System Of The Undead

Chapter 117: Danger Level: Unknown?!

Jason continued walking but he was a lot more careful, he found something he could use to check the path in front of him in case anything was there.

Jason had killed a bunch of zombies this way, he was surprised by the number of zombies here but did this mean that they were drawn to the fragment for some reason.

[The zombies seek out fragments like they seek out humans. They are drawn to it.]

Chronos helped clear Jason’s doubt and Jason knew what he had to do now.

This wasn’t about Chronos anymore but the betterment of humanity because he couldn’t imagine just how much evolution that these zombies had in them.

He couldn’t risk it, he had to be careful but something told him that the fragment was key in stopping this apocalypse from either spreading or stopping it altogether.

"The fragment should be here, why aren’t I seeing it Chronos?" Jason question.

Jason didn’t even want to entertain the possibility that he was about to dig through this dirty filthy water with his bare hands.

[The fragment is moving...]

Chronos alerted Jason and this made the young man raise a brow because why the hell was it moving? There was no way an object should be moving but this could only mean one thing.

"A zombie has it..." Jason muttered.

[That is correct. The fragment has already been consumed, you have to retrieve it from the zombie.]

Chronos told Jason and he could see the direction in which the zombie was headed thanks to his map but something wasn’t right, the zombie was moving way too fast to be an average one or even the bloated one.

"What the fuck is that, Chronos?" Jason questioned but he got no response from Chronos.

The system had already told him what to do and he had to do just that, Jason followed the zombie.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him and ignored the zombies in the water.

He stepped on bodies and nearly stumbled a couple of times but he managed to stay on his feet.

Jason was glad he didn’t try to bring Rachel along with him or things would have gotten complicated real quick but Debra was also clear that he couldn’t tell anyone.

"It has stopped?" Jason muttered but he also noticed that the water had reduced, it was reaching his ankles now.

He also noticed that this place had a lot less space to move about, there was little he could do but he hoped that it wouldn’t matter.

"Where the fuck is it?" Jason asked, it left no signs nor could he see it, judging from the map he should at least be establishing visuals with the zombie but that wasn’t happening.

There was no way that the zombie could blend or camouflage now, was there?

This was a thought that Jason quickly pushed out of his mind, he didn’t even entertain this possibility.

He would have assumed it was hiding in the water but there wasn’t enough of that to even make it a possibility.

"Wait..." Jason muttered, he felt something wet drop on his shoulder from above.

It was slimy and looked like it was saliva, Jason jerked his head up and what he saw next horrified him to the bone.

"What the fu-!" These words couldn’t even be completed as Jason was pounced on by whatever it was that he saw.

-

Rachel inspected Jason’s house, she wanted to know what kind of man he was considering that Jason just came into their lives with little to no explanation.

Rachel didn’t know if she could trust him or not but he had constantly risked his life for them.

He didn’t need to and Rachel knew that anyone else would have abandoned them the moment they were robbed but Jason stuck around.

She couldn’t wrap her fingers around it but Jason represented the world that they had just lost.

Rachel smiled at the thought but she didn’t know what Jason was going out to do and it wasn’t in her place to pry.

She continued to inspect the house and noticed the vast difference between this house and the house that they resided in.

"Hm..." Rachel muttered as she came across something, she knew that these people gave those under them weapons seeing as they had confiscated theirs yet she saw a bullet on his bed stand.

Surely, there was no way that these people had given Jason a gun, that would be reckless.

Rachel soon heard the door to his apartment spring open, she assumed Jason was back.

He had been gone for quite some time so this wouldn’t be a long shot.

Rachel was relieved and she took a step out of the compartment she was in but she saw Debra and another man entering the house.

This was clearly unauthorized and she could tell by the way that they were moving that they were looking for something.

"Have you done?" The man asked but Debra didn’t respond, she was too preoccupied with what she was doing to do so.

