First Blood

Nile was holding the Kitchen knife on his right hand, and the handbag on his left. Nile slowly goes out of the grocery store, as he has more energy than before; he was now confident that he could outrun the zombies walking limply outside.

But the problem lies in Nile's stamina. He can outrun them for a few moments, but what happens after that, Nile did not dare to think of it.

The zombies are all on the left side of the street, to go to the councillor's house, Nile needs to pass by them again.

Isn't it ironic? He baited the zombies to the left side to successfully arrive at the grocery store, and because of that, the zombies are now blocking the way towards the councillor's house.

But there is nothing to regret. Nile arrived at the grocery store because of what he had done. Now he needs another plan to surpass them again while conserving most of his energy.

Nile intended to go back to the store so he can fetch something that he can throw to bait the zombies again. But he notices that the zombies, unlike before, are more scattered across the road.

The closest to him is in the middle; it was circling on the empty can that he has thrown before. Further to the left are the rest of the zombies that are walking limply without direction.

With them scattered throughout the road, his plan of baiting will no longer work. If he has six bait to attract the six scattered zombies one by one, then that might work, but that will be quite a hassle. The plan will succeed, but he will no longer have an ounce of energy after that.

Glancing above, it is now high noon. Because of the heat of the sun, he will clearly consume more energy than usual.

So instead of baiting them one by one, Nile strolled and made sure he does not make any noticeable noise, he does not want to make any unwanted attention from the zombies.

Walking slowly, Nile was now in the middle towards the zombie circling the can. The zombie is still doing its own business, not minding Nile even a bit as he did not make any noise.

Nile was doing his best to focus on where he steps, less he makes any noise. Slowly and surely, he was now approaching the fifth zombie; Nile had just passed by his house by a few meters.

Nile, after passing the fifth zombie, suddenly stops on his track, as the fifth zombie suddenly turns towards his location.

Maybe just a coincidence, but f*cking hell, this zombie is walking straight towards his location right now.

Thump! Thump!

Nile felt that his heart almost popped out of his mouth. The nervousness that he felt is indescribable.

The fifth zombie is still walking towards him limply, now on closer look, Nile notices that this zombie is the 5'6", 5'7" zombie from earlier.

Nile was already drenched in sweat, the zombie is now only two meters away from him, and it still does not have any sign of stopping.

Nile could now clearly see the appearance of this zombie.

Although disfigured, Nile knew this zombie before the apocalypse.

He was the teller of the grocery store earlier.

One of its eyes was closed or possibly gone, and the other one is all white, just like an eye with a severe cataract. Maybe this was one of the reasons why the zombies cannot see clearly or even anything.

The zombie's nose was rotting. Broken teeth could be seen on the zombie's close mouth that now has a split on the side. The zombie's feet were not dislocated, as what Nile previously assumed. It was detached and only had a little skin holding it.

At a meter distance, Nile could not believe what he saw. Only now did Nile feel the meaning of genuine fear. He can now even sympathize towards the previous Nile's feelings of cowardice.

He felt it. He almost had a heart attack, even though he acted relatively calm before. This was the first time that he had seen something gross up-close. He was only a regular college student that had a hobby of reading novels before this, after all.

Luckily, the teller zombie suddenly turns towards the right side. Seeing this, Nile let out a heavy sigh. He felt he was no longer breathing before because of the nervousness that he felt.

But with this distance, although faint, the zombie heard it, the sigh. It turned back again and pounced towards Nile's location.

Because Nile is still observing the zombie from the start to now, he immediately dodged to the side, causing the zombie to pass by him with a hairbreadth.

But because of Nile's sudden movement, the handbag that he was holding produces a noticeable sound. That sound caused the zombie to be aware, its body rotated and pounced in his direction without warning.

Without hesitating, Nile drops the handbag before dodging again to the side. The zombie followed the sound of the handbag dropping to the floor and plunged itself to the ground.

This time, Nile's right hand suddenly moves on its own, and the kitchen knife that he was holding plunged itself in the back of the teller zombie's head.

The kitchen knife was then etched deep inside the zombie's brain, causing the zombie's body to plummet to the ground, dead.

Because of the kitchen knife's weight plus the zombie's heaviness, Nile could only release his grip on the kitchen knife. Hurriedly, Nile then picked up the handbag and ran towards his house without delay.