Chapter 6
Waking up the next day, Arthur felt alive. The atmosphere was brighter, signifying morning. 'At least I can see where I am heading.' He unlocked the barricade he had made, then went over to the head office.
Activating Force Manipulation, he concentrated on the shelves he had placed in front of the door earlier. Slowly but steadily they rose from the ground. 'Woah.' Arthur felt his brain straining itself.
Not wanting to start a dangerous day with a headache, he moved the shelves aside. 'Oh, I forgot my trusty weapon. Clumsy me,' he chuckled nervously. How could he test new skills if he didn't have a backup plan?
Retrieving his concrete cone, he walked up to the head officer's door and kicked it down. He glanced inside, counting four approaching zombies. 'Is it me or are they faster?' Taking a step back, he waited.
He didn't even have a chance to wait. In mere moments the first zombie reached him. Its hand flew towards him like the claws of a wild beast.
At a single thought, he activated the Force Barrier and watched the zombie's hand slowly decelerate before stopping in mid-air. Simultaneously he felt his energy reserves shorten tremendously.
The first zombie fell into his trap, then the second came, then the third, and finally the fourth. By now Arthur could feel an extreme external pressure on his mind. 'Telekinesis is truly a headache giver,' he thought, wiping his suddenly bleeding nose.
'I have a few seconds before this is over, so let's test other skills.' Pushing his hands towards the zombies, all four of them flew away with tremendous force.
Crashing onto the wall, one died instantly, one was mangled, and the other two shrugged off the damage like it was nothing. 'Let's be practical about this one.' He clenched his fist and threw a punch towards one of the incoming zombies.
It immediately flew back with even more tremendous force. Without even hitting the wall it was shredded into meat paste. That one really took a toll on Arthur's mind.
For a split second everything became blurry, and when he regained his senses the final zombie's teeth were mere inches away from his shoulder.
He shot his body backwards at insane speed. 'Five mana points just for that. I should start conserving my mana.' Calling his concrete cone to his palm, he watched as the zombie closed the several-meter distance he had created.
"Let me experiment with something." Hurling the cone at the zombie with the aid of Force Manipulation, he used Environmental Weaponization to make the cone precisely hit the zombie's forehead.
A morbid scene unfolded as the zombie's head exploded backwards. When the blood settled moments later, Arthur watched the zombie in shock. Calling it headless was an understatement.
It was like the head and entire shoulders of the zombie had been taken away, as if to serve as a marble bust. Arthur walked over to its still-standing figure and tapped it.
His body shivered as he watched the body fall. 'Is this truly what I have become?' he said, picking up his cone. Walking towards the disabled zombie that was still screeching violently, Arthur killed it with multiple stomps to the skull.
"This world is unforgiving. Hereby we must learn to forget forgiveness. Death is the ultimate mercy, the final peace in this appalling war." He sighed and walked into the head office.
Scavenging the office, he found a standard backpack with a lot of pockets. He also found a Smith & Wesson MP9 and two Glock 19s.
Packing all the ammunition he could find in the office, he left to find more firearms. The room behind the office was like a mini investigation room, so it had nothing useful, and he had to search downstairs.
Quietly walking down the stairs, Arthur could still hear the banging of countless zombies on the police station's entrance. He wondered how he would survive if those doors were to burst open. He shivered slightly.
Now he was quite low on mana. His only chance of survival was to escape. Exploring the little police station, he managed to fill up his backpack and an extra handheld bag with firearms and ammunition.
Now in his possession were six Glocks—four 17s and two 19s—a Smith & Wesson MP9, three disassembled Colt M4 EPRs, two Benelli M4s, a Heckler & Koch MP5, three SIG Sauer MPXs, and finally a H.S. Precision .308 and a Remington 700 SPS/Varmint. He made sure to take the manuals concerning the firearms. Although there were more firearms, he made sure to take one unit of every type he saw.
The backpack was filled up with ammunition. He could hoard as greedily as he wanted because weight and mass were of lower relevance to him.
Arthur found his way back to the first floor of the building. 'Now it's time for the escaping.' Looking out the window, he felt his throat run dry. 'Was it that amount of zombies chasing me yesterday?'
In a normal scenario, the zombies were supposed to be at the front of the building, but they currently surrounded the premises in large numbers.
It would only be a matter of time till they either broke in or wandered off. Arthur wasn't going to bet on the safer option, so he stepped onto the window frame and jumped out.
The zombies looked in his direction and stretched out their hands towards him with daunting moans. Currently he levitated at a point. 'This is harder than I thought, or maybe I lack the understanding of it.'
Looking at the brainless zombies, he thought, 'Telekinesis acts inward or outward. It is a mental ability, so instead of trying to influence things physically, I should try mentally. Common sense, and here I was wasting my time.'
Closing his eyes to focus on his body, he thought of himself flying higher. Slowly he ascended. He opened his eyes, pleased with himself, and boosted towards the direction of the school.
Flying was such a peaceful experience, if he didn't have to worry about so many things like falling or running out of mana. After long minutes of flying, he landed noisily in the middle of the junior high section.
Arthur threw up violently, his nose bleeding and his head aching. This was the point he started feeling the weight of overusing his abilities.
When he recovered, he observed the empty space of the section's courtyard. The ground was dyed red due to blood and the area was almost completely silent. Arthur scanned the area for the second time before cautiously advancing.
He stopped and armed himself with a Glock 17. With that singular action performed, he walked out of the junior section and stared towards the senior section.
Observing a blurry figure moving about the roof of the hall, Arthur felt something off, something wrong. 'That thing is too large to be a zombie,' he said, estimating the distance.
While he watched, the ground below him trembled and expelled three unidentified creatures. Noticing what they were, Arthur's heart skipped a beat.