Seeing the quest prompt in front of him finally raised the questions that Zain had ignored all this time. For instance, who had created this system in the first place and what was its use? There was also a chance that whoever designed the system might have also been responsible for the Zombie outbreak.
And judging by the quest title as well, it didn't seem like an accident. This whole thing wasn't some disease that got out of a lab or an experiment that had gone wrong. Or maybe it was but if the system was anything to go buy, it meant someone did it on purpose, but why?
'Well, I guess that's what the system wants me to find out. Anyway, I was interested in it before it even sent the quest.' Zain thought.
Hearing the whole story, Zain came to know that the Zombie horde from the University had overwhelmed the few people that lived here, and there were only a couple hundred people in the neighbourhood. So it was not hard to imagine how defenceless everyone was.
Everyone had a different story how they had managed to survive, locking themselves in a basement or hiding in the trunk of a car, but as far as they knew, everyone in this store was the only survivor.
"Before you, the last person to arrive was Mr Clark," Kelly explained.
"Yeah, and he has been acting like he runs the place. Although the others seem to be happy to just sit there and nod." Mark complained, clenching his fist, but just looking at Mark, Zain could see why he didn't try to say what was on his mind.
Judging by the red mark on Kelly's cheek, there was an apparent reason. In times like this, people, who are physically superior to others, believe that in this type of situation, they're the most critical part of the group, an Alpha, but that's always their delusion.
Those that survive these types of situations are the mentally strong ones.
"I see, but then what about the blood?" Zain asked.
"That was me…let me show you something," Kelly said as she led Zain and Mark to the back of the room. They soon reached a large door, and from underneath it, Zain noticed cold air coming out, in fact, there was frost covering the door's edges.
The other noticeable thing was a large bar had been placed over the door handle, although that isn't an accurate description. Actually, someone had twisted the bar, creating a type of knot over the door handle so no one could open it unless they could bend metal.
"When we came here, there were a lot of dead bodies, and that was not long after the horde of zombies had gone towards the city centre," Kelly explained. "So I decided it was best if we got a pair of gloves and moved all the dead bodies inside.
"We weren't sure what turns the dead into zombies and how long after death would they rise and turn into one of them. In the end, the freezer was the largest place I could think of."
Once again, Zain was impressed. Kelly seemed to be a person that was thinking straight and what she had done was right. Based on what he had observed in the case of Tanisha, there was a chance that those that had just died could rise from the dead, perhaps as long as their brain was kept intact.
Taking a step forward, Zain pressed his ear against the metal door, wondering if he could hear something, and after a moment, he pulled away, walking away from the storage freezer section with the others.
"Who did that..the thing with the metal bar?" Zain asked as they headed back towards the food aisles.
"That was Mr Clark," Mark answered. "I must admit, even though I hate the guy, it was pretty amazing. He broke a piece of a metal rod from another room, brought it over, and then started to twist it with his bare hands after putting it through the door handle...I couldn't believe it!"
Now Zain understood even more now why no one decided to go against Clark, but that was twice now that he had experienced human's doing something out of the ordinary. The first instance was with Buke.
'Maybe I could bend that thing since I am now a zombie with my extra strength, but it shouldn't be possible for a normal person like Clark, even though he is a big guy. So there must be something that's also bringing changes in normal humans.'
"The door already had a lock on it. So why did he need to use the metal rod?" Zain couldn't help but ask.
"Do you remember the man in the suit, Ben?" Kelly replied. "Well, his wife was shopping at the time and was one of the bodies we put in there. He was acting strange. Once in a while we would see him standing there.
"Once Clark learnt of it, he decided to act."
Although this Mr Clark didn't sound like the nicest person in the world, Zain agreed with most of his actions.
"Thank you for everything. You two should get some rest. I will talk to the others and see if I can get more information. If you need anything, then don't hesitate to come to find me." Zain said, already walking away, but before exiting the aisle, he turned around. "Oh, and just a tip for both of you, if I were you, I would be carrying a weapon on me at all times."
——
Walking through the aisles, Zain eventually spotted another person who was completely on his own. It was the teenager who had his hood up at all times, and currently, he was stuffing his backpack with essentials.
"Are you planning to escape this place? or-"
Before Zain could finish the question, he saw the teenager turn around with a knife in his hand. It was aiming straight for his head, but before it could reach him, Zain had stopped it, grabbing him by the wrist.
"What are you doing?" Zain asked and threw the latter's wrist down forcefully.
'The kid was quite fast...if it were someone else, that knife would have been in their head by now.'
Grabbing his wrist as if it was in pain, the teenager was rolling it.
"Sorry." The boy replied, "I thought you were one of them. It was out of reflex...and it's none of your business whatever I do."
The teenager turned around, continuing to pack his bag full of things like snacks and treats. Zain also noticed that he was the only one with weapons, mainly knives, but most of them were well hidden.
"You know, that Clark guy wouldn't let you out if you asked. Didn't you all vote to stay in here?" Zain asked, ignoring the latter's previous comment.
"They voted to stay, and I voted to leave. This place will be the death of us all and is dangerous." The teenager picked up his backpack, and it looked like he was ready to head somewhere else.
"I actually agree with you, you know. I don't plan to stay here myself either." Zain said. "But for now, I will stay here. You're skilled, but I don't think you can take out that P.E teacher, not alone at least."
The kid had stopped as if he was slightly interested and finally turned around.
"Why are you telling me this? What do you want?"
"I would say nothing, but that's not true." Zain explained. "While we're here, I just want you to do one thing, keep an eye on that Ben guy. Let me know if you see anything strange."
After that, the kid just huffed and walked off, whether or not he would do it was another story. On the other hand, Zain had more pressing matters because, at the end of the day, whether people listened to him or not wasn't his concern. He would survive this whole thing no matter what.
Finally, after walking in the shop for five minutes, Zain found himself at the butchers, following the smell from his nose. It looked like a normal counter with meat displayed, and it wasn't an ideal place for one to be.
Zain also noticed a door behind the counter, and when Zain was about to pass by, he heard some strange noises.
Quietly, Zain looked around to see if there was anyone, but he didn't find anyone. Then he stared at the door for a moment and slowly stepped toward it. Upon reaching the door, he carefully opened it and peeked inside. Then, seeing the scene on the other side, a smile appeared on his face, and he quietly stepped in and shut the door behind him.
There he could see a carcass of what looked like a cow slowly moving. He then heard the sound of slurping and chewing from behind and noticed two hands hugging it.
"I thought you would be here," Zain said.
Suddenly, the slurping and chewing noises stopped, and someone moved their head from behind. In the next moment, a bloody-faced Barbara pulled her head out of the carcass.
Then, seeing Zain, she panicked and tried to explain herself.
"This...is not what it looks like!"
"What? You're saying that you weren't just eating a dead cow?" Zain smiled, not bothered by her state. "Don't worry, I already know you're infected, and I'm not here to oust you to the others."
*****
Unfortunately, we hit 900, so here is a longer chapter.
1000 stones = 1 bonus chapter
Thank you for reading the story so far, remember to use your stones to vote for WSA 2022