Chapter 1 Why not dream of the living dead? : Act 2 of 3

Act 2 New world new me.

Pov unknown Lady.

Huh. . . huh. . . damn those walkers! I was with my group. We lost a lot last night. sigh. . .we barely got out, thanks to that bastard. I just woke up after a little over an hour of sleep. I dreamt of the night we had.

I looked towards the building and he said he'll be if he survives; Sandra? He didn't light the flare. . . we should go back to camp and take back what we have. That's what he would have wanted.

I looked back and slapped the one who spoke. Shut up Mike! You didn't know him! The lady screamed at the young man, she was older than him by a few years. He was in his 20s wearing a "I love pizza" shirt and cargo pants, he was a college student on break, doing food delivery work, before this all happened and apparently he was good at it.

Sorry; he said I feel awful now. Sigh. . . I'm sorry too, I worked with mister Stark, you know? He was always so kind with us office drones, always treating us whenever we finished a project or when he got a bonus, and some he helped with personal stuff. I was one of them, he helped my brother get into NY university.

Everyone was quiet, after I told them my piece. and then I looked at them. Let's finish gathering what supplies we have here, and take a break. We've been moving for almost all night. I looked at my watch, it was 6 in the morning.

At 9, we hit that small pharmacy at the edge of the city. If there is still no flare. . . let's go back, everyone agreed? I looked around. We were a group of five, Mike and me.

Jane, a Vtuber that ordered food, which Mike delivered, they were together when the city fell. She was wearing a hoodie, jeans and flat boots. She has a metal nightstick, and a snub nose pistol. The nightstick, she told me she owned, even before everything fell. the gun, she got from her apartments security guard.

Marco, a highschooler, he was at a local MMA gym participating in a karate evaluation. When the city fell, he told us the gym was overrun and only a few got away. He said he got lucky and hid in a locker room until everything calmed down.

He was wearing his martial Gi as a jacket, a white shirt, slacks and running shoes. He's holding a fire ax, and there's 6 darts on his belt.

The last was Jackson, part of the SNTPD, he was a police rookie, freshout the academy, only been in the force for 2 months. When the city fell, he and his SO were near the Power plant, they helped me and Mr.Stark and others evacuate after we did a full shutdown of the power plant's energy production.

He was wearing a police vest, and a simple shirt, jeans and leather shoes. He has his glock with him, a taser gun, and crowbar. I'm not even sure when he got the crowbar.

They all agreed. Sandra, I'm gonna check the barricades. Gave him a nod. Hey Mike! Want to come? I saw Mike at the balcony looking below, he gave Jackson a thumbs up, before they went to the far end of the hall where we've barricaded the apartment floor.

Jane, are you okay? I headed to Jane, her foot was sprained, but the old man fixed it while we were cornered, a simple splint. A long sleeve, and a couple pvc pipes.

I'm fine Sana, I'm tougher than I look. She looked towards the window. Is there any news? Sorry Jane, no flares yet. It's alright I know the old man, he. . . He'll do everything he can.

It grew quiet between us, so I left her working on the radio phone we just found.

I went over to Marco. He was cooking in the kitchen area. I'm not sure what he's making, but it might be some kind of curry.

Ohh, that smells good. What, you making kid? Oh hello ma'am. He looked startled but went back to cooking, chopping up onion sprouts.

Its mole ma'am. I hope no one's allergic to cheese, but to be safe I think I'll make it optional. He said smiling while adding the sliced onions in the pot.

Mole? Haha. Marco gave a light laugh. It's basically Mexican curry ma'am, I promised it'll keep us going, until the late afternoon. I looked at the curry pot and there was a lot in there. The other pot had a corn, potato, beans and rice mash. I was just gonna trust Marco to not cause food poisoning.

Alright, add this dry aged pork slices we found, better to make this last us the evening kid. I said as I left the meat on the counter. Yes ma'am! Ha ha ha. . . Marco you don't need to call me ma'am all the time!

I laughed a little at the kid, he was being too polite. and we've already been with each other for a week, that felt like months in zombie years ehh. . . Well, how about sister? You're as old as my older sister.

He took another pause, as he thought of an answer, then spoke. as he unwrapped and chopped the meat, after checking if it's still good, which it is. Well how about sis Sana? Alright sis Sana! 

I saw him smiling as he cooked. I left after that, and as I did, I saw Mike and Jackson moving at a quick pace excited. Hey! Everyone, look, the old man's alive! Mike yelled as I looked towards the building I thought Anderson would be.

But there weren't any flares there, But then I looked at a shorter building, where Mike was pointing at, and there it was, the blue flare given to us by Jackson's SO. 

I was about to tell everyone to rest, and prepare to meet back with Anderson. but when I saw the smoke appearing in stacks, rather than a continuous flow. I changed what I was about to tell them, as they were already gathered before I spoke. 

Alright Mr.Stark is alive! But he's telling us not to meet, he knows where the pharmacy is, and knows how to get back to camp. I looked at the group and I can see it in their eyes, they know where what I'm going to say next.

We'll do as planned, and wait at the pharmacy for a night, and if he is not there yet by late morning, we leave for camp. They all nodded but reluctantly, the meds we have now are important, and the people we still have even more so.

Sigh. . . I still can't forget what the old man told me before he ran off. Memories of that evening came over me; Hey Sands. I looked up at Mr.Stark, his left arm bleeding, scratched by a bullet, his pants ripped in many places. 

I'm gonna go, take care of the kids for me alright? He smiled at me, and didn't even let me say anything. as he just ran to the side of the raiders, that was shooting at as moments ago, but now shooting at the incoming swarm.

The madman, threw firecrackers at both the raiders and horde. He was wearing a fucking belt, with small but loud bells on it, like dinner bell some of the horde chase after him and the rest chased after the raiders.

