Emma & A way to move fast enough

Johnathan sat up. Stretching his body, with a long yawn. He laid on the floor and turned to his side. As he closed his eyes, a thought came to him.

'What if I coated my whole body with mana when I use the new ability? Will I be able to move normally? Damn, I can't sleep without trying it!'

He got back up and summoned the time mana from his core to his eyes. Doing the same steps, time seemed to slow down. Then he used regular mana to coat his body in it.

"Ash, sorry but can you please throw something at me again."

Ash, who was reading a picture book, looked up and nodded. Grabbing the granola bar, he whipped it at Johnathan for the second time today.

In slow motion, the granola bar flew towards him. With his mana-coated body, he sidestepped. 'It worked.'

He successfully dodged. Canceling both the enhancement and skill, he shouted in victory. "Let's go! Thanks, Ash. You're the best."

He rushed to the little kid and hugged him. Ash, who didn't know why he was so happy, titled his head. "Huh. Thanks, I guess."

Letting the poor kid go, he asked Ash if he wanted to go to the lobby.

"Yeah. Let's go!" He responded, jumping to his feet.

The boy was bored. With no parks or anything of the sort available to him, he had no other choice but to stay inside.

Johnathan and Ash then made their way towards the elevator. They pressed the cold, metallic button and waited until the doors opened.

They stepped inside the elevator after a minute of waiting. Johnathan pressed the button with 'L' on it.

The duo quickly reached the lobby after a few stops between floors.

Once they stepped out, Johnathan looked around. There were plenty of people either idling around or talking to others. Some were laughing, and some were crying.

Johnathan and Ash walked throughout the lobby, eventually finding themselves in the cafeteria. Seeing a familiar face, he walked up to them. The two then sat down and greeted them. "What's up Emma?" Johnathan asked with a small smile.

She looked up and looked at Johnathan and the little boy.

"Nothing much. Just reading. Who's this little guy? Your brother?"

Johnathan took a second to think and responded. "Something like that. What book are you reading?"

"Harry Potter."

"That's nice."

"So what are you guys here for?"

"We're just bored. There's nothing to do."

Emma chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I never read but look at me now."

"You wanna join our exploration?"

"Not really. I don't want to get up. I'm too comfortable."

She then looked at Ash. "What's your name?"

"Ash," the boy responded.

"That's a cool name."

"Can we do something, the three of us?" Ash asked.

Emma stared at the face Ash made when asking her that. In the end, she gave in and agreed.

How could she not? Ash was too cute. If a little kid asked you to play with puppy dog eyes, you'd be a monster to say no.

"Fine. But let's stay here and talk instead. I'm too tired to run around the base."

The two quickly agreed.

"When did you and bro meet?" Ash asked.

"While I was kicking his ass." She responded.

"You barely won. And you did martial arts."

"Yeah right. I went easy on you." She scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you. Anyway, when did you get to the base?"

"The day after this shit started. You?"

"Same." He answered.

"This is unrelated, but how old are you?"

Emma has been curious about his age since she met him. From what she could tell, Johnathan had killed a good amount of zombies. He looked young but didn't at the same time. He was tall and had a mature air around him.

"Me? I'm 16. You?"

'16! That's a lot younger than I thought. He could easily pass for 18.'

"I'm 24."

"I'm 9." Ash chimed in, making both Johnathan and Emma laugh.

"So you're a big boy, huh?"

"Yup."

"So what was your job before all this happened?" Johnathan asked.

"I was a secretary. You were probably in high school, right?"

"Yeah. So how come you learned martial arts? Protection?"

"Yup. I used to be bullied in elementary school, so I learned a thing or two about beating someone's ass."

"Damn. So, did you fuck them up?"

"Yeah, I did. You should've seen the looks on their faces. One of the best moments of my life." She answered.

"That's pretty badass. Have you seen any of them after elementary?" Johnathan said with a smile.

"Yeah, I mean, we all lived close. I even became good friends with some of them. One even worked in my building."

"That's nice. It's good to know people change."

The two then changed the topic and talked about different things. Video games, movies, shows, and even killing zombies.

"I'm guessing you killed a fair share of zombies, right?"

Emma nodded. From the beginning, she was by herself. Since she was working when the whole apocalypse started, she has no other choice but to fight and survive.

"Yeah. I've killed a couple. What about you?"

"I guess you can say I killed a bit. Probably nothing close to yours though."

"Stop flattering me. You'll make me blush." She joked.

Johnathan laughed before speaking. "Anyway, do you know anyone from this place?"

"No. I haven't seen anyone I know."

Emma seemed… sad when she said that. So, Johnathan, not wanting to push further, changed the subject. "Did you always want to be a secretary?"

Emma took a minute to respond. It's been a long time since anyone had asked her. "I used to want to be a doctor. But my grades were ass. So I chose something I'd be able to get into. Did you know what you wanted to do after high school?"

"I-" Johnathan choked on his words. Did he know what he wanted to do? He had an idea, but would he have stuck with it? After all, he still had over a year before finishing high school.

"I don't know. I've had some ideas, but it was too early to decide."

"Living in the moment. That's good. Will you miss it? School I mean."

"No. Not really. School was never for me. I had 'friends' but they weren't friends. The people I was closest to at school are with me here. Do you miss your job?"

"You're too young to be talking like that. Trust me, you'll miss high school once you graduate. College may seem far and so does partying, but after that comes a lot of grown-up shit. But yeah, I miss my job. Although there were some dicks, I also had a good amount of friends there. Sucks I won't be able to see them again."

"Some probably escaped the building you worked in. So who knows, you might see them don't the line."

Emma nodded. They changed the subject and talk about a couple of more things. What Ash wants to be in the future, what they used to do on their days off and their future goals in the apocalypse were just some topics.

The three talked for two hours.

"It's been fun, but I'm too tired. I'm going to go to sleep for a bit before the next training session. See you."

Johnathan and Ash left after saying goodbye.

When the two got back to their rooms, the two laid down and drifted off to sleep.