A few seconds later, a walker rounded the corner, dragging a long chain that rattled with every step it took.
Andrea lowered the rifle sight for a moment, and muttered, "That was it... just one."
Glenn swallowed, relaxing his shoulders after opening the pharmacy door, "Damn noise, it almost took my breath away."
T-Dog raised his knife with a nervous smile, "Looks like a gift... if it's just that one, we'll take it out and move on."
I stayed silent, I've seen enough horror movies to know things are never that simple, and indeed they were not.
"Oh, shit, this must be a joke." cursed T-Dog, who had stepped forward to finish the walking corpse.
Behind the walker with the chain, several more began to appear slowly, until they formed a swarm, T-Dog honestly returned to the group.
"Calm down, if we panic, they'll devour us right here, first, let's get into the pharmacy and barricade the entrance, then we'll look for roof access." I ordered, taking the initiative.
We went in single file, with me at the front, after getting in, we quickly shut the door and moved any heavy furniture to block the entrance, that should hold for a while.
"I found the stairs!" said Glenn, who had gone ahead to find the stairs that lead to the roof.
We all ran for the stairs, just as thumps began to sound from the entrance, a few seconds more and it would have been over.
We raced up the service stairs, and shoved the roof door with our shoulder, it gave way with a crack, and the cold air hit our faces, the roof was flat and full of AC units, loose gravel, and a rusted water tank.
Andrea went straight to the edge, knelt, and swept the street with the sight, T-Dog and Glenn searched for something to block the entrance, I moved to the edge shortly after, seeing everything secured.
"There are at least a hundred, maybe more." said Andrea, without taking her eye off the sight.
"We have to get out of here, there's a cat ladder at the back, we can go down there and run." said Glenn in a low voice, after coming closer.
"It's risky, but it's the only option we have.." Andrea replied back, when suddenly two shots rang out.
[ Points + 1 ]
[ Points + 1 ]
"Shane, what the hell are you doing, have you gone crazy?" asked Andrea, panicking, the shots will surely attract more of those things?
"Crazy? I wouldn't call it that, anyway, you'd better start shooting everyone, don't worry about ammunition." I said, pulling the trigger of my pistol once more.
[ Points + 1 ]
Andrea frowned at my order, but had no time to answer, she was already pulling the trigger again, and the crack of the guns echoed down the street, the bullets hit the heads of the nearest walkers.
"You're attracting half the damn city!" Andrea shouted, as she fired three more times, each shot hit the target with force.
[ Points + 4 ]
[ Points + 2.5 ]
The others stopped hesitating, and joined the fray, in just a few minutes more than a dozen walkers had fallen to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.
[ Points + 7 ]
[ Points + 6.5 ]
"Rotate to reload, aim only for the head, no bursts, and don't let them get close to the entrance." I ordered, without shouting.
"Understood!" they replied, without stopping.
The corpses began to pile up more and more, but that's good because it means points too, which is why I decided to start shooting, we're in a safe position, we just have to put fear aside.
[ Points + 11 ]
[ Points + 15 ]
"I'm running out of ammo!" a voice sounded suddenly, and then another: "Here too, it's the last magazine."
"I think we'll die before we kill them all.." T-Dog muttered, loud enough for the others to hear.
"..."
"Relax." I said, approaching them, I quickly set down two boxes of the proper caliber ammunition for each of their weapons beside them.
"Bullets? I see you came prepared, brother!" T-Dog exclaimed, regaining confidence, it seems no one noticed I hadn't taken them out of my backpack.
«I only need one point for 100 nine millimeter rounds, it's a bargain generally» I thought to myself.
"With this we can face two or three more waves without problem." said Andrea with a smile, although I began to doubt it, the first three shots were pure luck, she actually has terrible aim.
I returned to my position, and kept firing, the constant system alerts flooded my mind, but instead of distracting me they only excited me more, a few minutes later more than two hundred walkers had been taken down.
The shots kept echoing, when the last walker fell, the silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the dry click of empty magazines.
The ground in front of the pharmacy was covered with piled bodies, and the air smelled of gunpowder, iron, and rotten flesh.
Glenn dropped down panting, "I think... that's all of them."
"For now." I said, as I watched the street from the roof, however, I noticed everyone giving me odd looks, and I understood why.
Throughout the whole battle, I gave them enough ammunition to start a small war, which doesn't fit in a backpack, especially given most of their poor aim, but I can't blame them, they used to be civilians.
[ Points + 80 ]
[ Points + 70.5 ]
"Hm, system, do you have a status function to see my stats?" I asked, ignoring the surroundings.
[ Affirmative host you only need to say the word | Status | it's a basic function not worth mentioning before ]
"Sigh, forget it, status." I said, refusing to argue with the system.
Name: Shane Walsh
Affiliation: Abandoned Quarry
Rank: Quasi-Leader
Age: 32
...
