Ch. 5 New Safe Zone

He woke up hearing Matthew shouting at a few people to come over, so he got out of the car and watched as he saw a few people running towards them. Once Matthew noticed Richard was up he nodded and ran over to the people, with Richard leading the way and outpacing him. There was 1 man leading 3 women and 2 children over to them, being chased by so many zombies Richard couldn't count them right off hand.

Richard began flowing through the zombies much faster and with more accuracy now that he had pumped his stats a bit, tearing the shirt he was wearing just a bit. He blasted out with a telekinetic blast, sending a few zombies flying just as Matthew caught up. Between them they were able to take down the close to 100 zombies within minutes, Matthew having to run back now and then before he was overwhelmed. Richard though didn't stop as he used his Telekinesis to blast them away if they got too close.

Richard ended up with 61 Essence and Matthew had 36. Once they had cleared out all the zombies they came back to the group. All of them were staring at Matthew and Richard. "How many of you have been integrated?" was the first question Richard asked, it seemed to be the big ice breaker he liked. The man and one woman said they had, so he nodded and had Matthew give them his Machetes. Matthew grinned saying he was going to start going full on mage anyways, getting flight, fireball and a chain lightning. Richard rolled his eyes, knowing that Matthew would probably max out his Essence on those spells.

Once Matthew was inside the vehicle and out, Richard spoke with the group "Alright, so we're waiting here for one of my guys to come back with a vehicle. I'm pretty confident I can keep you safe, but just to be on the safe side you 2 will be helping me if any zombies get too close." The man and woman nodded, steeling themselves as the rest of them were packed into another car that was unoccupied. Albert and the SUV returned before Matthew woke up, so Richard had them all file into the SUV.

Then he saw his car driving up as well as a Sheriff car with Harry driving his car and the Sheriff, Jeff, driving the Sheriff's car. Once there they both hopped out and walked up to him. "Hey Sheriff, what's going on Henry?" Richard said shaking their hands. Jeff nodded to him "I bought Mana Bullets, so now my gun won't be so useless and Henry got Ice Shards, which apparently hits an area with shards of ice that cut through most things." Richard nodded as he saw Henry grin eagerly.

The SUV drove off, leaving Henry and Jeff with Richard and Matthew. "Alright, with some reinforcements we can probably clear more people out of here. Jeff, you don't mind hauling people back to the safe zone do you?" Jeff shook his head "No, I figured if you have at least 2 people running people back and forth, you'd be better off and able to save more."

Richard nodded as they waited for Matthew to finish. Once he was awake he grinned and started floating "Level 2 Flight, 2 Fireball and 2 Chain Lightning. I also leveled up 3 times, I feel amazing." Richard chuckled, then walked around the cars while Matthew just floated over them, with Jeff and Harry following Richard. They headed further into town, seeing a bunch of shambling zombies, which were picked off by Jeff, Matthew and Harry. Richard summoned his 2 Dire Animal Companions, which turned out to be 2 huge wolves. Both of the wolves were easily as tall as Richard was and would follow his commands without him having to speak.

The other 3 watched as Richard sent his wolves into a pack of zombies, watching them mercilessly crush skulls and rake heads from shoulders with their claws. With all of their spells they began to tear through the zombies that started to come at them at the sounds of explosions and gun fire, with wolves barking mixed in. For almost an hour they walked slowly through town, the ranged spells and gun doing most of the work, while the wolves did the rest. They also gathered quite a big group of people, 32 to be exact, with more kids than adults in the group.

It made Richard sad thinking of how many parents had died to these things trying to save their children. Most of the kids seemed to be around 13 to 16 years old, with the rest being younger than 10. What really struck him was that most of them were from out of town, which wasn't surprising, considering it was a tourist town. It also hit a little more close to home though because he was wondering if any of his friends in town had survived, other than Albert.

Richard noticed as they moved through town towards the Safeway that the zombies were increasing in number, meaning there might be hope that people were holed up in the grocery store. "Alright guys, they don't look like they're swarming towards there yet, so I'll keep watch while you spend your essence. Then I'll spend mine and we all break through to the Safeway." They all nodded and holed themselves up in the bistro, with Richard watching everything.

He looked at his Essence count and sighed, he had 323 Essence after his wolves had killed a bunch of Zombies, so he knew he would get at least 1 more of them by leveling up his summon ability. He'd also up Telekinesis a couple times, then spend the rest on leveling himself up.

It took less than 20 minutes for the 3 of them to wake up, so Richard hit up his IPS. He was met with the familiar white room and began buying. He bought another summon, bringing the next level to 200 Essence, then upped Telekinesis up 2 more levels, costing 55 Essence. Then he leveled himself up once more, taking him down to 4 Essence from 109 for the level alone. He spent the stat point on his Agility, bringing it up to 14.

He woke up ten minutes later, then summoned another Dire Wolf. "Alright guys, so we blast our way through to the front doors. Hopefully us making a lot of noise will pull the zombies away from the doors." Jeff nodded while Matthew and Harry fist bumped. Richard knew they weren't taking this as seriously as they should, but they were both still young.

