Stronghold In The Apocalypse

While Theo is trying to fall asleep, and Leo just hanging out outside of the room .

What they didn"t notice is Leo mumbling in her sleep, "Theo" she mumbled as a tear slowly trickled down before falling on the mattress she"s sleeping on .

And that moment, that teardrop touch the mattress, a sudden burst of light appeared and slowly covered Alex into a coc.o.o.n made of light . The light only appeared for less than a second like a flash of a camera, but more powerful as it almost literally light up the entire floor .

And Leo, who was outside immediately ran back inside and was greeted by the sight in front of him, and Theo who sat up and trying hard to endure the pain he"s feeling just looked at the sight in front of him with disbelieving eyes .

"Leo . . . w-what"s happening to my sister?" Theo asked with trembling lips .

"I . . " Leo wasn"t sure if he needs to tell him or not, because he could see a word floating above the coc.o.o.n where Alex is, even he is confused about why her mutation is so different from the rest .

[Mutating…]

Theo suddenly realized something as he looked at Leo and said, "Wait . . is . . is she turning into a mutant . . like us?"

Leo while holding his chin and watching the scene in front of him, answered, "I think so . . but I"ve never seen someone undergo a mutation like hers"

He said while also thinking at the same time, "Could it be that there"s a difference between mutations? Like when an item is rare and the others are just ordinary items where you can find anywhere? It must be then . . . or else there"s no better explanation than that right now"

"Will she be okay?" Theo asked, clearly concerned at the well being of his only family left .

Leo started getting by his so many questions that the edge of his eyes started twitching, as he glared at him and said, "You didn"t die, right? Now, shut the h.e.l.l up and go to sleep"

Theo shuddered from his glare, that he was only able to mutter the words, "Oh . . okay"

After that, he slowly lied down and before long, he was already snoring away .

"It seems this two siblings would be a great a.s.set if they join the army . Hmm . . . I"ll ask them tomorrow about it" Leo mumbled before he walked out of the room .

Unbeknownst to Leo, Theo wasn"t asleep at all and managed to hear what he said .

"An army? So he wasn"t just an ordinary survivor after all" Theo said with his eyes wide open, "I guess I"ll find out about it tomorrow"

He said, before closing his eyes, and this time, he was truly asleep .

"The nights have become chilly since then" Leo smiled as he slid down with his back on the wall, and before he closed his eyes, he mumbled, "Summon [Death Knight]"

After that, the [Death Knight] appeared from his shadows, and Leo fell asleep while the [Death Knight] kept watch .

*****

The next day .

Leo immediately snapped his eyes open, and looked around, where he noticed that the [Death Knight] had already gone back to his shadow .

"Ahh~ that was a goodnight"s sleep" Leo stood up and yawned, before he took out a water bottle and started was.h.i.+ng his face and mouth .

Then Leo walked inside the room and saw Alex and Theo eating cup noodles in front of the campfire while chatting with each other .

Theo immediately spotted him and look at the food in their and embarra.s.singly said, "Eh . . . sorry, we . . just helped ourselves when we saw the bag of cup noodles"

"It"s fine, it was meant for breakfast anyway" Leo said, clearly wasn"t bothered about and sat beside Alex and picked up an already opened cup noodles that was already prepared for him .

"Good morning, John!" Alex beamed at him as she slurp the noodles into her mouth .

Leo then took a mouthful and turned towards Alex and asked, "So . . . how are you feeling?"

Alex looked at him and smiled, "I feel great! My brother told that I also became like him . . . a mutant? But I don"t feel anything though, like the knowledge of an ability that Theo just told me"

"Really?" Leo looked at her, but he had long antic.i.p.ated it while thinking, "As I thought, there are really differences between mutated abilities, probably how items are rated in RPG games and it seems the quality of the abilities are based on when the knowledge to use it would appear in their minds, which is certainly weird if you ask me"

"I wonder what her ability would turn out to be?" Leo thought to himself as he just focused on eating for now .

"Uhmm . . . Leo" Alex turned to Leo as she pursed her lips .

"Hmm . . ?" Leo turned towards her, with noodles still hanging from his mouth .

Alex smiled as she found it hilarious, "Uhmm . . . yesterday, thank you . If it wasn"t for you then Luca might have . . . have done "that" to me" she was clearly comfortable while saying those words as the scene that happened yesterday replyad in her mind, as her body s.h.i.+vered in horror .

"No problem . . anyone would have done what I did too" Leo smiled at her before standing up and started walking towards the exit, "Theo, come with me"

Theo put down the bottled water from his hands and immediately stood up as he followed Leo outside .

Both of them walked a bit further away from the room, and then Leo turned back to Theo .

"I need to talk to you about something"

"Uhh . . . is this about the army or something?" Theo scratched his head as he beat him to it .

Leo was startled at first, then grinned as he said, "You sneaky brat" Leo had already figured out that he must still be awake last night and didn"t immediately go to sleep .

"You still don"t trust me, huh?" Leo smiled .

