Chapter 11

When all this started all I had for my protection was a leather armour with some metal plates, now with my increase in strength I wear a full metal plate armour, which I specially crafted to reduce the loss in agility. There were only few and extreme movements I couldn't do while wearing this set. I took care to darken every piece of it, covering it with a blackish iron oxide, it provided protection against rust and reflection, but if it gets warmer I will have to either cover it or ditch it. I don't want to be baked alive.

As for weapons there were only three changes to my arsenal, I ditched my axe and added a bow and a sword. I couldn't find a proper gun or rifle, I lacked praxis and ammunition for them anyway, while I am capable to craft new arrows. Right now I only have five of them but I carry around twenty additional arrowheads with me.

The bow is monstrous, I created it out of steel, no other human than me should be able to draw it. At least I didn't meet them yet. My sword is a bastard sword, the unholy unification of a longsword's blade and a claymore's hilt. The blade is thicker and wider than one would normally forge, since I had to make sure that it doesn't break through my own strength. The hammer also got an upgrade consisting of a metal handle.

In a steady pace I made my way towards the valley, passing some farms and feral fields, back home the guys prepare the sowing, but there is nobody here. Following the road I reach the first big crossroad. Taking out a map I check my options. The left road leads to some villages, but the right one leads towards a big city, I also note that on the way to it there exists a military facility.

I take the right way with the intention to check out the base, maybe the survivors in the city evacuated there, also if my guess that near-death experience strengthens the soul there could be a lot of survivors at the base. The distance to it is 200 km. At my current pace I will need a day of non-stop jogging. An easy feat for me, although an inhuman one. But that is the reason why I (!) am making this journey.

After a boring monotone journey I reach my destination, strangely I didn't come across a lot of living creatures, human or not. I guess there are more attractive places than this promontory. Especially for the soulless, at least as long as they can't eat grass or relearn herding. Although the first would actually be easy to achieve, since we once were herbivore. The information for that should still rest in our DNA.

I finally reach the forest, where the road leading to the base is crossing my path. Unbeknownst to me the street was watched by two people in military uniforms, they saw me hours ago. Immediately one of them went to base to make a report. When the soldier returns to his post half an hour later he got an update on the situation and was shocked. That person in black had jogged for half an hour. Beside they cold see him, with binoculars of course, more clearly now. What they saw shocked them even more, it looked like a heavy armour armed to the teeth with antique weapons runs down the highway.

The soldier returned once more to make his report. It was decided that they would meet that strange person with utmost caution. Ten man and their leader gathered at the gate, armed with rifles, they had too many bad surprises already, they didn't need another one.

As I arrive near the gate I am greeted with ten guns pointed at me, I saw them long ago but still approached. I slow my pace an raise my hands to show my cooperation and will to talk. What I didn't consider was the fact that it looked like I was raising my hands to draw my sword. One of the soldiers lost his cool and shot without getting a command.

I react instantly, my soul extends engulfing the bullet and converting its kinetic energy into heat. The bullet stops for a moment and it would fall down, if I didn't freeze it in place denying every conversion of energy. All it takes to do that is a bit of my concentration. I quickly create an automated program to stop any fast moving object around me, that doesn't weights too much. I don't want to stop my enemies with that, it would drain me to fast, but the energy of a medium calibre bullet was manageable.

The speed of my soul is just hilarious, sadly I can't transfer it onto my body, it still has to listen to the laws of physics, my conversions also has a limit in their output. But compared to the amount a body needs, the energy of a bullet is just laughable. A hail of them on the other hand......

“Cease fire!” I shout, while raising my arms even further to show that I don't intend to fight. “CEASE FIRE YOU IDIOTS, can't you see he tried to raise his hands?” says a man that is apparently their leader. They lower their guns. I pick the bullet out of the air, while lowering my hand. “I should use telekinesis more often...” I think to myself.

The soldiers assume that their comrade missed, they were too far away to see the bullet stop, although my motion while lowering my hands looked kinda strange to them. But they though nothing of it as they assumed it was caused by my armour.

While stepping closer I loosen my belts and hold them, weapons attached to them. I don't want a repetition of what happened before. When I step closer to the group of armed man I say “Catch!” and gently throw the bullet to its shooter, I then hand my weapons to the closest guy to me. Seems like I forgot the weight of my weapons, the guy that received them almost drops them, because he didn't estimate the it. I reach up and take off my helmet.

I hear a breath of relief coming from them. Looks like they still didn't trust me till they saw my face. “Thank god, I though we found yet another kind of monster, but you look like a normal human.” their leader greets me. “HOW THE FUCK!”. I hear a shout from my left. I turn around and see that the shooter finally got what happened. “Maybe not as normal as you though.” I say quiet enough so that only their commander hears me. Louder I continue “So you do have some problems with the changed? I could probably help you.”.

