Encounter

The sunlight gently touched the face of Miles and it gave off a warm feeling to him.

One by one, the members of the group woke up.

For their breakfast, they shared a few cans of beans that they brought.

"How about the survivors?" Dante asked as they were preparing to leave.

Their goal was to reach the building next to the Broadcasting Building before the day ends. They plan to raid the Broadcasting Building the next day.

Lilia raised her hand. "I'll take them back to the base first if that's alright."

The group was silent and was deliberating what they should do.

"You can but we won't wait for you to come back and will move on with the mission." William said.

"I understand. I will follow quickly after I drop them to the base." Lilia nodded.

"I will go with her." Julia raised her hand. "I can carry you back to the team to reduce our travel time."

"Alright. Lilia and Julia are going to take the survivors back to the base. Us remaining will move on with the mission and they will catch up to us after they drop the survivors." William announced.

"Our route will be the same as we have discussed. If we're all on the right schedule, we will be meeting in this building before noon. Let's see each other there." Dante explained.

"Mm. I understand." Lilia said and Julia nodded.

"Be careful." Michelle said.

"You too."

The team separated. One will return to the base while the original team will continue with the mission.

As they walked in the opposite direction, William sighed.

"What a pity."

"Why?" Miles asked.

"There are few good classes in that group of ladies. If they fight with us, it will be much easier."

Last night, they learned that a few of the ladies possessed good classes.

Two of them were 'mages', one 'archer', one was a 'healer' like Helen and one was an 'assassin' like Julia.

"We can't just push them to the frontlines in their condition. They will be a burden more than a help." Miles commented.

"I know that. That's why I hope they can recover and muster up some courage to fight with us." William said with a huge hope in his eyes.

"That would be great." Miles smiled.

"Contact, front!" Dane shouted.

The team saw a group of zombies and approached them.

Unlike yesterday, they increased their speed of clearing today.

First, their added levels gave them a boost in their strength.

Second, they wanted to reach the Broadcasting building as fast as they could.

Finally, they wanted to avoid getting in the middle of the enraged zombies as much as possible.

There were seven huge buildings that were in between them and the Broadcasting building.

Their first target was the Conference Building, fifty meters away from where they are and with their strength, they swiftly slaughtered the zombies and raided the place. However, the devastation on the building was severe and no survivors were found.

Moving forward was the only thing they could do.

As they raided two more buildings, they noticed that there were no survivors around and only zombies roamed the buildings.

"It seems like finding survivors is more difficult now." William said as he slashed a zombie into two.

The others nodded.

"The zombies are more concentrated in these areas so that makes walking out dangerous." Dante started.

"Yeah. And if they don't have any weapons, killing the zombies would be difficult." Miles said.

They just finished raiding the third building when a group of people entered his eye when he looked out of the window from the third floor.

This group was composed of five people and they were running from a bunch of zombies.

"There are people being chased by zombies below!" Miles told the team.

"What?" They moved to the windows and saw the group of five running.

"Let's go!" Without any hesitation, William ran down the stairs and the others immediately followed behind him.

They chased the group and zombies that were after the group.

With their speed, they caught up with the zombies quickly and began killing them.

It took only less than two minutes to kill the zombies.

"Are you alright?" William asked the group of people that were backed up in the wall.

They were staring at them with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

Miles observed them. The three of them were men and two women. Their levels were low from the number above their heads.

[ 15 ]

[ 10 ]

[ 10 ]

…

"Thank you for saving us. But who are you guys?" one of the men, holding a steel bar asked.

"Let's go inside the building first. It's not good to talk here." William said.

The five looked at each other and nodded.

William led them inside the building they just raided.

"I am William and this is my team." He just introduced himself.

"I'm Brian." The short man with a steel bar shook hands with William.

"It's good to meet you Brian." William smiled.

Miles stepped forward. "Can I ask where you guys came from?"

The five went silent before Brian spoke.

"You guys tell where you came from first." Brian stared at Miles.

"Just from around here. Your turn." Miles said.

His behavior surprised even his team. His tone was a little more aggressive from the usual.

"W-we're also from around here." Brian answered.

Miles looked at each of them narrowly and said. "Then I guess you've seen all the dead zombies around. We did that just this morning."

He moved closer to Brian. The five became more cautious as he approached them.

'They did that?!'

'Damn! These guys!'

'What levels are they?'

"W-well," Brian gulped as Miles stared at him directly.

"Ahem. Miles." William broke the tension.

Miles let out a sigh before returning to his position.

"What about we have a meal first?" William proposed.

"A meal?" one of the ladies exclaimed.

"Yes. Do you have anything with you?" William asked.

The five lowered their heads and lightly shook their heads. William's group noticed the tears in the group's eyes.

"Then we can share ours with you. Come on, guys." William instructed the team and they took out some jerkies and canned sausages.

The five locked their eyes on the food and slowly sat with the team.

"It's not much but please have it." William smiled as he passed three small sausages on a stick and a piece of jerky to Brian.

