Chapitre 25: Fight

Aberdeen City, five years prior

Under the cloudy skies amongst the urbanscape, two young men—one twenty-five, one eighteen—were duking it out.

It was Ansel and his nominal brother, Garan.

For the past half an hour, the two had been sparring, though it was mostly Ansel trying to land a hit, albeit to no avail.

At this point, the eighteen-year-old Ansel was extremely sweaty and uncomfortable, his fiery red hair sticking to his smooth skin.

Suddenly, the dark-haired Garan grabbed the redhead's arm, throwing him over his shoulder, throwing him straight to the ground.

Oof!

Ansel groaned in pain, eyes squinting from the brightness of the white clouds.

He struggled to get out of the damned ground, handsome face covered with mud from the soil below and his sweat. He felt extremely uncomfortable.

He tilted his head to glare at the other person, who was as stern as always, muscular arms crossed and looking down at him.

Also, to Ansel's chagrin, very handsome.

Garan Witt was extremely good-looking.

He had ebony-black hair described to be as black as the universe by his admirers. This, along with his cerulean eyes deep as the ocean, as well as his masculine and chiseled features, made countless women swoon.

Not to mention, his well-toned body and imposing aura was the goal of all men.

This same man was looking at him like a weakling. Although he didn't show anything on his indifferent face, Ansel couldn't help but feel that he was mocking him.

Damnit!

"Stand up. Be a man." He said, his masculine voice full of imposing aura.

And it gritted on Ansel's ears.

"Althea will be heartbroken to see my bruises!" He couldn't help but quip back, knowing it was a sore spot for the man.

Sure enough, the stoic expression on the overly handsome man's face cracked a bit.

His well-formed eyebrows furrowed and crossed his arms, looking badly at him.

"She knows I do this for your own good." He uttered out, his low baritone voice making him look more mature.

Mature? PFFT!

Lies! Absolute lies!

Ansel immediately opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but the jerk beat him to it.

"Ah, I see." He paused, "You wish to be saved by a little girl again."

Jerk!!

He mocked him for his baby-acts, but who didn't know he often purposely fascinated Althea with that handsome face of his!

Ptooey!

He could still remember this ice-block acting spoiled when he was with Althea!

Barf!

The sight burned his eyes! Literally!

The anger injected adrenaline in his veins and he immediately stood up ready to resume the fight.

He sprinted towards the man who didn't even bother adopting a defensive stance and a vein of annoyance grew in his head.

Ansel immediately threw a jab at him, which was easily avoided. Immediately, Ansel turned his body to give him a side kick.

Also easily avoided.

Ansel continued attacking Garan, punch after punch, jab after jab, and then sent him occasional-supposedly-well-timed kicks.

Not a single one connected.

He couldn't even touch the fabric of his clothes.

What made everything worse was that the guy wasn't breaking a sweat at all. The jerk still had the energy to send out the occasional critique with that deadpan voice of his.

"Your center of balance is too shaky. This is what you get for not training your body well."

"You lose your cool too easily."

"Keep a clear head, and you'll be able to find openings." He paused, avoiding another one of his attacks. "If you're against normal enemies, that is."

F*ck you!

"Language."

He didn't even say it out loud!

Grrr—

In their scuffle, they got nearer and nearer to a wall.

A flash of idea entered his mind and he continued his usual attacks, with imminent misses, but it didn't matter at all.

If anything, his hits were more inspired and a little quicker than usual. One time his punch almost—almost—nicked the side of his shirt.

Suddenly, Ansel darted to the wall, using it as a thrust, and he flew above Garan. He clenched his fist, aiming to hit the square jawline of the other man.

Garan managed to block it with his arms, but Ansel felt elated regardless.

Finally connected!

It didn't do any damage, but it connected nevertheless.

Progress was progress, no matter what!

To his surprise, the man actually smiled a little, giving him an approving nod.

"Very good." He said, and Ansel's eyes dilated a little. "You've improved."

Ansel honestly felt happier than winning a contest.

_______

City Z, Present

Ansel leaped up using the brick wall of the adjacent building, making use of his weight to behead the upgraded zombie with his new machete.

With another breath, he sprinted to a direction, slashing another, before turning his body to finally behead the damned thing.

"You're amazing…" Tom said holding his axe and had just barely managed to deal with his own upgraded zombie opponent.

He cleared his throat, embarrassed. "I…er… had a rough childhood." He said, continuously defending himself from the onslaught of zombies that came their way.

They now had to leave his baby Barbara behind because there were too many cars on the road, some were still leaking gasoline.

The duo had no choice but to go forward on foot.

It was not easy, but somehow they managed to get out of the mobs alive.

However, as they dealt with zombie after zombie and got out of it alive and well, he couldn't help but look back at Garan's upbringing.

Although he felt extremely tired and dirty, it was inevitable to feel a little melancholic at the suffering he went through under that man's fists.

