Grey continued to lead the group, Bolt and Silver staying a few paces behind as they followed after.
They hadn’t said a word to each other, not after his battle against the mutated Bug. And Grey had done that on purpose.
His hand was still looking dehydrated, the skin slowly forming back to its normal state. He did not want to show this to Silver.
’I don’t know if I can trust her with all my cards, after all...’
He took a short glance back at Silver, who walked shyly with a bit of distance between herself and Bolt.
He had no true idea who she really was.
So along the way, Grey encountered two zombies. He swiftly killed both of them with little to no effort before scavenging a black leather jacket from one of the corpses and wearing it over himself, covering his healing arm.
At least this would hold until he eventually healed himself completely. It also helped with the unending rain, even if only a little.
Grey felt lucky.
At this point, the lone forest trail finally came to an end, leading into a large, abandoned and ruined area.
Grey stared through the large structures, the buildings and small silent shops that had been broken and destroyed. The road was littered with bodies and debris.
Underneath the rain and the lack of electricity, it almost looked like a place long forgotten and abandoned.
It was originally the Activity Center of the university.
Now, Grey could barely see any semblance of the place he remembered.
That was not what caught Grey’s full attention, though.
It was the sound.
Screams erupted from all around them. The snarls of monsters mixed with the sounds of a ravaging battle, echoing through the abandoned center.
Grey squinted his eyes and stared as far ahead as he could, shifting his attention through the Activity Center and following the sounds.
"Hurry!"
At this, Bolt backed up, and Silver answered with a yelp, both of their footfalls quickly growing louder behind Grey as they moved after him.
Grey reached a bend and turned.
He glanced down the road, and what he saw made his teeth clench.
Numerous mutated zombies were tearing through a crowd of people.
Students around his own age and other survivors were being lunged at and tackled to the ground, only to be ripped apart limb by limb within seconds.
It was a horrid sight to watch.
Grey remained where he was and watched as they fought, cornered in a death circle against the zombies.
He counted them.
Forty-four zombies.
A few dozen humans.
Among the humans were a few people who caught Grey’s attention.
Richard, one of the students facing the horde, had a baseball bat firmly held in both hands. With monstrous force, he swung it against the skull of every zombie that charged him.
His strikes were nothing short of devastating.
The bat smashed through bone, ripping heads apart and sending them ricocheting into the next zombie with a horrid snapping sound.
Sometimes, the impact was so powerful that it caused the skull of a zombie to collapse in on itself, grey fluid and pieces of broken bone filling the air.
He was able to hold a large portion of the horde back all on his own.
Another.
John held a pocket knife in his hand against the horde pouring his way. He plunged the short blade into the skulls of every zombie that threatened to pull him under.
He was fast.
Unspeakably skilled.
With such a short knife, most would have imagined him getting caught by the wrist and dragged into the horde. Given how close he had to get to deliver a fatal blow, even Grey would have been pulled in if he used such a short blade against these abhorrent monsters.
Yet John did it almost effortlessly.
He dove into the brunt of the horde, attacked a zombie, evaded two others, and let his dagger find its way into the skulls of several more with unshaking precision.
Then he would pull back toward the group, leaving little proof that he had just dived into the horde aside from the blood of the mutated zombies staining his clothing.
’He is even faring better than the huge guy.’
This made Grey wary.
But not as wary as when he saw the next person in their midst.
It was hard to make out much of her battle since she was positioned on the side of the group that was almost entirely blocked from view by the survivors.
Still, it was hard to miss.
A wave of luminescent blue tore through several members of the horde, freezing them in place.
Then, a few white projectiles flew through the air and buried themselves into the skulls of others.
’Is that... Ice?’
Even with the efforts of the group, there were still too many.
Despite their protection, people were still being pulled into the horde. Some zombies even managed to break through the defence of the three and pounced onto several survivors, tearing through flesh and bone alike.
At this moment, nothing else caught Grey’s attention.
He summoned his dagger and let out a low sigh.
’Let’s save them.’
With that, he sprang forward with immense speed.