8 – Their Wishes

“No!” Brigg broke free, but Cody was so close to him.

Despite the unbearable shoulder injury, the young man threw the can with all his strength.

The can flew and hitting Brigg’s body, dousing him with petrol.

Then Cody shot that man with the gun.

As the bullet hit Brigg’s body, an enormous explosion occurred. The impact threw Cody, and he landed hard on the ground. Meanwhile, Brigg screamed in pain, running in various directions with his whole body engulfed in flames.

Turns out it’s true. Brigg’s skin can withstand bullets, but it won’t survive being burned.

“Are you okay!?” Gwen ran over to Cody, who was having trouble standing up. Not only his shoulders, Cody’s whole body also felt pain.

“I’m okay.” Cody’s attention drawn to the woman accompanying the blonde girl. “She’s your sister, Gwen?”

She was too different from Gwen. Apart from her black hair color, her facial features are softer and his brown eyes appear smaller. Her appearance was like a mix of Caucasian and Asian.

“No, she’s not my sister.” Gwen helped Cody up.

Cody could detect the bitter tone in Gwen’s voice.

“I, Emily Sakuragi, would be happy to introduce myself further.” The young woman Gwen brought along shrugged. “But it looks like we have to pay attention to that monster.”

“Cody Wolfe!!!” Brigg ran to them. “I will kill you!”

Cody and the women ran to the car.

“We stole some supplies from them.” Emily lifted the large bag she was carrying. “Well, most of the food here has too much MSG. But we have no choice.”

“Let me drive.” Gwen took over the driver’s seat before Cody got to it.

This time Cody agreed. The shoulder injury got worse, making it difficult to move his left hand. Not to mention that his body also felt sore because of the rough landing.

“Holy macaroni with cheese!!!” Emily, sitting in the back, cursed as she checked on Brigg, who was still chasing them with his body full of fire. “He is too obsessive about us.”

But it didn’t last long. Brigg collapsed, and a text appeared on Cody’s system menu.

[You defeated Brigg Howard. Now, you can unlock several skills related to zombie body manipulation]

The relief flooded over Cody as they were out of harm’s way. And he defeated those bad guys.

Gwen noticed Cody’s smile but said nothing.

Cody opened the system menu to check the skills. But because he hasn’t leveled up yet, he can’t choose. He could only select one each time he advanced to the next level.

Apart from getting various choices of zombie manipulation skills after defeating Brigg, he discovered another new skill.

[Identity Concealer: When you meet other system users, they won’t know that you are also a system user. You can’t know others also use the system.]

In essence, if there are other system users nearby, Cody won’t receive any alert. Cody didn’t know when the skill appeared. He wasn’t sure it came about because he beat Brigg.

Because he leveled up? Or did it appear after he first met another system user?

Hearing a little sob from Gwen, Cody looked at the young woman. “Are you okay, Gwen?”

She gave Cody a brief smile. “I’m fine.”

Despite her words, tears welled up in her eyes.

“Ah…. Earlier, you two were discussing Gwen’s sister, right?” Emily, the girl they had just rescued, scratched her hair. “Because the situation was too chaotic. I forgot about this. I heard that one of their captives had escaped.”

Gwen looked at Emily in the rearview mirror. “I-is she a woman?”

Emily explained further. “They mentioned her name when discussing her. It’s Helena Bellucci. They are angry because they have done nothing with her yet.”

Gwen’s tears fell. “So… Maybe she’s still alive?”

Cody patted Gwen’s shoulder. “Thank God, Gwen. You still have hope.”

“Yeah.” She wiped her tears. “But I don’t know where she went.”

Emily cleared her throat. “Sorry if I asked this too suddenly. If your sister is Helena Bellucci, then you are Gwen Bellucci?”

Gwen grimaced, taking a few seconds to answer. “Yeah…”

“I knew it!” Emily leaned her head forward so fast it made Gwen flinch and almost lose control of the car. “Because you didn’t wear make-up, I almost didn’t recognize you! You are really Gwen Bellucci!”

“Is she someone special?” Cody raised an eyebrow.

Emily turned her head towards Cody with stiff movements like a robot. She then hissed. “You’re really asking that? Don’t you know Gwen Bellucci, the famous singer whose songs are in the top 10 in the world for streaming?”

“Ahh, Gwen Bellucci...” Cody answered, even though he still didn’t have a clue. He prefers to hear old rock songs, after all. “Yeah, she’s an amazing singer.”

“Please.” Gwen smiled. “I don’t want to discuss that, at least for now.”

“Oh, sorry.” Emily grimaced and sat back down. “Well, I just wanted to say that I heard your songs so much.”

“Thanks...”

Cody said. “So, the story about you studying to be a nurse...”

“I quit because I passed an audition for a talent search.” Gwen interrupted.

Emily added. “And she won first place! After that, her name skyrocketed… You really don’t know about her…. What’s your name again? Cody?”

“Yeah. Cody.” Finding that Gwen’s gestures showed discomfort, Cody changed the topic. “We’d better keep going south. Who knows, your sister might be there.”

“Yeah.” Gwen took a deep breath. “Hopefully that’s true. After running away, she went south like my previous group’s destination.”

Emily’s brow furrowed. “South? What’s going on in the south?”

“Well….” Cody explains about the transmission to Emily.

***

When night descended, they sought refuge on the second floor of a shop-house, after ensuring it was zombie-free.

Even though he was injured, Cody still wanted to be on guard duty. He has the special ability to control zombies, after all. If the walking corpses attacked, he could deal with it right away, as long as they weren’t too many.

Holding a rifle, the young man sat on a chair by the window to watch outside.

He was still thinking about Gwen’s situation. The apocalypse makes everyone the same. Wealth and fame are useless. None of that will help you live to see another day.

Everyone focuses on survival, although there are some who reveal their true nature as terrible people, like Brigg and his men.

“You still not asleep, Emily?” Cody asked as the black-haired woman approached him. “You had your shift earlier, right?”

She looked at Gwen sleeping nearby and then said. “Did you know that there is also a safe place in the north? Maybe it’s actually better in the south.”

Cody narrowed his eyes, observing Emily, who didn’t dare look at him. “You need something in the north, right? You want us to go there?”

Emily pointed a gun at Cody, who aimed his rifle at her in return. They exchanged sharp glances.