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1.46% Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse / Chapter 6: Calm before the storm

Chapter 6: Calm before the storm

"Kid, what's your problem?" the officer asked, putting a weird grin on his face.

It was a look of a man who just can't deal with the teenagers.

"Roughly half an hour ago, I died," Mathew repeated his words, looking the man directly in the eyes.

For a moment, the two entered a standoff.

It was a completely random occurrence when their eyes met.

For the next few moments, the two of them simply stared each other down, each more desperate not to blink.

"With all my heart, I hope it was just a bad dream," Mathew said, plummeting down to the ground and resting his face in his hands. "But if it's not, I need to do everything in my power to survive what's about to come," he added in a silent voice.

"So you just want someone to hold your hand and tell you everything will be okay?" the officer asked, an uneasy expression forming on his lips.

'Who is this guy?' Mathew thought, rolling his eyes. 'I know I asked for a Veteran, but still, how could they send someone so clueless...' he despaired.

Since when calling someone out like that was a method of dealing with a potential terrorist?

'Or is it the fact that I let go of my guns that makes him so relaxed?' Mathew thought before shooing all those useless thoughts aside.

'It doesn't matter,' he thought, moving his eyes on Nadia's face.

"In twenty-seven minutes from now, I believe something will happen in that infirmary," Mathew said, finally ready to explain what was going on.

"Did you..." Nadia whispered, her face tense as she thought about something. "See something?" she asked, raising her eyes on Mathew's face.

"I saw a lot," Mathew quickly replied. "And the worst of it all is that I can still see something that I shouldn't see," he added, glancing over to the clock in the corner of his vision.

It continued to tick the time away. One second at a time. But it never stopped.

Nadia turned silent.

She was likely too confused to say something.

"And no," Mathew said, turning his head back towards the officer. "If it's holding hands that I needed, I could just ask my dear friend," he said, nodding his chin towards the girl. "What I need is someone good enough with the gun to cover my back," he added in a half-voice, turning his eyes away.

The officer's face tensed up when he realized the meaning behind those words.

"What's going to happen in twenty-seven minutes?" he asked coldly.

His hand hovered near his holster, where his personal weapon could be seen just as Mathew requested.

"It has nothing to do with me," Mathew raised his hands before slowly turning his face towards the infirmary. "Once again. I died half an hour ago," he put a huge emphasis on those words. "I have no idea how, but I made it back. Back in time?" Mathew suddenly asked, covering his face with his hands.

"So you really need someone to just watch over those doors for a short while?" the officer asked. His voice softened a little. "And then you will be happy, right?" he added.

"I certainly do hope so," Mathew nodded his head, turning his hand towards the doors. "But before everything starts, remember a few things," he suddenly announced.

"First, you won't turn from a single scratch. It takes quite a lot of their body juices to enter your system for you to turn," Mathew said in a tone of someone schooling a youngster about the basics of a craft. "We have an hour once it starts to..."

Mathew hesitated.

'Using kill right now... It wouldn't be the greatest idea,' he noticed.

"To do what?" the officer asked. Even though he appeared to be relaxed, the look in his eyes proved he didn't just let Mathew's words by his ears.

"To clean as many of them," Mathew finished before turning his eyes back towards the nearby doors. "All we had was just a guess," he hesitated for a moment before biting his lips down. "But it seems that the progress during the first hour decides who will receive a system," he then randomly dropped another bomb.

"A system?" the officer repeated the word impassively, clearly confused about the sudden turn of the story.

"Wait, are you telling me..." Nadia suddenly turned energetic.

Her interests aligned her to understand the term in its proper way. But the picture that such term usually invoked...

"Yeah," Mathew nodded his head. "The last time, I got a miracle system," he explained without hiding anything. "Basically, I could offer something in order to invoke a miracle," he said.

"What are you even talking about, guys?" the officer couldn't hold it for long. He couldn't understand the topic, which didn't sit well with his desire to control the situation.

"I'm sorry for the jargon," Mathew turned his eyes towards the man before casting a quick look at the clock.

'It will all start in ten minutes,' he noticed before refocusing his eyes on the man.

"If I'm correct, then in ten minutes, the zombie apocalypse will start," Mathew explained bluntly. "It's just a guess, but the more zombies we destroy," Mat was careful to avoid the wrong word, 'the better system we will receive," he explained as simply as he could.