STR: 12 +
END: 11 +
AGI: 13 +
INT: 17 +
Skills: Tactical Shooting (Advanced), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Intermediate), Omnilingualism, Zombie Immunity
Points: 197
Inventory: 200 nine millimeter rounds, 50 twelve gauge shells, 2 fragmentation grenades, 1 tactical knife, 1 medkit, 1 nylon rope, 1 flashlight, 1 roll of duct tape, binoculars, Beretta 92FS, etc.
"Everything seems fine.." I thought to myself.
I wasn't worried about the lack of the zombie vaccine, I had already used it on the way into the city, without anyone noticing, thanks to the system.
"By the way, does that plus next to the stats mean what I think?" I asked, hopefully.
[ Correct, you can buy stat points in the shop, each stat point can be exchanged for 100 normal points ]
"Wow, not cheap but not bad I guess." I kept rambling, before being interrupted.
"Hey Shane, I'm talking to you!" Andrea said, raising her voice after talking to me for the third time.
"Oh sorry, were you saying something?" I asked, closing the system.
"We were asking why you brought all that ammunition, I thought we were short." Andrea asked.
"I could swear I saw it appear in your hand out of nowhere!" T-Dog said, confused.
"Sigh, okay, stop guessing, just follow me." I said, and started walking toward the door to go down from the roof.
After opening the door, we all went down to the ground floor, I walked down the aisle with the others behind me, confused, I grabbed a pack of antibiotics and held it in my hands, only for it to vanish seconds later, as if it had never existed.
"...?!" Everyone's jaws nearly hit the floor.
"Sh-Shane, are you a magician?" Glenn asked, with his mouth open.
"Haha, not exactly, I just have some abilities, I can store things like in video games." I replied, shrugging, I don't plan to hide it anyway, that would only make things more problematic.
"Is that even possible..?" Glenn asked once more, unable to believe it.
"Well, the dead walk compared to that, this doesn't seem like a big deal." I replied, downplaying it.
"Wait, why are you telling us all this?" Andrea asked suddenly, tense, the others looked at her like "what are you talking about?"
"Haha, relax, I'm doing it because I trust you, you can choose not to believe me, but it's the truth." I said, shrugging.
Everyone fell silent, absorbing my words, but finally they couldn't find anything to doubt, since from the start I had been someone trustworthy, I had never provoked anyone, and I was only trying to survive.
"Alright, let's get moving, since you know the truth, we have to clear this place out!"
The others hesitated only a few seconds, and decided to trust me, at least I wasn't their enemy, and if I had powers, maybe they could get them in the future if they stayed by my side, at least that's what they thought, and maybe they're not wrong.
Everyone moved at lightning speed, searching for anything useful, they loaded everything into carts, and brought it to me, where I stored it in the inventory.
An hour later, the entire pharmacy seemed cleaned from top to bottom, medicines and medical supplies, first aid equipment, food and water, and even medical protective clothing.
In moments, the whole pharmacy was emptied, and just as we were ready to leave, T-Dog ran down the stairs in a hurry.
"Another horde is heading this way, they'll be here in two minutes!" said T-Dog, gasping for air.
"It's time to go." I said, holding my shotgun, we all quickly exited through the back door, which had already been opened, with me at the front.
We all went out into an alley behind the pharmacy, seeing nothing but trash bins, we started moving toward the fire station, part of our original route.
"Kyaah!" Andrea, who was bringing up the rear, screamed suddenly, which made me stop and turn around.
Three walkers appeared behind a trash bin, apparently they had taken her by surprise, since even the old rifle she carried had fallen to the ground, leaving her only with her knife to defend herself.
Just as they were about to take her down, my fist hit one of them in the face, sending it flying backward, I grabbed Andrea, pulling her away from the other hungry walkers, just as I was about to finish them, Glenn at the front spoke.
"Shane, we have to go fast, they're blocking the exit!" he shouted, while aiming his pistol and pulling the trigger.
[ Points + 1 ]
"Damn!" I grabbed Andrea by the hand, and we ran toward the end of the alley, with my free hand I started shooting the walkers blocking the way.
"Wait, my rifle!" Andrea shouted, trying to go back.
"Forget it, we don't have time!" I said, holding her firmly, going back would be suicide, she had no choice but to give up.
[ Points + 3 ]
[ Points + 2.5 ]
After we got far enough away, we finally shook off the walkers, although it won't be for long, the city is infested, and it will only be a matter of time before we run into another horde.
"Glenn, how far are we from the fire station?" I asked, after everyone caught their breath.
"We're close, just one block away." replied Glenn, remembering.
"Then let's go, keep close and don't split up, Andrea take this, use it." I said, handing her a Beretta 92FS with three magazines, part of old Shane's loot.
"Thanks." Andrea replied, she was still a bit nervous from almost losing her life, but seeing me her breathing slowly returned to normal.
"Let's go!" I said, and we set off toward the fire station.