Chapter 31: Migration

Miguel watched from behind Ivy and felt angry.

"It seems the potions are not as powerful as we thought."

Leonard lowered his head not knowing what to say. Everyone was silent until Miguel found some appropriate words.

"Leonard, you'd better eat something and get some sleep, we'll talk when the sun rises."

Leonard looked at Miguel and nodded, while Ivy went to get some food.

Miguel left the apartment and stopped at the stairs. The Windwalkers seemed to have disappeared without a trace, so Miguel decided he could relax for a moment. Throughout his career he had seen many colleagues with similar injuries. It was never easy when something like this happened. It would take time for Leonard to get used to having only one arm.

Miguel wished he had a cigarette at hand, even though he had quit smoking years ago. At that instant, the sound of a zombie, on the lower floors, brought him back to reality. He remembered that the night was not yet over, so he descended and began to kill the Stalkers systematically, while expecting to feel, at any moment, the imminent danger of a spear. To his luck, such an attack never happened, but that alone left him uneasy. Where had the Breeder gone?

The Windrunner had returned to the superblock. It had taken up residence on the roof of the building, but now with a damaged wing it had to climb the building from fence to fence until it reached the top. The entire superblock was overrun with zombies and, being a haven for his race, each apartment generated certain "resources". To produce these resources, each apartment had been spontaneously modified by the system.

Each one housed a new type of zombie, a mass of immobile flesh with a wide mouth from which it spat handful after handful of golden eggs that hatched into a new, tiny Stalker zombie in a matter of half a day. The new "resources" didn't take long to grow, as they fought and consumed each other until only a handful gained enough energy to reach the size of a normal Stalker zombie. Then they would wander out of the apartment and join the dozens of Stalkers guarding the building.

Some floors were emptier, for there the Stalkers had served as food for more powerful zombies. But now that the Breeder had returned, none of them dared to leave.

The Windrunner reached the roof of the building, where a pile of human corpses and a large number of golden eggs were waiting to hatch and give life to new Windwalkers.

The zombie sat on the ground and decided to wait until he was cured. The zombie's newly hatched mind tried to find an answer as to why it had been defeated. It realized that it should never have entered the apartment, as space was too limiting. He also realized that he relied too much on his plumage, as no attack had harmed him up to that point. But now, that strange ball that impacted his head had stunned him horribly.

The Windrunner recalled the entire fight in his mind. From the irritating darkness of the woman and the old man who seemed to be able to predict his attacks, to, finally, the terrifying stun ball.

He felt uneasy, something told him he had to kill those humans quickly. He looked for a second at the mountain of corpses and realized that he would have to hurry to complete the ritual if he wanted to be able to face his prey. Furthermore, he resolved never to confront them inside their dwellings, but to wait for them to come out.

The Windrunner pondered for hours on the roof, until night gave way to day. From where he stood, he could see the sunrise. The sun ascended from the horizon and illuminated everything in a few seconds. The Windrunner looked up and admired the rising fireball in the skies, until his eyesight could take no more.

He wondered what the thing was and how high it was flying. The night before he had also witnessed its ascent and had tried to catch it, but after ascending and ascending, it did not seem to have traveled even a small piece of its path.

In the night he had observed something similar, a smaller, less luminous object, also hovering in the sky. His curiosity was piqued and for a second he wondered if those humans knew anything about it. Maybe he should try asking them. However, the idea soon disappeared from his mind. Humans were his enemies, he even needed to consume them to increase his own power, so he doubted he could come to terms with them; especially after the recent attack.

The Windrunner then scanned the horizon. From the roof of the building he could see part of the city of Vinte. In the distance a mountain rose up and stretched out of sight to the left and right. Between him and the mountain, the zombie observed hundreds of buildings similar to his home. Some were much taller and less wide. For a second he thought about flying toward one of them, but a sudden impulse told him not to leave the shelter.

The Windrunner continued to watch. He wondered, for the first time, how big the world was out there. There he spent hours, rising only to devour a few Stalkers on the lower floors. Slowly, his injured wing was beginning to recover and the zombie calculated that perhaps in two days he would be able to move again.

Miguel's group welcomed the morning with great joy. Leonard, Ivy and Miguel gathered in the apartment where they had fought the Windwalker, while the other survivors returned to their own homes.

Leonard was in a bad mood. He had taken another potion, only to confirm that his arm would never recover. Now he just felt like lying in bed, but Miguel had dragged him to the meeting.

"I think we should try to get to the haven in block 4."

Ivy and Leonard looked at him in surprise. Before they could ask anything, the old man continued speaking.

"I'm sure the Windrunner will come for us again. It's just a question of when."

"But we have the advantage if we confront him in the apartments. If we go outside..."

Miguel knew Ivy was right, but he felt the best thing they could do was to get out right now.

"I'll try to get out to the parking lot. I have a suspicion that the zombie will be recovering from last night's raid. After all, we killed a lot of Windwalkers and if I'm right, then that Breeder name isn't for nothing. I think that thing can bring more zombies of the same variant to life. If in a single day it had that many on its side, then we'll be in trouble if we wait."

Ivy nodded, while Leonard remained silent. Part of him wanted to charge straight into the superblock and kill all those flying meatheads, but after looking at his arm again he realized that would be suicide.

"I don't think the survivors would like that option," said Ivy.

"Well, they'll just have to accept it. They are already useless enough without demanding more," Leonard interjected.

Miguel and Ivy watched him. He realized that he had spoken out loud. The sudden fury he felt was immediately extinguished, but the embers still burned.

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth. If there were more people willing to risk their lives and move up a level, we wouldn't be in such a sorry state."

Miguel frowned and Ivy lowered her head, both knew it was true, but both also understood that after the last fiasco, trying again would only cause problems.

"We already tried that the first day remember? In fact, I dragged you into it myself. I think if I hadn't been so insistent we'd have fewer dead, not everyone is cut out for it."

"If you hadn't dragged me in, I would never have known that I could get used to this. There are many people who haven't even tried it, so I don't plan to change my mind on this."

Miguel sighed and let the matter drop.

Leonard remained silent. He was still pretty angry, but decided to let it go for now.

"But what makes you think that thing won't attack us halfway?"

"Unfortunately, nothing. But we will all die if we don't move now, we're too close to where that monster lives."

Ivy nodded and said nothing more.

While Miguel was trying to convince the more stubborn survivors, Adam had just woken up from a good night's rest. Ironically, despite all their preparations, the attack they had suffered could hardly be called an attack.

Barely 10 or so Stalkers had attacked them in the night and the group had wiped them out with no trouble. However, in the abnormal quiet they were in, Adam could hear gunshots in the suburb.

That reminded him to talk to Tracel and get a better understanding of the state of the suburb. Because of this, as soon as he woke up in the morning, he decided to go to the Marriz's apartment. The one who attended him on this occasion was Tarin.

"Adam? Do you need to talk to me?"

"No, I think it's time for Tracel and I to talk."