With the pressing matters taken care of, Jay withdrew and rushed toward the locker room.

As he reached his locker, he first took out his communicator and soon noticed the lack of signal. However, he wasn't that surprised since he had already heard some people mention the unfortunate situation while he was in the arena.

With a sigh, he put the communicator aside and grabbed his satellite phone. Given the unusual and dangerous nature of their activities, they had made it a custom to always have a satellite phone on their person, ensuring they were never completely out of reach even in special circumstances.

Hopefully, it would serve its intended purpose and allow him to receive Jess and Sam's news. Unfortunately, his hopes were soon crushed as he started it, and it too proved to be a useless piece of tech.

“Fuck,” he cursed, his emotions slowly growing out of control as he fiddled with the satellite phone and tried to make it work. To his regret, nothing he did worked, and the phone remained as unresponsive as ever.

“Jay,” Lexie called softly as she put her hand on Jay’s back in a show of comfort. “I am sure they are safe,” she added to calm him down.

“Yeah, you know how strong they are. Nothing can go wrong,” Alex affirmed confidently.

“I know. But,” Jay mumbled with uncertainty. If it was just about fighting, Jay knew there was no need to worry about them. Sam and Jess were as strong as he was and knew how to take care of themselves. Besides, they shouldn’t be in a place as dangerous as the Forge and should be able to handle everything thrown their way.

The only trouble was the fact that to accomplish all that they needed to be themselves. If by some twisted play of fate, they were turned into one of those creatures it’d be game over from the very start.

A part of him wanted to believe that such a thing was impossible. However, he had carefully observed the zombies and the survivors and was unable to determine a pattern that determined who become a zombie or not. Chances were high that it was completely random or maybe it followed some rules he wasn’t aware of.

“Sigh, there is no need to overthink. I can only hope for the best,” Jay voiced as he grabbed a bottle of water and downed it in one go in an attempt to calm his mind. To be honest, the uncertainty was eating at his mind and he wanted nothing more than to rush and look for Jess and Sam.

However, another part of him, the one who was still rational, advised him against such recklessness. For one he had no way to confirm Jess or Sam’s

current location. Especially Sam, she had many errands to run and could be anywhere in the city. It would be counterproductive if he were to start running around like a headless chicken to search for her.

Concerning Jess, he was 90% sure that she was at her school. However, once again there was a problem as her school was quite far and it wasn’t the best idea to take such a long trip when the city was filled with a slew of unknown dangers. His experience with the ‘smart zombie’ was telling enough.

“Look like you figured it out,” Lexie said with a smile. She was relieved and impressed that Jay managed to regain his bearing so fast and didn’t attempt anything reckless. She knew it wasn’t easy for him to keep his composure when faced with so many uncertainties. She wasn’t sure how she’d reacted had she found herself in a similar spot. And in all honesty, she was happy she wasn’t in his place as she’d be worried sick.

“Hum, acting rashly won’t change anything. Like you said, those two know how to take care of themselves,” Jay said, trying to sound as positive as possible.

“We just need to take care of the problem on our side and we will regroup with them sooner or later,” Lexie said.

“Yeah, and things would probably be easier if we moved on our own,” Alex said suddenly.

“Oh, seems like you have something on your mind,” Jay asked as he heard Alex’s words and the obvious dissatisfaction in them.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Jay,” Alex said as he glared at his friend. “Those guys almost got us killed earlier, and then you act as if nothing was wrong and just accept them. Come on. If they stick with us we will have to take care of them. And don’t let me get started with the bitten guy.”

As he heard Alex, Jay could only shake his head helplessly. It was clear that Alex was very dissatisfied with the way he was handling the situation. Anyway, it was normal for him to have a different outlook on the situation and Jay didn’t blame him. Instead, he was happy that Alex didn’t challenge him in public and chose to voice his misgivings when there were just the three of them.

However, before Jay could try to explain himself, Lexie intervened.

“Dumb brother,” she cursed as she looked at her twin with disappointment.

“What? I am only stating the truth,” Alex retorted, looking surprised by his sister's reaction.

“Yes, but your thinking is too simple,” Lexie helplessly shook her head as she saw the confused expression on her brother's face. Sometimes she wondered if they were really twins. “What do you think we lack the most right now?” she asked.

“Weapons? Equipments?” Alex replied uncertainly.

“Yeah, we certainly lack those,” she admitted. “But they are far from being the most important. Intelligence, knowledge. That’s what we really need right now,” she added with conviction.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Even if we had weapons, they would only be useless if they were not appropriate for the situation. You aren’t going to throw grenades around when fighting underground. However, with the right intel, we would be able to formulate proper plans and take less risk during our venture.”

“Alright, I get it. But what does it have to do with my previous complaints,” Alex asked, still looking unconvinced.

“Sigh. You sure you’re my twins?” Lexie asked annoyedly. “Say, what do you think we should have done if you were the one who had been bitten by a zombie?”

“I…”

“Yeah, you don’t know, right? We don’t know too! That’s what I have been trying to make you understand since the beginning.”

“We don’t know a damn thing about our situation or what could be waiting for us. We need to use every opportunity to gather as much intel as possible.” At that point, Lexie was almost yelling as she was starting to feel extremely exasperated by her brother’s stupidity. The tension she accumulated all this while wasn’t helping things either.

