System, are you messing with me? - Chapter 42: Chapter 42

It was already the afternoon two days later when the car finally covered a quater of the distance towards the safe Base. By this time Shu Ning would have of corse travelled further if he was on his own. With a child on board though there had to be way more breaks to eat, drink and sleep. And to move about as A-Yong tended to get figedy sitting down too long. Unfortunately too long meant about every hour or so. At least it gave him ample time to consume the sizeable amount of nucleo he had collected all this time, making his power level skyrocket. Now low ranking zombie's were like ants purposefully crawling underneath his boots.
Shu Ning slowly steered the car around the buildings of the next town, making sure to stay clear of the highway and other popular locations. As luck would have it though, he was forced to switch to a lane passing by a major hospital as his prefered route had a large tree lying in the middle of the street. The car was also almost out of fuel and the sky looked dark and unwelcome.
"Please do not let it rain on top of things."
Shu Ning's mumbling got drowned out by a sudden bang of thunder though and A-Yong, who had been silently watching the world blurr past his window, flinched in surprise. Only seconds later the sky above opened up it's dam and a rush of rain fell around them.
Sighing to himself, Shu Ning carefully steered the car on a less slipery part of the street and was just about to lay a reassuring hand on the child's shoulder when a stream of lightning split the world ahead of them. This time even he flinched in surprise.
This was not normal. Of that Shu Ning was certain. It was not the first time he had been caught in a storm after all. He leaned forward in his seat to get a better view of outside but couldn't find anything noticable happening anymore. It was only when the buildings and trees gave way to the large hospital that Shu Ning could see what was going on.
In front of the hospital's huge glas doors stood a group of young men, wearing well fitting clothes in black and brown. They were gathered in a half-circle around a tall and sturdy man, protectivelly isolating him from the two zombie's who had just jumped out of an open window of the medical institution. Purple lightening flittered around the fists of the male, which also explained the sudden change in weather and from time to time a ball of fire or a bout of metallic needles would fly towards the location of the zombie's.
Shu Ning could now immediately recognize that the two zombie's were of higher skill than those common low ranking ones. One of them even seemed to be stronger and smarter than the one he had fought inside of the supermarket. This was also the reason he shortly considered just driving past and leaving them to their own devices, but just as he had thought that a small hand grabbed the edges of his sleeve and big green eyes stared at him.
"Do you want to save them A-Yong?"
Shu Ning imploringly looked into Shi Yong's eyes and seeing the child hesitantly nod he made up his mind. With a stronger press on the accelerator the car shot forward, slingering a little when he hit the brake to stop right beside the shocked humans.
Before the car came to a complete standstill, Shu Ning had already hoisted Shi Yong and the bag into his arms and jumped out of the vehicle. In a short moment they were already drenched to the bones by the rain.
Not caring about this though, he made his way through the tight circle of humans, using his ability to push away those that were standing in his way. When Shu Ning finally arrived infront of the man with thunder ability he unceremoniously pushed Shi Yong into the other's arms and dropped the bag to their feet. The male looked at the kid in obvious bewilderment and was about to say something when one of the bystanding people cried out in alarm.
One of the zombie's had vanished from the spot it had been in before and the other was rushing at them in lightning speed. Shu Ning didn't hesitate to push the agitated humans out of his way and erected another barrier to block of the creature's attack. Then he comressed the invisible wall into a more compact form and rammed it into it's snarling mouth.
Before the zombie could stagger backwards from the surprise another barrier was summoned forth. This time surrounding the undead's head and slowly narrowing in size. Shu Ning had to release his hold on the other's head though as it's partner, who had momentarily dissapeared, suddenly found it self inside of the human circle.
Quickly the humans organised themselves and attacked the second zombie with their own abilities and some moved closer with the obvious intention of sklicing it with their wepons. Shu Ning himself tried to hold the undead inside of a barrier but before any of their bombardment could hit the creature was gone again.
Shu Ning: "WAS THAT INSTANT TELEPORTATION?"
Alpha: "Looked that way. A zombie with ability?"
Shu Ning: "Fuck. So a level two and level three zombie. What did I let myself get into."
Shu Ning glanced about to pinpoint the two zombie's location again. After finding them he rushed up to the weaker one of them, already pulling out his kitchen knive in preparation. The other snarled in warning but didn't move out of the way and so with a clash his weapon met the undead's sharp claws.
They parted again in the blinck of an eye and Shu Ning drew a barrier around their location so that they wouldn't be interupted. He needn't have to worry though as lightning shot at the level three zombie, stopping it in it's approach. With the other human's distracting one of the undead, it was a simple task to kill the level two. And only after Shu Ning made sure that it had dropped dead did he dissolve the barrier and turn around to help the others.
