Chapter 98 10 Days

[Volume 3: You didn't mess with my family, did you?]

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[Amoury Sanders White's POV:-]

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It has been 10 days since Michael went off on his own. According to Caroline, it will take about 2 weeks for him to return at max… at least that's what Michael had told her.

I have my doubts that he had just ditched us here out of nowhere, but since it's just a matter of two weeks, I decided to stay and wait for him. After all, I don't really have anywhere else to go, either.

During the past 10 days, we didn't stay idle. Most of us absorbed the cores given by Michael and George, who had become really strong ever since Michael helped him; he has been doing a great job of keeping the zombies at bay.

It wasn't all that we did in the past 10 days, though.

Along with killing the zombies and trying to figure out a way to grow plants on the terrace, we also cleared the area around the building, built a bit of barricade and collected food and arms from nearby shops. There was a sports shop nearby and about 2 dozen baseball bats, along with another batch of 20 hockey sticks, were found there.

It was a nice touch to our already depleting armory, but honestly, even this won't last long enough. We also tried some makeshift equipment, while I helped the youngsters, guiding them about military ways of making equipment from scratch.

Since we were running out of our stock, I suggested that some of us move around the city and try scouring some more profitable areas like police stations or malls and to see if we can get something there.

Yesterday, Alex and I were the ones who went outside, and we did find a mini mall of sorts not too far from here which looked really infested with zombies. While the zombies were bad news, it was also good news, since the chances of that place being raided already were really low.

Today I stood back and let Caroline and Alex go together to scour the area around that mini mart, trying to find anything peculiar that should be in our consideration in case we needed to raid that mini mart.

Alex went again because of his high senses, he should be able to detect any strong zombies around and warn us beforehand while Caroline went with him because she was the strongest among us physical attribute wise. Though she lacked some skills, she was a fairly strong fighter.

It was another normal day as zombies came in hordes towards us. Though the number of hordes decreased to 1-2 every 2-3 days, which gave us a sort of breather.

"Their number is about 30-35 and there are 3 strong ones among them,"one of the guys with binoculars said, as he looked at the incoming horde of the day. Other than Alex, whose senses were developed really high, we got two more people who can more or less pinpoint strong zombies. Though unlike Alex, who can literally differentiate between which zombie has a core and which one doesn't, these guys could only barely gauge the difference between strong and weak zombies.

'The cores are really something though,' I thought as I saw how much of a difference it produced between those who cultivated with cores and those who didn't. But anyway, since we got many strong members, now it was all good.

"Prepare the traps. Let's start with tactic 2, today," I shouted, and they listened to me as they began hustling. Though I can see the lack of interest in a few people's faces. These were the ones who grew a bit more stronger than the others and started considering themselves as special.

"I do hope Michael comes back strong or else one day we might have a power struggle for the leader," I muttered slowly as I too prepared for the battle.

The zombies came and some of them fell in the ground traps we laid while others were caught in the net we threw. It didn't do anything to the stronger zombies, but to the weaker ones, it did separate them apart.

-Whoosh!

I ran using the strange energy that was present inside me and reaching closer to one of the stronger zombies, who was crawling towards us.

-Pow!

I first punched it from below. It did take some extra energy to do it, but it was fine overall. I saw that guy flying in the air and using the hockey stick in my hand

-BOOOM!!!

I hit it at its weak point, pushing it away from me. I saw it standing up again, but this time it was having a bit of difficulty crawling. Still, it crawled towards me with uneven steps and yet again…

-BOOM!!!

I hit it at its weakest point, finally rendering it motionless.

I turned around to see that the other zombies had already been killed, more or less by the people here. Out of 30 zombies, half were trapped, 12 were easily killed by the youngsters, while the two stronger ones other than the one I killed were trapped and killed together by the combined efforts of the people here.

"Good work, everyone," one of them shouted as he smiled brightly before moving to search for the zombie cores. Watching him move, the others also started running around, trying to find the zombie cores.

While we did fight together, there was an unspoken rule established among the people here. The one who will find the zombie core will be the one keeping it. It was a simple but workable rule that everybody agreed upon.

'Though, the ones who are stronger are generally getting more cores than the others…' I thought as I saw it with my own two eyes. It's like they have figured out which zombie would have more probability of having a core.

A hierarchy of sorts has started building up too. I kind of wonder what Michael would do in this situation. Well, whatever he does is up to him. All I have to do is to make sure he keeps his promise in return for mine.

After cleaning the zombies and throwing them outside where we burned them at a distance as usual, we moved back into the Libra building area. However, as we were moving towards the main building, I found someone coming out of the basement area.

It was a familiar face. One that I… or perhaps most of us, have been waiting for.

'Though, why is he coming out from the basement?' I questioned as I moved towards him. The others, noticing me moving in another direction, looked there as well before a sudden smile appeared on their faces.

"Sir Michael!!" one of them shouted as we all went towards Michael, who was moving towards us with a warm smile as he waved his hand at us.

Though…

My eyes widened as I sensed something from him…

"Monster," I muttered under my breath silently as I gauged the difference between the previous him and the current him. I could only gulp as I look at the current Michael and wonder what happened in the last 10 days.

As a military man, I can more or less tell how strong a person is just by looking at them and I can tell that he, Michael Aroa, is beyond anything I have seen in my entire life.

"How are you doing, White? And… Can you tell me how long I have been away for?" he asked as he looked at me with a slightly awkward smile.