Chapter 4: Ch 4 – Scout

With another weapon, we were vastly more prepared. A machete was especially useful, not requiring close contact in order to use it like knife. 

All four of us gradually got serious as we walked through the parking structure. Then, we suddenly heard a noise. 

"Hacc!"

An odd sound echoed through the lot, causing all of us to freeze. Far away amidst the cars, there was a single zombie wandering around. It looked like an athlete, one who had apparently been late to practice and ended up turning alone in the parking lot. 

We all dipped down. The zombie didn't notice us, surprising considering Elijah had rummaged through his car. Though, it looked to be wandering toward us, so maybe we weren't as quiet as we thought. 

"What should we do?" Kait asked in a barely audible whisper. 

I pondered for a short second. "Maybe test it?"

The behavior of zombies was totally unknown. Knowing their triggers would be invaluable while wandering amidst hundreds of them. 

"We can test how they react to vision and sound. I would also test smell, but we don't have anything for that."

"That sounds good." Elijah slowly nodded. "We can throw an object, make some noise and see how it reacts. Then we can do vision, maybe by waving to it from behind a car."

"Here's a small pebble. Start with it." Kait raised a small black rock made from the asphalt of the street below. 

Taking it, Elijah stood a bit and chucked it. The rock hit the window of a car not far from the zombie. 

"Heghh?"

The monster let out a grunt, turning to the noise. It then slowly made its way over like a curious sloth. 

When it found nothing, it lingered for a few minutes before wandering off in a random direction. 

"Its ears might not be super sensitive, but it does have curiosity. It also seems to look around. If it doesn't immediately see anything, then it'll wander off."

Kait summarized what we just say.

With that, Elijah sighed. "Then let's try vision. I'll wave to it from here."

"What do you want to do if it charges?" I asked. We would obviously have to kill it in the case that it noticed us. 

Elijah confirmed my thoughts. "We'll just have to kill it. I'll take it out. It'll be good practice, and this place is safe. Back me up though."

"Of course." I reassured him. 

With that, Elijah stood up more. Then, he knocked on the car, causing a noise to reverberate in the structure. 

The zombie turned lazily. Then, tilted its head. 

Elijah stuck his hand out from behind the car, right in the zombie's line of sight. At first he kept it still, but when the zombie made no noticeable movements for a few minutes, he began waving. 

Finally, the zombie reacted. It grunted loudly before breaking out into a jog, making its way toward the hand. 

With our position exposed, we all stepped out. Elijah took the very front, and I kept back. He wanted to handle it, and I happened to want the same thing. 

After killing a zombie, I had been awakened, getting an ability in the process. If Elijah could awaken and get an ability as well, we would surely have even higher chances of survival. 

It wasn't long before the zombie appeared in front of us. I felt my adrenaline surge as Elijah lunged forward. 

It was a single swing, and the zombie didn't even react to it. Without suspense, the machete was buried in its head. 

The zombie collapsed, blood pouring from its split head. Elijah took a step away, the machete easily being pulled out with his grip. 

Blood dripped from his blade as he took several deep breaths. He was frozen as he collected himself, never turning from the gruesome sight. 

"Hey? Are you alright?"

Kait moved forward, stepping between him and the zombie. With his view finally off it, he shook his head. 

"Yea, I'm fine."

"..."

I was silent, watching Elijah intently. Did he see it? The same messages that came to me in my mind?

It didn't seem like it, or maybe he had seen it while frozen. 

'But he should've received a Tome. It popped into my hands.'

I looked at his hands, and only the bloody machete was there. He didn't receive a Tome. 

He wasn't awakened.

But why? 

I couldn't figure it out, and in the end, I didn't say anything. My eyes rested on his back as we walked out of the parking structure. 

Broad daylight graced us as we kept behind a wall. 

The stadium was right across the street from the campus. However, the campus was obviously large, being a college and all. There were dozens of areas we could check. 

And even from where we were, we could see zombies roaming the place. 

Cars littered the road in the distance, and I could count a dozen among them just from my narrow line of sight. There were definitely much more on campus. 

"Where to?" Kait asked.

Elijah let out a slow breath. "Our top priority is finding the military. The gunshots we heard last night were definitely within a few miles of here. I say we find a tall building, get to its top, and scout our surroundings. If we find any traces of military, then we'll head over."

"We're really heading out far, huh?" 

Kait's head dropped in resignation. Though we volunteered for this, it didn't make us any less afraid. Venturing away from the safety of the stadium was nerve wracking. 

Elijah looked back at us. "You guys can always go back."

"No." I immediately shook my head. "I sticking with you."

"Same." Kait nodded.

Coach Todd just hummed. He wasn't going anywhere. 

"Then we'll head in the general direction of where we heard the gunshots." Elijah pointed in a direction away from the campus. "I'm pretty sure they came from the west, so we'll go that way."

I chimed in. "I suggest we stick around and within buildings. Zombies can see us and hear us, so running through the streets won't work unless we want to get hoarded."

"And if there are any zombies in the buildings?" Kait asked.

"Kill them." Elijah answered simply. "At least buildings will have obstacles and are more isolated. If there are strays, then we'll just get rid of them. Of course, we'll avoid them if we can. But I agree with Jack. Moving from building to building will be best."

"Then let's go."

With that, we set off. After laying eyes on an opposing building near the stadium, we rushed to it. 

We bypassed a zombie on the street and ran up to the door of the building. Elijah pulled it open, and we got inside before the zombie could start rushing toward us. 

Upon entering, we weaved through some of the hallways. One of them had a zombie in it, while some lingered within rooms. We quickly got rid of any in the hallways. 

At one point, we passed by a room occupied by 8 zombies. Kait had quickly shut the door to it, and we all looked at her in surprise. 

She shrugged. "What? I doubt they can pull doorknobs."

"True. Let's keep moving." Elijah chuckled before continuing. 

We soon exited the opposite side of the building. In front of us was now a street. There weren't any buildings in the vicinity aside from one about 50 meters away across the street. 

In our way were three zombies.

"Break for it?" Kait looked to Elijah with bated breath.

I let out a long sigh. I was a lot less nervous now that we were in the thick of everything. It was ironic.

"Well, we can all run to a certain extent. Bypass them?"

"I can kill the middle one, and you guys run past." Elijah made a plan. "After running past me, get that door open, and I'll follow."

"Sounds like a plan. Count us down."

"Alright. 3... 2... 1..."

"Go!"

All at once, we broke off into a sprint. 

I launched forward with surprising speed. My legs felt stronger than ever, and it showed when I instantly threw myself ahead of Elijah.

I quickly pulled back, slowing myself to jog with them. Still, we all moved at surprisingly fast speeds. Even Coach Todd could easily keep up. 

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"Got it!"

Elijah grit his teeth on approach, raising his machete and aiming for the zombie's head. The zombie couldn't even react before the blade buried itself in its skull. 

I ran past, picking up speed and leaving the others behind. When I approached the door, I yanked it open, holding it for the others. 

"In!"

I waved Kait through, Coach Todd following right behind. 

After killing the zombie, Elijah hadn't wasted any more time on the other two. He broke out with speeds rivaling our best sprinters before this apocalypse. A thrower shouldn't have that much speed, I thought. 

However, it seemed one of the zombies behind him didn't plan to let us off so easily. It also broke out into a sprint, hot on Elijah's tail.

He obviously noticed, so when he spun around, he slashed with the machete. It didn't hit the zombie's head though, instead taking off its arm. 

The zombie pressed forth, threatening to scratch Elijah. That was when I stepped away from the door, stepping in front of Elijah who was recovering from his attack. 

"I got it!"

I let out a shout louder than I probably should've. Unfolding my knife, I thrust forth.

Time seemed to slow as my adrenaline surged. My body seemed to think this was a life or death battle, despite it only being a single zombie. Still, the hyperawareness helped me aim my hand. 

My aim was true, my knife burying itself into the zombie's head. The thing immediately collapsed, falling against me. 

I quickly pushed the corpse away before turning back around and sprinting with Elijah into the building. Behind us, the third zombie was limping forward, struggling to walk toward us. 

Kait shut the door behind me, all of us hurrying into the depths of the... book store we had entered.

Suddenly, Coach Todd waved at us. "Hey, there's three zombies here!"

Elijah and I looked up, seeing the three zombies that had noticed us. They were in the center of the book store, and there might be more among the book shelves. 

For a moment though, I didn't react. I had one question in my mind. 

'Why didn't I get anything for the kill?'

Last time, I had attained Ectoplasm, and it had at least notified me of the kill. This time though, there was no response, no messages congratulating me for the effort. 

But I had killed it? I wasn't sure what was going on. With a thought, I pulled up my Archive, which did in fact still work. But there were still no messages. 

"Jack, you take the one on the right. I got the other two."

Elijah clasped my shoulder, snapping me out of my reverie. With a hurried nod, we both stepped forward. 

I jumped toward my zombie. Instead of lunging toward it though, I gave it a swift kick to the legs. It couldn't maintain its balance and fell down, giving me an easy kill as I stabbed down with my knife. With my lifting gloves, I didn't have to worry about hurting my hands while touching the zombie, making me more confident. 

Elijah had also easily killed his first zombie. He then spun around and hacked at the second one. After slashing its arm and neck twice, he finally killed it, the corpse falling in a pool of blood. 

He took a few hurried breaths, calming himself down. Although the actions themselves didn't consume hardly any energy, we both felt like we were fighting for our lives. We were anxious the entire time, causing us to consume more energy than we should have. 

"Watch out!"

