Chapter 5: Desprate Situation

Half an hour later, Alex and Alice were seen riding their bikes around the town.

In the past half hour, with Alice guiding the way, Alex raided two smart marts, a big mall, and two gun shops. In one of the gun shops, they even found a semi-automatic machine gun, which Alex now had in his storage along with a set of them.

Currently, they were heading towards the school where Angie Ashford, Dr. Ashford's daughter, studied.

Alex's plan was to find the girl first and then wait for the Doctor to contact them, as he believed the Doctor would provide them with a means to escape the city.

While thinking about all this, Alex suddenly noticed a horde of zombies ahead on the road. They were surrounding a church not far away, blocking the road due to their large numbers.

As Alex glanced at the church surrounded by zombies, a sense of familiarity struck him. He remembered it as the same church where the female police officer Jill, her friend Peyton, and the journalist Terri had taken refuge. It was the place where they had met Alice in the movie.

Just as Alex was contemplating these thoughts, Alice, sitting behind him, pulled out the two machine guns he had given her and began shooting at the zombies without hesitation. She knew that Alex had created a sound barrier around them, ensuring that her actions wouldn't attract the zombies' attention.

While Alice dealt with the zombies, Alex utilized his Psionic powers to scan the interior of the church. He discovered four signs of life inside.

"Alice, there are four people inside the church. Do you want to save them?" Alex asked Alice, realizing that his decision to save them wouldn't impact him directly.

Surprised by the revelation, Alice quickly regained her composure and asked Alex, "Can we save them?" Alice, like Alex, didn't have a strong emotional attachment to strangers' lives as long as they weren't acquaintances. In the movie, she had been searching for survivors because she was alone. However, the situation had changed now that she had Alex with her, and her focus was solely on him. Thus, she sought Alex's opinion, aligning her answer with his.

Alex felt somewhat helpless in that moment. He hadn't expected Alice to support his decision. However, the question remained: should he save them or not?

In that moment, Alex remembered the actress who played Jill in the movies. If he remembered correctly, she was beautiful and attractive. With that in mind, Alex decided to save the woman, envisioning her as a potential addition to his family, providing Alice with a sister. This decision aligned with his promise to himself in his previous life: to live his second life without regrets, including the absence of love and family. Building a harem and having children were things he considered for the future.

With these thoughts in his heart, Alex told Alice, "Okay, let's save them."

"Okay," Alice responded, got off the bike, and continued shooting at the zombies.

Alex stored the bike in the storage and took out two machine guns like Alice. However, these machine guns were slightly different. Alex had enhanced their magazine storage space, increasing their capacity by a thousand times. He had done the same with Alice's machine gun. It had consumed a significant amount of his mana, but the result was worth it.

"Let's dance," Alex said, joining Alice in shooting at the zombies. As they fought, his marksmanship proficiency steadily increased, gaining one point for every two zombies he killed.

Meanwhile, inside the church, Jill, Peyton, and Terri had just discovered that the Priest's sister had turned into an undead creature. The Priest had been feeding her living humans.

"Are you feeding her?" Jill asked the Priest, pointing her gun at him while his sister, now a zombie, protected him.

"She hasn't been affected. She's just ill... Ah!" Just as the Priest tried to explain, the zombie sister broke free from her restraints and bit her brother's neck.

"What are you doing? I'm your brother!" the Priest shouted at his sister, only to be bitten to death by her.

Bang! Bang!

Jill quickly fired two shots, killing both the Priest and his sister.

"Let's go. The gunfire must have attracted the attention of the zombies," Jill told her friend and the reporter. They agreed and followed Jill towards the entrance of the church.

Shhggghhhh!

As they reached the church hall, they heard a sound from above.

"What's that?" Peyton asked.

"It's coming from above," Jill replied, shining her torch towards the ceiling.

Rooaaarrrr!

The light from Jill's torch illuminated a mutated humanoid creature crawling on the ceiling. It had elongated limbs, a skeletal frame, and a hunched posture. Its pale skin revealed a exposed brain, with its eye sockets covered by a layer of skin. It possessed a long, prehensile tongue. It was a Licker, which flicked its tongue like a whip as soon as the light fell upon it.

"Ahhhh!" Terri screamed in horror at the sight of the Licker.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Jill quickly shot at the Licker, but it moved with incredible speed and evaded the bullets before she could fire.

"What was that thing? Some kind of monster from the movies?" Peyton asked in a state of terror.

"Be careful. It's very fast and can attack from anywhere," Jill warned Peyton and Terri.

"Did that thing have a tongue? Did you see? It was like a barbed wire," Peyton muttered fearfully.

Thud.

"It's coming!" Jill shouted as they heard the sound of the Licker hitting the ground.

Bang! Bang!

Pulling Terri to her side, Jill fired a few shots towards the area where they had heard the Licker fall.

Unbeknownst to them, there were originally two Lickers, not just one. The other Licker had remained silent, allowing them to focus on the one creating noise. It waited for the opportune moment, when the group was cornered in a desperate situation.

As Jill fired for the second time and caught everyone's attention, the hidden monster shot its tongue like a whip towards Peyton, who was closest to it.

"Ahhh!"

The Licker wrapped its tongue around Peyton's right leg, successfully pulling him between the benches and breaking his neck, killing him instantly.

Bang! Bang!

"Noo! Peyton!" Jill and Terri reacted, but it was already too late. The Licker had dragged Peyton between the benches.