Cultivator in a Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter Seventy Three - Home and Family

It was late afternoon when the truck left the base with its new passengers.  Of those five, three had varying expressions of wariness, one looked laid back and arrogant with either overconfidence in himself or disdain regarding the six civilians he'd found himself stuck with.  Granted one was Chang Min, but most of those who'd interacted with the oriental man knew that he was a bit of a weirdo.  This man especially thought that this whole deal between them and the base was pointless; these guys should have simply been sent packing. 

The last fellow had sparkling, bright eyes filled with excitement and had absolutely no barriers raised it seemed.  He reminded Dexter greatly of Patrick, just much taller and happened to have olive toned skin and black hair rather than Patrick's pale, easily burnt skin and a mop blond curls, that had only become obvious over winter.  After all, there were no barbers amongst their group!

"Are we really going to be able to strengthen our powers?" This excited solider couldn't help but blurt out.  He earned eye rolls from the arrogant Lutz.

"Pfft," the man muttered beneath his breath.  "You really believe that?"

"And I take it that you do not?" Cole sneered.  He'd taken an instant dislike to the man named Thomas Lutz.  Chang Min has told him that this man had an earth ability, like themselves, but it was not strong.  Thus Chang Min had attempted to take him under his wing and teach him.  Just that fact alone made Cole somewhat uncomfortable, but to know that Chang Min's kindness was not only rejected, this man dared to continue to deny the help, pissed him off a lot.

"Please," the man's face twisted into one of ridicule, "I read my fair share of superhero comic books and manga as a teen.  I know the truth between reality and fiction."

"And yet, fiction became reality," Harry mocked, pointing out a zombie hovering by the roadside.  The monster barely had half a face left, it's skin peeled to reveal chunks of muscle and bone.  It's eyeless skull seemed to just stare at the passing truck, but otherwise it made no other movement.  In a way, this was more freaky that having zombies launch attacks upon them.

"We were like you," Dexter admitted aloud, thinking that it had been about a year since their fates crossed with the man who could be said to be at least half of their reason for surviving outside a large community like the American army base for so long.  "We had no belief either..."

"Except for Patrick," Harry chuckled.

"Yeah well, I'd say Patrick was open minded," Dexter ridiculed without any heat behind his words, "but he's just a kid at heart and more than willing to want to play hero.  Speaking of him as an example to prove you wrong," he directed his words back at the cynical Lutz, "Patrick didn't awaken any abilities at the end.  I added him to my squad... well I think I just felt sorry for him, seeing as he just really wanted to be useful to our original base.  Now I could say that he's an important member of our family."

"Family?" Lutz snickered, while Patrick number two, also known as Luke Marsh, looked a bit melancholy.  The other three glanced at each other, but their expressions varied.

"That's right," Dexter reasserted.  "The people of our base are my family.  So I would appreciate that you don't do anything out of line."  He held up his hand and condensed a ball of plasma in his palm.  The flickering sphere of lightning bolts naturally caught the attention of the soldiers.  "I am very protective towards my family, you know."

Their eyes remained unmoving, staring at his palm.  They also knew of others with lightning abilities, but none seemed as bright and instinctively dangerous as this tamed electric ball.  Luke's eyes began to sparkle anew, while the others became more on their guard.  Even Thomas Lutz lost a little of his previous composure.