Very soon the group had gathered back near the entrance of the store. Each person of the newly formed team now carried a plastic bag on their free hand, filled with whatever they could find in the short timeframe. Danny was the only one not carrying anything in his hands beside his trusty hammer, since he already had his backpack which was now fuller with the addition of more foodstuffs and water bottles.

“Are you guys ready?” Danny placed his hand on the metal doorknob of the front-leading door of the store before sweeping his gaze upon his allies, giving them a chance to compose themselves before diving outside.

Although there was light coming from the streets from the still working lampposts, and the clear skies allowed for a better vision than most nights, it was still dark outside in the end, so they could not figure out much of what was happening out there.

They kept hearing occasional screams every now and then, accompanied by sound of struggle, but the commotion was clearly dying down gradually. What that meant they could not be too sure.

Instead of feeling relieved by the diminishing sound of chaos however, they were growing more worried.

It did not bode well that there were fewer signs of resistance. Everyone could guess that it most likely meant that, either people started going into hiding, or there were lesser and lesser survivors.

Seeing everyone nodding, Danny slowly opened the door and almost cursed out loud when he heard the sound of the small door bell ringing. In the relative silence of their surroundings, the shrill bell-ring felt deafening.

The early mishap in the very first step of the plan immediately gave the group pause. The hesitation only lasted for a second though. There was no time to waste, so the group immediately got on their way.

They had no idea how those reanimated corpses located their targets and if they had hearing capabilities comparable to when they were alive – their contact with this menace was very short still, so there was much they could not conclude – however, they did not want to linger around to find out.

Danny led the way into the dimly lit street, while Carl was directly behind him and Janice brought up the rear.

The current formation was already discussed beforehand. Those three being the strongest people in the group had to be distributed accordingly along their perimeter to assure the best possible defense they could muster.

Since Danny was the only one that knew where they were going, he had to be placed at the very front. Carl, on the other hand, volunteered to go after him in order to offer his assistance in case they stumbled upon more zombies blocking their path.

Janice, initially wanted to be placed on the vanguard as well, where any action was most likely to take place, but was rapidly convinced of the necessity of someone protecting the rear by her boyfriend’s arguments. Since they both wanted the same thing, one of them had to give in, otherwise their formation would get unbalanced.

Janice was not the kind of girl who was content with being relegated to anything she considered to be a ‘lower’ or ‘easier’ position than that of a man, especially when that man was also her partner, and in such a critical situation as well.

Even so, she was a person that could be reasoned with. Thus, she instantly acknowledged that such an arrangement was the most logical one. They had no time to argue, so she took the initiative to relent, taking responsibility for protecting the rear. Her own preferences could only be left aside in favor of the big picture.

As they were walking in hurried footsteps, trying to keep sound to a minimum while still making good time, in order to arrive at their destination as soon as possible without attracting any attention, the group heard something in between groaning and roaring coming from their left.

A shadowy silhouette that soon revealed itself to be a middle-aged Asian woman was rushing towards them. The bloodied mouth and rebar piece that completely pieced through her left chest to her back betrayed her status as an undead. Her gait was unsteady but nevertheless fast enough to reach them in a few seconds if they kept going at their slowed pace.

“Run!”

Upon realizing that they could not count on subterfuge anymore, Danny decided to risk it and ushered the command in a soft but clearly audible voice.

The group then immediately started running towards their destination. Luckily for them, the zombie was heading towards them from the west, while they were hurrying towards the northeast. Thus, as long as they kept heading towards their destination in a faster speed than the zombie, they would not have to tangle with the shambling corpse.

Soon enough Danny could clearly see their objective. The house still looked to be in good condition, unspoiled by the previous earthquake.

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Unfortunately for them, not too far from the unlocked gate that promised to lead them towards safety, there was a male zombie in the sidewalk that noticed their approach. The man was dressed in a maintenance worker uniform and was missing his right arm from the biceps down.

The exposed flesh and bone had irregular markings of wounds, looking as if it had been chewed on. It was unclear if the man had died before being munched on or if he died because of it. The blood loss from a missing arm would definitely be fatal without a timely intervention.

None of that mattered at the moment though.

“That’s the house! The gate is unlocked!” Danny yelled at his companions, not caring anymore to control the volume of his voice. He couldn’t be bothered to worry about that so close to his goal.

“I’ll take care of the one at front, help Janice stall the other one following us, while the rest get inside!” Danny turned around and said to Carl, before heading toward the one-armed zombie without waiting for his reply.

