The World Cataclysm - Chapter 88: An Infected

Observing everything from the sidelines, Dave leaned on the wall as he stood silently. Everything was going much smoother than he had expected, and they were coming closer to the general image of a survivors group. Even those unexpected tunnels will greatly boost their chances to survive and provide them with safe routes to move through their university.

‘Everything’s going much better than I had expected. I believe I know why zombies must evolve slower in the beginning, otherwise people would have gone extinct.’ Dave thought as he looked at students killing zombies in bags.

If zombies had evolved the same way as Dave remembered it, no one would have been able to survive the major outbreak of the virus. Compared to zombies in movies, they were much faster and could chase after people. The most gruesome aspect about them was the fact that one bite was enough to put a cross on a human’s life.

Taking everything into consideration, if zombies had grown stronger faster than now, no one would have been able to survive a fight with them. Dave was an anomaly, and he clearly understood it. However, an ordinary student would have no chance to go against a single zombie without prior battle experience and an appropriate weapon. The chances of such a student surviving a confrontation with a zombie were minuscule.

“Go away! Don’t come near me! I said to stay in one place.” Suddenly, Dave heard a commotion from the corridor. Having finished his business here, he decided to check what was going on there. Furthermore, the dean said to familiarise himself here, and that was what he was going to do.

“Calm down. No need to drag everything this far. I know you’re desperate, but doing this won’t help you in any way.” Dave heard a panicked voice as he went out to the corridor. He would have been blind if he hadn’t noticed a large gathering of people on his left.

As he made several steps in that direction to see what was happening, he heard a high-pitched response to the man asking to calm down, “Shut up! I’m warning you, don’t come any closer or I’ll slit her throat.”

Reaching the site of commotion and pushing some people blocking his view, Dave was finally able to see what a commotion was about. A slightly pale man was holding a kitchen knife close to the throat of a woman. And it wasn’t a Failed Dagger that Brian had but an ordinary kitchen knife to slice fruits and vegetables. The pale man had a wound on his right shoulder, assumingly left by a zombie. Dave guessed that he was bitten.

Another group of armed men stood in front of him, blocking his way. Every one of them held metal rods in their hands, but none of them had a weapon from the system. From the look at them, Dave thought that they were the ones who go to the surface to obtain resources.

And the pale man, holding a knife close to the woman’s neck, was probably one of them but was bitten on their return. As they returned to the underground complex, the infected man should have freaked out, leading to this commotion. Well, they were just his speculations, but Dave believed that he wasn’t far from the truth.

He believed that this won’t be the last time when something like this happens. Although people might know that nothing can be done if you get infected, humans were emotional creatures and sometimes, they would make irrational decisions to keep their lives…just like now.

At one glance, Dave could understand that the infected man had 15 minutes at best. The infected man was sweating profusely as he had a fever, veins had bulged on his arms and he seemed to be trembling slightly.

Oddly, the whole situation reminded him of a case when Rebecca was held captive in the same way. However, compared to that time, Dave had no intentions to meddle in and help the hostage. He wasn’t even acquainted with the hostage nor would her death affect him in any way. He hadn’t even invested in her as he did with Rebecca, so he had no reasons to help her. Moreover, he was only an outsider to this group of people. So, Dave decided to enjoy the show and see how they would deal with the situation.

…

“Let’s calm down and talk a bit. You should know that nothing can help you in your case and that you have little time before you’ll turn into the one. You’re just wasting your own time. Professor Dylan had been researching zombies for a month already, and he may have a chance to help you.” The man in his mid-twenties said in a slightly panicked tone.

“Bulshit! Do you think I’m stupid? I’ll just become another test subject in his hands and would be dissected by him. I don’t want to end like this!” The infected man shouted aggressively as he pressed his knife harder on the woman’s neck. She cried out in fear as tears streamed down her face.

The same man tried to talk some sense with an infected person, but he failed in his several attempts and was at the end of his wits. He couldn’t think of anything to stop the infected man.

Fortunately for him, Dean Siphon had come rushing when she heard about the commotion here. Rushing to the man, she asked, “What’s the progress?”

“The man is desperate and won’t listen to me no matter what. So far, no progress was made in convincing him.” The panicked man said in a hurried tone. When he saw that it was a dean, he sighed in relief as he stepped back after reporting everything.

Changing places with the man, she slowly approached the infected man as she made small steps towards him. “I heard you’ve gotten infected. My consolations. However, the woman had done nothing wrong to you.”

“But I have also done nothing to deserve this. I don’t want to die nor do I want to turn into a Professor’s test subject. I just wanted to live, but…but…I got infected. I can already feel how my limbs are going numb and how I’m losing control over…” The infected man cried out in desperation as he said it.

However, not waiting for the infected man to finish his words, the dean dashed at the infected. She was 7 meters away from him, so taking advantage of his desperate speech, she cut the distance between them to 3 meters.

However, noticing her actions, the infected man halted in his words as he tried to press his knife to the woman’s throat. However, his eyes widened as he kept his eyes on Dean Siphon. She miraculously appeared right in front of him.

‘What the fuck?’ he thought as he tried to slit the throat with his knife. But he only tried to since he couldn’t move his arm.

Appearing right in front of him, Dean Siphon grabbed the wrist holding a knife and positioned her another arm on his elbow as she pushed it to distance the knife from the woman’s throat. The next moment she twisted the infected man’s arm and used the force from it to push him to the ground, dislocating his elbow. The woman, held by an infected man, had also fallen to the floor since she was held by a free arm of the infected person.

“Arrrgh!” The infected groaned in pain as he clutched his right arm with a free one. Although the pain was lesser due to the numbing effect from infection spreading through his body, it still hurt like half of his arm was ripped off.

…

Surprise flashed in his eyes as Dave thought inwardly, ‘She learned a Flash Step.’

Actually, it wasn’t that surprising, considering that it had a high drop rate among other skills. However, the chances of a skill dropping from a Treasure Chests are very low, so Dave was more surprised that she owned a Skill of her own. Of course, the fact that he also learned a Flash Step had also played a role in his surprise.

After Dean Siphon had dealt with an infected man, she called over a research team, who tied an infected man to the stretcher. They seemed to hurry to move him to their laboratory before he turned into a zombie.

Then, she called over a group of people and ordered them to check the hostage for any injuries. Then, she approached the man, who tried to calm down the infected person and asked him some questions.

Next, she noticed Dave in the group and came to him. “It’s terrible that you witnessed something like this on your first day here. I think we can start discussing things over. Let’s go to my office.”