other that's why they're not running."

"Or there's no motivation to run around because there's no target. I'm just getting more questions instead of answers, so I'm not gonna look into this now. I have something more important to do."

Alex closed the video and opened the next one. He skimmed most of the parts and mostly watched in fast forward knowing his dad's car remained on the same place on live footage.

He spent the next half hour on the rest of the videos and when he confirmed his parents didn't come back for the car, he exited the folder and went back to live footage.

"Now, this will be like finding a needle on a haystack but instead of searching for a needle I'm looking for a bar of gold."

"It's easy to search and find a bar of gold. It may take some bit of effort but it's doable. The real problem lies in finding the right haystack or if there's even one that has gold in it."

Alex changed the layout of the live feed and stared at the screen. He identified which cameras are for the inner city and city outskirts and chose to hide the ones for the former.

He watched passively and learned a lot of new information.

Most of the remaining survivors rely on physical prowess and huge numbers to safely navigate the new world.

Some people also had unique abilities which tutned them into beacon for survivors to follow.

Especially a hooded teenager who can control small objects and use them as lethal weapon when clashing with zombie variants.

Survivors learned practical application of the special energy that Alex hadn't tried doing as of yet such as high jump and energy barrier.

He became awed at their control and ability to control energy with such efficiency.

Comparing his progress with actual survivors caused him to be ashamed of himself.

"And here I thought I'm doing something special." Alex sighed. "Well, it's a good thing I wake up from my dream early. Besides, if I want to improve, I need actual experience. I can't just hole up in the apartment."

"Another good thing is I know mom and dad are safe and should be on the way here. I don't know if they will still come from the highway but one thing is clear for me, I need to do what I can and help out somehow."

Alex stood up and cracked his fingers.

"First things first, let's clean this side of my town, so they can rest easy when they come. And what better place to start than the supermarket."

He closed the program and packed his things, not forgetting to munch some food from the kitchen before leaving.

He didn't eat much since he's expecting some fights soon, just enough grub so he won't suddenly go hungry while fighting.

The sky is getting brighter but it's still pretty dark outside.

"Alright, I'm off."

Alex left the house and closed the door.

"If only I have a better weapon, this will be easy. Or if I can develop a supernatural skill like telekinesis... but it seems like I need good control to achieve that."

"I think everything boils down to a person's will to survive. I'll try to develop something unique for myself, but that's for a later time. It's best if I just copy their best practices and improve on them."

Alex really wanted the ability to jump high without exerting much effort.

Along the way, he experimented on how to perform high jumps. He doesn't want anything exaggerated but as long as he can easily jump into a cars hood, he would be happy.

"If I imagine a pillar of energy lifting me, would it work?"

"It's worth a shot."

He imagined the scene and jumped as high as he can.

When he reached the top of his jump, he imagined the energy below him pushing him up.

Nothing happened.

He landed with disappointment, but didn't dwell on it.

He tried one more time.

He kept trying using different assumptions until he neared the intersection near the supermarket.

Doing something in the middle of the road would of course garner attention.

And that's what he wanted in the first place.

"Ongggggg!"

"Gahhhhhh!"

Moans and shrieks from a couple of zombies echoed in the quiet night.

Alex felt nervous seeing three zombies running at him.

He felt it was stupid to risk his life like this when he can gradually accumulate strength at home.

Then he remembered the survivors from before.

Despite the world ending on the same day, despite being starting on the same day, their strength and control seem to be several levels above him.

"I need to change my mindset. There are times that we need to adapt to the changes. Right, dad?"

Just like how his dad retired early from service after he met his mom, Alex needed to shift his gears and be proactive.

Also, he has the revolver as a fall back measure in case things get too complicated.

He doesn't know where most of the zomies are but if he needs to take a guess people should be on the park, public market or on the way to work.

That's the main reason he could relax and freely move around in the area.

The first zombie reached Alex and he dodged the attack. Instead of enhancing his senses or covering a part of his body with a layer of protective energy, he decided to use the circulating energy in his body.

It was something he never thought of and got inspired when watching other survivors.

Though he had trouble covering his body with energy, activating them everywhere didn't seem to pose any problem.

Aside from faster energy consumption, he didn't feel any other side effect.

It was the opposite.

The active energy nourished his cells in a strange way.

He felt his body becoming warmer and lighter.

Even the wooden bat felt like a stick in his hands.

"Is this body strengthening?" Alex thought loudly. "Passive energy circulation results in regeneration while active use strengthens the body?"

He aimed the wooden bat and hit the side of the zombie's head.

It was a casual move but the zombie was knocked to the side and fell.

It quickly recovered and stood up.

Alex swung the bat once again.

"Gaaahhh!"

He hit the neck and the head fell to the ground in a weird angle.

The body remained stiff but the zombie head kept roaring at him.

"Okay, so dislocation of joints help. Thanks for scolding me a lot mom. I'm glad I listened when you always talk about safety."

Alex faced the two incoming zombies and swung his bat low on the leading target.

One swing took care of its legs, impairing its movements and sending it to sliding on the ground.

The other zombie he easily blocked by punting its head on the side.

It staggered for a few seconds before slowing to a stop.

Alex couldn't believe himself.

"When did I become so strong?"