The World Cataclysm - Chapter 40: Training Rachel

Tracking direction of the van with Mana Sensing and hearing how the noise of the engine was getting further, Dave thought ‘What a patient jerk? Waited all the way to the deep night.’

Rubbing off his stiff shoulder muscles, he couldn’t help but sigh since he was faking to be asleep for a long time. While pretending to be asleep, he was monitoring their actions with his skill Mana Sensing, so he opened his eyes right after they drove away.

He could give credits to Damien’s patience because he had waited for a long time until they have slept. At least, Damien was cautious with his plan and didn’t take any risk of ruining it, even fetching key of the van himself.

‘I even had a thought that he might be a nice guy.’ Dave pondered as he recalled how Damien backed at the sight of a conflict. He wasn’t completely sure about his intentions, yet he already proved his suspicions while observing them with his Mana Sensing.

However, Dave was already familiar with such type of people from his past life. They smile and act politely in front of you, yet at the same time, they plot behind your back, seeking for every chance to backstab you.

To achieve what they want, they don’t fear restraining themselves if it helps to reach their goal. To put it bluntly, they are troublesome on their own, even more dangerous than hot-tempered people in a long run, like having a ticking bomb with you.

‘They should be already dead.’ Dave thought as he recalled a dense wall of zombies down the road. He already knew that it will be suicidal for them to drive a van, yet he didn’t stop them since it was advantageous for him. He won’t object anyone who seeks their own death.

Furthermore, he was able to get rid off of potential traitors, so he didn’t regret what he did. Recalling the scenes from his past life, Dave thought and sighed. ‘At the face of death, people will show their true nature and will even do what they didn’t dare to do before.’

Deciding to wait a bit till zombies outside calms down, he had entered another meditative session absorbing mana from his surroundings. He had already restored his mana reserves from a previous battle, so after two hours, he woke up two soundly sleeping ladies.

Rubbing their temples, they left their cabinets as they tried to resist the drowsiness from a lack of sleep. They look questioningly at him as if asking “Why did you wake us up?”

“Katelyn and Damien’s group drove our van away, leading part of the zombies away from us. We should quickly leave this place while we still have a chance.” Dave said calmly as he had already expected such questions.

“What do you mean? The key to the van is with me.” Saying it, Rachel searched for a key on her body, then turned her head towards the desktop. Finding nothing, she exclaimed puzzledly. “They were with me.”

“As I’ve said there is no van outside and there are no other guys, so they must have stolen it. They should already far away from us, so stop wasting time and let’s get going.” Dave repeated his words. He didn’t mention that they were likely dead since he knew what their reactions would be like.

“But they seemed to be nice people,” Rebecca muttered as she was finding it still hard to believe that they were robbed. As for Rachel, she seemed quite apologetic since she thought it was her fault that they ended in such a state.

They followed after Dave and quickly ate cans of food that he offered to them. Calculating the resources in his backpack, he still had the food for a day-long, so he thought it should be enough for the way back.

When they left the internet cafe, it was already dawn outside as it was slightly dark out there. Striding down the street, Dave said. “We’re gonna take a slight detour on the way back and visit one place, but before it, we should help Rachel with her fear.”

At his words, Rachel was confused as she was wondering what fear she had and after several seconds, she paled in her face as she understood what he meant.

…

“Nice job!” Dave encouraged Rachel as he patted her on the back.

“Don’t worry! It would get easier in the future.” Rebecca also felt sympathy for her since just several days ago, she was in the same position as her. It was always hard to kill your first zombie.

Rachel was standing above the limbless corpse of a zombie, which was pulled by Dave, and vomiting content of her stomach as acid fluid mixed with digested food leaked out of her mouth. Her face was so pale like the blood stopped flowing into it. She held Rebecca’s Survivor Bat in her hands.

She never felt worse than now. Yesterday, due to inrush of the adrenaline and severity of the situation, she was able to cope with that feeling, yet now every small detail was vivid in her eyes. Rotting flesh, thick dark red blood and lifeless eyes of a zombie filled her heart with disgust and terror.

When she came to her grips after several minutes, Dave pulled another zombie to her, so she could have her first true fight with a zombie. However, compared to Rebecca, it seemed that Rachel was less fit than Rebecca as she didn’t even last several seconds before Dave saved her.

‘It seems that it would be harder than I thought.’ Dave pondered as he gazed at clumsy movements of the Rachel. He quickly came to the conclusion that she was talentless in fighting itself. She had poor coordination between her movements and low reaction, plus her movements were stiff while fighting.

Hence, he spent a bit of his time to train Rachel.

“Sidestep when it attacks you!”

…

“Zombies are dull, so you need to be one step ahead of it!”

…

“Stop retreating backwards! You need to seize a moment!”

…

‘She finally killed it!’ Dave thought inwardly as he glanced at exhausted Rachel who was lying flat on the ground. She wasn’t tired physically, more mentally, since she had already experienced several moments when jaws of the zombie were close to her face.

“What’s next?” Rebecca asked as she patted Rachel on her shoulders, encouraging her for efforts.

“We’re gonna take a slight detour and visit a supermarket on the way back,” Dave replied as he glanced at the direction, as he thought, of the supermarket.