Chapter 68: Evolution
Menil stretched out both arms and wings and stood up. The message from the system was not long in coming.
[Congratulations, you are now a Zombie Windwalker. As an infected, this evolution is not as powerful as it normally is, but your Class will advance in a direction that supports it].
Still somewhat dazed and relieved that all the pain was gone, Menil came to his mind. He reached for the Walkie Talkie in his clothes and turned it on.
"Adam, can you hear me?"
Menil waited a moment, until someone answered him on the other side.
"It's not Adam, but you'd better say what you want to say quickly. The attack started recently. After you didn't contact us yesterday, we left you for dead or a traitor."
Menil could recognise Leonard's voice, which he didn't like at all. Still, without wasting any time, he recounted everything he had seen.
"Well, for now we've only seen Stalkers, so I'm sure the information about the evolved ones will be useful. But tell me something, what took you so long?"
"It's Arnold, he tried to attack me so I wouldn't warn them. He's a traitor," Menil said bitterly, for she knew that Arnold had only proved Leonard right, that an infected could not be trusted.
"I guess I'm not surprised. But I can't trust you either. You'd better remember that your brother is still with us."
"Are you threatening me?"
"Yes, I don't like you and I don't like your brother, who refuses to help in the fight. But perhaps I can prove useful in keeping you at bay."
Menil was filled with anger, but he knew this was not the time to fight.
"All right, I'll play your game, but I want you to know that be careful what you do or I will become that beast you fear so much."
"We'll see. I'll pass your information on to Adam, as it looks like the main attack will begin soon. As for Arnold, kill him and we'll call it even. I hate working with you, but I promised Adam, so please, at least do your job."
Leonard turned off the GPS and looked at Zack, who was watching the fight start in the car park from where he stood.
"Arnold is a traitor. Are all the infected locked in their rooms?"
"Yes, I made sure of it. One of us will stay behind to make sure they stay that way. How did Menil take the threat?"
"Bad, but I think it will be enough to keep him from betraying us while he's out there."
Zack nodded and then left with his entire team. Leonard watched him leave and then looked around the car park. He couldn't see much because of the hour, but the dim moonlight was enough to make out the arriving Stalkers. A lump rose in his throat, for there were more evolved people supporting the Breeder than they thought. He took small comfort in the realization that there were no Windwalkers in sight, but that wasn't much. Marlen, Ivy and Miguel struggled in the car park, all visibly nervous about possible Breeder attacks.
Leonard held his ball with his remaining arm and then left to prepare for a long fight.
Menil, meanwhile, looked at his clothes on the ground and hesitated for a moment before abandoning them. Being naked made him quite uncomfortable, but there was no time, especially since Arnold might be out there. Part of him wanted to think that he had managed to kill him, but he knew full well that he had most likely managed to evolve before that happened.
He peeked out into the hallway and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see Arnold nearby, then closed the door and decided that going around the house naked wouldn't do him any good, so he took his time getting dressed. This proved more difficult than he thought, as his new wings interfered with the process.
When he finished dressing, he looked curiously at his new wings. They felt so natural that he couldn't help but be surprised. He opened and closed them a couple of times, but the narrow space in the room prevented him from opening them all the way. Suddenly, an intense desire to fly came over him, but it didn't take him long to come to. He was not in a place where he could entertain himself.
He opened the door again and found that a group of Stalkers were nearby. They didn't seem to be heading towards the car park, so they immediately attacked him on sight.
Stalkers weren't much of a problem before, much less so now. Menil used his long, sharp fingernails to quickly take them all out. His agility was limited by his wings, but it didn't take him long to take care of all the zombies. Menil had owned a sword that he had obtained along with his Class, but he had lost it in the escape to block 4. After that he could have asked Adam for a weapon, but he got used to fighting with his long nails, it was the most comfortable way he had found to defend himself.
He looked at his nails and remembered the system message. It had told her that her Class would adapt to her evolution. He was curious about that, he wanted to know how that would turn out. Besides, he could feel that after evolving, he had learned the instructions of a ritual that caught his attention. Menil remembered the white spear that the zombies used, but the ritual felt different, as it had to do with his own fingernails, which he found even more curious. Did the System know that he liked to fight using his fingernails as weapons? The thought was partly disturbing.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an explosion he recognised. The same one that had taken his arm, Arnold must have been close by.
Indeed, Arnold was now on an upper floor, enjoying his new body and his new powers. He knew at once that it had been a mistake to stay locked up in that shelter, waiting for mercy from the other humans, he thought that now that he was free, no one could stop him.
The corridor in which he found himself was torn apart. In addition, the remains of a group of Stalkers lay on the floor. He could now simply throw [Earth Bomb] twice as often as he could before he evolved. Just thinking about the next evolution, he couldn't help but get excited.
Interestingly, Arnold had also transformed into a Windwalker, and while he still didn't fully understand why, he suspected it might have something to do with him being placed under the Breeder's command. He looked down at his long arms and tried to stretch his wings. He was glad that he had kept his human form and not transformed into a deformed monster.
When he had woken up, he had been carried away by his excitement and had left his clothes behind as he had run with all his might to the upper floor and found a group of Stalkers to unleash his excitement on.
But now that he was calmer, he remembered that he had to take care of Menil. He didn't like trying to kill his friend, but if he wanted to continue to live and evolve, Menil and the shelter had to disappear. Even he himself was surprised at the cruelty he was capable of, but he supposed it made sense, for no matter how much Menil tried to deny it, he was no longer human.
After thinking about that, he set to work. The fact that he was alive told him that Menil had probably also seized the moment to evolve, so this was going to be a tough fight.
Arnold made his way to the stairs and watched the bottom cautiously. He had already made a lot of noise, so he wouldn't be surprised if Menil was waiting for him down there. So he decided to put his new wings to the test.
He kicked in the door of a room and entered, only to be horribly surprised to find a hideous mass of flesh spitting eggs and a group of tiny Stalkers that looked like newborns.
[Zombie Spawnmer]
Reflexively, he cast a spell and backed away. The Stalkers turned to minced meat, but more importantly, the mass of flesh was hit by the explosion and emitted a horrible screeching sound that stunned Arnold and Menil, who was about to start up the stairs.
Arnold stumbled out of the room with his heart racing until he hit the opposite wall. It took him a moment to come to, but by then something bad happened. A strange silence hung over the building. Even the Stalkers seemed to have gone completely still.
A few minutes passed and Arnold thought nothing would happen, but then the wall at the end of the corridor he was in exploded. Through it came the Breeder, covered in dust and debris from the building. His gaze was fixed on Arnold and he was angry.