***
Ri Ku and Ahmed slowly open the vault door; after the door is open, the whole group looks at the zombies entering the vault and walking inside. The five group members have all smeared human guts in their armor, hoping this trick would work. This trick worked on the first twenty zombies, who all had white eyes, not any color like the other zombies, which means they could not see, yet the smell could guide them. But a zombie with red eyes looked at Ahmed, caught his arms, and bit the chest armor with his rotten and decaying teeth. While he was biting the armory, the other zombies from this horde were going straight into the vault, mindlessly walking while the five fighters were walking through the horde with their weapons hidden.
"Can I hit him?" Ahmed whispers to Ri Ku while the zombie with red eyes continues to bite him.
"We have to move carefully, Ahmed, " Ri Ku whispers to Ahmed as they slowly move through the horde to the building's exit.
After they managed to enter the hallway, the group of five fighters continued to walk, but Ri Ku stopped after a zombie looked at the zombie. Ri Ku was sweating bullets inside his armor as the zombie looked at him. That zombie looked like any zombie, but he was different from the others; he whispered something incoherently and continued to move on. Ri Ku shook this off and continued to stroll to direct his group members to the bank exit.
They arrive at the stairs, and they go downstairs at a slow pace. As they all walk, the group of fighters sees a zombie crawling on the stairs; that zombie stops and then bites Xin Yan's left ankle. Thankfully, their armor protects the ankles in cases like this. Xin Yan shook the leg off until the crawling zombie got off her ankle. The zombie took a last look at Xin Yan and went after Yu Tong's ankle. Still, she did the same as Xin Yan, shook the leg off, walked away, and tried to bite their armored ankle Ahmed, but Ahmed, who was getting tired of having his armor bitten by zombies, decided to hit the head of the zombie, by stomping the head with his heavy shoes.
"Shit…" says Ahmed looking back at a few zombies who turn around to the group of fighters after they hear the loud stomping.
"Ahmed!" says Li Kay to Ahmed.
The group looks back at the zombies on the upper floor; some have turned around and walked after the five fighters, running the remaining stairs out of the building and pushing them, trying to block their way out. As they are running from there, Ahmed drops a smoke grenade by mistake at the door. An error that will help them because the smoke grenade, the moment it lands on the unclean, dirty, and broken floor made by hone, the pin drops, and a white smoke leaves the capsule, creating in a few seconds a cloud of smoke that makes the zombie who enters the smoke, feel disoriented and walking through the walls.
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"Good idea," says Ri Ku to Ahmed as the entire group runs down the street.
"It wasn't exactly my doing, " Ahmed says to the group as they run to the left. "I dropped it by mistake."
"Your mistake has given us a few more seconds to live, Ahmed."
After a few minutes of walking in this city, the group arrives at the radio tower, whose entire land is surrounded by bodies of zombies who look like they have been killed recently. The Shi Huang Group walks inside the radio tower, where they see the other groups sitting, snoring, and waiting for the Shi Huang group. After the group enters the house, a member of Hanu Lah walks into the group, and he sounds pissed.
"What took you all so long? We waited for all of you and lost communication with you."
"We were in trouble, Raider," says Ri Ku to the fighter named Rider, the leader of the Hanu Lah group. "We were trapped in a bank because of a zombie horde, then we had to walk through the streets, avoiding any zombies because we were running out of ammunition, and we left our melee weapons back in the bank."
"Why did you leave your melee weapons behind?" asks Rider to Ri Ku, sounding more pissed. "These are more important than firearms."
"I know. But we had no choice."
"Now it doesn't matter," says a fighter from Rotten Tomatoes who joined the conversation. What matters is that all of us made it." He looks at Ri Ku and says, "Your distraction worked. A lot of zombies were leaving the swarms when they heard your explosion compared to Rock Ya ones."
"Our car did not detonate," says Rock Ya. "So we had to go and join the defenders regardless."
"And all of you killed this many zombies?" Ri Ku asks, pointing at the zombies outside.
"Yes. We killed all of them, using our entire stock of ammunition, though, but we made it," says Rider, then he tells Ri Ku. The reinforcements say they are on their way, which means soon this place will be operational again."
"That's nice to hear," says Ri Ku.
The five groups remain in the radio tower for a few more hours. And when the reinforcements come, they also come with a message for them, one none of them did not expect. That message was from Mr. Fifteen, the organization president, who gave the five groups the following message: "Hello! I am Mr. Fifteen, and I am writing this telegram to request your aid in Japan. I need your help to create a safe zone in Kagoshima, Japan. Your Leaders have all the needed details. Signed, Mister Fifteen."
"I guess we're going to Japan, " Ri Ku says to his squad members after he has read this message loud and clear.
"I always wanted to visit Japan," says Xin Yan.
"Me too," says Li Kay. "But not like this."
The group of fighters from the Shi Huang squad are climbing on the helicopter, which will take them back to the outpost, where they will be given more details on their future mission. After the helicopter with the fighters has left the area, a tank approaches the radio tower, from which five people leave and walk inside to start their jobs.
END OF KINGDOM OF LIVING II