Chapter 3 From cities to the sticks. Act 3 to 3

Act 3 Home on wheels.

Day 61 of the apocalypse. A day after the powerplant system reset.

Pov Yukari Riceld.

Hm, hm, hmm. . . A girl wearing a simple dress hummed as she used a grill to cook fried rice, with toppings ranging from shrimp jerky to radiated vegetables. 

Click! Click! Huh? Think that means Daniel finished working on the powerplant? Reyka Bellwood said to the still humming girl, as she mixed in some more carrots into her fried rice.

Probably, but better to check. . Bzz, Bzz. . . A hand radio on Reyka Bellwood's hip buzzed as Yukari Riceld spoke, she stopped her dialogue as Reyka Bellwood reached for the radio and pressed a button.

Hello? Hello? Reyka it's me! Lower the pulley! Oh! Daniel. I saw, as Reyka sauntered slowly towards the edge of the parking tower roof, and looked down. I didn't know what she was seeing, but wow, never knew she could do such a sadistic smile before.

So I looked away and focused on our breakfast. Ahh. . . Smells amazing really wish we had fresh vegetables tho, not just the irradiated stuff. I added more 10 season spices, making the smell even more addictive.

What's the magic word? Please? Oh no, mister Daniel, those aren't it. . . there was a long pause on the other side of the call and the distant sound of gunfire finally stopped. Just Tell the girl what she wants! Yelled an unfamiliar voice by the sound of it, probably a male in his 40s or 50s. 

Fine. . . You can have the first load tonight. I Heard a Makki yell at the other side of the call. Thank you, Darling~ was that so hard? Yes, please, let down the elevator. Oh that's his serious tone, I took a peek and saw Reyka giggling like a girl that just had her first kiss. . . sigh. . . what a masochist.

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Pov Daniel Cetus

So what was that about? Homer Baker asked me as he kept watching around us as we waited for a moving platform above us to get closer. Margerette Baker was telling the children that I was talking about laundry, and Makki was looking slightly depressed as she pointed her pistols toward one of the alleys.

We were on top of a bus in front of the parking garage entrance. I don't feel anymore undead, atleast non in a 100 meter circle area. . . oh scratch that there's 7 no, 10 no, 20 . . . a horde just passed my detection ring and they're not even coming in the same direction, sigh . . . this is why no one should be using guns in this apocalypse.

10, 3 and 7 o'clock incoming! This roused the two as they started to aim in those directions and then Bang! The sound of an assault rifle and pistols rang through the air. I looked to my 10 o clock and saw a big guy.

It was running fast, at us. Homer finished with his section, and immediately started shooting at it. Doing nothing to it, 3 shots in the skull, and 10 in the torso and 6 in the legs and nothing. Damn! Homer was now reloading. I looked back and saw Marge and the kids on the platform.

Hey Makki! Start the lift! I'll be right there! She looked back, took one look at the giant infected monster and ran like hell towards the lift taking my radio and yelling to it. Sempai! Drop the ladder!

The undead was only 10 meters away as it did a large leapt toward us Homer was shooting at it at full auto, caving in its chest but nothing else. At 3 seeing the white pupil of its eyes. I threw my ax at it pushing it back, decapitating one of its bulging heavily mutated arms.

As Homer was trying to reload another round, I saw how focused he was, not even noticing the monster was already crippled. So I picked Homer by his side and then ran towards the rope ladder, and then jumped and started climbing. Raagh! The undead gave a blooded roar. As I climbed higher with a knocked out, overweight man, between one of my arms.

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(Note: It's been 4 days since I wrote.)

Hours later. . .

On the roof of a mid-rise apartment complex, with an attached parking tower. That roof housed a group of survivors, one layed on a couch barely able to move his head. With another fussing over him.

Four sat on the edge of the roof drinking and talking, while looking down on a monsterous sight. Then there were three more, they were the youngest of the group, two of them were taking turns talking to a pale skinned white robed girl.

Homie:( are you sure you're okay? D'oh, Marge! I'm okaaay... I'm just stuck here like a statue, except my head's still wigglin' and I got a couple of fingers doin' their own thing. But the rest of me? Nada. I mean, I can't even feel them!

But. . . They stopped, as a large youth came to their view, he was holding two large bottles of beer in one hand, one of them had a straw and a cup of steaming tea in the other. Here Aunty Marge, drink this, it's black oliver tea. It'll calm your nerves, atleast it did with my mom.

Thank you, dear. Just trying to hold it together here, like a stack of pancakes without syrup. The youth nodded. and this is for you, Uncle Homer, it's not pure beer, I mixed in a lot of the things to help you get back on your feet, I'm really sorry about the nerve Pinch.

Yeah, it's fine kiddo. I should be thanking you. I thought I was a goner for a moment there. But hey, anything that helps me feel like a human again is alright by me. Cheers, buddy! He was smiling at the youth as Merge helped Homer drink the cocktail. . . Hey, not bad, kid! I think you got me hooked! What's in this drink?

The youth shook his head and left the couple. He'll be fine in a few more hours. The kids are fine, oh? Sam seems to be showing the other kids how to make origami. . . but I think those are too complex. Hey! Daniel! Comeback! Yes! I'll be right there.

I came back towards the girls, with another round of drinks on hand, very watered down tho, so they don't get drunk again. They're too light weight to actually have fun drinking with, well, as they are now.

So are we just gonna ignore that guy? Reyka said as she pointed her drink towards the monstrous infected. Not sure, I haven't seen an infected like that before, do you girls think he used to be a. . . yeah probably part of one of the local special soldier programs, there were a lot of those in New Tokyo and most were privately run.

