CHAPTER 36: TEMPTATION AND NEW THREAT

Five people stood silently in front of Travis. They knew their leader was not in a good mood, so they decided to wait until he permitted them to speak, so as not to anger him...

Their leader was good-looking and easy to communicate with, but the last time someone angered him and tried to rebel against his leadership, those people were forced to do the most dangerous jobs in the group, and several of them lost their lives. What was more frightening was that even one of the men who had gone to do a simple and low-risk task also ended up meeting disaster...

Many of them had consumed crystals and gained a lot of physical strength, no longer being considered human, but only Travis had this kind of paranormal instinct...

They all watched as the boss’s girl, Maggie, brought out a glass of wine and poured it for him, all smiles and flattery. After drinking some of the drink, Travis’s face finally changed, and he turned to the group and pointed at the big gangster, who was the same guy who had been humiliated by the visitor on the motorcycle less than a day ago.

"You can start..."

"Boss, I went with some men to the gallery near the city center, and the place was completely cleared of zombies. There were corpses everywhere, and many stores had already been looted, including all the restaurants... When I checked some of the corpses, they were the same as the zombies in the locker room, dead, but without crystals or extraction wounds."

Travis’s face contorted in anger again, and he downed the entire glass of wine, making Maggie pour more. He nodded to another man, and he continued:

"I went to the police station, but there is a group of survivors inside. I tried to trade them some weapons in exchange for our resources, but they refused. In the end, they only offered us some revolvers in exchange, but they only want the crystals of the most intelligent zombies, the ones that have a darker red tone."

"It seems that more people already know about the use of the crystals; this is going to be problematic," Maggie said, looking at Travis’ reaction.

"The police also gave us a radio frequency to contact them... Not that it is very useful, but we can finally make use of the radios we fixed and communicate from a distance now..."

Travis nodded at the good news, but remained silent and just looked at the next man.

"The mall is crowded, there are at least ten thousand zombies inside and outside. And a few thousand more on the streets near there."

"I checked the hospital and someone was looting the place yesterday. I didn’t get close enough, but it seemed like a large group... They easily eliminated about three or four thousand zombies that were there..."

Noticing the silence, the last man began his report...

"That fancy residential* full of mansions is completely sealed. I saw some armed men guarding the entrances. It seems like they have a large group of survivors gathering inside. But it’s like the boss said, it’s well protected, with lots of resources, and some rich guys might even have underground shelters..."

Travis put his hand on his chin, thinking for several seconds, then finally decided:

"Have the men get ready, we’ll leave tomorrow morning. Our new home will be that residential..."

"Yes, boss, leave it to us!"

"Haha, those rich guys are going to be surprised when we take their houses and mansions."

"Hehe, I hope they have enough houses for me to have my mansion..."

As soon as everyone left, Travis returned to his room, reflecting on everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Rick had tricked them, there was that strange phenomenon of zombies not having crystals inside their bodies, Rick also had powerful strength and reflexes, not only that, at no time did he feel afraid when he was surrounded by his group outside the gym...

Of course, he also felt that there was animosity forming between the two. Travis didn’t know the reason for this animosity. It all started when he and Maggie were excluded from his messages about this disease... Maggie was someone he liked. He may have found out the truth about her being a gold digger, but Travis never did anything to harm him and even treated him well...

"Tap-Tap"

Travis heard a knock on the window, and when he looked, he saw a small drone the size of an American football floating outside. Startled, he moved away from the window, but saw the drone repeat the same movement before, lightly tapping on the window again.

"Tap-Tap"

Realizing that the drone was trying to communicate, Travis finally opened the window and let it in. The drone cast a light scanning his body, and then a fluid voice came from the drone:

"Travis, my group has been observing you and your group of survivors since this apocalypse began... We admire your leadership skills, and we would like you to join our group... We can provide you with valuable information, essential technological resources, and the many tools necessary to survive whatever is about to happen..."

"Who would your group be? Are you from the Council?"

