The room was filled with prisoners. I could make out about three dozen, but I noticed something else. Some of them had a wavering to them that made them harder to make out. I think those were the ones who’d gain power in the future… And I also noticed that the police officer behind me and the prisoner who spoke also had that wavering aura around them.

  I was still learning about my aura. It wasn’t rapidly evolving, I was just not an expert on its usage. I needed to find out why I could see them, but I couldn’t see the person in the gun shop unless I mentally went into my mind space and looked around. It was possibly because the door was open, or possibly because these were enemies who knew about me, or I could check for people before, but just didn’t notice the first person. I’d have to do more testing to determine which it was, but right before a gunfight was a bad time to try new things.

  Four of the prisoners were clutching parts of their bodies, those parts were the parts that had a bone spike stuck in. One unfortunate person pulled his bone spike out and then passed out from blood loss. He’d be dead soon unless someone bound the limb and he got medical attention… This wouldn’t happen because he was the stupid fucker who shot me the moment he could instead of trying to talk. He wasn’t the one who removed the bone spike…

  Bone spikes formed again as I pushed them through the doorway before unching them at more people. It flew at a speed slower than a bullet but faster than a thrown weapon, two hundred to five hundred mph, somewhere in that range. The finger-sized spikes wouldn’t kill until they were pulled out because I wasn’t aiming for vitals. It meant that as long as they gave up and didn’t move around, they’d live; if they tried fighting back and the spike pushed itself out, they’d die.

  I didn’t want to fight. Even criminals served their purpose in the apocalypse, especially if they had a useful power. I was trying to spare them, but they were the most aggressive ones out of the group. Six became five as one panicked and fired before the gun recoiled, and he fired again, killing himself. It was hard not to ugh at how green all these criminals were.

  Some of them weren’t holding the weapons correctly, and half of them hadn’t fired a single shot. Two men had pissed themselves and most people who were injured by me were crying from fear and confusion. One finally spoke. “Please stop! We just want to leave!” I yelled back sarcastically. “Then, where are the police sent in here to stop you? You could have left already, but didn’t, why?”

  It was silent for a few seconds as the man tried to think of a lie to tell me before he tried to speak. “B-because… We *hurk*.” I hit him in his throat with a bone spike. I was done pying around. “Everyone put down your guns or I’ll kill you.” I waited a few seconds and heard a few guns fall to the ground. It wasn’t nearly enough, so another non-powered got a spike to his throat.

  I had a decade of learning from the leaders to get them to listen to me. Everything I did was to minimize the casualties on both sides. If I had to choose who lived, it would be the police, but I didn’t know where they were. If they had killed all the police, then not many were making it out of here alive… The real reason I wanted to keep them alive was that killing someone before their power activated was a waste.

  If I waited for them to gain power and then killed them, I’d get stronger zombies out of the deal. I could only control ten zombies, so that’s all I pnned to raise right now until I grew in level. I was going to be very picky with the zombies under my control until I got commanders. Zombie generals could command other zombies, which would increase the amount of zombies I could control.

  It was a snowball effect. I would be able to command twenty zombies next level. Then fifty, but my zombie general could control five. The level after that, I could have two zombie generals who could control ten, while I could control one hundred. Three zombies who could control twenty, while I could control two hundred. Four zombies controlled fifty, while I could control three hundred and fifty. For the final rank, I could have five zombie generals who could control one hundred, and I could control five hundred myself. A thousand zombies aren’t much unless every single one was hand-picked with a power.

  I heard more people drop their guns. There was only a single person who would become a powered in the future who still held a gun in his hand. I kill the two other non-powered people who are still holding a gun. “Last chance to drop that gun before you get a spike through your heart.” With him dropping the gun, I moved into the room with a few spikes floating above my head to show I was still prepared to kill.

  A man stuttered out. “W-what the fuck are you?” I smiled, which none of them could see because of my mask. “Just some guy who got lucky.” Since I revealed myself, someone thought he could quickly pick up his gun before I would notice. I was close enough to store the gun before he could reach it. I’d have killed him if he weren’t powered. “Policewoman. Come back me up. Now, I’ll ask once again. Where are the police?”

  She ran up while the prisoners looked each other in the eye, wondering if they should tell me. Until another one of them got a spike in their brain. One finally broke. “Please! Stop killing us… The police are locked in the armory downstairs.” My eyes went wide as I ran toward the opposite side of the room. The building was flooding, I don’t know how they got downstairs in the armory when the prisoners all had guns already, but if they’re stuck down there, they’ll drown to death once it fills with water.

  I stored all of their guns as I ran past, as another thought he could take me out by punching me when I was running past him. Without breaking stride, I ducked the blow and knocked him down with a single blow. He wasn’t unconscious, but his head was definitely spinning after a blow like that. Perception was the sleeper stat people forgot about.

  Strength, agility, endurance, and intellect were fairly obvious stat increases. You get stronger, you can lift more, you get faster, you can run faster, and so on. If someone gained perception, their senses would improve, not just the five normal senses but perfect control of their body through coordination, a stronger sense of hot and cold which helps them know when the weather is about to change, and even the sixth sense that warns them when something dangerous is about to happen.

  Perception specialists were known for one thing. Being cockroaches, they’re the hardest to kill outright. Even more than endurance-focused powers. It didn’t help that most perception specialists were cowards while endurance specialists were brave. It made it seem like someone had eyes in the back of their head because they kind of did.

  I kick the door leading down to the armory and see that it’s mostly flooded, only the top foot of the room is left before they all drowned to death.