“Let's talk about that inside, I am sure that running for hours was quite exhausting.” he invites me. Although I don't really need any rest I still accept his invitation. I follow him inside. “So how many survivors do you have here?” I ask. “I know of around 200. but I don't know if there are others around the city, it is too dangerous to go there at the moment.” he replies, “How many are there from where you came?” “Just 20. So we really need some more people for long term survival, right now its relatively safe there, the cold drove the changed down into the valley, so towards here.” I say.

We reach a small house, which we enter. He leads me to an office and signals me to sit down. I take a seat and he sits down on the chair behind the desk, it seems like this is his office from before the apocalypse.

As soon as he sits he begins to speak “I don't know exactly WHAT you are, but I know that I at least can reason with you. We are in dire need of some help, so name your price and we can talk about it.” “I don't need anything, but like I said there is a small group of survivors up in the mountains, I would like to have your group trade and interact with them.” I reply.

“Then let me brief you about everything, but first I would like to see what you are capable off.” he says while standing up, “Follow me.” . He leads me towards a gym. Arriving there I decide to get rid of my armour, it would be dangerous to fight someone in it, dangerous for them.

“Guessing by your choice of weapons you are a meele fighter right?” he asks. I nod. “Our meele combat instructor is among the survivors, warm yourself up while I get him here for a spar.” . I grin while I warm myself up. This is going to be fun. “Bring some more fellows.” I shout at the commander's back.

He soon returns, followed by my soon to be sparring partner and some curios soldiers. “ So that is him huh? Looks rather fit.” my sparring partner says, “I think we will need more than just one round to evaluate this guy, he seems to be at a good level, guessing from his posture at least. Wait a moment for me and we can get started.”

After he warmed up, we got started with the fight. Since I wanted to enjoy the spar and wanted to impress the onlookers, I took my time with the fight. But the ending was rather obvious, he stood no chance. Turning around I say “I need some more helping hands to show my full potential, would you guys lend me a hand?”

The next spare was 10 versus me. I tap a bit more into my potential. In this fight my movement were mere blurs for the onlookers, some of the volunteers couldn't even react to my movements. Honestly the hardest part was not hurting them too badly. I was easily twice as fast as any of them.

The onlookers were simply dumbfounded. “What did you expect from someone who ran for at least two hours with a 50 kg armour and caught a freaking bullet out of the air?” the shooter from before asks, while lifting part of my armour. Noises of disbelief erupt in the audience. “Is that enough for you commander or should I stab myself in front of you and heal myself, by the way most of those changed humans can do that too, which means you either have to destroy their heads or damage their body heavily enough for it to fail to kill them.” I say.

“I will pass on that one. It is just past lunch and I don't want to upset my stomach. Come with me and I will give you all the information you will need for the job.” he replies.

We return to his office, after I took my armour and weapons with me, and he begins his explanation. “Our situation is a bit more complicated than a horde of hunting changed, but from your actions till now, I at least can judge that you won't make matters worse.” he begins, “Like I said before, I know of around 200 survivors at this city, we only have 50 here the rest are either kidnapped or went rogue. They are led by a former soldier.” He shows me a picture.

“That guy and his preachings changed a lot of people. He used their moment of weakness to influence them. We lost a lot to him, people, food and a lot of weaponry. As far as I know 75 of his followers are soldiers and the rest are civilians. But I only know where they settled down, not what they are doing, nor what they plan to do. But when we observed them we got some seriously bad news. He and most of his followers are drunk on might and violence, we already confirmed ten deaths.”

“So you want me to remove him and his elites? And return the people to you?” I ask filled with doubt. “That would be the preferable outcome, but you could also take the people with you to your settlement, I would even provide food and transportations. All I want is to see those people free from misuse. If we tried that there would be too many deaths, but you might be able to 'join' them and deal with it from the inside.” he replies.

It is really tempting for me, all I need are more people and he presents a possibly agreeable solution. “I will have to confirm your informations, but I will try to solve this problem.” I say. “That is all I wanted to hear.” he replies, with a sliver of hope shinning in his eyes, “Then I wish you good luck.”

With that I leave the base and run towards a city, I will need halve a day to reach it by foot. I soon reach the suburbs and my pace drops, since I detect a lot of activity here. In a steady pace I cross the districts, dispatching all hunters I meet, they are easy prey now, but I still noticed that they changed quite a bit. They grew a lot and gained even more muscles, that slowed them down a lot, but their sheer destructive strength is ridiculous. At least to a normal human.

Soon I reach a vantage point and see my destination.