-Chapter 4-
-POV Nick Clark-
"Dude, what the hell are you doing?" I asked Cal as I saw him suddenly dart away at full speed.
He ran off, quickly distancing himself from us, reaching the Dawsons' porch just as I stepped out the door, running after him.
"Calvin, get back here, right now!" I heard his father William yelling behind me, who had just been woken up suddenly, still shocked to see his son pull out a gun he didn't even know existed.
Unfortunately, Calvin isn't the kind of guy who listens to others.
Even though Calvin always made sure to hide that side of his personality from his parents, acting like a good boy with them, I'd known him long enough to know that he's the kind who gives orders, not takes them.
I had experienced it firsthand on several occasions, the rare times I'd stood up to him.
The dog, who had been barking nonstop, started running faster, also chasing after him.
I sped up too, trying to catch up with him under the desperate cries of my mom and sister, practically begging me not to go.
When I reached the house, I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the sound of seven gunshots, one after the other.
Once the shock passed, I pushed myself harder and ran into the house, only to find Cal with his gun, staring at Mr. Dawson who was wobbling with seven large holes in his abdomen.
"Oh God, Cal, what the fuck did you do?!" his father screamed behind me, startling me in the process, because even with his wooden leg, he was fast enough to catch up.
He was the only one between the two of us who could even speak after seeing his son shoot a defenseless man seven times.
"I'm doing what has to be done," said Cal, firing one last shot, this time aimed directly at the man's head, who collapsed instantly like a puppet with its strings cut.
"He was a sick person, but he was alive!" his father roared fiercely, stepping dangerously closer to his son, and for a second, I truly thought he was going to hit him.
"He wasn't alive."
"He wasn't alive."
"He wasn't alive."
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-POV Calvin Jasper-
I looked at Nick and his mom, a bit surprised they were defending me, because this was just the beginning and it usually took some time before people accepted we were fighting an epidemic that turned people into zombies, not patients with a possibly curable disease.
Seeing I wasn't alone, I took the time to explain the situation to my father once more: "People infected by a bite all die from a high fever before coming back in this form of a walking corpse, driven by the primal instinct to feed."
"Feed on human flesh," Nick added, finishing my explanation.
I nodded and then said, "Exactly. They're no longer truly alive. And even if they were, it would still be self-defense, nothing more."
As I spoke, I'd reached the front door, guessing the gunshots had made enough noise to attract more infected, and I was right.
I grabbed my second spare magazine and swapped it with the empty one.
'I wanted to make a statement by using multiple bullets so they'd realize these things aren't alive anymore, but that was just a waste. I can't let that cost me my life,' I thought.
Even though I still had bullets, I didn't have another preloaded magazine, and who knows what could come next.
I scanned the area, silently counting the infected that were slowly approaching me.
Once I finished counting the infected around me, I took a short breath.
Even though I acted cold and detached, I was just as shaken by what I had to do.
'Alright, here we go,' I thought as I opened my eyes, hearing the groans of the infected getting closer.
I moved quietly, trying not to make too much noise so they couldn't rely solely on their sense of smell, then I aimed at the first of the four zombies.
I waited patiently for it to get close enough that I couldn't possibly miss.
Once it was less than three meters from me, I held my breath to stop shaking, then pulled the trigger.
BANG
The bullet blew open the first infected's skull.
Then I turned in another direction to aim at the next closest one, and fired again, more quickly this time, as the blast had excited the others.
BANG
The second bullet hit its mark as well.
Then I backed away quickly to avoid letting the walker charging at me get close.
I tripped it while shoving it to the ground, then aimed at the last one still standing, shooting it in the head without hesitation.
BANG
I didn't even check if the bullet had landed—I immediately aimed at the walker trying to grab my foot to bite me and fired a fourth and final shot into its head.
'Good thing Calvin had practiced shooting with his dad when he was young,' I thought, aware of how to shoot thanks to the memories of the original Calvin that were now a part of me.
'Looks like I inherited his skills with a gun,' I thought, staring at the lifeless zombies on the ground, part of their skulls crushed and pierced, lying in a pool of blood.
Right after that, I heard a sort of notification buzz inside my mind.
[+4 Life Points]
'If I remember correctly, those points could be spent to improve your stats, kind of like in games,' I thought, trying to mentally open the interface of the Omniversal Evolution Prism.
[EVOLUTION] [SURVIVAL] [INVENTORY]
'So it works through pure thought too,' I thought, mentally selecting the EVOLUTION option.
I tried to select the ENDURANCE stat, but got an error message:
[ATTRIBUTE function is locked: 10 Life Points required to unlock this feature]
I shook my head, and it was only when I noticed everyone staring at me silently that I came back to the real world, realizing they were shocked to see how 'comfortable' I seemed with killing people.
'Someone's got to play the role of the cold-hearted bastard,' I thought as I silently walked back into Nick's house, under the watchful eyes of both our families, not really in the mood to talk—let alone explain myself.
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N.A : Another chapter 🥹🙈