Level up Zombie

The others were huddled around Kun, and from the sounds of it, he was telling them all about the encounters and troubles the two of them had gone through, starting with seeing the military taking on a horde of zombies and then the fight against the Titan.

Zain knew he would go on to give out other details as well.

'I thought as much, Kun seems to be the blabbermouth of the group, so it was a good thing I didn't tell him too much. Otherwise, it could have turned into a problem.'

Either way, Zain would not be there to listen to the rest of the former's story as he enjoyed a tour from Shark. Behind the stage, towards the right, there was a door, and going through, Zain and Shark walked into the kitchen area.

"This whole thing is relatively new to us. Remember, it's only been five days, but we have been doing our best to adjust to the situation, and our first priority is survival." Shark explained as he went over to a large double-door fridge.

Zain liked the sound of the leader's importance to survival. He knew there had to be at least one capable person in the group to set up such things. And when opening the door, Zain was quite surprised at what appeared in front of him.

From top to bottom, parts of human flesh had been wrapped up in cling film. It was set up in a way that they didn't even look like human flesh, but from the familiar smell, Zain knew it was the same.

"If you have survived this long, then I'm sure I don't need to tell you. We need to eat to survive. It's been hard on us, Zain. Pink was actually a vegan, so she refused to eat until her body wouldn't let her anymore. It only took two days for the hunger to set in for her." Shark sighed.

Looking at the fridge, there was plenty of flesh for them to survive for around two whole weeks. It was packed.

"How did you get all of this?" Zain asked.

"The club," Shark replied immediately as if he had expected this question. "Kun told you, right? We all met up through a series of events that I won't bore you with, but I suggested we needed to make a place our permanent shelter, and he thought of this place. When we got inside, there were a few zombies. We just pushed them out of place since there was no need to kill them, and then with the rest of the bodies…well, I decided to skin the meat from them."

Zain couldn't imagine doing such a thing himself. How much work had to have been done in this kitchen to get all those bodies a certain way? It was hard to guess.

'Are they like me? Their emotions for certain things have just been dulled now that we are dead.' Zain thought. After all, something like this definitely wouldn't be possible for a normal human without any repercussions.

As the two walked forward, Zain noticed there was a smaller fridge next to the large one, and when opening this up, Zain could instantly tell what it was. He had only tasted it once, but the feeling was so refreshing on his body that he honestly wanted to try it again.

"This is where the brains go if we find any, but as you can see, we only have one here." Shark explained. "They are hard to come by. Approaching living people is dangerous for us due to how we look.

"You might not know this because it's only been five days, but our Reborn bodies require a brain at least once a week to function. This single brain can be split up between five of us fine, but now that you and your friend are here, we're going to need more. It's time to show you the more important bits." Shark explained, already walking off.

There were a few questions in Zain's mind. First, from what Shark had said, the body wouldn't deteriorate until a full week. So there was no need to eat a brain for a long time. Yet, Zain's body functionality had gone down in two days.

'Was it because of all my injuries and energy I used up? That could be the case, but I'm more interested in how Shark even has this information. Without the system, I would have never known about flesh and brains restoring anything.

'He could have just figured it out, but his information is so specific. Seven days have yet to pass, and he knows that a brain is needed every seven days. Something doesn't add up.'

Stepping out of the kitchen behind the stage, there was a door heading inside, and it looked like it was an office room with a chair and a desk. On the desk was a large radio transmitter, a specialised one that you wouldn't normally find in a place like this in this day and age.

"What do you use that for?" Zain asked.

"To see if anyone is out there, anyone like us, or to find out information about what is currently happening in the world," Shark replied and quickly went to show another detail. On the wall, there were countless draws, and when he opened one of them up, there were crystals inside.

"We have come up with a plan. Once in a while, we head out. Either on our own, in pairs or maybe even as an entire group. If we collect any crystals, we put them in here.

"I'll be honest, there is no use for the crystals for now, but I believe they have to do with this whole damn zombie thing, So I'm keeping them for now in case anyone needs to do research in the future. On top of that, it proves that we are cleaning the streets of dangerous zombies one at a time."

If Zain had to guess, the crystals had something to do with the zombies' evolution and maybe that was why Stage 2 and Mutated Zombies were the only ones with crystals. Making a note of this room, Zain thought maybe he could test something later on.

"You heard me talk about missions, which is relatively a new thing that Fingers has set up. If you follow me again, please." Shark stated that when leaving the room, they had entered the main hall, and here a large whiteboard form before could be seen.

There was everyone's name in the group, when they had last gone out, how much food they had collected and more. Even the amount of brain circulation amongst them, which showed its importance.

"Ah, you have the stage 2 Zombies on here," Zain said out loud, looking at the drawings.

"Stage 2… that's an interesting name." Shark smiled. "Here, we call them Evolved. So far, we have only encountered three types. Are there any that you have seen?"

Zain pointed to the pictures.

"The Spitter and the Titan, but I've never seen this one before." Zain pointed at the new type of stage 2 he had never seen before."

*****

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