Life and Death
"There are so many of them..."
Jeff also looks up and finds the crowding bird Zombies in the sky that blocks out the sun, their bodies are even way bigger than an adult human and now imagine that there are at least three dozens of them in the sky.
Their sheer size can even block out the sun, creating a mass that looks like a dark cloud.
Amongst the horde of bird Zombies, there is one particular bird Zombie that stood out, not only does it has a bigger body but its wings are more monstrous and stretch wide to both sides.
Suddenly a powerful roar resounded in the sky before the bird Zombies dive down.
Pati widen his eyes seeing the bird Zombies diving down from the sky after one signal from the leader of the horde, they retract their wings and wrapped them on their bodies to fasten their speed with the sole purpose of attacking Pati and the others.
It's not an exaggeration that their speed is even faster than a top speed of a sports car.
Without wasting any more time, Pati looks at the other and shouted, "Run!"
Just after his shout, Pati and Jeff immediately grab Dinda and Salsa respectively. Carrying the girl like a princess, they made a dash to the nearest building to cover them from these bird Zombies. They're giving their all to dash into the building.
Dinda looks up to the sky and finds the bird Zombies are already about to hit on them.
This is something astonishing since they are at a very high altitude before but they reached them in mere seconds, one can't even imagine how fast they are diving down from the sky.
Unconsciously, Dinda holds Pati's neck tighter seeing the bird Zombies was about to hit.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Pati and Jeff ran to the nearest building in a zig-zag, the bird Zombies crashes down creating a huge booming sound. The sheer pressure on the air can even be felt by the others, the bird Zombies' bodies bring a scorching heat.
Gritting their teeth, Pati and Jeff take a huge leap before they curls their bodies instinctively.
They did this to protect the girls as the four of them breaks the glass on the building entrance and crashes inside, glass flakes flew into the surroundings while the occasional booming sound can still be heard
Jeff looks at Salsa under him before he asks, "Are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine...", Salsa replied meekly.
On the other side, Pati gave Dinda a glance before getting her off of him and standing up.
This makes Dinda get roughly pushed to the side sparking her squeak, she then looks back at Pati and finds him inspecting something outside of the building they are in.
Pati looks out and finds the bird Zombies are limping because of their powerful crashes.
Because of them diving down with their wings wrapped around their bodies, their speed becomes even faster turning them into real bullets. One hit from them will definitely end Pati and the others.
That goes both ways, the bird Zombies have their bones broken from crashing to the ground.
One thing they all have in common is that their beaks are completely destroyed and their wings crooked, it's all because they dived to the ground beak first without thinking.
'I thought they were going to be a threat, but it seems they're not that tough', he thought feeling a bit relieved, but then a frown appeared on his face when he only counted about 20 of the bird Zombies that crashes down.
But soon a gust of wind blew on Pati's face before his eyes widen.
Although he finds that the limping bird Zombies' bodies are bigger than the bird Zombie that he killed which is weird, he was put into an even greater shock seeing the rest of the bird Zombies land softly in front of the building flapping their wings.
Pati also finds additionally the rest of the bird Zombie is even bigger than the others.
They are at least two times the size of the limping bird Zombies while the leader that also landed giving an enormous amount of pressure is four times the size, each breath of the leader makes the air tremble.
Looking at this, Pati slowly steps back as the leader's beak glanced at him.
It has a particular scar crossing its eyes that made it looks menacing.
Even though he finds the Zombie with four tentacles earlier is very powerful and they need to change their lanes to go to the green light, this one is certainly even stronger.
The others' expressions turn pale upon seeing the leader.
All of them can feel the huge pressure brought by the leader of the bird Zombies, the pressure makes a chill run down their spines in sheer fright.
"Jeff!", Pati shouted before with one swift movement he grabs Dinda again.
The two of them dash deeper into the building while carrying the girls without even glancing back.
ROAR!
Shatter!
Out of nowhere the leader of the bird Zombies roared destroying every glass of the building entrance just from its thundering roar, the other bird Zombies then flaps their wings and burst into the building to catch Pati and the others.
While running away, Pati gritted his teeth, 'Fuck! That thing, the leader has a damn tactic?!'
From what happened to them before, the moment they can meet with the bird Zombie that Pati killed is already a part of the leader's tactic. The sizes of the bird Zombies show that clearly.
Basically, the first one is something like a scout. It has the smallest body and is way weaker.
The leader probably used the scout to search for prey or even brought the prey to them if the scout is able to kill the prey first, but the scout failed in killing Pati and the others so the leader send the next wave of attack which is the diving bird Zombies.
One hit from these diving bird Zombies is enough to kill any normal person or even a tank.
After all of that failed then the leader descend with the other more powerful bird Zombies to go for the kill, this just shows that the leader has the level of smartness that may even rival a human!
Power gathers on Pati's feet as he leaped into the second floor.
Jeff also follows behind him while the bird Zombies are on his tail roaring and flapping their wings to catch up to them, but naturally, the building's inside is an advantageous place for Pati and the others and not so much for the bird Zombies.
The sheer size of their bodies alone made them very hard to traverse inside the building.
Since the building adopted a modern-style infrastructure of modern times, the entire building is outer layered will glasses so anyone from the inside can see the outside and vice versa.
Looking up at the ceiling, Pati then glanced over his shoulder while still running, "Jeff! Follow me!
Pati then curls his body to cover Dinda once again before he jumped up creating a hole in the ceiling, he burst onto the third floor and saw that he was in the hallway of the third floor.
[You are damaged, -80 Hp]
Ignoring the system's message, Pati looks at his front and finds a lift at the end of the hallway.
"We can hide in the lift!", Dinda points at a lift.
