The chances of Dante meeting a well-deserved end at the hands of my Fatherly Beam should’ve been high. The attack tore through the skyscraper’s walls as if they were soft flesh and clearly made contact with his body, eviscerating every part of his essence. There was no doubt in my mind that a coward like him wouldn’t survive such a deadly force of energy. However, it was the fact that he was a coward that my doubt was immediately shattered upon thinking back on our battle. The possibility that a forcefield was used at the very last second was becoming increasingly high. Or maybe there was another reason…

  Yet, through the pile of questions falling on top of me, there was one question at the peak of them all that I still needed to know. Why the hell was I still standing here!?

  “Dante!” I jumped into the air at full force, fist vibrating with badly restrained rage. In an instant, I came face to face with the man who tried to ruin my life. My punch slammed into the bubble, sparks flying out of the forcefield and dancing on my glowing body. There was no other sound in the area that was able to drown out the roars tearing their way out of my mouth—not even Dante, who was speaking to someone within the field. My attention stayed glued onto the loan shark and, with a bit more effort, I launched the forcefield out of my sight.

  Dante, as usual, wasn’t finished yet. Another forcefield zoomed toward my falling body—a little bigger than the last time I saw them. I slapped my hands together, aiming my knees at the incoming attack.

  “Grassyland!”

  Spikes of grass from my pants shot downwards and pierced through the forcefield, stopping it just in time as the grass kept my body in the air. Suddenly, the bubble transformed into a giant, green arrow, its tip ominously staring at me while the energy left my grass’ side. Then, it zoomed towards my skull. I extended some more sharp grass towards the arrow, but it swiftly maneuvered around each one and continued its path. The attack just about to stab my head before Jesus somehow leaped in front of me and blocked the attack with his sword, dispersing it.

  “Two-face!”, shouted Jesus, grabbing onto my body. “Stop attacking! This is the Type Two I was talking about before—Sunshine’s papi!”

  I snapped out of my anger when I realized Jesus had my injured daughter in his other arm. “Shit! Sunshine, are you okay?” I asked, my shaky hands hovering around her wound. Once again, I placed my selfish rage over the safety of my child…

  Sunshine grinned, wiping the blood from her hands onto her hoodie. “You don’t have to worry so much about me anymore, Jerome. I promised you I’d get stronger, and I did.”

  “Of course I’m gonna worry about you!” My tone became more stern. “God, I should’ve never let you fight that monster knowing how much he hates you…”

  “Huh…?” Sunshine’s face looked genuinely confused by my obvious regret. “But weren’t you proud of me? I thought you trusted me to…”

  “Sunshine… I’m not-”

  “Your arm!”, she blurted out, her eyes sparkling in amazement. “How’d you heal them if you didn’t want to absorb energy?”

  “Oh yeah. Guess I didn’t notice it before,” I said, flexing my arm. I was so concerned with trying to hurt Dante that I didn’t even realize my bones were completely fine now. I was sure I didn’t absorb anything as they seemed fine right when I jumped. “Maybe my willpower was so high that my body decided to give me a break for once.”

  The sound of a Status Board ringing decided to butt into the conversation.

  “Sorry guys, that’s me,” said Jesus, pulling out an SB from his pocket. It made me relieved he kept the pants I gave him, but I was confused to see that he had a SB after he had already given me his.

  “Is that yours?” I asked. “Where’d you find one of those in Queens?”

  “Yep, it’s mine,” he responded, turning on the phone. “And I bought it.”

  “Where would you buy something as advanced as that?”

  “Got it from a really trustworthy individual. The only problem was that it was very expensive so I came up with a great idea to buy it. I used all of your savings and I-”

  “You used my savings!?” I screamed, my body boiling. “What the hell is wrong with you? I was saving that to buy something nice for my Suns-”

  Jesus put his hand up, gesturing for me to stop speaking. “Hombre Muerto, I’m only gonna say this once so take it all in the best you can. We made an alliance with your former enemy.”

  “You teamed up with Dante!? First, you spend all my damn savings and now this?”

  “You don’t have to worry about him, Jerome,” said Sunshine. “We were with him for a couple days, and he can actually be a nice guy when he wants to be.”

