For a second, Zain's hand hovered over the door handle. He was so close to finally finding another meteorite. It was only a few metres away for him to see what these things were. However, there was also the chance that it could be nothing, and the meteorite was not even active unlike the last one he had seen.
The most likely case was that the military had already taken all the living and brought them in for testing. Still, there was a small chance, and it was just past that door.
"Hey Zain, come on, let's get out of here," Kun said.
In the end, Zain believed that, for some reason, Shark knew more than him in this situation, and as the saying went, curiosity killed the cat; it was better to play it safe and follow what Shark wanted, at least for now.
He stepped back, and soon, everyone was back in the alleyway, having exited from the restaurant's backdoor. Shark was already walking ahead and heading back in the direction they had come from.
"Wait, you have to explain, Shark!" Pink said. "What did you see up there? I know you said Demons were dangerous but don't they just come out at night? Aren't we safe then?"
"I don't know," Shark replied. "I don't know much about these demons. In fact, all I know is right now isn't our time to face them. We are too weak."
These words Zain latched onto, slowly like a puzzle piece he was going to put Shark's knowledge together.
"I don't know much about the demons, but upstairs there was a stage 2 Zombie, the Spitter, and it was also 'dead' like the other zombies. The Demon killed each of those zombies, so we are all dead if we run into it too. We will continue on the mission in the safest way." Shark replied, turning around.
"What about the brains?" Zain brought it up. "I agree with getting out of here if it is that dangerous and away from the meteorite if that might be related somehow, but we are running out of time. Is there another place nearby that we can check out?"
Shark clenched his fist as he knew Zain was right. Honestly, more than anything, Shark wanted to head back to base and find out what was going on himself, but they needed to think about themselves first.
"I have a suggestion. Around a kilometre away from here is Chinatown. It's a nice open street with plenty of shops, supermarkets, and low building apartments, no giant skyscrapers like over here." Pink said. "If I was still human, then it would be somewhere I would hide..and…"
Pink didn't say anything after the end, but Zain could tell that there was another reason why she wanted to go there, and if he was to take a guess, it was most likely to check up on her family. In these types of situations, the first thing people wanted to know was if their family was okay.
Without the availability of cell phones or the internet working, they could only check in person.
While debating about it, Shark wondered if a kilometre was far enough, but pulling out a map from his backpack, similar to the one in the club, he figured since it was more inward and away from the fallen meteorite, it was a safer option.
With that decided, the group was walking again, but they had already wasted quite some time on their last trip, and it was now around 2 PM. The sun tended to set around six, so they had around four hours to complete the task in front of them and return to the club.
Chinatown was a walking shopping street. Cars were not allowed to travel during a certain time of day, and it looked like there were next to none in the street. Decorations of red lanterns and good luck charms were out all over the place, and strangest of all, the street itself seemed to be quite empty.
One or two zombies could be seen just strolling around the area.
"China town is quite big, and there are a lot of shops." Zain prompted. "With a large group like ours, it's going to be hard to go through it without getting spotted. So it will be best if we split up in pairs."
Kun and Shark group in a pair, while Fingers and Pink group together, and though it didn't really count, Zain and Skittle paired up as well. Although Zain was the one that had made this suggestion, he preferred it this way.
"After an hour of exploring, we'll meet up underneath this archway to report anything we find. If you see people, then don't engage on your own." Shark instructed everyone.
Everyone understood, and they split up going through Chinatown. After a while, Zain had gone through quite several different shops, restaurants, gift shops and more, but he had yet to find anything. However, he noticed signs of raids and looting throughout the streets, so there were sure to be people who had at least been here before.
That's when he entered a hairdresser shop of all places. The place looked empty apart from the fact that there was a smear of blood across the floor leading to the back room. And, when walking close, Zain pressed his ear against it and could hear something through the door, and with a sniff, a scent went into his nose.
It was clear that there was a human on the other side of this door, but the question was, was it the only one? There didn't seem to be any conversation, and Zain decided to push the handle in a few minutes after hearing no other signs.
It was locked, but he easily broke through it with his strength. The door snapped open, and right in the centre of the storage room, there was a person, who had been tied up to a chair, and her body was beaten and bruised.
When the woman looked up, life came into her eyes as she saw a familiar face.
"Kelly…" Zain was shocked.
*****
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