Battle Across The Omniverse

Jayr POV - Earth, Georgia, King County - 2010

After the relaxing shower, we are back in the Locker Room of the Police Station with towels wrapped around our waist as we are about to dress. 

Duane just finished drying his hair when Rick, who is sitting on a bench, calls him out, "Duane…" before he hands Duane some clothes so he can change and says, "Dress in the room back there."

Duane takes the clothes and starts to walk, but Morgan stops and reminds him, "What you say, Duane?" making Duane realize what he forgot and say, "Thank you." before he leaves the locker room. 

Once we are alone, Rick breaks out the awkard silence by saying, "Atlanta sounds like a good deal. Safer anyway. People…" making Morgan nod before he explains, "That's where we were heading. Things got crazy. Man, you won't believe it. The panic… Streets won't fit to be on, and then we'll… My wife… couldn't travel. No, not with our herd, so we had to find a place to lay low. And then, after she died… We just stayed hunkered down. I guess we just froze in place." 

Hearing that, Rick asks, "Plan to move on?" making Morgan stay in silence for a little bit before he says, "Haven't worked up to it yet."

After that, we all quietly dress before Rick leads us to the Gun Room of the Police Station where he opens the chained door, takes a quick look, and comments while he grabs and checks some weapons, "A lot of it's gone missing." 

As Rick is checking a rifle, that if I'm not wrong it is a Remington 700 with a scope on the end, Morgan and Duane walk after him and the kid asks, "Dad, can I learn to shoot? I'm old enough." 

In response to his question, Morgan answers, "Hell yes you're going to learn. We gotta do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon." followed by Rick who says, "That's right. It's not a toy. You pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that, Duane." 

Duane nods and replies decisively, "Yes, sir." before Morgan puts a bag on top of a chest of drawers full of ammos and says to Duane, "Here. Fill this." 

Shortly after that, Rick hands Morgan the Remington 700 with a scope on the end and says, "Take that one. Nothing fancy. Scope's accurate."

Morgan takes the Remington and tests the scope, meanwhile, Rick starts to grab a few more weapons then he looks at me as I'm still standing outside the Gun Room and asks, "You can take what you need..." 

I nod, walk inside, and take a look around at what weapons are left and then I notice a Smith & Wesson Model 686, then without any hesitation I grab it and start to check its state.

After that, I grab a few boxes of ammo making Rick comment, "Oh! I see another one that prefers a Revolver over the more common semi-automatics."

I nod and say, "Yeah even if they are being phased out, they have some advantages over semi-automatic guns. For example, the ability to tolerate neglect, larger round size, are harder for an opponent to disarm or to make malfunction, they have the ability to take reloaded ammunition, you can shoot again after a malfunction, and subjectively, revolvers have better handles. But, of course, the main reason is that they are cooler."

Hearing that, Rick nods before he comments, "That's right, I've been trying to make Shane see reason for years, but no matter what I say, he still prefers semi-automatic guns..." 

After taking the Smith & Wesson Model 686, a couple of boxes of ammo, and a leftover concealed carry holster I walk out and say, "I'm good with only this. Firearms aren't that good in this kind of situation especially when a gunshot can draw more walkers than it can kill. The only true use for guns and the like at this point is as a threat against hostile survivors. Take this advice. If you want to deal with a few walkers it is better to use a close-combat weapon like a knife, a machete, an axe, a staff, or so on. Or more silent long-range weapons like crossbows, bows, throwing knives, javelins..."

At this point, Morgan stops me with a chuckle, and then he says, "Heh... Javelins? Are you serious?" 

In response, I nod and calmly explain, "I'm not kidding. Sure their effective range leaves much to desire as bows are much more effective, but still, javelins are more than lethal enough. Moreover, they are quite easy to make, you just need some wood and a sharp point. And in case the walker gets too close you can even use it as a close-range weapon. It is a good choice in a situation where you can't afford to waste ammo on walkers."

After my explanation, we continued to chat until they had taken everything they needed from the Gun Room. 

We finally get out of the police station and reach a police car as Rick warns us, "Conserve your ammo. Goes faster than you think. Especially at target practice." 

At this point, Morgan calls his son, "Duane." making Duane respond, "Yeah?" 

Morgan hands him the bag full of ammo and says, "Take this to the car." 

Once he is far enough, Rick looks at us and asks, "You sure you won't come along?" making Morgan reply, "A few more days… By the end, Duane will know how to shoot and I won't be so rusty."

I also shake my head and give him my excuse, "I want to find a few useful things in the area before I follow after you. After all the walker activity here is much more managable than a few areas I've been..." while thinking, 'Not that I need anything as I can easily bring it out anyhing I need from my Soulbound Territory... but I want to help Morgan and Duane with their issue and maybe convince them in coming with me.'

Hearing our response, Rick nods before he opens the police car and takes out two small objects from it, he gives one to Morgan and with a quick look, I see that it is a walkie-talkie. 

At the same time, Rick says, "These are going to be useful. We can keep in contact if something happens. I'll turn mine on for a few minutes every day at dawn. You get up there, that's how you find me."

At this point, Morgan can't stop himself from asking, "You think they're here?" making Rick declare, "Can't afford to. Not anymore." 

Seeing that it is time, Morgan warns Rick one last time, "Look, just one thing. They may not seem like much one at a time… but in a group all round up and hungry…" 

At this point, Morgan offers his hand saying, "May you watch your ass." Rick holds Morgan's hand and replies, "You too." making Morgan comment, "You a good man, Rick. I hope you'll find your wife and son." 

Rick smiles weakly before he turns to Duane and says, "Be seeing you, Duane. Take care of your old man." making the young boy respond, "Yes, sir." 

After that, Rick looks at me and says, "Thanks for patching me up, doc. I hope I'll see you soon back in Atlanta, especially if you can actually find a cure to whatever this thing is." before he offers his hand.

I smile, hold, and shake his hand before I say, "Hopefully, I'll be able to follow after you with a couple of friends. Good luck, Rick. I wish you the best."

Rick seems to immediately understand what I mean as his gaze moves back to Morgan and Duane who are now staring at something in the distance.

We turn our heads to look at what they are starting and notice a walker wearing the same sheriff outfit as Rick leaning against the metal fence trying to push it down with its body weight. 

Seeing the walker, Rick comments, "Leon Basset? Didn't think much of him. Careless and dumb, but… can't leave him like this."

Hearing that, a wary Morgan comments, "You know they'll hear the shot." 

In response, Rick replies, "Let's not be here when they'll show up." before he starts to approach Leon. 

Seeing that, Morgan starts to move toward the car as he calls out, "Let's go, son. Come on. Doc too. Hurry, hurry." 

As we run to Morgan's car, Rick pulls out his Colt Python and shoots the walker in the head, killing him before he rushes back to the police car and starts to drive away. 

Just like that, we separate from Rick and we head back to Morgan and Duane's house.

Once back there we they start working to secure the house once more and I also help them with gathering the resources they need to secure their home.

After helping them, I make use of the free time to make a Bo Staff using some wood I "found" while searching around for something to nail the door shut, and with that, I mean a remaining piece of Nymph Wood that I created some time ago to rebuild Athena's Bidoof into Athena's God Bidoof and that I pulled out from my Soulbound Territory.

Making the Bo Staff was quite easy, at least for me as I simply had to shave off and chisel the piece of wood with my tools, which is a lot easier than shaping and repairing the Cloths.

First I make sure that the Bo Staff is of the right height as it must be around one fist taller than me, in this case, around 2,10 meters.

After doing that, I start to quickly work on the piece of wood to give it the traditional octagonal shape making sure that it is perfectly smooth, and then I lightly torch it with some fire, not enough to burn the wood, but at least enough so that the natural grain of the wood is enhanced giving it that beautiful deep color.

Shortly after I finish my Bo Staff, Morgan nails the door shut, smiles at his son, and says, "Read your comic books a while. Daddy'll be upstairs." before he starts to walk up the stairs with a blank expression on his face and seeing that, I let out a sigh before I pick up my Bo Staff and follow after Morgan.

Morgan enters a room on the upper floor and sits on a chair before he pulls out his photo albums and looks at several pictures of his wife, smiling with tears in his eyes as all the happy moments he shared with her come to his mind. 

Then after spending a few minutes staring at the pictures like that, he picks one of them and hangs it on the wall next to an open window before he takes the Remington 700 that Rick handed him and positions the chair in front of the window to use it to keep the rifle steady so that he can take an accurate shoot.

But just before he can do anything, I walk into the room, put a hand on his shoulder, and say, "You don't have to do that..." which makes Morgan turn his head and stare at me with almost teary eyes as he mutters, "I... I have to... she is my wife... I can't..."

I interrupt him and say, "She isn't only your wife. She is the love of your life. The mother of your son. Look. Your hand is already shaking only at the thought of what you are about to do. It is clear that even if your brain tells you that it is the right thing to do for not only her but also so that you and your kid can find some form of closure, your heart... your heart can't stand the idea of harming what it is left of her."

Hearing that, Morgan opens his mouth to say something but no words come out as he can't find anything to say in response to what I just said.

Seeing that, I smile kindly, lift the hand from his shoulder, open the window, and then I calmly say, "Don't worry about it, Morgan. Just stay here and protect your son. I'll shoulder that burden in your place..."

