Ready, set, go!

A few minutes ago…

Merlin had just completed his purchase of weapons and had also bought a military grade nylon-threaded black bag to hold all the weapons. However, this bag would not only be useful for holding the current weapons, but would be carried around by Merlin all the time, until he could meet a trader.

Those traders were like angels for the surviving member of the human race. Close to the end of phase 1, the 'traders' began to appear. One could trade with all kinds of things. Some traders were so eccentric that they were willing to buy anything that survived the phase 1. They even bought plants for a few credits.

Until he could get a special ring from them, this bag would be his only method of movable storage.

He was merrily skipping back home with the bag. But then he remembered that the tutorial would start soon. It was during this tutorial that 70% of the human population fell prey to the zombies.

Opening his status, he found out that there were only a handful of seconds remaining before it all started. It wouldn't be possible to reach home in that much time. So he decided to find another place of refuge, and then slowly kill his way back home, which was around another 20 minutes walking distance from where he was, since the hardware store was further away from home than the supermarket.

There was nothing he could do about it. He remembered an important part of his plan and took out his phone's GPS. After a few minutes of scrolling, he found the nearest police station. It was around a 15 minute walk to the east from where he was, while his house was to the north-west. Although it would take longer to return, Merlin had made his decision to collect guns before returning.

The first thing he did was to enter a restaurant's bathroom and locked all the doors along the way, to prevent sneak attacks.

Taking out his phone, he called up Alex. While it was ringing, he received the notification that the tutorial had started.

"Ah M-Merlin?"

…

"Don't forget, nobody must enter the house. Make sure all the windows are locked and both the front and back doors are locked."

"OK"

Merlin had only told Alex to lock all the doors and windows because their house wasn't an ordinary one. A few years ago, before Merlin moved in, someone broke into the house through a window, and threatened the family to give them all their money and valuables. After being stuck as a hostage for nearly 10 hours, the man finally lost focus and walked closer to the window, only to be killed by the police sniper stationed at the rooftop. Thus in order to prevent something like this ever happening again, and to satisfy his crazed wife, Ethan renovated the house into an impenetrable fortress.

The walls and doors were reinforced with steel, and the glasses were made bulletproof. Each door had locks stronger than the ones used for safes, and the house itself was surrounded by an electric fence. Although it was only turned on in the night, it was still an amazing deterrent to any of Alex's possible girlfriends.

With this, Alex should be safe for the time being.

Merlin then got out of the bathroom cell and opened his bag of goodies.

"Let's see, it will be close combat until I reach the street, and there were around 20 people in restaurant. Assuming that some ran away, there should be around 14 to 15 zombies. I'll use a crowbar. It will give both power and accuracy, enough to break a zombie's skull."

Since the only way to actually kill a zombie it to break their core. Most of the time, zombies would have their core in their heads, and therefore the only way to kill a zombie is to break their skulls. As soon as the core come into contact with the nitrogen in the air, it collapses.

Merlin took out the crowbar and placed it on the sink. He next searched for some more time before removing 2 knives, one small enough to be considered a pocket knife, and one large hunting knife.

He also put on the black waterproof jacket with a hood that would cover his head and overcast his face in a shadow, that he had bought after noticing the signs of rainy weather. These kinds of clothes were extremely useful in the first phase, since the weather was always unpredictable and catching a fever or other illness during the Apocalypse was akin to dying.

He also changed his shoes from school shoes to more comfortable and high-quality leather shoes. These were also water-resistant and made for hiking, which would reduce the chances of him spraining his ankle while running.

Merlin also put on heavy-duty leather gloves with rubber padding to prevent blisters from appearing. Lastly, he put on a welding mask to prevent infected blood from entering his nose, mouth or eyes. This was the best protection he could find for the moment, and decided to go with it.

He strapped the smaller knife sheath around his calf, just above his shoes, and the larger one around his waist. Placing the strap of the bag around and over his shoulder, Merlin was ready and held his crowbar in preparation.

Opening the door slowly, Merlin used the camera of his phone to see the scenario in the restaurant. It was currently occupied by 5 zombies, and maybe one more laying down on the ground.

This was way lesser than what Merlin had expected, but it wouldn't keep him stunned for long.

Getting ready, he charged out silently and took down a zombie with one strike. Leaving no time to rest, he ran towards the one closest to him and made a fist sized hole in his skull.

At this point, the other zombies had noticed his presence and were rushing towards him.