Because the number of times the knowledge he learned saved his life was uncountable.

He still felt a little thankful to that jerk, after all.

L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
NispedanaSan

Ansel: What do you think? Was I very handsome? A little more and I really could've hit his face, you know!!

Also, please send us votes and gifts. I need my calories. ;D

commentaire Commentaire 8

Voter

ENVOYER LE CADEAU

Chapitre 26: More Survivors

City Z.

In a deserted street filled with abandoned cars and debris, a pair of acquaintances fought their way through the city.

It was not easy navigating through the darkness—barely lit with dim damaged lamps and the depressing moon—but thankfully their improved physiques managed to make it doable somehow.

Ansel had been to this city many times for business trips. But the once-thriving street now lay in ruins, consumed by the darkness that was the apocalypse.

However, neither he nor Tom had the energy to mourn for humanity's losses, as they were too busy trying to avoid getting bitten.

Ansel and Tom moved forward together, guarding each other's backs as they ran.

Somewhere along the way, they found out that covering themselves with zombie innards could hide them from the monsters' sense of smell.

Only for regular zombies though, because they discovered almost as soon as they celebrated their new discovery, a pair of upgraded zombies sprinted towards them.

One could imagine the feeling of falling from hell just as they stepped into heaven.

Anyway, back to the present, the zombies let out eerie groans as they attacked them, also gathering the attention of the ordinary zombies.

Ansel darted forward, slashing through the horde with his machete. His movements were both lethal and graceful, and the brute Tom couldn't help but admire him even in this situation.

However, while they were making decent progress. Exhaustion had long begun to creep in.

Dirty sweat dripped down their skin, their breathing became labored, and their movements became slower. Their spirits were already a third down.

"Watch out!" Ansel yelled, kicking a nearby bin under his feet to an upgraded zombie about to attack Tom.

"Thanks!" The older man uttered and took advantage of the zombies' distraction due to the noise the bin made.

Afterward, he ran to stand closer to Ansel, guarding his back again.

As they fought, they actively ran to their destination. While they should be looking to rest now, there were only less than 2 hours left and they had to get closer to their loved ones as soon as they could.

The two sprinted and ran over the crashed cars. It was really a challenge to jump from one car to another, especially since they were different heights and different textures. Some cars even had their front glasses destroyed. There were also some that were turned to the side.

"Ah!" Tom had a misstep and his leg fell on one of the openings on an upturned car without a whole side door. Fortunately, Ansel managed to hold his arm and he didn't completely lose balance.

The redhead managed to get him moving and they jumped to the next car, barely avoiding the claw that came to them.

Their change of elevation was sudden, but he somehow managed to keep himself and Tom on his feet.

Ansel was very proud of his balanced center.

The damned training regime popped to mind again.

Damn it! He did NOT miss Garan!

He frowned, annoyed, and whipped his head at Tom, venting at the poor guy. "What are you doing staring?! Let's go!"

Tom-who-had-been-waiting for him to move: "..."

In any case, the duo continued to run and go over cars and they soon realized that the zombies became fewer and fewer.

As they ran, they turned their heads to look and saw that the obstacle that hindered them worked even better with the zombies.

They watched as the zombie fell down the broken car by itself, head first, unable to move further.

"For creatures that are said to eat brains, they sure are stupid."

Ansel looked at the zombies with various parts bitten off.

"You don't see them choosing which body parts to eat, right?"

"Maybe this one eats more poop." Tom cackled, remembering plenty of upgraded zombies whose stomachs were open and had their innards following them around.

It was absolutely disgusting.

However, their path seemed to become a landmine of sorts for the zombies. For ordinary zombies, they were blocked outright, while upgraded zombies could jump and skip, but not avoid the 'traps'.

Eventually, they did manage to escape, finding a small building to lock themselves in for a short breather and snack.

There were about a dozen zombies inside that turned their heads simultaneously to the newcomers.

Sighing, the duo quickly took care of all the zombies. Fortunately, they were all ordinary zombies, so they were dealt with with little effort.

It was a convenience store and they also took away what they could, filling up the remaining free area in their respective spaces.

There was no way, their spirits were getting way too low.

What they didn't expect to hear was the soft thump near them. They turned to see it came from the door of the freezer.

The two men blinked and looked at each other, slowly approaching the door.

After all, zombies couldn't turn knobs. This meant one thing: There could be survivors here.

This made their hearts rise, but in a good way.

A few steps in and the twisting of metal sounded. The metallic door fully opened the next moment, revealing a small group of five people, shivering from the cold.

The group of five was really diverse. The one who opened was a relatively aged man. Closely following behind him was a middle-aged man with a balding head, a pretty girl in her twenties, a horizontally-blessed woman, and a dark-skinned man around his 30s.

Tom and Ansel's eyes widened and they looked at each other.

Really survivors!

Since meeting, they hadn't met other people at all!

It was getting very depressing!

Finally, there were others..., and there were even five of them!