Chapter 12: Feeding the 'fishes'
A few hours later.
As we walked down the steps to the 4th floor, all we could see were zombies, packed together sardines. Their heads turned as one to face us the moment we stepped foot onto the floor.
They came at us like a flood.
I knew what awaited us beforehand and had brought these two with a plan. I instantly fired a small Corrosion Beam, repeating the shots a number of times more. Each shot was managed to pierce through the heads of a number of zombies, felling five or eight in one blow, and leaving a few more wounded and more susceptible to damage.
I managed to kill around twenty or thirty in an instant, but we had to move back upstairs to avoid being overrun. At best I could use twenty shots, and I doubted I would be able to get them all in one go. Thanks to 'Death Qi Vision' this was no surprise though, the uppermost part of the stairwell was modified so you could only pass one by one.
The bodies of the fallen and the zombies' clumsy movements on the steps managed to keep them from catching up too quickly before we got to the top of the stairway.
At the top-most part of the stairway the improvised barricades on both sides obstructed them. Leaving barely enough room for one person (or zombie) to pass through.
We all made it through the passage well before the zombies managed to stumble their way up.
For a number of zombies my two helpers were able to simply take turns bashing heads in as soon as they came through.
The killed zombie would fall down and obstruct or knock down the next few zombies coming up in the process. As they did so, I focused on processing and gathering the Death Qi from my surroundings to refill my supply. Albeit I also stood ready with the bow in case they needed some saving grace.
Overtime, the zombies would gain ground regardless. Eventually the crowd of zombies was like the rising tide, even when the dead zombies fell, the zombies would simply support each other and continue moving forward over the body.
Thus, whenever the tide of zombies encroached and there were too many zombies in the stairwell, I would step in to intervene with a corrosion ray or two. The zombies would again collapse and be sent tumbling back down.
The bodies of the zombies slowly piled up at the bottom of the stairwell. Then, they began to pile up within the stairway itself. As time waned, the two got a few bumps and scratches, but they were nothing serious once I removed the infections.
After an hour or so of killing the stairwell was covered in bodies and blood, the zombies had begun to crawl up towards us over the many bodies instead of walking. A frown found it's way onto my face, the zombies actually moved less clumsily and a bit faster crawling up over the bodies.
I issued an impromptu order, "Retreat back to the next floor, wait by the barricade and rest."
I stood with my bow and arrows and guarded the stairwell alone as they retreated back to the next floor.
'They have been constantly fighting for over an hour so it is about time to give them some rest. Spell casting does not actually drain you physically, I can do this much for them after their hard work.'
We had probably drawn up a lot of the zombies from the lower floors by now, considering how many were still coming. How many had we killed by now? Probably somewhere between two hundred, maybe two hundred fifty.
The bodies had even splayed out, spilling over the top of the stairwell, and were obstructing our movements around the barricade at this point. So, it was best to just leave it.
Most of the kills were from the Corrosion spells, and now I was already running low but they were still coming. It was a good time to retreat.
I loosed an arrow to kill off three of the closer zombies and then let off another corrosion ray to kill the last two coming up, before taking off down the hallways to find the stairs to the 6th level of the building.
I waited there with them and we took turns guarding the stairwell and resting.
Stragglers came around after an hour passed by and then another one a half hour or so after, but then none of them really bothered to come up the steps, as we were far up and above, and that meant separating from their group. So, we were able to pass the time peacefully for a while.
The zombies had peculiar instinctual behaviors, unlike any in our natural world. In environments like earth they usually wander from place to place, eating anything in their path. Albeit their short-term memories and lack in learning capacity, they will still roughly weigh if it is worthwhile or not to pursue certain prey.
After all, they are still able to survive so long as they have enough numbers in their group or horde. However, if something kills a member of their horde or poses a threat, they will swarm regardless of consequence.
At the same time, lowest level zombies don't even have such a thing as recalling something. Just moving about a bit, being slowed down in the stairwell and taking the time to spread out over the 5th floor, they had already forgot they were chasing living beings who attacked them and were perfectly willing to just mind their own business and 'keep us trapped'.
Of course, one would likely only know their instinctual behaviors by studying them for a long time. However, an alternative method to simply use the first symbol of Necromancy. What better way to learn how zombies behave than to walk in their rotted boots for awhile?
Three hours later, I had managed to completely recover my Death Qi. It helps when there are undead everywhere saturating the air with it, so that sort of recovery time could actually be considered pretty short. We had managed to catch our breath and went down again.
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, the Zombies weren't as close together as they were last time. They had spread out and dispersed throughout the 5th floor.
The ones who saw us came at us the instant we came into sight.
Tirone and Aira easily took care of the ones close by, and I shot down the ones mid-range, whether with arrow or otherwise. Making certain they only ever had to face two opponents.
These zombies were essentially roving about in small groups rather than hordes.
Having to take out all these zombies in this way was far less efficient, and even when I could fire a corrosion ray it would only kill a single zombie.
The killing speed was far slower, but that also meant it was a far safer approach to killing them.
After two hours of making rounds, we managed to kill off all the zombies on the floor, and zombies also seemed to have stopped coming up from the fourth floor as well.
After the continuous hard labor of killing zombies for an extended time we were all exhausted both physically and mentally.
