After I stuffed Ace into my backpack to avoid awkward questions like why was an 18 year old carrying a stuffed toy, I made my way to where the guards had set up base. It was roughly 20 feet away from the injured where they had monopolized an entire tent for themselves.

For security reasons they said. Yea bull shit, they are probably avoiding staying in the same area as literal ticking time bombs. If any of those biten survivors manage to avoid instant re-death its game over for everyone in that area. There are a ton of people unable to put up an ounce of resistance so gathering bodies for a horde wouldn’t be too difficult. All it would have to do is take a chunk out of its neighbors and game on!

Basing away from the main camp would be their best bet to run while they could, as well as horde whatever they had taken from the survivors in the process. Some may have ignored them but they weren’t trying to conceal themselves as they ransacked belongings. Sometimes even doing it directly in front of the owners, but being powerless to stop them, the civilians let it happen.

Thankfully they were smart enough to avoid the guy with the massive spear, if they touched Aiyla I would probably forgo all pretenses of needing information and butcher the lot of em. No one touches her unless I give permission.

…

…..

…

Arriving before the guards, they quickly adorn their ‘I’m a tough guy’ faces before walking up to confront me.

“State your business. We don’t have time to help the injured, so if you’re here on Sarah's behalf you can get lost.”

Sarah was the head helper/nurse over seeing the whole rescue the dead and dying project. She was pretty… pretty naive if you ask me… Seriously, they barely had access to the right equipment to treat second degree burns and the people they were trying to treat had mixtures of third and fourth degree burns…. At that point amputation is sometimes a safer option and she thinks they're going to be saved by being wrapped up like a mummy? Of course it’ll stave off infection temporarily, but wrapping hundreds of individuals in cloth means supply is short, bandages need to be changed often or they will have the complete opposite effect. Imagine her surprise when she finds out leaving bloody bandages on the injured will just invite more bacteria to the party…. Oh well I don’t have time to lecture adults who think they know what they're doing after watching a few episodes of House…..

“No don’t worry, I understand. Her plan is liable to get us all killed…. We would be better off putting all of the burn victims out of their misery and finishing off those infected to prevent its spread.” Their bored faces quickly rearrange to show their surprise. I guess they didn’t expect such a cold dismissal of people’s lives from someone they still view as a kid. I would probably blend in better if I acted naive like Sarah, but I don’t have time to coddle their weak ideals.

“I would however, like to know if there is any way I could help you guys.”

….

….

…

After a moment of pause the second guard speaks before his friend could.

“If you really want to we could use some help on expeditions into the commercial districts…. Luckily the fires have only affected the residential side of town, so we have been trying to cart as much food and necessities we can, out of the city and to our caches…. Another reason we set up here is to keep the fire in between us and the monsters. They are radiating out of the city like the plague, if it weren’t here we would probably be dead by now. He pauses before looking towards the fire that seems to have died down a lot since yesterday…. “At the rate the fire is going, we only have a few more days before we need to move. We can’t be caught flat footed with a swarm of those zombies, especially with all these disabled civilians in the proximity like you said.”

The first guard interrupts after the second once again lapses into silence…

“If you’re serious about helping the effort, it’s probably best if you talk to our leader. This is a privilege so don’t treat it lightly. He was personally selected by those blue boxes the first day as a pioneer so he's been in popular demand lately. Typically leading groups into the heart of the city to fight off the monsters that try and group together and form swarms.”

At the last comment I feel the blood in my body freeze, and my face pale several shades. I don’t lose my smile however and act like nothing's wrong to hide my inner turmoil….

“Hahaha, yeah that's how I reacted too when I first saw him.”

Shit they saw through it, hopefully they just think I am surprised anyone is courageous enough to head back into that hell hole.

“Yeah, him and his daughter are really something. Both managing to become pioneers should’ve been harder than winning the lottery, but leave it to the Denmark family to make all us normal folk look bad. I don’t mean that in a bad way, they just have a long line of successful family members in all areas of the world… If you’re good at something, no doubt, there is a Denmark out there better at it.”

I can barely control my breathing after hearing that last name…..

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.

This isn’t good! This is very ungood. In fact this would definitely be a double plus ungood if such an atrocious word had actually been integrated into our society.

I literally had their leader’s daughter’s corpse in my ring.

“You wouldn’t happen to know their first names would you?”..... I ask with bated breath…..

Second guard once again beats his friend to the punch.

“Of course, who doesn’t! You must not be around here if you don’t…. They are Renzo and Juliana. Why do you ask? Oh wait I think I know….”

The second guard had a sinister smile on his face as he leaned in…. Oh god, i’m a good actor but stress is killing my ability right now… My heart feels like it's trying to pump lead through my veins, while I visibly shake like I had parkinson's….

Does he know? How does he know? Can he read my mind? Am I really that open?

“You have a crush on her don’t you!”

