Return (10)

Arnold then thought of a problem. "Andy, with my small intestines completely destroyed and replaced by a zombie core, how would I be able to ingest food?"

"Due to the fact that the basic functions used by your blood have been supplanted by spiritual energy, there is no need for you to consume food to gain food energy." Andy replied succinctly.

"Ah." Arnold nodded in acknowledgement.

Although Arnold would not be used to it, he had no choice. However, this is actually a boon for him since finding food in the wilderness is extremely hard. Also, he can now use the food spent on himself to feed his younger brother and his mother, increasing their nutrition intake. As Arnold thought of this, Benjamin returned to his bedroom and said in a nice and soothing voice, "I've made you some food."

"Ah. I'm sorry, but I don't feel hungry. Do you think you can eat it for me?" Arnold asked, sounding a little awkeard.

"But I've just eaten..." Benjamin muttered.

"Well, we can simply leave it for tomorrow then." Arnold instantly replied.

Benjamin nodded in reluctance, it seemed that he did not like overnight food.

Arnold got up and took a look around the barracks. It was designed the same way as the previous barracks, except this one had even more food and ammunition. This was due to the fact that this base is much closer to home than the previous base.

Due to the zombie wave, it would take a while for people back at home to fight them and clean up in the aftermath. Therefore, Arnold and Benjamin was forced to wait in the barracks for around 3 days before they can start heading out again. In the meantime, Arnold had to think of excuses of why he is not eating.

It was already nighttime when Arnold first woke up, which was the reason why Benjamin was already sleeping next to him. When he finished exploring the place, he found that Benjamin had fallen asleep in his bed again. Arnold went to the bedroom opposite of Benjamin's and slept on the new bed. He closed his eyes to relax, doing breathing exercises. The exercise will allow spiritual energy to flow throw his body, albeit less than doing actual cultivation exercises.

He simply relaxed for the whole night without sleeping before telling Benjamin that he had already eaten when he woke up, preventing him from asking anymore. While Benjamin was eating breakfast, Arnold cultivated in his room for about 2 hours, which completely saturated his body. Then, he headed out to find Benjamin fiddling with a cracker due to boredom. He sat down across from him.

Although he did not want to talk to Benjamin, spending three days without doing anything really was quite boring. Therefore, Arnold decided to spend more time with his unwittingly chosen 'partner'.

"Hey. Are you from the Young family?" Arnold started the conversation with an extremely blunt and arguably rude question.

Benjamin shyly nodded. "Yes, my father is the current patriarch of the Young Family, Stephen Young."

Arnold raised an eyebrow. "How can a direct heir of the Young Family have such a low cultivation and foundation establishment? There's also the fact of you being such a low rank within the military. I thought your father would've directly promoted you to Captain or something."

"Um..." Benjamin, originally feeling uncomfortable, did not want to say anything. However, seeing that the person in front of him almost died in order to save their lives, he thought it would not help to tell him. "There are some complications with my birth causing defects within my genes. My cell synchronization rate with spiritual rate is only 5%, causing me to be unable to get a high Foundation Establisment." He said in a disappointed tone.

"Originally, I did not want to join the military. But my father forced me, saying that a real man need to face the tough environment in order to hone himself. So instead of giving me a high commanding position, he made me a foot soldier in order to have me experience climbing up from the bottom." Benjamin explained. He seemed to have a tinge of regret from looking at his face.

"Your father is quite an interesting person." Arnold nodded. There was an awkward silence afterwards. Both people seemed to not know what to say to each other.

"Ehem." Arnold clceared his throat to clear the atmosphere and said, "It would take around a day to get home. Would you like me to carry you again?"

Benjamin immediately blushed. "I-I can walk on my own!"

"Great." Arnold made a slight smile. He needed to conserve his spiritual energy, so he could not handle piggybacking Benjamin for the whole day.

After their conversation, Arnold counted the remaining of his goods that were originally blown away after his backpack was torn through. While he was unconscious, Benjamin took all of his belongings back and placed it on the dining table for Arnold to sort out later.

Arnold counted the things he had left,

"Gene medicine

2 t-shirts

2 dresses

2 long pants

9 Level 5 zombie cores"

Unfortunately, due to being hevily injured twice, all of his stem cell medicine were used up. The remaining medicine were for his mother. Now that he lost his backpack, he would need something to carry all the zombie cores that he had left. He used the two dresses and t-shirts to make a makeshift shopping bag and placed all the cores within it. After making sure that the cores would not fall off, he nodded and headed back to his room.

*

After three days, they finally set off in the early morning in order to make it back home by nighttime. The main elevator to get within the base normally stops operating by 10pm, so they had to hurry up if they want to catch it.

Due to all the zombies following along the wave together, there were no more zombies left from the barracks to the home base. Therefore, Arnold and Benjamin had a smooth trip back. There wasn't any poisonous rain either, which was good for both of them. They had passed by a rather quiet forest that did not even have the sound of cicadas crying. Of course, Arnold was completely used to it, but Benjamin seemed slightly scared by the silence.

After leaving the forest, they could finally the gigantic fortress that was their base. In front of them was a broad and tall wall that was at least 8 stories tall. Nothing could be seen beyond the wall, as all the buildings inside the base were not as tall as that. Arnold saw many zombie corpses beside the wall. There were people digging for zombie cores even though it was already nighttime.

Arnold and Benjamin headed to the location of the entrance. Before they could enter the base, they need to do an inspection on the barracks right next to the wall. They headed there to find many people lining up carrying quite a few Level 5 zombie cores with them.

Benjamin looked at Arnold. "Should we go dig for some Level 5 zombie cores too?" He pointed at the dead zombies, staring in curiosity. Arnold shook his head.

"We don't have time." Arnold replied. "Besides, we would need to face off against those scavengers if we were to go and dig for cores. It's better to go out to the wild to hunt for zombies yourself."

Benjamin nodded in agreement, even though he never had a chance to hunt a zombie.

After they entered the barracks, a medical personnel took a swab of their saliva for testing. Then, security personnel checked their personal belongings. People without a license or a badge could not bring weapons outside, so the security needed to check for that. Finally, we headed back out and walked towards the wall.

An open-air elevator that consists of a metal platform that was held by four thick wires was gliding down towards them. If a person before the apocalypse were to see this, they would think that it looked like a window cleaning elevator for skyscrapers.

When the elevator reached the ground, everyone headed in. Then, the elevator took us up to the top of the walls. After that we walked across the wall that was at least a meter thick and headed down the wall with another elevator. It was then that we had to walk through customs in another barracks building. Most people needed to pay an entrance fee to get back home. However...

"Yo...kiddo! Where have you been all this time? Everyone thought you died!" A middle aged man came over in stride. He was wearing a typical military uniform. The uniform tightly wrapped around the man's body, showing the man's excellent shape. The middle-aged man had a rugged jawline. Along with his beard and slicked back hair, it seemed that he aged quite well.

"Uncle George!" Arnold made a slight smile and greeted respectfully. "I was caught in a zombie tide, so it took me quite a while to get back." He explained.

Uncle George nodded. "Mhm! It was quite a large tide this time! That's quite weird, it's still a few months away from the annual zombie tide..." He tilted his head in confusion.

Arnold shrugged. "Well, what can we do. It's not like we could control the zombies."

"Hahaha! That's right." Uncle George patted on Arnold's back. "By the way, who's the kid next to you?"

"Oh, let me introduce you. This is Benjamin Young." Arnold said.

"Hello. Nice to meet you." Benjamin bowed in a respectful manner.

Uncle George's eyes flashed. His eyes blinked at me, signalling me to talk to him later. I slightly nodded.