As soon as I got out of the car, I had my familiar axe in my hands. I advanced towards the dead people chasing the woman, and with a clean cut, I decapitated the first zombie that was closest to her. The woman finally stopped running, carefully observing her surroundings while breathing heavily. I took another step to get within range of the second zombie. This time, I used all my strength as a level two mutant and cut the zombie in half from the head to the groin.
[Obtained x2 survival points]
The scene shocked the woman, who quickly thanked him while bowing down, still crying.
"Thank you, sir, thank you!"
"Those creatures… They attacked… And my husband… Sniff…"
"I'm sorry for your loss. Do you want me to take you somewhere? The streets aren't safe."
"ARGHHH"
"ARGHHH"
"ARGHHH"
Before the woman could say anything, almost a dozen zombies emerged from an alley, chasing two firefighters, one of whom was very tall and muscular, and the other had feminine features behind her loose yellow clothing. Rick immediately recognized Joe and one of the new female firefighters. He advanced again, passing through the middle of the two without any fear, and began to massacre the dozen zombies that were chasing them.
While a single blow from his axe cut down 2 zombies at the same time, a kick from Rick sent one of them flying several meters away, shocking Joe and Vanessa, who were now watching the massacre with their mouths open. It took less than 40 seconds for Rick to cut down all the zombies with extreme precision, and without shedding a single drop of sweat.
[Obtained survival points x13]
When Joe went to approach his friend, a last zombie emerged from the alley again, this one stood out from the others due to the degree of decomposition of its body and red eyes.
"A mutant? On the first day?" Rick whispered in disbelief.
"Leave this one to me!" Joe yelled as he ran towards the last zombie.
"WAIT, JOE, THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT!"
As Joe's axe was about to cut down the monster, the creature made only a slight movement, dodging the powerful blow, counterattacking the huge firefighter, jumping on top of him, and knocking him to the ground with ease. Seeing a skinny, decomposing zombie easily take down a human the size of Joe made Vanessa and the widow's eyes widen. But before the zombie could bite the firefighter and finish the job, a small axe was thrown by Rick, hitting its decomposing skull and killing it instantly.
[Obtained x2 Survival Points]
Rick walked over and removed the small axe from the zombie's head, then, using his system ability, secretly collected the crystal from this level 1 mutant. He then helped Joe up: "Are you okay? Did he bite you?"
"Yes, I'm fine. What was that? How did you dodge my blow? I thought you were stupid…"
"The red-eyed ones have mutated; they are much stronger and more instinctive, don't underestimate them."
"And you? How did you get so strong? You're taking something and you didn't tell me… You hypocrite, haha."
"What? I've never taken steroids, you know that…" Rick said, also laughing.
"I haven't either, but you never believed it…"
"I know… Hahaha!" Rick said, laughing out loud, still not believing that his size was natural...
"...Come on, get in the back of the truck, we need to get the supplies from my house and get out of this city."
"Is it okay for you to follow us, Madame?" Rick asked the widow, who was still in shock.
"Yes, my husband was the only family we had…"
Rick nodded and looked at the little girl who couldn't have been more than 4 years old. She was scared and probably didn't understand what was happening.
As soon as everyone got into the truck, Rick started driving, this time with Joe in the passenger seat. Before the friends could talk properly, screams came from the back of the truck.
"I'M TELLING THE TRUTH…
…THE OWNER OF THIS TRUCK ROBBED THE STORE I WORKED AT AND KIDNAPPED ME!
YOU CAN'T TRUST HIM!"
"Oh, I had forgotten about him…" Rick said awkwardly as he explained himself to Joe and the others…
***
Meanwhile, at the SC12 University, a group of survivors were hiding in the cafeteria. Some were walking around in panic, mumbling and shouting desperate words, others had both hands on their heads and a blank look, while a minority still insisted on trying to use their cell phones to try to contact the police or their families.
"SHIT!"
"We're surrounded!"
"The phones and power are no longer working!"
"We're all going to die!"
"SHUT UP!"
A man stood out from the crowd. He was tall and good-looking. His firm voice quickly silenced the surviving college students. Feeling confident, he quickly began a speech:
"My name is Travis, and just like you, I am a student here at the university, and I know what is happening right now… If you trust me and listen to me, I can guarantee that we will all survive this crisis."
Maggie, realizing Travis was lying, quickly stood up behind them and said:
"Travis is telling the truth. My name is Maggie and we knew what was going to happen today in advance. We only came here to save a friend of ours, but unfortunately we couldn't do it in time. But if you listen to us, we can get you all out of here alive."
Travis didn't like Maggie's interference in his speech very much, but he soon got involved, taking advantage of their words and telling them to avoid being bitten, that this was the method of transmission of the disease... Luckily, this information gave some confidence to the other students... Travis thanked his friend who had shared Rick's message with him. Thanks to this, he could gain the trust of these students and perhaps use the numbers to his advantage to get out of this college alive...