Kait shouted as she ran past me. Throwing out her leg, she spartan kicked a zombie that had been approaching me from a nearby book shelf. 

"You too!"

Coach Todd also rushed forward to Elijah, similarly kicking a zombie away. 

That was when we saw a few more emerge. As we backed away, we counted 7 zombies, all of them starting to rush toward us. 

I began to panic. If we were smart and skilled, we would funnel them and handle them one by one. But when in the moment, we reverted back to instinct, seemingly throwing all logic out the window. 

I suddenly looked down at my arm. 

Time to go to work!

With a thought, the bone rune on my arm suddenly glowed. The skeleton sentry materialized in front of me, startling the others. 

"It's my minion! Just protect yourselves!"

I shouted at them while pointing forward.

"Sentry, kill those zombies!"

With my command, the fire within the skeleton's eye sockets flickered. Its short body spun around, facing the 7 zombies and rushing forward. 

It reached out with its pointed fingers, grabbing the head of a zombie and slamming it into the floor. It then stomped down with its heel, brutally crushing this skull. 

I smiled as I swung my leg out, kicking another zombie that had bypassed my skeleton. 

"Knock them down first so we can kill them!"

Elijah shouted, and the others heeded his command. Kait and Coach Todd barreled forward, throwing out their own kicks to knock the zombies off balance. They also avoided any that tried to grab them in the process. 

Then, Elijah and I just needed to go around, stabbing them in the head. I was quick about my kills, and Elijah started to resort to decapitating them. With Kait and Coach Todd keeping them on the floor with their kicks, we killed all of them quickly.

My skeleton had also killed another, making that two kills.

And that was when I finally saw what I had been wishing for.

---

{Your [Skeleton Sentry] has killed [Zombie - Type 1] (x2)}

{You have gained [Ectoplasm - Type 1] (x1)}

---

A smile rose on my face when I saw those alerts. At the same time, I realized something about killing zombies in relation to this Archive.

Only using abilities to kill could earn you Ectoplasm. But then why did I get rewarded for my first kill?

'The Grace Period.' I thought. 

The Archive had explicitly mentioned that due to the Grace Period I had been rewarded. 

And the fact that Elijah didn't get anything for his kills meant the Grace Period had ended. Killing with basic weapons wouldn't allow one to be rewarded anymore. 

Suddenly, I looked beside me. The others were staring at my Skeleton Sentry like it was a monster. Well, it kind of was, but it was my monster. 

"Jack? What the hell is that?"

Kait looked at me warily. I looked at my skeleton companion that had bent down over one of the zombie corpses. 

Suddenly, its pointed fingers pierced into its back, grabbing its spine and ripping out. After a few tugs, the entire spine came out. 

I was horrified as it then proceeded to tear out the shoulder blade. Through some kind of sorcery, the skeleton fused the shoulder blade to the spine. The entire thing then hardened, becoming something like an axe. The unsettling part were the strips of muscle and flesh still attached to it. 

I looked back at them, a bit paler than before. "That's, uh, my minion. It listens to me."

Elijah looked at me oddly. "What's a minion? I saw you... summon it. What was that?"

"An ability." I just blurted the truth, which was confusing enough. "You know that voice we heard? Well, there's this thing called an Archive, and it gave me an ability after killing that zombie back at the stadium."

"Like a game?" Elijah tilted his head weirdly.

"Exactly." I confirmed his thoughts. 

He quickly frowned. "Then why didn't I get anything?"

"Well, there was this grace period where you could get rewarded for killing a zombie with basic weapons. But that's over now, and even when I kill with my knife, I don't get anything. When my skeleton kills though, I get rewarded, since it's an ability."

I explained to him what I saw in regard to the awakening. The Ectoplasm, the Tome, the Archive screen with all my stats. I didn't particularly feel like hiding anything. We were all trying to survive here, and I couldn't lose my trust with these people. I didn't want to be seen as some kind of monster. 

And for a while, the others had a hard time believing me. They asked me all these questions, and I answered as best I could. I even showed them my texts with my friends who confirmed that they had gotten awakened. That seemed to do it for them. 

It was only several minutes later that Elijah just sighed. 

"Well, that sucks. Is there really no way for us to get that?"

"I'm not sure." I shook my head apologetically. "All I know is that only my ability gives me rewards for killing. But hey, if I get another ability Tome, you'll be the first I give it to. I already have one."

"I guess I can only thank you in advance."

Elijah smiled at my promise. And I really was promising him. The more people with abilities, the stronger we would become. I instinctively knew that this Archive was the key to not just getting stronger, but going beyond our human limits. That voice told us to evolve, and handed us these things as tools to do so. 

The more people got their hands on these tools, the better. It was extremely unfortunate that every day they weren't awakened was another day they couldn't work toward evolving. 

"But what about me!"

"I'll give you one if I can too, Kait."

 

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