"Alright, calm down, Lexie," Jay, who had been silent all this time, decided to intervene before the situation escalated too far. "This is my fault too. I shouldn't have acted without seeking your consent," he apologized. While he could be considered the leader of their small group, the twins weren't his subordinates. They were friends. He shouldn't have made those decisions on their behalf and expected them to simply get along with them. His actions affected their interest too and Alex has every right to express his position.

“Maybe, but it changes nothing to the fact that Alex is a dumbass,” Lexie harrumphed. Yes, Alex had a point but he shouldn't have expressed himself the way he did. She thought he could have been more mindful of his words or waited a while longer considering all Jay must be going through right now.

“Chuckle, cut him some slack,” Jay laughed, finding Lexie's behavior kind of cute. She always acted this way when Alex couldn't manage to follow her train of thought. “While Louisa and Caleb may have moved me, my motivations are more or less the same as Lexie guessed.”

“The bite is a common trope in zombie movies. In those movies 90% of the time getting bitten is equivalent to a game over,” he started as he continued to fiddle with the sat phone.

“The question now is how does that shit work? For my part, I see three possibilities. One, the bitten is killed by the bite and becomes a zombie. Two, he becomes a zombie after his death. Three, nothing happens, he doesn’t turn.” Jay summarized. While he, by no means considered himself a zombie specialist, he was sure those were the more likely scenarios after someone was bitten.

“You missed a point,” Lexie, who was now much calmer, intervened. “There is also the case where he doesn’t turn after we kill him.”

“Oh, you right,” Jay nodded before continuing, “One and two may seem to be the same things. But, there is a nuance. What we want to know is whether the bite is the cause of death. If we just killed him and he ended up becoming a zombie, we’d mistakenly assume that everyone bitten would eventually turn. However, we’d be wrong as that would have only confirmed situation 2.”

“Now, if we keep Caleb alive and despite eliminating any other causes of death he still turns into a zombie then option 1 is true and the chances of option 2 being true too would be quite high,” Jay said and stopped to look at the silent Alex. From the thoughtful expression on his face, it was easy to guess that he was starting to catch up with Jay and Lexie’s reasoning.

“As for options 3 and 4. If they happen we can either conclude that the bite does nothing or whatever we are dealing with aren’t zombies like we thought,” Lexie concluded.

“So, if I get things right, you two are using Caleb like a lab rat,” Alex concluded, giving Lexie and Jay an odd look.

“This…” Lexie mumbled feeling a little embarrassed by her twin’s questions.

“Well, I won’t put it that way. What is important is that our actions will benefit him and the group.” Jay explained in a bid to defend himself.

“Tsk, whatever you think is right. Still, are you not afraid? What if all this backfires on you?” Alex raised more concerns.

“How?” Jay asked.

“You just took the lead of this group. If your first decision ends up being wrong, they will have a hard time trusting your judgment in the future.”

“Well, you aren’t wrong.” Jay nodded as he understood the source of Alex’s concerns. The survivors would indeed have a harder time trusting if he made such a mistake just after taking over. However, he wasn’t too worried as he could always play it off with the compassion card. Anyway, in his eyes the benefits outweigh the loss. “Nothing risked, nothing gained,” Jay said, earning a nod from Alex.

“Now, concerning the matter of sticking with a group. I think it is the best thing to do when maybe two-thirds of mankind has become a man-eating abomination. While it may be burdening now, I believe it’ll be worth it in the long run.” Jay explained.

“Sigh, I understand that much. I just thought we could wait later for that. And as I said, I am kinda dissatisfied with them due to the troubles they caused us during our escape,” Alex responded.

“You are actually right. In other circumstances, it would indeed be wiser to wait a little longer to team up. However, what I said earlier was merely part of my purpose,” Jay said, surprising not only Alex but Lexie too.

“The system and the quest it gave us. That’s what my focus has been on from the beginning. It asked us to survive and prove our worth. If you want to survive, you can either hide and avoid the storm. You can also find someone and seek their protection. And lastly, you can attack to defend.” Jay explained, sharing his views with the twins. “For us, surviving is pretty much guaranteed. What matters actually is how to prove our worth,” he then added.

“Killing zombies?” Alex asked.

“Yes, that’s certainly a way to go about it. The more the better I’d say. But it’s definitely not the only way,”

“I see now,” Lexie exclaimed, seemingly realizing something.

“Yes, I think we can assume that any actions taken from now on could serve to show our ‘worth’. Killing zombies, helping people, solving some issues, whatever you can think of, it can work. Anyway, we got to do our best. I have a feeling that the result of this quest will greatly affect how well we will fare in the days to come.” Jay said calmly. He had put some thought on the matter and in all honesty he was still confused about the intent of the system. However, he was sure it wouldn’t hurt to do the best they could. Anyway, it'll be alright as long as they don't try anything too reckless. And if things got too complicated they could always bail out and focus on their safety first.

“And do you think we can trust this system or whatever is messing with us?” Alex questioned doubtfully.

“Never trust the system,” Lexie responded with a chuckle.

“She is right. But, do you think we can do anything to resist whatever can knock out the whole world and then turn the majority of it into monsters?” Jay asked.

“If you can’t beat it join it. That’s what they say, right?” Alex said with a defeated sigh.

“That’s the path ahead of us.” Jay nodded gravely.