Chapter 53: Suspicious Persuasion

"When the attack happened I was watching the live feed. My gaze was drawn to one of the eyes in one of the masses of flesh on the road. I felt as if something was sucked into the center of the pupil. Luckily, seconds later, the camera broke and I was able to snap out of that trance."

"How's Rony?"

"Fine, perfect. Nothing bad happened to him... He was half destroyed! Of course he's not well! You're not helping with your stupid questions Adam."

Adam frowned. There was a limit to the disrespect Terry was showing. He knew he was upset, but he had no business treating him like this.

"Terry, I know you're not well, but there's no need to talk to me like that, we've known each other for years and you know very well that I'm not mocking you nor do I have any bad intentions with my questions. I have even allowed you to do what you want and not bring Rony to the fight, but we are risking our lives out here. At least Rony can be repaired."

"Well, it won't repair itself if you keep bothering me. I've told you everything I know, will you please leave? I'm not in a good mood."

"I promise I'll leave, but answer me something, will you continue to collaborate after this?"

Terry took a while to answer, but finally he did.

"Yes, but leave me alone."

"Ok, but remember that you can repair Rony and that sooner or later it will work again, unlike what happened with Jane..." Adam stopped for a moment, but before he could continue Terry interrupted him.

"What happened to Jane?"

Adam felt a knot in his stomach, no one had informed Terry of what happened.

"She's dead."

Adam stood waiting for an answer, but to his surprise, the apartment door opened and he met Terry face to face. Terry was an overweight man of about 36 with a scruffy beard. His eyes were red and he had giant dark circles under his eyes.

"Y-you're here... I-I didn't know what had happened."

"Adam hung up the phone and looked at his friend."

"I'm sorry, but there's been so much going on this morning that I haven't had time to tell the others."

Terry looked away.

"You know Adam, just before that thing hurt Rony, I was still under the impression that I was in a video game. I know perfectly well that a lot of people have died, but I hadn't reacted until that moment. I don't know what would have happened if the camera hadn't broken. Now you come to tell me that Jane is dead, I don't even know what to say. I mean, you had already told me about Emma's death and the Zoila family and I hadn't really felt it, I don't know why Jane's death has affected me so much."

Adam grabbed Terry's shoulder and didn't say anything, as he didn't consider it necessary.

"I'll help more, I promise, just give me some time."

"Take it easy, I hope to see Rony again before too long."

"Of course, I'll try to make it better, just wait for it. However, I think I will need electronic parts that I can use. Televisions or even computers that are not in use."

"Well, we'll see about that later, since we need to kill that thing in the square."

"Ok, I'd better get back to work on Rony, see you Adam and... don't die, ok?"

"Be cool, I don't plan on it."

Terry closed the door and Adam sighed in relief, that had gone better than he expected. As bad luck would have it, Terry's information wasn't enough to know much about that attack. Although, if the attack killed the enemy instantly, watching it through a video feed seemed to offer partial protection.

Adam headed for the superblock. He wanted to know if Tracel had been successful in convincing the survivors. As he walked, he reflected on Terry's words. He felt the attack draw him into the center of the pupil, but that this had been cut off the moment the camera broke.

Did that mean that the camera offered no protection and that Terry had been saved by the eye contact being broken or was it something else? Adam was frustrated. He would have to be very careful approaching that thing.

He arrived at the superblock and it wasn't long before he found Tracel gathered with a group of survivors.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"It's the best plan we have and I'm sure it will work, after all, Adam has managed to take out every dangerous zombie he's faced."

Adam felt uncomfortable listening to Tracel praise him, but it seemed to be effective. The group of people listening to him didn't seem to disagree with the idea. Finally, one of them saw Adam approaching.

"You're Adam, aren't you? How does this ritual they're talking about work?"

Adam took a while to explain all the details of the spell. Finally, when they finished, the group dispersed and returned to their apartments.

"I see you have succeeded."

Tracel nodded, satisfied.

"Of course, it's just a matter of having the right skills."

Adam looked at the man for a few moments. The comment hadn't pleased him and he still didn't know what Tracel's class was, but considering he'd been a politician, maybe his class leaned toward that area. Now that he thought about it, a memory of the first day of the disaster came to his mind. Just as he had cleaned and funded the building, Tracel had come down with his brother and Jane to berate him that the System had given him ownership of the shelter. At the time Adam didn't realize it, but it was strange that Jane had lent herself in such a way to help Tracel. Even in Tarin it was a bit strange, even though he and Tracel were family. Could it be that he did something to convince them?

A little uneasy, he followed Tracel and watched him convince the rest of the survivors without much trouble.

"Well, everything is ready. In an hour everyone will meet at the apartment and we will wait for your return. Now we'd better talk to Miguel."

They both found the soldier on the fourth floor while he was discussing with all those who were ready to participate in this combat.

"Is everything ready on your side?" asked Miguel.

Tracel and Adam nodded.

"Any important information from Terry?"

Adam explained to the others what the programmer had told him.

"Well, nothing very useful to say. I don't think our plan will change," said Zack.

"Everyone ready?" Everyone nodded. "Then let's get to work and good luck to everyone," said Miguel.

"Wait, one last thing," said Anin, who pulled out four walkie talkies from a backpack he was carrying and tossed one to Adam, one to Miguel and one to Tracel. I think they will be useful for this operation.

"Don't you think they would have been useful for the last operation?"

Anin shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, cell phones were good for that case, so I didn't think it was necessary."

Adam looked at him for a few seconds before looking at the old device. He supposed they would be a little more comfortable than cell phones in this case.

"Perfect, let's check that we are all on the same channel and get started."

Everyone went down to the parking lot, where Tracel stayed. The others kept moving forward, nervous about getting back into combat.

Adam passed near the building where the Void Zombie had been and paused for a moment. This time it would be different, he thought, before continuing after the others.

They all rounded the corner of the street and came face to face with the monstrosity, which continued to slowly expand.

"Well, we'd better get started as soon as possible. Adam, start the tour, remember that we don't know if on your way you will meet any zombie still alive, be careful."

Adam nodded and looked at Miguel one last time. Now that he was about to start he couldn't help the nerves and doubts that were starting to creep in, but he suppressed them as best he could and headed for the building Miguel had cleared.

They all watched him leave and then looked at Miguel and Zack.

"Let's get started, you know what to do," said Miguel. Zack simply nodded and left, followed by his team.

Leonard stood next to Miguel and watched the rookies.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for them to be here?"

"Yes, they'd better get used to it, besides, their job is just to guard the entrance to the parking lot."

Leonard looked at Ivy, who had decided to join in even though she was still tired.

"She'll be at the entrance too, don't worry."

"Well, I really don't think I'll have to worry about her anyway, the two of us will have to get closer if we plan to keep an eye on the Breeder."

"Yeah, so we'd better get started."

The two said goodbye to the others and moved down the street, heading towards one of the buildings that was beginning to be overrun by the monstrosity.

Zack and his men entered the same building as Adam and climbed up to the roof, from where they watched the movements on the street leading to block 2. Everything was too clear, which did not please Zack. The day before there had been hundreds of zombies everywhere and now everything looked desolate. In addition, he could see what appeared to be some Windwalkers in the direction of block 1.

"This is going to be tricky," said Anin.

"Don't even remind me, I hope that boy manages to create the trap in time, I feel that Breeder will be coming for us soon."