Seeking Shelter

As the four of them exited the apartment complex, they briefly considered using a vehicle to get to their destination but they ultimately decided against it. They didn't know how many monsters or zombies were in the surrounding area so they wanted to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. Plus, all of them had smaller vehicles that wouldn't survive more than a solid impact or two.

As the group moved through the parking lot of the apartment complex, Grant was trying to get a better picture of the surrounding area. Most of the neighboring buildings were blocked off by walls or plants, but he could see plumes of smoke rising in every direction along with the sound of constant gunfire off in the distance. It sounded like more than a few people had managed to survive, but based on the sound of the shots, they didn't appear to be very close to where they were.

While staying vigilant of his immediate surroundings as well, Grant and the three friends managed to make it all the way to the street without running into any monsters or zombies.

When the group came around the corner of the wall that separated their parking lot from the main road, they saw a group of zombies wandering through the street not more than a quarter of a mile away.

They immediately dove behind some cars that had been abandoned in the middle of the road and observed the group of zombies from a distance.

They could potentially sneak past this group, but once again, if they ignored the zombies now and somehow caught their attention after they passed by, then they would have a pack of zombies at their backs and god knows what else laying ahead of them.

Since no one else was offering up any ideas on how to proceed, Grant suggested that someone get closer to the zombie group and try to attract their attention while guiding them back towards the parking lot of the complex.

That way they could get rid of the group of zombies without attracting any more unwanted attention.

He also figured that they could use the cars in the parking lot as barriers to keep the zombies away from them while they attempted to kill them.

And worst comes to worse, they could jump up onto the cars and use them as platforms to get away from the zombies.

Matt and Tres didn't have much of an opinion on the matter of what to do next because they just remained silent and looked at Jeff to see what his response would be. Grant was starting to realize how much these two just blindly followed the suggestions of Jeff, and it was beginning to frustrate him. While the two of them were looking at Jeff, the person in question agreed that the plan seemed feasible.

However, and not all that surprisingly, Jeff suggested that Grant should be the one to lure the zombies back to the parking lot.

Grant was close to blowing his lid with how much these guys were pushing the responsibilities onto him, but he swallowed his anger and agreed to be the bait. With or without these three stooges, he would still have to draw the zombies back to the parking lot to kill them.

While Jeff, Matt, and Tres slowly retreated back towards the parking lot from their hiding spots, Grant slowly crept around to the other side of the vehicles and approached the group of zombies.

As Grant approached closer and closer to the group of zombies, he started to toss some small rocks that he had picked up earlier, at them which caused them to notice him almost immediately.

Once the first zombie noticed Grant, it immediately started to grunt and growl while moving towards him, which attracted the attention of the rest of the group. Unlike the first few zombies Grant had seen, this group was much more grotesque looking. They were mauled in spots which resulted in missing flesh and they had blood dripping down from their open jaws.

While slowly backing up towards the area they had agreed to set up the ambush, Grant managed to count eight different zombies.

What concerned Grant the most about the situation, was that one of the zombies was actually moving rather quickly compared to the others. This heightened Grant's tension even more than it already was, because up until that point, every zombie they had encountered had been extremely slow and easy to out maneuver.

[Wait, does that mean that this zombie is a higher level than the others?

How the hell do zombies even increase their levels?

Don't tell me... do they level by eating humans and other creatures or something?!

Does that apply to all monsters?? It's only logical I guess.. that's how I've leveled up to this point. It wouldn't make sense if the monsters and zombies couldn't increase their levels..

This is a problem.. I need to raise my level as soon and as quickly as possible to try and stay ahead of the curve.]

While Grant was lost in thought, the quicker zombie came close enough for it to start posing a threat to him so he pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind and immediately dashed back to the cover of the vehicles.

The quicker zombie continued its chase of Grant, while leaving the other seven zombies a good distance behind. This gave Grant an idea so he immediately hollered at Jeff.

"I'll take this zombie, you guys distract the other seven until I'm done. I think this one is a higher level than the others and may pose a greater threat so I'll take the risk of fighting it instead."

Jeff returned Grant's statement with a silent nod and focused on the group that was slowly approaching them.

While Jeff and his friends got ready to distract and engage the other seven zombies, Grant smirked while he focused on the one in front of him.

The zombie wasn't moving at a speed that Grant would deem unsafe, so he wasn't concerned with his chance of success, but it did however pose an opportunity for Grant to reap a large portion of experience and extra stats if his conjecture about its level was correct.

