AN: As a test today will come only one chapter, with twice the lenght...

Chapter 8

When the two of them returned to their places, I started our conversation. “First of all, sadly it wasn't a pig that I killed.” I said, “It were three soulless, actually there was a fourth I killed before, but I didn't get so dirty while handling that one, but he gave me four small reminders.” I pointed towards my right cheek.

“Why did you have to kill them?” Paul asked. “The first one was close to here and he was a cannibal. The other three though that I would be a tasty snack. All four of them were mutated and rapidly evolving predators. I fear there is no hope for those that have lost their soul to ever return to being human.” I replied.

As the news sank in they looked rather down. “So what are you planning concerning the soulless?” Sarah asked. “Nothing much, I will just patrol the area and clear it if necessary. The cold already starts to drive them into the valley and if we are lucky they won't come back, although it won't surprise me if they survive the winter.” I replied. “But we should at least fortify our position here.” I added. With that we finished our conversation.

The next day we got up with sunrise and prepared to scavenge the nearby houses. We need wood and tools to build a chicken scoop and fortitude our home. As we get ready to leave I notice that the others also found something to arm themselves. “If we get some leather and some metal plates I should make some armour for them.” I though to myself. All in all we got my weaponry plus two axes, a bat and a pair of hedge shears. The last one, was carried by Thomas. Hoping that I could avoid involving him into a fight I let his impractical choice of weaponry slide.

We got lucky and found a well equipped hobby workshop in the basement of the fifth house we checked. It looks like someone planned to build a new fence and so we got more than enough planks to build the coop. It took us two hours to carry everything back. Since it isn't quite lunch time yet I decided to patrol the neighbourhood and get the radio-station on my way back.

As I walked trough the streets, the only living beings I saw were a normal looking cat and two groups of the armoured soulless, which fled when they saw me. It is strange seeing humans flee like a herd of antelopes. I didn't give chase, since I didn't judge them as an aggressive threat and in general they fled towards the valley.

When I reached the house with the radio-station I saw a third group in the distance and they also saw me. They are hunters. Cursing I run to the house, which door was busted. There are five of them, if they manage to surround me I am finished.

It didn't take them much time to reach the door, the first one that tried to enter was greeted by my axe, which split its skull, those guys truly needed to learn how to safely chase their prey. Using the new corpse I blocked their path, giving me the time to free my axe. I attack again but my second enemy was more prepared and managed to avoid a fatal hit, but I still managed to hit his right shoulder, sadly I didn't take my time to make the axe sharp, I only broke some of his bones and give him a nasty laceration. I really need to change that. Dodging his one-armed lunge I managed to finish him off with a hit to the head. Then I heard the sound of breaking glass on my left, right and most alarming from behind.

My only option is to isolate one of them and swiftly kill it. I run to the room to my right. I almost ran into it, but a quick kick to the ground changes my trajectory and brings me to its left flank, while my axe is on collision course with its face. Crack, another one hits the ground. But I have to let go of my axe. It is stuck and I lack the time to free it.

Hearing heavy footsteps from the door I turn around drawing my trusty sax. They lunge at me as soon as they had a clear path. I can't evade both, I have to take one hit. Inwardly cursing I take a quick step towards the one on my right, catching his attack with my left shoulder, at least I am not penetrated by its thorn since I shortened the distance and messed up its aim. Almost hugging my enemy I shove my blade through its temple.

I kick it away while freeing my blade and turn towards my last enemy, which luckily struggles to get back on his feet, since he tackled a table. It doesn't take long for it to attack me again. It wasn't easy to deal with that last one, since my balance and speed was limited, but I managed.

After gathering my axe and sheathing my weapons I go upstairs towards where the radio station should be. After I found it I closed and locked the door and sit down on one of the chairs. Grimacing in pain I strip my armour and clothes. My left shoulder is a slowly swelling and pain filled mass.

First I shut down my nerves in this area, then I begin to move the pieces of my collarbone back to their original position. Its really helpful to have a mental image of your healthy self. When everything seems to be in order, I start the regeneration. The final product was a working collarbone, but it was still weak. I couldn't imitate months of healing in an hour, I just barely fixated the pieces together, the fractures were still weak.

Those guys are freaking strong. No wonder, considering they often break their bodies with their attacks. They are like glass canons in a RPG. “The reach of my sax is just too low. Maybe I should get myself a polearm. Nah they need to much space to be useful.” I though to myself, “But a crow's beak hammer would be great to crack some skulls and it wouldn't take two arms to swing it effectively, like my axe. *sigh* I need a forge.”.

After reequipping my clothes and armour I took out the rope and a potato bag and put the equipment I came for in it. Using the rope I created a backpack, since I need my one useful hand free, in case I would have to fend of something.

I carefully made my way back, always checking the surroundings for any living being, before I leave my cover and make my way to the next. Relieved I reach our depot.

