PART 1
After a few hours.
Ethan has Level 5 Constitution and Fitness, his body recovers faster than normal, but he is still human.
Luckily, with a nurse treating him, Ethan, even if limited, can move his arms, and when the combat begins and the adrenaline kicks in, this will no longer be a problem.
Using [Radar Sense], Ethan discovered 9 infected isolated in a barricaded room.
“Here’s my plan,” Ethan says calmly.
“We’ll open a gap here, but the rest will remain barricaded, and I want you in positions to secure it.”
“I want to lure them out so they focus on me.
I’ll take them down, one by one.
All you have to do is resist while I kill them, understand?” Ethan stares at them, and with confirmation, they begin to move the barricade and open the door.
“Why not use the weapon?” someone asks.
“I don’t want to concentrate the infected below us at this point, it will be more difficult when I go down and… we’ve already spread many of them around the area, the noise attracts them and I still need to close the entrances.” – With that said, Ethan focused on grabbing the zombies with his axe.
They came and were easily killed.
9 zombies died in less than 10 minutes.
Of course, he went in to kill the last 3 of them.
But with that, this floor and the one above are free of zombies.
“I’m going down the stairs and seeing what I can do down there.
I’ll clean up and then bring some to help me with the food, okay?” – Ethan looks at them and as they nod, he quickly goes down.
…
Ethan walks through the corridors, they are dark, as this happened during the day, they don’t need the lights to be on during the day.
The darkness was his friend.
Zombies don’t see at night, in fact, it’s likely their vision is worse than ordinary humans.
And so, using the strategy of sheathing his axe after each strike, he advances with unstoppable momentum.
Zombies fall in droves through the corridors, unable to understand what is happening.
Attracted by the sounds, they trot and fall onto the corpses.
Ethan eliminates them, one by one.
With [Radar Sense], he knows where they are hiding, leaving no room for surprises.
When he reaches the cafeteria, a very large space with 8 of them, Ethan makes noise and kills them, concentrating them and scattering them at the same time.
In 3 minutes, all 8 lie on the floor.
In the kitchen, 2 zombie women die.
Ethan spends the next hour wandering the first floor, killing anything that moves and should be dead.
Upon reaching the entrances, he uses chairs and tables he kept in his inventory to create barricades.
After sealing the entrances, killing all accessible zombies, and raising his kill count from 348 to 388, Ethan returns, turns on the lights, and heads to the barricaded staircase.
“You can open this barricade, I cleared the place!” Ethan shouts.
After a moment of silence, they ask for confirmation.
– “It’s clear, I wouldn’t put children’s lives at risk.
I’ve spent the last 2 hours searching every place here, there shouldn’t be any more of them alive.”
With that said, the barricade was dismantled on both sides.
When a path is opened.
– “Let’s go to the cafeteria.”
Everyone is excited.
But the corpses in the path make their stomachs churn, some vomit.
When they arrive at the cafeteria, the situation is horrific.
“Here’s the thing!” Ethan pulls out a box.
– “Here are gloves and aprons.
There’s no free food.
I want you to split into two groups: those who will help cook and those who will clean.
I know you’re hungry, but there are bodies and blood everywhere; if you get hurt and the blood is exposed in the wound, you become one of them.”
It takes a while, but they start to move.
The corpses are pushed out.
They begin to clean the place while slowly the smell of food emerges.
Ethan uses the radio.
– “Clark?
Jerome?
Anyone?”
<> “Hey, it’s me.” – Clark’s voice rings out.
“The school is safe, I managed to clear it out.
There are still many corpses to be piled up and given a decent burial, but as soon as dawn breaks, I want weapons and ammunition transported here and half of our personnel capable of fighting and shooting.
I want to establish a base here.”
<> “Okay.
Good to know the kids are alright.”
“The fact that you try to sound so mature doesn’t change the fact that you’re the youngest of the police officers.” – Ethan teases him.
PART 2
August 27th, Friday.
Day 3 of the apocalypse.
The school survivors had a good night’s sleep, their bellies full after almost 48 hours without food.
Ethan ate and slept.
When he woke up, he was sore all over and felt that sleeping on a bed of nails would have been more comfortable.
Whatever the case.
The radio rings, informing them that they are arriving.
In 10 minutes, Clark arrived.
Curiously, Mercy is with them, she came to see if there are any injured.
“How was the situation with Kenny and the farmers?” – Ethan asked.
“Uwo?
Without a hug or an invitation to dinner?” – Clark raises his hands.
“Look here, you brat, I’m in a lot of pain, I must look like a virgin girl who just lost her virginity, but all over my body.
Sorry if I don’t want to waste time with foreplay.” – Ethan rolls his eyes.
Clark laughs and says.
“Everything went well.
Kenny got our cooperation and gave us information about the infected and what needs to be done.
Everyone agreed to help with food, as long as we can provide people to help.”
“People won’t be a problem; there are still many survivors scattered around,” Ethan says.
“And if we can clear more, people will have the courage to leave, like those two.
And speaking of them… where are they?”
“They’re with Kenny,” Clark says.
“Ivan is Kenny’s nephew.
Even though they seem distant, the important thing is that they’re family.
Ivan’s friend, Mauro, joined them to protect the base with Jerome and access more farmers.”
Ethan nods.
“The electricity and water supply should stop soon,” he says calmly.
“In two or three days we should have problems.
Until then, let’s focus on storing as much water as we can.
Food won’t be a problem for now, but water can’t run out.”
“Where are you going?” Clark asks, watching Ethan leave.
“I’m going to kill more of these things.”
“Aren’t you tired?” Clark frowns, worried.
“They’re dead, I don’t feel guilty about killing them.
But if they’re still out there, more can suffer, and we have to take advantage while they’re scattered.
I’ll use my axe to clear the place, find more survivors and instruct them to come here.
I want a checkpoint, investigate anyone who comes, and isolate those suspected of infection.” Ethan says calmly, seeing Damian.
“Good that you’re here, you’re going to work.”
“Just say the word, boss.” Damian smiles.
“I want you to take a look at the doors leading to the courtyard; I destroyed their locks, it will be good to have a way to lock them again.
But now, I want you to focus on strengthening the barricades at the main entrances.
If a horde is attracted, we’ll have time.”
Damian nods and begins to work.
With his axe slung over his shoulder, Ethan heads out for more carnage while the group regroups.
“Is he human?” the nurse asks.
“He killed over 200 of those things yesterday, cleared the first floor, and… we counted over 40 bodies.
Doesn’t he ever get tired?”
Clark stares at her and shrugs.
“I didn’t even know he was like Superman, but if he wants to kill more and keep us safe, who am I to complain?”
…
“Here’s my plan,” Ethan says calmly to the group.
“Our gunshots and horns split them up quite a bit, but they also brought them together and may have put people in danger.”
Everyone in front nods.
“So the plan is more of the same.
Advance slowly, but first, clear the streets of any overturned vehicles; we have these mobile tanks for a reason.
With a safe city to move around in, we’ll have more practicality in annihilating them and luring them away.
That’s what I want you to do.” – Ethan says to the two groups.
– “Go out, kill, patrol, and repeat until 2 hours before nightfall.”
“And what about you?” – Jacob asked.
Ethan didn’t answer and showed the city map.
– “The objective is to move through this more spacious area, where the main shops are, and it’s a far end from the neighboring city; we don’t want to attract the dead from there to here, then there will be hundreds or thousands more to worry about.”
“Regarding your question.
I need to do what no one else here has the courage to do.
I’m going to start invading houses, clearing out the infected inside, counting the people, and sending those who are willing to go to school.
Establish a safe triage location.”
In his words, everyone falls silent.
“I don’t mean to insult, but I’m more comfortable with these things, I have nothing tying me to this world, and I was never the best cop.” – Ethan laughs lightly.
– “And no, I wasn’t corrupt.” – Ethan stares at Jerome, who laughs.
“I just adapt quickly to this kind of world, and I hope it’s a good thing.” – Ethan laughs bitterly.
– “I don’t want to imagine the things I’ll find, but I’ll have to deal with them.”
Ethan closes the map and, looking at everyone, says, “After we secure our city, I plan to barricade the center so we have a safe place to move around, but for that, we’ll need trucks and go to the port.
We need to get a lot of resources and containers there to use as barricades and surround the entire city.”
“That’s going to be a huge job,” says Arthur.
“Yes, but would you rather your children and grandchildren grow up in a pen like pigs, or walled off inside a safe city?” Ethan stares at him.
“Not to mention that the options are for us to wall off the city and develop here, or leave it.”
“Leave?” Jerome asks.
“When I prepared, I expected a global pandemic with people dying and lying dead in droves, something that would destabilize governments, but that with proper care would be survivable.
But this…” Ethan glances at some piled-up corpses.
“We’re too close to Atlanta, and it has millions of inhabitants.
I believe a third has already turned into this [situation].
In the next few days, if the military can’t recover, people will start starving to death, not to mention the highways being clogged with vehicles.
I don’t even want to imagine the chaos that’s there.” – Ethan hasn’t yet gone out to see the main roads.
The good thing about living in a small town hours away from a big city is that the main roads aren’t so conspicuous.
They’re rural areas that big city people tend to avoid.
And since most people’s mentality is to go where there’s security, military and government forces, they might even think that things could be much worse in small towns and avoid them.
Of course, sometimes survivors’ vehicles pass by and ignore them.
Certainly, they move away from where there were shootings and many people who took advantage of having annihilated the dead took their vehicles to flee the city.
The city is emptying out, and that’s good.
…
The cleanup operation continued.
As the vehicles depart and the shooting begins, Ethan, with his trusty axe and spending 412 EXP, raises his Fitness from Level 4+1 to 5+1.
Energy coursing through his body, the pain lessening, and his stamina increasing.
The lack of sleep and the frantic combat of yesterday have been mitigated by 70%.
With his trusty axe, Ethan sharpens his senses, his eyes closed, knowing where the survivors and infected are.
He goes in search of the infected to give them their final rest.
But beyond that, he assesses the people, the situations in the houses, and finds a scene.
A family being held hostage, a mother and her two children.
There are 3 men conversing randomly, and it’s clear what they did to the woman, who used herself to protect her children from these monsters.
He knows they are monsters, and so he finds an open window on the second floor of the house, climbs up, and crawls.
Inside the house, a silenced pistol is in hand.
A large, fat man emerges from the bathroom, a bullet in his head, his large body slumped.
The two men downstairs laugh and shout.
“Fatty, did you fall?”
Ethan watched, and as they received no response, they sensed something bad had happened, so they went upstairs without waiting long.
Then they see the fallen man, and as they approach, they are met by Ethan, who kills them without blinking.
The human death counter reached 6, no milestone reached.
– ‘Please, let it not be 100…’
Kyaaahh!!
The woman screams in terror and runs.
Ethan comes down.
– “Please, no!” – She screams, and Ethan calmly shows his police badge.
“I’m Ethan Walker, a police officer.
I’m with a militia that’s clearing the city of the infected.
A lot of people like those three bastards are showing up, and I’m dealing with them.
The government has fallen, ma’am, and we can’t tolerate this situation.
I’ve observed and investigated enough before acting.”
The woman stares at him.
“I’ll take the bodies outside, and I want to know if you have enough food for three to four days.
If you do, know that should be enough time for me and my people to clear the city.” – Ethan says calmly.
The woman stares at him.
– “Yes… we have food.”
Ethan nods, then begins carrying the bodies outside, the woman watching him and keeping both her children away.
“I’m sorry for the scare.” – Saying this, Ethan leaves a bag of supplies.
– “I don’t know if you lied about the food or not, but here’s some.”
Leaving the bag, Ethan leaves, the woman takes the food and goes inside.
Ethan continues his cleanup work. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Breaking into houses and apartments, talking to those who are still alive, giving short explanations or ignoring those who are too agitated.
The count increases.
He reached an apartment with a dozen zombies, but after killing them and reaching the top floor, he found 3 men, practically unconscious and having injected drugs into their bodies.
Ethan noticed weapons and used condoms.
– ‘Not the kind of people I want in the new world.’ – Ethan thinks and, drawing his weapon, finishes them off.
Before coming here, he killed 2 more obviously dangerous people.
Now with 11 kills on his shoulders, Ethan received a notification.
[1st Kill Milestone Reached – 10 Humans Killed]
[Reward: +1 Extra Survival Level]
“I understand…” – Ethan laughed.
Zombies provide skill levels beyond the limit, but in return, they have milestone requirements that increase exponentially.
From 100 to 500.
Now, here, humans will become increasingly difficult to find, so noticing that for every 10 humans killed, you gain 1 extra level.
‘Kill 10 survivors to gain 1 survival level.’ – Ethan laughs bitterly while his hands still tremble.
He killed 3 people for being mere wastes of life.
Drugged in the apocalypse, perhaps criminals, but they could redeem themselves.
The fact that he’s a police officer is because, besides valuing people’s safety, he also believed in second chances.
But this is the apocalypse; there are no resources or opportunities to give people second chances.
Because kindness in this world can cost them dearly.
Ethan is not willing to pay the price.
…
Night begins to fall.
Ethan smokes his cigarette while his axe drips blood.
He looks at the number of dead humans… 34…
Ethan spent 3 points on Charisma, the results were:
[2]: 3 → 4 Charisma.
