Chapter 42: Silence

Zack and his group had already proceeded to block 3, so before leaving, Adam looked at Miguel. The latter caught his gaze and approached "Be careful, we don't know the extent of that monster, the building may have already been invaded." They both turned to look at the building where the dog came from.

"Yes, I also think that may be the case," answered Miguel, who looked at the rookies with some concern. Good luck to you too, I'm afraid you'll need it.

It took Adam a moment to realize that Miguel was talking to him, as he continued to look at his team. In response he just nodded and then turned to look at his entire group.

"Let's go."

They all nodded and approached the gate leading to the courtyard of the target building. After a brief discussion, Marlen ended up kicking in the gate and breaking the lock. Adam still wasn't quite used to how strong they could get now.

Marlen went ahead of the others and entered the courtyard, where she immediately stopped. Adam followed her, somewhat puzzled that she had stopped so suddenly. He understood her immediately, however, when suddenly all the sound he could hear disappeared without a trace.

The change was so sudden, Adam was completely confused and had to try hard not to panic. The experience was not like when your hearing is affected and you can hear a strange beeping sound, but more like there was no sound at all in this place.

With goose bumps, Adam tried to speak to Marlen, but when he moved his mouth nothing happened. Annoyed, he held Marlen by one shoulder to get her attention.

Marlen startled and looked at him, tried to speak but soon gave up and tried to signal to Adam that she was okay. By this time, everyone had entered the courtyard and shared the same feeling of uneasiness and confusion that the sudden silence brought.

Adam felt like he was in a vacuum. Worse, he couldn't hear his heartbeat or the internal body sounds that it is said can be heard when there is too much silence.

The whole group moved forward together, glued to each other and constantly looking everywhere. They got their first scare when, after turning the corner towards the entrance of the building, they were met head-on by two Stalkers.

Luckily, both zombies hadn't detected them either, so Marlen simply swung her axe and cut them in half. Adam felt a chill as he watched the fight. Without sound, it seemed to him that he was watching a scene in a silent movie, as if he were an outsider spectator.

Noah grabbed Adam by the shoulder and motioned for him to go ahead. Everyone in the group seemed impatient and Adam could well understand the reason. They all braced themselves and moved forward, ready to clear the first floor and the first apartment.

However, things were about to take an unexpected turn for everyone. From the third floor, hidden among a group of zombies and in the shadows, a peculiar zombie watched the group until it was out of sight on the first floor.

The zombie climbed over the railing and jumped into the courtyard, where it split some of the concrete. However, no one in Adam's group noticed, as everyone's attention was focused on killing the zombies on the first floor. The zombie approached them slowly and fixed its attention on Jane, who had been standing last as it attacked with the bow.

In any other case, Jane's abilities would have alerted her of the danger, but the zombie was not only able to impose absolute silence on an area, but was also able to completely erase its presence. Not even the abilities given by the system could detect it.

Jane fired one last arrow before the zombie pierced her heart with its fingernails. The woman spat blood and fell to her knees, while still trying to understand what had happened. Her body fell to the ground, face down, and no one noticed. The zombie thought for a moment about picking up its new food, but seeing that there weren't many Stalkers left, it backed up a bit and jumped to the upper floor, where it disappeared again.

Noah finished killing the last zombie and turned to look at Miriam. She saw him turn pale and reflexively followed his gaze. Jane was lying on the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood and only inches away from where she was.

Miriam ran to her and tried to cast [Holy Light] as tears escaped her eyes. The spell didn't have the slightest effect, so she was about to cast it again, when Noah held her by one shoulder. Miriam looked at him and the man simply shook his head.

Miriam pushed Noah's arm away viciously and then pulled a health potion from her backpack. Noah thought about stopping her, but thought better of it.

Adam and Marlen still hadn't realized what had happened, both watching a Stalker trying to make his way down the stairs. Noah walked up to them both, shot the Stalker and grabbed Adam hard by the shoulder.

Adam turned to look at him. At first he couldn't see what had happened to Jane because Noah was in the way, but Noah stepped back and Adam froze. Marlen realized what was happening almost at the same time.

The three of them approached Miriam, who was still trying to heal Jane. Marlen pulled her away from the corpse and hugged her when she tried to resist. Adam couldn't look away from Jane's body.

A horrible feeling came over his body and before he could calm down, he vomited on the floor. Noah walked over to him and gently slapped him on the back.

Adam let himself be comforted. A terrible regret came over him. Luckily, he managed to push these thoughts out of his mind and decided this was not the time for it. He glanced at Noah beside him, who kept scanning the surroundings, hawk-like.

Adam walked over to Marlen and gestured with his hands to be alert of the surroundings. Marlen nodded and then helped her sister continue. Noah, Adam and Marlen surrounded Miriam and moved forward much more slowly this time.

But before they made much progress, Miriam refused to continue. She pushed the others aside, approached Jane's body and dragged her towards the outside of the building. Adam understood immediately and thought it would be a good idea. Everyone else nodded and followed Miriam.

From the upper floors, the zombie watched the scene angrily, the thieves were taking what belonged to him. So he decided he would have to intervene.

He jumped back into the courtyard and fell in behind the group. This time, Noah saw him immediately.

[Void Zombie]

Noah held Marlen so tightly that she startled and turned to look at what was happening. Noah raised his gun and fired and, to his surprise, hit the zombie the first time.

The zombie tried to dodge, but didn't react in time and the shot penetrated its shoulder. The monster immediately recoiled in surprise. Marlen tried to chase it, but Noah stopped her. They both backed up until they caught up with Adam, who had realized what was happening and had managed to catch a brief glimpse of the zombie before it disappeared.

The three of them hurried after Miriam and soon found themselves outside the quiet zone. The sound suddenly returned and they all felt somewhat dazed, as well as relieved.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, that son of a bitch is going to pay dearly."

Marlen had never been so angry. Miriam remained silent, still unable to process what had happened.

"I understand how you feel, but I think we have to be careful. This happened because we underestimated our enemy. A field of silence is much more powerful than it seems."

Marlen was about to hit Noah, but stopped herself, for she was right.

"Dammit, if only she had looked back."

"Wait a minute, didn't Jane have an ability that allowed her to detect imminent danger?"

They all fell silent before Adam's words.

"It's not just silence, Terry couldn't detect anything either."

While they were arguing, the Void Zombie was still recovering from the wound on his shoulder. It had underestimated its prey and had paid for it. The strange weapon had fired something at such a speed that it had not given him time to react.

If they invaded his territory again he would go all out against them. However, if he wanted to reach the user of the strange weapon, he would have to affect it, somehow, with his magic.