When Roon woke up, it was night. He saw that Sheldon Cooper, no, Dr. August was sitting next to him, and most of the passengers were huddled close to each other, sleeping, with him and August at a distance from them.

He saw that August had kept his eyes closed and seemed to be meditating? Yes, August was meditating, and some white substance in very little amounts was going in and out of him, very slowly.

What surprised him, was that he could see little white mist like substance everywhere, albeit in very small amounts, thinly spread, but somehow he knew it was everywhere, and when Roon thought that it must be mist, then he was surprised to find that when he wanted to look at something, then the mist miraculously disappeared and he could see very fine details, that he couldn’t before.

Moreover, he could hear stuff, that was incomprehensible, his skin felt itchy, and the variety of odor was making him nauseous.

“Shit!”

The moment he tried to get up he fell again. Feeling the disturbance, August opened his eyes and beamed at Roon.

“Ah, you’re up.”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Well, before the others start noticing, I’d like to have a treacherous, mutiny type discussion with you, for which I stayed up all night. So,..”

Not letting him complete his sentence Roon, who was still in a bit of stupor, said,

“Wait, What’s with the smoke in the bus? Did you people burn something?”

“What smoke?”

“This, smoke. That’s annoyingly everywhere, and keeps disappearing from time to time.”

“Oh, hoho, hohoho, that is brilliant.”

“Okay, one last question. What else do you feel, that is different? I’ll need to you be very specific about it. Something that you think is new?”

“What? I don’t know, my head hurts, I feels exhausted, I haven’t eaten anything since the morning, but I still feel like throwing up.”

“No, not all that. What do you think has improved?”

“Well, um, I can see in more detail?”

“Hmm. So, senses it is. But it is too simple for an improvement, are you sure this, is it? What about your other senses?”

“Well, I don’t know, I mean you seem to be speaking too loudly, I also hear a lot of noise, my skin feels prickly, and I can smell that a thousand rats died in here.”

“Hoh, that’s amazing. Okay, but don’t tell anyone about it. You can if you want to but I suggest you don’t.”

And with that August, turned and made an announcement,

“Hey everyone, he’s awake. And fortunately, not a zombie.”

The passengers of the bus eyed him for a second, but soon went back to sleeping, their faces looked like they’d been forced into commando training for a week and nothing could distract them from their precious sleep. Only the rich guy, who was cuddled up with the belle from before stood up, and approached Roon.

He put forward his hand in a shaking gesture, which Roon reluctantly took,

Then the rich guy clenched his hand with unbelievable strength,

“William Bracken, I hope we can put our differences behind and work together in this precarious situation. You were very brave back there. I look forward to our cooperation. Glad you didn’t turn into a zombie.”

“Yeah, me too. I’m Roon by the way.”

Even though Roon’s hand was being crushed, he managed to keep a straight face. But the redness of his face was enough to destroy his tough guy act.

“So Roon, let me ask you this, what powers did you get?”

Hearing this question startled Roon, and he was about to spill the beans, when he looked at August and saw him gesturing a no with his mouth.

This kind of action would’ve been caught before, but the Roon now didn’t need to look at August directly to observe each detail, so he responded nonchalantly,

“Powers?”

“Oh, you didn’t. It’s a pity. It seems that I’m the only one till now. Yes, my friend, when I killed my 5th zombie, I gained the power of enhanced strength, and a skill of “Muscle Boost”.”

“Skill? Wait did you say, 5th zombie, how many have you killed today?”

“I lost count at 10. Well then, I’ll have to get some rest now, I’ll let Dr. August here bring you to speed.”

The last line was said while facing August.

“Sure.”, was August’s reply.

With that, the rich guy, Billy, who seemed more muscular than he was in the afternoon, went and sat next to the belle.

“So, shall we?”

Saying that, August pointed to the door. Seeing which Roon was scared silly,

“Dude, didn’t we throw two live zombies out there? Also, what about that mother and daughter pair? And who knows how many of those there are out there?”

“Ah no. We cleared them, during your untimely siesta, for which you have yet to thank me. But, who’s counting.”

Saying that he stepped out of the door, and Roon followed him.

There was a certain chill in the night, yet Roon found the outside much more comfortable, and he also saw that the white mist was more abundant out here.

“Umm, are you sure this is a good idea, won’t we be attacked by zombies?”

“If, by zombies you mean those cute little things, who don’t know of your presence till you’re 3 meters to them, and who trip at every attempt they run, and put out their head first, instead of holding and biting. Yeah, I think we’ll be dead the moment we lay eyes on them.”

“You know, brash one usually die early in the movies.”

“Yes, but this isn’t a movie. Also, we don’t get powers in movies. But after reading that article you had back there, I think it could make a brilliant plot. You want some?”

August offered Roon a cigarette, which he politely declined.

