Chapter 8: Thank you for your sacrifice and a cruel world

The last few days, Kyle relaxed at home.

And by relaxing, it means exercising and hard training with his weapons.

He realized that he can't let his guard down for even a second once he took a step out of his house.

Nobody would be there to save his sorry ass when he messed it up again. He can only rely on himself out there.

And if he wants to make it out alive, he needs to be in his best possible condition. Taking advantage of every moment of safety to train his body and get familiar with using a weapon as much as he can.

He finally woke up after almost meeting its maker.

He won't allow himself to lose his life because of something as stupid as overconfidence ever again. Underestimating this f*cked up world is the worst possible mistake one can make.

"Huf, huf..." Breathing heavily after a series of stabbing at an improvised dummy, Kyle put down his knife on the coffee table under the window. Slumping on the armchair next to the table, he grab a bottle of water and gulps it all down.

Cleaning his mouth of a few drops of water with his hand, Kyle takes a look out of the window.

It was a sunny afternoon with a clear sky and a pleasant warm breeze, if it was not for a few staggering figures walking down the street it would have made for a nice view.

Seeing those tireless zombies wandering around further ignited his ambition to become stronger.

Except for eating and sleeping at night, Kyle spent the rest of his days training, with taking a few short breaks in his full program.

It was very difficult to adjust himself to this hell of a routine, but with each passing day, it was becoming more and more tolerable.

It soon passed almost two weeks since his last exploring task, and it was time to restart his looting career. Tomorrow was going to be the day for exploring the floor below.

Resting enough, he stands up and continue with his routine until the sky started to darken. Finishing, he entered the kitchen to make himself some dinner. Opening a can of meat, he trows it in the hot instant noodles and start eating.

Actually, he was quite sick of canned meat and noodles, but this was the only available food for now. Kyle swallowed with bitter tears in his heart when he remembers how picky he was about food before the world has gone to sh*t.

Remembering how much he despised most of the vegetables he was forced to eat as a kid at the orphanage, and how much he would want to eat any fresh greens right now if he could.

'It's useless thinking about this right now.'

Emptying his bowl, he stands up and starts washing the dishes. He didn't have the habit of letting the dishes gather and preferred to clean up after using something.

Entering his bedroom, he opens the closet and takes a change of clean clothes to change into after a shower. Unhurriedly, he reaches the bathroom and close the door behind himself.

After cleaning up, he jumps in bed and falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. A new skill he managed to get the last week's from exhausting himself from training.

* * * * *

(South-west of Lakedam city)

A group of around 14 people were running down an alley between two dilapidated buildings.

"F*ch, there's a fence up ahead!" The tall tattooed man at the front of the group shouted with an annoyed look on his face.

"Who's the damn idiot who chose this route!" A short, bald middle-aged man complained.

"Shut up already and start climbing!" Replied the first man.

One after another, the people started climbing the fence with practiced movements.

"Hurry, hurry! They are coming!" A bearded man started pushing another man who was climbing so that his turn would come faster.

One after another, the people climbed the fence with practiced movements.

Hearing his words, the other few who waited to climb anxiously turned their heads at the entrance to the alley and saw many rotten figures making their way toward them.

A fat man was trying hard to raise his body over the fence, but in his movements turned more clumsy because of fear.

"Help me, damn worms! Or I'll make sure you won't pass either!"

Two rather young men started to push the fatty up from behind.

"Ugh… Hurry..." One of the two complained.

"Push harder!" Ordered the fatty.

𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑑!

"Aaargh!"

The fatty has fallen face down over the fence.

𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑟!

The rotten figures were advancing toward the people on the alley.

The freckled boy escalated the fence with the agility of a monkey, and the blonde one was soon after him.

The group was already running ahead, and the two tried to keep the pace.

Soon enough, the tens of rotten figures were pushing against the fence while roaring loudly. The rusted fence didn't hold up for too long and collapsed under the pressure, and a few of the figures also collapsed together with it. The other just continued their march forward without a care about the one's under their feet.

"They're still behind us, what do we do!" Fatty asked.

Everyone was at the end of their powers after running around for a long time.

"Shut the f*ch up! I'm thinking." The man who seemed the leader of the group told to the others with an annoyed expression.