Hearing this, Pati dashes for the lift while Jeff emerges from the hole and ran after him.
But just as Pati was about to head for the lift, his eyes dilated seeing a very fast shadow that he recognized to be the leader of the bird Zombies is already heading towards him from the outside with its talons ready to strike.
"Dodge!"
Pati shouted before he stopped and use his Leap Skill to burst into the wall on his right.
[You are damaged, -100 Hp]
The four of them burst into a room on their right before the leader's huge talons crash into the hallway ripping everything it manages to grab like paper, the concrete wall is nothing under the power of the leader's talons.
Dust covers the place making them cough a couple of times.
Although they already anticipated that the outside of the university is fearsome and crawling with Zombies, they never expected something this monstrous to exist roaming in the sky freely.
'Damn it! How smart does this leader can be?!', Pati cursed inside his head.
When he was about to enter the lift and hid there, he saw for a brief second a shadow on top of the building beside the one he's in right now. It should be the leader of the bird Zombie.
It realizes that pursuing Pati and the others inside the building will be very hard.
Just like a cat catching after a mouse that hid behind furniture or something, it will be no doubt harder to catch the mouse in that kind of place. And what does the cat do after the mouse did that?
The cat waited until the mouse is seen or comes out.
That is exactly what the leader did as it watched from the neighboring building as the other bird Zombies are pursuing after them, and when Pati and the others are seen and there's a chance that they can be attacked.
It strikes powerfully, Pati doesn't even realize it before the last second thanks to the other bird Zombies that are after him.
After the dust recede, Pati saw a table on his front and decided to hide there.
The others also follow after Pati and hid behind anything that they can use, Pati then poked out his head and finds the wall ripped open with two talon marks.
The cawing sound can still be heard signing that the bird Zombies are still searching for them.
But soon Pati heard a whooshing sound coming from their backs and find that their backs are glass, anyone from the outside can see them hiding and the whooshing sound should be the leader searching for them.
"Quick, change positions!", Pati whispered before they all changed their hiding places.
At first, they are hiding on the right side so if the bird Zombies burst from the floor below into the hallway following their traces they will not get caught. But now the leader is scanning the building from the back, so they need to change their positions and hide on the left.
Everyone held their breaths as the whooshing sound can be heard directly on their side.
Jeff who is hiding on the left side of a filing cabinet, Salsa who is hiding on the side of a bookshelf that is already halved, and Dinda and Pati who is hiding on the left side of the table all have pale expression.
They all pray to god that the leader will just leave them alone.
A minute passed, and two minutes passed. But the whooshing sound can still be heard.
After another moment the leader finally roared powerfully before the sound of its flapping wings started to get further away, other bird Zombies also follow after the leader. Just when Pati poked out his head to check the situation, they all finally breathed normally.
"We almost died... fuck, we almost died...", Jeff mutters from the side.
Hearing this, both Dinda and Salsa's bodies are trembling from the terror brought by those bird Zombies that came out of nowhere.
Pati also breathes in relief before he said, "But we're still alive right?"
This sparks the other to glance at him and finds his expression doesn't contain any sense of fear anymore, his eyes are even glowing with excitement even brighter after that attack.
"Let's continue on, we might as well kill those limping bird Zombies outside", Pati said.
After saying that he stood up before dusting off his clothes and walking toward the door, the others are looking at him in aghast. They just came out of a life or death situation but he snapped out of it pretty fast, "Are you a masochist? We just got out of that situation, let us rest", Jeff is the first one to speak up.
Jeff saw the girls are still not ready to continue judging from their still pale expressions.
"Besides, what if we alert that monster when we kill those bird Zombies outside?", Jeff added with his chest heaving up and down from the adrenaline that still coursing inside of him.
Hearing this, Pati turns around to face Jeff when he was about to leave.
With a serious expression, he then said, "You're interpreting the situation wrongly. Yes, we just come out of a life and death situation but you should look at it as a reminder. If you want to shiver in fear and hide all your lives then feel free to do so"
"But I'm not going to live my life like that. Look around you, the world has fallen and if every time a situation like this happened you need to rest then you're going to be the prey"
"No one can save you except for yourselves"
Jeff and the others went silent after hearing what Pati said.
Although they're very much terrified by what happened before, what Pati said is definitely true.
If by just going out of the university in a day they met with such a monstrous Zombie, then there's definitely other stronger Zombie out there that can tear them apart before they can even blink. Surviving is the answer, and the only thing to achieve that is to become stronger.
"You're right, let's just keep going", Dinda stood up and said.
There is a resolute expression on her face and this is followed by Salsa also standing up. Jeff scratches the back of his head roughly feeling a bit stressed, but he also walks forward.
Seeing this, Pati nodded his head but then suddenly,
Rumble!
Pati and the others look at their backs and find the green light stabbing the sky glowing brighter, it then flashes four times rumbling the swirling dark clouds just above it.
A cloud of green gas then seeped out before turning into numbers just like before.
8...
7...
6...
5...
The numbers stopped counting down after it reaches five, and this made Pati's expression tighten as he turns around and said, "We need to move, there are others that are also heading to the green light"
After saying that, the four of them head to the lobby of the building.
Not long after, Pati and Jeff are looking at the limping bird Zombies in front of them that have their limbs twisted because of their broken bones but are still alive.
Glancing at Jeff, Pati then said, "You should redeem yourself"
"Redeem myself? Why the fuck did I have to redeem myself?", Jeff replied in confusion.
But this makes Pati glance back at the girls before he leans closer to Jeff's ears and then whispers making Jeff's body freeze, "I don't know about the girls, but you look like a bitch earlier"