"A system is basically a cheat," Nadia explained. She was well versed in all sorts of literature. "An overpowered ability that makes one stronger than the others," she elaborated a little before raising her thumb to her lips.

"No, that's not it," she muttered, biting down on her nail. "It's a way for the character to survive the situation. A power-up in a fantasy world," she fixed her own mistake.

"Again, what do you want to do with those zombies?" the officer interrupted the deep explanation of the term.

A relaxed smile on his face... felt weird. As if there was a second meaning behind it.

"Shit," Mathew thought, realizing his mistake.

"Could you perhaps be interested in killing sick citizens and students of this school?" the man asked, openly laying his hand down at the handle of his weapon.

Mathew raised his hands in reply.

"I won't reach for the weapon unless it is too late," he promised, a knowing smile blossoming on his lips.

"And what do you mean by too late?" the officer asked, undoing the strap on the holster.

"Let's see," Mathew smiled, completely relaxed in the situation. "When this corridor will get overrun with zombies, and you will be desperately screaming for reinforcements. Fair enough?" Mathew asked with a smile of a naive child on his face.

"Fair enough," the officer sighed.

He seemed to realize what kind of situation they were talking about.

"Just keep those points in mind," Mathew added, holding back a small giggle. "Also, I hope your radio is working," he added, turning his eyes towards the doors.

"What do you mean by that?" the man asked, interested by the sudden question.

"It would be for the best if the rest of your people prepared to rush to this place," Mathew replied, turning his face towards the man. "The sooner you make the decision, the more time they will have to come and help us contain it," Mathew added before shaking his shoulders.

"And if nothing happens?" the officer asked, unwilling to drop the realistic approach to the topic.

"Then I will surrender, pay back the damage, and openly apologize to every officer that had to stay late in work because of my actions," Mathew replied with a small smirk. "Just kidding. I will most likely go serve my time. That or a mental hospital," he added.

"Mat!" Nadia screamed out a little.

The look of worry on her face made Mathew's heart tremble.

This was the cost of his actions that he didn't foresee.

If it all turned out to be a mere hallucination, a bad dream, and even worse decisions... He would bring Nadia a lot of grief.

'Wait, what?' Mathew suddenly shrugged. 'What am I even thinking about?' he asked himself, puzzled by the sudden nostalgia. 'Between making her sad and having her torn apart by the zombies...' he thought, his entire body tensing up.

Mat glanced over at the clock.

"Two minutes left," Mathew muttered, turning his face towards the officer. "It will be a good moment to ask your men to prepare," he advised.

The officer raised one of his eyebrows.

For a moment, there was only silence.

"Come in," the man finally raised his voice, his radio by his mouth.

"Yeah?" Mathew heard a silent reply on the other side.

"Guys, the matter is handled. No killed or injured," he added before taking a long glance at Mat's determined face.

"Just in case, get ready for a brutal fight in a minute," he added before lowering the radio back on his chest.

"Thank you," Mathew replied, refusing to move his eyes away from the infirmary doors.

The clock reached the breaking point. With all the minutes gone, it could only count the last remaining seconds.

"Nadia," Mathew muttered, turning his head towards the girl.

"Hmm?"

"Whatever happens..." Mat cringed at his own words.

'What, am I in some drama movie for teens now?' he asked himself before rolling his eyes.

"I will keep you safe," he whispered, reaching the peaks of courage he didn't achieve back in the apocalypse.

The seconds ticked down.

"If we get the chance, we should snatch the medkit from the infirmary," Mathew said right as the second clock reached its final second.


Chapter 7: Agile Zombies

The time ran out.

The clock struck zero.

Mathew's heart beat faster, only to slow down.

Instead of getting excited, his mind turned completely empty, ready to adapt to any and all possible situation from now on.

The time came...

And went away.

The corridor remained as silent as one could imagine.

In the middle of a massive high school, that is.

"Thank God."

A visible wave of relief washed off Mathew's entire self.

He plummeted down on the ground, only supporting his upper body with his arms.

"Is that all this... was about?" the officer asked.

The man still kept his hand on his gun's holster. But he saw Mathew's reactions.

And they were genuine.

"I guess so," Mathew replied with an uneasy smile. But as much as he wanted, he couldn't relax.

Because while the second clock stopped...

The third one hidden in the corner of Mathew's vision continued to tick.