"Kinda . . . sorry" Theo just it laughed it off, after what almost happened to his sister, he decided that he wouldn"t make the same mistake again .

But then, Leo suddenly grinned at him and said, "Good, I thought you"re just another naive idiot . . but I guess you"re not after all"

Theo suddenly had a dumb look on his face as he didn"t this kind of reaction from him, he at least expected him to be mad or something . After all, they even went as far as eating his food without his permission .

"Are . . are you from the military then?" Theo suddenly brightened up when he realized that the army must be here to rescue the survivors of this town .

"Sorry but . . I"m not from the country"s military . . but I"m from a survivors camp back at Manchester and we have our own army, you could say that it"s as big as a village but have more law and order, and the residents there doesn"t need to worry everyday that zombies and mutated beast are out to get them" Leo said, and the more he talked, he realized that he sounded like a door to door salesman for a product .

"Wait . . . are you saying that there"s a secured survivor camp in Manchester?" Theo looked startled at the news . After all, he wasn"t an idiot, he at least knew that if someone was to create a camp for survivors, then no one would build one near the cities as those places have more concentration of zombies than rest of the places around the country as cities have more population, and instead, a rational man would build it around villages or open plains .

"Yes, why?" Leo didn"t know what"s so surprising about having a survivor camp in the middle of the city .

"How? Manchester City has at least over half a million in population" Theo looked shocked, and he even thought that the man in front of him is joking around, but seeing how serious he looks right now, he wasn"t sure .

"Huh? Them? They were already cleaned up, there"s probably only a few thousand of them remaining" Leo said while picking on his nose along with an unconcerned look on his face .

"Seriously? But you"ll at least need an army to do that" Theo still looked unconvinced .

"Are you just acting stupid or you just didn"t what I said? I just told you that I have an army of my own" Leo raised an eyebrow .

"As I thought, you"re not an ordinary person after all" Theo said, and he didn"t know why but . . . he just can"t help but trust him even though they only yesterday and he was even saying things that any logical person would find absurd .

"Says you" Leo grinned at him .

Theo was a bit startled, and then he realized what he meant by those words, "Y-yeah . . . I guess me too"

After all, you can"t label yourself as an ordinary person anymore, when you have supernatural abilities that even the science today could probably not even explain, and while both of them are talking to each other, Alex also came out and was listening to side .

"Anyway, back to the subject . Do you want to join me? You guys will be safe there as our walls are really high with soldiers patrolling the place 24/7, and we could really use someone like you with that kind of ability, and you shouldn"t worry as there are also others like you living there" Leo immediately went to the point .

""Of course, we"ll join!""

Both Theo and Alex almost said it at the same time, but Leo on the other hand was startled at Theo as the dude didn"t even hesitate and immediately agreed, and he even said that he still doesn"t Leo but he didn"t even hesitate at agreeing to him .

"You"re really an idiot you know" Leo grinned, as he shook his head .

Theo ignored his comment and instead went over and hugged his sister, both of them feeling relieved that they would finally leave this G.o.dforsaken place .

"Wait . . . I"ve read some stories online before . . you . . . you"re not actually trying to sell us to some people right and just actually just acting kind to lower our guards towards you, right?" from out of nowhere, Alex suddenly said those words as she looked deeply at Leo"s eyes .

Leo didn"t answer her but instead said, "Wow . . you two are really related to each other" he shook his head before walking towards a corner of the rooftop .

"Hey! What you mean by that!?" Alex yelled, feeling like she was just compared to her stupid brother .

Three hours later .

Three Black Hawk Helicopters slowly appears from the direction of Manchester as it headed towards the building where Leo threw a yellow green smoke grenade as a landing or pick up point .

Fortunately for them, there"s a helipad on the rooftop of this small office building where one of the Black Hawk landed while the rest flew around town, scouting the place .

"Holy s.h.i.+t, that"s a Black Hawk" Theo muttered in shock, looking at the helicopter that just landed in front of them, while ALex is instead worried about her hair from flying everywhere, that she held onto it like her life was on the line .

Three soldiers immediately disembarked from the aircraft, two of them secured the landing zone while another soldier hurriedly moved towards Leo .

"Sir! Captain Murphy, at your command!" the captain put his right fist on his right chest as a greeting .

Leo returned the greeting and nodded, then gestured to the two people beside, "This are the people you need to bring back at Hope 101, they"re mutants so make sure my mother gets a look at them as she would be the one arranging things for them, got it?"

"Yes sir!"

Then Leo turned towards the siblings and said, "Go on and board the helicopter . I still need to talk to Captain Murphy"

"Wait . . you"re not coming with us?" Theo didn"t immediately moved .

"No, I still have things to do around here . Don"t worry we"ll see each other back at Hope 101, that"s the camp"s name if you"re wondering" Leo shook his head as he smiled at him .

Theo nodded, and said, "Thank you, and be safe"

While Alex stood in front of Leo and kissed his cheek, and after that she said, "Thank you, Leo, for being awesome!"

