Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 248: An Evolution of Power

Chapter 248: An Evolution of Power

I looked around, trying to see past my men and to where I might be able to pour the life force from the zombies.

The trees around us were already towering over the skyscrapers as birds started to land in the upper branches, now safe from predators on land.

The grass under us was lush and vibrant. Any more energy into them, and it was going to have the opposite effect.

A voice in my head hissed, ’Everything in moderation,’ but I could only snort. I had gone so far beyond moderation that it was like the city had gone back to a prehistoric time.

Wait... if there were dinosaur bones under the roots, could I bring about living dinosaurs again?

Was that something I really even wanted to consider?

Nope. Zombies and Reavers were more than enough of an issue for the survival of the human race. I didn’t need more apex predators on top of that.

I couldn’t put more energy into the living things here, so I would need to extend my reach.

Focusing on the power flowing into me, I pushed it back down, through the roots, and away from us as far as I could.

Once again, the ground shifted, but not so much that it caused us to lose our balance.

The air shifted, smelling cleaner as the trees and plants started to purify the air. A gentle wind began to blow, and animals started coming out of the edges of the downtown core, ready to explore this new territory.

And I had yet to kill a single zombie.

"Are you okay?" asked Ye Yao Zu, whispering the words in my ear as he turned around to pull me into his embrace. "I know this is scary, but until we know what we are dealing with, it’s better to stay here."

I shook my head as beads of sweat started to drip down my face. I had bitten off more than I could chew, and the zombies were starting to recover faster than I could take their energy.

"I agree," murmured Wei Xiao Li, unapologetically listening in on our conversation. Apparently, there was no such thing as whispering when you had a fighting power user with enhanced hearing.

I watched as the guy whispered in Wei Xiao Li’s ear as they both stared at me.

"We’ll set up camp in this root," continued Wei Xiao Li. "It is too dark to see in front of us, and with how much everything has changed, I don’t want to take the risk of traveling and injuring ourselves."

"But what about the zombies?" I asked, allowing a bit of the panic I was feeling to enter my voice. "Won’t they attack us since we are out in the open?"

Truth be told, that was my current worst-case scenario. No matter how much I pulled out of them because there were so many, they were regenerating faster than I was pulling.

"We are just going to have to take the chance," grunted Wei Xiao Li, clearly just as happy as I was at that idea. "We’ll do 4-hour shifts, ten people per shift."

As soon as he spoke, his men started to get comfortable on the root, closing their eyes.

"Well, I guess that means we are first shift," snorted Bin An Sha. "For people that are so used to the way the world worked now, you would think that they would be entirely less trusting of their prisoners."

"It’s not that we trust you," shrugged Wei Xiao Li. "It’s more like we are all in the same boat. You can’t leave here for fear of running into the zombies in the dark...or whatever earth power managed to do this."

My men looked at me, and I shook my head. Whatever prophecy gift I had managed to unlock wouldn’t show me what I was supposed to be doing, but those frigging ants under my skin weren’t going to be happy unless we stayed with Wei Xiao Li.

Maybe I could just give him the ants and be free of that aspect of my power.

Leaning against Ye Yao Zi, I closed my eyes, continuing to funnel the life force of the zombies out past the downtown core and into the surrounding areas. Why couldn’t these things just hurry up and die? Not even the Reavers were this much of a pain in my ass.

Mind you; there were significantly less of them than there were the zombies...

But still.

Ye Yao Zu picked me up in his arms and walked over to where the root was connected to the trunk before he sat down, shifting me until I was settled comfortably on his lap.

"Go to sleep," he murmured, not caring about who had heard. "We’ll protect you."

"Never doubted that," I respond with a smile as I rested my cheek on his shoulder. I was still funneling power into the surrounding earth, still taking it from the zombies just outside of eyesight. But it never felt like I was using my own power; I was simply a conduit for it to go through before it found its home.

I felt the zombies leaving; I could see it in my mind as they sprinted away from here, trying to save themselves.

However, I knew in my heart that unless I stopped taking their life force, they would never escape.

With every step they took, the ground pulled the energy into me before I disbursed it from there.

But this situation taught me another aspect of my power that I didn’t realize before. Once I had caught my prey, they could never escape me.

I felt the distance between our physical bodies widening, but at the same time, I could feel each strike they made against the ground. I was still taking away their force with as much success as I had had before.

Even if they were regenerating as I was taking.

As much as I loved that feeling of being in control of something else... It also scared me.

Did that mean that if my powers became stronger, I would be able to know where every person or thing was in the world? Because that didn’t seem like such a great thing after all.