Chương 44: 2.13

"I sense a meteorite in the North Host," System interjected as I silently followed them down, more nervous going down than I had been going up.

I welcomed the distraction of System's voice. The boys were being quiet, conscious of the dead's ears being somewhat better than the living.

"And?" I asked, wondering if that was why some of the windows of some buildings ahead had been blown in. How large was it?

"The air and ground are rich in the virus, though it's beneficial for us, it will be harmful to those without a system, especially those who've not fully mutated yet. In fact, I worry it'll worsen the fever, making it more likely for people to die during their mutation."

Holly and Leo both had not mutated yet. It was only a matter of time before they succumbed to the fever.

"Should we leave?" I asked, nervously biting my lip as my feet finally touched solid ground again.

"No, I have a plan, we need to get to the meteorite, we can take its energy for ourselves, preventing it from further corrupting the land and air."

"Just how do you plan to do that?" I asked, eager at the idea of more power, though nervous at the prospect of going off somewhere unknown.

"Focus, I'll explain later," System chided as the others began moving out to the East, staying quiet and in the open space. Alex had already turned into Saturn again, taking out those that were too close.

The walk towards the sports hall was shorter than I had anticipated, we'd passed a tall building on the way. I remained on guard with both swords drawn, nervous at the feeling of eyes watching us. System pointed out at least thirty people alive amongst the buildings at various stages of the virus.

"Did you know there are other living people here?" I asked quietly into his ear as we paused, taking a breather.

"You noticed too?" He smiled, showing no signs of concern, "there's always someone by the gate in case they want in, we don't turn people away and during our supply sweeps they've always avoided us."

The way he explained seemed as if he was feeling defensive. The weight on his shoulders was too heavy for someone so young.

When the meteorites fell few people were on the college grounds, it still being winter break, and many had returned home, especially those local to the nearby town. Which was lucky for us since most buildings were locked up and empty. Leaving mainly staff and the students who didn't or couldn't return home here.

Surviving the virus required you to be healthy originally. The intensity of the virus in the air was thick here due to its proximity to the meteorite, which explained why those still walking around alive were the young and fit students situated in the sports dorm. Not to mention they seemed to be quite strong with their newfound gifts.

Had the college been filled to capacity, during term time, when the meteorites fell it would have been a nightmare to make this short walk to the sports hall that looked completely untouched, its doors firmly locked tight.

Aiden stepped forward, showing off his inhuman strength as he forced the doors open, making a slight noise. The hands gripping my hilts twitched as a few lingering dead followed the noise.

After Alex mainly took them all out, making me feel like a decoration at his side, we entered inside. Aiden twisted the metal handles together, making it impossible for any to force their way through the door after us.

System scanned the building, reassuring me it was completely devoid of living humans; however, there was no guarantee there weren't any dead ones lingering. I kept my grip tight.

Alex led past the reception office and up some stairs to what seemed to be the coaches' offices that overlooked outside and inside the tall separated gymnasiums, each catering to different sports.

This sports hall was for more than just sword fighting, I noticed signs of dancing, gymnastics, and cheerleading, and one door was even labeled with an equestrian instructor.

"There's horses?" I asked eagerly, remembering Hannah's fondness for the tall four-legged creatures.

"There were horses," Luke, who usually remained quiet, answered, "there's an entire farm linked to the college, students can earn money working there, Matt and I usually do."

He looked sad, unwilling to continue.

"It was one of the first places we went to once the food inside the dorm ran out," Matt continued on his behalf, "only the animals were mostly already dead, the ones that weren't, we couldn't get near." He shivered as if remembering something gruesome. I did not pry further, instead, I turned my questions to System instead.

"Is the virus zoonotic?"

"Yes, it affects the chemical makeup of every living thing on Earth, animals and plants included."

"So would that mean zombies were the least of our concerns?"

America had quite a few dangerous animals in the wild, such as bears, wolves, and mountain lions to name a few. I gave a silent prayer to the poor folks over in Australia, the animals were already deadly enough.

When we reached the office of a Mister Thomas Peters. The glass panel almost cracked as Aiden forced it open.

"Why are we in the office?" I asked Alex, following them inside.

"The swords in the fencing room are blunt, but a friend of mine told me Mr. Peters has his own private collection of already sharpened swords in his office's storage space." Alex gestured to Aiden to the thick metal door at the side.

I glanced around the clean and very organised room. I made a quick guess that Mr. Peters suffered from OCD just from the way he organised his bookcase alone.

