Billy could feel Joshua's intense stare burning holes into the side of his head, but he didn't care. They both knew that Joshua wasn't going to speak up unless he wanted trouble. Jacqueline, on the other hand, looked like she was going through an existential crisis. He wasn't sure why she was acting that way. Did it really blow her mind?
Jacqueline snapped out of it and said, "I'm glad you made it out safely. If it were me, I wouldn't know what to do."
Well, Billy was sure he wouldn't be this calm if it were his first time experiencing the zombie apocalypse. He even suspected he might die early, though not as early as his actual first life. It still bugged him how he died so easily because he had been caught completely off guard. The zombies had only gotten lucky to catch him unaware.
"In any case, can you tell what you know about what's going on?" he asked.
She didn't hesitate to spill the beans, and he listened intently to compare his previous lives to
Jacqueline yawned as she opened her eyes. She blinked a couple of times before sitting up. It took her a couple of moments to adjust before her eyes widened. Looking around, she spotted Joshua and Billy working on something together. Jacqueline stared at them for a bit before getting out of the bed. The duo glanced up from what they were doing to stare at her."Good morning," Billy said."Good morning, big sis," Joshua said."Good morning. What's everyone doing?" she asked."I'm showing him how to do inventory and teaching him some skills he'll need," Billy said.She blinked. "Oh, that's a good idea. Have you learned a lot?"Joshua's expression twisted. "Sort of.""Sort of?" she asked.Billy quickly cut in and said, "He actually woke up not too long ago. He fell asleep not long after you did.""Where did he sleep?" she asked."On the floor," Billy simply said.Jacqueline grimaced. "I could have shared the b
Jacqueline and Joshua quickly joined him. Whatever they intended to say died in their throats when they saw what he was looking at. Their eyes bulged at the sight of zombies surrounding the building, and more were still coming. As far as the eye could see, the zombies appeared to be coming in from all directions. There didn't seem to be any opening."What's going on?" Jacqueline asked.Joshua stared at Billy, looking for answers, but even Billy was shocked by how quickly things went bad. He knew that the zombies would be coming. However, this was far too quick. It was almost like the zombies had been waiting for this moment to come after them. The problem was that he hadn't seen any signs of them anywhere before.They had encountered a few zombies, but the sheer amount they were facing was far more than was expected. It should have been a trickle of zombies before the horde grew to such a size. The only thing Billy could think of was that the zombies had already
"You can't be serious," Joshua blurted out.Billy ignored the kid and pointed to the opposite building as he said, "We can cross to the other side to get away from the zombies."Jacqueline blinked before it suddenly hit her, and she asked, "Are you serious?""Why would I lie?" Billy asked as he lowered his hand."Don't you know how crazy your idea sounds? The distance between the two buildings is too big. There's no way we would be able to cross," she said."Even if we have equipment?" Billy asked."Unless you're saying we have a helicopter and you somehow know how to pilot it, then no," she said. "You don't have a helicopter, do you?"He shook his head. "No, no helicopter. I was just giving a suggestion."She narrowed her eyes as she said, "There's no way you wouldn't bring it up without having some kind of idea in mind. You're not that kind of person.""Well, I do have some ideas, but I can't guarantee that they would
Billy stared as his mind whirled with indecision. A morally good person would run back to save them because that was the right thing to do. Leaving a woman who was someone close to him and two children to the zombies would be a monsterous thing to do. On the other hand, a realistic person or someone with self preservation would immediately leave them behind.Honestly, if it wasn't for Jacqueline, he would have hightailed out of there without even looking back. However, this was Jacqueline. If he left, he didn't think she would follow him. As she was now, she wouldn't abandon the kid to save herself. She would die. There would be no second chance for her since this was his only life left. On the flip side, because it was his only life, he had to be even more careful."Billy!" Jacqueline screamed again as she knocked another zombie away.He gritted his teeth and made his choice. Billy rushed over and grabbed Jacqueline's arm before shoving her away. She stumbled b
"Billy?" Jacqueline called out.Billy frowned as he recalled telling her to stay quiet and out of sight until he said the coast was clear. She must have heard his knocking out the woman and got worried, but that didn't change how dumb it was. Jacqueline was basically announcing her presence to whoever was nearby. If he had been the one who had been taken out, she would have been in trouble.Even now, it wasn't a guarantee that they were in the clear just yet. He remained silent as he dragged the unconscious woman away while keeping an eye on his surroundings. After dragging her into another part of the house, he found some rope to tie her up with and searched her for anything valuable. Unfortunately, she didn't have anything on her except for a knife.He narrowed his eyes. It didn't make sense for someone to only go around with a tiny knife. Just imagining someone trying to fight a bunch of zombies with it was ridiculous. Even against another person was a joke.
Billy studied the woman's face as the others stared dabsmacked with their jaws hanging. He was just as shocked as they were, but he was better at keeping it off his face. Out of all the things he expected her to say, he didn't expect the woman to tell him that things had gotten off the rails for everyone who had gotten a system and power."Are you really telling the truth?" Billy asked.The woman frantically nodded her head. "Yes, I am. You've got to believe me. I have no reason to lie. When I realized that I could hide from everyone, a screen appeared in front of me, telling me I was one of the awakened."Something had seriously changed this time. In previous lives, no one could receive their power until after their first wave was over. He wasn't sure what had made such a huge difference, but that meant the system had no right to take his power away from him. If anyone could get their power before the first wave ended, he shouldn't have his power removed.<
"Are you kidding me?" the tied up woman shrieked, voicing what was on everyone's minds.What was the system thinking? This was basically telling everyone to die. Billy had no clue how many awakened there were, but their group had three awakened, if he still counted as one. That meant the zombies would receive a boost three times greater than if none of them were awakened, and what did they mean by boost? It was so vague that it could mean anything.Were the zombies stronger, faster, smarter, or what? It was impossible for anyone to counteract it without more information, which the system didn't seem to care to give. Billy could feel everyone's gaze on him, as if looking to him for answers that he didn't have. He could understand why Jacqueline and Joshua were doing that, but why was the tied up woman also looking at him?If anything, he should be the last person she should be looking to, considering how he had just threatened her. Well, he supposed that there we
A sound caught everyone's attention, and all eyes turned to the doorway. They didn't see anyone or anything, but after what they had seen from the system, none of them were calm. The tied up woman was even more frantic to get out of the ropes. Unfortunately for her, they held fast, keeping her from getting away. Billy vaguely wondered why she didn't use her power."We're going," Billy declared."Wait," the woman wailed. "Don't leave me."Billy didn't give her a second glance as he walked away from her. He didn't want to stick around to see if the noise was actually something to be worried about. Jacqueline's gaze shifted between the two of them. She clearly didn't want to leave the woman behind, but she could also tell that Billy wasn't going to do that. Then the last person any of them expected to protest spoke up."I think we should let her go," Joshua said.Everyone turned to him as Billy said, "What?""We should let her go," Joshua said.