That is when I rallied the group and we ran quietly away finding a nearby apartment block and barricaded each door we passed, until we found an apartment floor and set up for the night as we took turns watching. . . Thank god he's alive, with any luck, will see each other tomorrow.

Pov *Anderson

I kept doing the flare signal. I remembered, that old, police officer told Anderson, to do this. if the group gets separated, and the one separated doesn't want to meet up, for some reason. 

The flare ran out, so I tossed it, with as much force as I could. It broke apart as it got farther. Well, let's check Meta-human strength of the list. 

Hmm. . . I already have a body that can withstand my psionics, I should limit my knowledge. I told the dawning sun, as I talked to it, above this high tower of steel and glass. 

With a thought, and a gathering of energy, a bubble of psionics gathered in my hand. It was as big as a basketball. And within it memories of Anderson gathered. I made 10 more bubbles much like the first one. Within them are technological knowledge of every age I visited.

I pressed my forehead towards Anderson's memories of technology of this age. . . and it really was pre-space age late 21st century earth, but they call this planet Pangea. Rather than earth or Terra.

Odd, it might be because of the geography. Well that answers my question. I told the dawn once again. As I pointed an open palm towards the 10 other bubbles, beside the first 1 and then a small portal opened, sucking in 6 of the 10 bubbles.

What I have left is 5 tech memory bubbles. I closed my eyes and then focused my mind, toward my wormhole of a soul and added a psionic filter, only letting out energy from the wormhole stopping the constant stream of data and mass that passed through.

Sigh. . . Alright, that's done, now this. I focused on my psionics, on my head, and then I ignited it. I felt it, me losing 12 realms and melania's worth of technological knowledge, disappearing in seconds.

Then I was a clean slate. . . only some memories left, those that made me who I am, and the wisdom I've gathered from every realm I've visited.

With my mind opened I built a mindscape. Sculpted, to look like a library, now it stands mostly empty. One of the shelves has a book called general knowledge and another called wisdom through the ages. With this, my mind would not shatter from the introduction of new knowledge.

I opened my eyes, and breathed out. It was hard having all that knowledge in your mind, specially in a mortal vessel. It's good to not have them, but then I need to take in these ones.

I see 5 bubbles of knowledge, one was prominently orange symbolizing engineering, knowledge from this world, everything Anderson had learned in his 50+ years of being an engineer.

I broke it, absorbing the psionic essence within me. It wasn't as extensive, as I thought it would be, but I gained much, a late 21st century basic to doctorate education.

In terms of a level 1 civilizations knowledge, I've gained. Specialized knowledge on mechanical energy systems. Advance knowledge on mechanical maintenance, intermediate knowledge on robotics, and basic knowledge on automation.

There was some other remnant knowledge here, basic stuff on society and physics. but I didn't bother piecing those fragments and just added them to Anderson's memories that I'm using as a base.

Now I'm left with 4, 2 green ones which are society focus techs, 1 orange one and 1 blue one which is physics tech. I broke both society tech bubbles, and it gave me knowledge of the ancient Era and the empires Era.

The first one was knowledge of when I was a hunter, in that mana rich realm, centuries of passed down ancient era knowledge flowed, and became a series of books in my mindscape.

The second was knowledge of when I was a conquistador, in the employ of the Pale king, and Root mother. A lifetime of knowledge appeared in my mindscape of the Era of empires.

In terms of a level 1 civilizations. In the first bubble, I've gained. Advanced hunting. Advance Cold Projectile use. Intermediate basic tool craft and use. Intermediate wilderness survival. Basic Herbalism and medicine.

In the second bubble. It was, Advance linguistics. Advance navigation. Intermediate EE war tactics. Intermediate EE government organization. Intermediate EE soldier training.

Alright, two more to go. I broke them both, the physics and engineering, psionic tech bubble. They were both knowledge I had when I was a military engineer, in an early space age earth, much like this one, except it was world war 3. I was an immortal in that life.

The bubbles were made out of this. Advance material science. Intermediate kinetics. Intermediate construction. basic resource extraction. Basic armoring. Advance Computer science. Intermediate Ai creation. Basic particle science. Basic chemistry. Basic sensor science.

0 0 0 0 0

Sign. . . That was a lot. I turned around as the sun was already a quarter in the sky, probably late morning. Thunk. Ting! ting. . . I looked down and saw a long crowbar.

Oh? I picked it up, and saw that there was blood and brain matter on the hook. It smelled horrible, so I swished it clean. After that I looked towards the chained door.

After shaking it. Sounds of rusty chains rustled. Yup still lock, alight let's move. Thuck! I struck the chain, and it broke, both the chain and the claw, of the crowbar.

I kept the piece of steel as I opened the door, and leaned down as I entered. What greeted me was a dark stairway for a normal human but for me it's just slightly dimmed.

My barefoot made no sound on the basalt tiled stairs. My natural breathing, quiet, my exhalation, barely sensible even for me. I continued my casual pace, until I reached a floor.

Where the entrance door was a large mirror. I looked at myself, and saw a naked young man. Maybe in his late 20s. He was a giant, around 3 meters tall. He was fit, well proportioned in muscle, looking like an american football player.

His long hair was white, with dark brown tips. He was touching his chin inspecting his hair, but none grew, this made his smile twitch a little, but the smile stayed.

He looked at his eyes, they were like those of other humans. This made his smile reach his eyes, but that only lasted a second. After his inspection he spoke. 

Overall not bad, so you're the new me for a while. . .what's your name? The young giant spoke to himself. . . how about Daniel? I always liked that name, and for a last name? Ha ha ha. Cetus, I'll be known as Daniel Cetus. Let's give the mortals in this realm a clue. And then I opened the door.