I wouldn't give much faith to those cutthroats, Reyka. Makki joined in showing her hatred for corporate people, showing on her clenched teeth. It's really odd how diverse this place is; they seem more like a collection of city states in the Holy Roman Empire rather than a late 21st century federated nation of states.

Hmm. . . I'll try capturing that infected. What! Huh? Why! One at a time girls. Why? Reyka asked first. It's too dangerous, even if you're a Class 3 Meta-Human Daniel. Oh? When did you start using my rank system? I said patronizingly as I patted her head, which she immediately slapped away.

I'm serious Daniel! I am too, I need samples, and not just from Infected base human variants, but those things too. . . who knows I might get lucky and find an immune cell in one of them. Or get yourself killed, you idiot. Makki sighed, as she whispered this.

Okay, we know you need the samples but does it need to be . . . you know alive? Makki said. yes, the cells in every infected I gathered samples from thus far deteriorates fast, when killed, so yes, it needs to be alive. 

No helping it then, what do you need from us? Yukari said as she looked at the now setting sun. Sweet as ever in her words and actions. Well nothing, just need you girls, to takecare of our new guess. I crippled it earlier, I don't think it could walk right now, have you girls seen it move? Well. . . they were silent by that question as they looked back down.

The infected Meta-human, and it was still sitting on the ground still looking towards us. But there's still a horde down there! Yes there was in fact a horde down there more than a hundred based on my scans, and what my actual senses are telling me.

Well I didn't say I'll collect him now. . .huh? Ha ha ha! Alright you win Daniel let's ignore it until the horde passes, lets go Makki let's start cooking. And they did, it was a good, mushroom beef stock broth. And the potato bread was delicious.

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Day 65 of the apocalypse. A few days after their return. To base.

Inside the Office tower I called home in my first week in this new world I started looking into the progress of the infected I sent here to be stored.

I forced them to line up as I inspected them, their minds blurred, rendering their instincts to hunt mute. Most of the slower normal infections I sent here seem to have turned to the faster variants. I looked into their minds and saw fragmented memories of them leaving and hunting at night in this area devouring survivors.

But oddly they don't seem to have any obvious external mutations. Unlike the natural fast variants I caught in the city. Curious, I inspected the first FV-Infected I caught, she might have been in her 30s, maybe even 40s. I can see the echoes of how sexually arousing her body was. even with all the scars of becoming an undead. And of course her now monsterous mutations.

I ravaged her mind, as they were little more than beasts, I wasn't as gentle as I could be. I looked into her, through her fragmented memories of who she was. her instinct drowned memories of what she has become. her animalistic thoughts, and the systems in which she thinks, but more commonly hunts.

Thud! The sample broke, laying on the cold hard granite floor. Fluids of the undead dripping from her orifices. Click! My mouth moved, a habit from the one who used to occupy my new body. Disgusting, but informative. So the heavy external mutation is used to mitigate UV degradation? And of course natural weapons.

Hmm. . . I called for one of the ones that evolved into a FV-Infected under my care. And scanned through her, and I found that she was developing into the body of an elite athlete. Her muscle fibers were dense, yet very flexible, unlike the muscle fiber of a Natural FV-infected, which is stronger but with the drawback of being brittle, with the inflexibility of a clay stick.

So without the pressure of the UV degradation, normal undead can turn into these Variants of the undead. . . I should give them a name. . . how about NAV-Infected, which is the Night Athlet Variant. 

I smiled nodding at myself with satisfaction. And then looked at her mostly naked self, I don't know why the media in the worlds I visited insisted on giving the zombies clothes even tho, logically most would be butt naked in the first few months of the apocalypse. . . or like this one, wearing mostly rags, that doesn't even hide her decency.

Sigh. . . Her skin was turning a pale blue, much like the other normal undead I stored here, but curiously. FV-Infecteds still had their natural skin, some even started to tan. Their microbiology is the same; the vitamin D is still poisoning the cells infected with the Zombie virus, but oddly the ZOmbie Rot bacteria isn't being affected as much. A new mutation?

0 0 0 0 0

A few hours after Daniel's experiments.

Few, that was hard. I said as I hauled two large bolts of rolled fabric into the back of a trailer convoy. Is that everything? No, there's still 4 bolts in the warehouse but I think that's enough for me to fabricate some of my Synth weave cloth.

Makki called out on the side of the RV that was towing the convoy. Alright let's move! I yelled as I jumped into the roof of the RV and sat at my post. Homer was already there with his rifle and a can of beer.

A beer this early? Mmm... beer. You know, Boy, it's never too early for a cold one! chuckles Besides, it helps me keep my aim steady. He said lastly with a little more seriousness than normal.

So, did you get what you needed? Yeah I did uncle. Alright I'll tell you if I see something from here you can hang at the back with the others. He looked me in the eyes when I was about to protest and it stopped me. Alright uncle, thank you.

Then we were off. . . I went in the RV, the kids were playing a board game about karma using Snakes and branches. . . Marge was knitting, while Yukari was reading a book at the side window with chairs. I went towards her.

You sure you don't want to try looking for your boyfriend? I asked as I sat across from her. PftT! ha ha. . . she gave a light laugh. Now that's a way to start a conversation. . . no, I'm fine, I. . . it's sweet of you for asking Daniel, but. . . We broke up even before all this. . . I still care for him, but no, I don't want to risk everyone here or even you, so thank you for asking, but please don't be a hero. . . we can't save everyone.

She was tearing up but she was forcing it down. But as I gave her a light hug, and as she returned it. I felt warm tears drop on my skin. . . as we continued to travel through the dense city-scape. It reminded me of the other worlds I visited. . . memories of not my own bubbling as we passed through one part of the city to the next, and then at a clearing in the outer city. We stopped.