Chapter 27: Neighbors

"I think there is nothing more to say, so you may leave. I recommend everyone to take shelter in the unoccupied apartments for the duration of the night."

The whole group began to move as they spoke in hushed tones. Carlos, smiling, approached Adam.

"Well, it could have been worse. But I tell you what, I think that not demanding anything from those who don't want to fight will get out of control when the shelter grows. You should think of something for the future, otherwise you will find yourself in a situation where a few will have to protect and feed many."

Adam analyzed Carlos' words and realized that he was right. He, primarily, did not want problems with the survivors in these initial stages, but later on he could not let that situation continue. Besides, it was vital to find more and more people who were willing to fight.

Once everyone was spread out in the unoccupied apartments, those who were going to fight gathered together to find out what they should do.

"We are all exhausted after so much fighting. So the first thing to do is sleep," said Miriam, who was willing to drag her sister to rest even if it was the last thing she had to do. She knew that Marlen was exhausted after receiving numerous serious injuries, but she seemed to want to continue fighting.

"That sounds like a good idea to me," said Adam. Do either of you know what time the attack started yesterday? The truth is, I woke up so abruptly, I didn't even have time to look at the time.

"I think it was about 10:00 p.m., so I'm sure they'll be back by then." Marlen replied.

"It's almost 7:00. I didn't expect it to be that late; time flies when you're resting," said Noah.

"Then we should all sleep until at least 9:00. Set an alarm or something," said Adam.

Everyone nodded and the meeting ended. Adam headed for his apartment, when, as he passed by his bedroom window, Adam opened it on impulse.

Night was gaining ground and Adam was surprised to see more lights than he expected in the city. The hospital, unfortunately, was dark, but he managed to see, here and there, buildings with lights on. Adam hoped they were survivors. The view from his room cheered him up, despite the abnormal silence everywhere. Where once he could hear the sound of cars, now everything was silent.

To his left, he could see part of the street that ran behind his building, partially obscured by a large mango tree. There he noticed a couple of stopped cars and what looked like some zombies devouring something in eerie silence. The backyard of the building was in bad shape compared to the front yard, where he had had the meeting. In it, a multitude of plants were growing that had broken through the concrete. In addition, he could see a couple of zombies walking awkwardly around the courtyard.

From his window, he could also make out the baseball field, where a few zombies were also wandering.

Adam closed the window and went to the kitchen, from there he observed a different view. The neglected college building took up much of the view. Even before all the disaster, the building had been in a sorry state. Now it remained quiet, but Adam suppressed a shudder at the thought of what he would find inside its hundreds of rooms. With any luck, there would be nothing dangerous, as there shouldn't have been many people there when it all started.

To the left of the college was a power plant, which, previously, supplied the electricity service that came to his house. Now, thinking about the System, Adam wasn't too sure about it. Luckily, he also spotted a few houses with their lights on.

Suddenly, it dawned on him that maybe the lights were, in part, what attracted the zombies during the night. Yesterday everyone was so exhausted that no one turned off the lights in the building. He closed the kitchen window and this time decided it was better to go to sleep. Just as he expected, before he fell asleep, he heard the system message announcing that he had leveled up, although he was surprised that he hadn't gained any new skills. Before he could think much about it, Adam finally fell asleep.

[Engineer has leveled up to level 8].

The alarm woke him up about 20 minutes before 10:00 at night. Adam jumped up and left his apartment. Tarin was waiting for him at the door, carefully watching the night.

"We'd better turn off as many lights as possible, I think the zombies are attracted to them."

Tarin nodded, but then looked toward the superblock.

"Shouldn't we turn off the lights in the superblock as well?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid it's too late for that. I don't think anyone wants to risk going out into the parking lot at this hour. We'll have to prepare for defense."

Together they descended the stairs until they met Miriam and Marlen. They had both decided to leave their apartment due to the missing grille they had cut to get down to the garden.

They all rejoined Noah and then set out to await the onslaught.

Meanwhile, in block 2 of the housing development, near the superblock, Miguel and his group were preparing to spend the night. The previous day's attack had caught them off guard, so this time they moved to the top floor and prepared to hold out there.

The group consisted of people who had survived in the building and a few others who had made it there safely, 10 in total. Unfortunately, the number of people willing to fight was only 3. At first, more had volunteered, but after several deaths the night before, and a desperate fight against the only evolved zombie in the building, only these were willing to continue fighting.

One of those people was Miguel, who with his gun and military training could fight effectively. Another was a girl named Ivy. She had chosen the [Mage] Class and her element was Darkness. The last was Leonard, a teenager who had the [Soccer Player] Class and his weapon was a strange soccer ball made of an unknown material that looked like metal, but behaved like a normal soccer ball.

The three of them were gathered together, tense and increasingly nervous as the time for the night's attack approached. When Miguel's watch struck 10:00 pm, nothing seemed to change, but all three felt a great tension.

Miguel approached the railing and scanned the parking lot. From there he saw numerous Stalkers coming out of the nearby buildings and heading towards the building across the street and towards them, where Miguel had seen the terrifying winged creature attack the group of survivors.

Miguel followed the group of zombies approaching his building with his eyes, until he lost sight of them when they entered the first floor. The old military man had counted about 20, but considering that he and the others were already level 5, combat should not be too difficult. However, the night was just beginning and there were still zombies approaching from elsewhere.

"How many are out there?" Ivy asked quietly as Miguel stepped away from the railing and came back to them.

"About twenty, but more are coming."

Ivy swallowed deeply and held, tightly, the valuable staff they had received from killing the most powerful zombie in the building.

Leonard was moving the ball back and forth, as he tried not to think about the coming combat. In part, he was angry at the other survivors. No one wanted to fight, but everyone expected to be protected. If it weren't for the creature Miguel had seen in the parking lot, he would have already taken off for block 4, where there was supposedly a group clearing several buildings.

As he was thinking, the Stalkers began to climb the floors. They were looking for the potent odor given off by the humans that drove them completely insane at night.

When they reached the stairs to the top floor, Miguel looked in the direction of the others and nodded. Leonard snapped out of his thoughts and Ivy prepared a spell.

Just as Tarin had obtained the spell of [Icicle], Ivy had obtained the spell called [Dark Sphere]. From her staff a ball of pure darkness burst forth and struck the first zombie coming up the stairs.

The sphere burst on impact and covered the zombie, and several following close behind, in a completely black, sticky substance.

A few seconds later, the zombies screamed in pain as the magical blackness partially consumed their bodies, like acid.

The zombies behind pushed the ones in front, while others even climbed the railings trying to reach the upper floor. Miguel was prepared for this, so he hit them in the head with the gun as soon as they ascended.

As Miguel expected, the Stalkers had become too weak, so the old military man had no trouble controlling the few zombies that tried to reach him.