Chapter 17: Ch 17 – Lead The Way

I saw Kait jump out of her car, so I likewise exited. 

I faced that teenager as I did so. 

"Greg! Take care of everyone!"

"But I'm buried!"

He yelled back, but I ignored it. 

I heard the familiar sound of Elijah's sword being unsheathed. With that as the trigger, I knew something had to be going on. Any normal zombie couldn't bring him to a halt. Could it be a Grabber?

I rushed around to where Kait was standing. She was staring ahead, already conjuring little spikes of ice around her. She was primed for battle. 

I barely made it to her side to see this enemy. 

*Thud!*

A large hand slammed into Elijah's body, sending him flying and into a nearby car. His body dented the vehicle, shattering its windows before he slid down in a slump. 

Would this be a Tank zombie?

A massive frame that stood at least 8 feet tall, its body bulging with muscles larger than any bodybuilder in history. Its legs looked skinny compared to its hulking torso, but I could see its toes dig into the asphalt underneath it, creating cracks of pressure as it prepared to charge at Elijah again. Perhaps the large sword sticking out of its chest had angered it. 

This zombie represented pure strength, no doubt. Its body seemed to have grown so fast that I could see its bare fleshy muscles underneath its skin that had torn open to accommodate its large build. It was as grotesque as it was threatening. 

I conjured my skeleton and equipped my revolver just in time to see it run. 

It was... painfully slow. 

It clearly had no agility, as even Kait was able to hit all of her ice spikes while it was moving. It almost looked like it was trudging through thick mud as it 'charged' Elijah. 

Though, that begged the question. Why didn't Elijah dodge its slap? Did he invest everything into strength like this zombie?

I sighed, feeling much less in worried. Although it could pose a serious threat if it got close, I don't think this zombie could ever catch up to any one of us. 

My skeleton charged under my command, reaching the Tank before it could reach Elijah. It chopped down with its bone axe, its movements fluid and deliberate, showing a bit of heightened intelligence compared to before. 

Its axe pierced into its back, but because the muscle was so thick, it wasn't able to do any noticeable damage. Even Kait's ice spikes had merely been buried into its hide, causing small streams of blood to trickle down its body. 

My skeleton continued to chop, and it caught the Tank's attention before it reached Elijah. It turned around with a swipe that, while not being fast, carried enough weight behind it to be devastating. 

My skeleton chopped at the arm, and the two collided. Naturally, my skeleton went flying, barely keeping itself together as its Health dropped. 

I yelled at it while it got up. "Just kill the other zombies!"

With that order, my skeleton went and attacked the nearby zombies around the cars. By this time, Kevin had also rushed over, and he knocked a Power arrow into his new bow, aiming at the Tank. 

During the time he was bought, Elijah pulled himself off the floor and distanced himself. 

"Elijah! Go defend the cars!"

"But my sword..."

"Here!" I grabbed my combat shovel and threw it to him. He caught it before retreating. 

As he understood, melee wasn't going to cut it with this thing. It would risk unnecessary harm when we could keep it at bay from a distance. 

Kait and Kevin moved beside me as the Tank focused on us. 

I let out a deep breath. "Keep your distance. Don't get hit. Keep it away from the cars. Let's kill it clean. Now go!"

I yelled just as it charged us. Its legs reached and pulled its body forward, gripping the ground after cracking through it. Although it was slow, I still couldn't help but distance myself with fear. 

I aimed my revolver, taking the first shot. 

*BANG*

I didn't even have to aim much with such a large hitbox in front of me. My bullet hit center mass, tearing into its abdomen. 

I could almost see the ripple in its flesh from the impact of the bullet, like a droplet of water falling into a calm puddle. 

But, as per its name, the zombie tanked it like it was a measly punch. I only heard a deeper growl as it continued toward me, ignoring Kevin and Kait. 

Although blood formed from the wound I gave it, the bullet didn't even come out of its back, buried somewhere in that mass of hard muscle. Without much thought, I aimed a bit higher and let loose. 

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG*

I shot the rest of my five bullets. With my strength and agility, maintaining control of such a powerful revolver wasn't difficult. Even my grouping around the Tank's chest wasn't too bad. 

I didn't hit its head though, and it didn't seem like anything less would bring it down. Even after burying five bullets where its lungs and heart should be, it continued to roar and charge me. 

"I'm reloading!" I shouted as I spun on my heel and started running. 

Unfortunately, this revolver didn't come with a self reloading feature. I had to flip out the cylinder and dump the empty cartridges myself. Then, I slipped in fresh bullets from my fanny pack. This was a bit difficult as I ran through all the zombies around us, but with a kick or dropped shoulder, I was able to easily get them off of me. 