Shortly after I said that, I got out of the room through the window setting my feet on the roof and then, I calmly jumped down from the two-story house safely landing on the ground while a shocked Morgan tried to stop me by shouting, "W-Wait, doc!"

I ignore Morgan and start to walk toward a nearby roaming walker while sighing and muttering in a low tone, "Haa... maybe I should have climbed down instead of simply jumping... sometimes I have to remind myself that normal humans aren't that used to such feats..." while thinking, 'Well, this isn't that much of an extraordinary feat... trained people can fall from such a height and safely land without much issue if they know how to land too. In fact, they can safely land even from higher heights if they diffuse the impact with a roll like many parkour athletes could do in my previous life... It is just that seeing such a thing is still impressive for anyone who doesn't know it.' 

But while thinking that, I also realize that I don't actually care too much that the people living in this world find out what I'm truly capable of but even then it doesn't mean that I want to reveal it, at least not until I know more about the other Champion who arrived in this universe, so I continue to walk with a light heart.

As I approach the roaming walker, I take a quick look around and notice that there are only a few walkers roaming in the immediate surroundings, to be precise, there are only 5 and none of them is Morgan's wife. 

Seeing that, I realize, 'It seems that I have to attract a few more walkers here... maybe I should have let Morgan fire off a couple of shots before stopping him... Oh well, it seems that it is time to rely on my lugs.'

Coming to that conclusion, I start to hum the intro of a certain heavy metal song that seems quite fitting with what I'm about to do before I start to sing in a whisper-like voice, "♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the...♪" 

At this point, I'm pretty close to the walker that is now stumbling toward me and without any hesitaiton, I swing the Bo Staff in my hand hitting the walker's head with such force that it basically becomes paste.

At the same time, as the now headless walker's body falls to the ground, I roar out at the top of my lungs, "♪FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!♪"

I watch as the nearby walkers focus on me and start to stumble in my direction as fast as their decaying bodies allow them and seeing this, I'm pretty sure that my earlier roar attracted all the walkers in a few kilometers range at the very least.

Shortly after that, I start to run toward the nearest walker and quickly take care of it with a single precise swing to its head that once again cushes the head into an unrecognizable mess as I continue to sing, "♪Beaten... why for?" 

Before the body of the walker can fully fall on the ground I use the momentum of the swing to spin my body and throw a kick light enough to push the walker's body back by a few meters and push down another walker behind it as I sing the next verse, "♪Can't take much more.♪"

I sing the lyrics, "♪Here we go... Here we go... Here we go. Now.♪" as I rush toward the downed walker and finish it off by crushing its head under my foot.

At this point, I wait for more walkers to approach as I calmly sing the pre-chorus, "♪One - Nothing wrong with me. Two - Nothing wrong with me. Three - Nothing wrong with me. Four - Nothing wrong with me.♪ One - Something's got to give. Two - Something's got to give. Three - Something's got to give. Noooooooow!!♪"

As I'm surrounded by dozens of walkers with many more approaching, none of which is Morgan's wife.

I sing the chorus as I swing, and twirl the Bo Staff around finishing off all the walkers surrounding me, "♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the... flooooooor! 

While the bodies of the walkers in my immediate surroundings fall on the ground, I slam the Bo Staff on the ground and use it as a pole to vault over them toward the next wave of walkers.

I kick the nearest walker down, land on the ground, thrust the Bo Staff into another walker's head, and continue to loudly sing the chorus without the need to catch my breath"♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the... flooooooooooor!♪"

Suddenly, I notice the figure of Morgan's wife as it stumbles toward me. 

She is an African American woman in her mid-30s with messy black hair and empty black eyes, dessed in a simple dirty white nightwear that shows the bite mark on the upper part of her chest very close to the neck.

Seeing that, I continue to sing, "♪Push, me again. This is the end. Here we go... Here we go... Here we go. Now.♪" while thinking, 'Here she is... now I have to be careful and take her out without damaging what remains of her body too much. After all, Morgan and Duane have to say goodbye to her properly.'

While thinking that, I calmly turn around and swing the Bo Staff low, tripping four walkers who were approaching me from behind before I qucikly finish them off by slamming the Bo Staff on their heads as I sing again the pre-chorus, "♪One - Nothing wrong with me. Two - Nothing wrong with me. Three - Nothing wrong with me. Four - Nothing wrong with me♪."

Shortly after that, I use my senses to check my surroundings and notice that there are around 50 walkers who are attracted by my singing and the sound produced by my fight and that are now quickly encircling me.

Shortly after noticing that, I immediately come to the decision to focus on them first before dealing with Morgan's wife.

Morgan POV - Earth, Georgia, King County - 2010

"My god..."

I can't help but watch in awe as the young man I met yesterday is destorying an overwhelming number of those things armed only with a simple wooden staff he made right in front of my eyes.

