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Yeoman was greeted by dozens of delicious scents. Each of them smelled unique, but they all smelled like bacon. Yeoman shut off his breathing and looked around. The first thing he noticed was the pair of white wings jutting out of Cody’s back. The second thing he noticed was the vulture standing on top of Ella’s head. The third thing he noticed was everyone else’s grim expressions.
“Yeoman!” Cody said, his eyes widening. “You got wings too? What the hell! I was sure I got ahead of you this time.” He paused. “Uh, just wondering, but what happened to you? You absorbed the zombie gene, didn’t you?”
Yeoman nodded. “I was going to die, so I used the gene to live.” He sighed even though he didn’t have much air inside his chest. “What happened to you guys after the bear scattered us?”
“Before that,” Gordan said, raising one hand. He turned around, making eye contact with the people who hadn’t reached the second stage. “Where did you guys go?”
They glanced at each other, and one of them cleared his throat. “We went back to A Rational Zombie. We were given the same missions as last time,” he said. “You guys went somewhere else, right? That’s probably where we’ll go next.”
Yeoman stroked his chin. It seemed like the aliens were pretty nice. Instead of forcing people into more and more difficult situations, the aliens gave them the appropriate strength first. Only people with more than one thousand points, optimized bodies, were allowed to move on to The Godking’s Legacy. What was the cutoff for the second stage? How hard was the third stage going to be? Luckily for the aliens, The Godking’s Legacy was a progression fantasy where the main character kept growing stronger and stronger, forced to higher and higher power levels. They could milk it forever for growth. However, Yeoman didn’t think that was likely. It’d be too predictable.
“We went to The Godking’s Legacy,” Gordan said and sighed. “I’ll write a report on the details later and send it to you guys, but I’m guessing someone else will make a post on the front page of the internet within a few days, maybe even hours.” He turned back around, staring at Yeoman. “You were supposed to protect us.”
Yeoman shook his head. “There was nothing I could’ve done,” he said. “You saw the bear yourself.”
Gordan sighed again. “Yeah. I had a very detailed look at its teeth and tongue.”
“You were eaten?” Yeoman asked.
Gordan nodded. “It seems like you, Cody, and Ella had a good time,” he said before looking at the three martial arts instructors. “What about you? What happened to you three?”
“A tree ate me,” John said.
Sylvia snorted. “It was a crocodile. I know because I saw you get eaten. One of its buddies ate me next.”
Takeo crossed his arms over his chest. “I killed a shadow panther, but it disemboweled me in the process.”
Gordan nodded and gestured towards the seven people who had been there with them. “And you guys?”
One of them made a face. “We were eaten by a pack of wolves. Except for Joe.”
Joe nodded. “I think the smell on my clothes dissuaded them from eating me,” he said. “But then I encountered a group of mercenaries, and they killed me on sight.”
Cody snickered. “I had a great time,” he said, drawing everyone’s attention onto him. “The shadow panthers and wolves ignored me because of the scent on my clothes. I shot down hundreds of scavenger crows and got enough gene portions to unlock these wings. The only problem was water, but I survived by drinking the scavenger crows’ blood. I kept their bodies in a bag, and when they rotted, I smeared them on myself to keep the stench going.”
Ella nodded. “I had a similar experience,” she said. “The smell on my clothes were very useful at deterring the animals. After I escaped further north, I encountered a mercenary group, and they took me in.”
“How come I couldn’t meet a group like that?” Joe muttered.
Ella glanced at him. “I’m a frail old lady,” she said, causing everyone’s face to darken. They were outdone by a frail old lady, as she put it. “I cooked their meal for them, and they escorted me out of the forest. I entered a village and found a spirit seed while I was there.” She pointed at the vulture on her head. “This came out of it.”
The vulture squawked and raised its wings. “Hello!” It turned its head towards Yeoman and tilted it. “Dinner?”
