AW? Chapter 10 (Patreon)

I didn’t get a response to my question on why stat equipment wasn’t in the system but it made sense. It would be a gigantic advantage to anyone with early access to the store and those types of items might only be rewards from bundles. I doubted it though. For some reason, I knew I didn’t get access because it would give someone already much stronger than most an even bigger advantage.

I explained my plans to Charlotte as we prepared for our missions. She would follow the original plan of looking for a good location to move near the Great Lakes and I would take another smaller group to pick up self-sufficient live-in campers I used to help my friend make before I got my corporate business job. My friend started from the bottom, turning his old camper into a home to live in when he thought he was going to lose his house but then he hit the lottery for twenty thousand.

He sold that camper and used the funds to start a live-in camper home business. I quit right as he was upgrading his business from a single team to multiple teams all making those campers and the last I heard he was working overtime on a project for a cult that wanted to set up a compound off-grid. We headed out and only ten people decided to come with me which, fair, I had killed someone in front of them and I’m not a good leader but this will cost them houses in the future.

We could only bring back a camper each but four of five of us will have to bring back the specialized semi trucks filled with the cult compound stuff. That meant we could bring back less than ten homes, we’d need to find a hotel or something near the Great Lakes for everyone else and the moment the power goes out only the campers would have functioning power from the solar panels on them.

It sucked. You don’t realize how bad it would be if ninety percent of the population of the world turning into zombies would be until you have to travel any amount of distance and see all the fucking vehicles in the middle of the road. Most people passed out going fifty on the roads and only a few of the lucky ones managed to survive both the crash and not changing into a zombie.

The roads were almost impassable, at least they would have been if I hadn’t increased my storage space. I could store cars and place them off the roads when they were unpassable. It was slow going but it was necessary in my mind to have these campers wherever we ended up living. I made my way smashing in zombie skulls while everyone else cowered behind me as I kept driving further along the road in a stolen truck.

The process took longer than it would have if I had help but most people were still freaking out about the apocalypse and the few that chose to go with me did it because I had proven my strength already. Someone chimed up from the back. “H-hey… I’m getting pretty hungry and we just went past a Dollar General. We should stop and get some food.”

That wasn’t a bad idea. I made my way inside crouching ready to clear the entire store myself as I didn’t see any zombies from the door. Making my way over to the aisles I kept looking around before seeing that they had energy drinks on sale… Why did I care about deals right now? I could take whatever I wanted but it was just built into my DNA to look for deals.

I’m heavily distracted but the loud sound of one of the aisles crashing brings me back to reality. Down at the end of the aisle is a lady crouched down looking oddly at me. She let out a loud screech before running towards me. I’m so distracted I don’t remember to pull my pipe wrench out of my storage as I panic at her speed. I grabbed the first item I could from the shelf and pelted her with it… Damnit, I really wish it wasn’t toilet paper.

The surprised look I swear I saw on her face for a split second bought me enough time to grab a can of beans from the shelf to rearm myself. The attack also surprised me, the speed at which I threw the toilet paper was much faster than I could have previously. I’m definitely stronger than before.

If the feral lady wasn’t running towards me to kill me she would be somewhat attractive, maybe a little too old for me to take my shot. She could very well be someone's mother or even a grandma… I really don’t want to kill someone's grandma. I aim at her leg and throw the beans. Wham! The beans fucking explode when they make contact. I yell out in surprise. “Jesus!”

Once again the shock of her face as her body doesn’t work as she wants. These zombies are definitely smarter. She tries to take the next step and her foot falters as she falls to the ground. Even still as I move out of the way she grabs towards me trying to just get a single finger on me if possible. I grab something from the shelf close by and pelt her with it… It’s a plastic container of pretzels. The only thing that happens is another explosion of pretzels everywhere.

