"Jacqueline, you need to get us out of here," Billy snapped.
"I don't understand what's going on," Jacqueline said.
"This isn't the time to talk. We're going to die at this rate if you don't get us out of here," he said.
For a moment, it looked like she wasn't going to be able to get them away safely. Suddenly, her expression hardened before they disappeared and reappeared elsewhere. He stumbled as they hit the pavement. Billy quickly recovered and saw that they were not far from the house filled with zombies. In fact, they were only several feet away.
Billy grimaced at how close they were. He would have preferred that Jacqueline sent them farther away, but it couldn't be helped. They would just have to run until Jacqueline could teleport them again, they escaped the zombies, or they found a place to hide. In the back of his mind, he noted that the old woman's body was ignored by the zombies.
From where they were, he couldn't tell how she died. The
Billy stared long and hard at his old home. It had been a while since he last went there. How long had it been? He couldn't recall, but it had been quite some time. As he got closer, he observed the area. The place was a complete mess, with a few lingering zombies that he recognized. The people inside had been completely unprepared for the zombies that had suddenly appeared.Strangely enough, he didn't see his wife or her family anywhere. It seemed that they had gotten away or that they might be lurking somewhere in the house. Well, it didn't matter much to him. He was only there because he was after his things, still inside the building. Normally, he would have avoided this place, but things were different this time.Since he lost his headstart, it limited what he could do. Without Jacqueline by his side, he couldn't head to the elderly couple's home. He didn't think they would be willing to hear him out without her. Besides, it was very likely that the zombies had already gotten to
Billy's wife stared at him like she had never seen him before. A small part of him was gleeful at the look on her face. However, he was mostly done with her. In fact, he had been done with her for a while now. The fact that he was willing to even allow her to stick around him, despite everything she had done, was only because he couldn't be bothered by her.He turned his back on her just as she shouted after him, "Billy!"Ignoring her words, he continued onward without giving her a second glance back. She continued to call after him as he hurried out of the place. With no zombies getting in his way, it wasn't very hard for him to leave and think about what he should do next. He scanned his surroundings to make sure he wouldn't be caught by surprise by some zombies.Seeing that there were still no zombies, he frowned before picking a direction to walk in. He barely made it a few steps before he heard his ex wife's shrieking voice. Billy pretended not to hear her as he continued walking
Billy cursed. This turn of events was quite unexpected. Losing his system and power would be problematic. It would mean that he wouldn't be given any notice about the waves of zombies and would only have this one chance to make it to the end of the zombie apocalypse. He absolutely couldn't allow that to happen at all costs."Stripping me of the system and power is going too far. Didn't you say we get assigned a system and power? You never said you could take it back," he said.[The system reserves the right to revoke privileges.]He could see he wasn't getting anywhere with the system and wracked his mind for a counterargument. Billy wanted to say it wasn't a privilege, but he would have to prove how it wasn't. Not everyone got a system or power. It was something given to them based on some unknown qualification. Without knowing more about how it worked, he couldn't really present a decent argument.Then, in that case, he asked
"What do you mean?" Billy demanded.However, there was no response. The system had just ghosted him, leaving him seriously worried for his future. It had apparently been unaware of his circumstances. He hadn't expected that. Billy had been sure they knew about it, but that wasn't the case. If the system didn't know, then what could have caused the strange phenomenon?Well, worrying about it wasn't going to give him any new answers. What was worse was that he now wasn't sure what he should do next. The system had warned him not to do anything to cause trouble for it. Did it expect him to stay in the house until they got back to him? What if they take hours or days before letting him know what they found?They couldn't honestly expect him to be okay just waiting around with zombies outside. Also, his current level of supplies wouldn't last him that long either. He barely had enough to last him a day before he had to move on. There was no way he would be able to bu
Staring in disbelief, Billy watched as Jacqueline guided two familiar children away from the incoming zombies. She kept looking over her shoulders as she pushed the oldest to run in front of her while carrying the youngest in her arms. He continued to watch as several different emotions ran rampant. It was a huge relief to see she was okay.It was hard not to be when she had been his companion in every life. However, the sight of the two kids was what made it impossible to be fully happy to see her. That and the zombies. How did they bump into each other? Had this happen in previous lives where he died early and Jacqueline was still left alive? It was impossible to know since there was no one he could ask about it.The system might know, but he wasn't willing to even attempt asking. Learning if Jacqueline had met them wouldn't help in the long run, and that was assuming the system would know or tell him anything. This was his last chance too, so rather than waste time
Combing a hand through his hair, Billy muttered, "What on earth is going on?"Something was very wrong here. He didn't recall the system notifying him that the second wave had started already, which had been odd. Usually, they would receive a notice that the second wave started not long after the first one. There was only one life where this didn't happen. Perhaps he had missed the notification. Fortunately, he could check the history of messages from the system.Billy saw that he had indeed missed the message, as it happened while he was asleep. Normally, he was better about checking the messages, but recent events had kept him distracted. It had only been a couple of hours between the end of the first wave and the start of the second wave, which matched up with what he knew. However, that didn't change the underlining fact that there was still something wrong.Why did the second wave end in only a day? The first wave was supposed to be the only wave that laste
Billy's mind whirled as he quickly narrowed down his options. He could hurry back inside and hope that he hadn't been spotted. It was possible that the figure hadn't noticed him. However, if they had seen him, he would need to either barricade the house before the figure got to him or flee through the back. On the other hand, he could just make a break for it.If the figure didn't notice him, he could get a head start back to his face. While he didn't like the idea of drawing anything or anyone back to his base, the base was better fortified to keep anything or anyone out. He quickly came to a decision and moved. Billy closed the door as quickly and quietly as possible before moving to the back of the house.As he moved, he strained his ears for anything or anyone coming. The only thing he could hear was his breathing as he hid behind the furniture. He didn't dare to move a muscle as he waited for any signs of the figure coming into the house. Time ticked away, but he
Billy made eye contact with the baby, whose head was resting on Jacqueline's shoulder. Before he could say a word or make a move, Joshua spun around with wide eyes. Their eyes met as Billy rushed forward. The kid opened his mouth to scream, but Billy managed to slap his hand over the kid's mouth. Jacqueline instantly turned around with her knife ready.As soon as she saw who it was, her eyes widened, and she said, "Billy?""It's been a while," Billy said with a nod.She lowered her hand with the knife. "Billy, how are you here? What happened to you?"While still keeping his hand on the kid's mouth, he said, "I'm sure there's a lot we need to catch up on, but we shouldn't stay out here with the zombies lurking around.""Okay." That's when she realized that Billy had covered Joshua's mouth. "What are you doing?""He was going to scream and draw everything in the vicinity's attention," he said calmly.However, on the inside, he was menta