Once plans were made they began making waves. Richards wolves charged into the fray, tearing through the zombies like a knife through butter while the rest began taking zombies down like nothing. It took a while and Matthew seemed to be floating lower to the ground, sweat pouring from his brow.

Harry was looking about the same, with sweat pouring off him as his spells came less and less frequently. There were still close to 200 zombies, even after they had probably killed somewhere around 500 total. Richards wolves were looking a bit bedraggled, so he resummoned them and they began tearing through the zombies anew, without Richard having to use his Telekinesis even once.

Apparently the wolves were the biggest threats, or accrued the most aggro from the zombies. Matthew and Harry both called it quits after another couple of spell casts, bending over with hands on knees, panting hard. Jeff was still going strong, his 9mm firing off bullets at any zombie that got within 10 feet of them. It took five more minutes before the zombies were all cleared out of the parking lot, with a few coming in from the surrounding area. Richard grinned to himself as he walked through and saw the red mist flow into their bodies.

Once he got to the doors of the Safeway, they were unlocked by one of the workers there and everyone was let in. Then when they locked the doors again and before he could say anything, he got a notification.

*Designated Safe Zone – AZ4267 cannot be designated with 2 hostiles inside. Dispatch hostiles to Designate Safe Zone.* This was what had worried him the most. He looked around at the hopeful faces, that were giving his wolves wide berths. "Does anyone have healing abilities?" he asked and everybody shook their heads. He groaned, then held up his hands "The Safeway can be designated as a Safe Zone by the system, meaning you can build it up and make it safe. The only issue is that there are still hostiles."

Everyone began looking around fearfully, looking at each other as if they were the hostile in question. "I might have a solution, but I need the 2 people who were bit to come to the front. I am going to be out of it for a minute while I check the store." He turned to Harry, Jeff and Matthew "Watch my body like a hawk. I need the 2 people who were bit to be here and see if any of the cure spells I can get will help." They all nodded and surrounded me as he grabbed a chair from the office and sat in it.

While browsing the store and the abilities he had noticed some regular type healing spells that weren't expensive, but he preferred passive abilities or abilities he didn't have to constantly cast, other than Telekinesis. Richard read through the descriptions of all the ones he could find, able to find a search function to make it easier. His heart grew lighter when he finally found one.

Remove Curse – 400 Essence

Can be cast to remove curses, such as Vampirism, Lycanthropy, Zombieism and Petrification.

It would bring him back down to 30 Essence, but he knew it would be worth it to get. This spell would be the second most useful spell in his repertoire. So he bought it and had to wait a full 15 minutes for it to infuse him. Once it did he awakened and sat up, groaning with another headache.

"Did you find one?" Matthew asked and Richard nodded. He pointed to the 2 people that had come forward, both of them sporting bite marks on their arms. Richard put a hand on each arm, then cast the spell. Something he hadn't felt ever coursed through his body and made him crumple to the ground in utter exhaustion. Everyone watched fearfully as he still held onto the arms, until finally the ding of a notification came up.

He kneeled there looking at the notification.

*This area has been cleared of all hostile entities. As the greatest contributor at 37.32% you have been designated as the leader of 'location AZ4267 - Safeway' which has become a safe zone. You will have a new system tab to review as ownership comes with many benefits and responsibilities.*

He chuckled to himself as he kneeled there, utter exhaustion taking him over. "I'm alright, everything's good. Just got hit with a wave of exhaustion. That spell is a doozy." Matthew chuckled and clapped his shoulder "Now you know how I felt old man." Richard grinned up at him and slowly stood up with some help. He saw over 100 people in the Safeway and nodded as he called a few familiar faces forward and designated Pops as the leader of this one too. Pops was going to give him an earful when he got back.

"Alright guys, I need everyone with 4 wheel drive vehicles to come with me. I have another safe zone back in our housing community. I want all of these people loaded up and ready to head out in less than an hour." They nodded and began rounding people up as he looked at his group "Harry, I want you to pick 2 more people here and guard this place. Matthew I want you to escort everyone back to the cars and keep an eye out for anything. You've got versatility and flight, you should be fine." Matthew nodded and stood at the doors waiting.

Harry started mingling with people, trying to find 2 more he could use to help him defend the Safeway. Richard headed out with Jeff, who was walking behind him. "Your wolves are something else." Jeff said and Richard chuckled "Yeah they are. The stronger I make myself, the stronger they will become. I'm just hoping I don't need to spend any more Essence to clear the hotel, there's a Regeneration ability that will help heal some of the damage smoking has caused."

That was when he realized he hadn't craved a cigarette all day, which made him hopeful. "Yeah, smoking is a bitch. You got the 'smoker's lungs' debuff too?" Richard nodded. They made their way down the street, scooping up a few people here and there as his wolves tore into anything that came near. Jeff would shoot a few zombies here and there, to keep them attracted to the group, which made things a lot easier.

Once they were in sight of the hotel, Richards expression fell.

There had to be more zombies here than he had killed the last 2 days combined, somewhere over a thousand. "Fuck, should have sent you back and brought one of the kids with me." Jeff chuckled and patted Richards shoulder "Don't worry, your wolves seem to be itching to go down there. Besides you can refresh them if they get too bad."

Richard nodded and sent his wolves ahead, watching them tear into the ranks of zombies.