  “Sunshine, he kidnapped and threatened to kill you. He’s the reason I’m a zombie, and you want me to believe he can be nice?”

  “That’s the thing though,” she said. Her face was rather serious, as if she was being genuine. “He doesn’t remember any of it. Your fight with him, when he first came to Savir’s Deli, anything he did to me—not a thing!”

  That idiot has amnesia now!? That’s… bullshit! Do these two expect me to forgive this prick after all the things he did to me through the years? Hell, forget the years—this month alone! Then again, I can’t just look at my kid’s face and not consider the possibility of it. But when the hell would he have lost his memories?

  “If you need confirmation that he did…” A blue screen popped out of Jesus’ SB, and the name in the middle read Dante. “Then have a look for yourself.”

  Jesus finally answered the phone, and the person I saw on the other end filled me with a surprisingly high amount of shock. Half of the guy’s face was what I expected it to be–the slicked black, black hair, the scar etched on his lip, and the clean suit. However, the other side was a completely different story.

  It was a bloody crimson, a stark contrast to the creamy skin tone on his left side. Wrinkles streaked across it like deep, jagged scars, and his bulging eye–now matching the red hue of his deformed skin–was unnaturally wide.

  Half of his hairline had been pushed back, revealing thick, pulsating veins on his scalp. The hair on that side had turned a blinding white, as though that half alone had aged by about fifty years. He smoothed down that side of his hair, presumably to slick it back, but it immediately sprang back up. There were no eyelids on that bulging, unblinking eye, and this grotesque mix of anger, contempt, fear, and horror seemed to be the only and permanent expression he could keep on that half.

  To top it all off, there was a long shard of glass lodged right above his eyebrow. I was staring at the devil and only part of the devil stared back, as if I wasn't worth its full attention.

  “Jesus, care to repeat what you just said to me?” asked Dante, his voice low and rumbling.

  “C'mon, Two-face! Don't tell me that ugly scar of yours messed up your hearing too. I said-”

  “Shut up!” he shouted, clawing at his devilish right side. “Don't call it ugly, and don't call me Two-face! You know how I feel about such a derogatory name…” Dante began to dig through his pockets. “Do I have to bring out the coin and-”

  “Calm down dude.” A slender arm wrapped around Dante’s neck, coming from the man he was talking to earlier. Half his face was covered by a huge, puffy afro that looked like it was dipped in gold for days. “You shouldn’t waste a coin flip on something so boring. Games should be something we can all find enjoyment in, remember?” His voice was as lax as Jesus’. No, maybe even more.

  “Jesus! Why the hell do you have so many weirdos around my daughter!?”

  “Woooah!” exclaimed the afro man, shoving his face against the screen. “Horse man wasn’t lying. A talking zombie really does exist.” He smiled. “Hey, do zombies like games? Besides ‘who can devour a human body the fastest?’”

  “Oooh yes, I like to play Red Light, Green Light!” Jesus and Sunshine shouted at the same time.

  “Yeah, me too!’ the afro man responded back

  “I don’t eat people!” I asserted. “And we don’t have time for any dumb games right now.” I pointed at Dante. “Why the hell did you stop me from killing Jason!?”

  “Because we’re taking him back with us alive, Jerome!” Dante barked, trying to pull the afro man’s arm off his neck. “The real question is why the hell were you attacking me? You owe me hundreds of dollars or did you forget that? I should be the one attacking you!”

  “Why you-”

  “Jesus…” interrupted the afro man, his tone becoming angrier. “I thought we were gonna play an honest game, and yet you and that girl cheated. A race doesn’t start until the person who brought up the idea says ‘go.’”

  “Neeeeigh!” Jesus blurted out, shaking his horse head. “You’re not trying if you’re not cheating. That’s common knowledge.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right!” He picked at the tips of his afro. “So no hard feelings on us already in front of Jason, right?”

  The three of us turned our attention back to Jason and realized that the two men were in the middle of carrying Jason’s forcefield. Without hesitation, Jesus launched himself off my chest while I deactivated my Grassyland. I was about to land on the ground when a voice echoed across the area.

  “Red Light.”

