Ch. 6 Clearing Town

As they watched the wolves tear into the zombies, Richard had a constant stream of red mist flowing into him. Jeff didn't have to do a lot, with the wolves able to maneuver in and out of the zombies while only accumulating small injuries here and there when a zombie got lucky. Jeff would shoot any stray zombie that got too close to them and Richard now and then used a telekinetic blast to launch zombies away from them, but the zombies were mostly focused on the three growling and barking wolves.

They watched as the wolves tore into the zombies for close to half an hour, being refreshed every few minutes as their wounds got to be too much. There were a lot more zombies than Richard initially thought, with his Essence counter hitting over 1,500 with just as many zombies as they had seen initially. They were apparently pulling in zombies from all around the nearby houses.

Another hour went by, with both Richard and Jeff just watching. They weren't bored by any means as more and more zombies would come, giving them plenty of zombies to deal with themselves. Richard mostly left the killing to his wolves, sending out a blast of telekinetic energy to keep the shrinking/growing horde far enough away that Jeff had plenty to shoot with his mana bullets.

It wasn't until the 2 hour mark that Richard noticed there were a lot less zombies than before. There were no corpses around as he and Jeff had been absorbing all the red mist as they died. Then finally at 2 and a half hours, the parking lot of the hotel was clear, with his wolves trotting back to him happily. He looked at his Essence counter and grinned wide, he had 5,627 Essence to spend and knew exactly what he would be getting.

"Damn, 1,113 Essence from that." Jeff said and Richard chuckled "Well, we've still got work to do, so we'll have to put off buying some stuff until we have the hotel clear." Jeff nodded and they began moving towards the front of the hotel. The Grand Canyon Railway Hotel was the reason tourists came from all over the world and Richard was hoping there would be people still alive in the hotel.

Once they got to the front a few zombies came out and were easily dispatched by Jeff. Richard called back his summons to surround them as they walked through the doors, seeing very little movement. Once the lobby was clear, he walked up to the front desk and climbed over the counter, sending one of his wolves ahead of him to make sure no zombies were back in the room behind it.

There were none thankfully, so he opened the door and let Jeff in. "Alright Jeff, take the wolves and clear the hotel. I'm going to sit in this office and hit up my IPS. I need to buy some stuff and a few more levels." Jeff nodded and headed out of the office with Richards wolves, who were instructed to follow Jeff's orders.

He locked the door to the office and sat in the chair, then went to his IPS.

The first thing he did was buy Regeneration for 2,000 Essence, which made his timer hit 30 minutes. Then he bought five more levels, bringing him to level 20, then 3 more ranks in Telekinesis and 3 more levels in Summon Dire Animal. He also searched around the shop and bought both the canteen and the ring of storage, bringing him down to just 23 Essence. He put 2 points in Strength and then 1 in Agility, Constitution and Intelligence. He looked over his stats and waited out the now 40 minutes it would take to improve himself.

Richard Hundai

Essence Level 21

Essence Available 23

Attribute Points Available 0

Strength 16

Agility 15 (16)

Constitution 14 (16)

Intelligence 16

Wisdom 15

Aura 14

Abilities

Telekinesis (10)

Summon Dire Companion (6)

Regeneration (1)

Items Equipped

Refillable Water Canteen (Milar Conglomerate)

Dimensional Pocket Ring (Milar Conglomerate)

Once he came to he saw a notification in the corner of his vision.

*Regeneration Ability applied. Time until Smoker's Lung healed (4 hours, 23 minutes and 16 seconds)*

The number kept going down little by little. He knew he wasn't getting rid of the overweight issue with his stats without a lot more exercise, but this new world was going to give him plenty of it. He also noticed when he came to that another 10 Essence had been added to his pool, so his wolves had to have found more zombies hiding in the hotel.

He came out of the office and behind the front desk, through a side door that led to the hall to the lobby. As soon as he got to the lobby his wolves dashed for him, licking him with their nasty breath that thankfully didn't smell like rotten flesh.

He looked over and saw Jeff with about 40 people standing around in the lobby. "Jeff secure the doors on that side, I'll get these ones." Jeff nodded and they shut the doors on both sides of the lobby before a notification appeared.

*This area has been cleared of all hostile entities. As the greatest contributor at 83.12% you have been designated as the leader of 'location AZ4292 - GCRH' which has become a safe zone. You will have a new system tab to review as ownership comes with many benefits and responsibilities.*

He chuckled at that and designated Pops as the leader, wondering just exactly what he was thinking as he kept getting new territories under his control. Once he was done he fist bumped Jeff, who went into the office to hit up his own IPS.

Richard turned to the people in the lobby and put up a hand to quiet them down "Alright folks listen up. I don't know how many of you have integrated into the system, if any of you have. If you have, then you'll have seen the notification that this is now a safe zone, meaning no zombies can spawn inside of it and the doors will be reinforced and harder to break through. Right now I need to know who actually lives in Arizona and who's a tourist."