Brian accepted it and began crying. "It's enough. Definitely enough. Thank you, thank you."

"Mm." Michelle and Helen distributed the meal to the others.

They thanked them again and again as they ate their food while crying.

"Eat or cry. Pick one. Don't do it simultaneously." Miles commented.

Michelle elbowed him from the side and glared at him.

He smiled and commented. "I just don't want their food to have tears and snot on them. Well, that should have an extra taste so suit yourself."

"Ewww.." Michelle slapped his shoulders as he resumed eating.

Brian wiped his tears and smiled. "You're right. I should eat first."

The others did the same.

After their short break, Brian asked. "Did you really kill those zombies outside?"

"Yes, we did." William replied. "Is something wrong?"

Brian shook his head. "No. It's just that we found it shocking to see the piles of zombie corpses the moment we head out. We knew that people did it and we're excited and afraid at the same time. If we team up with them, they could help us take down the zombies but if they are hostile, we are doomed."

"As long as you're not hostile to us, we're good." Dante commented. "I apologize for how this guy acted." he said as he patted Miles' shoulder.

"D-Did something happen?" Brian asked.

"Haah..We just encountered not some good people recently and it ended badly." Dante sighed.

"H-How bad are we talking?" Sheila, one of the ladies, asked with weary.

William's group went silent before Dante spoke for them.

"We fought and killed them."

The five trembled at his words and they subconsciously wanted to reach for their weapons.

'Damn!'

'I knew it!'

'It was all a trap!'

Each one of them was cursing inside their minds.

Brian smiled bitterly while sweat flowed in his head like falls. "I-This…please. If anything that we did offend you, please forgive us."

He then bowed his head and the others followed. They were nervous as they waited for the team's verdict.

Then, they heard Dante's laugh. "What are you guys doing? We won't hurt you. Our team is not so bloodlust that we would kill people for no reason. They deserve to die. It's true that we're in the apocalypse but our team still has its complete sanity and humanity."

Dante and William helped them up. "There's no need for this."

"Uhmm." Brian hesitated.

Sheila then raised her hand slightly and asked. "Uhmm, sir, can I ask why you said they deserve to die?"

"Hmm.." Dante looked at William and the latter nodded.

"This is what happened.."

Dante relayed their encounter with Karl's group. How they used humans to level up, abused the women and how they tried to harm the team.

After Dante spoke, the five stayed silent until Sheila spoke again.

"Are you guys strong?"

"Us?" William raised his brow and shook his head. "We don't know."

"Is that so?" Sheila timidly said.

"It's just because we have no idea about the other's situation. We haven't encountered people that seriously fight zombies and level up." Dante added.

"We also try to fight the zombies…" Brian muttered in a very low voice.

"Then what about your levels?" Sheila threw another question.

"Level is not something that is shared to others, more so to strangers." William said firmly.

Sheila gritted her teeth and begged. "Please, even just an estimation."

William scratched his head and looked at Miles who was observing the situation from the sides.

"This.."

"All of us are at least level ten." Miles commented from his seat.

The others were shocked to hear him.

"What? I just tried to calculate it." he defended.

"Thank you." Sheila bowed to him then she went straight on all fours and kowtowed as her head was on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Miles asked.

"Please save my friends!" Sheila begged as she cried.

Michelle came to her and tried to get her up but she didn't want to.

The four saw their comrade and also copied Sheila.

"Save your friends? I don't know what's happening so please tell your story first." William helped them up but they still the five stayed as they were.

Brian lifted his head and told their side. "We're a part of a large group of people that survived the first day. We gathered in the higher floors of the Administrative building and created a huge group. A small group of men tried to unify more than one hundred people and they were successful. They raided the lower floors and created hope for the survivors."

He then gnashed his teeth like the others. "But they changed after they captured the cafeteria and got hold of the food supply. They began to monopolize it to themselves and began ordering others to do what they wanted. Those who followed were given food and the others that don't were starved. Those who fought were thrown out."

Brian clenched his fist. "But it didn't end there. They began to force themselves on the women, beat people for nothing and send others outside to find supplies for them, while having their friends or loved ones hostage."

As Miles' team listened, they began to get angry.

"Are you sent outside to search for supplies?" Dante asked.

Brian nodded. "Our group sent out yesterday. Originally, there were fifteen of us but…"

"Please! I beg you! I'll do anything! I just want to save my friend!" Sheila begged again.

Miles' team sympathized with what happened.

However, they also don't want to move carelessly against a large group of people. They just realized how reckless they were to confront a group of people that outnumbered them. If not for Miles being there, they would be dead. Even Miles realized this after the fight.

But of course, they wanted to save the survivors. They just needed to get some more info and increase their levels as much as possible before confronting them.

While they were contemplating what they should do, Miles took out his phone and showed the photos of his friends to Brian.

"Did you see any of them?" He asked.

Brian's eyes widened as he pointed at Sammy and David.

"These two, I know them."