6: Fight Or Die

“Hold your weapons!” Ace shouted as he accelerated the car’s speed. “Where’s the helicopter?” He asked the girl beside him while pushing their way through the hordes of zombies. “We’re not going to last more than ten minutes like this. We have to kill them all,” he decided, his grip tightened on the wheel.

“We? I haven’t killed anyone before!” A boy yelled from the back.

“Well, congratulations. You’re having your debut right now. It’s either kill or be killed! A moment of hesitation will be your death. Make sure you don’t get bitten or scratched! Otherwise, your friend will be the one to kill you if you turn into a zombie just like them,” Ace warned, his foot never leaving the gas pedal.

“The helicopter will be here in three minutes!” the girl informed them, her hands were shaking while holding a phone and an axe.

“Great. We have to survive for three minutes. You’re old enough to fend for yourself so do your best to survive. Good luck!” Ace braced himself as he made up his mind to confront the undead before him.

He pursed his lips as the car’s powerful engine roared, pushing through the horde. Ace kept a dark expression on his face as the zombies’ bodies thud against the metal. Some of them clung desperately to the sides, their rotten fingers scraping against the window.

“Shake them off!” Ace yelled at the teens who were frozen at the back. “Hey! I can’t do this alone. At least don’t turn into one of them!” he gnashed his teeth in frustration when the others did nothing but cover their eyes and ears.

“Oh shit!” Ace removed his foot on the gas for a second before stepping on it again, surging forward, taking care of a few zombies.

“Guys, we need to help!” The girl in the shotgun seat told her friends. Her hands were shaking while holding the axe but it didn’t stop her from motivating the others. “He’s right. The only way to survive this is to fight for ourselves. We just have to kill all the zombies!”

Ace almost choked on his saliva after hearing what the girl said. “Easy for you to say that, missy. But you’re right, we need to decrease their numbers if you want to safely get in the helicopter when it arrives.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so scared I can’t move. But we’ll try our best,” the other girl agreed and held the ice pick. “Boys, we need to buy time. Just think of this as playing a video game. We’re the players and the zombies are the enemies,” she added.

“Sounds fun. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Yes. Me, too. I don’t want to die here.”

‘Hah! These guys won’t do something unless the girls tell them to. What a silly bunch,’ Ace thought to himself as he kept moving forward to the center of the field.

“It will be fine, brats. Two minutes have already passed. We’ll survive this,” Ace said and smiled.

The others nodded and prepared. The bloody defense started with the teens stabbing and slicing the zombies’ heads. Ace told them about the zombies’ weakness based on his experience. It wasn’t easy but they managed to decrease the number of zombies in the field.

“Woah! We killed like hundreds!” A boy said while looking at the mess they made.

There were almost no zombies left aside from the ones on the other side of the field. Ace thought it should be fine if they got out of the car to breathe, though he almost changed his mind after inhaling the bad smell coming from the rotten corpses.

Ace shook his head. “There were only 40 at most, including the ones that died after getting crushed by the car. We wouldn’t even last a minute with these dull blades if there were hundreds of them.”

“You’re no fun, old man. I’m just trying to make myself feel good. After all, I murdered them,” the boy mumbled, hanging his head low.

Ace patted the boy’s head “You did it to protect yourself. They will never even feel like you do right now if it was you whom they killed and not the other way around,” he said, ruffling his head.

“Cheer up! You may be brats but I think you did good back there. Be proud that you made it out alive,” Ace continued and looked up at the sky. “It seems like your ride has arrived,” he told them while pointing at the helicopters.

“Thank you so much for your help. My name is Alessia Wilestein. Tell me your name and I’ll make sure my father compensates you for the hard work you’ve done to help us,” the bratty girl, Alessia, said.

Ace shrugged and replied. “Ace Crown. I’d like to ride the helicopter with you as the repayment for this favor but I changed my mind,” he said and laughed. Ace decided to stay behind and travel with his car instead. They killed many zombies and he would like to gather the mana stones from them.

He wasn’t sure how it could be useful but his guts were telling him that the colorful stones coming from the zombie's head must have some uses that could be beneficial for him and his family to survive.

The others started introducing themselves before the helicopter could land.

“Are you sure you don’t want to ride with us?” Alessia asked for the nth time.

Ace shook his head. “It’s fine. I rather travel alone than listen to you noisy brats,” he replied, earring groans from the bunch.

After bidding their goodbyes, the helicopters left one after the other, leaving Ace alone in the middle of the field full of corpses and walking dead.

“I should fill the tank again. I might not have time to do it later when encountering another horde,” he said, taking out a fuel container from his dimensional storage and filling the jeep’s tank.

Ace started picking up the mana stones from the zombies when he noticed something. The corpses of the zombies they killed started to decompose faster than they should be. It completely vanished and left no trace on the ground.

“Oh… Fascinating,” Ace muttered as he finished picking up the mana stones he could find.

[Ace! You have acquired 44 mana stones]

[Your total mana stone is 45]

“That same voice again,” Ace rumbled as he shook his head.

He got in the car and started the engine. He checked the time and frowned. “I’ve wasted enough time. I should be home in an hour,” he said and drove away.

“Wait… Wait for me!”

Ace moved his gaze to the rearview mirror. His eyes widened when he saw a little thing chasing after his car. “Is that… A zombie?” he asked himself in confusion.

“Don’t leave… Take me with you, please!”