"I will get him kicked out of this community. I don’t know what Mariam is thinking but she can’t just do as she pleases without following procedures. Procedures exist for a reason..." Debra said and the man chuckled.

"Damn, you’re cold-blooded, Debra..."

Rachel didn’t know what Jason had gotten himself into but it was clear that Debra was taking advantage of him.

She knew she had to stay hidden because if she was found, she would be revealed as a threat seeing as she just overheard everything that they had planned.

She would be gotten rid of no doubt and considering the benefits that they enjoyed, she doubted anyone would question them.

Rachel stood motionless, the only thing she could hear was her thumping heart, Jason was in trouble.

"I’m done, let’s get out of here. He won’t know what hit him," Debra blurted out, much to the amusement of the man with her.

It took only a couple of seconds for the door to close upon their exit, and Rachel was in the clear but the urgency in her eyes spoke volumes.

-

Bella was with the rest of the gang, they wondered why Rachel felt the need to go see Jason tonight when she could easily do so tonight.

They were all thinking about it but no one said it, they all assumed it had nothing to do with anything but her feelings for Jason even though she was still in denial.

Everyone else could tell, even Lillian was picking up on it as she had witnessed how her sister was around other guys.

Bella noticed that the boy was still looking at her with fear in his eyes, she didn’t mind it but she also didn’t know why he was rescued.

She would be more of a liability than he is an asset, but then again, she thought the same about Lillian.

Lillian surprised her and she was hoping that this kid had a surprise or two in his back pocket.

"Bella, what is your plan?" Allison asked out of the blue and Clementine planned to stay out of whatever conversation that was about to happen.

"What do you mean plan?" Bella responded.

She took the pills that Lillian brought back and she could feel the aching pain in her body lessen.

"Surely you don’t plan to live out the rest of your life here, do you?" Allison asked.

"And what if I say I did?" Bella responded without missing a beat.

"This place will fall, Bella, just like every other place. If they could overrun a military checkpoint, what makes you think that these people stand a chance?" Allison brought this up, this was a very good point but Clementine didn’t remember telling her anything about the military checkpoint, this meant that Bella and Allison had a conversation in her absence that brought this to light.

"Look around you, Allison, when did you last see a place so peaceful since the world went to shit? I think we have all earned some slack and if it does fall, then it falls..." Bella said to which Allison chuckled in response.

"You have gotten soft," Allison mocked her.

"As a lady should," Bella retorted but Lillian was getting tired of the back and forth between these two.

"You’re both grown-ups yet you don’t act like it... So what if it falls? The world fell and we all survived. It’s not the place that makes it feel like a home, it’s the people around you. So suck it up and enjoy what you have before you get too preoccupied with losing it that you never realize you had it in the first place," Lillian said and the room fell silent.

"Did that just come out of your mouth?" Allison was stunned.

"Apparently it’s not only profanity that you know how to spew, you should use your brain more often as you did now, kiddo," Bella teased her to which Lillian pouted.

"Don’t you dare tell Jason I said any of that or I will kill you all!" Lillian said and the ladies giggled.

A conversation that was taking a turn for the worse was salvaged by Lillian.

Clementine hated to admit it but she found herself wanting to stay here.

-

Back at the base, gunfire was absent, it was just deafening silence.

The only thing that filled the area was the sound of the undead, a figure exited the building but judging by the way it worked, whoever it was was badly injured.

"F-Fucking hell..." The voice whimpered in pain, it was Sam’s voice.

He collapsed on the ground, covered in cuts and wounds as he looked to the moon.

"I thought I had seen it all..." Sam muttered weakly as footsteps rapidly approached him.

He took out his pistol in what looked like one final stand.

"But you... you’re a different kind of monster,"

Sam said with a smile as the footsteps got closer and closer.

"I’d be damned if I let myself be killed by one of you fuckers..." Sam said with a smile as the gun was aimed at the side of his head.

"I’m sorry Clementine," Sam apologized in his last moments and with that, the echo of a gunshot pierced through the air.