Level up Zombie

Cody's sudden arrival caused the quarrel to cease. Although they had already witnessed many deaths the previous day, death within their small group in a place and just when they all felt they were safe was a big deal.

As everyone followed Cody around the supermarket, Clark was close to the front, clutching his shoulder, which seemed to still be in pain. Buke had used all his strength to attack him with the shovel. It was a wonder he could still walk after the hit.

On the other hand, Buke walked up to the front, and since the shovel was now bent and useless, he had picked up the baseball bat and was carrying it on his shoulder. And he wasn't going to put away after the fight, that was for sure.

"Look, I really don't care what's going on here. We just want you to take us to Zain!" He said in annoyance.

"I will. But I think everyone needs to see this first, and it was Zain who told me to come in here, and I'm not sure what to make of it." The teenager replied while quickening his pace.

While walking with all the others, Kelly couldn't quite believe how the situation had taken such a turn. A few moments ago, Clark was leading everyone, and now they were following this other teenager.

"Hey..so I'm guessing you're friends with Zain, right?" Kelly eventually asked. "Does that mean you know about what he did?"

"About what? The car?" Buke shouted, "About how he's eating people? The damn coach won't shut up about it, just like how he would never shut up about being number 1 back in the day."

For one, Kelly was surprised that the two didn't seem to care about this fact. Maybe they were good at hiding their thoughts, but she wasn't sure. However, she wasn't talking about his cannibalistic actions. Instead, she was talking about Zain's past.

As they arrived at the Butcher's section, Cody's steps slowed down as he looked around with caution. Then, he climbed over the counter easily, using one hand to vault himself, showing a normal level of athleticism.

They eventually entered the dimly lit cold room with a dull red shade coming from the small bulb in the ceiling, and they soon found what Cody was talking about.

Barbara's corpse was lying there on the floor.

"Was she killed by a Zombie? Does that mean there's another one in here? What if she turns into one!" Mark shrieked, holding Kelly by the arm.

"I don't think she will turn into one. She was already like this when I got in here, and she still hasn't moved." Cody replied.,

"I don't think this was done by a zombie either." Skittle said as he got closer to look at the body but stayed far enough away so that he could jump out if something happened.

"Look at the body, there are wounds all over. But they all look like stab marks." Skittle explained. "And then you have the head and the body, there are no visible bite marks. Also, I noticed something before. Nearly every corpse we have walked past, the zombies had taken out the inside of their heads."

Noticing the things that Skittle had pointed out, it made it quite clear to everyone that someone had murdered Barbara, but the question was who and why?

"Why were you in here? I mean, how did you even know Barbra was here," Kelly asked the teenager.

Cody stayed silent for a while because he knew that some of them might jump to conclusions from his words.

"Zain told me to follow Ben," Cody answered. "I didn't think much of it, but I decided to do it anyway since there was nothing else for me to do, and it looked like he was either following Zain or Barbara, who had come into here.

"When you locked up Zain, he told me to keep following Ben, but I couldn't find him, so I decided to go back to the last place he was."

From this, the others could conclude that there were two most likely suspects, Zain and Ben, who had killed Barbra.

"Zain didn't do anything!" Skittle immediately defended his friend, "All we need to do is speak to Zain or find this Ben guy."

"Ha." A loud chuckle came out from behind. "After knowing what your friend has done and him possibly killing another one of us, no way in hell would I let you free him. I'll fight you all to the death, and you can take him over my dead body!"

From Clark's actions and words, Buke and Skittle could tell he wasn't joking. And from what they had heard so far, at least they knew Zain was still alive, which gave them hope.

"Why don't we get Zain's side of the story? You don't have to set him free. Just let us speak to him." Skittle said with a gentle voice.

When Clark looked like he was about to say more, Buke started to pat the bat in his other hand, ready to rumble at any second. Since this was a solution with the least risk and everyone, for now, was being civil, they decided to do this, heading toward where Clark had locked up Zain earlier.

But just as they were halfway through, everyone's steps suddenly stopped when they spotted someone.

"Ben!" Kelly called out.

The man in a suit was standing right in front of the freezer. His hand was on the door. At the same time, the bent pole used to keep the door locked was thrown to the ground.

"Ben, what are you doing?!" Clark yelled.

"Are you trying to open the door? Are you crazy? You'll kill all of us if there are zombies in there!" Mark shouted.

On closer inspection, Skittle saw blood all over his suit, mainly dripping from his arm.

"He...he was the one that killed Barbara!" He immediately called out.

"That's right." Ben pushed his glasses back onto his nose. Something strange had happened to him as his veins started to bulge slightly. "It turns out the lord has answered my prayers.

"Did you know..she was a Zombie? Or at least turning into one. When I figured this out, I had to end her, but in the struggle, I was bit. And I don't want to cause any harm, I just wish to spend the last moments of my life with my wife.

"My lord has given me the strength to open this door, as he too wishes for us to be together." Ben turned the lock, and everyone heard a clicking sound.

The others saw this and ran towards him to try and stop him, while Skittle pulled Buke to run back instead.

With a push of the door, Ben opened it, but the smile on Ben's face quickly disappeared. The next second, one hand came out and held him by the neck. Then, before the others could react, Ben was pulled inside.

*****

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