Beside the door to his storage room, there was a glass cabinet filled with historical items, relevant to medieval Europe, including a bunch of whetstones in chronological order of their age. The whole cabinet filled me with a strong sense of nostalgia. Had this been the time period of my past life?

"It's open," Aiden finally stepped aside, it appeared the thick metal door had been harder to open than the others.

I jumped ahead of the queue to look inside, ignoring the way Alex playfully smirked at my eagerness. An entire wall was filled with various, European swords, some even looked too fragile to pick up, let alone use to slice and dice the dead.

The majority however looked perfectly usable once I pulled them out of their sheaths.

In the end, we had over twenty swords that should hold up against the dead.

"God bless you, Mr. Peters," Matt kissed his two fingers and tapped the desk.

I turned my attention back to the whetstones behind the glass case. One sparkled with diamonds in it, I wanted it for my swords.

"Open that," I pointed at the case.

Ethan moved his hand, I wasn't sure what he did but the glass cracked then shattered making a mess on the floor. Before I could take a step forward Alex moved his arm to stop me. Ethan swept his arm across as if using an invisible broom, sweeping the glass shards to the side against the wall. Then Alex lowered his arm to let me pass.

This world had its quirks, thankfully I had encountered this gang of youths when I did.

"Did you say there were more swords elsewhere?" I asked, playfully tossing the heavy whetstone in my hand, happy at the way it felt, and making a note of the condition of the others still on the shelves.

"Yes, they should be in the storage room connected to the fencing hall," Alex answered.

"Grab these stones, they're used to sharpen the blades, then we can get the other swords from the hall," I looked at their faces filled with reluctance at carrying more back.

"I'm not teaching anybody with a sharp blade, we need blunt blades, plus, once enough get used to them they can always use these whetstones to sharpen the blades meaning more swords for everyone."

They nodded, I noticed just how easy it was to direct these boys, despite this body being around about four years their junior.

"What would we do without you," Alex smiled, ruffling my hair before turning to leave, making me feel more like the junior I was supposed to be.

The other four divided the swords between them before following him out.

In the storage room, there had to be well over fifty blunted swords, too many for even all of us to hold barehanded.

"Is there not a storage cart or something you could put them into wheel back?" I asked. "We could just follow the road on the way back and head to the entrance, there doesn't seem to be a lot of them wandering around outside."

"Don't jinx it," Ethan playfully groaned. Despite that, they quickly found three carts that had been used to store equipment and emptied them before filling up with the blunt swords in two, the sharp in the remaining one.

I was a bit conscious of the sounds of the wheels squeaking as Luke, Ethan and Aiden pushed them along the hallway back.

I wondered why Matt was the one not pushing, having seen mainly Aiden using his strength and golf clubs to make light work of the dead so far and Ethan using possibly wind powers. I wondered what Matt and Luke could do.

Halfway on the way back he finally showed me, creating a fireball that gave off very intense heat, almost lava-like in appearance, and flinging it to consume the small crowd of zombies following the sound of squeaking wheels behind us. Whilst Alex used rocks to crush the skulls of those in front. I was tasked with ensuring any who slipped through didn't reach the other three guys.

Turns out I had jinxed us, slightly. There were a lot more on the way back than on the way there. We'd avoided fighting as much as possible, conserving our strength for the return trip. Maybe we had been noisier than we'd thought on our way to the sports hall.

Though I felt a nagging feeling about the increased number of dead was not natural. My head and heart ached remembering the incident where they lost their companion, Oliver, just the day before. I wondered if maybe there were survivors in their group not happy with Alex's leadership skills, or did those hiding in the dark have sinister intentions towards those safe behind the wall?

When we arrived at the entrance two teenage boys stood on the wall above it. I recognised one of them as being an Earth ability user who'd helped open up when we arrived yesterday. Both were deep in conversation, not noticing our approach. The cold winter wind had picked up and blocked the noise of the squeaking wheels slightly.

Alex coughed loudly, grabbing their attention.

"B-Boss," one called out, elbowing his friend to stand straight.

With the combined effort of Alex and the guy on top of the wall, the boulder rolled with ease, exposing a gap just large enough for ourselves and the carts to enter in a single file.

Just as it closed firmly behind us I heard a shrill, female voice call out of the gathering crowd, "where the fuck have you been? Just yesterday you lost Ollie and now you're risking lives again and for what? We've got enough food for months now."

Alex completely ignored her, as if too used for her shit to care, walking directly into the dorm's main entrance, not caring if anybody followed.

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