A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

A large zombie growled as its underlings cowered under its gaze, it was feeling pangs of intense hunger but alas it had yet to find any leaving creature to feast on.

As such it was eyeing its subordinates trying to discern its next meal, and it may not have as much brain function but it knew one thing that it needed to feat on either living or one of its underlings because it felt good.

It was soon distracted from its thought when the ground below him rumbled and a large noise drew its attention, it then turned towards the source with its jaws open wide only to be slammed by a very fast-moving few thousand tons of vehicle hard, which tore through the horde like a hot knife through butter.

Meanwhile, inside the road train a very happy Ryan sat while humming a happy tune, he was happy to the point even a blind man can see the happiness dripping out of him and the reason for his happiness was because he was finally able to sit behind the steering wheel of one Alpha Raven 2.0, but at the same time, he was put off by two separate incidents.

A while after he had finished celebrating his freedom from the dreadful curse, the reality of the situation slammed against him, during the altercation he had lost the Goliath.

The very goliath that which had saved his life many times, the very Goliath that he had recreated into a mean machine was gone not to mention he had forgotten to salvage whatever part that still remained functional.

'What a waste if only I was a bit wiser I would have remembered to salvage the Goliath, but oh well I hope in the future I could make something better than the Goliath in the future.'

Michalina meanwhile stood just behind Ryan with her hands gripping onto his chair as if her life depending upon it, she could hear him humming a tune he could recognize, normally she would be against Ryan driving the road train, but seeing him go through the turmoil of emotions against his better judgment she had allowed him to drive and was now paying the price.

Ylerias stood nearby she was extremely giddy seeing the large smile on her face, she loved the way Ryan drove the road train, and if it were not for the fact that it was very difficult to stand up on top without falling overboard she would have loved to do so and feel the wind rushing past her, but her current position was not bad not to mention she liked the tune Ryan was humming.

"Hey, Ryan may I ask you what is this song you are humming about?"

Ryan gained a large smile as he replied back to Ylerias, "Ah this is the song from one of my favourite bands, I like their songs very much."

"I like the tune you were humming can you sing it for me."

Ryan let out a nervous chuckle as he spoke, "I am sorry but humming the tune is the best I can do as the band sings in a foreign language that I do not know of."

Ylerias gave an incredulous look as she spoke, "What do you mean don't you all speak the same language?"

Ryan snorted as he spoke, "Of course not there are over thousands of language around the world though most of them speak English."

Ylerias tilted her head as she spoke, "Really that is amazing to know that there is so much diversity in your people, and even though you may not know the language the song seems to be beautiful."

Ryan beamed at her as he spoke, "It really is an awesome song, and I wish I could have arranged for you to listen to their singing it is so nice even though I do not understand what they are singing."

"Ylerias, do you know what the best part of music is?"

Ylerias tilted her head slightly as she spoke in a curious voice, "What is it Ryan?"

A large smile blossomed on Ryan's face as he spoke, "The best part is that irrespective of gender, caste, race or creed music can link us all together, there is no man or nation strong enough to prevent it, and it makes even better that you do not need to know any language to enjoy it, a true Universal Language."

Meanwhile back with Marcel and his family, their latest chat had been draining especially since it derailed badly when Isabella had pointed out that Ryan now had a tattoo, which was soon jumped on by Beth who tried to give him a stern talking a notion that was not appreciated by Ryan nor was it by the woman who was sitting on his left side, and they are still feeling the effects of it as Marcel clung to his seat while Catherine screamed seeing the head of a zombie flying past the window its eyes roaming and its teeth chattering.

Marcel looked towards Catherine as he spoke in a calming voice, "Catherine, Catherine look at me there is nothing to fear, okay, we are safe inside and the zombies cannot reach us, so there is nothing to fear."

Eleanora held her daughter comforting her before she looked at her husband as she spoke with fear laced in her voice, "Who the hell drives like this? Never have I experienced such reckless driving before?"

Marcel gritted his teeth as Beth spoke out loud, "Next time I see him…"

"You will do nothing."

Beth could not help but gain a shocked look on her face as Marcel spoke with a heat in his voice, she was about to retort but was silenced by Marcel's glare.

"You will not mother, Ryan did not have any tattoo yesterday yet now he suddenly sported one that means that something must have happened and instead of trying to learn the reason you had suddenly began to scold him, not to mention you forgot how good your relationship was with him."

Marcel let out a frustrated sigh as he spoke, "Mother I can understand that Isabella was a bit shocked but there is no excuse for the way you acted, you already know how volatile our relationship is with us and your actions now angered him greatly, it feels that we had taken a great leap back after taking a step forward."

Beth's nostrils flared as she spoke, "Like you were making any progress, and I detest the amount of grovelling you were doing, no parent should act like that in front of their child."

