Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Last Antidote
Jane managed to finish him off with an accurate shot that pierced the Berserker's eye and destroyed his brain. Then, she stopped for a moment in front of the corpse, not believing what she had achieved.
Miguel walked over to her, picked up the objects the zombie had thrown and, without even looking at them, held Jena by the shoulder to signal her to continue. He then walked over to Ivy, who had been knocked unconscious after a few minutes. Leonard was trying to lift her without much success, cursing his useless arm again.
He watched in horror as Ivy's arms had blackened almost to the elbow. The forearm was covered with thick dark veins that seemed to be growing slowly.
"Help!"
Was all Leonard could say, unable to lift Ivy with one arm. Miguel soon arrived, lifted her up and rushed to Miriam. She found herself helpless as she watched Ivy. He tried to heal her but the spell proved useless in expelling the energy that swallowed Ivy's body.
Luckily, the energy stopped when it reached her shoulder, so her life did not seem to be at risk. Leonard left Ivy, who was still unconscious, and joined Miguel to protect the rear of the group. Waiting for him there was Mike, one of Zack's men, and Jane. Meanwhile, Adam, Tarin and Anin moved to the front and advanced back to Block 4.
Ivy had managed to kill the zombie Midnight, but the consequences had been severe. Several survivors were injured and there were even 3 dead. Worse, there were not enough antidotes to cure all the survivors, so the wounded were watched nervously and uncertainly by the others.
One of them, observing the wound on his arm, approached Miriam trembling.
"Please, I need an antidote."
Miriam watched him for a second, not knowing what to say. She knew Adam had one, but there were about 4 wounded. How could she choose who to save? Besides, a part of her didn't want to admit it, but she didn't want to use the antidotes on those who didn't fight. The thought horrified her for a moment and Miriam froze.
"Please, I know you must have some, you can't let us die!"
The man grabbed Miriam's arm and his voice became more and more desperate. She acted on reflex and pushed the man away. To her surprise, it was too easy; as if she had pushed a child. The man fell to the ground and the other survivors watched Miriam. Another of the wounded gave her an angry look.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Miriam tried to keep her voice steady, but failed. I'm afraid you'll have to wait, for the battle is not over.
Miriam turned away from the man, who stood up and looked at her with narrowed eyes. Then she rejoined the other wounded. A few were advancing in fear, following Adam, who was taking care of killing the Stalkers on the ground and who were trying to get up with difficulty. By now, the Stalkers were so easy for him that there was no need to worry about using the flamethrower. He could kill them simply with a good swipe from the back of his gun.
The real problem was the Gorgers, who shot acid. Luckily, there weren't many of them and only this last building seemed to harbor a few of them. He also found himself killing some zombies he hadn't seen before, but whose evolved versions he had killed: one wrapped in fire and one in ice. Of the rest there were some zombies they had never seen, but they didn't last long either.
Tarin, for his part, tried not to participate in the combat, as he had to recover energy to use it in emergency situations.
Miguel cautiously watched the buildings around him, as he expected a new horde of zombies to appear at any moment. To his relief, this did not happen. The group seemed to be moving fast enough to avoid attracting the large groups of zombies inside the buildings.
Adam moved forward at the front of the group, looking from side to side and keeping a close eye on all the windows around them. At times, he could just make out a few zombies peering out of the windows and watching them.
Adam felt a shiver and signaled the group to pick up the pace. They passed the square without incident and reached block 3. From the left, on the first floor of one of the buildings, the same zombie that had seen them pass earlier was watching them. The fight against its instincts was much easier this time.
At that moment, Adam turned his eyes to one of the apartments to his left, but saw nothing unusual. However, just as he looked away, the zombie jumped through the window and shattered it.
[Zombie Dog Berserker].
It was a gigantic dog that Adam recognized immediately, for the giant St. Bernard was famous in the suburb. However, the formerly beautiful dog had disappeared and now only a monstrosity with half-dropped fur and red eyes remained.
The owner and the dog must have died and the zombie virus must have infected the dog. Adam raised the flamethrower and signaled the others not to advance.
"I think I need a little help up front!"
Miguel had been alerted by the sound of the window breaking, and when he turned and saw the dog, he felt his stomach turn.
"Leonard, go and help Adam, I'll stay and protect the rear with Jane and Mike."
Leonard nodded and went ahead of the group of survivors.
Adam and Anin had already started the fight. Noah had also left Marlen with one of the survivors before jumping into the fray. However, his shots proved to be quite useless against the dog's thick hide, as did Tarin's icicles.
Adam had experience fighting a Berserker, but the problem was that the dog was quite a bit more agile and could get close to him rather quickly.
He backed up a few steps and prepared for the onslaught. Unfortunately, he realized that he could not dodge it, as he had the survivors behind him. So he bent his knees and aimed his flamethrower at the dog, which was heading straight for him.
He fired the flamethrower at the last moment, just when the Berserker was so close that he could smell its fetid breath. The dog was trying to bite his arm, so Adam aimed the flamethrower at the open mouth and fired a full charge.
The flames narrowly missed, hitting the side of the dog's mouth and incinerating its tongue and part of its throat, along with what was left of the animal's fur.
The dog roared in pain, but to Adam's misfortune, it kept going. The collision between the two was painful and Adam felt the powerful jaws close on his left arm. He fell to the ground next to the Berserker and lost the ability to reason clearly as a horrible pain came over him.
Noah shot at the zombie and Tarin threw an icicle, which missed and nearly hit Adam. They both stopped, helpless. Anin did what he could. He approached and hit the zombie in the back with his daggers, which proved useless. The situation improved when Leonard joined the fight. His ball slammed into the dog's head and exploded, stunning the Berserker and Adam. The latter was so close that he was momentarily deafened.
The zombie, for its part, was much more stunned, enough for it to let go of Adam for an instant and retreat a few steps. Noah took advantage of this moment to approach, fire a double shot and retreat, dragging a still dazed Adam behind him.
The Berserker took the shots all over the muzzle, causing significant damage that forced it to retreat another step, however, it recovered moments later, in time to take another bullet. The blast was effective, but the effect was minor. The Berserker was filled with rage, multiplying its strength.
The dog leaped towards Anin without warning, much faster than Leonard expected. Anin managed to get out of the way of the zombie, which crashed into a wall with force. Meanwhile, a group of zombies left the building from which the Berserker emerged and another battle began in the street.
Miguel, concerned, ordered everyone to continue moving towards block 4, as they were already so close that after turning the next corner they would be able to see the superblock they were fleeing towards.
Adam came to his senses a little, but realized that he was quite injured. His left arm was shattered and he knew he needed an antidote. Noah dragged him over to Miriam, who crouched down beside him.
"There's an antidote in my bag," he said in a weak voice.
Without wasting any time, Miriam nodded and searched through the bag until she found the antidote. It was the last one they had left, so she hoped there were no more wounded among their group.
However, when she pulled out the antidote, the same survivor who had approached her earlier ran up to her with his eyes fixed on the vial.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone