Out in the open

The jeep crashed to the back of the bus making the bus lose control momentarily. Jason grit his teeth as he tried his best to control the wobbling bus. The jeep, on the other hand, crashed to the side as it's hood spat up globs of white smoke. A middle-aged man came out of the offroad vehicle as he watched the bus finally stop wobbling.

Jason heaved a sigh of relief as he finally stopped the bus. The bus was essential for their survival till they find a better vehicle. He can't be like others who can live holed up with enough food and water, he'll have to slaughter zombies to grow stronger. He can only forge ahead and kill all the zombies in his way to grow strong enough to guarantee his and his loved one's safety.

He didn't even look back to see if the man was okay or not, it was his own mistake that he crashed into them. He fired up the engine and took off leaving the man in a daze as he watched the bus go leaving a trail of zombie bodies.

"Why didn't you stop to check on the man he could be hurt," Arya asked him in a blaming tone.

"First of all it's his mistake he crashed into us and the second we are running out of time, we have to loot the food from the mall as once people come to their senses and get adapted to the apocalypse the first thing they will go after will be places with food and weapons," Jason said with a serious tone, trying to make her understand the severity of the situation.

"And the world isn't the same as before Arya it'll become crueler as law and order are bound to fall and you'll have to adapt accordingly and become ruthless and calculative to survive. If we had stopped to check on the man he would either be our enemy or a burden to us. We want neither right now"

Arya didn't really agree with him but she could understand his reason so she let it be for now. "we should also find some common medicines and basic first aid, we will need them if we get hurt or fall ill" She was a medical student and had some rudimentary knowledge of medicine and first aid.

This made Jason fall in deep thought as he had seen some medicines in the system shop. He thought about opening them in his mind to see what kind of medicines the system provided right now.

A list of tabs opened up with all of them blacked out with only 4 lit up.

1 Basic healing cream: 100 COINS

Heals external wounds.

2 immunity shot:500 COINS

Prevents the spreading of the virus trough zombie bites, it doesn't cure an already infected person.

3 healing pill:500 COINS

Heals internal ailments

4 Asura drug:1000 COINS

It gives an instant boost to the consumer's body but leaves him in a state of extreme weakness for a day afterward.

The descriptions were so brief that made him think that the system was just a lazy pig who hated describing things properly.

He looked to see the total no. of coins he had right now, it was 1150, meaning he had killed 50 zombies In total as the other 1100 came from his first mission. He also had to buy the gun as he had forgotten to buy it after the crash.

He bought the gun which cost him 400 coins with a big box of ammunition. The best thing about the unlocked inventory was that he could load the ammunition inside the gun right after taking out the previous magazine without needing to manually insert it. This trick was quite handy but it was only reserved for emergencies as he didn't want to disclose his powers to anyone for now. His powers were something that made him different from all the other people and keeping it a secret will be beneficial to him in the long run.

They reached the mall as he finished his monologue, but they hadn't thought about one big problem. They couldn't take the bus with them inside, their turtle strategy wouldn't work inside the mall. The inside of the mall will be filled with zombies and they will have to kill them all to be able to move all the food inside. The other problem was that there might be survivors hidden inside and he didn't know how they will react. He will help them as much he can without hurting himself or his teammates as their own safety comes first.

He parked the bus at the entry of the mall attracting some zombies towards them, the zombies started banging and scratching the bus going crazy for food.

The atmosphere inside the bus was so heavy that they could hear each other's tentative breaths.

"we'll have to slaughter our way inside as food is necessary for survival. The moment we step out of the bus we'll be out of the safety of the bus. Harry, you'll come with me and Arya you stay inside we need someone to guard the bus."

Both of them nodded their heads stiffly, all of this was still new and terrifying to them. Hary's legs were slightly quivering due to fear but he still stood strong as he said.

"We'll follow what you say bro, you are the only reason we are alive right now and you seem to know more about the apocalypse than us."

"Hit the zombies on their heads and don't let them bite you. You won't have to do much just guard me as I deal with them." Jason said strongly invoking courage in his teammate's hearts. He showed his Hollisters to show his guns to his teammates.

The gun's made his teammate's eyes widen as they didn't know he had them.

"Don't ask right now just follow me, for now, I'll explain once we solve the food issue"

The statement stopped the barrage of questions that would surely come after the miraculous appearance of guns.

He took out one gun and gave it to Harry and taught him the basics about aiming and how to always turn off the safety in dangerous conditions to save both time and lives.

"Arya, stay on the bus and don't hesitate to use the baseball bat in case of emergencies."

"Okay" Arya nodded strongly.

'Bang' Jason shot a zombie trying to crawl at the drivers' cabin, he had aimed at the zombie's forehead but the bullet pierced the neck of the zombie making it fall down. Even though the system gave him the gunslinging skill the accuracy of his shots still needed a lot of Improvement. The bullet shattered the backbone of the zombie making it unable to move anymore.

"Let's go" Jason beckoned Harry as he jumped down from the bus on the zombie's body making a bone-cracking sound on impact as he caved its ribcage inside due to impact.