And knowing that Jeff and his group had seemingly no interest in putting themselves at risk, this was a perfect opportunity for Grant to test his theory and reap the rewards if his conjecture was true.

As the zombie approached closer, Grant started to creep around the side of the vehicle he was standing next too in an attempt to lure the zombie into a narrow pathway between two vehicles.

Grant figured that if the zombie could only move forward with it's arms outstretched in front of itself, then it would pose less of a threat and he could take it down easier.

Once the zombie had walked into the gap between the two cars, Grant immediately raised his sword next to his right ear with the blade pointing straight ahead and thrust his sword at the zombies head, stabbing it right between the eyes.

The downside of Grants strategy was that the blade was on a couple inches longer than the zombies arms, so he wasn't able to stab it all the way through the brain without the risk of being scratched or injured by the zombies outstretched arms. The moment that the handle was within range of the zombie, he let go of the sword and retracted his arm.

He still didn't know if a scratch was enough for a person to be turned into a zombie but he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.

Unfortunately it appeared that the depth of his stab wasn't enough to kill the zombie instantly because it continued forward a few more steps with its arms outstretched and a sword sticking out of its forehead.

Fortunately for Grant, his stupidity didn't result in the worst case scenario where he lost his weapon and failed to kill the zombie because it finally collapsed on the ground a few moments later with the sword still stuck between its eyes. When it fell face forward though, the blade was forced deeper in the zombies head and protrude out that back of its head completely.

[Congratulations on killing Swift Man Eating Zombie Level 7.

You have reached level 4.

Gained four status points to be distributed freely.

You have absorbed +4 Agility and +2 Stamina.

You have gained +100 Credits and 2 Random Rolls for successfully leveling up.]

Grant couldn't help but smile to himself as he kicked the zombie onto its side and then reached down to grab his Wet Noodle. His conjecture had been correct: this zombie was special in its own right and was definitely a higher level than the other ones. For the first time, he was happy to take on the small amount of extra danger since it meant greater rewards for him.

He had managed to gain two levels because of the zombie and a small handful of bonus stats which would accumulate over time and contribute to his rise in strength.

[Obviously I don't have time to use my random rolls or investigate what these credits are used for.. but I will make sure I find some time later. I need to pray that I find something to protect myself, like armor, so that I can fight with a little bit less concern.

That plan was just downright stupid. I should have fought it out in the open like I had done with the other zombies.

Next time I won't make the same mistake.]

Unnoticed to Grant, his mindset was beginning to change. He was starting to accept all of the things that were happening around him and he was even seemingly looking forward to the next fight that was to come, if only a tiny bit.

While he hadn't taken long to defeat the Man Eating Zombie, it had been enough time for the other seven zombies to reach Jeff and his group, so Grant immediately sprung into action to help them out. Although he didn't particularly want to be with this group any more, free experience was never a bad thing.

Kiting and fighting the slower zombies was a walk in the park, even more so now that Grant's stats were starting to increase. He already had nearly four times the strength and speed of the average human and almost three times as much stamina.

He figured that the fight could go on for quite a bit longer before he would get tired. However, the fight with the other seven zombies did not take more than a few minutes.

He ultimately managed to dispatch four of the seven all by himself, with Matt handling one, and Jeff handling the other two.

At first Grant was nervous because he didn't see Tres fighting any of the zombies and thought that maybe they had lost their first group member, but then he realized that Tres was in fact cowering behind a vehicle a fair distance away from where the fight took place.

Grant took pity on Tres though, because just a few hours ago he had thought that he would be the one cowering behind cover. Thankfully he managed to overcome that fear and move forward.

[Congratulations on killing Mindless Zombie Level 2.] x 2

[Congratulations on killing Mindless Zombie Level 1.] x2

[You have reached level 5.

Gained two status points to be distributed freely.

You have gained +50 Credits and 1 Random Roll for successfully leveling up.]

Now that the fight was over, Grant noticed one more important thing. Although he managed to get notifications for each of the zombies that he killed, he didn't receive any extra stats.

So he figured that the more of a single class or type of monster that he killed, the less and less stats he would receive.

He had noticed this earlier when the second zombie had given him less stats that the first, but he was more convinced now that he had managed to kill so many and received nothing in return.

When Grant was sure that there was no immediate danger, he walked over and placed a hand on Tres' shoulder to comfort him.

Tres seemed appreciative of the action, but neither of them said anything. So after a moment of silence, Tres stood up and rejoined the group.

Once the group was back together, they once again started to head down the street.

The entire time they were walking though, Grant could feel a sense of anger directed towards him, but he chose to ignore it in the end.