“The thing is, the meteor will land on Earth at about 6 o’clock, so we have to stock up on food and find a nigh-impenetrable shelter.” said Jaime, looking at the 3 before them while walking out of the school building.

“So does this mean we’ll hide it out.” asked Carmen while tying her hair in a ponytail.

“No, but we can sleep peacefully.” said Jaime with a blank look.

“That’s a nice idea, but how do you know we won’t turn into zombies and kill the others?” asked Mike with an innocent tone, while looking at him.

“That’s right, why would you choose us to go with you?” asked Daniel skeptically.

“Is there anyone else that’ll believe and follow me? Stop joking around, by the way, I can sense that you have pseudo-immunity to Zombex.” the first part was true, but the second one was a lie. He just knew from experience.

As expected, the boyfriend gang was waiting for them to arrive. There were 4 famous bully kids from school, who were in their senior year. Also, there was his crush, or is it former? Then there was her boyfriend, who had glasses and brown hair.

She was beautiful, but once one looked inside, they would try their best not to vomit and will finally give in no matter what. That was how evil she was. How the previous Jaime didn’t notice this, only god knows.

“He’s here, let’s get this over with.” said a blonde-haired muscular boy wearing a bandana as he walked at Jaime.

“It’s already quarter to four, I don’t want to waste precious time on scum like you.” said Jaime as he walked towards him, grabbing a broomstick from the ground, which the cleaner left behind.

“Huh, you want to fight me with a broom? Get real, nerd!” he shouted and aimed a punch to his abdomen.

Although his body hadn’t adapted to fast movement, and he couldn’t use his danger perception as well, a normal human was nothing for him. What would you expect from someone who fought mutants and zombies every single day?

Jaime sidestepped and thrust the top at his solar plexus, followed by an uppercut to the chin. Although one would have flown up if he were to fight with his future body, this one wasn’t as strong and only managed to make his opponent fall.

“Beat him up, boys.” said the one with glasses as he waved his hand. He was Jaime’s crush’s boyfriend, Paul.

The bullies couldn’t bully him because his father was a mafia boss and his mother was the CEO of a big corporation, meaning he had a lot of backings.

A boy with a Mohawk approached him, and so did a boy wearing a leather jacket, another boy with a hat. They were all pretty muscular and could easily beat a grown man if they had the chance to fight.

The one with the leather jacket grabbed a knife from his belt and licked it. Another one was holding a baseball bat and the other one had brass knuckles.

The one with brass knuckles threw a jab aimed at Jaime’s nose, but he ducked under it and thrust the broom from below him at his chin, making him lose his balance. By then, the one with the knife was at his back, which Jaime promptly dealt by thrusting his solar plexus with the end of the broom.

He then slammed his broom at the head of the one who initiated the fight.

Then he swung it on his hand, making him let go of the knife. Jaime grabbed it and got out of the bat’s reach. When the one holding it moved in to hit Jaime, he stabbed it into his abdomen, which was quite hard considering that he wasn’t really strong and his opponent had a rock hard six pack.

Jaime then pulled it out and stabbed at his opponent’s liver from the back, and then he tripped him, which sent him away.

The one who held the knife suddenly grabbed his foot and shouted for the other one to punch him to death.

“I would’ve let you go if you hadn’t done that.” said Jaime as he stabbed his hand to the ground and slammed his head into the ground until the one with brass knuckles interrupted him.

Just when it was about to hit his face, Daniel jabbed his temple, making him lose consciousness.

“Thanks for the support.” said Jaime with a smile, and turned to look at the ringleaders. By then, Jaime’s smile had contorted to a grin which could scare away the devil himself. And who were those two compared to the devil, they ran with their tail between their legs.

Paul then shouted some cliché line “Watch your back when walking alone!”

“So, let’s go, shall we?” asked Jaime, looking at the others. Then he noticed that they were shaken up.

“Are you still the Jaime I know?” asked Daniel with wide eyes. “The one I know wouldn’t be able to beat them up so easily and he certainly wouldn’t be so ruthless.”

Jaime facepalmed. This wasn’t the era he was used to and it wasn’t okay to murder people. He remembered it too late. He even stabbed someone’s eye in the class and fatally injured three students, and maybe disabled one.

“Let’s run before the police arrive.” said Jaime as he started running, expecting the others to follow him. Although shaken, they still believed the zombie outbreak speech of his because of the magic trick he showed them.

He felt strange when he said those words. Not because the ‘let’s run’ part. It was the word ‘police’ that made him feel strange. In the early stages, he believed that the police and SDF would save them, but it soon shattered as he saw countless helicopters crash.