It took all of my willpower to not make any outward expressions. On the inside it felt like I was legitimately dying. He thought I had a fucking crush. A CRUSH. Are you serious! I’m dying here all because you think I can’t control my teenage hormones!

Congratulations! For repeatedly controlling yourself from expressing your inner turmoil, you have been given the Acting skill!

Acting: (Tier I)

Earned through sheer effort. Only those dedicated enough to the art of controlling themselves can ever progress in this skill.

Passively increases acting abilities by 50%

This includes controlling urges, manners, fears, as well as your ability to improvise.

The new skill immediately lifts the invisible pressure that had been weighing me down…. It’s not completely gone, but it’s freed it enough that I can actually think straight now. Acting has never been my strong suit but I guess years of preventing yourself from snapping as well as snapping others can lead to a decent skill in Acting. Hopefully this will keep me from blowing my top too easily when i’m around other humans.

“That's adorable but I recommend you forget about her kid. Not only is she older than you, but also way out of your league. Even guys my age are pinning after her, she probably had countless suitors before this whole apocalypse shit. I’m talking full pretty boys, like the ones you see in movies with thousands of dollars going into gifts they don’t even care about. Now that the new world has come about and they’re once again at the top? Yea i’d say your chances are less than zero.”

Wow this guy is just trying to rub it in…. Wonder how he would react if I said I killed her and stuffed her corpse into my spatial ring, oh it would be absolutely hilarious! Wow that acting skill is seriously amazing! Even now I feel so calm compared to before, and I don’t think that was one of its effects! I should probably stop him before he actually pisses me off though. Can’t let some nobody go around disrespecting me just because he doesn’t know I could make his heart explode…. Wait can I do that? Yes totally. Ok maybe not. Blood Dominion is risky as hell but if I practiced enough I probably could.

Anyways I needed to shut this guy up, “Damn I didn’t think it was that obvious, but don’t worry. I know I don’t have a chance with her. Figured if I was going to talk to a guy, knowing his name and not just his family name would be a good start….”

Second Guard once again speaking over his friend- this guy is so fucking annoying, “Oh right! Well if you will just follow me. Esme, mind covering for me while i’m gone?”

Esme apparently, “Yea sure, go ahead. Take all the time you need.” For some reason he looks really happy…. Guard number two must be annoying to him too, oh wow that's just sad….

Shortly afterward Guard number two, Amit, leads me through the tent flaps towards the back.

On the way we pass countless boxes of food and weapons being loaded onto trucks and other vehicles…. Okay I guess these guys are a private military force or something…. Good to know, wish I had known beforehand but everyone was wearing civilian clothing, so were they all in disguise? I’m not given long before being brought before an entire trailer they had managed to smuggle into the tent.

Seriously how have the people outside not noticed all of this! How have I not noticed all of this! Some serious covert ops stuff going down right now and I don’t like being in the middle of it.

Amit knocks in a strange pattern, most likely a code, before it opens to reveal a typical butler uniform… A complete suit, suit-vest, with the typical straight tie. He was honestly sparkling from head to toe in absolute perfection of servitude, not a wrinkle to be seen on any of his garments…. Even his hair was that slight shade of white with hints of grey throughout with a perfectly trimmed beard gracing his strong jaw and nose, while his eyes spoke of wisdom only someone being a perfect butler their entire life could obtain.

Holy shit. I think I just found a human I like.

I always loved Alfred over Batman whenever he had been involved in the comics… So seeing a literal childhood hero of mine personified was quite shocking.

But then he spoke.

I have never once in my life, fallen to the temptations of another, but if I was to identify towards what gender I prefered I would undoubtedly say female. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me, they were literally built as the males life partner. But hearing real life Alfred’s voice honestly made me question my preferences. Oh my god it was so buttery smooth he is freaking amazing! If I get to spend more time around this amazing specimen then perhaps being around people won’t be that bad….

Before my delusions could continue however, surrogate Alfred interrupts,

“Sir, if you would follow me.”

And with that he turns around, no doubt expecting me to follow. And you’re goddamn right I followed! Straight up hero right here why would I not? Nothing is cooler than the silent, badass butler type.

Passing several alcoves, we find ourselves in front of a heavily bolted door. The kind that you would need c4 to even think of blasting your way into….. Why go through all this… if its inside a car that can be blown up? Rich people ugghh…..

Inputting an impressively long password into the keypad connected to the side, the door releases steam from its air locks before allowing the anchors to disengage. Only then does the butler actually open the door.

On the other side, a middle aged man wearing a dark tux swivels around to face us. He looked tired, but still held an authoritative manner about himself while analyzing the situation. As his eyes rove over my body they quickly land on my spear.

….

…

…..

“Franco, why does this kid have a giant spear….”

Both Franco (Surrogate Alfred) and Esme look towards me and reflexively step back….

“W-where did you get that!”

“How did you get in that in here under my nose!”

Ummmmm….

“What?”