35 Chapter 31: A New Day A New Threat pt.1

Several hours after John had brought Joselin home from her little adventure above ground, John went into a deep thought and began thinking about his next step. He had allowed both Joselin and Joseph to venture above land so that one of them could learn of their weakness and inexperience and so that the other could gain a real sense of loyalty towards their new master.

John knew that he would need them to be loyal and experienced so they could be useful for his next plan to fall in place entirely. John didn't see much point in having many mindless drones seeking and devouring like swarms of locust. He knew that their movements would eventually become predictable and easy to read when it came to survivors that could adapt to the new world that was to come. He looked at his menu, thinking back to the long list of multiple ready-to-evolving zombies and their diverse paths.

Multiple undead were capable of evolving into different stages of what they were, such as a Brute, a massively muscular variant that John hypothesized came with heeps of strength. The next evolution was the Howler, which looked very slender with elongated limbs reaching a little over 2 meters high and runs on all fours(1). John even saw an evolution path where some of his undead could even grow insanely long tentacles from their bodies and use them for all sorts of devastating attacks on all sides, leaving no area unguarded, but what he saw what the modified undead that Joselin had coined the name of spiderlings onto made him even more impressed.

Joselin's spiderlings had three options in total when it came to evolving. The first option was to become a much larger variant of a spiderling called Rotten Arachne, most noticeably after the greek myth and a closer appearance to a spider with bodies the size of a 2011 smart ForTwo(2) and all their limbs being large and elongated. The second evolution path is called a Pouncer, mainly since all that would be gained were inverted legs with a cricket-like jumping ability with insane running capability. The third though was what made John highly interest as it was called the Centipede. This horror was nothing more than an ass to mouth human centipede with only arms and hands as it's a mode of movement.

With the sight of such evolutionary paths, John had an idea for how he could hasten the search for groups of survivors and stragglers that survived the assault of the main forces within major cities. Within his mind, he had come up with a rather devious but time-consuming plan. Yet, it was better than slowly hunting for remnants of humanity hidden within jungles, forest, well-hidden crevices of cities. Why not let them gather in certain areas and let them believe they can be safer with numbers.

John liked the idea of giving survivors the false sense of safety and security by lessening the density of his forces in certain areas. He knew that someone would attempt to make safe zones within these less dense areas. Those safe zones would eventually become small cities where survivors would gather for safety, companionship to replace those they have lost, and a place they may call home once again. Sadly John only saw this as an efficient way to draw out most, if not a majority, of the survivors.

Although it was a great plan, John wondered about the success rate as he knew there would be some who would come to question why some areas seemed less dangerous than others, why some areas seemed less dense, and roaming hordes would seem to avoid these specific areas. That's where the cult that Candice will be in charge of will come to be of use as they will spread false rumors as to why these areas are safe to those who either choose to reject the offer to join the cult or come to trade with them.

From John's perspective, some things will take time to occur, but John knew this would be nothing but a test of his patience. Although it would come to be sometime before he saw the fruits of his plan, he saw it as well needed time to become officially accustomed to his full set of abilities. Although many places, such as military bases, were already destroyed or abandoned, some places were still holding strong despite being outnumbered. John knew that after watching both Jocelyn and Joseph in their adventures and missions, he needed to assess thoroughly what he was truly capable of. He needed true first-hand experience no matter how little it was as up until now, he had only killed one human by his own hands, and that was a groundskeeper in the cemetery.

John stood up from his throne and connected with Dixie and said, "I will be going out for a while until then continue to help Candice with her supplies."

Dixie, who was currently within another room in the GraveCenter, said through her telepathic connection to John, "Of course, have fun and leave me with this bullshit; why don't..."

"Enough! You were given to me to guide me, and I remade you to suit whatever purpose I deem fit. If I were you, I would hold my tongue, or else your wings might be plucked." John said this with a loud growl in the end and ended the connection while descending into his own shadow to only reappear above ground. Unknownst to John, after scolding Dixie, Dixie had a euphoric smile from ear to ear sprawled across her face.

Above ground, John had reappeared on a building overlooking an abandoned street splattered with blood, ash, and abandoned cars. John enjoyed his view from above ground and thought for a minute where he could go to test his strength before quickly arriving at his final decision. He was going to test himself with Fort Dawn, a military base established a few miles west of Hornbrew City, serving as a base for units returning from the field. It was also used for storing military-grade weapons and vehicles such as tanks and various aircraft. The only thing John needed was to have his undead back off from the base as he at least wanted them to be a little prepared when he arrived.

John felt the thrill of attacking the base go up his spine once again despite the lack of nerves. He stretched his wings wide and upward and back down with the mightiest force he could muster. This sent him high into the sky with the sun at his back. With another flap of his wings, he was now above the city's edge and well on his way to the base with his glowing eyes flaring brightly as he approached the base.