I wanted to absorb a power that would make me a threat going forward, but if I did so in front of Dale, I’d die before I could ever learn how to use it. Dale was a massive powerhouse in the world and led one of the most powerful cities. His lightning powers were just a cut above the rest as he gained strength, speed, and perception enough for him to make full use of them. It made him more of a superhero than other powers.

  We headed towards an old city area because, for the longest time, he wanted to retake the city we were all forced out of. A zombie had grown so strong that even a city's power users couldn’t deal with her, and the only thing we could do was run from the fight. Her control over the hundreds of thousands of undead made it impossible to take without fighting through the horde to get to her first.

  That was why he spent so much time, resources, and effort to make the semi truck I would use to break through to the heart of the city, where she was. The truck was made even more useful as the interior cabin was expanded with my power through the usage of a dozen tier-seven cores. It was effectively a mobile fortress that could move hundreds of people if they all crammed inside. The rge bed and state-of-the-art home utilities made it a second home away from home for our leader.

  The trailer couldn’t be stored, but it could be attached and detached with an expert use of my powers. Storing the truck took only a thought; the usage of most other powers heavily drew on the mental capacity of a person, as the longer they used it, the harder it became for them, while I suffered no simir effects. The outside of the truck was reinforced with hundreds of pounds of metal. It meant that while it was slower, it was almost indestructible.

  We loaded up twenty of the true elites of the survivors as we began to make our way toward the zombie city. They all knew each other and were friendly enough, but anyone who survived until the tenth year of the apocalypse didn’t have clean hands. At a moment's notice, they’d kill each other if they thought they could gain something out of it, but for now, they would work together.

  The semi-truck worked like Dale thought it would. He not only wanted to retake the city but also to cim the corpse of the zombie queen who took it over. Most people grew their powers by absorbing cores of the zombies who had powers as well. A zombie strong enough to control other zombies would be at an extremely high level, possibly even the first tier nine core in the world.

  Each rank was harder and harder for zombies to increase, and as people absorbed them, they’d grow more and more resistant to the effects, which made them need to consume more lower-ranking ones or higher-ranking ones for the same boost. From what I understood, Dale’s power was almost useless when he first gained it, but through luck, betrayal, and many earned and stolen cores, he grew it to that powerful.

  The scanner yelled out. “We got a tier four ahead, group one break off.” While Dale was the strongest, he delegated the leadership to his number two. She was incredibly beautiful and one of his wives. In the apocalypse, powerful men could cim any women they could get their hands on, and at this point, it was just a normal part of life. All of the leaders who were male had rge harems or a different woman in their bedroom every night, and everyone saw it as a necessary evil.

  He viewed himself as a superhero, and it showed in his clothing choices, wearing a mask and a one-piece set of armor. As the first group broke off to stop the first strong zombie from reaching the truck, as we pushed forward, she called out again. “Three-tier three zombies are coming in a quarter mile to the left.” Dale smiled as he jumped off. “I got these ones.”

  I kept the truck driving forward as I ran over hundreds of zombies. Dale returned first, about five minutes before the second group. We were already down a man, but tier four zombies were rare, and tier five rarely existed. A city-level threat would have to be killed, otherwise, you’d get a simir situation to what happened here. I couldn’t help but look at the person in the passenger seat after Dale left again to stop another group from reaching us. Jade was an absolutely stunning beauty akin to a legendary painting.

  People were, on average, more stinky now than before, which was obvious as most couldn’t bathe. It meant that the increase in beauty as the powers made everyone with them more attractive, and that much sadder. All that beauty and you had to deal with stinky pits and swamp ass. Her beauty was strong enough to make men crave her, her useful power was the only reason she wasn’t chained to someone's bed or working at a brothel. The far more likely outcome if she didn’t have power was that she’d have been used up and discarded, most likely dying in the process as the group that controlled her grew sick of her.

  Her eyes went wide as a rge chunk of debris was flung at us. I stored the truck immediately as I moved to the side, but the beauty wasn’t as fast as the rest of us. With no fanfare, she was crushed to death as the fight finally started. The zombie queen must have known who the real threat was, as without anyone saying where she was, they couldn’t guide their attacks. The zombie kept throwing massive chunks or coming out for hit-and-run tactics, which rapidly depleted our numbers.

  Even if we won at this point, retaking the city would be impossible; more likely, another city would consume us while killing the leader. I would be fine, but Dale treated me somewhat decently, I’d rather not have to deal with another Negan wannabe who thought threats could work to keep me compliant. She finally walked up, injured, as our eyes met. Through the zombie filter on top of her, I recognized her, and she recognized me.

  Melissa was someone I knew before the apocalypse. We went to school with each other and even lived in adjacent rooms from each other in the apartment complex we lived in before the apocalypse began. We met a year after the apocalypse began, and that’s where I learned what her power was. She could turn herself into a zombie… It looks like she lost control of herself, which I could understand. If anything, I was surprised she wasn’t insane when we met after the apocalypse started, by the stories she told me.

  She had a crush on me even before the apocalypse started… Things just never worked out between us. She was nerdy, and I was too focused on my inconsequential job to look for a partner. Even now, she still had that crush, it was enough to get her to drop out of her zombie form for a moment, which was long enough for Dale to act. While we were both distracted, he electrocuted her to death; her stronger zombie form was almost immune to electricity, but her human form was not. It left her a smoking corpse on the ground.

  I couldn’t help but act. Something drove me to do it. I needed to touch a dead person to absorb their power, and I knew Dale wouldn’t let me. I ran towards her with a pn in my head. If I put something in my storage, then he’d have to deal with me until he could get it out, because if I died, it wouldn’t pop out of me, it would disappear with my powers. I took her powers and stored her corpse. As I was about to attempt to make a deal for my freedom, I was struck dead by his lightning as well.

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