Marcel growled loudly at her words while Eleanora silently pulled her daughter closer to her side as Marcel spoke, "When have I been a parent to him, and I ashamed to say in the last fifteen years I have never been one, and to tell you the truth I do not think I will ever have the relation of father and son with him, just as my father had one with me, and to my eternal shame and regret I know I will never have it."

As he spoke his eyes became red with tears Eleanora spoke with a gasp, "Dear, what blasphemous things are you talking about, did you not say that we will have our family back."

Marcel sighed as he ran his hand through his hair as he spoke, "Please calm down and think about it Eleanora, think about it by putting yourself in his shoes, do you think we can just wash away all those years and be happy family.", as Eleanora tried to speak Marcel raised his hand to stop her as he spoke, "I know I want us to be family again, but tell me to do you think we can suddenly be happy family, will he suddenly forgive and forget fifteen years of torment, please be rational, as such the current us can only be an acquaintance and then slowly work towards friendship and maybe God willing we can once again be family."

Eleanora sighed as she gave a weak nod as Marcel once again began to speak, "Now, mother one more thing that we have to discuss, it is about the religion that Ryan has to follow now."

Beth's face turned to a new shade of purple as she shouted out, "We are a proud Christian and I refuse to acknowledge anything else, if he gives up his silly religion and repents I might consider him to be of my blood if not you can forget it."

Marcel gritted his teeth as he spoke, "Then we are going to have some serious problem Mother, we do not know why he suddenly became a follower of a foreign god but seeing what he can do it can be easily deduced that he might have made some kind of deal."

Beth scoffed at his words as she spoke, "There is nothing more important than discarding your faith, no matter what the Devil whispers one should always stay true to one faith."

Isabella winced as she could hear her father grinding his teeth in anger before he spoke with so anger in his voice that even Beth was taken about, "I do not know what Ryan did, but I know because of him we as well as a thousand others are safe because him, because of him we no longer have to die while trying to find even a drop of water, so mother if you have any problem you can get lost from here."

Beth looked at Marcel with her eyes wide as she spoke with disbelief, "You, how can you say that to me your mother."

"Very easily, here I am trying to mend my bridges with Ryan and here you trying everything in your power to destroy whatever progress I am making, no wonder big sister cut off us from her life, this was the reason she wants nothing to do with us, you are too stubborn to acknowledge that other people have free will, they have their own wants and needs not your slaves."

Beth looked as if she was slapped hard by her son as she spluttered trying to make a comeback but Marcel kept on his onslaught, "I know just like Ciara you do not like Ryan much because of his life choices but please I beg of you to not interfere with us, we are trying to mend the bridges and make our family whole, and if you have problem with him then please forget about him and stay away for him because I do not believe he would mind too much and neither do you."

A horrified look came over Beth as she spoke barely above a whisper, "You want me to forget about my grandson."

Marcel shrugged as he spoke, "Of course seeing the situation it is a better option since you already stated that you do not wish to consider him being related because of your religious fanaticism that is for the best, you will be granted your wish treating him like a total stranger something I do not doubt he will have any problem with, but I am sorry mother since I had let him down once I do not wish to do so again as such against your wants and wished I will never give up on my child again."

While Beth sat there stunned as did the rest of Marcel's family, Ylerias was happily chatting with his fellow apostles as well as Michalina about various things, when all of a sudden Ylerias asked a question that was plaguing her for some time.

"Ryan, during the battle I noticed your movements became too fluid, not to mention the way you were dodging and attacking how did it happen, I do not mean to sound disrespectful but I do not believe you were that good."

"There is no need to apologize because you are right normally I am not that good with fighting but I used a very nifty trick, you see since the day I became an apostle many things have changed in my body including my brain which you can say is not equivalent to four."

Xuelong frowned as she spoke, "What do you mean equivalent to four?"

"Well it is kind of like I have four separate brains inside my skull instead of one, and when I used it to focus on a single task namely fighting the creature, it drastically increased my skills as well as I could predict its movements properly and react accordingly."

Ylerias could not help but let out a small whistle of appreciation as she spoke, "The way you are going even amongst us apostles you might just become the strongest, your God really pampers you."

Ryan's brow twitched upon hearing that, he did not know what to think of his patron god, who might have given him a few interesting and useful stuff but at the same time is also a very taskmaster whom he sometimes wishes he could throttle with his bare hands, but instead of thinking about his patron God Ryan decided to focus on the road ahead.

"Ryan can you slow the road train a bit."

"No, big sister, no I am frustrated and tired of this trip and I want to return home as soon as possible."

"But, we would be back within three days."

"And I told you three days is a lifetime and many things can go wrong during the time as such I will try to reach home within two days at the latest, now please let me focus the road is a bit tricky in front of me."