A wave of uneasiness filled Mathew's eyes.

He then shook his head.

"So, do you want to cuff me now?" he asked, relaxing a bit.

'Thank fucking God,' he thought, all the strength leaving his arms.

"Now that I think about it," the officer hesitated for a moment. "You did say that you only destroyed a cabinet, didn't you?"

'Huh?' Mat couldn't understand what the officer was talking about. He understood the words but not the meaning behind the question.

"Yeah, I only did it to confirm if what I saw in my dream adhered to the reality," Mathew explained before releasing a deep sigh.

The entire situation tired him down to no end.

"I guess... This matter didn't really explode in the media yet. But, since there was no real harm attempted, I could put in a good word..." the man scratched his cheek, clearly unsure of how to proceed.

He was a veteran officer of the prevention group. Not someone educated to deal with adolescents.

But Mathew didn't smile. Instead, his face froze.

'Those sounds...' he thought, listening in to the lowest frequency that he could hear.

His eyes opened up wide.

'Now I remember!' he thought, desperately shifting his attention to the girl beside him.

"Can you hear those low sounds?" he asked, grabbing the girl by her shoulders.

It was a very low, barely noticeable beating. A rhythmic sound that one had to really focus on hearing.

Nadia's face turned still for a moment before her pupils widened as she looked at Mathew's face.

"What are those?" she asked, shocked to her wits.

"What are you talking about, guys?" the officer asked, puzzled by the sudden change.

"You won't be able to hear it," Mathew rushed up, alerting the man in the process.

"Don't worry," Mat added, seeing the nervous reaction of the man. "We don't have the time for that, but you can grab any young student in the school right now," Mathew pointed out as his expression sank.

"To do what?" the officer asked, clearly on edge.

"To ask if they hear a low, rhythmic sound beating at the very edge of their consciousness," Mathew explained before focusing his eyes on the infirmary's door.

The relative silence of before was now nowhere to be seen.

In the short moment when Mat's idea occupied their attention, the infirmary turned into a mess.

"What is going on?" the officer started, moving his eyes on the care room's doors.

"It's starting," Mathew replied, his face turning pale. He involuntarily took a step back, only to move his eyes on the girl behind him.

'No,' he thought, challenged by the reality.

With every second, Mat could recall a new harbinger of what was about to come.

The air in the school tensed up. The beating in his ears got louder.

It was exactly the same symptoms that he had experienced two weeks prior.

"Stay behind me at all times," Mathew ordered, shielding the girl with his own body.

'The first few moments will be the worst,' he thought, glancing over at the officer.

It would rest on the policeman's right call for the desperate plan to succeed. And that was a variable Mathew couldn't allow.

"What's going on?" Nadia muttered silently, grabbing herself by her head.

Mathew's heart exploded.

'For her symptoms to appear so strongly...'

His soul broke apart.

She not only would be forced to witness the apocalypse, but she would also turn into an evolved monster herself!

'What the fuck did change?!' Mathew thought, desperate to find a way to change this unfair fate.

'Wait,' he suddenly thought, as a wild idea appeared in his mind.

The doors to the infirmary started to shake, indicating the scale of the hell inside.

"What the fuck is going on?!" the officer screamed out, pulling out his gun.

"Mathew turned his head to the man.

"This is the best moment to call for the backup," he said calmly, looking the officer directly in the eye.

And the man hesitated.

He was a veteran of a police elite squad and a former military as well. And he could recognize the eyes of someone who went through hell and back.

'How the hell could a kid...' he thought, only to glance over towards the doors. 'Something wrong is really going on,' he thought, tightening his grasp over his handgun.

"Guys, come on in," the officer muttered.

He didn't bother turning the radio on. Which meant that his team outside heard every last word.

'Just like expected,' Mathew smiled, reassured by the development.

And then, just like that, it happened.

The doors burst open. And then a single student walked out of place.

He was grabbing his own arm, but even his entire hand couldn't stop the copious amounts of blood that trickled between his fingers.

'Poor guy,' Mathew thought, unable to do anything for the man.

'With how little I know, stepping inside that room was a suicide,' he thought.

The man that walked out wasn't turned yet. Which meant he was likely the first casualty of the apocalypse.

'Poor guy,' Mathew thought, steeling his resolve. 'But a lucky one too,' he added before glancing over at the officer.

