Before doing anything else, Zain was trying to get a grasp of where he was. He looked up, but the ceiling was dark—too dark to see what material it was made out of. Then, turning his head through the bars, he could see the flooring.
The flooring was made of wood, but when he banged on the floor, it didn't break. Instead, it felt like there was concrete underneath.
"I guess there's no escaping out this way, but…" Zain started to walk up to the bars and placed his hand around them. He held them and gave them a small tug, not using his full strength. "If I tried hard enough, I think I could rip these bars out."
However, that idea, at least for now, had gone out of Zain's head as he could hear footsteps walking up and down the hallway.
"What are you doing!" a voice shouted. "Step away from the bars, or I'll blast your head off."
The man that was standing in the hallway had the uniform of the Zombie Hunters on, and in his hand was a gun—not just any gun. Zain was staring down the barrel of a large shotgun pointed right at his head.
If he was hit cleanly with that at the distance he was at, then he was pretty sure he wouldn't still be alive.
"That uniform, so it's the Zombie Hunters after all. After I passed out, they must have caught me and trapped me down here, but why would they keep me alive? Maybe they don't even know who I am." Zain thought.
Quickly, he decided to check his system, and in doing so, he could see Skittle's name, which meant that he was alive and well. What he also noticed was the location that they were in.
"This isn't the Zombie Hunters' base, at least it's not where I thought the base is, and it's a long way from where Skittle and the others are. We must have been transported here."
"Didn't you hear what I said!" The man loaded the gun, pulling part of it back, and pointed the gun forward a bit more again. For a second, Zain thought about grabbing it and attempting to get out of this place.
"Hey, relax, will you? You know that he's new here. He doesn't know what's going on," a voice said from behind.
Zain could smell who was approaching him, and of all things, it smelled like a zombie. Judging from the fact that it could speak, it meant it was a Reborn Zombie.
The hand was placed on Zain's shoulder, and he let go of the bars and moved away. The man politely waved to the guard with a smile as the two of them went away.
"Look, I know you're a tough zombie and everything, but trust me, you don't want to try and escape. I've been here a while, and the last guys that tried that became a pile of nothing before they could even leave the cells."
From those words, it sounded like there was more than one guard, and it was one of the reasons why Zain hadn't acted out irrationally as well—it wasn't good for survival.
"The name is Dart!" The zombie man claimed.
Zain looked him up and down, and Dart looked like a farmer based on the clothes he had on his body. They were badly ripped as if he had never changed clothes since the day the zombie attack had occurred.
But his face was friendly with a large grin, and in farmer's terms, he seemed quite young, in his thirties or so.
"Dart... are you part of the Reborn Group, and where are we?" Zain asked.
The two of them continued back deeper into the cell until they had reached the very back. Zain looked at the others in the room—there were six of them inside in total—and what was even stranger was the fact that there weren't just Reborn Zombies here, there were also a couple of humans as well.
"Reborn group... I'm not part of any group," Dart replied. "I was just doing my own thing when I got bit. When I woke up, I was like this. I'm sure it's the same for you. Anyway, one day those hunters came and found me.
"I thought I was dead, but instead, they brought me here."
If Dart was someone from the Reborn group, Zain thought they would know him, and there were always Reborn Zombies out there that knew nothing about themselves.
"And what exactly is here? Why have they put us all in a cell together? There has to be a reason for them to keep us alive," Zain asked.
Dart placed his finger on his chin as he twisted and turned his head. He was unsure how to phrase it.
"What's the point of telling him?" A female voice said from the corner. She was sitting on the ground, rocking back and forth, blonde hair in pigtails. From the smell, Zain was able to tell she was human as well—a human that wasn't even scared of zombies.
"I don't know why you do this, Dart. You're friendly with everyone who comes into this place, and yet you know that it's unlikely we will see him again."
"Hey, we don't know that," Dart replied back. "And what else are we supposed to do, just stay in this cell until it's our turn?"
Dart sighed.
"She is right about one thing, though. Since you are the newest one to be in here, you will be called soon."
The sound of multiple footsteps was heard, and Dart turned his head. He looked nervous and grabbed both shoulders of Zain.
"Crap, you were asleep for too long. I didn't have time to tell you. All I can say is, you need to do your best, your best to survive. I know we will meet again!" Dart shouted.
Zain wondered just what was going on.
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