Sound of fists smashing against leather resounded in the quiet silence as David unleashed hell on the poor punching bag. A hail of kicks and fists landed on it as he tested the limits of his newfound enhancements. He had been worried there may be some side effects to getting exposed to…whatever radiations that were present in the atmosphere, but all the tests showed otherwise.

Not only there were no side effects, the radiations seemed beneficial. In fact, the more his body absorbed them, the stronger and durable it got, albeit at a very slow rate. He was still running some tests to make sure that there really was no harm being done to him.

‘Still I might not be the only one who evolved.’ There could be others that survived and also mutated due to the radiations.

‘Prime example being the Manticore I fought.’ The image of the five feet manticore came into his mind as he lashed out with full strength, his fist destroying the sandbag and sending it flying, slamming into the wall with a loud sound.

He panted as he picked up a water bottle and drained it of its contents. The cold sensation of the water against his burning lungs helped him calm down. It had been almost a day since his encounter, but he still could not get over it.

He had nearly died and the only reason he survived was because he was lucky. While people might say that Luck is part of a person’s abilities, he didn’t believe so.

‘While being lucky is good, you can’t just leave everything to luck.’ He sighed as he spoke while rubbing his eyes. “I couldn’t sleep last night.”

He looked at his left hand, already healed and patched up, which should have taken more than a week to heal normally. He had never been the athletic guy before but now, a few inches taller than before, packed with tight and lean muscles along with perfect abs, his body said otherwise. His height had grown to a full 6-feet and he could life around 400 pounds of weight, even 500 pounds with extreme effort. One would even believe if he said he is an Olympic athlete. It was that much of a difference.

It all felt so unreal, almost like a dream, a bad one. Getting stranded, finding the world in ruins, fighting a large mantis, nearly getting killed and now this. He wished that someone would wake him up from this nightmare he was trapped in but…

Reality was not so sweet, after all. Survival, that was what had been on his mind when he fought that monster and that’s what he was thriving for. He sighed as he hanged another sandbag and started his workout again and his mind drifted off in his thoughts.

Information, it was a crucial game changing factor but…

“I am completely in the dark.” That was the biggest problem right now. He had little to no information. If he knew what he had to face, he would be able to prepare accordingly but there was an unknown factor in front of him or rather, everything was an unknow factor for now.

‘What if there was an animal as large as a house? Or if i had to face an army of mutated ants at once? Were there any survivors other than me? Any harmful effects that the radiations may have on my body? Any other enhanced survivors other than me? What was the scale of the disaster? Does the world know about the mutations? Is there even a world left that would know? Has the Army come? Why were all the signals I sent were intercepted before they could reach? What if I don’t get lucky next time, I meet another mutated insect? What if…’

The gentle sound of sand falling on the ground woke him up from his thoughts. He had been hitting harder and harder as he was in a daze, that he had damaged it, causing the sand within it to fall, without even realizing it.

He took deep breaths, trying to calm himself. ‘I, uh…I need to calm down first. Calm down and think things through. There….there is a lot of stuff to do and I can’t make mistakes. Even a little sign of carelessness or a little mistake could kill me. I need to...”

Before he could realize that he had gone on a rant again, a voice interrupted him.

“Excuse me, sir.” The voice was feminine as it spoke in a very eloquent British accent. “There is a matter of urgency I need to discuss with you, if you don’t mind of course.”

His eyes widened and his face lit up. ‘I just need to do what I always do.’ It was simple. If he didn’t know what he was going to be facing, he just had to prepare for everything. His lips curved upwards into a small smile as he realized what he needed to do.