Upon exiting the cold freezer and stepping back into the supermarket, the scene that came in front of them was as per Zain’s expectations. The whole store was now scattered with zombies, although it didn’t seem as packed as before as the zombies tended to roam and scatter around.

They would just walk aimlessly until the human scent wafted into their nose, urging them where to go next. One good thing was when walking around, they noticed that the zombies weren’t attacking either of them.

‘Well, at least my plan would have worked if Skittle had ended up like me.’ Zain said to himself, trying to reassure himself that he had made the right decision.

He decided not to leave the supermarket just yet and began to walk around to look for a few items. First, they headed to the clothes section of the place and decided to change from their bloodstained clothes into something else.

The only thing was that Skittle wasn’t really able to take off clothes on his own, and since there was no command for that, Zain had to do it for him.

‘I should be able to do this much after turning you into this.’

It was similar to getting a child out of their clothing, as his limbs were quite stiff, but after a struggle, Zain had finally succeeded. Soon, the two of them were in a new set of clothes. Zain was wearing a dark red hoodie, if someone’s blood did get on it, then it wouldn’t be too easy to notice. On top of that, he had coiled a soft scarf around his neck._.

As for Skittle, he was wearing a large black shirt, brown overcoat, black pants and brown boots. He now looked the same Skittle Zain would see every day during normal times, only it was impossible not to tell Skittle was an undead. His skin was much paler than Zain’s, and his movements were weird, to say the least, and the most troubling thing was he couldn’t even speak.

Still, if the two of them ran into people, no doubt they would be caught straight away. There wasn’t an immediate solution to this, and one never knew who or what they would face, so Zain decided to deal with it as it came.

They then took a few more things and soon had two backpacks filled with necessities. Zain’s shears were done for, and he couldn’t quite find good long weapons, so he had to make do with a pair of sharp kitchen knives he came across in the cutlery aisle.

‘A permanent weapon would be a better solution, and maybe we should head to a place where we can get one.’

A certain shed’s image flashed in his head, with a wall full of different tools. Shaking it off, he tried to forget that memory.

The bag was also filled with canned food and more, not for them but for who they might possibly meet in the future. It was mainly filled with items that would become valuable as time passed, and he could use them to bargain with others.

However, nearly all of the food was kept in Skittle’s bag, while anything which would be used as weapons were with Zain.

“Hey, will you look at that? You are now much stronger than you were before.” Zain said, amazed that his friend could carry such a large weight and move with ease. Just like him, Skittle must have gained some sort of exceptional strength boost, which not all zombies seemed to have.

“You understand that I’m the main fighter of this group, so I need to be as light on my toes as possible. You just have to carry that and stay out of trouble. Alright?” Zain asked.

“Krak ka!”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Talking to someone, even if it was his undead friend who most likely didn’t understand his words, was the only thing that was keeping him somewhat sane in this situation and helping him evade the guilt.

Finally ready to leave, the two were heading towards the exit when something strange occurred. One of the Zombies in the aisle suddenly turned its head to look at them. It hadn’t happened so far before, but it was clearly looking their way.

Zain stood in front of Skittle, and it was a good thing he had done because the Zombie immediately started to rush toward them. It ran forward with its arms dangling out.

[A mutated Zombie]

Pulling out one of the knives at the right time, Zain threw it right at the Zombie’s knee; it didn’t slow it down but caused it to walk strangely, which was enough time for Zain to give the zombie a hit with his strong fist.

Knocking his head back, the Zombie fell to the floor, and now with Zain’s foot on top of its chest, it was wriggling about, unable to move. It grabbed onto Zain’s leg, but it didn’t have the strength to rip through his skin or pull him off.

‘The endurance stat has worked out quite well for me.’ Zain thought. ‘But why do you guys just attack us and not any of the other Zombies in the Supermarket? Can you somehow tell that we’re different, just like I can tell about you?’

While seeing the Zombie struggling on the floor, Zain had an idea. He stomped on his arm, breaking it in the process, and then lifted him from behind, holding his two arms in place.

“Skittle, Attack this guy. Come on, you’re going to level up as well!”

The order was heard, and in an instant, like flicking a light switch, Skittle started to run over and started to punch the Zombie, hit after hit; it didn’t tire him out, especially with Zain holding him, it was making his job easy.

“Go on, Skittle, come on, hit him, take it, attack!” Zain encouraged the little Skittle. He had hardly seen his friend fight before, and for some reason, seeing this excited him a bit. In the end, the zombie fell to the floor.

[10 exp has been gained]

[A member of the Horde has helped with the kill]

[Exp has been granted to those that have contributed most]

This was what Zain was expecting to see; with the type of Path he had chosen and for not just him to survive, he needed to not ust level up himself but level up Skittle as well, and soon he would have a whole army that he would be levelling up.

There was a problem though, and that was their hunger and energy; without food and flesh, they would soon run out of energy, and Zain’s body functionality was getting worse. The levelling up did nothing to resolve that problem.

Which was why the two of them needed to head out of the store and look for something they could eat. When exiting out of the door, Zain turned around to make sure Skittle was following him, and that’s when a certain smell entered his nose. Turning to the direction of the smell, he was now looking in front of him.

Standing there was a human, but not just any human, one that was large in size with a black leather jacket, that and tears coming out of his eyes.

“Buke…what are you doing here?” Zain asked. But this was not the sentimental meeting the two thought they would have.

“What….What happened to Skittle.” Buke asked.

*****

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