11 – A Man’s Reason

Cody’s zombies manage to catch Mike.

“You think you can stop me with this?” After Mike said that, he possessed one of Cody’s zombies’ bodies.

Then, he jumped off the building.

“Sh*t!” Cody cursed. His Zombies are now down to two.

Mike possesses another Cody’s zombie, but this time Cody commands his remaining zombies to pull Mike away and throw him into the middle.

“You intend to leave just one zombie and leave none for me to control, right? And with that zombie, you will attack me, right?” Cody asked. His eyes focused on Mike with his zombie body.

Mike rose to his feet. “Sorry, this is what I have to do to get stronger.”

Then Mike ran back to the edge of the roof. Like before, Cody controlled his zombies to restrain Mike. However, Mike possessed one of Cody’s walking corpses again, then jumped off the building.

Cody gets his only remaining zombie to throw Mike back into the center a second time.

“You won’t stand a chance, Cody.” Mike spoke again. “I appreciate your help. But I have to do this.”

“Suddenly you can talk well with that zombie body, huh?”

Mike shrugged. “I also don’t know why that is. Maybe because in the last few hours I’ve been talking to you a lot using zombie bodies. You and your friends were the first people I talked to when I possessed the bodies of zombies...”

Realizing something, Mike looked around and he gasped hard. Cody smirked.

Gwen and Emily were no longer there.

“You couldn’t have hidden your actual body too far, right?” Cody asked. “That is a precious thing for you, after all.”

“You….” Mike gritted his teeth. “You asked your two female friends to look for my real body!?”

Yes, the fighting and talking were just to buy time and distract Mike so that Gwen and Emily could look for that man’s actual body.

“Damn you, Cody!” Mike runs towards the door, but Cody’s zombie catches his body.

Cody then raised his rifle and shot the two zombies in the head. He had to endure the excruciating pain in his shoulder again.

With this, Mike won’t be able to possess any zombies anymore. No walking corpses remained.

Cody then ran while checking his rifle. He doesn’t have bullets anymore. Those two shots were the last.

He rushed down from the roof with the help of a flashlight and heard Emily scream. “There he is! He ran from there!”

Next, the sound of gunfire echoed aloud. Cody sped up his run, descending stair after stair. On the ground floor, he found Gwen still pointing her gun at the entrance. Meanwhile, Emily stood next to the blonde woman while covering her mouth with her hand.

They both focused on a thin man who was crawling outside. His back was bleeding red.

“It’s okay, Gwen.” Cody helped the woman lower her hands. “You have done what you should do. If he escapes, maybe he’ll attack us again.”

“I saw him run away, and without thinking….” Gwen sobbed and Emily hugged her.

Cody did ask Gwen and Emily to shoot Mike if he ran away. With his power, Mike was a dangerous person.

After patting Gwen on the back, Cody approached Mike. Mike turned around when he saw Cody crouching nearby, then chuckled.

The man appeared slightly older than Cody, with sunken cheeks indicating prolonged hunger.

“It’s useless…. I’ve lost a lot of blood…” Mike coughed, and Cody then supported his head. “You know why I want to take your powers, Cody? I could have cared less about what Zeno did to me. I don’t need to take revenge on him. The most important thing is that I can survive, right?”

Cody closed his eyes, took a deep breath. “Maybe you are right.”

Mike fixed his blank gaze on the starless night sky. “I’m not the only one who got the system. My wife too. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stand being surrounded by that many zombies, so she…. Ah….”

“I’m so sorry.” Cody glanced at Mike’s wound, which penetrated to the front of his chest. Looks like this man is beyond help.

“Zeno was the one who made the zombies gather at the hotel where my wife and I were hiding.” Mike coughed, this time spitting out blood. “Zeno said it was a test so we could train using our system… I can’t forgive Zeno for doing that. Many zombies surrounded us....”

Before Mike had finished speaking, Cody got up and looked at his friends, who were standing quite close to him.

“I’m borrowing this.” Cody snatched the gun from Gwen’s hand.

“What would you do!?” Gwen widened her eyes.

Emily gasped hard. “Are you crazy!?”

“Just leave him be, ladies.” Mike laughed. “My life is beyond saving.”

“I am sorry. It’s nothing personal.” Cody pointed the gun at Mike’s head. “I need to become stronger in this twisted world.”

Of course, Cody wants to take some of Mike’s power. Cody became frustrated with his helplessness. If he had a chance to become stronger, he would take advantage of it. Whatever happens.

“It’s okay.” Mike smiled while his mouth was bleeding more and more. “I understand. But hurry, or I’ll lose my life... I know... I only have a little time left. But I have one request, finish Zeno... Please.”

Cody’s hands were shaking. This time, he wasn’t fighting a villain like Brigg. Mike was a desperate, innocent person who wanted to be strong, just like Cody.

“Come on!” Mike shouted with all his remaining strength. “Do it now!”

Cody took a deep breath, and his hands became more stable. The explosion echoed. Cody shot Mike in the head.

In just a second, Mike was no longer moving.

[You defeated Mike Stratton. Now, you can unlock several skills related to possessing zombie bodies]

Cody closed his eyes. His hands shook again. This time, he didn’t feel the satisfaction like after he exterminated the zombies or finished the bad guys.

He sensed some emptiness within his heart. A question also appeared in his head. By doing something like this, could he still be called human?

“Thank You.” Cody looked at his two friends, who could only look down in silence. “Thank you for not stopping me….”

“Excellent.” A voice appeared in the air, cutting off Cody’s words. It sounded like a mixture of male and female speech. “Nice to meet you, I’m Zeno.”