Yeoman took in a deep breath, resisting the urge to throttle the bird. “How did you bring it back to earth?” Yeoman checked his left hand. None of his accessories were there. He was wearing the clothes from before he was abducted, but his shirt was torn, giving his wings space.
Ella cackled. “I was a little reckless when I was younger, and I injured my skull while hopping onto moving trains.” She tapped her forehead. “There’s a metal plate in here. As it turns out, you can plant a spirit seed anywhere. Since the plate followed me in and out, I figured the spirit would too.”
“Genius,” the vulture said, bobbing its head up and down. “My owner’s a genius.” It squawked. Then it looked at Yeoman again. “Food?”
Yeoman’s hands clenched and unclenched. Why did Ella’s spirit have to be a vulture? He shook his head. “I suppose it’s my turn to share?” he asked and looked around. Everyone was staring at him as if he had something on his face—which, he did: fat, green lines. “I was also covered in infected juices, so the animals left me alone. I got really lucky and managed to run into Lucia and Snow. Snow tried to poison Lucia, but I stopped him, so he played a mean trick, causing Lucia to cut my tongue out.” He cleared his throat, moving his tongue around, making sure it was still there. “Afterwards, I stayed with Lucia as she killed things. I slept for fifteen minutes a day, spent even less time than that on eating, and dug through I don’t know how many animal brains. Then, Snow stabbed my lung while I was running from a bear, and I was forced to use the zombie gene I obtained in the first stage.”
Cody was the first to speak once Yeoman was done. “And how many of the quests did you clear?”
“All of them.”
“Goddammit.” Cody groaned. “Let me guess; the Proofs of Murder were obtained by you too.”
“No,” Yeoman said, lying through his teeth. He wasn’t going to admit it, ever. Wasn’t that just asking to be arrested? Would time spent in the aliens’ spaceship count as time served in prison? Yeoman wasn’t sure. Speaking of the time, how much did he have before the next stage? He checked his fleshwatch.
[Stage 3 will begin in 719:53:42]
Seven hundred twenty hours, that was thirty days. Last time, they were only given two weeks. Did that mean the next stage was going to last thirty days as well? Yeoman lowered his arm and glanced around. There were many things he had to do. He had to research, find special abilities of animals. There was a jellyfish that didn’t die of old age. Was it possible for him to learn the same trick? Perhaps he could obtain some genes with regeneration. If his limb was completely lost, instead of reattaching it, he could just grow a new one. Regeneration wasn’t too important considering he had turned into a zombie. Before he had entered the second stage, he had considered getting gills, but once again, the zombie bit took care of his breathing problems. Now that he thought about it, the zombie gene brought about tremendous benefits with very few downsides: one of which was the urge to eat people. Knowing the internet, there’d be a list of animals with special traits out there soon enough, but as Yeoman’s mother always told him, if he wanted something done right, he had to do it himself.
“How strong are you now?” Ella asked, gazing at Yeoman. She walked over and pinched his arm, but it was as effective as pinching a rock.
Yeoman furrowed his brow. The punching bag that Takeo had brought was in the corner of the warehouse. “Let’s see,” Yeoman said and sauntered over. It felt a bit strange walking with wings, but he quickly got used to the feeling of feathers brushing against him. It just felt like strands of cold hair touching his legs.
The punching bag was a heavy one, suspended on a metal frame by two chains. When Yeoman had practiced his kicks and punches on it before, the bag swayed pretty fiercely, but Takeo made sure it was sturdy enough to withstand his gorilla and chimpanzee muscles. A crowd gathered around Yeoman, watching him as he positioned himself in front of the bag. Yeoman clenched and unclenched his hands. He forgot to ask the aliens to demonstrate how strong he was after adding bear muscles, but he didn’t need an exact number. Right now, he felt like he could move a mountain. Yeoman shifted his left leg forward and punched with his right hand while letting out a shout. The form was perfect, exactly as Takeo had taught him.
An explosion went off. The punching bag swung backwards. The chains tugged on it, and the bag went up and around the frame. The metal groaned but held as the punching bag swung back and forth, jittering as it did. Yeoman frowned. Was that it? He was expecting something much more impactful.