  Suddenly, my body was suspended in the air, paralyzed by an unknown force. Everything around me was red—the sky, the ground, and even my body. I wasn’t the only one whose movements had stopped as I saw that Jesus, Sunshine, and Dante were all paralyzed. The only one who wasn’t was the man I presumed to be the activator of this ability. He had a hand over the left side of his forehead, lifting up the tip of his afro. Where a normal eye should’ve been, there was a bright red one instead. No discernible pupil or iris—just pure red.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “It’s so hard playing with a bunch of weaklings,” the Afro man said, smirking. “I just don't know when to hold back.”

  Shit! This guy was a Radius. No wonder he was working with Dante. Why'd he have to have such a troublesome ability!?

  The guy began to saunter towards Jason, casually twirling his lanky arms as if nothing in the world was capable of stopping him. That was until Jesus decided to take up that challenge.

  “Green Light!” The moment Jesus shouted those words the color of the world went back to normal as I was finally able to land on the und. ground. He then threw my daughter on top of the forcefield while I darted towards the four. However, I was stopped in my tracks once again when my daughter yelled “Red Light”. Unlike last time, we weren’t paralyzed in the middle of our movements. Instead, I, Dante, and his partner were all teleported back to our original spots before the afro guy had used his ability.

  My feet hit the concrete once more, and I quickly approached the two. “Hey, how’d you two do all that!?”

  “You two really are a clever duo.” I looked behind me, realizing that the afro man had already closed the distance between us. I didn’t realize how tall the guy was until he was standing right behind me. He might’ve been near Jason’s height. “You two became the leaders of my game by knowingly bringing it up first. And since I said the word ‘yes’, I pretty much agreed to it.” He then started to laugh, which was instantly cut short by the ominous frown on his face as he placed his arms inside the pocket of his overly sized blue hoodie. “Don’t think that’s ever gonna happen again.”

  “Care to explain why?” asked Jesus, tightening the grip on his katana.

  “Because my name is Geremiah Obadiah Donovan,” he answered, his eyes unnaturally dilated. “But the people who are weaker than me refer to me as G.O.D. What I find amusing is that since everyone is weaker than me, that means everyone, including the four of you in front of me, will call me G.O.D because I am your God.”

  “You’re a real egotistical prick, you know that?” I remarked, readying a battle stance.

  “You can’t attack us, Geremiah. We already won your game, and you can’t go against the restrictions of your ability,” said Jesus.

  Geremiah paused for a while, seemingly debating on whether he should attempt to kill us or not. An awkward silence lingered just long enough for Dante to make his way over to us. Then, Geremiah spoke. “Yeah, you did win. You cheated, but it isn’t like my ability can track that anyway. But I’m not gonna sit back and lose so pathetically. We’re gonna make a new game.”

  Jesus pointed his blade at the man. “Sorry, but we’ve had enough of your games for a long time.”

  “Me too,” Dante cut in, covering the normal half of his face. “Let’s hurry up and take back Jason by force. Kill ‘em all if we have to. My future position is riding on this!” He quickly removed his hand and covered the scarred side. “Don’t spit out nonsense like that! Keep the girl alive… She's cool.”

  Is he… talking to himself?

  “Jesus, what if I said I had info on the whereabouts of your son and the man who took him away from you. Would you agree to a game of tag then?”

  I could tell Geremiah’s question struck Jesus deeply as the horse headed man didn’t say a word, clenching his sword intensely.

  The silence was only broken by Sunshine asking, “You know about Diego!? Tell us where he-”

  “Alright, we’ll play your damn game,” Jesus conceded, softening his grip. “Tell us the rules so we can get on with it.”

  Geremiah’s frown remained on his face, as if the concession hadn’t satisfied him enough. “First, we’ll have to determine the location of our prize.” He turned to Dante. “Dante, you decide where Jason goes.”

  Dante began to sweat, hesitating to go along with Geremiah’s dumb game. Then, he sighed, took out a quarter from his pocket, and walked over to Jason. “Heads, you head all the way to Hallowsville. Tails, the Slavelands.” He flipped the coin high into the air, and it came down with a soft slap into his palm, his fingers curling over it briefly before revealing the face of the coin—heads.

  “Hallowsville,” said Dante, sighing in disappointment.

