Chapter 43: Prove Your Worth

Morning sunlight slipped through the curtains as Zarek woke up.

After washing up and checking his equipment, he went to find Elsa and Ayesha.

"Get your weapons ready. We’re going outside."

Ayesha looked at him suspiciously. "For what?"

"Training."

"Now?"

Zarek gave her an amused look. "Would you rather wait until a mutant breaks through the door and decides you’re its breakfast?"

She didn’t answer, though the expression on her face suggested she had plenty to say. Elsa, on the other hand, simply collected her weapon and got ready to leave.

They gathered what they needed before heading downstairs.

He chose a relatively open street where they could spot approaching threats and have enough room to move.

"Show me your shooting," he told Ayesha.

She raised her firearm and aimed at a distant signpost. Her first shot struck near the center, and the second landed close to it. Her grip was steady, and she adjusted her aim without wasting time.

Zarek watched her for a while before asking, "How much experience do you have?"

"Enough to use a gun properly," she replied. "I’ve practiced before, but I’m not some professional marksman."

"At least you know your limits."

He wasn’t disappointed with what he’d seen.

Ayesha clearly had experience with firearms, which put her ahead of most survivors who had never held anything more dangerous than a kitchen knife.

Still, accuracy against a stationary target was only one part of fighting. Out here, a mutant wouldn’t wait patiently for her to line up the perfect shot.

"Let’s see how you handle something that moves."

Before Ayesha could ask what he meant, a rasping sound came from between two abandoned cars.

A figure stumbled into the street, its gray skin stretched over an unnaturally long body. One of its legs dragged across the ground, but the creature moved with disturbing speed, its elongated arms swinging as it turned toward the three humans.

Ayesha immediately raised her gun.

"Keep your distance," Zarek warned. "And don’t waste your ammunition."

The mutant charged before she could respond.

Her first shot struck its shoulder, twisting its upper body without stopping its advance. She fired again, hitting its chest, but the creature barely slowed.

When it suddenly lunged, she stepped backward and tried to bring her weapon around for another shot, leaving herself dangerously close to its claws.

"Move, Ayesha!"

She threw herself sideways. The mutant’s claws swept past her, scraping against the side of an abandoned car.

Ayesha scrambled to regain her footing and fired once more, this time striking its head. The creature collapsed onto the pavement, its limbs twitching before it finally became still.

She remained at a distance, breathing hard as she kept her weapon trained on the corpse.

"Is it dead?" she asked.

"Go check."

She turned toward him in disbelief. "You’re joking, right?"

"Do I look like I’m joking?"

Grumbling under her breath, Ayesha approached carefully, watching for any sign of movement. Once she was satisfied that the mutant wasn’t getting back up, she returned to them.

Zarek nodded toward the body. "Your aim was fine, but you focused too much on shooting and nearly let it reach you.

The first two bullets slowed it down, yet you kept trying to find another clean shot instead of creating distance. Against something faster, that mistake could cost you an arm."

"I killed it, didn’t I?"

"Yes, and that’s better than getting killed yourself. But you won’t always be lucky."

Ayesha glanced at the corpse, visibly dissatisfied with his assessment, but she didn’t argue. She had survived the encounter, yet she knew he wasn’t entirely wrong about how close the mutant had come.

"Next time, keep moving. Watch the creature’s approach instead of concentrating entirely on your sights. You need to recognize when you have a chance to shoot and when you should get out of the way."

Ayesha nodded reluctantly, taking the advice more seriously than she wanted to show.

Elsa joined them, glancing at the dead mutant. "She did better than an ordinary person would have."

"Probably," Zarek replied. "Most ordinary people are dead already."

Elsa gave him an unimpressed look, but he only laughed.

They moved farther down the street, using abandoned vehicles for cover as Zarek continued putting Ayesha through her paces.

She adjusted her movements after each correction, though she still struggled whenever she had to divide her attention between aiming and watching her surroundings.

Elsa needed less instruction. When another mutant emerged from a damaged storefront, she moved to intercept it before it could close the distance.

She had fought alone too many times to waste movement. She slipped past the mutant’s first swing, stepped inside its reach, and struck before it could turn toward her. The creature hit the ground and stayed there.

Zarek watched her finish the fight before turning back to Ayesha.

"That’s the difference," he said. "She’s used to having something trying to kill her. You’ll have to get used to it, too."

Ayesha didn’t look pleased, but she had seen the difference for herself.

After another encounter, Zarek called a halt.

Ayesha checked her remaining ammunition while Elsa cleaned her weapon.

Ayesha had made progress, but one dead mutant proved very little. She needed experience against more than a single opponent before Zarek could judge how reliably she could survive.

"There is one more thing you need to understand," he said, turning toward her.

Ayesha looked up.

"Knowing how to shoot isn’t enough. If you want to stay with me, you need to be capable of surviving without expecting me to save you every time something goes wrong."

Her expression tightened. "So what do you want me to do?"

Zarek pointed toward the ruined streets stretching beyond them. "Go and kill at least five mutant monsters if you want to live with me."

Ayesha stared at him, seemingly unsure whether she’d heard him correctly. "Five? You expect me to kill five mutants by myself?"

"That’s what I said."

"You saw what happened just now. I nearly got hit!"

"And you survived, learned something, and killed it. Imagine how much better you’ll be after facing a few more."

"That’s not the same as sending me out to fight five of them!"

Zarek shrugged. "The apocalypse isn’t going to ask whether you’re ready before it sends something after you. You can either learn to deal with these things, or you can keep depending on someone else to handle every threat."

He wasn’t asking her to charge blindly into a crowd. She would have to choose her targets carefully, manage her ammunition, and know when to retreat. Surviving required more than pulling a trigger.

Elsa remained beside them, watching Ayesha with a guarded expression. She knew better than most how dangerous the streets had become, but she also knew that surviving meant learning to fight when there was no other option.

Ayesha looked down the road. Beyond the abandoned cars and ruined storefronts, the city stretched into a maze of dark buildings and unseen dangers.

Somewhere out there were the five mutants Zarek expected her to kill, and she couldn’t tell whether his demand was meant to make her stronger or simply prove that whether she deserved a place beside him.

Perhaps it was both.

Zarek waited for her answer, showing no intention of lowering the requirement.

After a moment, he turned toward Elsa.

"And you."

Elsa looked at him. "What about me?"

"At least ten mutant monsters."

Her eyebrows rose slightly. "Ten?"

"You’ve fought monsters alone before. You know what you’re doing, so I expect more from you."

Elsa glanced toward the ruined street, then back at him. She understood the difference between her task and Ayesha’s.

Zarek wasn’t treating them as though they were at the same level.

"Fine," she said.

Zarek smiled. "Good. Let’s see how many you can kill."

Ayesha looked between them, still facing the challenge he’d given her. Five mutants sounded bad enough. Now Elsa had been told to kill twice as many.

Zarek turned toward the ruined street, already thinking about where they could find enough targets.

Five for Ayesha. Ten for Elsa.

"Let’s move," he said.