Leo just grinned and tousled her hair, and said, "Go, don"t keep your brother waiting"

Alex then followed behind Theo and just before she boarded the helicopter, she waved at Leo, "Don"t die out here!"

Leo just sent her a smile and a thumbs up before turning towards Captain Murphy and asked, "On the way, have you guys met any mutated birds?"

Murphy didn"t know why he was asking him something like this but he still answered truthfully, "No sir, we had never encountered any mutated birds on the way here"

"I see" Leo rubbed his chin, and then continued, "You can go now Captain, and thanks for coming all the way here"

"It"s our pleasure to be of your service, sir" Captain Murphy said respectfully and then he saluted before he headed back towards the helicopter .

The helicopter slowly took off while Theo and Alex waved at him .

Leo smiled at them as he waved back, and he just stood there as he watched the three helicopters slowly disappear into the horizon .

*****

"This is really unsettling, why have we not encountered any mutated birds? An except for Lightning Sparrow, we have never seen even one of them, it"s like they just disappeared" Leo said, as he can"t help but think that there is something more going on that he wasn"t aware of .

"It seems I could only wait for something to happen" Leo felt frustrated, as this problem had been going on for months since the second month of the Apocalypse, and there are still normal animals here and there but no mutated birds in sight .

Leo then suddenly stood up and said, "I need to get out of here, better to search for "them" at the cities instead"

Leo then ran towards the edge of the rooftop and jumped as his [Armor] immediately covered him . The scene was like when Tony Stark jumped down from the top of his Stark Tower .

*Boom!* *Splat!*

Leo did land, but he landed on top of a roaming zombie and killed it in the process, turning the zombie into a meat paste .

"d.a.m.n zombie, now my boots are dirty" Leo cursed while shaking his foot, as the blood that were on his boots sprayed everywhere .

"I need to go" Leo said, noticing that the zombies are slowly heading towards him .

So he took out his Harley from his [Inventory] and immediately left all of the zombies in dust .

"Did "it" already left?"

Suddenly a person peeked out his head from an alley, then the man turned his head back to look at the person behind him and said, "Yeah, I think so"

Inside the alley were a group of seven people from different ages, and all of them are armed with weapons in their hands .

"I thought I was gonna have a heart attack when it suddenly dropped from the sky" one of them heaved a sigh of relief .

"Was that a robot developed by the country?" one of the three women in the group asked out of curiosity .

"Maybe, we don"t really know" a woman who has quite a burly physique said .

"But . . but I think that thing looks familiar though . I think I"ve seen it before" a guy who somehow looks like a nerd said while rubbing his chin .

"Really?" the man who is peeking out from the alley said .

"Yeah, It seems familiar but I just can"t remember where have I seen it before" the nerd guy said while nodding his head .

"Enough chit chat, let"s instead head towards the grocery store and see if there are still food left, we don"t want the other groups beating us to it" the woman who has a burly physique said, and it seems she is the leader of this group as they immediately heeded her words as they started moving towards the direction of a nearby grocery store as they tried to be as silent as possible while killing the zombies along the way .

Sadly for them, they didn"t notice the pistol lying on the edge of the sidewalk, near where Leo had been standing earlier .

Actually, Leo had already noticed this group of people even before he landed on the ground, but he just ignored them and left, but he had at least gave them a bit of help by leaving a pistol with an extra magazine behind, but unfortunately, they aren"t curious beings .

*****

*Vroom~!*

"I hope they"ll find the gun that I left" Leo mumbled while driving on the road, as he would drive around the abandoned vehicles on the way .

"Hmmm?" Leo saw a sudden pop up in front of him with the words .

[Incoming Call . . (Mother)]

[Accept] [Decline]

Leo immediately pressed the decline b.u.t.ton as he knew he would get scolded again like the other day, and even if there is trouble back home, he"s sure that the first person to call him would be Alex or his two girlfriends .

"I should head back in three days and after I would head back on the road again" Leo sighed, as he didn"t want to anger his mother more than she is already .

Before long, Leo reached a blockaded road and stopped five hundred meters away from it, and with his improved eyesight, he could also see some armed people and the latter group had already spotted him, as they are already talking amongst themselves while pointing towards his direction .

"Well . . that sucks, I thought it was only a wandering group, and it didn"t even occur to me that I would actually stumble upon a territory of survivors" Leo mumbled, and got down from his bike .

"Well then . . shall I got and say hi?" Leo grinned as he stored his bike and slowly walked towards their direction .

And on a whim, Leo kicked an abandoned car blocking his way, sending it flying for a brief moment before rolling for a couple times for twenty meters, which probably scared the people on the other direction, that they already started moving frantically and that two people even left, probably getting reinforcements .

"Oops . . . d.a.m.n, having this ridiculous strength is really hard sometimes" Leo clicked his tongue, as he still continued walking towards them .

Leo kept walking towards them and when he was just a hundred meters away from them, he made sure to raise his hand to show them that he"s unarmed .