I cleared the rest of the building of zombies as I brought the remaining survivors down to the second floor. It was about twenty people, maybe one or two more or less. The little girl zombie had on one of my hats and a coat that looked like a dress on her, as I told her to keep her head down. She ate out of a beef jerky bag to look less like a zombie. The group looked terrible, and the situation they went through was equivalent to what might happen in a horror movie; they almost just died for quite a long time, and the entire night they couldn’t sleep, otherwise they might have ended up dead. Sluggish and tired, the group was eating as I spoke.

“Alright, so… I wouldn’t recommend staying here. Who knows if I missed a zombie… Here’s what we’ll do. Anyone who lives within a mile of the hospital, I’d just chance it and head to your house through the water.” A few people got up and left. I scanned them already and would have stopped them if any had a power that could be unlocked. Out of everyone, there were only three people who could gain powers.

“Speaking of which, some of you might have seen me digging through the zombie's brains. It was for these.” I pulled out a core before tossing it to the overweight cafeteria worker. His body locks up for a second as some of the darkness underneath his eyes clears, he is so shocked he falls over. I asked. “What you get?” He looked up, stuttering. “L-low s-speed regeneration.”

That was actually pretty terrible. It would only increase his natural healing speed, wounds would still scar, and he couldn’t regrow limbs; it effectively locked him out of a more powerful power. There were a few dud powers like this. Double stats, longer nails, toxic saliva, and double a single sense power were some of the duds, while the outright negative powers often ended with people rather taking their own life than living with them. 

Double stats are good at the start, but in just five years, you could get that by taking the enhancement liquid. The enhancement liquid would strengthen the person against the virus and double their strength, but many still refused to take it because of the power activation liquid.

People always had that coinflip for a power, at least if they could afford it, and would much rather have a gamble at greatness than be just another slightly stronger cog in the system. There was also a way to get both, but that wasn’t discovered until later in the apocalypse. Still, I lost interest in the man as I looked at the two doctors. Tossing the cores over, they both reach out and grab them.

The meek-looking male doctor catches it perfectly while the blonde bombshell, you’d think, would be athletic, fumbles hers. All it took was contact for the core to lock to them, as both of their bodies locked up for a second. The look on the doctor's face immediately shifted as the female doctor looked confused. I asked again. “What you get?”

“Do I have to tell you?” The doctor pulled his glasses off his face before polishing them, and I answered. “No, I was asking more out of curiosity, but you could think of it as payment for saving you.” He put the glasses back on as he mumbled. “It appears my eyesight has improved slightly.” Before giving his actual answer. “Intellect. My mental capacity has improved.”

He held back on saying more. That was the problem with suddenly becoming so much smarter, the man might have been intelligent, but not to the point where it altered his personality. He went from a scared little rabbit with piss stains on his pants to a man who thought so far ahead that normal humans couldn’t fathom what he was thinking… Also still wearing the same pants with piss stains on them.

I look at the female doctor. Her disheveled appearance recovered slightly from using the core. “I… It’s weird. I control clothes? No… It’s not that specific. I can control fabric? That still doesn’t feel right. I can control fabric, but it isn’t as strong as controlling separated threads.” My eyes widened as I couldn’t believe there was another manipulator already.

Thread manipulation didn’t sound strong, but when compared to other powers, it was truly insane. Flight was a fairly common power; it sounds overpowered, but what happens most of the time is the fliers are shot out of the sky. They have no defenses, no way to defend themselves. Flying during peaceful times could possibly be one of the best powers, but in a time where everyone has a gun and is looking for anything to kill… It quickly becomes a death sentence to fly.

Most manipulators could eventually fly if they thought about it enough. If you can control wood, make yourself wood armor and lift yourself with that armor. If she could control every single thread on a shirt, she could just lift herself up by her clothes. So, after they increase their power, they normally get flight but also have the manipulation to play offense and defense for themselves.

Most city leaders in the first five years were manipulators, and only near the end were they finally being pushed out by people with growth-based powers and ruthlessness like Dale. His power was so weak, and he made it work by constantly backstabbing his teammates to steal the cores to grow his power until he was stronger than pure strength people, but also fast, with incredible thinking capacity, and could shoot lightning.

The only manipulators left were the ones ruthless enough to hold their positions. Negan would have made the cut if he hadn’t enslaved me. Splashing acid in his face was far more likely to get me killed than him, but I was so done with life, I was willing to risk it. You can’t be a city leader when you’re blind. He was quickly murdered after that and had all his territory split up by the other nearby survivor bases.

The biggest thing was cores… People claimed territory for cores, and I just got a bunch of them. This was more than anyone else, no one else probably has put together, and they are tier two cores. Any rival I had would be starting on average two years later than I for this many. If I were to consume them all, I could get most of the way through tier four, and might even reach tier five if I could find a few more tier three zombies that I didn’t want to control… That’s what every other leader would do, take the bulk for themselves while leaving the pittance for their people… I didn’t plan on doing that.

All three of my powers grew naturally, and it was now growing twice as fast as before. If I made it another ten years in this timeline, I’d be fifteen times the stats of a normal human; that alone would be enough to compete with most leaders, but I also had the powers I’d gain over that time period. I ask her. “How much you think you can lift, and can you affect other people with your power?

Sometimes they could, sometimes they couldn’t. I could manipulate bones, but not while they were encased inside someone's body. I remember Negan pulling out the metal screws in a guy's leg, so it wasn’t that they needed to be visible, and that wasn’t the case for my bone manipulation either. I could control bones through walls, just not people. She looked confused before holding her hand out and pushing with it. I felt a sudden pressure in my chest as if someone just tried to push me over, before she looked confused and turned to her co-worker, and he panickedly yelled out. “No, wait!”

She pushed him, and although he expected it, the intellect boost did nothing for his physical body; he was still very weak and frail. She pushed on his arm, and his entire body moved to stop itself from falling before she questioned. “Wait, why did it work on you but not him?” I smirked as I gestured at my body. “Look at me, going to take more than a little push to get me to move.”

She smirked as she held her hand palm out. I felt a sudden pressure in my groin as I clenched my legs together. “My girlfriends would get really mad if you damaged the goods.” The smile dropped from her face before what I said finally sank in. “Wait… Girlfriends?”