However, after a short rest, we pressed on killing those still dispersed around the 4th floor in a similar manner to the 5th. After annihilating the zombies on that floor, I could see that there were only sparse zombies left around on the second and third floor, with just a few going in and out of the building on the first floor.
Looking about I also noticed something else curious on the third floor, a small gathering of zombies standing in a cluster near what I presumed to be the door of some apartment.
I smiled a bit as I thought about what might be in that apartment.
"Hey, I think we've done enough for today. Tirone, Aira, if your up to it, go ahead back to the room. I'll find my own place to crash for what's left of the night and come find you in the morning."
Aira spoke up, "Dugant, you should rest too. Don't push yourself. You are a critical part of our team here."
"Mm, really. Even after all that though, neither of us have gotten our class yet. Of course, we will do all we can to help even without classes, but you and Kyle are going to be our main fighting force until we get the System unlock ourselves."
'Time to give a nudge'
"Yeah, I know, you guys go back and rest, you've worked hard."
I left a tone indicating I had something to do. They gave me a look but said nothing and left, going back upstairs.
I sat down and recovered for a moment, then got off my ass and headed down to the third floor.
After a few fleeting arrows and some well placed magic I made it to the place where the zombies gathered about and saw a familiar 'face'. Or at least, what was left of it.
Eva was lying on the ground nearby the door, she appeared to still be breathing, surprisingly.
However, with the numerous bite-marks on her body, and the dense death energy around her, she would not be for long.
I dispatched the zombies which sauntered towards me and walked over to look at her.
Bending down and looking at her I almost held a bit of pity. Her condition is basically the exact same as what mine was when I trapped myself inside that room.
She seemed to be in terrible pain, her eyes seemed to have drained of tears and her breathing forced and labored. She seemed to want to cry, perhaps to move, to say something. But she could not do any of these things no matter how much she wanted to.
All she could do was stare, with eyes begging for death, for release.
The zombies, once they understood she was properly infected, had just stopped biting and left her. She was already among the dead, so she was already unworthy of attention.
Yet, at the moment they stopped, was the moment she wished they would just finish. The fact she could survive in such a state, perhaps it was due to some extra points in constitution? Yet now, she surely regrets, wished she had not invested, wished for an earlier and more graceful death.
I sighed, 'Well, it is not like she was the one who pushed me anyways. This is already bad enough for someone who's wrong was inaction.'
I took an arrow out from my quiver and took her neck in my hand and applying pressure towards her jaw to keep her head steady. Putting the arrow closer and closer to her right eye, her pupils seemed to narrow in fear before I shoved the arrowhead in through her eye. Her body spammed intensely for a moment before I shoved it deeper and she stopped.
She became fully still, and I pulled the arrow back out before she slumped back to the ground.
I wiped the arrow off on a clean part of her clothes and put it back into my quiver before going through the apartment door the zombies had been gathered around.
In the corner of the room I saw Nathan, waking up from his sleep due to the peculiar noise of my opening the door.
I smiled, "Hi Nathan, thank God your okay."
Nathan seemed extremely startled at first by my appearance, but his face quickly returned to normal as he got up.
"Hi Dugant, I'm so glad your okay. I don't know what happened back there in all that chaos as we were running from all those zombies. Thank goodness you were there to help hold them back when you were."
I laughed a bit and kept my smile, "Eva was every bit as selfless as I was too, right? I saw her just outside a minute ago."
Nathan shook his head and took a step forward towards me like he was concerned, "No, you don't understand Dugant, they caught up to Eva. She was bit, fell down. It was already over for her- *gah*"
Nathan fell to the ground, his right leg which had stepped forward was blown through at the kneecap.
"I understand Nathan, don't worry about it. Survival comes first after all, I don't blame you for the way you do things. A lot of people act the same way as you in this world after all."
Nathan yelled and clutched at his now stub-like leg. "Stop~ stop. I get it, I was wrong, I'm sorry. Stop. Stop."
I shook my head slowly, though he seemed not to pay attention. "You don't seem to understand Nathan. I don't find anything particularly wrong with what you did. In fact, I think you can find plenty of ways to justify what you did for yourself, most people probably could too."
"I'm not mad at you, there is no reason to get mad at someone for being who they are. I'm just, a bit annoyed. A bit frustrated."
Nathan, in tears and snot, pulled out his knife and tried to pull and push himself toward me with what limbs he had left. *gahah~*
And he lost the arm which held the blade.
"Stop! Do you think you were any better, you got my best friend killed! You think your better than me! You deserved to die!"
"So?"
I blew off his other arm and grabbed him by the back his shirt to drag him, corrosion Ray's somewhat cauterize wounds but there still wasn't too long until he would die from such wounds. The fact he didn't pass out was a miracle of adrenaline, a part of survival instinct, though in this case it was futile.
I dragged him out of the apartment and down the hallway around the corner as he screamed, yelled, and cried. Then, I threw him face up in front of the small group of zombies.
"Humanities' survival has greater chances without you."
His pupils shrank as his screams rang out, the pain of being eaten alive clearly much worse than that of loss of limb.
I lost the will to kill any more zombies today still mildly annoyed by the man slowly dying. I turned back and headed upstairs, finding a clean apartment with a lock and going to sleep.
The sound of zombies were distant as I fell asleep, the night was peaceful and quiet.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone