Chapter 32 Moving Down

"My name is George. Glad to meet another living soul," he spoke with a smile as he brought his hand forward for a shake and shaking his hand back, I smiled as I answered,"Michael. This is Caroline."

He looked at Caroline, who was standing behind me holding the sleeves of my shirt and observing the others. Alex and White moved towards us and Alex introduced himself,"I am Alex," while White decided to remain silent.

"This is Martha and these two are Adam and Blake," George spoke, introducing the two men behind him as well as the woman who was trying to grab a hold of Caroline. I observed them one by one before looking at George as I asked,

"Is that all of you?"

George shook his head as he spoke,"no. There are more of us down there. We were trying to escape from the zombies below. Since you are coming from above, can you tell me what is the situation up there?"

I nodded as I explained about the zombies that we faced and how we barely managed to survive most of the time. I didn't tell him about the D-Grade zombies, but told him how some zombies were harder than the others to kill at which he nodded as he spoke,

"Yeah… we too faced a similar situation as yours."

"If you don't mind me asking, did you guys get any supplies up there?" he asked as he observed the bag each of us was carrying and the weapons we had in our hands.

'I guess, with the apocalypse hitting, food and water is going to become one of the most valuable resources,' I thought before proceeding to tell the truth as,"yeah. We used a bit of supplies, but since there was too much of it, we skipped most of the floors. You should find enough supplies up there."

Hearing my words, a semi hopeful smile appeared on his face, as well as the two men and that woman, too.

"Also, I cleaned off each and every floor because I did not want to have a zombie creeping up behind my back. So, you should not find any zombies up there. Though, it was a combined effort of all four of us," I spoke, making their smiles widen even more than before.

George was so happy that he asked it twice and I confirmed it again as I clarified how I did not want to leave even a single zombie behind before moving down the floors.

[Name: George Alan

Race: Human

Class: Blunt weapon user (Novice)

Zombification: 9%

Status: Healthy

Strength: 11

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 12

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 10

Charm: 12]

I checked his status and found him to be a bit stronger than the average human.

'The zombie genes were really increasing people's strength at quite a high rate, huh?' I thought before pondering a little as I asked,"what is the condition down there? Exactly how many people do you have down there?"

He looked at me and said,"there are about 50 people down there and we are trying to reach as high as we can. It's really bad down there and we are hoping to call for help with distress signals or something. Well, thanks to you, we can actually make it to the top without much problem. Thank you so much, Michael."

I nodded at him before making a curious expression as I spoke,"Is it really that bad down there? Just curious about it" and he made a bitter expression before speaking,"we have already lost many people there and the horde… it just keeps increasing. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think going down is possible anymore."

Hearing his words, I pondered a little before speaking,"Can I see the things down there?"

By that I meant the zombies, and he heard my words pondered a little before observing me and speaking,"I guess. It would be better to show you than tell you. Only then you will understand how hopeless our situation really is."

I observed him and wondered how old he was.. 20? A bit older than my younger brother. This reminds me… what would be my brother doing right now?

"Michael?" asked George as he observed me with slight confusion and I snapped out of my thoughts before I spoke,"no, it's just looking at you, it reminded me of my brother. That's all."

He looked at me and smiled a little and before speaking,"since we have decided to go all the way up from now, I think it is better to show you what is down there right now before all of us went up."

Hearing his words, I nodded before walking behind him, along with Alex and the others. The men, Blake and Adam, weren't skeptical anymore as they started talking with Alex and White more and more.

They asked a bunch of questions and soon started talking about their old life and stuff. That woman, Martha, apologized both to Caroline and I, and Caroline forgave her before apologizing for her own actions, soon starting another conversation.

As we walked down the floors, I found a few more people, and the numbers later kept increasing one by one. They looked half dead, as if they still hadn't accepted reality and when they saw us joining them their eyes turned even more dead, it's as if we were just extra mouths to feed.

Some of them asked George about the situation and when he told them about how the top was all clear, they became really happy before some of them even started going up. George let them go up, despite knowing that they might take all the supplies to themselves. Wonder what he was planning…

We reached the 39th floor, 38th floor, 37th floor, 36th floor and on each of these floors, men and women were just sitting there doing various activities of their own. Some of them were praying continuously, begging for forgiveness for their sins, others were on the balcony observing the madness the apocalypse ensued.

I checked their status as well and most of them had slight zombification with nothing that great in particular compared to George, who was the strongest among all of them. While most of them were businessmen, some of them had useful skills like carpenting and medical knowledge, but that too wasn't up to par honestly.

'None of them are particularly useful… with most of them being a burden,' I thought as I observed them. When I was talking about their usefulness, I wasn't looking at their abilities. I know that ability can be developed overtime, but I was looking at their mindset.

Either they had too much ego based on their previous status before the apocalypse occurred, or they were just too scared to actually do something. The kids were more of the 'bully' kids with nasty personalities as well. One look and you can tell that they were ogling Caroline. Even some men were the same.

'I just hope they don't end up doing something foolish and getting killed by Caroline or something. Or else… we might end up making a really nasty choice,' I thought as I moved downwards.