"Oy. Jump in the car. I'll hold the zombie long enough for you to get in. And you....."
Shu Ning pointed to the thunder ability user who did not falter in his attack on the high level undead. The other people were looking at the guy as well, waiting for nod of agreement before opening the car doors and pushing their companions inside.
"Protect the child. I will not accept anything happening to him."
The guy shot another bolt of electricity in the direction of the zombie, but as always the attack was to slow as it had teleported away before it could hit. The child was safely cradled in his arms, clinging onto his clothes for support and clenching his eyes closed in fear. Still, A-Yong did not move or make a sound which could interrupt the man's concentration.
Shu Ning quickly ran over to their side, rubbing the kid's head shortly before drawing a large barrier infront of them. The zombie stopped right in front of it, frowning slightly in confusion before touching a hand to the glimmering surface. The man shortly glanced over to him in thanks before taking the kid towards one of the vehicles parked off to the side.
This left Shu Ning alone on the open space infront of the hospital facing off with the last standing undead. A small smile curved up the corner of his lips in exitement of finally letting loose and not worrying about Shi Yong's safety anymore.
With a push of power the barrier started to soldify and melt into a small discus. Then it was flying in rapid speed towards the undead, only missing it by a few seconds. Shu Ning didn't even glance towards the right when he felt a presence at his side and just redirected the barrier towards the new location. At the same time he jumped away from the spot to evade the snapping of sharp teeth.
Like this they started to chase eachother around the place, attacking and defending alike. At some point, Shu Ning whirled around where he stood when the zombie dissapered again, just stabbing his knive into it's shoulder the moment it appeared bihind him and using the discus to slam into it's head. The skull fractured from the force of it, giving way for the barrier to enter inside and blow up the rest of it.
Shu Ning watched as the zombie crumbled to the ground, the head of it only a piece of broken bone and ripped meat. He crouched down to digg into it, pulling the nucleo free of it's confinement and storing it away. This time the colour of the small pearl like object was a murky silver and it's size also seemed a bit bigger.
After all this was done, he walked over to the car the child was placed in and crawled inside. Shi Yong was nestled between the lightning ability user and a young man with sandy blond hair and an bright grin on his face. As soon as Shu Ning opened up the car door though and sat down on the last space available, the kid speedily climbed over the other's legs and heavily fell into his lap. A quiet sigh left Shi Yong's lips when he was finally fully sittled on his legs.
Shu Ning smiled at the young one and rubbed soothing circles into his back as the rows of cars started to peel out onto the street. Finally back on the path towards B-City and it's Base.
"Thank you. ...... For your help."
The leader of the group, because what else could he be, was looking at Shu Ning with a straight gaze and a gratefull smile on his face. The young man between them too was mumbling words of thanks but beyond that there was also a strong gleam of excitement in his eyes.
"That was amzing you know? Who exactly are you? How could you do all that and most importabtly why did you help us? You practically put the child's life on the line."
"I did not. A-Yong was in safe hands. That much I was sure off. Helping you guys out was his idea as well. I probably wouldn't have cared much if not for him."
There was silence for a moment as they just stared at Shu Ning in a mix of exasperation for his honesty and gentleness at his love for the child. The leader of the group also looked slightly intrigued and curious as he continued the conversation.
"You have not told us your name yet."
"You have not either, but allright. My Name is Shi Wei. This is Shi Yong."
"I'm Zhao Yang and this is Nian Zhei."
Shu Ning couldn't help but show a surprised expression when one of the names stroke a chord in his memory. The Man, Zhao Yang, was the son of B-Base's chief and was supposed to die latter on by the hands of the Protagonist. Before the Zombie appocalypse he was the CEO of one of the most renown designing companies and after became one of the strongest ability users of the base. Besides the thunder ability he would also awaken the metal ability and if not for Xu Dan, he would have probably been the one to safe humanity.
After thinking about the plot for a moment longer he turned his attention back to the other people inside of the car. Zhao Yang was slightly frowning at him as he had not said anything in a while and was instead staring straight ahead into space. Shu Ning smiled sheepishly at the man and watched as amusement spread over the other's face.
"Well. It is nice to meet you two. Thank's for keeping A-Yong safe as well Zhao Yang."
"You are welcome. Were you heading towards B-City as well?"
"Yes. You too?"
"Yes. As we have the same goal I suppose we could travel there together."
"Yes. I suppose we could."
Shu Ning smiled at Zhao Yang who had not stopped scrutinizing him since the car was set into motion and then leaned back into the seat, cradling the sleepy child closer to his chest. He was tired as well from the constant wariness of travel and within the blink of an eye he and Shi Yong were deep asleep.