Chapter 13

The next morning, the storm clouds had passed the city and sunshine once again brightened the land. Samantha woke up on a sofa full of energy. It had only been a night and she could already feel her body was different. Everything that happened last night felt surreal. Even now, she cannot believe how easily she took a step into the door of awakening. Her strength may be on the weaker side amongst the awakened; but that can be compensated with cerebrum concentrates. With her grandfather’s influence in the military, they shouldn’t be hard to come by.

“I hope you can do us a favor and keep it a secret. As for compensation for that favor…” Sarah put down a heavy bucket and its content sloshed in a viscous manner.

Leo absorbed an overwhelming amount of black mist back at the Great Mall. The excess energy from the black mist was ejected in the form of Leo’s thick ooze; though, none of them knew this detail for now.

“Leo’s stuff can last a quite long time. Eat it and do experiments on it for what you will; just don’t mention anything about us to the military or to anyone else.”

Samantha stared blankly at the gallons of thick ooze in the bucket and replied, “Got it, you guys don’t want trouble and I understand. Thanks, for everything.”

The group had breakfast together at the rotunda. Leo was completely oblivious to what happened last night and was perplexed at why Samantha looked at him strangely.

‘Is it because I broke the sofa in my sleep?’ Leo thought to himself. He was told he had a nightmare last night and was rough in his sleep; but he felt amazing waking up this morning, more so than usual.

Samantha announced she will stay at the research facility and wait for another rescue team. She wanted to see her grandfather as soon as possible and rejected the sibling’s offer to accompany them. After the trio bid farewell and continued their journey home, Samantha rushed to the laboratory with samples of Leo’s thick ooze. She was still engrossed over the fact she had awakened and needed to find out by any means, how on earth Leo’s dirty white stuff enabled her mutation.

———————————

Sep 9th, 2042.

“The boy is simply inhuman, monstrous and absurd. I can’t think of any word to describe the ridiculousness of his existence. I seriously doubt he was human. As matter of fact, I doubt any of them were human. TWELVE! The size of his sperm is at least twelve time bigger than an average male sperm and thrice the density. And all I see under the microscope are sperm, ALL OF THEM ARE SPERM, no enzyme and no proteolytic. His sperm does not require any medium to survive, 1ml of semen is 1ml of sperm. No wonder they are thick as cheese. There is no way, no fucking way he is human, but the genome in the sperm is telling me he is.”

Sep 11th, 2042.

“In sample A, I mixed some female ovum, blood cells, stem cells and liver cells with the sperm. The oversized sperm cells ignored the ovum and went after all other cells and injected part of itself into them like viruses. The result was those cells got stronger and healthier. This must be what happened to my body. Though, this doesn’t explain why I always get wet when taking the semen.

In sample B, I froze a sample of sperm cells in ice. The sperm still moved freely in the ice and they were generating intrinsic heat constantly to maintain a stable temperature around them. The sample of semen from yesterday was still hot like they were fresh out of the oven.

In sample C, I placed a variety of bacteria and viruses within the sample yesterday. They were all gone by today and all the sperm cells seemed more energetic as ever. Did the sperm eat them? No way.

In sample D, which is me. My body has gotten stronger and better in shape. As of now, I can lift the heaviest dumbbell at the faculty gym with little effort. I do not get tired easily from physical labor and I require an increasing amount of food since yesterday. I climaxed and got in heat every time I took a spoonful of that thick ooze, which was the only adverse side effect observed so far.”

———————————

The time they spent on the mountain roads was shorter than expected. The siblings decided to exit the mountain to a path that led back to the college campus; essentially, they were back on their side of the river. The reason being, Zomi was too efficient with hunting and the trio were already starving due to the meager breakfast. While carrying several corpses of mutated animals, the trio headed towards the campus lodge where they have a big kitchen at the cafeteria. By noon, lunch was ready and the trio finally had a fulfilling meal that they had been denied for the past few days.

It was at this time, Zomi expressed her desire, through Leo, to temporarily leave the group. This was the first time Zomi took the initiative ever since she followed the siblings. The giantess had become more intelligent; this was agreed on both by Leo and Sarah. The siblings felt like they were parents watching their child making a decision for herself for the first time. Zomi wanted to go back to the mountains to hunt for more food. Leo’s thick ooze was a great source of protein; but Zomi, being a non-human, has a variety of different needs in order to evolve. Nonetheless, Leo had made great contributions towards Zomi’s path of evolution and kicked off the engine that will become fearsome for days to come.

