90 Chapter 90

- Xenon -

I was surrounded by walkers from all sides, yet they would give me a mindless blank look at best before going about their business, consisting of walking around aimlessly. But if my experience with walkers has taught me anything, is that they are rarely anywhere for no reason.

What I mean is, if they don't have a reason to stay at a particular place, then they'll choose a random direction to walk towards. I am not sure if the direction they choose is truly random, or if there is an algorithm selecting it, but it doesn't matter that much. Do I have a point in saying this? Yes, I do. Walkers don't linger anywhere for more than a month, which tells me that something must've happened in this small town for them to stay here.

I have already determined their number: two hundred and forty-three, which is quite problematic for our situation. I am not counting those out of reach, but those that we would have to deal with direction if we wish to go any further than this.

I was going for the hardware store Jason guided us towards, keeping an eye open for any details that might be useful. And it seems I was right. Something did happen in here. I could see a few corpses sitting on the ground, which is weird since corpses are supposed to be moving nowadays... Ironic how times change...

They all shared a common feature though: the bullet wound on their heads. Granted some of them had chunks removed from their skulls, but it counts as a bullet wound in my book. Due to their rotting bodies, a larger bullet caliber can do a ton of damage to them. A bit further, I found a walker with its head caved in, most likely a result of a blunt weapon.

A car sitting in the middle of the street, with the door open and... 'Is that a hand stuck to the door handle?' The sight was rather amusing, giving me Deadpool vibes. Except this particular hand was less amusing than the famous superhero. It was brutally torn from what I can see, how it was accomplished I'll never know. The blood on the street below it looked relatively fresh, and I am only taking these conclusions out of my butt. I was not an expert on the subject who could tell you the blood's age from sight or smell. Speaking about the smell, they have truly undersold how smelly this world had become, especially when there are walkers nearby. It might also be because my nose was fairly close to the walker skin I was wearing on myself, but still. I was glad I've become accustomed to it to some degree.

I finally arrived at the hardware store and wasted no time going in. It was thankfully already open so it was a walk in the park. I could still see some solar panels on display of varying sizes. I was no expert in the subject if that wasn't obvious already, but it was a good sign as far as I'm concerned. That tells me that the trip wasn't made in vain, because we would be able to get some form of electricity regardless. I'm sure those panels could get the job done, to some degree.

I exited the store and walked around the neighborhood, to get an idea about the geography of the place. We still needed to deal with all the walkers to get access to the store. You're probably wondering why can't we just sneak in like I just did, get what we wanted, and be on our merry way? Well, I'm not sure the walkers would be okay with a few of their 'buddies' carrying stuff around, they are not exactly familiar with the concept, you see...

I am unsure what the best course of action is in this situation. We don't have to fight the walkers, those numbers weren't looking good. But at the same time, if we don't deal with them permanently, they might come back for whatever reason. But if we can get out of here in time, then it wouldn't matter that much. Worst case scenario, I could ask everyone to get in gear while we drag them away again, everybody wins. Not exactly a bad idea... Huh, then maybe that's what we'll do.

"Shane, do you hear me?"

"Yes, what's the situation?"

"We are dealing with about two-hundred and fifty of them, not a number I'm confident about. We'll need to drag them away before we can do anything."

"What's the plan?" My idea was fairly simple. I will drag them away for a while, mainly using gunshot sounds to draw their attention further and further. They have this weird talent of knowing the distance to the source of noises, so nothing guarantees they'd continue walking in the same direction. They might reach their destination and stop, which isn't ideal for us. And while I drag them further and further away, they would get to work securing the hardware we need. I would join them about an hour later at best if I use my [Sprint] skill.

- Narrator -

The group stayed behind waiting eagerly for the signal. They couldn't move in at the sound of the gunshot, opting to wait until they either got a signal from Xenon or judge it safe to go in.

They still needed to eliminate the remaining walkers, as there were bound to be a few that were left behind. Not all of them behaved the same way, sometimes there would be deviants, but they made short work of them with their bows and experience.

With no time to waste, they got into the building to locate all the tools they would need for the solar panel project, though most of the identifying was done by the expert in the subject, the others only helping clear the area of walkers, keep watch for any approaching hordes and help transport anything Jason points at. Xenon came back an hour later, a small group of walkers following behind him which he dealt with swiftly.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Xenon asked Jason as soon as he came back.

"Yeah, everything we need is here." Jason confirmed before Xenon could sigh in relief. He was truly afraid this would be a wasted trip, or there would be a need for another trip, considering this was the closest store they could target, and it took them four hours to arrive there.

"Perfect." Xenon nodded. "How much time do we need before we have everything loaded on the trucks at this pace?"

"I'd say two hours at worst." Jason answered. "We're taking everything we could need as you suggested, and we can't rely on the display models. The real stuff is stocked a bit further, and the trips take time. We're prioritizing what's important first. We can use whatever else we get as spare parts."

"We're certainly making another run to this place later on." Xenon reassured him. "We will always need more solar panels. We are planning an expansion in the near future."

The two trucks they brought with them couldn't even hold half the hardware in that store, especially since most of it was rather massive. Xenon was already making plans on leading a larger group here to take everything that could be used back to Motherbase.

Xenon took over guard duty, using the opportunity to rest and get his stamina back. He made use of [Sprint] the whole way back, leaving him low on SP.

After an hour of work, they realized how hungry they were since they haven't eaten anything since breakfast, and that was at sunrise, so a lot of time had passed since then. Shane remarked that it would take longer than predicted at the pace they were going. The materials were rather heavy, so they had to take time to rest every now and then.

"Do you hear that?" Daryl said loudly for everyone to hear, attracting their attention immediately.

"Hear what, Daryl?" Shane asked with a frown, while Xenon was doing his best to hear what he was referring to.

"It sounds like a car." Daryl added again, pointing at the direction the sound was coming from.

"Didn't you lead the walkers that way?" Theodore asked Xenon, who nodded.

"Yes." He said grimly. "Let's hope they don't attract them here." But it seems fate had other plans in store for them, as the sound was getting closer and closer, to the point that everyone could hear it properly by then.

"Everyone, take your guns and get inside. We might have to fight them if they're not friendly." Xenon commanded. "Shane and I will see what they want if they stop here."