At first, when he jumped down and started to slowly walk toward one of those walkers, I was ready to immediately use the rifle Rick gave me to help him but I restrained myself as the shoot could easily attract more of those things which could endanger his life.

That is something that is much more valuable than my desire to give Jenny a proper rest, even more so if what he said about himself is actually true and he can actually back up his claims.

The reason for that is that the young man named Jayr Pucci said that he is some kind of genius doctor who was even able to find a cure for cancer just before the world went to hell and is now heading toward the CDC to see if he can use the equipment there to find a cure for whatever is causing all this.

The young man for sure has enough medical knowledge to pass as a doctor, after all, the way he patched up and took care of Rick was surely professional, I can easily recognize that in my former job as a mechanic, I and my colleagues had our fair share of accidents and were forced to visit hospital many times before.

After all, mechanics work in a hazardous environment, every day, we risk injury from falling, being struck by objects falling on us, touching engine parts that burn us, or other damages commonly resulting from working around power tools, equipment, and machinery.

I have seen my fair share of medical personnel and the way doc worked and moved around reminded me of them, which in turn makes what he claimed likely true.

But while my mind momentarely wanders back to that topic, the singing voice of Doc as calmly fights what are more than twenty walkers snaps me back to reality, and finally notice the presence of Jenny among the walkers surrounding the doc.

I could only watch in disbelief as Doc ignored Jenny and focused on the surrounding walkers as twirled around that wooden staff and crushed the heads of all the walkers around him with deadly precise blows while singing that heavy metal song that came up a year after Duane birth, "♪One - Something's got to give. Two - Something's got to give. Three - Something's got to give. Noooooow!♪"

I remember the song quite well as it was quite popular but it was briefly taken off radio stations due to September 11 attacks due to the nature of the lyrics, the reason for that is though the song is lyrically about moshing, it was also meant to be vague in order for the viewer to have their own interpretation, just like this very moment as the lyrics seem to be quite fitting to what is currentily happening in front of my eyes as scores of walkers continue to drop on the ground under Doc's fierce assault.

"♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the... floooooooor! Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor.♪"

Seeing that Doc is able to deal with such a large number of walkers alone, I can't help but remember what he said yesterday during dinner when he told us that walkers aren't a danger to him as he was trained by his grandfather who was in some kind of special force and think, 'He isn't even breaking a sweat...Damn...! That guy for sure wasn't a normal doctor and not only because he allegedly found a cure for freaking cancer. No, that guy is way too strong of a fighter to be simply that. Maybe he was some kind of super spy or secret service who got stuck in this mess like us all... Oh well, at the very least he doesn't seem like a bad guy that wants to harm us as seeing how strong he is I'm pretty sure he could have done that already if that was his intention.'

While I'm thinking that, I notice that now there are more than 50 bodies lying on the ground all around Doc, the only one standing is Jenny who is still slowly stumbling toward Jayr as he looks at her with a bloody staff in his hand and sings in a lower, somber tone, "♪Skin against skin, blood, and bone. You're all by yourself, but you're not alone. You wanted in, and now you're here. Driven by hate, consumed by fear.♪"

"Dad! No!!"

I suddenly hear Duane's voice behind me and I quickly turn my head and see him standing behind me with his eyes wide open as he stares at what is happening outside with tears in his eyes.

Seeing that, I move on instict and run up to him, hugging him and covering his sight with my body shouting, "Don't look, son!"

At this point, Duane starts to cry as he continues to slowly repeat, "Please, don't let anything happen to her... Please, don't let anything happen to her... Please, don't let anything happen to her..."

Hearing that, I feel my heart wrench in pain but I hold on knowing that in the end this is indeed for the best, not only for me and Duane but also for Jenny as her body shouldn't continue to be in that state.

At the same time, I hear Doc's voice as he continues to sing, but this time in a more grave tone, and almost like a loud whisper, "♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor! One - Nothing wrong with me. Two - Nothing wrong with me. Three - Nothing wrong with me. Four - Nothing wrong with me."

Still holding the crying Duane close to my body blocking his sight, I turn around and once again watch out of the window as Jayr slowly walks toward Jenny with a serious expression on his face as he still sings in the same tone as before, "♪One - Something's got to give. Two - Something's got to give. Three - Something's got to give. Now!"

At exactly the same time he sang "now", Jenny suddenly lunges toward him and I winch a little expecting him swing his wooden staff just like he did before and crushe her head in a single blow, but he doesn't do it, instead, Jayr side steps and easily dodge Jenny's lunge before he lightly taps the back of Jenny's head with the staff.

The next moment, Jenny starts to falls on the ground like a puppet whose strings got cut, but Jayr quickly pick her now still body up and starts to walk back toward the house while somberly singing the last verses of the song, "♪Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor! Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor. Let the bodies hit the floor.♪"