For a second, Skittle and Buke thought that Zain was kidding. However, from the look on his face, it was clear he wasn’t.

“You guys can’t keep on relying on me. You need to learn the best way to beat them by yourself.” Zain explained. “There might come a time when I’m not even around you. How will you fare then? There’s still a lot you guys need to understand.”

Zain placed his hand around his chest, which was still bandaged, and his dark red blood was soaking through.

“First of all, aiming for the heart is useless. It won’t do anything. You have to keep in mind that these Zombies are already dead. The best way to stop them from biting you is to go either for their head or attack their spine.”

While talking about this, Zain recalled when he fought against Tanisha and how she could still move despite her broken spine.

“Actually, scratch that. I have noticed that those who didn’t get turned after being bitten had an injury to their skulls. So that’s our best option. Attacking the spine will mainly stop their movement, but it won’t kill them.

“It’s a strange feeling. Even though these guys are monsters, it still feels weird hitting someone, hitting flesh, so it’s something you will have to get used to.”_.

Everything Zain said was true. Of course, he wanted his friends to be able to fend for themselves. They would have stood a better chance at survival if a similar situation, like the one at the dormitory, happened again.

However, there was another reason. For every Zombie they killed, it meant less exp loss for Zain himself.

Soon, they had a plan to enter the house. They were both to work together to take on one Zombie at a time, with one person being the main attacker and the other to finish off the Zombie.

While keeping an eye on the two, Zain would stand between the Kitchen and the living room in case they caught the other Zombie’s attention and it tried to attack them. The clothes they were now wearing were thick enough to block a bite or two if the zombies got hold of their hands or legs, so they were safe.

Entering the house, each of them took their position. The first person who was designated the killer was Skittle. Instead of the pitchfork, he was wielding the hammer since it could deal a powerful, decisive blow to the head.

Just then, the Zombie sniffed the air, and it soon noticed both Buke and Skittle. However, its movement was slow. Upon closer inspection, the three noticed that the zombie’s body was beginning to decay.

‘Is that why that Zombie is slow? Has its body function started to go down? Is that what will eventually happen to me as well? Maybe the Zombies will all naturally start to slow down, and along with the mutated ones, only those that have recently been turned have closer to full body function,’ Zain thought.

At this speed, the Zombie was no trouble for Buke. The first thing he did was swing the baseball bat hitting the knee of the Zombie. He stayed far and clear, and a cracking sound reverberated in the room as the Zombie almost collapsed.

‘That was a bit easier than I thought… their bones are a bit softer..not that I know what it would be like to do this, but it just seemed easier.’ Buke thought.

Zain noticed it as well. Although Buke had put a bit of strength behind his swing, the bones had broken far too easily, which meant one of two things, Either the zombie’s bones were indeed weak in this weekend state, or Buke was stronger than he thought, but this strength seemed a little inhuman if that was the case.

With its knee shattered, the zombie was struggling to move forward. Buke just held out the bat and pointed it towards its chest. It continued to reach out with its arms moaning a little, but it could not do anything.

Now it was Skittle’s turn. His hands were shaking as he approached the Zombie. He lifted the hammer with both hands.

“I’m sorry!” Skittle said as he started to heave it down while looking away. He couldn’t even dare to see what he was doing and continued hitting the Zombie repeatedly.

In fact, the first few hits seemed to do nothing, but eventually, the hits got stronger and cracked the skull, finally killing the Zombie.

“What have I done…what if there was some cure for them…I mean, not all of them have missing body parts, right? So it has to be some infection!” Skittle argued.

His panicked voice was loud enough to draw the attention of the other Zombie in the living room and was now moving down the hallway towards them.

“Don’t worry, Zain. I got this one.” Buke said as he moved past Zain and swung the bat again, hitting the Zombie clean on the head. Then, they heard a snap, its head tilted backwards, and after a moment of silence, the zombie’s body fell back and slammed to the floor.

“Skittle, either they kill us, or we kill them. It’s simple. Killing us is the only thing on these zombies’ minds, so it should be the only thing you have on yours when fighting against them.” Buke headed towards the kitchen, looking for some well-deserved grub.

The group managed to find quite a lot of food in the house. Most of it was fresh in the fridge and perfectly with-in date. Everyone decided to eat up, having as big a feast as possible. They didn’t bother to cook anything as they were worried the smell or sound would attract more.

Skittle didn’t say anything after the previous incident. He seemed lost deep in his thoughts, and as for Zain, he didn’t eat much. He could eat food, but it would do nothing for him. He wasn’t feeling the urge to eat. Neither was he feeling hungry, at least not yet.

But he still took a few bites, and after eating a few things, he confirmed it did not stimulate his stats, so it was better to leave it to the others. Meanwhile, he decided to set up a few traps in the house. They weren’t traps designed to hurt the zombies but tools that would make a sound if someone tried to intrude the house through the window, back door, or front door.

Everyone decided to stay in the master bedroom. In this situation, sleeping in one room seemed like the right thing to do.

“Everything has been set up, so have a good sleep tonight. We might not get these often in future.” Zain explained.

Both Skittle and Buke were fast asleep almost immediately. Zain thought they would have a lot on their mind or be too scared, but their bodies seemed too exhausted even to do that.

Or they felt pretty safe with Zain in the room. However, Zain pretended to be asleep because he realised another thing. He had lost the urge toward not just food but sleep too. Turns out, his body didn’t need it. Sleep was unnecessary for his body to function, and his energy would go down even during this time.

Standing up, he glanced at the other two.

“I guess this means I can only do one thing. I need to go out and get my energy back. Hopefully, as well, I’ll find some other Mutated Zombies. If there are others like me, then I need to get ahead. I need to Level up.”

****

Thank you for reading the story so far, remember to use your stones to vote for WSA 2022