Just ahead was a rather old building with open doors, seeing it the tattooed man comes up with an idea.

"Come after me!"

The tattoo guy entered first, and the rest followed without asking a thing. When it was the blond young men turn to enter, the leader caught his shoulder and pushed him out. Being catch by surprise he stumbles and fall, looking confused for a second in the eye of the older man.

"Hey what was that for!"

"Sorry kid, but you can't get in."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, thank you for your sacrifice. Good luck."

These were the last words tattooed guy said before closing the door.

Bewildered, he stands up and try to open the door. Starting to hit it with his fists while desperately begging.

"Open the door! Please open the door!"

But, indifferent how much noise he made, nobody replied to him.

𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑟!

The roaring made the young blonde turn his head, the group of zombies is closing in on him. Panicked, he looked one last time at the door and started running with fear and hatred in his heart.

The zombie group was continuing to chaise their prey, while inside the building behind a window the tattooed man was breathing a sigh of relief.

* * * * *

After a good night sleep and a filling breakfast, Kyle was ready for a new expedition in the lower floors of his building.

Making sure that he has everything he might need, Kyle was ready for anything this messy world might trow at him.

For some stupid reason, he somehow felt like an adventurer ready to conquer the unexplored wilderness.

'Yeah Kyle, keep dreaming. At least an adventurer wouldn't have to fight rotten zombies.'

Once on the floor below his apartment, he pulls out the keys he needed and unlock the door that was giving him the least weird feelings.

Since the last few times he got this hard to explain feelings was always when he almost got himself in deep sh*t he chooses to listen to his instincts. Better be safe than sorry.

Once inside, he carefully searches each room before moving to the next to see if there is something dangerous inside. Confirming that the place is clear of zombies, he locks the front door and starts searching for supplies.

Unfortunately, not many things were found inside. Just a few cans of god-damn cat food. With a frowning expression, he packed the things and moves on to the next apartment, that luckily it was also zombie free.

"F*ch! Another pet lover."

Looking at the big bag of dry cat food, Kyle doesn't know if he should laugh or cry at his luck.

Beside cat food, there were also a few packs of instant noodles this time, so it was not really that bad.

'I don't think I'll eat something like this but… I better bring it along,' Resigning to his fate, Kyle brings the big bag of cat food along with him and returns home to empty his rucksack then restart his mission.

The third apartment was a bit more challenging since he found a zombie in one of the rooms, but he managed to kill it easily since he moved fast enough to not be discovered by it.

Kyle was very satisfied with his harvest at this place since he finally found sugar, and he didn't need to torture himself with bitter coffee. Beside sugar there were also all kinds of condiments and plenty of bags of flour, rice, noodles and other things. He had to make two rounds to bring everything over.

'There's only one more and I can call it a day.'

The last apartment was the one giving him the strongest feeling of danger among the four.

So, he prepared to confront more than one zombie. Hopefully, they were not all in the same place.

Moving slowly, he gets inside. Checking the place while being ready to retreat if he could not handle the situation. Opening the first bedroom, he sees one inside. It was a few steps away from him and once it saw him started moving slowly toward him. Kyle saw that there was no other zombie besides the one in front of him, so he just steps forward and with a clean stab of his spear he kills his target.

Finishing, he goes to the next room. From inside, he could hear some rustling like someone was bustling around. Listening carefully, he arrives at the conclusion that there was only a single one from the sound of the steps heard.

So, he stops wasting time and opens the door, but once he does, he froze for a few seconds at what he saw. Getting out of his daze, he kicks the small figure that was rushing at him and brings himself to ignore the uncomfortable feeling that was drowning him.

The small zombie hit the floor but soon stands back up and try to attack him again. Sighting at the cruelty of this world, Kyle easily stab the zombies in the head and puts it out of the misery.

It was a small girl of probably around 8 years old, it really broke his heart, seeing such a small child becoming such a monster.

Looking around the room, there was also a crib inside. With a heavy look on his face, he approached the crib.

It was empty but also dirty of dried brownish blood.

Getting himself out of his trance, he searches the place with a somber look on his face after making sure no other zombie was inside.

With a full rucksack, he returns home and take a rest on his armchair, looking lost with his eyes fixed out of the window.

Even the bountiful harvest couldn't erase the heaviness he was feeling in his heart.