Jeff, Tres, and Matt seemed none to concerned by the whole situation because they just leisurely strolled back towards their apartment with Grant in tow. Once they were inside, the casually locked the door and then sat down on the furniture in the living room, ready to discuss their plans moving forward.

"Now that the group has gained an extra person, do you guys have any ideas on what we should do next?" Asked Jeff.

Grant had some plans in mind, but he was curious as to what this group would think was best to do next in this situation, so he kept quiet.

If they had a better idea on what to do next, he would be more than happy to go along with it. His main goal at this point anyways was just to make it somewhere safe.

Jeff's friend Matt was the first one to speak up and give his suggestion, "Why don't we try and get to Walm*rt or something? They have all the food and supplies we could want or need for the foreseeable future."

Grant had this thought earlier as well, but wasn't sure it was the best idea and it appeared that Jeff agreed because he spoke up soon enough and voiced his disproval of the idea.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Almost the entire front of the store is glass and it doesn't seem very difficult for those monsters to break in. Plus, the amount of area that we would have to patrol each day just to feel safe would be far too large. We would have to spend each and every day clearing out the store slowly and efficiently just so we could feel safe. Although we may have not have to venture out, eventually the supplies will run out.

Plus, we don't know why people were turned into zombies and Walm*rt is far too busy of a location for it not to be flooded by them right now."

Grant subconsciously nodded at that evaluation because that was his thought process as well. It may seem like a great idea, but when push came to shove it was easy for them to be overwhelmed in a place like that. They needed to find somewhere that was secure with relatively few entrances and exits and as little glass as possible since it seemed all too easy for monsters to break through it.

He had first hand experience on how easy it was for a low level monster to break through glass and he didn't want to put himself at risk if he didn't have too.

After a few moments of silence, it didn't seem like anyone else was going to voice their opinions so Grant decided to share part of his plans to see what the three thought.

"I was planning on going to the gun shop up the street. They only have small thin windows that would make it difficult for anything to break through and the front door has a metal cage blocking it off so it should at least be somewhat safer than a place such as this apartment."

A flash passed unnoticed through Jeff's eyes at Grant's words. But it quickly receded before he said, "That's a great idea. I can get on board with that. What do you two think?"

Matt and Tres didn't seem like they were going to have much opinion on the matter because they simply nodded after hearing what Jeff said.

Seeing that his two friends were onboard, all four of them began to lay out plans for the trip.

Grant had always been a rather trusting individual and liked to see the best in people, so he didn't give much thought to the situation and the fact that it may not have been the best idea to share so much of his personal plans with people he didn't know.

He had assumed that the situation that they found themselves in, with The Path, the monsters, and the zombies, it would force people to cooperate with each other. So in an attempt to show his good will to his new friends, after they had decided on their plans and were getting ready to move out, Grant offered to take the lead.

He knew that he needed to improve his mentality quickly and be ready to kill anything that may threaten his life, no matter if it be a zombie or a monster of some sort.

And he figured that the best way to accomplish this, was through practice. He also felt more secure at the idea that he had someone watching his back now.

After the four of them gathered up their belongings and any supplies that they could carry, they unlocked the door and walked back out onto the walkway. Luckily, they didn't come across any other zombies or monsters before they reached the stairs. Seeing nothing on the stairs themselves, with Grant in the lead, they slowly started to descend.

After they reached the third floor though, Grant noticed that their was a zombie wandering not far from the stairwell. Since the stairwell wasn't blocked off by doors or walls it would be rather easy for the zombie to attack them once it noticed them so it made it dangerous to continue on without first dispatching the zombie.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Once again steeling his resolve and doing his best to shut off his old moral compass, Grant slowly crept toward the zombie. The zombie quickly noticed Grant, since he wasn't exactly trying to be silent, and started to advance towards him. Unlike last time though, Grant swung his Wet Noodle towards the base of the zombies neck without hesitation. The moment before the blade made contact with the neck of the zombie however, Grant closed his eyes to try and block out what was about to happen. He knew it was a dumbass thing to do in the situation, but he did it mostly on instinct.

Grant had expected some kind of resistance because of the flesh and bone, but the sword ended up passing straight through without any resistance whatsoever. Before the head of the zombie even hit the ground, and with his eyes still closed, a screen had popped up in the corner of his vision and let him know that he had indeed succeeded in killing the zombie.