The Tank continued to follow me, and at some point, I actually slowed down out of fear that I would lose my aggro on it. I was good bait, allowing Kait and Kevin to focus on attacking with their abilities. 

*ROAR!!*

Suddenly, the Tank let out a bellow. The ground subsequently trembled, and I spun my head around. 

It fell, an arrow in its heel. I looked beyond the fallen giant at Kevin who was cheering merrily with his bow. 

Kait seemed to see the chance. As the Tank pulled itself back up, she rushed behind it and created a blade of ice. The blade slashed its other Achilles tendon, and the Tank was unable to maintain its footing. 

But it could still move. Using its arms, it dragged its body around and started chasing Kait with a speed probably faster than when it was on legs. She ran while letting out a cute squeal.

By this time, I had reloaded every bullet in the revolver. 

"I got it!"

I yelled as I suddenly charged the Tank. With that, Kevin stopped shooting arrows at it, and Kait focused on keeping its attention. 

Then, with a leap, I jumped atop its huge back as it dragged its own body around. Grabbing its surprisingly small head with one hand, I shoved the barrel of my revolver into it with the other. 

*BANG*

The hammer slammed down, another bullet flying into its skull from point blank range. Said bullet near-instantly exited out the other side, the fist sized exit wound letting out an explosion of red matter. 

The Tank dropped dead. 

---

{You have killed [Tank - Type 1]}

{You have gained [Ectoplasm] (x14)}

{You have gained [Ability Tome - Type 1]}

You are reading story Paragon at novel35.com

---

"Oh!"

I couldn't help a yelp of excitement as a book appeared in my arms. I disregarded my surroundings as I read the cover. 

"And it is... Basic healing arts! This is valuable!" My eyes bulged. 

A healing ability! That was huge! Without supplies and proper equipment, healing people properly was close to impossible. Plus, people usually got injured as a result of getting hit by a zombie, which was basically a death sentence no matter how light. With this, while I didn't know if it were possible to heal someone who was infected, other injuries would be much less devastating. 

For example, Elijah's injuries that he was currently groaning over while fighting regular zombies. 

Getting flung into a car was definitely jarring, so he surely had some trauma across his body. With this ability, we could probably get him up to speed without waiting a long time. And if someone had this when I stabbed myself in the shoulder, I might not be weak on my left side. 

But deciding what to do with this ability was secondary right now. I looked up, jumping off the corpse of the Tank and jogging over to Kait and Kevin who had started killing the surrounding zombies. 

Kait looked at me with excitement. "Jack! Is that what I think it is?!"

"Yea! It's healing related!" I responded while running back to the cars. "But don't worry about it right now! Let's get back to driving! We can't stay out here!"

"Got it!"

With that, we ran back to our convoy. Elijah and Greg were guarding the sedan, a dozen or so corpses surrounding them. My skeleton was also on its own killing any zombies it saw. Right now, I had about 32 Ectoplasm in storage. 

Suddenly though, I was reminded of something as I saw my skeleton. 

"You!" Running up behind it, I grabbed it by the spine and sprinted off toward the Tank. It was dragged, and I tossed it at the Tank's corpse. 

"Eat!" I commanded. 

Right when I did, the skeleton's eyes flared with hunger. Its hand momentarily shot toward the Tanks spine, and bone began to decompose. 

I watched as it grew even more, its meal obviously much more powerful than anything before. Its bones became a shade darker and a layer thicker, and I could practically feel its stats growing by the second. 

It took an entire minute for it to absorb everything. After it grew to 6 foot 3 inches tall, and its bones had turned to an ash-gray color, it ended by extracting the shoulder blade of the Tank.

This shoulder blade was abnormally elongated, almost looking like some kind of scythe that tapered to a point from its wide base. It connected this shoulder blade to its existing spine handle, ridding it of the previous blade. 

With that, it had a bigger and badder weapon. I wanted to look at its changes in the Archive as well, but we had more pressing matters. 

Running back to my car, I found Elijah and Greg continuing to guard the vehicle. Without delay, I shoved Greg back into the vehicle as Elijah nodded to me and ran to his truck. I knew he was hurting, but he could still fight so it could wait. He'd have to tough it out. At least he wasn't infected.

I scrambled in, and once I knew everyone was ready, I yelled out my window. "Go!"

Elijah floored it, slamming into a car that was blocking his path. The rest of us were right behind him, driving with a bit more confidence and aggression than before. 

............

---Kevin's POV---

We made it to the store!

Dammit, I didn't think we could actually pull this off. I mean, it was the apocalypse. Since when did people drive around during apocalypses? 

It was supposed to be a new world where only the military had working vehicles and everyone had to run around and hide like rats to survive, hoping to find some kind of scary gang to ally with or gradually starve to death. 

