"They seem to be members of a gang," said Rick pointing at a smiling coffin tattoo on the leader's right arm.
"Hm, the end of the world is golden age for this scum of society," I said standing up, I drew my gun and finished off those who had been shot in the chest, except one, whom I dragged to the group.
"What are you doing? They are already dead," murmured Glenn confused and somewhat nervous.
"Listen, no matter how they die, they will end up coming back as a walker, this is because we are all already infected," I said staring at them.
At hearing this, everyone held their breath, Rick's gaze fixed on me seeking a confirmation he did not want to accept.
"That... cannot be," murmured T-Dog in disbelief.
"It can, I saw it with my own eyes, even without a bite, everyone comes back, there is no exception, but as they say, seeing is believing," I said just as the corpse on the floor began to twitch.
Its fingers clenched and the body arched with a guttural sound, as if the soul tried to return to a rotten body, everyone took a step back, Rick raised his gun by instinct, but I stopped him with one hand.
"Not yet," I said calmly, watching how the man opened his eyes slowly, grayish and with the jaw moving uncontrollably, just a piece of meat looking to devour whatever it could.
"We are doomed," murmured Rick losing hope for a moment.
"No, we are not," I replied in a firm voice as I aimed at the walker that was barely rising from the ground, the shot passed through its skull.
[ Points + 1 ]
"This changes nothing, it only confirms what we already knew, the world went to hell and we have to adapt, it's that or die."
"I know, I will do everything I can to protect my family," said Rick with a determined look.
The others watched in silence reaffirming their own convictions, aware that it is the only thing that can keep them and their loved ones alive.
After explaining in detail some precautions to consider based on my knowledge of the plot, we set off toward our next objective, a sporting goods gun shop.
Upon arrival, we realized that luck is not always on your side, the whole place had been looted from top to bottom, not a single bullet remained, the sporting goods gun shop was in shreds, empty display cases, open boxes and desolate shelves.
"Glenn, do you know if there is a place of interest near here?" I asked looking at him.
"Hm.. maybe a hardware store three blocks away, it's on the way to the bus station," replied Glenn with a frown.
"Well, it's better than nothing, let's go," I said taking the initiative.
Honestly, resources were becoming scarcer, unless you are willing to eat walker meat, which does not sound very appealing.
"It's here, I used to deliver pizza from time to time near here, although I never went inside," said Glenn in a low voice after walking three blocks.
The hardware store entrance was blocked by an overturned truck and several bodies crushed under the tires, the smell of rotten flesh was so strong that even the air seemed heavy, a dozen walkers wandered around there.
"Hahaha, looks like business is good, it's full of customers," said Merle with a sadistic chuckle.
"Glenn, Rick, cover the flanks, Andrea, you and I will go through the front, Morales and T-Dog secure the rear, if something moves, shoot and then ask," I gave instructions already moving.
We moved fast, each drew their knife and in just two minutes, all the walkers had been taken down, luckily there were no surprises.
[ Points + 12 ]
"Uff, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this," said Andrea in a low voice letting out a sigh.
"Yes, but don't lower your guard, I wouldn't like to lose you," I said glancing at her while cleaning the machete blade on a walker's jacket.
Andrea was about to reply but froze for a moment as a slight blush invaded her cheeks.
"So now you care about me?" she asked with a barely noticeable smile.
"Of course, you are part of the team, besides, I don't want to have to explain to anyone why I let my best shooter die," I replied without taking my eyes off the front.
"You bastard!" exclaimed Andrea indignant pouting.
"I love you too," I replied opening the hardware store door slowly.
Andrea only watched me without saying anything, but it was obvious she was not angry from the small tilt at the corner of her lips.
The interior of the hardware store was in gloom, barely lit by the light filtering through the broken boarded windows.
The smell of mold and rusted metal filled the air, the shelves were messy, but not empty, which was already a small victory.
I gave some instructions and we split up once more, we quickly searched the hardware store from top to bottom eliminating all the scattered walkers.
[ Points + 5 ]
After finishing we met at the back of the hardware store, a warehouse where all the tools and construction material were stored, fortunately everything seemed to be in good condition.
"This is any mechanic's wet dream," said Merle holding a nearly half-meter wrench.
"And ours," I replied putting several rolls of barbed wire into the inventory.
Everyone got to work looking for anything useful, in just half an hour, the hardware store had gone from being a store to history.
If it weren't for limitations, I would have taken the whole building, I can't take anything anchored to the ground.
We left the hardware store and set off toward the station, my plan is to turn our camp into a mobile camp and to achieve that I cannot settle for just Dale's old caravan.
We moved carefully between several waves of wandering walkers, we did not eliminate them for the risk of being surrounded, only after a long walk, we finally reached the bus station.
The place is huge, but for the same reason, the place is plagued with walkers, it would take hours to eliminate them completely, but it makes sense, at the start of the apocalypse, travel terminals were the source of the outbreak.
"What do we do?" asked Glenn, peeking his head from behind a column.
"It will be difficult to get rid of so many walkers, maybe I can lure them in another direction while you take the vehicles," proposed Morales observing the horde of walkers.
"I have a way to get their attention, but once I do it, we must be quick and get out of here," I said at the same time as I checked the shop, I quickly found what I was looking for.