“Uhm… so Zomi basically said mountain, food and be back when dark. We can sense each other so she can find us anytime with no problem. I say we should let her go and do what she wants.”

“Yeah, it will be a hassle to explain her to mom. I say we hide her from mom for now.”

Sarah was reluctant to let Zomi go, but she didn’t express it since it was only temporary. Leo can feel Zomi’s existence even miles apart, so to Leo it was like she never left.

“AH! Don’t forget to remind Zomi not to eat humans.”

“Don’t worry, I reminded her many times.”

With Zomi leaving the party, the siblings quickly packed their loot and continued to make their way home. When the siblings finally arrived home in the afternoon, they were greeted by the usual pair of marshmallows that suffocated them as the mother forced their head down into her bosom. But this time, twice the suffocation as another pair of marshmallows from Aunt Sharon also ambushed the two siblings. What followed after was an hour long lecture from their Mother about not coming back home for not just one night, but two nights. The siblings could only smile wryly and apologize in response, while Sharon watched in amusement.

———————————

“No! Please!! Woo… Wo!” A blonde hair girl pleaded in cry.

“Hai…how do you like that bitch?” A bald muscular man then turned towards the front. “Zach, I told you high school girls are the best.”

“You damn right sir.”

“Too bad that one over there is way too underdeveloped. She looks like a middle schooler at best.” Another man was on the bed with his partner in crime in soft state. He already had his turn.

Shirley sat at the corner of the dormitory room shivering and frightened at the scene before her. The three unruly men barged into their room and started to gang **** her roommate, who was Sarah’s classmate. If Leo was here, he would recognize the bald muscular man was the one that pushed Leo into the fray of zombies back on the day of outbreak.

Shirley’s roommate was not the only victim in the dormitory. The college dormitory had been overtaken by a group of thugs led by an ex-mafia that escaped the police station during the outbreak. The mafia overlord was one of the few awakened humans that managed to continue to evolve after learning the secret of cerebrum concentrate. The three rapists here were lackeys that rallied under his influences back in the days of his leadership.

Moments later, banging sounds were heard from the door.

“Rock, hurry up! Mr. Varos is bringing the pigs to make an offering. He wants all awakened humans to be there,” the man outside did not open the door. He simply delivered the message and left.

“Fine, you guys can continue yourselves, just make sure she doesn’t die. I haven’t had enough fun yet.” Rock pulled his thing back into the pants.

“We are just about done anyway. How I envy the stamina of people like you.”

“Hahaha!” Rock laughed proudly and led the gang out of the room.

The girl was left helplessly on the ground and her eyes were lifeless. White liquid smeared her body and face, thoughts of suicide crept in and out of her mind. She closed her eyes; tears began to flow. She continued to lie on the ground, all she wanted to do now is rest her tired body.

Sensation of a warm towel rubbing her skin brought her back to awareness. Shirley prepared hot water and was cleaning the girl’s body. Shirley changed her clothes and pulled the girl onto her bed with a short struggle.

“Why are you doing this?” The girl said in a hoarse voice.

“What do you mean why, Lily?” Shirley was genuinely confused.

“After the way I’ve treated you, why are you helping me? You were lucky that they didn’t set their eyes on you. You should look at me with disgust and laugh at my pitiful state,” some energy finally appeared from Lily, but the girl was currently in a state of self-loathing.

Shirley’s timid and shy characteristics made her susceptible to bullying. Lily fully abused this fact and brought Shirley into submission. The two girls shared a room so Lily could order Shirley to do her bidding and dirty work during the apocalypse.

“This is what Sarah would have done,” Shirley responded in a sweet expression.

“Her again? You must have some misconception about that woman, she is even more ruthless and cruel than I am.”

Lily had great distaste for Sarah ever since the two were classmates in middle school. Sarah was good at everything and had more popularity than her even until high school. All the boys in school were fawning all over her and the teachers always let her misdeeds go lightly. Lily was very confident in athletics, grades, looks and figure; but she couldn’t compete on the same level as Sarah, especially in the looks and figure department. Lily tried her best to be the perfect girl like Sarah; yet, she could only end up in 2nd place because of Sarah. It may have not meant much at the beginning, but eventually all her resentment was channeled at Shirley who was often seen as Sarah’s lap dog.

Shirley did not respond to Lily’s attempt to incite her emotion. She finished helping Lily into bed and headed back to her own. Shirley then started weeping silently under the blanket. “Sarah… I don’t know how much longer I can hold on,” she whispered.