"If you want me to grab my weapons, now it's the time," Mathew announced. Even though he wanted to appear cheeky, he couldn't hide the worry on his face.

"There is no need for you to do anything," the man said when the footsteps reached their ears. He fixed his composure and aimed his gun at the door.

"It will take about ten more seconds before he turns," Mathew said without a care in the world. "You should watch it to make up your mind," he added as he turned his eyes to the girl.

"I will save you, don't worry," he said, his worry exploding when he saw Nadia's cloudy eyes.

'It's not good,' Mat bit down on his lips.

'If I managed to save her the last time by obtaining the miracle system, then what can I do now?' he asked himself.

This was the hurdle that he didn't expect.

When he received his miracle system two weeks ago, Mathew wished to reunite with the girl. But, outside of his last wish, this one cost him the most.

And then, just like one would expect from a miracle, Nadia just happened to appear beside him a moment later.

It was this one desperate wish that gave him enough strength to survive. Even if it was for two more weeks.

'At the current rate, she will turn in about an hour,' Mathew thought, helping the girl down as she could no longer stand.

"What wrong with her?" the officer asked, turning his eyes away from the door for a moment.

The rest of the police squad appeared in the corridor, all heavily armed.

'That's a good sigh,' Mathew thought, smiling gently at sight. Then, he turned his face towards the doors.

'It should start about now,' he thought.

Then the wall crumbled.

Pushed by the force of tens of zombies, the entire section of the wall around the infirmary's doors collapsed. And a single second later, the corridor filled with agile zombies.

The rarest kind of this species. Within the two weeks that Mat survived before, they only appeared right at the beginning.

Outside of their speed, they were no different from normal zombies. And in the time he spent hiding with Nadia away in their makeshift fortress, Mathew formulated a guess.

Mat smiled as he walked towards his weapons.

"Remember, guys," he shouted over, noticing the shock in the eyes of the arriving men.

They heard every last word of his through the officer's active radio. So to a degree, they knew what was likely to be the emergency here.

But anticipating something and experiencing it first hand...

"The more you get, the stronger your system should be," Mat said, hiding his gun in his pocket and pulling out the fire ax. "And if we contain them here, we might be able to secure the entire school!"

"What is this guy talking about?" one of the policemen muttered before moving their eyes on the mass of approaching zombies.

They were agile... but within the zombie meaning of this word.

The officers still had some time to decide on the course of action.

"Stop right there!" the man that I requested before suddenly shouted, pointing his gun at the zombies.

Obviously, not a single one listened. Instead, his voice only attracted their attention, making the entire wave rush right at the man.

"Ting!"

Mathew stood too close to the gun. His hearing in his left ear went off instantly.

"Shoot them down," the officer said, commanding his entire unit.

Mathew looked towards the zombies, preparing himself for the massacre.

And then he saw just what made that officer shoot so fast.

The nurse's corpse walked towards them with half of her ribs area gone.

The officer has seen war. And he knew that people without half of their torse couldn't walk up straight.

It was this one sight that made him shoot.

"Leave some for me!" Mathew shouted, rushing into the fray before the rest of the officers could start shooting.

This was the only way to save Nadia from turning.

'If I could save her back then, that means she likely won't turn before the first hour,' Mathew thought, swinging his ax above his neck as he rushed forward. 'That means I need a system capable of saving her!' he thought.

He never learned any facts about what the systems were. It was something that just... appeared. The idea that those who killed zombies in the first hour would receive a system was... a stretch.

A simple attempt at explaining the unknown by mixing the stories up and finding common points.

There was a chance it was all for naught already, completely pointless.

'But I'm not going to give up,' Mathew thought, reaching the corpse of the nurse.

It used to be a lovely and kind woman, although legendary for her singlehood.

And now, even with a bullet in where her heart should be, she continued to walk towards the humans.

"I'm sorry," Mat muttered, finishing off his swing.

The key to fighting zombies lay in, stopping them from reaching you. As long as a human could remain in their top shape, they could easily fight off entire droves of zombies.

Mathew cut the zombie's head away but didn't bother to stomp it down.

Unable to move around, the zombie was now rendered completely useless.

But it was only the beginning.

Matt looked up towards the wave of former students sleazing out of the hole and rushing all towards him.

"Once we thin them out, make sure to take some down in close quarters!" Mathew shouted, raising his weapon above his head. "It's only a guess, but it might help!"


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