12 Night Run

Since the mall was totally secure, the survivor group made their preparations for the arrival of the military squad by packing up food and other supplies that might be useful. During this time, Matt had made his way to the roof of the mall and was thinking about his future plans.

About this time, James came through the roof entrance. "You don't plan to come with us do you?" James said.

Matt simply shook his head, since he hadn't made this thought clear. It was only an idea that he was toying with. Now that James had said it out loud it resonated with him as the right idea.

"I have a feeling that if I stay with this group or with the military that I'll be tied down and won't be able to leave anymore." Matt said.

Looking at it that way, James could only agree with that sentiment. This person that they had made their impromptu leader didn't even flinch in front of zombies. He was different in a way that would make it impossible for him to join up with most survivor groups. The only way for him to do this was to create a group of his own in a place that he himself carved out.

"Do you want me to come with you? I want to get stronger as well and this way you won't be alone." James said.

"You don't owe me anything. You are free to leave with the military and make your own way with the power that you now have. They will be sure to treat you well and will give you many opportunities to prove your worth." Matt said.

"I guess that goes for me as well doesn't it?" said Chris as he joined the conversation.

"Yes, neither of you have any business going where I'm going." said Matt.

"Where could you possibly go that we couldn't follow?" James said.

Matt pointed to the horizon to the west and said, "I'm going to Japan."

Both men looked at him like he was insane. He was talking about crossing the pacific like it was a mere lake and trivial amount of distance. "How do you plan to get there?" both men said at the same time.

"I realized that I have the ability to shape things how I see fit as well as power any machines that I alter with my power. I'm going to take a jet and fly there, that simple." Matt said.

The two men glanced at each other then nodded in agreement. "We are coming with you." James said.

"You'll need us to watch your back once you get there and if I'm right, you'll need people to help you start a base and gather survivors." Chris said.

"I don't plan to gather a large group of survivors. As for the base, I can build basically the whole thing by myself with this power. What I do plan to do though is to find or create more like me." Matt said.

"Why create more like you? They will be hard to control without being totally loyal to you." Chris said.

"He wants and army basically. The people that he gives power will be loyal to him and if they aren't then he will just kill them. On the other hand, with that army he will be able to sweep Japan of its infected while also giving him an absurd amount of energy." James said.

"Got it in one go. I'm impressed that you thought that far ahead. You are correct though, with the population of Japan it would be most likely that the majority of it is infected now. Using that to my advantage, I'll be able to improve my abilities rapidly." Matt said.

"Well, if that is the case, count the two of us in. We have nothing else to do here since we don't have families and our possessions would just slow us down so we have nothing to pack up other than needing some food and water for the journey. When do we leave?" James said.

"We will leave at nightfall. The reason for that is that the infected mostly respond to sight and sound to locate us. In the dark, the most they could do is hear us unless we encounter special infected. Encountering the special infected would actually be in our favor as it would give me the opportunity to gather more powers." Matt said.

With the arrangements made, the only thing left to do was to gather supplies for their travel and to wait for the military to arrive. In the meantime, Matt used his rifle to clear some of the vehicles in the route that the military would take since they could be vaporized with a couple of shots. At the same time, he was clearing the majority of the infected in the way by compressing his energy into one of the rounds and firing it. On impact, it would explode in burst of his energy destroying all the infected around the point of impact.

With the sun about to set, Matt could hear the military approaching in the distance. He made his way over to the parking garage. A couple of minutes later the military arrived at the barricade where Matt let them in. As they made their way into the garage, Matt couldn't help but notice some of the vehicles had large slashes down the side where some of the armor plating was peeled off.

The Captain in charge of the convoy approached and noticed that he was studying the slashes.

"We encounter an infected that had what looked like a bone blade where its hands should have been. It did a good number on our vehicles before we lost it in the city." The captain said.

Upon hearing this, Matt ran towards the top layer of the parking garage and began surveying the route that military had taken. The captain was right behind him with a confused expression. Seeing what Matt was looking at however made the blood drain from his face. Down on the road making its way here, was the bone infected that they thought had been left behind in the city.

It was running on all fours with its blades making scraping noises every time its' hands touched the ground. Matt pulled out his rifle and took aim. The captain tried to say something only to be interrupted by a blue flash and seeing one of the infected's arms fly off. With that done, Matt made his way to the ground floor and out of the barricade. All of the soldiers were shocked seeing this. They all believed that Matt was walking to his death.

Once he got outside, shrouded his body in a blue energy barrier to prevent normal zombies from being able to touch them while also deconstructing them. He approached the zombie that he had just downed, stepping on its' remaining arm to prevent it from attacking him and placed his hand on its head. Using his ability to deconstruct the infected, he gained an ability that he could only describe as being able to create bone growths on his body to use as weapons. With that done, he made his way back to the garage and lead the puzzled soldiers inside.

"You gained powers after being bitten didn't you?" the captain said.

Matt simply nodded and proceeded to lead them to the survivor group. They had all gathered at walk way entrance with all of the supplies they could find. The captain gave orders to help all of the survivors get the supplies to the vehicles and prepare to leave as soon as the sun set.

Matt, James, and Chris gathered up their supplies as well and made their way to the vehicle that Matt had prepared earlier. Seeing what the three were doing, the captain said, "You aren't coming with us?"

"No, I have other plans, but I will be back eventually. For now, I'm going to travel and get stronger." Matt said.

With the sun about to drop below the horizon, the military headed back to base while Matt and his group made their way towards the airport. With the modifications that had been made to the truck, it was smooth sailing even as they arrived at the airport.

After picking a decent sized jet, they set up camp for the night so that they would be well rested for the journey they were going to make in the morning.