But here we were, rolling up to the store and plowing through any zombies in our way. Elijah really didn't hold back when crashing through anything in his way. While the front end of his truck was ruined, it still ran and did the job. We couldn't ask for more. 

I could see my teammates on the roof of the store, looking at us with gawking expressions while we arrived. Some of them quickly ran down, and I couldn't help but swell with a bit of pride. 

But at the same time... could I really call these people my friends anymore?

After parking close to the store, we were greeted by a small group with Albert at the front. Elijah went forward to meet him, quickly explaining the situation and lighting up Albert's face. 

At the same time, Jack hurried everyone out of his car. Kait rushed around to help the pregnant lady out as well, walking her directly into the store to take care of her. 

I really felt bad for that lady. I had actually talked to her, asking about what had happened after the apocalypse and why they were locked in a room alone. 

And well... it was bad. 

Every single one of those children had parents, whether one or both, that had been with them at the store. She told me that when the zombies had turned, every able-bodied person fought to keep them away within the store. Both fathers and mothers fought to keep them from eating the children, but even the ones who carried a knife couldn't escape unscathed...

Long story short, every parent had died protecting their children. The pregnant lady, whose name was Hannah, was the only surviving adult. The rest had either died by the hordes or turned into a zombie themselves. 

As for Greg, he got lucky when he fought. He managed to kill zombies, get an item, awaken, and live to continue fighting. He had killed those who had previously protected them, now turned enemies. His last resort was locking everyone into that single room, and waiting. 

I couldn't help but understand. Hannah was utterly terrified, but perhaps the only thing she felt more than fear was sorrow. She had lost her husband. And Greg had lost his own father. He was even forced to kill at such a young age. I would never wish such a situation upon a kid like that. Or anyone for that matter. 

It's why I stopped Jack when he was boring into Greg. It almost made me mad to see him badgering a little kid like that, but his words revealed enough to help me understand why he had done it. 

This apocalypse... It wasn't nice to anyone. It was fighting to survive, and Jack... He just wanted to do his best, and perhaps he had only projected that instinct for survival onto Greg. 

Jack handed out every ability he found after his first one. He didn't really keep any secrets beyond what was necessary. He helped us, going on an entire expedition just to get me a bow for my ability. 

Dammit, Jack was stronger than I was, and I wasn't talking about physically. I'd like to think that he had beaten that zombie infection through his sheer will. Those memories of his cursing, when he had plunged his knife into his shoulder in order to cut his entire arm off. Fighting against death in every way he could, going so far as to gather every last Ectoplasm he could from zombies in order to increase his vitality. 

I couldn't do that. I couldn't plunge a knife into my shoulder, no matter how desperate I was. It showed me a side of him that I now deeply respected. 

Jack was someone I could follow through this apocalypse. I was unendingly grateful that he gave me the ability I now had too. I wouldn't be useless, wasting away in that store while he... they, went out and fought to get stronger. I wanted to be a part of something greater, and in a way, I pitied those who might never get the privilege of becoming something more. 

But then again... becoming something more wasn't always great. 

I could see it as I walked into the store with Jack. 

The eyes of my friends, my teammates. We were all one big family, brought together by our common sport. And between them, they truly were one large unit. 

But Jack, Elijah, Kait, and myself... we were something else, now. 

Their eyes no longer looked at me with the same familiarity. There was distance. Ever since I gained that ability, perhaps they had realized something, but they didn't even speak to me the same. It was like I became something else to them. Like my ability automatically excluded me from them. 

Like I was no longer normal. 

It was the same for Elijah, Jack, and Kait. They no longer talked to the others. Hell, Jack and Elijah had become the leaders. Even our head coach was taking orders from Jack. As soon as that happened, they had basically abandoned their positions as 'the teammates'. Now, they were 'the ones with the abilities'. 

And honestly, I could understand. I remember when Jack and Elijah came back with their abilities. Jack hadn't really talked to me at all, and with him taking that leadership role with Elijah, I didn't feel like I could talk to him. He really had become something else, and it was only when I also got an ability that I finally felt like I could interact with him on equal terms again. 

It wasn't his fault. But something about being awakened... It almost changed your status in life. Like you had become more than human. And in a way, you did. We were superhumans. 

So when I walked back into the store, carrying my bow and sticking by Jack's side... I almost disregarded the looks of excitement and awe that others shot my way. 

I let out a long sigh, as if resigning myself to something. I adjusted my sweater that covered my body and lowered my head. 

I walked beside Jack whose gaze was forward, filled with intent and purpose. You could practically see the visions of the future playing out in his head. The determination to push forward, to fight for progress. To not just survive, but thrive. 

And I let him lead the way. 

 

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