Power Fantasy

by Scottie Futch

  “They’re actually pretty inspirational…” said Scott. “They’re right. Life is just like muscles. Tearing them down just lets them grow back stronger.”

  “Yep! They’re great!” Summer practically bounced in her seat. “Most of the guys who find out about Keiko’s forbidden love think she’s weird.”

  “There are worse things in the world than a pro-wrestler in a dress,” said Scott. “That was true even before the dead rose up to dry hump the living.”

  She snorted a little but could not hold back her giggle. “That’s terrible!”

  “Yeah. Sure is,” he said before he leaned back in the comfy leather chair. This thing had room to spare and looked badass on the inside too. All manner of lights and things glowed in the dark. This had to set Keiko back by at least five, maybe even six, bucks. At least.

  “They’re wearing cheerleader outfits now…” said Scott. “Interesting.”

  Scott barked out a laugh when the guy, Ladybeard, started sing-screaming about how Japan had great infrastructure and the trains ran on time. It was honestly, quite motivational.

  “Hell yeah. Pump it up. Do it, Japan,” agreed Scott.

  Summer chuckled at him, and the conversation turned to more important matters. Namely, what to do about the bus now that they had this vehicle.

  They discussed it for a few minutes, and then she made the final turn off. It was nearing dark, but with their new horde buster there was no concern. The bus was still parked where they left it and there was no sign of movement nearby.

  They pulled up to the gate that lead into the little walled off compound and saw Tosh stuck his head up. Scott opened the door and hopped out then grabbed his brush axe from the back.

  That brought a flurry of activity from inside the bus. Saiko turned on the bus’s head lights, as Summer had given her a general overview of it before she left.

  Tosh was the first out of the bus, but Otakun nearly knocked him down as he rushed past him. He hurled himself at the truck and started rubbing up against it. Soon, he was practically humping the thing. “This! What is this? Is this really? It is, isn’t it?”

  Otakun danced around the truck excitedly while he rattled off the names of military vehicles that he knew. His antics brought a laugh from Scott, and a nervous chuckle from Tosh.

  “Where the heck did you get this thing?” asked Momoko incredulously.

  “Summer has a friend,” said Scott.

  “Is her friend a third world dictator?” asked Momoko, her eyebrow arched imperiously. “There’s no way this thing is street legal.”

  Scott shrugged at her. “Not like that matters now.”

  The rest of the bus-goers crowded round and admired the truck for a moment. Scott didn’t interrupt them. He too had needed time to adjust to its awesomeness.

  “Anyway, we figured it would be good to ditch the bus now. Most of our supplies will fit in the back-end of this thing and it’s amphibious to boot,” said Scott.

  “It’s a frog?” asked Jade.

  Everyone outside the vehicle turned to look at her quietly. She shrugged at them and said, “I thought it would be funny. OK?”

  Scott smiled at her then patted the side of the truck. “We can cross the river with this. It’s got a large field range, and a mostly full gas tank.

  Several minutes passed and the sky darkened as the last shred of daylight left them. Meanwhile, they loaded the truck. They did have to leave some supplies behind, but most of the important stuff fit into the back end of their new ride. They also left the keys to the bus behind as well. If someone else found it, there was a note tapped to the doors saying that they could use it and the supplies inside.

  The trip to the apartment took a little longer than expected as the night had fully set in by that point. No videos were played along the way, as everyone was tense. The first night in the apocalypse was not a simple situation to weather, even if they were riding around in an armored truck.

  The zombies were more numerous now, but still not the massive hordes one would expect. Summer drove over a few of them, but otherwise those shambling husks were easily dealt with by driving away.

  Once they arrived at the apartment is was time for others to be wowed by the place. It was incredibly spacious for an apartment in the area, more akin to a medium sized family home.

  Scott went out and patrolled the area a little to clean out the nearby dead that were attracted to the sound of their vehicle. The bridge in the distance was brightly lit and the noise of the cars waiting in line and the mass of humanity caught the attention of most of the dead in the area, but he did not want to let those close by get the idea that they were holed up in that apartment.