Carl also didn’t hesitate to follow Danny’s command. He had been worrying about Janice’s safety already while running as he did not have the freedom to check what was going on at the end of line while running ahead. Besides, he felt that the one-armed zombie was way less threatening to Danny than the impaled woman was to Janice, so in a split second he had already turned around and rushed in his girlfriend’s direction.

Danny also didn’t have room to check on his teammate’s actions. His focus was solely dedicated to the enemy in front of him.

Danny’s footsteps did not slow down in the face of the threat, in fact, he ran even faster towards the zombie in front of him. When he got close enough, Danny used his right leg and his speed to deliver an empowered front kick, aiming to knock down his foe.

The zombie that already had a compromised sense of balance offered almost no resistance, instantly toppling with its back crashing on the ground.

Danny wasted no time before gathering momentum and striking at the zombie’s face with a two-handed grip on his hammer.

Unfortunately, while paying attention to the zombie’s remaining arm tentative to grasp his leg, Danny couldn’t focus properly and ended up missing his target by a little bit. The blow that was aimed at the zombie’s face hit the top of its head instead.

Normally, that would not matter, as it would not matter which part of the zombie’s head his hammer struck, he would still cause enough damage to its head.

However, the undead had a very distinct protection helmet still fastened on his head and buckled under his chin with its annoyingly looking yellow color, a very commonly seen piece of equipment in the man’s, undoubtedly, former profession.

That did not faze Danny though. The hit was enough to keep the man down, and with a quick sidestep, Danny went out of the corpse’s grasping reach, while still being in range of attacking it.

Danny then raised his arms and swiftly struck again. This time his aim was true, and no movement could be seen afterwards from the now no-faced monster.

Danny then lifted his gaze and saw that Chris, Jane and Donovan had already made inside and were watching Janice and Carl’s fight with worry.

The duo had managed to down the Asian woman, but had not managed to find an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow yet, despite the fact that the woman’s left knee was bent in the wrong direction. At the very least, she would not be getting up anymore… that was Danny’s hope anyway.

When fiction and reality mix themselves, who can say for sure what was possible and what was not? Who could say with certainty that the creature could not straighten up its bones by itself and recover the ability to stand?

Logic dictated that what was dead should stay dead, but here he was facing an illogical situation. To measure such unreasonable events with common sense would be the height of madness after all.

Those distracting thoughts crossed Danny’s mind briefly but didn’t prevent him from taking immediate action. He could already see two other stumbling figures heading towards them from the edge of his field of vision, and could hear even more in the distance. They needed to deal with the problem fast and barricade themselves inside the brick walls.

Danny rushed towards the pair of fighters that were engaged in battle around 7 meters away from him and quickly got into the action.

As soon as Danny joined them, the balance completely tilted in their favor, and in a few seconds, Carl managed to deliver the final strike to the side of the Asian woman’s head. Her skull was now dented inwards, had broken completely, limping to the sides

Danny did not know what did the zombie in. Was it the broken neck or the smashed head? Was the neck even a vital part for these creatures? Danny would have to find out more later. Right now, he couldn’t afford to think too much about it.

Without anyone’s reminder, as soon as the zombie stopped moving, the trio ran to the opened gate. No one wanted to tackle the fast-approaching zombies and get stuck facing them. Such an unrewarding task had no point. Besides, who knew how many of those things were around and what else they would attract while dealing with the newcomers?

To stay and fight when they had the option to retreat and preserve their strength was to flirt with death. Right now, they had fortunately managed to kill both their enemies without incurring any injuries, but would that remain the same if they kept pressing on?

Humans get tired both physically and mentally, and the more spent they felt, the higher the chance of making mistakes. Therefore, it was wiser to keep their conflicts limited to necessity basis only. They weren’t tired yet but why risk it?

The trio managed to get inside and lock the steel gate behind them. The gate itself was not grated – a characteristic that was very common in the region’s properties –, instead it was a solid steel gate which offered not only more protection, but also more privacy, since anyone standing outside would not be able to see what was inside.

In fact, that was one of reasons Danny liked this place when considering his options, other than the sturdy foundations and walls, and the proximity of useful sources of supplies.

At the moment, his investment choice proved to be a sound one, since the building, walls and gate had already showed their worth by resisting the earthquake and now isolating him and his allies from the danger.

Although they could already hear banging sounds coming from the other side of the entrance, the group slowly relaxed and released their accumulated tension. As muscles loosened up, a few of them got on the ground and enjoyed the relaxed moment.

It was the first time since the start of it all that they could let go of their anxiety and uneasiness. At least for now, they were safe.