Even though there was one place like a city, there was no law and certainly no ally of justice there. At all times, unless he pissed off some big mafia boss, he wouldn’t have a care in the world. There were absolutely no consequences back then, or will be from his point of view now.

The rest of the trip was silent, and they arrived at a shop at half past four.

The police were probably on their tail, now that Jaime stabbed a pen into Simon’s eyes, as suggested by the sirens. He picked a small shop in an isolated alley.

There was no name and the word ‘Mini-market’ was written on a panel at the top of the door. It was in a basement of a building and it couldn’t be opened from the outside if locked by a good lock.

Although it gave good defenses, Jaime wouldn’t risk being caught in a death trap, so he decided to look elsewhere.

“You guys wait outside for a bit.” said Jaime while motioning for them to stay.

“But I want to buy stuff too.” pouted Carmen. “And you don’t have much money anyways.”

“I have enough, and stay means STAY.” he put an emphasis on the last word when talking with her.

Jaime then pulled open the door, throwing a final look at them. He then went in, and saw that it wasn’t much of a shop, but it would suffice.

There were stuff lined up on shelves sticking out from the wall, and they all had a price bar under them. The shop was worked by an elderly man in his late seventies.

When Jaime said that he had money, he lied.

“Haah, I don’t really like it, but the situation calls.” said Jaime and sighed, throwing a ferocious look at the old man.

…

Fifteen minutes had passed since Jaime went in, and there was no sign of him coming out.

Daniel was the first to get impatient “Jeez, he kept saying we don’t have much time and stuff, and he disappears?” he questioned while sitting on a bench, together with the other two.

“He’s probably looking to strike deal with the owner. We need as much food as we can, after all.” said Mike with a smart look.

The door slammed open.

“Hey you two, come help me!” shouted Jaime as he struggled to lift 4 full plastic bags and one bag.

“Where did you get so much money?” asked Daniel with a skeptical look, wondering how he bought so much.

“Shut up and take this.” said he, motioning Mike to get 2 of them. Daniel and Mike were fitter than him, so they didn’t have a trouble lifting 2.

“Wait a sec, I’ll get more. And no peeking.” said Jaime as he walked into the shop.

Curious, Carmen looked through the small window and saw a face looking right at her.

“Boo!”

“Waah!” The one looking at her was none other than Jaime, who knew that this would happen. She then backed off, seeing the old man was all well.

“He then brought out two more and 2 backpacks, giving one to Carmen. This one was light so she didn’t have a problem. He carried one and his backpack was probably full. He had one on his back and the other was given to Daniel.

Jaime looked through the parking lot nearest to the shop and started clicking on the unlock button on the key of a car, which was taken from the shop owner.

A small green car’s light flashed and Jaime motioned for them to follow him to the car.

When near, he opened the baggage and threw in the plastic bags inside. It was then that the contents of one plastic bag spilled. “Snickers and Twix, what the hell, dude?” shouted Daniel.

“We don’t have the luxury of normal food, they have more calorie and will sustain us longer with smaller a doze. That’s why sweets are important.” said Jaime and opened another bag, showing a bag full of water bottles. “This one is in case the water goes out.”

Last time, Jaime didn’t have the luxury of testing tape water, as he sneaked into shops for waters while living in the sewers. A tough life, as it sounds. If one were to break a window, then the nearby zombies would be alarmed and would be extremely hard to live there in peace. But luckily, he soon moved to a mall’s top floor, which he sealed off all the exits and entrances with sofas.

Then he opened another plastic bag, which was the heaviest. It contained canned food. “These won’t go bad, and we have to use time to our advantage, so I brought two backpacks worth of bread and ham and stuff.” he said, revealing normal food in his backpack and the one in Daniel’s.

Then they got into the car.

“Dude, do you have a driving license?” asked Mike.

“Nope, but who cares.” said Jaime “Does anyone have a spare garage or something?” he joked.

“Actually, I have.” said Mike, raising his hand.

“How did you?!” shouted Carmen.

“You know Uncle Tom, when he passed away, his will said that I should get the garage and work it, as I like mechanics.” said Mike, with a smile.

“I should’ve guessed, you were Tom’s favorite, after all.” said Carmen with a sigh.

“Is it far?” asked Jaime.

“Nope, it’s only a 5 minute drive from here.” said Mike.

Jaime then looked at the clock, it was 5.

“We’ll move in 30 minutes.” he said.

All the while the owner of the car couldn't move a muscle, and was stuck in the little shop he worked, which was nearly empty.