  In the dark, it was hard to spot the zombies, but he felt it a necessary thing. He would have to fight them at night sometime or other and it was best to practice in the beginning. Plus, he wanted to see the difference in the energy cost for itemizing their corpses.

  He had regained several points of energy while traveling back and forth to the apartment, and the experiment proved quite useful. On average the zombies took five points now instead of ten, though costs typically wobbled between three and seven points.

  The time frame for each itemization remained the same. Sometimes it took roughly a minute for a corpse to disperse. At others it might take half that time or even twice as long. There seemed to be no specific reason for that fact. His life did seem to have a lot of random number generation attached to it since he came to this world. So, he chalked it up to it being due to some sort of RNG.

  While he wanted to continue to hunt, he had a timetable. The girls were even now engaging in their lovely episode six bath scene and would soon come out to chat and get a little tipsy. By that time, he needed to have his own shower and a fresh set of clothes. Obviously, there was a plan of action for the night and at the very least Summer was going to experience the fruits of his labor if he had any say on the matter.

  He quickly finished up his patrol and headed back to the apartment. The door was locked, which was not unusual as he’d suggested it. However, what was annoying was that no one came to open the door.

  Several minutes passed as he knocked on the door, but no one came to answer. Scott went around back and tossed his brush axe over the wall then moved back and ran forward to try and jump up to grab the top. It took a few tries, but he eventually managed to climb over.

  The back door was left unlocked because of the wall, and because he had told the others that it was locked. Luckily, no one had bothered to check. Once he got inside, he quietly moved into the living room and saw both Otakun and Tosh were looking at a selection of firearms. The front door was barely twenty feet away, so they would have heard him knocking.

  “He stopped knocking,” said Otakun. “Are you sure we had to keep him out there for this?”

  “What and let him know we can stand up to him now?” asked Tosh.

  “I don’t need to stand up to him…” said Otakun. “He’s only got a problem with you.”

  “You still left him out there,” said Tosh. “Admit it. The guy scares you.”

  “I guess, but… I don’t know. It’s not like we can leave him out there forever, and Summer is going to know about the guns her friend had…” said Otakun.

  “Just show me how to use this thing, and then we can make sure he’s working for us. He thinks he can do whatever he wants, and I know you hate that kind of guy,” said Tosh.

  “Hell of an idea,” said Scott. “You go right ahead and tell this guy how to use a gun so he can try to scare me off…”

  “Fuck!” snapped Tosh. “How did you get in! Did you break a window?”

  “Did you even pretend to think this out you idiot?” asked Scott. “What makes you think I won’t kill you the moment you point that gun at me?”

  “The fact that it’s a gun and you can die!” snapped Tosh.

  “Then I return to the past, don’t leave for the night, take all the firearms in that safe and then pretend I
don’t hear you when zombies are trying to chow down on you in the future,” said Scott coolly.

  Tosh turned his gun on him and snorted. “You think anyone even believes that garbage!”

  Scott looked at the weapon he was using, “I don’t give a damn what you believe. Little boy.”

  “Little boy?” snapped Tosh. “I’m older than you!”

  “I’m in my twenties,” said Scott casually.

  “Whatever!” cried Tosh. “You come in here and act like you’re in charge of the fucking world. Not anymore!”

  “Oh? Someone suddenly grew a pair of testicles now that he has a gun,” said Scott in a condescending tone.

  “Shut up! I don’t have to listen to your bullshit anymore!” exclaimed Tosh.

  “What’s going on in here!” called out Jade as she stomped into the room. Momoko was hot in behind her. Both wore nothing but bath towels wrapped around their glorious feminine architecture.

  “That’s a gun!” exclaimed Momoko. “Where did you get that?”

  “Why is it pointed at Scott?” asked Saiko as she came up on the scene.

  Summer was the last to arrive. Still, she was there to hear when Scott asked his next question.

