Chapter 21: Burning

The parasites surrounding the Gorger immediately noticed and tried to attack them, but Marlen cut them in half with his axe. The Gorger also noticed and stopped its grappling for a moment to spit acid. Adam narrowly dodged the attack and came at it with the flamethrower. The zombie gave up trying to get up and moved the tentacle. Its heavy body fell to the floor and shook the entire apartment, but the thick tongue was now available to attack.

Adam cursed and dropped to the floor to avoid a blow from the tongue. At that moment, Jane and Noah fired and damaged the Gorger's other eye, leaving a hole in his forehead. Adam took that opportunity to throw a small flame on the tongue. The fire evaporated the wet skin and scorched part of it.

The Gorger went mad with pain and began to spit out another cloud of acid. The huge tongue began to lash out in all directions, which prevented Adam from getting any closer.

At that moment, Marlen stepped forward and cut the tongue in half with a mighty swing of her axe. What was left of the tongue tried to reach her without success, which Adam took advantage of to get closer.

The cloud of acid began to expand and was about to cover Adam. Before it happened, he took aim and fired into the Gorger's mouth. The fire advanced, scorching everything in its path. Adam recoiled, running away from the cloud of acid, but was hit in the shoulder by the thick tongue and sent flying into the wall. As Adam got up, he was hit by the acid cloud and his left arm was affected. Resisting the pain, Adam rolled away from the cloud until he collapsed in the hallway, exhausted. By then, the Gorger was already dead and had thrown up a blue crystal and what looked like blueprints.

The acid cloud soon dissipated, Marlen, Jane and Noah took care of killing the remaining parasites while Miriam healed Adam.

"Could you avoid getting badly injured in every fight?" She asked him.

"I try my best."

The blueprints the Gorger threw down turned out to be the recipe for the creation of a chemical explosive and instructions for the creation of homemade grenades.

Adam examined the blueprint curiously. Apparently, he needed someone with a dedicated Chemistry Class. On the other hand, for the manufacture of the grenade activation mechanism, an engineer was needed. The chemist part Adam could not understand, but the engineer part was quite clear to him. Although he could sense that he would have difficulty in creating it, as he lacked the necessary skills.

[You have killed the owner of 3 small apartments, so...].

Adam ignored the message, but a change within it caught his attention.

[... During the battle, two apartments have been badly damaged during the fight and repairing them will require the right resources and someone with the right Class. Until they are repaired they will not generate new resources. The interface for repairing buildings will be available after the seventh day].

The message referred again to the changes that would come on the seventh day. Adam couldn't help but think what such a change might bring. Apparently, he would get more functions to manage the shelter. Also, he remembered what Marlen had said: at some point the evolved zombies would begin to leave the apartments. Finally, and perhaps most important, the message mentioned the supposed resources the apartments would generate. Adam knew about this from some questions he had asked the system. He guessed that this would be something else that would come into play after the seventh day.

The whole group headed for the stairs and there they found bad news. From where they were, they could see that the top floor had been consumed by fire.

"Shit, something happened on the top floor."

Adam turned to look and frowned. He remembered smoke coming from one of the apartments on the 12th floor.

"I think we've found something like the Zombie Glacier, but with fire."

"Shit, and I thought the blizzard was horrible. I don't think we'll last a few seconds in an inferno," Noah said.

"I think we made too much noise killing the Gorger. At least the one on the top floor doesn't seem to have changed floors. Let's go down to the second floor and join Carlos' group just in case."

They all followed Adam to the second floor. There they found a group of frightened people waiting for them.

"What was all that noise? I thought the whole building was going to collapse!"

"A zombie fell to the floor below. We've already killed it, but I'm afraid the noise disturbed the zombie on the top floor. Do not leave your apartments until the fight is over."

Without further explanation, Adam and his group rested for a few tense hours as they waited for the zombie, on the top floor, to descend at any moment. As they rested, Miriam approached Adam and, after some hesitation, asked a question.

"Don't you think it would be a good idea to talk to Tarin for help?"

Adam looked at Miriam a little surprised.

"Your sister doesn't disagree with working with him?"

Miriam looked away and sighed.

"Yes, she'd be quite upset if she found out what I'm proposing," Miriam said, then looked at Adam and spoke confidently. "But it seems to me that this is no time to be quarreling. Tarin is a mage who specializes in ice and if he learns the blizzard spell, I'm sure he'll be a great help against the zombie on the top floor."

Adam remembered the spell and pulled it out of his backpack. Miriam was right, the blizzard would probably be very useful in dealing with that zombie.

"Call the others, we need to talk it over, especially with Marlen."

As Adam expected, Marlen didn't like the idea.

"No, he already sold information to his brother about us, so I don't trust him."

"Well, I'm not going to go straight to my death just because a girl like you can't work with someone she dislikes," Noah said.

"I don't care what you think. Besides, you're wrong, I can work very well with you even though you're a scumbag."

"Stop sister, the truth is that I was the one who proposed the idea to Adam. We have to make the most of all the advantages we have."

"You what?"

The sisters began to fight while the others looked on, uncomfortably. Finally, Marlen gave in.

"There are mage in Carlos' group, right? Why don't we give the spell to them and forget about the rest?

"It's true that there are a couple of mages in Carlos' group, but they are all level 1 and during the fight against the Ambusher they all went into such a state of panic that none of them cast their spells. Also, Tarin specializes in ice, so I'm sure that, going forward, the blizzard spell will be much more useful in his hands."

"Okay, okay, fine, but after he helps us he'd better go back to his apartment like the cowardly turtle he is."

With the matter concluded, Adam walked out of the superblock to the parking lot. From there he surveyed the top floor of the building. Half the hallway was on fire. Adam tried to spot the enemy, but the zombie was well hidden in the flames.

He entered his building and soon found himself knocking on the Marriz's door.

"What do you want Adam? I'm not in a good mood."

Tracel opened the door and looked at Adam as he tried to suppress his anger.

"I want to speak to your brother."

"I'm afraid he's not available. He's not very well after his adventures."

"Adventures? Well, if I hadn't left my apartment in search of said adventures, we probably all would have died yesterday."

Adam, who rarely lost his cool, became very angry again as he listened to Tracel.

"If you say so," Tracel was indifferent, but he had begun to have doubts about his convictions.

"Can you call Tarin?"

Tracel looked at Adam for a few seconds and then relented.

"I'll call him, but if he doesn't want to talk to you there's nothing I can do. If you want to come in and wait in the living room."

The Marriz's living room looked like a museum of antiques. Huge art paintings hung on the wall and the furniture was decorated with dark blue covers that looked extravagant and expensive, with dozens and dozens of golden decorations. On one wall hung a collection of what looked like porcelain cottages of varying design and on another hung dozens of dream catchers of different shapes.

Adam had heard that Tarin's mother was originally from Malasia, where such decorations were quite common. Adam waited a few seconds until Tracel entered the room followed by Tarin, who did not look well. His eyes were red and his appearance denoted deep fatigue.

Adam frowned. Tarin looked very bad.

"What do you want to talk about, Adam?"

Tarin's voice was somewhat different. Adam tried to figure out what the perceived difference was, but to no avail.

"We need your help to kill a zombie in the superblock."