Chapter 20 Light Source

With the help of his newfound strength and athletic capabilities, Zain got out of the room through the window and balanced his body by putting his toe on the pipeline on the wall. Then, putting his feet on the ledges, he got on the fence and jumped on the street and was soon out of the house.

Even before turning into an undead, Zain wasn't an average joe and used to be an active person, regularly maintaining his physique. However, the extra strength and pain-free body allowed him to surpass his previous limits, which was one of the reasons he could quickly get out of the house without any stress on his body.

And now that he was standing in the street, his next task was to set his priorities straight.

'There are two objectives to this night trip. The main priority is to find some flesh to eat and refill my energy, and the second is to, if possible, level up and see what I can do.

'You know what, let's add a bonus objective, if I happen to run into Jade, I'll make her my first test subject. I never thought of ruining anyone's life, but she is a different story. She murdered her own friend and even put the lives of my friends in extreme danger. With such crimes under her belt, she has already given up her right to live.'

With these objectives in his mind, Zain began walking toward the one place where he might get the most benefits in a short time. This place was the main light source throughout the whole neighbourhood, especially at this time of the night. It was the Supermarket. This was also where any survivor would try to get in to find any kind of supplies or just anything that could help them, survive for longer.

Zain knew that the building would most likely be full of corpses and zombies, and he might even encounter some humans.

Walking to the supermarket, Zain first went past a few zombies, and as expected, they paid him no attention. And finally, he entered the car park. There were several abandoned cars, some of which had even crashed into each other.

Looking at one of the cars, Zain found a woman's corpse lying on the driver's seat. He first noticed that its head was caved, and all of the brain matter was missing.

'Oh, another one,' Zain thought. This wasn't the first corpse he had come across, and he had found one thing common in them.

'So the zombies are going for the brain.'

However, the rest of the corpse mattered the most to him. The Zombies hadn't fully eaten the flesh on the victim like how they did the brain. Sure there were bite marks and missing parts, but it was enough for him to get closer to one of his objectives.

"I'm sorry, but I will use your body for a good reason. At least for me, the reason is good," Zain thought before he bit his teeth into the arm of the corpse. It was a lot easier for him this time, having done it twice.

[You have consumed flesh]

[Flesh is around five hours old]

[You have recovered 2 Points of energy]

'ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ Novel(B) in.ᴄᴏᴍ ᴛᴏ ᴇxᴘᴇʀɪᴇɴᴄᴇ ꜰᴀsᴛᴇʀ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ sᴘᴇᴇᴅ.',

[Body functionality remains the same]

[Note: Consume fresher flesh to gain more energy]

[Note: Certain parts of the human body consumed are better for recovering body functionality.]

Honestly, Zain wasn't satisfied by the energy points he gained. He had eaten quite a bit of the arm of the poor woman before the message appeared. But one thing was clear, he either needed to eat fresh flesh, or he needed to eat a lot more meat.

'There is one good thing though. Eating the flesh would reveal how long ago the person died. It can give me an idea of how much I have to worry about, but there's another thing. This corpse is five hours old. Isn't it around the same time the University was attacked?'

p Usually, if Zain imagined this type of scenario, it would be like a plague swiftly spreading out from its epicentre. The police and the military would try to contain it, and humans would be able to hold up in certain places fighting against it.

However, if the city off in the distance was anything to go by, perhaps this whole Zombie attack started in multiple places simultaneously, making it nearly impossible to contain.

After some more thought, Zain put this matter back in his mind since he still didn't have the whole picture of what was happening.

In the end, Zain checked a few more cars and found more dead humans that he could somewhat eat. However, they all had one identical injury. Their brain would be entirely missing.

By the time he finished, Zain had recovered some of his energy.

[Energy: 78/100]

'My body functionality is still at 90 percent though. I feel the message from the system was trying to give me a hint. I've tried a few body parts, but it hasn't helped. The most vital body part that's left is the brain...and with other Zombies going for the same thing...finding enough won't be possible. Maybe that is the only way to get some of my body function back to a 100 percent.'

While walking through the car park, Zain was around two more rows until the front entrance. That was when he noticed something unexpected. He found some corpses on the floor, but these were actually zombies.

Some had bullet marks on their heads, a few were stabbed or beaten to death. And upon raising his head, he found the shutter of the main entrance closed as well.

'It looks like there are people inside.' Zain smiled.

--

"Hey, hey!" A woman with glasses was running into the supermarket. She wore a blazer with a name tag stating 'Substitute Teacher: Kelly'.

"There's someone outside. It looks like a person!"

'ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ N ovelBi(n)',

There were around five others in the supermarket, people of different ages and gender. Hearing the woman's words, they all turned their heads with hope in their eyes.

"What did they look like? Is it the police or military? How many people?!" A large middle-aged woman asked.

"It...looks like it's just one person...they just look like a normal person, maybe a student from the university?" Kelly replied. "I'll go to the shutters and let him in when he gets close."

But just when the substitute teacher turned around, she felt herself knock into another person.

"If you open those shutters, I'll throw you out and close them again. You can't risk the lives of everyone in here for one person.

Hearing these words, Kelly couldn't help but gulp, but she stood up for herself.

"If we carefully watch him from the camera room, we can see if there are any zombies outside and safely bring him in. That's what we did for you as well."

The man in gym clothes had his arms crossed, and silence descended on the group.

"Fine, let's have a look."

Following the large man, everyone went to the camera room, and when they arrived, they found that the student was now in a tricky situation.

----

Standing in Zain's way was a single Zombie, who had a black hat on, and was wearing a white shirt with a baton in his hand. His attire indicated he was most likely one of the security guards of this place before he lost his life to the horde.

[Mutated Zombie has been discovered]

[You will lose not lose exp for killing the zombie]

'Excellent.' Zain thought to himself.

****

Thank you for reading the story so far, remember to use your stones to vote for WSA 2022