‘From just the two of us, through having an entire comando all the way to the current state of my group,’ Nadia thought, unable to control her body any longer.

Her muscles were moving on their own, just as if someone had taken over and was attempting to help her go through the dire situation.

‘And now I’m stuck with two normies, a dysfunctional officer and my strange state!’ Nadia lamented in her mind while her body continued to drag the three of her new companions towards the staircase.

“I can run on my own!” the officer protested, shaking Nadia’s hand as he started to run himself. “Where are we going?” he then asked, turning his eyes towards the girl.

“How could I know?” Mia’s lips moved on their own, uttering her words in a voice oozing annoyance. “You wanted to run to the stairs, didn’t you?” she then asked before shutting her mouth close to preserve her breath.

As the very central point of the entire school, the place that Mathew initially picked for their stronghold was pretty spacious. It was so huge, in fact, that its creator actually fitted several rooms and additional classrooms just in the middle area in the space used for technicalities on the lower floors.

‘I wonder if we will make it,’ Nadia thought, limited to just passively watching how the events unfold.

She could tell that her body operated with the strength it shouldn’t have. Yet, while she could no longer control her movements, she could very well feel the drawbacks of using so much strength to run.

‘IT BURNS!’ the girl screamed out in her mind, while her lips remained oblivious to the overuse of her body.

“There!” the cute girl that started the entire disaster shouted and shot her hand forward, pointing at something in the distance. “The stairs… are gone!”

‘It’s over,’ Nadia thought, her mind projecting all sorts of things that would happen to her once the rest of the students would get their hands on her.

‘I know I trained all sorts of stuff; I know it seems I’m stronger now, but…’ Nadia thought, only to then bite down on her lips. ‘It still won’t be enough!’

For a moment, Nadia’s mind fell into despair. Yet, just as she was about to succumb to the dark state of her soul, the girl shrugged.

‘Huh?’ she took a moment to clear her thoughts only to then cast them all aside and focus on a single, particular feeling.

‘My lips… are cut?’

It was only a small detail, a tiny injury, that she found herself suffering more often than most of the other people around. All because of Nadia’s habit of biting down on her lips when she couldn’t figure something out.

Yet…

How could her lips be split open right now? Or rather, why did her body react to her thoughts if she could no longer control them?

“We destroyed all the stairs, after all.” The voice of the officer’s comment forced Nadia’s mind back on the track.

She eagerly wished for a moment for herself so that she could figure out what was going. Sadly, the world around Nadia didn’t care what she wished for or what she wanted.

And neither did the group of students that finally figured out what was going on and started their chase.

“Supplies!” the officer shouted, turning his head to the back, only to feel Nadia’s shoe on his butt again.

“Too late; we can’t grab them now,” Nadia quickly informed, rushing towards the stairs.

And right as the small group of four managed to reach the destroyed staircase, Nadia figured it out.

‘I just need to stop resisting?’ she thought before mentally swallowing a gulp of saliva and then relaxing.

In an instant, Nadia returned to reality. Her vision turned back to its human version, and the immense power bursting through her veins dissipated all at once.

‘What the hell was that?’ Nadia asked herself, only to take a quick glance to the back.

‘Thirty seconds at most,’ she judged the distance and the speed of their pursuers before taking a look at the gaping hole in the floor ahead.

Surely enough, the floor below was filled with zombies. Yet, while jumping right into their brain-craving hands seemed like a bad idea, it was actually the act of jumping itself that Nadia was horrified by the most.

‘If the floor breaks just like it did before…’ she thought, only to shake her head and grab the arm of the officer.

Now was no time to deal with the psychological problems of some randoms.

“I…I didn’t…” the officer attempted to argue, clearly unwilling to assume responsibility for what happened, even if only on a mental level.

“You fucked up before,” Nadia cut the officer’s words short before shaking her hand and the man’s arm that she grabbed on. “But now you can redeem yourself,” she stated, cursing away at the guilty feeling that instantly filled her soul.

‘Who am I to offer that man redemption?’ Nadia asked herself, only to shake her head and refocus her attention.

The group of students was now only ten seconds away.

“What?” the officer asked, clearly not catching Nadia’s drift.

“You fucked up before.” Nadia’s eyes darkened, and her fingers tightened around the man’s elbow.

Five seconds.

“Then go and pave the way for us to escape now!” Nadia shouted, suddenly using all the strength of her muscles and weight of her body combined into one of the simplest throws that she had ever learned.

And without even a moment of hesitation, she threw the poor officer towards the zombie-filled staircase of the lower floor while using her other hand to grab the gun that fell out of the policeman’s hand.

A second. The students at the front already reached out with their hands, ready to grab the girl and her two other companions.

“Jump!” Nadia shouted, raising the gun in a single, fluid motion. She gently pulled on the trigger the second both the muzzle and the body of the nearest opponent appeared in a single frame of her vision.