He had them separate themselves on either side of the room. "Alright, those who are tourists, I'll get to you in just a bit. Those who live in Arizona, where at and do you have working vehicles?" Most of the people that lived in Arizona didn't live in town, with only a few who did. Those that didn't live in town wanted to get back to their families, but they lived in Flagstaff. "Unless you have 4 wheel drive, you're not getting home and in all honesty, I don't know if you'll survive going there alone."

He motioned to the area outside of the hotel "If this is anything to go by, the number of zombies you'll find in Flagstaff is going to number in the hundreds of thousands if not a million or so. If you want to risk it, I can't stop you. Right now though I'm just trying to save as many as I can. If you stay in town, I promise we'll be working towards clearing out the town as fast as we can." They nodded, with a few of them walking out the doors, apparently they didn't take his words to heart or figured they would deal with whatever came.

He sighed and looked over to the tourists "I know most of you are worried about your families, but I have to tell you it's not going to be any easier getting home. I imagine there are tons of car wrecks all over the highways and interstates, but if you want to go I won't stop you."

Only a few of them left, with others not being able to go home because their home was across the world. Once those that wanted to leave left, he had 26 people, mostly adults this time still sitting in the lobby. "Alright, those of you that stayed can choose to go to the housing safe zone I have set up down 64 once Jeff wakes up and those that want to stay here can. I know there's not a lot of food, but we will be working on a way to get everything set for living soon."

Just as he finished that Jeff came out of the back room, a ring on his finger and a little more grace to his movements. Richard nodded to Jeff "See if we can get some vehicles together to get those that want to get out of the hotel back to our safe zone. The rest of them I'll have hole up in a few rooms close to the lobby so they can hear when reinforcements get back." Jeff nodded and started ushering the 20 that wanted to get out of the hotel away.

The 6 remaining all grabbed rooms and locked themselves inside, which would give them a bit of cover so he could go out and find more people. He really needed a way to get in touch with everyone, so he could organize this better.

He walked out of the hotel, then summoned the rest of his wolves, refreshing the ones already summoned. Seeing 6 wolves that were slightly larger than he had previously summoned gave him hope that this was the right choice in abilities. Along with his Telekinesis that was growing at a substantial rate and his attributes, he was going to be able to get down to Flagstaff and see what kind of a mess he could make there.

***

The remainder of the day he didn't spend any time on upgrades, instead just riding on one of his wolves through town, sending the rest in to fight when they came up to a group of zombies. Everyone he found he had them escorted by a wolf to the hotel or to Safeway, whichever was closer to his position. He racked up another 12,365 Essence, bringing his total to 12,398 Essence.

He didn't really see much of his own team, and resolved to look through the shop for a way for his people to communicate. He cleared the rest of the small town just before night hit, bringing the total number of survivors he had saved and had in safe zones up to 527, including himself.

It had taken a lot of work to get the survivors moved between the safe zones and according to Matthew, Magi Tower was at capacity for the moment, housing 200 people. They would have to build more houses to get more people who could live there, but he would make it happen.

As the sun went down he made sure that Safeway and the hotel were locked up tight, then headed home. As soon as he got there however he noticed a huge change. The fence around it wasn't just a simple wire fence attached to posts any more, it was a 10 foot tall stone palisade surrounding the entire complex. He saw old man Harry sitting in his foldout chair on top and behind the palisade, so he assumed a walkway was there, sipping on a beer and nodding to Richard as he came up. Richard chuckled and walked up to the gate, it opened automatically at his approach.

"How we looking Harry?" he asked the old man and Harry chuckled "Good, I've been taking naps now and then to get some good stuff. Got a beer cooler and a Sandwich cart that makes a mean Pastrami on Rye, want one?" Richard's eyes lit up as he nodded. The old man threw down a wrapped sandwich, Richard caught it and opened it, tearing into it with a fervor.

"You've been busy. Got word from Pops that we have over 500 survivors and 2 more safe zones thanks to you." Richard nodded as he walked up the steps to the walkway. Richard pulled out a much more comfortable recliner that he had taken from one of the houses in town, out of his ring, and set it down making old man Harry gasp.

Richard chuckled "Don't worry, I'll leave this one with you. I've got 10 more in my ring. Anything else I should know about before I head back home? I'm thinking of going to Flagstaff tomorrow and going to be doing some leveling up tonight."

The old man shook his head, "Not much. I shoot a few here and there, been using that Energy Bullet spell instead of the usual slugs and it works wonders. Other than that, mostly people are just scared. Pops had most of the houses cleared using the system and set up a couple of spots for trash. Apparently the system can recycle trash and turn it into Essence. Don't know how it works, but hey it's free essence for the compound."

Richard nodded and sighed, then after he was finished with his sandwich and the beer that old man Harry gave him, he headed home.