  “Just wait a minute!” I screamed, grabbing Dante’s shoulder. “That psychopath isn't moving a damn inch! You hear me?”

  Dante’s crimson eye shifted to me as he covered the normal half of his face. “Don’t catch yourself in a penalty, Jerome. The game’s already started, and we can't do anything about it.”

  “Huh? I didn't agree to any-”

  “Mach 50.”

  We were all blown back by a tremendous gust of wind, aside from Geremiah. Not only had the forcefield vanished, but Jason had too.

  “No!” I gripped onto Dante’s suit. “Why the hell would you deactivate your forcefield!? You Radius are all so stupid?”

  “Radius?” Dante removed his hand on the other half and covered the red side. “Jerome, how the hell do you know about the Radius?”

  Damn! I forgot this idiot doesn’t remember what happened!

  “This game will be a mixture of a race and tag.” Geremiah waved around a status board with a moving red dot on a map. “I’ll explain the rules, and then we can start.”

  ******

  According to the afro man, whose name turned out to be Geremiah, we would be forced to play in a game that was a combination of a regular race and tag. Except the rules, restrictions, and conditions for the participants seemed a little unnecessary to me. The path to Hallowsville from our current location would take us about a week to traverse, not including any obstacles we’d have to face on our way such as any random fights we might have.

  Obviously, there’d be two teams for the game. Team B, which consisted of Sunshine, Jesus, and me. Then, there was Team A, which had Dante and Geremiah. You’d think that since we had more manpower, Dante’s team would be at a disadvantage, however, I had a strong belief that that wasn’t the case. I was pretty sure Geremiah didn’t consider Sunshine to be a participant he needed to take seriously, and I… agreed with that. I wouldn’t tell her that to her face though. It was either that or the guy was confident he could win a two-on-three. He did make “G.O.D” his nickname, after all.

  During those seven days, we could use three as rest days if we chose. If we used four or more days to rest, then Geremiah would inflict our team with a “penalty” or “punishment”. I had no idea how the man would be able to know whether we did that or not until he raised his hand and summoned two referees from nothing. They were shaped like humans, and yet their bodies were metallic. They also had robotic, yellow eyes that stared at me, flashing at random times. That moving red dot on Geremiah’s status board was Jason’s tracker, and the refs had that information installed in them like a GPS.

  He said there were other random rules, but since Geremiah had come up with the game on the fly, he couldn’t tell us what the rules actually were. Well, it shouldn’t have been too bad or unfair if he didn’t know the rules too. Although, it would be bad if he was lying about that…

  While the two teams would have to move on different roads to Hallowsville, Geremiah assured us that none of us would have an advantage over the other.

  Even though that was all the information we needed to know, I still had one other question I needed G.O.D to answer.

  “Why did Jason go along with this stupid game?”, I asked Geremiah. “He wouldn’t be the type to do that.”

  Geremiah’s disapproving frown stretched down further as his eyes dilated even more, piercing my soul. “I thought the answer was obvious. It’s because Jason fears me.”

  “Huh? So you’re stronger than him? If that’s the case, then how the hell can you know the type of person Jason is and let that guy live!?”

  “That’s enough questions, zombie man. I didn’t think a brainless animal could store so many questions inside its head,” he retorted, the tips of his afro falling over his eyes. “I think it’s time we start this game already.” He placed a hand on the referee’s head—the one he had next to him. “Start the timer. Make it two minutes.”

  The robot began to tremble, as though G.O.D had hands made of lightning. Then, its mouth opened, and it started a countdown.

  119 seconds!

  “Jesus, what were you thinking including us in this shit?”, I whispered to him. “And you never told me you had a son.”

  “Have. My son’s still alive,” he asserted. He sounded like I just committed a great offense but was trying to contain himself. “And don’t you think I’ve told you enough about my identity?”

  “No, you haven’t,” I answered. “Me and my daughter know nothing about you besides you being a former Radius member. We don't even know what you look like under that mask. For all we know, you could be a sp-”

  “Ya basta, sheesh.” Jesus sighed, rubbing the mane on his horse head. “I see what the little lady means now. You really don’t have a lot of faith in anyone.”

  My voice raised a little bit. “Sunshine would never say anything like that! I don’t even know why you think she’d be up for this game. She’s obviously on my side about this.”