  “So, what now? You’ve completely destroyed the mood, you know,” said Scott with a smile.

  “Fuck the mood,” shouted Tosh! “You’re leaving!”

  “Nah,” said Scott. “I like it here.”

  Tosh menaced him with the shotgun once more and started to breathe heavily. Scott merely smirked at him.

  “Put it down Tosh!” snapped Jade. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Me?” he asked incredulously. “What’s wrong with me?”

  Tosh pointed his shotgun around wildly. “You all eat up the shit he spews like it’s ice cream! He pulls a few magic tricks, and you believe it!”

  “He didn’t hide those corpses in his butt, and he knows a lot of stuff,” said Momoko. “We’re here because he knew to mention it to Summer.”

  “Why are you so blind!” snarled Tosh. His mouth opened and closed like a fish. Desperate for anyone to take his side, he looked around wildly. “He’s nothing! It’s a lie!”

  Momoko snapped out, “You’ve tried to drive him out from the moment he showed up. We didn’t even know what he was, and you wanted him gone.”

  “Because he’s not like us! He’s a murderer!” snarled Tosh. “He killed people!”

  Scott said nothing in that moment. He merely stared at Tosh. Nothing that was said now mattered. It was his actions that would account for something. As long as he did not fire that shotgun, everything was fine. Tensions were high, and he was a normal guy whose tenuous grasp on sanity had been eroded by the end of the world.

  “He’s helped us stay alive. Gotten supplies!” exclaimed Momoko. “Whether he’s full of shit or not, he helped all of us.”

  Scott remained calm during the conversation that ensued, rather the shouting match between Momoko and Tosh. His thoughts turned to latter episodes of the original series. It was mentioned that the situation was a lot of stress pushed onto Kohta and Takashi. Given the fact that many of those same pressures existed in this world, if things continued the way they were going, Tosh and Otakun could snap.

  Tosh was not allowed to become someone the others had to rely on. He didn’t have to challenge himself and was granted no chances to look cool in front of Jade. He was just some guy and was forced to be in the same confines as a guy who outshined him in every conceivable way at the moment. In short? He was throwing a tantrum because no one considered what he wanted to be the most important thing in the world.

  The Takashi of the original show slowly became someone who could be relied upon and was inevitably seen as the only one who could lead as he was willing to let go of his hesitation now that the world had ended. He was not the best fighter. He wasn’t a genius, and he had no medical or driving skills.

  His overall skills were decent in general, but he lacked in specialization. He was notably the weakest link in the group save for one thing. His recklessness had been rewarded with plot armor for narrative purposes, and his somewhat ruthless nature had kept the group alive. The characters saw this as leadership material.

  However, once the plot armor was lost or subsumed by a new character all that was left was a selfish, reckless, teenager with a chip on his shoulder. The result was the fact that Tosh, despite being in college, was little more than a selfish angry brat.

  Unlike how many other people might act in this situation, Scott could not help but feel something for this hateful turd. At the end of the day, he was not a bad guy. Tosh was simply unable to handle the situation and without the need to act on his own, he could not move past his selfish and hesitant nature.

  Scott sighed and finally spoke, “This is my fault.”

  Everyone stopped shouting at each other and looked at him, even Tosh. The latter started to say something, but Scott raised his hand to quiet him.

  “Look. I get it. The world ended. Everything’s gone to shit, and you think you’re going to lose the one thing keeping you sane,” said Scott.

  “You don’t know me!” snapped Tosh.

  “You’re right. I don’t,” said Scott. “You don’t even know yourself.”

  “Fuck you!” said Tosh.

  “Is this you?” pressed Scott. “Is waving a gun around and terrifying people the real Tosh?”

  Tosh glared at him but did seem to hesitate slightly. Given a chance to calm himself a little, he did realize what he must look like at the moment.

  This was the moment of truth, as far as Scott was concerned. Was Tosh a problem, or was he just a frightened and angry teenager who had lost control of his world? The two things weren’t mutually exclusive concepts, but a problem was something that needed solving.

