Implied Threat

During the first day to the second, there would be many that would remain within their homes but others would not listen to the warnings and would seek out alternative solutions to survival.

They would go to places of authority to seek protection like the police, the army or the politicians who were believed to still have a grasp over the situation.

The more those places had to protect others, the more likely an outbreak could happen within due to the infection spreading and not being checked over properly.

More strict groups would take the correct approach to delay peoples entry to prevent further problems from rising but they would earn the hatred of the people trying to get to safety.

They became the barrier to the safe haven and the survivors would be stuck in between the barrier and the zombies that were at their backs.

Those with guns were forced to fire upon those people or fire warning shots but that action only helped to draw zombies to their location.

Among those groups and during the first day, those on the entry or exit points to the city would be met with many that were trying to leave the city and would have to hold the line on a main road or bridge.

The loss of lives during the first day was inevitable and the night that followed would claim many more lives if those people did not get away to a safer location and learned how to survive quickly.

If those places did survive then they would be the main forces that would be responsible for starting up safety points through the apocalypse and could possible be the beginning of some groups forming their own safety zones or bases that would be controlled by military, police or political figures that had high positions within the city.

Their survival and continued survival would be dependent on whether they could adapt fast enough and make the correct decisions when the time came.

Sometimes the correct decision could be abandoning many to help the rest survive while others would choose to lay down their lives for the citizens of their city.

Each person had their own choices to make but the result had created the present city that was populated by zombies and the living were stuck inside without support.

It would not be until later that larger groups would organise search and rescue groups to bring together survivors for the sake of humanities survival so many were left to fend for themselves for some time.

Other cities may have had a better response to the outbreak and may have been able to save many lives in the process but the city Brick was in had less support and military presence.

One of the main reasons why Brick and Homer were able to travel through the city was due to those circumstances that happened the day and night before.

All the chaos that would happen during the beginning left behind the zombies and the mess caused by humans who were unable to think and learn well enough.

Most people were stuck on the main roads or some back roads that lead to those places and there would be signs of car crashes or accidents, if the road was blocked then Brick just had to find a place that people were less likely to travel down.

Using a pair of binoculars, he could check from far away before driving in and getting stuck so the pair of a driver and lookout helped them navigate through the preplanned routes.

Some areas that were out of the control of the city and were the home to the various gangs were marked as more dangerous areas that needed to be avoided unless it was absolutely needed to pass through.

The ammunition they had would not be enough to protect themselves from an attack from other humans that were more likely to turn violent once there were no more rules to restrain them, a single shot fired would only draw surrounding zombies to their location so they would be attacked before those that were attacking would.

Some gangs would rise up within the city to form their own groups, some of them being pure evil and others being a little more controlled but Brick did not wish to step into any of their territories with his current strength.

There were some mistakes made by Brick even if he made use of the knowledge he gained from the original owner but it was enough to allow a smoother journey.

Anywhere that had a tighter gap or had obstructions in the path and a more occupied space with a larger group of zombies could be avoided.

The only exception to those would be if the car could squeeze through the gap and the space the zombies were in had been wider and they could be avoided so that the car did not accumulate damage.

They were lucky enough to encounter only one obstruction to the car park and were able to get inside before they were surrounded by zombies without any way to retreat or get inside.

Brick was panting from killing a couple of zombies on the path to get to the part of the car park where the elevator and stairs lead down to the ground and to the outside.

He looked outside or the door after reaching the ground floor that faced towards the hotel and suddenly paled. 'How nice it would be to be a zombie.. no more pain, worries and hardships. Only the next meal to think about.. I just hope that my decision to evolve this way was correct.

The original power of Brick did not get to reach a higher stage and rarely appeared again so I cannot know for sure of its true potential and uses. It seems a little useful at first but compared to other abilities… it is not all that useful for putting me above others in terms of combat power.

Should I have just went down the evil route instead? A ghoul or variant ghoul? Urgh… actually never mind. Those people are crazy cannibals. Such a path would only get in the way of protecting her life.'

There was a path outside of evolving with crystal nucleus that was discovered by certain groups that had no food around them and chose to eat human flesh that had slight traces of the zombie virus within.

Every human had been exposed to tiny traces of it in the air so they would have a chance at evolving or if they were too weak, they would have been turned into zombies already.

Eating human flesh and blood would only serve to increase the virus within the body and would cause a mutation that would restrict the potential of that person to gain a power and they would gain the zombies hunger for flesh but in exchange, they would be strengthened the more high energy flesh they ate.

They had pale appearances so were called vampires or ghouls and their variants came from them eating their own kind and further mutating into a more monstrous appearance.

