Chapter 9: Walking into the lion’s den

Chapter 9: Walking into the lion's den

"Alright! Let's go." Luke nodded. Just as they were about to walk out, Alice came toward them and asked, "You are going to hunt zombies?"

"Yeah." Luke nodded and asked, "What is it?"

"Can you give me another chance and take me with you?" She asked, her cold face reddening slightly. She clearly wasn't used to ask anyone any favour. But to become stronger, she put her pride aside and asked him.

Although Luke was very disappointed by her earlier, he couldn't help but admire her resolve.

After a moment, he spoke. "Sure, I can take you. But you have to follow my orders and that too, with no hesitation. If you can agree to it, let's go. If not, stay here. I'm not fond of deliberately increasing my problem."

"You..." Alice understood why he was asking her this, but his attitude angered her. Taking a deep breath to calm down, she nodded. "I understand. I'll follow your orders."

"Good. Let's go." Luke nodded in satisfaction.

Ben looked at his back, his eyes flickering in thought. 'Right now, I'm completely useless and a burden on him, but he agreed to help me without hesitation just because I'm his friend.' He felt gratified by the thought. Then he clenched his fists and vowed in his heart, 'I'll do my best to become stronger and not be a burden on him anymore.'

"Are you not going to help the professor?" Alice asked, pointing toward the professor Nina, who was talking with the store owner.

"She is not ready yet." Luke curtly replied and before walking out.

Seeing the trio preparing to go out, professor Nina asked, "Where are you going, Luke?"

"To become stronger." Ben answered her.

Professor Nina became worried when she heard this. Just as she was about to say something, Luke smiled at her. "You guys lock the door and wait for us. We'll be back soon."

Saying this, he walked out of the store with Alice and Ben following him.

After they went out, the store owner lady asked, "Are... are they going to kill more zombies?"

"Yeah." Professor Nina sighed.

...

After leaving the store, as the trio looked around to see if any zombie was out on the road. However, they didn't see any zombie.

"Thank god, Luke, you brought us to this deserted area or we might've already become zombie food." Ben said, as he exhaled in relief.

Alice didn't say anything, but she was also thankful.

Luke just smiled and led them in front of the closest house.

"Are we going to lure them out?" Ben asked.

Luke shook his head. "No. We are going inside."

"Hey, won't it be more dangerous to fight them in enclosed spaces?" Ben asked, worriedly. He couldn't muster his courage to enter the house, knowing that there were zombies inside.

Luke nodded. "Yes, it'll be more dangerous. However, we can't afford to lure them out and fight in the open because our fighting sounds will attract the other zombies from the nearby houses." He then added, "We were lucky before because the store is slightly away from the rest of the houses and our fight didn't attract more of those things."

He thought for a moment before taking off his vest and gave it to Ben, "Wear this. It can protect you from any zombie's attack at and below level 3."

"Woah! You have something so amazing." Ben looked at the vest excitedly but didn't take it and said, "If I take this, you'll have nothing. Remember, you are going to our main fighting force. So, you need this more than I do."

"Just take it, fatty. I don't want you to have something to rely on if you accidentally came face to face with some zombie. To me, it doesn't matter much whether or not I have this." Luke said, pushing the vest in his hand.

"But..." Ben wanted to say something when Alice coldly interjected, "Don't waste time. Just take it and if you don't want it, give it to me."

"I want it." Ben hurriedly wore it and said while glancing at Alice, "Hehe, it's a good thing. I already feel safe."

"Humph!" Alice softly snorted, seeing him show off.

Seeing him become complacent, Luke warned him, "Remember, it'll only protect the covered area, not the whole body. So, be mindful of it. Let's go now."

Creak~

He slowly pushed open the door, trying not to make any noise, but it seemed something heavy was placed against the door, so when he pushed it, there was some noise. Although it wasn't too loud, it successfully attracted the zombies inside. nove-lB-In

Grawr!

Thud! Thud!

They heard zombies' snarling sounds, followed by the two pairs of heavy footsteps coming from the second floor.

"Hurry, get inside." Luke shouted in a hushed voice before entering the house. Alice didn't hesitate and immediately followed him. After some hesitation, Ben also entered, his legs shaking in fear already.

"Ahhh..." He cried out in fear because the first thing he saw after entering was a half-eaten corpse of a middle-aged lady.

Luke didn't bother with him and ordered Alice, "Lock the door. It'll keep the outside zombies out even if they get attracted here."

Bang!

Alice immediately shut the door and turned the knob around, locking it.

"Follow me." Luke ran toward the single room on the ground floor. Since the zombies were on the second floor and going up would be more dangerous, he intended to make this room their battlefield.

However,

Grawr!

Just as they entered the room, they came across two zombies who were trying to go out, attracted by the sound earlier.

'Damn it. There are at least 4 zombies.' Luke cursed in his mind. To make matters worse, this room didn't have a door which they could close to keep the other two out while they took care of the two in front of them.

"Alice, you take care of the one on the left." He hurriedly shouted before dashing toward the on the right.

Grawr!

Seeing him come at it, the zombie growled and grabbed toward him.

Unfortunately, it was too slow and Luke had gotten a little faster after his agility increased by one point.

Whoosh!

He dodged zombie's hand and came behind it before smashing his club on its head.

Bang!

He didn't wait after hitting it one time and smashed it once more.

Poof!

The zombie's head burst. The broken pieces of its skull and its gooey brain matter splattering around. Some of it fell on his clothes and some on Ben's face.

Thud! The zombie fell to the floor with a thud.

Ben, who had been watching him, was amazed at how effortlessly Luke had killed it.

However, when the zombie's brain matter splashed his face, he was disgusted and then,

Blergh!

He threw up.

Luke ignored him and glanced at Alice. She was easily dodging the zombie's attack and she would hit it sometimes, but her club was about to hit its head, her hands would tremble and the power on her strike would weaken by more than half, causing the zombie no harm.

Seeing this, he sighed. Was this really the same Alice who could slay thousands of zombies alone?

Thud! Thud!

Just then, he heard the pair of footsteps rush down the staircase. Strangely, they seemed faster than normal zombies.

Luke eyes widened when he realised this and he immediately knew they were in for a tough fight.