Chapter 25: Distraction

"There!" Astherielle whisper-shouted. She pointed towards one of the ruined buildings. A huge number is written on it.

They can't afford to make so much noise. The zombies come in hordes, and it was best to avoid running across them than trying to annihilate half of their population.

"Seven," Zera muttered. "1-0-7. We have three numbers down. Just two more, and we'd be able to unlock the padlock."

"Hopefully, they work for both padlocks." Beatrix crossed her fingers behind her back, wishing it was really the case. Otherwise, they would have to figure out a different code for the other padlock.

That would surely take a while. Tracking the buildings with numbers on them was already eating so much of their time.

It was a miracle that there was no time limit, else they might have been panicking by now.

"Imagine if a clock was ticking, and we'd have to figure everything out fast. That would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Jaspreth put a finger on his lips, shaking his head at Beatrix's comment.

"Zera and I said something like that previously about zombies. And look at us now."

Beatrix rolled her eyes, snorting her response.

"If that actually happens in the next stage, I'm going to blame you for it." Jaspreth narrowed his gaze towards Beatrix.

"Trust me; it won't." Beatrix stuck her tongue out towards him.

"What do you think would happen if one of us got bitten by a zombie?" Astherielle voiced out they were rounding another corner, looking for the fourth number.

Zera turned to her.

"I wouldn't even volunteer to figure that out." Zera shivered at the mental image of turning into a zombie as she had shown in television shows and movies. She made a face, not liking what she was seeing.

"I mean, are we going to become a zombie, or would we be sent back to the asylum?"

"Neither of those options sounded appealing to me. So I prefer to stay alive and see this game to the end." Beatrix huffed.

On the next bend, Jaspreth halted their group, briefly pulling them to hide behind a piece of a ruined building.

Out of the corner of his eye, he had spotted three to four zombies loitering in the vicinity. None of them had thought of looking for silencers while they were selecting their weapons.

At the far end, he saw ten more others. If they started openly firing at the zombies behind the small wall, they'd be calling the horde, and that was not a good idea.

Holding their breaths, the four friends listened intently to any sound that would help them sense where their enemies could be.

With a tight grip on their weapons, they stayed quiet, waiting, keeping themselves alert to anything that could pose a danger.

Grrr.

"Would they even eat us alive? I mean, are they even real?" Astherielle whispered. Her question made Zera wonder if they were indeed real.

What would happen if one or two or all of them got bitten? The instructions for this round mentioned that they shouldn't get infected. But how can they be infected if the zombies weren't real at all?

"We can only speculate. All we could do was play the game. Going back to the asylum keeps us stagnant. If we are to lose this round, what if we get spiraled back but with a different group? We'd end up needing to fight against each other by stage 2." Jaspreth blew out a sigh. He caught sight of Zera staring at him.

"We might as well just step out right there, should we?" She hid her irritation. The noise they were making was surely not unheard of.

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A zombie's strongest sense was their hearing.

"Sorry." Astherielle mouthed, keeping herself glued against the uneven wall of a building.

At the back of Zera's mind, she silently wished for some miracle to happen. Anything would do.

Looking towards the reddish horizon, she hoped a helicopter would suddenly appear, rescuing them. Or if not, at least helping them keep the zombies distracted.

When she had the chance to gaze by her feet, it was only then that Zera thought of using what was in their surroundings.

"Bloody idiot." She muttered, dropping to the ground to pick up a small pebble. She rolled it around her palms, thinking of where she could throw it that could produce a noise that would at least snatch the zombies' attention.

Instantly catching on to what she had meant to do, Jaspreth crouched and picked up a medium-sized rock by his feet.

They briefly exchanged glances. Each had a stone in hand.

"On the count of three." Jaspreth started. Zera nodded his way, waiting for the signal while Astherielle and Beatrix stood watch, keeping themselves alert.

"Three!" Jaspreth managed to belt out without shouting. His voice wasn't above the minimum volume for a whisper, but it was enough to signal their throw.

Zera watched her small pebble land a few feet away from them, momentarily catching the attention of the zombies within the perimeter. It was not enough to allow them to run before a number of the monsters could catch up to them.

Jaspreth's medium stone had a better opportunity. It landed farther away from Zera's pebble and had created a louder noise. But all the same, they were still not in the position to make a run for it and live.

They will need to gun their way through an oncoming horde which will surely overtake them.

"I still have one grenade. We could make use of it and proceed with our plan. Once we find the last remaining digits, we could get inside the safe zone or building or whatever that is."

"No," Jaspreth immediately countered. "We should reserve that in case of a much more dreadful emergency. Right now, we just need to use our heads." he paused to release a shaky breath before continuing.

"If you release that grenade, we'll have to run like there's no tomorrow and hope we could find a different building to hide. Otherwise, our survival for this round would be fatal."

"Um," Astherielle looked at her friends. "I have a suggestion, but I don't think any of you would like it."

"Say it anyway." Zera encouraged.

Astherielle took a deep breath. She clutched the gun in her hand.

"The zombies are no fast runners. We can easily outrun them despite their numbers. But our problem is they move in groups."

"No way," Beatrix shook her head. She eyed Astherielle, knowing beforehand what she already had in mind.

Astherielle cleared her throat, ignoring her side comment for a while.

"Listen, I know this is risky, but we need to split up. That way, we would also split the zombies and cover more ground. If you see any other way for us to go about this, then please."

Zera gave her nod towards Astherielle.

"I am with Astherielle on this one. It's actually strategic, but yes, very risky. But, it's the best we got right now."

"Ugh.." Beatrix breathed out a sigh. "Fine, so now, who is coming with who?"

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