As I return I am greeted by the alarmed clucking of chickens, looks like they finished the coop faster than I anticipated. It was at the south wall of the depot and right next to the gate of the fence that separates the site from the surroundings. Once it gets warmer we need to build a fenced of area for them, but since winter is coming they prefer to stay inside.

As I get inside, I drop the radio carefully and hurry to get a change of clothes to not repeat yesterdays mistake. Noting that I will soon run out of clothes if I continue to bath in the blood of my enemies I join the others in their lunch preparations. As we cook, I tell Sarah and Paul what happened, carefully avoiding child ears of course.

Anxious they ask if we should try to get to the police station and arm ourselves with firearms. In response to that I explain to them that our foes won't stop from a bullet if we don't hit their heads and ask them if they are confident to hit a moving target in the head. They reply by shaking their heads, none of us had any training in that aspect.

After we finished our meal, we got to work on the radio-station and recorded a message of our location and circumstances and play it in an endless stream. We don't expect a reply, but if someone still tried to get emergency messages over his radio he would hear us and know where to find us. Sadly we don't know how long the electricity will be available, it could be a week or shut down tomorrow, but we hope that at least a few survivors will come.

There is one place I really want to check out after my last fight, the workshop of my blacksmithing teacher. I don't think we can move the forge but it would be great if I could secure it. Sadly its rather far away, its farther up the mountain, so it could be save, but I would be gone for a long time.

And then it hit me, why don't I take a car or a motorcycle? I have a freaking drivers licence. But is it save to make so much noise? Thinking about it I came to the conclusions that firstly that no one would care whether I had a licence or not and secondly the mountains would carry the motor noise way to far. But a bicycle should be alright, it will make my return much faster. There was still a problem though, blacksmithing consumes a lot of time. Maybe I should build a forge here.

While thinking about what I could use as a base for the forge, my gaze wanders through the room. It stops at a big plant pot. “Nah that would be ridiculous. But maybe.....It could work.” I murmur to myself. Ceramic can withstand quite a lot of heat, but it will break if the temperature changes too fast I would also need bellows and an anvil. If I remember correctly my teacher owns a small wedge anvil. That would be enough to get started on that front, the forge only needs a bit of work, but where could I get bellows from? I guess I have to build them. All I need for that is leather, wood, a few pipes and hinges. And nails, a lot of them.

It took me a week to gather and assemble everything. Thanks to finding a bike with a cart I actually managed to transport a 50 kg anvil, I hope the post office won't miss its bike. In this time we evaded any of the soulless and I noticed that there were less and less of them around.

The electricity failed 2 days ago, so I had to stop my crafting and build a stove in an empty storage room. The office rooms ventilation is not good enough to support a fire, but we managed to build a simple chimney for the stove, by tearing a hole in a wall and using some clay. The others tried to make the storage room comfy in the meanwhile, the limited space in the offices was simply not enough for us. They build some beds and scavenged mattresses for them, some tables and chairs. In the end we moved to this room completely.

While I do the finishing touches to my setup, I hear a commotion from the outside, I draw my weapon and hurry outside. I don't have my armour on though, since I didn't expect any danger. With drawn blade I rush through the depot gate. What I see in our front yard surprised me greatly. It is a herd of cows, but those are the biggest cows I have ever seen. Their shoulders easily reached the height of a grown man. Among those humongous cattle were 20 people.

I slowly sheathed my sax, knowing I couldn't solve this situation with violence. I quickly checked the group of people and they all still had their souls. “Hey, we have guests!” I shout to the depot, to alarm the others. Turning to our guests I say “Greetings, did you follow our transmission?”.

“We sure did.” said an middle-aged weathered woman, “Heard you got some food to share, we also would be interested in some trading.”. “You come from the farms in the valley right? Did you come across some strange humans?” I asked. “Yeah we did. Our big ones here saved our asses back then. Never before have I seen them or those monsters move so fast.” she answered, “Why do you ask, do you know something about them?”.

“Yes a bit, they were once human, the armoured once are mostly harmless and the ones with the thorns hunt any living being, to kill them you should destroy their brain.” I said, sharing most of my knowledge about them, withholding the more unbelievable parts.

“Let me get that straight. You killed one of those bullet-absorbing bastards?” A man with a rifle over his shoulder asked. “Yes, but I prefer to use knifes or axes, bullets only slow them down if you don't hit their head. They also don't feel much pain and they regenerate really fast. I saw one survive with a knife in its heart.” I replied, “And I killed more than one.”.

“But those things are freaking fast.” he said, “There must be some trick to it, it would be great if you could show it to us.”. Thinking about it, I came to only one solution. “Get your three strongest guys here and we will spar a bit, maybe that will show them how I did it. Sadly I don't know another way to teach it.” I said.

While my guests discussed among themselves I loosened the belts holding my weapons and laid them on the ground. I did some quick stretching until three guys stepped forward. “Do you have some close combat experience?” I asked. The reply was bar fights and one ex-soldier, it was the one from earlier.

“We will start with solo sparring. Who wants to go first?” I asked.