Another name for them was the hybrids which was due to them having similarities to humans and zombies but not being one of the other.

They would be like kings of the apocalypse who were not hunted down by the zombies and would become another threat to humanity if they had been too controlled by their hunger and gave up their humanity completely.

Some chose that path themselves, others stumbled upon it and others had it forced upon them but Brick could not choose that path even if he knew about it.

If Brick chose that path then he could grow quickly but there would be many costs that came along with it and one of them would be that he would no longer be accepted by the remains of humanity no matter what he did.

Being unable to protect Tanya Reed by her side would be the result of such a choice and no matter how appealing the power was, he could not imagine himself eating human flesh.

He turned towards the zombie corpse that had died after falling down the stairs and having its head hit with an axe then said quietly. "This is the only way.. either you cooperate completely or I go alone. It is your choice. Watch how they move and copy it. Do not speak and draw attention to yourself. This is just an extra amount of insurance to help us survive."

Homer paled as he looked towards what Brick was doing. 'Not again. Not again. Not again. I get that this can hide us a little but it is so disgusting.'

The scent from the zombies could remain on their outer clothing but it was safest to reapply it before stepping out into the open where more zombies were gathered.

The main street that was between the car park and the hotel main entrance was heavily crowded with zombies.

If they tried to come up with other tactics then it would delay them a lot and they needed to check on the safety of the person they were sent to retrieve.

If Homer was not willing to take the risk to cross then he could remain where he was to watch over the car and possibly arrange other vehicles to be used in case of emergencies.

Brick hesitated and thought to himself. 'The main issue is getting others to do the same as me then get them past this. If this guy does not have the courage then how can I convince some less experienced people to do the same?'

Homer answered with a grim tone. "I cannot do this. I cannot trust this method completely. You go."

Brick rolled his eyes. 'Typical.. he saw the results earlier but is still sceptical.'

He finished rubbing the dirty flesh and blood of the zombies over his outer clothing and sighed. "Alright but try to get back to the car above and see if there are other vehicles left behind with the keys inside. Be careful of setting off the alarms… I do not wish to come back here to find your corpse."

Homer was older than Brick, had experience in the army and served as a bodyguard for a long time but he still felt that Brick was a little abnormal.

Even if his survival instincts were telling him that Brick could be correct, his rationality towards a situation he had never encountered or tested out let him not wish to be the one to follow Brick and take on the dangers.

He would prefer to stay where he knew it was safe and let Brick test things out or go towards the dangers first in order to let himself survive and confirm if the methods used were correct. "Fine… I understand. Just do not expect me to wait too long otherwise I will have to go back to report your failure and get others to join the next rescue team."

A cold glance was sent towards Brick like it was a threat not to fail or mess around and that there was an implied meaning behind his words.

Brick smirked towards him and sighed. "Do not worry. I get what you mean."

The implied meaning was that if he failed and caused problems then it was very likely that the next group to join in the rescue would be those who were believed to be close to him.

It would not be strange for those closest to him to be sent next and possibly be put in danger to ensure the success of the task since Brick had boasted that he would be successful and wasted their time.

Those associated with Brick would be the ones to suffer for Brick's failures and overconfidence so Brick was very aware of the meaning behind the words of Homer.

Even if he did not like how he was being treated, Brick still had to go ahead without support. 'If this guy was not here to watch me then I could have at least brought Alice who would have been more useful. If I think about it a little more though… it would be better if I just do this alone and there will be some others to watch over the other survivors back there.'

Homer snorted and walked back up the stairs when Brick had begun to slowly push the door open as silently as possible and closed it with his back to it.

If zombies heard a single sound and ran towards his direction then his next movement would be to push it back to get back inside then to try another exit.

Homer had been given enough time to get to safety and there were some zombies that wandered past but did not get attracted where he stood and the door was closed behind him.

After looking left and right, his movements became sluggish like the zombies and he slowly moved through the crowd.

The smell of decay and death surrounded him that masked his presence but there was a strong smell of it from all the zombies in the area.

The snarls and moans of the zombies were heard all around him and some closer noises that were the result of some zombies tapping their teeth together were occasionally heard.

Each time he moved among them, it was like he was being pushed around by the crowd and had to navigate through the flow that was created.

His shoulder would bump into the side of one zombie and it turned to growl towards him before losing interest and continuing on its way.

He had to pay attention to his footing and his surroundings while trying not to draw the attention of those around him until he finally reached the other side. 'It really is a different feeling doing that myself… it is so suffocating and each moment in there has gave me the feeling of constantly under danger. I prefer just watching this thing from the safety behind a screen… the real thing is not something I wish to experience that often.'