Underground Basement

Still, with the challenge right in front of them, Fred had every intention of winning it for his survival, with Aran had the same thoughts.

He had no intention of losing his arm if he could help it.

The second, Aran had gotten his share of a small gun with bullets along with a long sharpened wooden stake, slim enough to pass comfortably through a human eye without breaking, he made his way over to Fred and Gary prepared to join them on the journey.

He walked towards them watching them frantically whisper among themselves, but by the time he got to where they were, they suddenly stopped talking giving him their undivided attention, with a vague unreadable expression on their face.

"I'm as ready as I can be," Aran teased, raising the sharp stake in his right hand, while showing them the gun he had tucked in his bandaged left arm, bundled and tied to his neck.

"Aran…" Gary began speaking, pausing a little and making it obvious that he was finding it difficult to say what he wanted to say, before he continued after a few seconds.

"I and Fred have to go alone for the challenge. Being with us would be more dangerous…"

"Wh…What?" were all the words that sputtered out of Aran's mouth, unable to believe the words he just heard Gary say as he kept shifting his gaze between the both of them with a confused expression on his face.

"You heard Gary. We would have taken you if it wasn't so dangerous," said Fred in a vastly impatient tone, wanting nothing more than to leave and start hunting zombies. 

"Dangerous? Are you guys for real right now?" Aran asked unaware that he was raising his voice on the verge of outrightly yelling into their faces.

"How is it more dangerous to be with you than by myself?" he asked, already considering begging, unable to imagine surviving by himself and killing twenty zombies not to speak of winning the challenge.

"I can't tell you and you wouldn't understand even if I tried," Fred replied with a long sigh, knowing that the only reason Gary was even aware of the situation he was currently in was that he figured it out himself and trusted him enough to help. Telling any other person would instantly freak them out.

"Just trust us Aran. With the others with you, you'll be able to survive and get the minimum kills. Where we're going isn't…"

"It's fine…" Aran interrupted Gary before he was half done with all he intended to say, " I actually get it. How can a one-armed person be anything but a burden,"

"I'll see you guys when the challenge is over," Aran said the moment he turned around and began walking away from them, towards the area where most of the Mansion groups were packed, minutes away from heading out.

"Aran…?" Gary called out, wanting to say more and explain only to let the words die out in his throat the second Fred touched his shoulder, and held him back from following after Aran.

"We need to leave earlier than everyone else…I don't think I have that much time left," Fred said, completely understating his rapidly deteriorating condition but not wanting Gary to be more worried about him than he already was.

"Okay," Gary nodded right before the both of them headed down the mansion path with a map in their hands, in the direction of the gates, intending to pick a safer and different one than the one they used in getting into the mansion.

Out of the corner of his eye, Aran watched them leave with a map in his own hand, which had been hand drawn and given to everyone there to ensure that they became familiar with the Albany region where the rest of the groups were, even if most of them like Aran had lived their lives there.

"I can still survive even with me being by myself, but how the hell am I supposed to be the overall winner with me following behind this many people?" Aran thought looking at his bandaged arm, which he only had about a day to keep or lose.

Looking ahead of him at the fifteen people in front of him preparing to head out, as they did final checks on their weapons, the fleeting thought of shooting them down and stealing their kills filtered into his mind as he stared at them, only for him to quickly shake off the idea. Shooting team members get you nothing.

"I can't shoot my team members and even if I could, games can't be compared to real life," Aran thought, deciding to do his best to survive, with no intention of stooping low and doing anything as despicable as that.

********* 

In the northern direction of the silver mansion, some miles away from the residential part of Albany, was a huge underground basement beneath what seemed to be an ordinary-looking church.

Inside were about twenty-two heavily armed people, with bulletproof vests, that looked like they were going to war.

The basement was like a huge house, that led everywhere without any doors demarcating them from each other.

The kitchen had no walls, so anyone in any other part of the basement could be seen. The only place that seemed remotely private was the toilet and even the walls were incredibly thin, like they had recently been placed there.

Huge sacks filled with clean white substances filled every corner with some of them even going as far as to sniff some, while other members of their teams took various kinds of weapons off the walls.

"Don't you dare sniff any more Micheal, you'll get us and yourself killed if you keep going," yelled a loud voice that came from a skinny-looking man with a heavy beard on his face. He was tall and from where he was sitting by a huge table, surveying the entire room with one single gaze, it was obvious that he was either the leader of the group, or an honorable member.

"Yes, boss Navi, " Micheal, the man that was spoken to replied right after taking an extra long sniff before dusting himself off.

They all seemed to have the same military air around them, with a huge tint of mafia energy. They wore the same dark clothes, and their tall appearances were mostly the same.

They hadn't been outside when the level 2 challenge appeared in the sky but the same transparent screen had appeared in front of them like everyone else, informing them about what was happening, about the other groups.

"Boss Hani…" A young man from way behind spoke not speaking to the one referred to as Navi but another person who, unlike the Boss Navi, was lying on the couch with his eyes firmly closed, but whom no one seemed to come close to regardless.

"Which group are we attacking first? The challenge has already started and…" the young man impatiently asked, as he continued speaking, carrying a long box in his hand. He looked completely packed and ready to go without a hair on his head out of place. Everything about him looked immaculate.

"Patience Xavi…for a sniper, you seem to be very jumpy today," Boss Navi said being the one to reply even as he watched Hani, his partner continue to loudly snore, without saying a word in response, even if everyone was sure that he was completely faking it.

"It's just…" Xavi began speaking but was immediately interrupted by a huge muscled man virtuously cleaning every part of his long knives as he sat on the kitchen counter a few steps away from where Xavi was resting against the table.

"It's just…we're a little impatient to start killing the motherfuckers," he interrupted with a dark grin on his face as he stared at his knives, almost like he could already imagine the dark and red blood there would soon be dyed in.

"Yes, boss,"

"Yes, boss…"

"Yes boss," a few other people also spoke up in agreement, thankful that boss Hani was keeping quiet and hadn't said a word. compared to Navi, who was easier to talk to since his temper was better.

"Alright…I might as well tell you some of the plans," Navi said, finally getting on his feet, his gaze mostly on Hani who he was sure was also dying of impatience, which was the reason why he was using his excessively loud snores, which he knew he hated to passively irritate him.

"We'll be taking some of the grenades with us and unlike others, we won't only be using them on the zombies," Navi gently explained, watching Hani jump up in excitement off the sofa he had been lying on, with a huge devilish smile on his face.

"Yes, you heard me. I think it's time we take over Albany and get us, Minions before we expand. To do that, we'll be taking out the biggest threat to us," Navi said picking up his black headband off the table which he used to tie his hair up, before pointing at a particular group amidst the group names he had written out on the table while drawing up an easy map for his team to follow.

Hani was the first to reach his side with his smile growing even wider when he saw the exact group his partner was pointing to.

"Okay…!" Hani yelled in a booming voice,

"Get ready to Mutate…" his voice echoed on all sides of the basement, the excited voices of the other members of his team echoing alongside his own. 

Navi would have spoken up and disagreed since changing to their forms was disadvantageous yet none of them seemed to care even with the limited amount of time they could last in their mutated forms. 

The weapons they each carried more than made up for any weaknesses they could have.

"Moreover…Hani is in charge of team spirit, "Navi thought, seeing as how he was in charge of making plans while Navi took care of the fighting aspect. It was the way things worked between them.