[8]: 4 Charisma.
[10]: 4 Charisma.
The remaining 6 points were spent on Willpower:
[7]: 6 → 7 Willpower
[8]: 7 → 8 Willpower
[8]: 8 → 9 Willpower
[3]: 9 Willpower
[8]: 9 Willpower
[10]: 9 → 10 Willpower
In 3 levels, he gained 5 points.
Of the 9 points spent, 5 brought something good, immense luck.
But looking at his hand, the blood on it, his vision blurs and the blood doesn’t stop flowing.
More and more blood gushed, spilling onto the floor, accompanied by cries of surprise, men and women pleading.
Ethan didn’t just kill criminals, but infected people.
People who had been bitten and whom he knew were beyond saving.
He tried to explain, he tried, but…
Clenching his fist and with a colder look than usual, he glanced at the workshop he had just left.
Six bodies scattered about, all of whom he had just killed.
Men he had seen before, two of whom were detained at the police station, who had helped him.
But he saw that they wanted to kill him, wanted to take his weapons, and even discussed where the others were, to kill them and take their weapons and ammunition.
Ethan knew he couldn’t leave them alive, so he ended it before it got worse.
Sighing and exhaling the smoke from his lungs, with the smell of gunpowder in the air, he grabbed a car key and got in, starting the engine as a tear fell.
He drives to school, but stops at a house first, he showers… he cleans himself, even though he doesn’t feel clean.
PART 3
At the school, Ethan’s arrival is well-received.
Some of the people he directed here, dozens of them, see him as a savior.
Those who were already here are happy with his arrival.
But Ethan sees many familiar and new faces.
– “Are those the farmers?” – Ethan asks.
“Yes.
They decided to send help to clean up the city, more hands and weapons, just like you wanted.” – Jerome says, laughing.
Ethan nods as he lights a cigarette.
– “I’m tired, if all is well, I’ll go home.”
“Sure, but first, how about a chat?
They heard about what you did.” – Jerome says, not noticing that Ethan is at his limit.
Even wanting to leave, he nods, not even knowing where he got the strength for it.
A woman in a striped shirt came up to him.
– “Hi Ethan, I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m more than okay.” – Ethan smiles.
“I’m glad you joined this madness I started.”
“Someone needed to do this, kid, take the lead and have the courage most of us don’t have,” said an older man, grabbing his shoulder.
Ethan smiles.
“I’m doing what I think is right.
I might be wrong, but God will decide my fate when I die.”
Everyone nods.
Soon Ethan is invited to eat and chat more in the cafeteria.
Kenny is around, helping organize people with his wife.
Ethan talks to these farmers.
He didn’t want to work right now, he’s exhausted, but it’s the role he chose, the responsibility he has.
…
“Keeping the farms safe will be difficult,” Ethan says.
“Atlanta is too close, there are other counties and nearby cities, these things, whether we like it or not, are going to spread and always cause headaches, and if the Atlanta people break through the military barricades, I don’t need to tell you what a headache that will be.”
His words worry them.
“That’s why my plan, after securing the city, is to go to the ports and some industries, get their trucks and containers, use them entirely or just dismantle them and then release them on walls all over the city.” – Ethan says calmly.
“But in the meantime, with the farms that will be our main source of food, which we can’t ignore at all, not to mention that these things kill animals, luckily the animals don’t come back as one of them, but we certainly can’t risk eating infected meat.”
“Then I’ll talk to Damian and anyone who knows about engineering and construction, so we can build towers in strategic locations on each farm, arm what would be soldiers, and when we’re more stable, we can focus our time and resources on cutting down the trees, creating more fortified walls around each farm, especially for the animals; they are very important resources for the future of this community.”
“Do you plan to help the other towns?” – A woman asks.
“If possible, yes.” – Ethan nods.
– “But we are few people and it’s already difficult to get everyone to have the courage and stomach to endure all this.
I know that with time they will get used to it, but right now, I can’t ask them to fight in the reconquest of other nearby towns.
So, I think that until next month, we won’t have the means to help others besides ourselves.”
Before they can speak, he adds.
– “But I can try to extend help to those on the roads; I personally plan to do patrols and, if possible, I will personally bring people from other cities here.
But nothing like what we are doing here; we don’t have the capacity for that.
But I can extend it to other farms and pastures, as they will be important and we need as much as possible.
We can’t lose the harvest.”
Everyone nods and continues talking, all listening to what Ethan has to say.
His ideas are indeed brilliant and logical, especially since he has his mind in the right place.