  “You sure about that?” he asked, pointing at my daughter. She was stretching her legs like a track runner, and then started practicing her bat swings a couple seconds after. “Your kid wants Jason out of her life just as much as you do, but she’s smart enough to know you can’t just yell out some words or throw some punches and think people will do what you say. Sometimes, you gotta find a way to win using another method. Follow the rules perhaps.”

  “How about they follow my fist going into their face after I change those rules!?” I said that so confidently that I almost thought Jesus would change his mind about the whole thing.

  “Hombre muerto… that was really corny. I know guys get cornier with age but damn, man.”

  “Shut up! Just give me a good reason why we have to do this.”

  “Listen, since you yourself are a papi, then you should be able to understand my situation here. Our self-proclaimed God here made it personal and involved my family. That got me intrigued to go along with all this. You can't tell me if you were in my boots and the only way to find your daughter was to win this game that you wouldn't do it.” Jesus placed a hand on my shoulder. “Jerome, I'm asking you as a fellow papi to another, let's run this race so we can both get what we want.”

  I paused, thinking of how I wanted to respond back to him. For someone who always spoke like a man who didn’t take anything seriously, his voice was different this time. He sounded like… me. “Alright, I’ll do it. It’s not like I had a choice anyway. We’re all going to the same place.” It’d be hypocritical to care so much about Rosalina’s problems, but not help out Jesus with his.

  Jesus shook my hand. “I hope you can keep up with me. After all, I am a horse man.”

  “Well, I have one thing I need to discuss with my kid before we do this, horse man. I got a lead on a potential cure for Sunshine all the way in Philadelphia.”

  “Philly?”

  “Yeah, and if she thinks it's more important to check that out first, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

  “Well, with a reason like that then it wouldn’t feel right to stop you. But doing that would be forfeiting the game, and I’m sure you won’t be allowed to pursue Jason as long as Geremiah’s around.”

  I began to approach Sunshine, patting Jesus on the back. “Then I’m sure you’ll be able to kill Jason for us, right?”

  He chuckled softly, leaving the question in the air.

  99 seconds!

  “Sunshine, you look pumped for this,” I said, crouching down.

  “Of course I am,” she said, hopping in place like a bunny. “Geremiah’s ability is tricky, but it shouldn’t be too challenging as long as we’re together.”

  “I don’t really care if it’s tricky. I’m more worried about the danger of it.”

  “You don't have to worry about any danger,” she assured. “From the time I spent with him, he didn’t really give off any sinister vibes.”

  “I was more so talking about the danger you’ll be in. Sunshine, I really don’t think-”

  Sunshine stopped jumping and put a hand in front of my face. “Hold it right there. I just really need to say this since I wasn’t able to before.” Her eyes lit up. “You look sooo cool now! How’d you get such a cool transformation in the first place!? You said you absorbed someone, right?”

  “Yeah,” I answered, confused as to why she interrupted our serious conversation like that. “Got it today actually. But seriously though, I don’t think you’re-”

  “Look at your hair! You finally have hair now. I bet that feels good since you’ve been bald for so long. And that smile is so cool too. I bet you’re like really strong now, right? Maybe we co-”

  “Sunshine, why do you keep interrupting me?” I said, my voice now stern. “I don’t think you realize how serious this is. Your life is at stake here.”

  Sunshine furrowed her brows. “I keep interrupting you because I know I’m not gonna like what you’re gonna say sometimes. And you just proved me right. Do you really think Jason could kill me? You saw me fight him.”

  “But did you beat him? No, you didn’t.” I caressed her puffy hair. It’s changed since the last time I saw her. It was like basketballs were on top of her head–held together by rubber bands. “For your situation, you can’t just be satisfied with beating someone. You’re gonna have to do more than that if you want to be a fighter. I don’t know if the Radius want to capture or kill you, but I do know that they’re gonna ruin your life either way. Then, there’s your disease. There are two ways you could die, and you need to acknowledge those ways before you do anything else.”

  Sunshine hesitated to reply, staring at her baseball bat. “Do you think I’m going to die from this disease?”

  “Huh?”