“How heavy is that bag?” Gordan whispered to Takeo.
“About five hundred pounds,” Takeo said. “I added weights to the bottom so it wouldn’t move as much.”
“If he punched us, would we die?”
Takeo chuckled. “If he hit a non-vital spot like your foot, you’d be fine.”
Yeoman heard every word spoken between the two men. The scavenger crow ears were useful. The warehouse was sealed, but he could hear sounds coming from outside. He closed his eyes, all four of them, to focus on his hearing. There were constant, dull thudding sounds coming from everywhere, and it took Yeoman a while to realize he was hearing people’s heartbeats. Yeoman opened his crow eyes, leaving his human eyes closed. His peripheral vision had widened greatly. There was only a ninety-degree angle behind his back that he couldn’t see. Yeoman seriously considered adding a third eye to the back of his head, but he’d have to wait until the third stage was over to do that.
“Yeoman,” Cody said. “Let’s leave these landlubbers behind and go for a stroll in the sky. I bet you’ve been dying to test out your wings; I know I have.”
Yeoman looked around. It wasn’t hard to see the jealousy in everyone’s faces. However, Yeoman didn’t care if they were jealous. He really wanted to try out his new wings. Being stuck in the warehouse was like being given a racecar but told he could only drive in school zones where the speed limit was abysmally low. “Let’s go.”
Ella was the first to follow Cody and Yeoman. Everyone else came shortly after as well. They might’ve been jealous, but they definitely wanted to see humans fly. They even took out their smartphones and recorded the event. Cody and Yeoman looked at each other, and Cody nodded. His wings spread open, and he jumped while flapping them. It was like watching someone struggling to swim to the bottom of a pool, each movement of Cody’s wings dragging him a little higher into the air.
Yeoman didn’t watch for long. He bent down, aiming to jump as high as possible before spreading his wings. His muscles rippled, and the green lines on his body squirmed. With a whooshing sound, Yeoman shot into the air, higher than Cody had flew. Yeoman’s wings spread open, and he found they were even larger than he had seen on the hologram. The aliens must’ve considered the additional weight gained by the genus Ursus and Pongo muscles and compensated for them by making his wings bigger. His wings flapped, and he surged even higher into the air, shooting up by tens of feet. The gust from his wings pushed against Cody, causing him to stumble in the air.
It felt amazing. Yeoman could only feel temperature with his physical body, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel excited. The wind whipped against his face, and the sun shone on his back. He was a zombie, but he, in all his life, had never felt more alive than at that moment. With his wings, he could go anywhere. Yeoman flew higher and higher until the warehouse looked more like a toy than a building. The streets were small lines, the cars like ants. However, when he took a look at them with his crow eyes, he could read the license plates of the cars below. He couldn’t hear them, but he did hear a flapping sound.
“Damn,” Cody said from below. “I should’ve made these wings bigger instead of changing their color.” He finally ascended to Yeoman’s height, flapping his wings to remain in place. “The view’s great from up here, huh?”
“How well can you see?” Yeoman asked, not taking his gaze off the ground.
Cody tilted his head. “I gave myself crow eyes.” He pointed at his neck. There was an eye resting in the pit of his jugular notch. On the back of his neck, there was another eye. “I can see pretty well.” He scowled as he observed Yeoman. “Am I the main character, or are you?”
Yeoman let out a small smile. “I just got lucky. If I hadn’t encountered Lucia, I would’ve died. You survived on your own. I think it’s clear who’s better.”
Cody nodded. “That’s true.” He glanced down. “At least we’re both better than them.”
Poke, poke.
Yeoman flinched and jerked to the side, flapping his wings. A vulture had nudged his leg.
“Ella says to come down,” the vulture said, squawking twice. “Come down, come down.”
Cody stroked his chin. “Ella’s not bad either, I suppose.”
Yeoman nodded. The old lady was definitely not one to be underestimated.