I heard another snarl coming as another twenty-eight days later zombie came running from the other aisle outside of my vision. Why couldn’t they be slow-ass zombies from Night of the Living Dead…. Or Dawn of the Dead, or Day of the Dead zombies? Give me a Romero zombie, please! At least they’re not deadites from the Army of Darkness. All I need is for the zombie I just knocked down to make fun of my inadequacies while I try to kill them.

I run through the aisle of cookies as the other zombie runs through the candy aisle. My panicked mind thinks for a second as another zombie rushes over from behind the counter. Ahh, that sucks. I run over two aisles and start to head down to the cans of beef stew. I hear the zombie running back down the aisle beside mine so I push over the shelf onto them. I pick up a can hoping I don’t have to but… The zombie employee is charging at me so I aim and launch a can at her head.

Clunk! It strikes and snaps her head back completely as it sprays Dinty Moore stew everywhere like a grenade going off. For a moment I think she’s going to stand back up but her body gives out underneath her and she falls to the floor not moving. I grab another six cans and load them into a plastic carrier that was conveniently left nearby. Another two men came running from the opposite side of the aisles. One was a fat businessman wearing a suit, his weight made it hard for him to move quickly and he was pushed out of the way by the weight lifting dude.

If I had to guess his job I’d assume a trainer or professional athlete. If we were to square up in a fair fight I doubt my success in that fight. If it were a fair fight and I wasn’t five times as strong as I was yesterday as I take aim at him. I pelt him with two of the cans dropping him before he gets too much closer. Unlike him, the fat man absorbs the blows and keeps shuffling for me. Damn, he’s too fat to take down with projectiles. As I was distracted by those zombies, two more managed to sneak up on me.

Another man who looked like a construction worker grabbed me by my hand and yanked, making me drop the remaining cans. He bit directly into me. He bit my tit! I ‘This is Sparta’ kick him off me and feel his bones crumple under my shoe. He goes back fifteen feet slamming into the frozen food section door and breaking it. I run at the fat zombie and jump-kick him while yelling. “Haiya!”

The force of my kick flung him backward just like the last zombie. He collapsed into the end of the pet food shelf. His head struck the metal hard enough to make a gong sound. He let out a loud farting noise as his bowels loosened from being killed. One of the zombies who was stuck underneath the shelf I pushed over almost made it out. I ran over and stepped on her head until she stopped moving.

An old man zombie broke through the door and ran towards me. Another few soup-based projectiles knocked him down with a well-placed one finishing him off. I stood still for a few seconds before I heard the remaining zombie underneath the knocked-over shelf attempt to push it off itself. The cougar mom zombie let out another growl as she started climbing over the knocked-down shelf towards me… I took careful aim and finished her with my next throw.

I waited about a minute for the remaining zombie to move to a point where I could finish her off… I made my way to the medical supplies aisle making sure not to slip on the exploded soup can contents. I poured an entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide on my bitten tit before hearing another noise from the back. A paraplegic zombie slowly wheeled themself toward me. God dammit man, I call out.

“Come on man. Please don’t make me do this.” He slowly wheeled himself forward with no heed to my warning. How the fuck didn’t he fall out of the chair and how is he smart enough to know how to wheel himself around as a zombie? I continue. “Just give me a sign that there’s some humanity left in you. Wave your hand or give me a thumbs up, throw gang signs just anything… Please, I don't want to do this.”

As I spoke to him I also built up the nerve to do it. If he was really alive he wouldn’t want to be treated special right? I didn’t have any cans of food left but had calmed down enough to remember ‘Oh right the weapon I’ve been using’. I walked over and completed the dirty deed of finishing off the remaining zombie. I felt drained after the brief fight I was put through. 

Thinking back it seemed like it was like thirty minutes but in reality, it was barely a tenth of that time. It could have also been the bleeding but my blood was surprisingly thick like syrup. The evolution I went through did even more for my constitution as without worrying too much about it the wound slowly thickened and clotted itself. I checked the remaining building before getting everyone else. I needed a break myself to sit down and eat after that, I knew many would die trying to get food in the future because of these fast fuckers.