  “You said the last time we saw each other that I should keep going and keep fighting even if my disease makes me pass out. I also remember you saying that you wanted to see how much stronger I got once you see me again.” Her eyes turned to me, and I noticed that an immense determination had been lit in her eyes. “Well, that’s exactly what I did. Every time the disease punched me, I punched it right back. There was no way I was gonna let it stop me from getting stronger, and there’s definitely no way I’m gonna let it kill me either. You can believe that.”

  I laughed softly. And here I was thinking I needed a direct answer from her. She already made her choice a while ago. I raised my fist towards my daughter, gesturing for a fist bump. “I better see you give it your all. You are stronger, after all.”

  She bumped my fist, smiling from ear to ear. “We’re not gonna lose. I have to show you a few more tricks while we're at it too.”

  “I'm sure you will. But first, we'll have to discuss a couple important things. Like what happened during the time we weren't together and why you guys are telling me an entire month passed out of nowhere. Plus, I was able to find a… medicine to help you with your-”

  A hand on my shoulder caught my attention. I looked back to see who would dare interrupt my important father-daughter time with Sunshine, and I realized that it was… Dante!

  “What do you want?” I hissed, glaring at him.

  “I need to talk to you for a bit… alone.” I could tell he was trying his best to sound intimidating, which obviously didn’t work.

  “Is it important?” I asked, standing back up.

  “Yeah, it is.”

  He turned to a car and began to walk towards it.

  “Keep stretching those legs,” I said to my daughter. “Being able to run is-”

  “One of the most important parts of survival. Yeah, I know that already.”

  50 seconds!

  “I’ll have you know that I wasn’t finished talking to my kid so let’s make this quick,” I said, approaching Dante as he took a seat on the car’s hood.

  “I just have a question for you, and I hope you’ll answer it truthfully,” he said, taking out a flask container from his chest pocket. He took a swig of the drink, but since half of his mouth was stuck in a perpetual grimace, he could only stick the flask in the other side of his mouth. Once he was finished, he asked, “How did you become a zombie? I mean, obviously it's ‘cause another zombie bit you, but what were the events that lead to that shit happening?”

  “It wasn’t just one zombie… It was a whole group of those monsters. They chomped on me and tore me limb from limb. I was pretty surprised when I woke up in this body considering there was probably nothing left of me.”

  “That sounds painful.”

  “And you wanna know who caused such a painful experience to happen to me.” I pointed a finger at Dante. “It was you.”

  Dante paused, sighing. “I should've figured that. Last thing I remember was me holding up your kid in the air. I assume you tried saving her and your plan ended like… well, you know. No wonder you attacked me.”

  “I know you lost your memory Dante, but that doesn’t excuse everything you did to try and make my life complete shit. And it definitely doesn’t excuse you from threatening my daughter’s life either.”

  “You know, your daughter helped me realize some things about myself… and about the relationship she has with you.” He shoved the flask back into his pocket and gave me a somber look. He covered his scarred half and said, “It was wrong of me to try and trample on that relationship. I should have never-”

  “I’m gonna stop you right there,” I said, holding my hand up. “I don’t have time for this shit.”

  I started to walk away, however, Dante wasn’t finished just yet.

  “I’m sorry.” The sudden apology stopped me in my tracks. I never thought I’d hear those two words come out of a loan shark’s mouth, and yet here the boss of them was doing so. “I think I finally understand how you felt all those years we clowned on you back in Woodshaven. How it feels to be looked down on, seen as weak… pathetic. This permanent scar is a constant reminder of that. I want to kill whoever did this shit to me, but until I find them, making right with the people I’ve wronged is my current goal.”

  “I don’t forgive you,” I said, looking back at him.

  He got up from his seat. “Jerome, I said I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, and I do not forgive you,” I repeated, hoping he’d get the message. “You want some kind of closure so you can move on to something else? You really think it’s that easy to get someone to forgive you? Trust me kid, it’s not. You’re gonna have to do a whole lot for that to happen.”

  Dante gritted his teeth, clearly unsatisfied with my answer. “But that… ok… fine.” He walked back to Geremiah who was speaking to Jesus.

  5 seconds!

  “Finally…” said Geremiah, his lips curling into a mischievous smile. “Let the race…”

  1 second!

  “Begin!”