“You read the paper?”

“Yes, I did. And now I understand why you were so frantic at that time.”

“Hmm. So, what happened after I got knocked out.”

“That, is not important. What is important, is what are you seeing or feeling right now?”

They had a staring contest till they reached the edge of the skyway, where August kept smoking, till he had to take the initiative to talk,

“You are not speaking before I answer, are you?”

To which, Roon only nodded.

“*Sigh*, Stubborn pup. Well then listen. After you blacked out, the mom and child had a risk of turning, so we killed them. The idiot helped me. Then we went out to assess the situation, where there were a lot of easy to kill zombies. The idiot killed most of them, so he has more developed body, and he got a skill. Then you woke up at night.”

After having a staring contest again, Roon spoke up.

“It’s lacking a lot of details, isn’t it?”

“It is a general summary.”

“Who is the idiot?”

“The one you met before.”

“Okay. What is a skill?”

“It came out as a ball of light, and became a skill for him when he touched it.”

“Hmm. Shit. I don’t like him.”

“Me neither. But most of the passengers do. You done asking?”

“No, wait. What did you feel when you killed that mother and child?”

“Nothing much. I’m a pragmatist, but I am certainly not proud of my recent actions.”

As he was hearing all of this, with his very strong imagination, it added to the previous scene Roon had witnessed just before fainting, and it acted as a final push for the stuff in his stomach, that he dropped from the railing, all the way to the ground level.

“*Bleagh*, *huff* *huff*, Sorry, I just felt like barfing and I just, *bleagh*, *huff* *huff*.”

“And you said you were empty stomach.”

August stood at his side and offered Roon, a handkerchief, which he gladly accepted.

“Are you done with your questions now?”

Roon nodded.

“So, what do you see or feel?”

“I already told you in the bus.”

“Yes about that. Let me help you understand it. My hypothesis, is that your other senses, such as smell, touch, and hearing haven’t degraded, but have been enhanced.”

“..”

“Before you interrupt. Listen to this, you must be thinking that I am speaking very loudly right now?”

Again, Roon nodded.

“But the fact is, per my hypothesis, your brain suddenly has too much influx of information which it is unable to properly process. Try, blocking out all your senses, and focus on only your hearing, and try to recognize as many sounds as you can. Be very calm, now try to focus on the sounds that you don’t hear very often, but are familiar with.”

Roon did as asked, and focused his mind. Instead of trying hard to focus, he let loose, and just relaxed his breathing, and then, he listened. Which worked.

“It’s working.”

This caused August to be surprised, as it wasn’t child’s play to block out one’s senses. But he still chose to play along and asked,

“Okay. So, what did you focus on.”

“Not exactly focused. I just let go, and I am only ignoring the winds sound. Most of the noises stopped when we left the bus, but if you want to know, then. Right now, I hear my voice, your voice, my heartbeat, your heartbeat, which is creepily uniform and regulated.”

“Well, the yoga lessons I took were very effective. What else do you hear?”

“Well, I hear……. A pig snoring, and it’s quite musical. Someone must be an artist in that bus.”

“See, I told you that it was an enhancement.”

“Okay, then what is this white mist I see all around.”

“About that it isn’t actually visible, it’s just that your sense towards qi is so sharp, that your brain manifests an image for your ease of processing.”

“Hmm, you may be right about that. When I concentrate on seeing something it does tend to automatically disappear. And qi huh? So, you think it’s some sort of energy, and I have some sixth sense or something?”

“Something along those lines. Did you see me meditating?”

“Yes, I did, and that white mist was coming near you for a second but then it dispersed very soon. But I think I saw some of it present in your body that was moving around. Although the one in your body is really thin, like piece of paper thin, and I can’t see it normally but I know it’s there.”

“Yes, then I’m certain it is qi, because I don’t actually see it, my senses are not that sharp, but I can feel it, moving inside me and when I killed the zombies. So, that we can be sure of. Well Roon, anything else you got?”

“No, nothing else.”

“Well then, if we’re on the same page, let’s go.”

“Um. Wait, why can’t we tell it to others?”

“Because most of them are enthralled with the idiot’s charisma, and while it is not a bad thing, he considers himself to be the protagonist of an apocalyptic genre light novel. Which in turn, will compel him to eliminate you for certain reasons if he thinks you’re too powerful. So, let us just enjoy his leadership, and hope that all of us live long fulfilling lives. Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Then let’s go.”

Then they went inside the bus. Augusts blithe atmosphere suggested that they were on a picnic, but Roon couldn’t have been more solemn. He’d sensed many things, that he’d chosen not to discuss, his reasons only known to him Maybe because he didn’t trust August, maybe he didn’t trust anybody, maybe it was something else. But this night certainly won’t be relaxing for him, that much was sure.