Considering shooting energy from my hands was like second nature to me at this point, flying with them should’ve been simple. The only reason I used my feet instead was that I never knew if I needed to save my fists for punching midair. But now it wasn't about punching.

  I had to save these people, even if blowing up came with it.

  “Oh God, this is it,” cried Bernie, struggling to hold himself up with his crutches. “I should've known a zombie would be the reason I die.”

  “I don't wanna die with a stinky old man like Mayor Bernie!” screamed Julie, covering her eyes and running away.

  Maria didn't say anything. I understood why though. The fear of losing her child must've left her in shock. Despite what the ground shaking suggested, everything was gonna be fine.

  Energy surged from my palms, launching me into the sky. The explosion followed, tearing through the Earth like an unwanted guest, then chasing after me.

  I couldn’t tell if the humans below were completely safe—the orb was too massive—but I knew they’d be out of harm’s way from what came next.

  I deactivated my technique and let gravity take over. The moment the energy hit me, it shredded my body, consuming me in its destructive fury. But just as quickly as I was being torn apart, my body began rebuilding itself.

  That’s when I realized it wasn’t my hands absorbing the blast. It was my mouth. Somehow, I was devouring the explosion like it was Sunday dinner. And as the energy weakened, my regeneration only got stronger. Once it was over, I plummeted—no, this was more controlled, more steady. In order to ensure the safety of those on the ground, slowing myself down with energy was the best way to weaken the eventual impact.

  The moment I landed, I was met with both shocked and surprised expressions from Bernie and Julie.

  “There’s no way you survived that,” said the former mayor, his voice trembling.

  “Alright, you survived!” exclaimed Julie, hugging my leg.

  “Don’t mind me. What about you guys? Are y’all ok?” I asked, scanning the scene. There was a big hole where I had flown up from, but nobody seemed to be seriously injured.

  “Eh, I’ve been through worse,” answered Bernie, scratching his white hair. “You know, like losing my leg.”

  Julie gave a thumbs up. “I’m super ok!”

  I nodded, and then looked at Maria, who was on the floor with her baby. Approaching her, I said, “How’s the baby? He doing good?”

  Her lips trembled while she avoided eye contact with me. “Yeah, he’s just sleepy. Nothing wrong here.”

  “You sure?” I crouched down in front of her. “He must be one sleepy kid. I assumed he would’ve been up by now.”

  Maria scooted back, holding her baby close. “You know how babies are. One moment they’re wide awake, and the next they’re sleeping through anything.”

  “I don’t see anyone just sleeping through an explosion. Not to mention, I don’t think I’ve seen that baby move at all in a long while. No breathing, no snoring, nothing.”

  The mom didn’t speak, turning her whole body to the side. It was through that action where I saw something that made my body burn. I was one hundred percent sure her baby had two ears when I last saw him, but now only one remained. Given the wound’s appearance, it must’ve happened recently, unlike the stubs that used to be his fingers.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I clenched my fist. “Who did that to him?” Hiding the rage in my voice proved to be difficult, and Maria noticed it.

  “Did what to-”

  “The ear,” I interrupted, pointing at the baby’s injury. “The fucking ear. Who did that shit?”

  “Hey, zombie man, you're treading onto territory that's way beyond what we can handle,” Bernie said angrily.

  “There's a baby here missing a body part that was there just a couple hours ago,” I argued. “This is territory we should be facing head on.”

  “He probably just fell…” muttered Julie.

  “Yeah, no, let me see the baby, Maria,” I demanded kindly, holding my hand out.

  She refused, which resulted in a regrettable struggle for the baby. Finally, the truth was revealed, and it sickened me to my core.

  The kid didn’t wake up. It didn’t cry. It didn’t move. It wasn’t even breathing…

  All I saw was a cold, lifeless sack of wasted life.

  I looked back at Maria, my mouth gaping. “How long were you carrying this?”

  Maria’s body was shaking, and she tried to hold herself together. “I… can’t say.”

  “Don’t tell him anything, Maria,” spat the one legged man, hurriedly approaching us.

  I pulled Maria by her blue shirt, and brought her closer to me. “Tell me how long you were carrying this!”