[ Sound Grenade: Emits a high-pitched sound for five continuous minutes, also has self-destruct | Cost: 10 Points ]
This item is perfect, I bought it immediately and took it out of the inventory, the grenade can be launched from the grenade launcher attached to my HK-416.
I loaded the grenade into the grenade launcher's chamber, but I did not rush to fire, first we had to observe the surroundings and locate the buses we would take, so we changed position while discarding other threats.
After surveying the outside of the station, we set our targets, three Prevost x3-45 buses, the main advantages are that they have great range, are spacious and with simple modifications, they can become safe mobile units for the camp.
"Okay, this is the plan, first we will lure the zombies with this, it's a sound grenade, it emits a high-pitched sound that will attract the walkers," I said pointing to the grenade launcher and paused before continuing.
"When the path is clear, I will infiltrate and take the vehicles using my inventory, you only have to cover me from here, there is no need for you to risk yourselves," I finished watching everyone to see if they understood.
"Wait, that's dangerous, at least let me go with you," said Andrea worried, I was about to refuse when Rick intervened.
"Let me go, we used to be partners in the police, we can handle it," he said trying to calm her, which seemed to work.
"I suppose it's better than going alone, fine, you can go," said Andrea nodding.
«Oi, oi, let me decide..» I grumbled mentally, but I did not oppose the idea.
With everything ready, we set off, first we approached close enough to our target, with a signal, Glenn fired the grenade from an elevated position to a part away from the station.
The grenade stuck in the wall and instantly, a piercing sound resonated throughout the place, similar to a fire alarm.
The walkers seemed to have heard that it was bargain day at the supermarket, they all began to move en masse toward the sound, stumbling over each other and forming a tide of staggering bodies that crawled desperately to reach the source of the noise.
We waited a few seconds to confirm that the path to the buses was clear.
"Now," I whispered, and Rick and I ran out at full speed toward the buses.
On our way we found two or three lagging walkers, too stupid to go anywhere, without hesitation I drew my machete and cut their heads in two.
[ Points + 3 ]
I put the machete into the inventory and continued moving, soon we reached the first bus, I looked at Rick to watch the surroundings, I took my pistol and entered through the bus's open door, I need it to be clear, I cannot store anything alive in the inventory, including walkers.
Fortunately, there were no walkers inside the bus, I took one last approving look at the interior design and exited, Rick was still waiting outside normally, so I put my hand on the side of the vehicle and in an instant, the bus disappeared.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," murmured Rick looking puzzled where the huge bus had been a moment before.
"Believe me, neither will I, but I have this power and it would be a waste not to take full advantage," I replied, Rick nodded after a while.
Suddenly, a gust of wind brought with it the stench of death, I looked up and saw that some of the walkers began to veer off, some had noticed our movement.
"They discovered us, we must hurry," said Rick alarmed.
"Then let's not waste time," I replied immediately as I moved toward the second bus.
I drew my machete and decapitated all the walkers that crossed my path, with my strength, decapitating a walker is as easy as breathing, it only takes one slash to eliminate them.
Rick also used his knife to remove nearby walkers, which provided me another wave of points.
[ Points + 8 ]
The noise began to attract more and more walkers from the side streets, without wasting time, I moved to the second bus and repeated the process, my hand touched the side and the vehicle disappeared into the inventory without a trace, I did not check it, if it had been occupied, it would have simply failed.
Immediately after, we ran to the third bus, I put my hand on it and it disappeared like the previous one, there were two more buses nearby, so I decided to take them as well, you never know when they will be needed.
Just as I was about to turn to leave, my eyes were fixed on an RV that appeared behind the last bus, it seemed to be a high-end model, so I decided to take it for myself, fortunately, it entered the inventory without problems, with everything ready, we ran out of the place.
Kaboom!
Suddenly, the sound alarm exploded engulfing the nearby walkers in a huge fireball, which gave me even more points.
[ Points + 30 ]
A smile appeared on my lips, these things are too useful, they can distract the walkers and give me enough points to buy two or more identical grenades.
The explosion attracted the other walkers in the area, which allowed us to relax and eliminate the few stragglers.
[ Points + 4 ]
Andrea and T-Dog quickly approached us to cover us and make sure we had no injuries, seeing that both of us were fine, they relaxed and we returned to the others.
"Well done, I thought I would have to go and finish off their misery," said Merle making a gesture of shooting himself in the temple with his finger.
"It's time to go back, it's getting late and Rick still has to meet his family," I said deciding to ignore Merle's nonsense.
Rick nodded in silence, his gaze fixed on the horizon, probably thinking of Lori and Carl, the idea of seeing them again was the only thing keeping him mentally stable.
The others had no objection, so we returned to the outskirts of the city, where we had left the vehicles in advance, fortunately we had no trouble on the way back.
I looked around to make sure there were no extra eyes and pulled three of the five buses out of the inventory, including the RV I found, which seems to be a special version of the same Prevost brand.
Everyone approached the buses with bright eyes, I simply shook my head and set out to leave the necessary supplies.
I also left the materials and tools needed for the later modification of the vehicles, the tools came from the hardware store of course.
When everyone was ready, we started the engines and set off, with me at the front in the RV.