Chapter 4: Comrade


    ''Will it end just like this?''


    ''Will I die right in the beginning wasting my second chance?''


    Second thoughts had surfaced in his mind. Is he worthy to be given a chance to fix his mistakes? If someone else was in his ce, would he do better than him?


    ''No, I should focus! Focus!''


    Sending another kick to the belly of a zombie, Dave pulled some distance between them. Countless thoughts swirled in his mind as he tried toe up with a solution.


    ''Think, how can I kill it being in such a disadvantageous position?''


    "..."


    An idea appeared in his mind.


    In his previous life, he was so ustomed to being alone that he forgot about fatty next to him. Since he was weak, nobody wanted to party up with him during raids. So he grew familiar with hunting alone as he relied only on himself.


    However, now he had to rely on fatty to survive.


    "Fatty! Faster, kill it!"


    Dave shouted at the dumbfounded fatty who stood close to the door staring at the fight. It seemed that fatty was awoken by Dave as he quickly ran towards them.


    With another kick, Dave defended himself against the relentless attacks of the zombie. Coming closer fatty banged on the zombie hitting everywhere he could. After several seconds, the body of a zombie turned into a bloody mess as Dave crawled up under it.


    "I am sorry! Are you okay?"


    Panting heavily, fatty helped Dave to get up and stood there with an apologetic face. Looking at his face, Dave was relieved that fatty wasn''t a pigpanion as he thought before. At least, he can rely on him in such situations.


    "Thanks, fatty. I would have died, if not for your help. My name is David, but call me Dave."


    Acknowledging in fatty arade, Dave stretched his hand for a handshake.


    "Brian...Brian Gray."


    Fatty was stunned by the abrupt behavior of Dave, but his face brightened immediately as he shook hands with Dave.


    "Let''s go into the room, so we can catch a breath."


    Still tired from the deadly encounter, Dave quickly took two ck coins from the zombies and both of them entered the previous room. Ignoring the smell of rotten flesh from the dead body still lying on the floor, Dave and Brian took one chair each.


    "Ehm...so what do you think is going on? Zombies? I know that I already fought with them, but it is still hard to believe."


    Fatty was close to a mental breakdown and Dave perfectly knew about it. He tried to distract him from everything.


    "Well, I am not so sure about it, but the heavenly voice called it Second Cataclysm: Evolution. Perhaps, now every living creature can evolve more quickly under the new environment."


    Dave tried to summarise the information about changes urring now from his previous life into simple words.


    "Then what about zombies? How zombies can be real?"


    It seemed that fatty minded zombies more than the end of the world.


    "I don''t know. Maybe, the microorganisms evolved in a way to control our bodies."


    Of course, Dave knew about it. Scientists that were able to survive had dissected bodies of zombies and found that they contained a special virus that controls the dead bodies. The virus evolved from the existing virus in the bodies ofplex creatures like humans or animals.


    In fact, every survivor had such a virus, but in a reasonable amount to cope with it. Humans also learned that they benefited from it greatly.


    "Fat...Brian, how is your Life Pulse? Anything interesting about it?"


    Dave was close calling him fatty again.


    "Well, it was an amazing feeling. It was like I sensed glowing lights around me. However, due to two zombies, I wasn''t able to feel it through. Let me try again."


    Saying the name of the ability, fatty sent another life pulse around him. Now, his face was calm as clear water pointing out theck of danger.


    It meant that the floor was safe for a time being, while dead students eaten by zombies would stand only after 10 to 30 minutes depending on how you were infected.


    Still, to be safe, Dave earlier had closed the door of the room and smashed the head of the dead body in the room.


    "I can sense it, yet there no zombies on this floor. It seems that Life Pulse can send it only in a circle shape."


    Brian said somewhat regretfully. It would have been greater if it had been sent in every direction. However, it was still a useful innate ability.


    "Halt a bit. Try to manipte the direction of Life Pulse. Perhaps, you can sense life in a sphere range from you or send it linearly to further distances."


    Dave was still expectant of Life Pulse since he knew that innate abilities can be used differently depending on the control of the user.


    Finding an exnation of Dave reasonable, Brian tried to control the area of his detection ability. When he thought about controlling the direction of the mana wave, the mana reacted slightly to his will but moved as before after activation.


    "It reacted slightly, yet it was sent in the same way as before. I think I can do it in the future somehow."


    As Dave thought it is still too hard for Brian to control his innate ability. Since it is directly rted to the mana application, it is difficult to manipte the direction of the mana wave.


    "Don''t mind it. Did you rest enough? Let''s move downstairs, it is still dangerous here. By the way, do you have a car?"


    Dave knew that obtaining a means of transport was important for their survival, but it wasn''t a big problem since they can just borrow one of the cars from the parking area.


    "No, my parents never bought me one."


    Of course, Brian didn''t own a car. He was from an ordinary family, so his parents had no extra money to spare on the car.


    Brian was also just enrolled at university, making ownership of a car meaningless to him. Taking into ount how he became useless because of his hobby, it was doubtful that he will ever have a car during his studies.


    "Then, let''s get going. We don''t want to be surrounded by zombies."


    Dave intended to leave the room as quickly as possible. They didn''t know how many zombies are in the dormitory building taking into consideration a fact that their numbers are increasing with every minute.


    The dormitory may have a small number of them since most of the students were outdoors for lunch or other stuff. However, if they surrounded them, Dave and Brian will have no chance to escape from them. Four zombies will be enough to kill both of them.


    "Where are we going?


    Fatty still was interested in the Dave''s n since his life was on the line. With his Life Pulse, they can avoid most of the dangerous ces, yet nothing was guaranteed.


    "Firstly, we are going to the library to find one of my friends, then seek a safe ce on the campus. We don''t know what is the situation outside the campus, so we should rather focus on the safety from inside"


    Brian easily understood the n since it was quite simple.


    Both of them left the room heading downstairs.