16 Preparing for Rangoon

Waking up still groggy Z slowly rises from his bed. Exhaustion still hitting him but the ability to sleep being no longer in his control he makes his way to examine his body. Thinking is hard but doable just slow so resting some more is the first thing he decides to do and thus begins reading the few series of manga he had before all went to shit.

After some days passed Z was able to think clearer and clearer even surpassing before he went to sleep. A lot more things became clear and easier to understand even just reviewing his previous knowledge he read. He started planning his actions for the time to come never leaving his house. His body fully healed but no real changes to his body except that faint light in his eyes is just ever so brighter.

Z during this time wasn't just lazing around though. Once he had recovered enough he started crafting his clothes from all the hides as well as some other tools he needed. Most importantly, though, was he examined the dagger once again. He knew this was a weapon even stronger then the gun he had found though he was only slightly better than someone who never killed with wielding it. Thus he started to practice wielding it in any way he could in his house as the lack of weight was what surprised him.

After recovering to an acceptable degree Z went back out and started hunting again though only rabbits and the occasional squirrel. Though he also was using it on things that normally you would not like car frames. The blade never dulled even when slicing into the rabbit horns so this lead to Z trying it out on many different things. Like this time passed.

******

Scanning the area Z was confused by the conditions seen. The destruction on the trees from when he was sent flying could still be seen. The house the crab was in though was definitely different. For one the walls that were smashed could be seen scattered on the ground, sort of. They were covered, and so were the holes in the house, by some coral like plants. Also the roof of the building had what looked to be a tree like version of said coral. The plant themselves looked like pictures of coral for the bark but the leaves were like that of an oak tree. Though this was odd since they were of different sizes but still all the same plant as the coral was of variety of colors.

It was somewhat unsettling to say the least and Z was not gonna just charge recklessly. Thankfully he is thinking clearly this time, hell one could say even clearer than ever before. Z decided before trying anything he is gonna make sure that the crab is still there and maybe figure out what is with the tree. The funny thing is while weird Z was strangely calm almost detached, no worry, no fear, nor any excitement could be felt.

Slowly approaching the house Z makes his way to a window avoiding the coral with great care. He didn't know why but something told him not to touch it, maybe the blood sucking flowers he accidently created. Sadly the inside of the window was mostly covered by said coral but Z was able to see slightly inside. What he saw though was not what he expected.

"Is that tree growing out of its shell" Z muttered in surprise as if he had eyes they would be wide open. Shaking his head Z knew two possible explanations, evolution or parasite. "Ugh between the two give me evolution parasitic plants are not something I want to add to my problems."

Circling the house Z eventually found the only real opening was in the middle of coral like a tunnel left open for the purpose of prey entering. He found it by watching a rabbit run in before a squeal he knew all to well. So yeah feeding hole.

His other option is to scale the building to the top and between that and the risk of being eaten Z took the climb the building route. Also he felt like touching the coral is still a bad idea since becoming like a certain crew of undead pirates was not on his to do list. Though that made him wonder for a split second if zombies are actually a thing. He then proceeded to return home for the day to get the necessary materials to form the plan and return in the night. After all plants are less active when the lights are gone, right?

After returning home Z began grabbing things to help scale the house. This was mostly just rabbit horns and a mallet he found. He also decided to bring some rope with him since that would let him at least get in the house quietly and if he is lucky let him leave without really touching most of the coral. Of course the big tree thing was basically unavoidable from what he saw from the ground but maybe that won't be the case.

So heading back it was sundown by the time he left after getting everything packed into a bag made of rabbit skin. His cloak billowing behind him as he had successfully turned all the wolf pelts into various armors. The cloak being made of shadow wolf pelts he always felt calmer like when he is at his house while wearing it. Also rabbits seemed to not notice him until he moved which let him get some practice at ambushing. Anyways, it didn't take him long to reach the crab's lair and honestly he was even more shocked. The coral was glowing.

Even more cautious Z proceeded to scale the building. It is not that he was ignoring the plants it is just he was not wanting to get closer to them. Anyone who has played any zombie game would avoid strange glowing plants after all. So with that he started scaling the building using the horns as footholds. It is still weird how his bone feet just do not role off the horns. Another minor mystery that will probably never be solved.

Making it up the side of the building with no real problems he only needed 5 horns to scale this one story house because of its attic area. Upon reaching the roof he was able to get a better look and noticed the coral tree was actually tall enough to leave some space under it for Z to crawl through without touching it. So that is what he did but not to go down instead he was getting a better look inside. It honestly looked more like a sunken house themed aquarium than just house. The only thing missing was the water which was just a small pool on the floor that Z could see through. He was so happy about not needing lights to see in the dark.

So after confirming the inside was not just covered in coral he moved to an open sandy area and secured the rope to three horns and lowered it down. Upon reaching the ground he stared at the base of the tree where the shell is. The weird thing is the roots of the tree didn't wrap around the shell but seemed to be the shell itself.

"So evolution well at least that is a relief" Z thought since a parasite would have wrapped around the shell or busted through not become the shell itself. So with those thoughts Z started going to the hole in hopes of killing it without any problem. Though there was one minor problem. When he found the hole and looked into it, it was looking back.