[Congratulations on killing Mindless Zombie Level 2.

You have absorbed +1 Strength and +1 Stamina]

Having successfully killed his first zombie, Grant couldn't help but have a feeling of pride wash over himself. He had taken a small step forward. He knew it wasn't something to be proud of, especially since he couldn't even look at what had happened, but he felt that it was a step in the right direction.

"Congratulations on killing your first zombie. How does it feel?" asked Jeff from behind him.

Unnoticed to Grant though, Jeff didn't really seem to care about how Grant was feeling because Jeff was intently staring at the sword that Grant was still holding in his hand.

He had noticed how easily the sword had cut through the zombie and was interested in what it was and how strong it actually was. "Did you get that sword from a Random Roll?"

Grant was surprised by the last question but seeing as it wasn't exactly a common weapon for people to keep in their homes he guessed it wasn't surprising that he was interested.

"Thank you for asking. I don't know how I feel about it. I guess it's nice to know that I can force myself to do what needs to be done.

And as far as the sword is concerned, yes, I got it from my Random Roll when I hit level 1."

Jeff nodded his head up and down after hearing what Grant said, "Makes sense. I got a couple of different things from my Random Rolls, Tres got a pair of brass knuckles, funnily enough and Matt over there got the club that I used earlier."

Hearing the last statement, Grant was surprised. He had assumed that anything that was found during the Random Roll would somehow be linked to the individual that had received it and wouldn't allow anyone else to use it. Obviously his assumption had been incorrect though.

While Grant had been lost in his own thoughts, Jeff's voice reached his ears yet again to snap him out of his thoughts,

"Alright, that's enough of a break, lets get moving. The longer we dawdle here the later it gets and the closer we get to sundown. We need to reach and be inside the gun shop before the sun goes down because we don't know what's lurking within the walls of this complex, let alone outside the walls."

Grant noticed the subtle way that Jeff avoided giving any information about the gear he managed to get from his Random Rolls but he decided not to pry.

He agreed that they had more time than necessary there and immediately started moving forward once again.

He couldn't help but shake his head as he walked though; it was starting to feel like at some point in the past hour or so that he had been with this group, Jeff started to think of himself as the boss-man.

Grant didn't particularly want to lead a group of people that he didn't know, but he would never become someone else's lackey so it was slightly annoying being told what to do even if he did agree with what was being said.

As they were climbing down the stairs, their group ran into four more zombies along the way.

One of them was solo on the second floor which Grant handled immediately by himself. Unlike the last time though, he only received +1 Stamina this time.

As the group reached the first floor and walked out from the stairwell they noticed their was a group of three zombies standing in the middle of the courtyard, looking in their direction.

While Grant was curious if he could handle them alone, due to his increased stats, he decided not to risk it since he didn't want to take a chance that he didn't need to take.

Instead, Grant and Jeff worked together to split the zombies into groups of 2 and 1. Instead of Jeff, Matt, and Tres taking the set of two zombies, Grant somehow became responsible for holding them off himself. He had to use his newfound speed to keep his distance while luring them away from Jeff and the others.

Once he had successfully lured the two zombies far enough away from the other one, he put his full weight onto the balls of his feet and circled around the two zombies as quickly as he could.

Since the zombies were so slow, he was able to circle around to their backs, and before they could rotate fully to look at him, he lunged forward at one of them and chopped it's head clean off in one swing of the sword.

[Congratulations you have killed Mindless Zombie Level 2

You have reached Level 2.

Gained two status points to be distributed freely.

You have gained +50 credits and +1 Random Roll]

Ignoring the message that appeared in the corner of his vision, Grant immediately circled around the zombie as fast as he could until he was behind it and once again rushed forward to chop it's head off.

Having dispatched his targets and feeling more comfortable with each kill, Grant looked over to see if Jeff needed any help only to notice that Jeff and the other two were just standing there watching him. As though they had absolutely no intention of helping him.

This caused Grant to become increasingly frustrated. Would they have helped him if he had been in a difficult spot or were they just using him to take care of zombies without putting themselves at risk?

Obviously the latter seemed more likely, but Grant didn't want to assume the worst in people. At least until they gave him reason too.

As much as he didn't want to admit it though, this group was starting to look less and less trustworthy and his suspicions of their intentions was slowly growing.

So while Grant was dealing with the internal struggle, they grouped back up and headed down the walkway that lead to the parking lot outside the building.