  “Is this who you want to be?” asked Scott quietly.

  Tosh’s lips curled a little and his eyebrows pressed inward, but he did not raise the gun again. Slowly, he closed his eyes.

  Otakun slipped in and took the shotgun from Tosh’s nerveless fingers, but to the great surprise of everyone, Scott also slipped forward and put his arms around the formerly crazed teen.

  “What?” asked Tosh suddenly.

  “It’s cool,” said Scott. “Man, I’m so glad you came back from that.”

  Tosh blinked then stared off into space while the bigger man hugged him. He wanted to push him away, maybe even punch him in the mouth. Yet, somehow, he also did not want to do that at the same time.

  “We’re all going to get through this, alright?” whispered Scott.

  Tosh said nothing, but his breathing intensified. He didn’t need to hear that sort of thing from this guy. Yet, he couldn’t find the energy to push him away.

  Suddenly, his vision began to blur a little and he realized that his eyes had betrayed him. “Fuck,” said Tosh as tears began to form along the rims of his eyes.

  “This is too much for anyone alone, but you aren’t alone. Alright?” asked Scott softly.

  “It’s easy for you to say,” muttered Tosh.

  “Yeah, but it’s still true, bro,” said Scott.

  “Bro?” asked Tosh with a snort.

  “You got another amazingly cool big bro to help you out? I’d love to meet him,” said Scott with a tired smile. Shit. Teenagers, man. He did not miss those years. Of course, he was barely beyond those years himself.

  In a whisper that only Tosh could hear, Scott said, “Jade obviously cares a lot about you. Let her know how you actually feel before it’s too late.”

  Tosh drew back and nearly shoved him away, but he looked into his so-called ‘bro’s’ eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. It was then that the waterworks came full force. Tosh, the surly teen who had been under an ungodly amount of stress all day finally broke down in front of everyone.

  No one laughed, or jeered at him, though some had the decency to look away. Scott? He continued to man-hug his new bro for as long as it took for him to deal with h
is bro-emotions or whatever.

  The truth was this was not a scene just for Tosh’s mental benefit. It was also salvation for Scott’s soul. He realized early on that he did not want to become some sort of ruthless apocalypse dictator. Hell, he did not even want to stay on this world other than to take the chances needed to help it come back from the precipice of extinction.

  He could have killed Tosh. It would have been easy. What he wanted was to be able to sleep at night knowing he’d done everything he could not to become that guy. He already had plans to become a sketchy harem seeking pervert. He didn’t want to add ruthless cunt into that mix.

  Eventually, Scott pulled back and Tosh nodded. It was obvious that Scott had said something to him that he agreed with in that moment.

  Scott happened to look over at Otakun. The team fatty was staring at him with a hopeful expression. Scott sighed, and opened one of his wings. Rather, he lifted an arm and said, “Come on bro, get in on this.”

  Otakun rushed forward and joined the bro hug. The girls in the background giggled at their antics and made silly comments.

  “This is a moment between bros,” said Scott imperiously. “You could never understand!”

  “Right,” said Momoko sarcastically. Though, her cheeks were slightly pink. It was possible she had entertained certain thoughts.

  “Look. Either of you guys need to talk, I’m obviously around,” whispered Scott. “We need to look after these girls, because face it. They’re almost stupidly hot and not everyone is as cool as we are.”

  “Yeah… I was actually worrying about that a lot, with the way the zombies act,” said Tosh in a whisper.

  “Not just that, though it is a serious problem,” agreed Scott.

  Otakun nodded. “Yeah, people are already going nuts. You saw how Shido was acting, and that poor guy at the convenience store who was staring at nothing.”

  “Right,” agreed Tosh. He drew away from the bro-huddle a little. It was obvious that he still was not one hundred percent on board with all this bro-ness, but he did not force his way out of the bro-huddle, either.

  “So, you’re still going after all of the girls… or…” said Otakun.