  Bernie began hitting me with one of his crutches. “Just drop it, zombie man! You’ll get people killed here!”

  “I’m sorry… but I can’t tell-”

  I slapped the woman. “I don’t get what you’re so afraid of. Your murdered son is on the ground, so haven’t your worst fears already happened!?”

  Maria hesitated to answer, but she eventually gave in. “The king… did it.”

  “No, don’t tell him that! You’ll get us all k-”

  I slapped my hand against Bernie’s mouth before he could finish. “Do… what exactly?”

  “He eats us!”

  Those three words slammed into me like a speeding train, and what made it worse was that Julie was the one who admitted it.

  “W-Whenever we do bad stuff, we get punished,” the little girl continued, her eyes tearing up. “He-He eats part of us, so that we… learn our lesson.” She caressed the part of her face where her nose was gone. “It hurts… a lot.”

  “What… the fuck,” I said with a mixture of confusion and shock.

  “Johnny—my son—really was alive when I first met you, Jerome. But that was the same day… I was punished and forced to live out here. We were just so hungry, and the king wouldn’t give us enough food, so we went out without permission. And it’s because of that he… the king did…” She looked at her baby, her hands beginning to hover towards him. “He said I needed to learn my lesson. I needed to keep… holding him for as long as he was amused by it.”

  Removing my hand from Bernie’s face, I held Maria’s hands and shook my head no. “So all of you, the entire town knew he was a zombie?”

  Bernie sighed, sitting down. “Well, if everyone’s gonna be honest, I might as well bite. Some of us knew. Most didn’t, and assumed he was a cannibal. Like one of those Death Rider guys. Most of us weren’t aware zombies like him existed—ones with superpowers. But he did reveal his real body to me the day I became an expendable. That’s when he gave me this.” He patted where his leg went missing. “Couldn’t run away, and was way too afraid of getting caught. So I stayed.”

  Julie rubbed her eyes. “I stayed with Mayor Bernie because I was scared too. And I liked talking to him.”

  After hearing everything they had to say, I helped Maria up. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. You didn’t deserve this, ok?”

  I waited for a response, but she didn’t give me one. That was fine. Her eyes plagued with anger told me everything I had to know. But just when I was about to let go, she held onto me.

  “Please… save us…” Maria’s shoulders trembled as she stared at me, tears tracing down her cheek. The words came out in gasps, shaky and broken, like each one hurt to say.

  I wanted to make that pain just a little bit lighter. “Of course I will.”

  “Really!? You'll do it?” asked Julie.

  “Trust me, I was gonna stop that fake king even before you told me all of that. But now…”

  “Oh, what's the point?” Bernie moaned, dragging his hands across his face. “The king is gonna destroy you, and then he’ll find out we told you about everything. We’re all just gonna die.”

  “Old man, you used to be a mayor around here,” I said. “Don’t you find it frustrating how you have to bow down to something that terrorizes your town? Don’t you wanna fight back!?”

  He gritted his teeth. “Of course I wanna fight back! You don’t think that’s the first thing on my mind everytime I wake up in this damn place!? But I’m just a weak old fool.” The grip on his crutches loosened. “Old men like me don’t live long in this world unless we make ourselves part of the pack.”

  That didn’t make any sense to me. “That’s stupid. Why would you want to be part of a pack that doesn’t care whether you live or die?”

  “That’s just how the world works.”

  “That’s not how my world works, and I’m gonna make sure of that.” I hugged Maria for a bit before walking to Explosion City-no, Boomsbarrow’s entrance. “But you two can help on the sidelines while I do that.”

  “You two? You mean me and Julie?” asked Bernie, reasonably skeptical. “What are we supposed to do?”

  “First off, is there water in those small water towers on top of the buildings? Just anything is fine.”

  “Yeah, there is,” said Bernie.

  “Good. As for what you guys are gonna do, fifteen minutes west from here, you’ll see a shack. There’s no zombies on that path, so don’t worry. Go inside and you’ll see an orange haired woman. Tell her what I’m about to do.”

  Julie sniffed. “What are you going to do?”

  I showed the kid my fist as energy moved down to my feet. “What I do best.”