"The Council has already abandoned Jyera and Jyor... They fled to Chronos, taking all the colony ships, and leaving you behind... We are the new leaders of this shattered world, and we are looking for capable people to lead the survivors and join our new world order..."

"You don’t need to make a decision today, talk to the other members of your group in the meantime, since this is a decision that everyone will have to agree on... Here is an early gift from our group to you..."

The drone then opened a compartment, dropping 3 red crystals, which varied between a transparent red and a very concentrated red, a small scroll, and a long-range radio.

"When you are ready to accept our offer, contact us through this radio; it is a direct line to our group..."

Travis nodded, and the drone flew away through the window. When he opened the scroll, it was full of details about the zombies, animals, and human mutants classified into 3 levels. Furthermore, it warned of the arrival of an Ice Age in the coming days...

***

Since returning to SC12, Rick had always wandered around the city without a mask, because he knew he would be a target again. His goal in doing so was to try to track down the origin of the killers with Ethan’s help. And although Ethan had done so, the target’s location was on another continent. So playing the bait this time didn’t help at all, on the contrary, it made Rick expose much of his strength... Still worried, Rick left the robotic arm with Ethan and went ahead with his plans...

At the end of that day, at least some things went well overall... They collected from the hospital horde a total of 160 level 2 crystals and 3290 level 1 crystals. Although the level 1 crystals had little use in Rick’s hands, they were still a good currency among the survivors. Ethan and the Captain immediately consumed 30 crystals each, becoming level 3 mutants as well.

The hospital was stripped of all its medicines, surgical equipment, hygiene items, and many broken pieces of equipment that would later be recovered by Ethan. The cafeteria, dining hall, and all the vending machines were also swept away. Once again, they managed to get a lot of extra food. In the maternity section of the hospital, a lot of formula was also found. Maybe the current baby on the base didn’t need it, but Rick knew that the long winter in cozy houses would bring many more of them...

And with everything finished, Rick and his group finally headed to the small and peaceful SC01. This city, which had been the first in this region, had been chosen by the first residents and investors of this region, because of an oil well that was within its territory...

But at the same time that it was built, it was also the same time that Jyera went through its first energy revolution. Making fossil fuels something outdated... After that, the city’s economy barely maintained itself with its quarry and trade routes that provided easy access to the other Satellite Cities...

Rick was now with his group, looking at the extraction site that was also very close to the only gas station in the city.

"So, Ethan, do you think you can fix this oil extraction and refining machine?"

"Yes, although the equipment is a little outdated and requires constant maintenance, it is possible!"

"Then let’s get to work..."

Now, all that was left was to prepare the defenses and reinforcements for this new location. Which would function not only as a source of fuel for the generator that would be on site, but as fuel for all of his group’s future vehicles and bases...

***

While Rick and his group were settling in and preparing their new base in SC01. The Android, who now only had a single arm, had arrived at the old Launch Base where Ethan and Maya worked.

His goal this time was something so sinister that it could even threaten his masters, who gave such an order... The Android tried to resist the order several times, since such an act was considered a crime in the Empire where he was created, with sanctions and consequences that went beyond the Empire itself... But his programming had already been altered when he was sent to Jyera, and his resistance did not last long...

As soon as he entered the Launch Base, he began to immobilize several level 2 zombies and insert a tracker into their spines, and then feed them with level 3 crystals. Each zombie fed with a level 3 crystal underwent unique transformations, leaving only a few features that still resembled its human form...

One of the zombies lost all the hair on its head and gained tar-colored skin. Another lost its human arms, gaining new ones similar to a bladed insect and wings... Another had its brain enlarged so much that it came out of its skull in an extremely grotesque way. Others had changed so much that they no longer even resembled humans, looking more like beasts or plants...

When the Android had finished using all the level 3 crystals he had, he watched as the new level 3 zombies slowly moved away from the dead base, and slowly went their way, searching for still-living human targets in the populous Satellite Cities. At the same time, all of them had their locations constantly sent in real time to the Observer’s surveillance room...