18.Evolving DEAD!
[[18.Evolving DEAD!]]
The next day, everyone woke up early to begin planning once again. Yesterday, their new additions had been filled with the evolution of the world and Shizuka having something that helps them all out, and just for fun, Derierei jokingly, but in a serious voice, said that Shizuka was spoked to by "God", and that was how she knew so much. Of course, they apprehensive at first, but after seeing Shizuka pull out a book, another book, actually, Shizuka just unloaded all of the books she had put inside her inventory, which was a whole shelf worth, out of nowhere, and they definitely believed Derierei afterwards.
Also, Shizuka had given everyone in the old group a Lesser Level Limit Breaker pill, even Alice, which would definitely benefit them all! Also, the Sharable Status Points were discussed in secret yesterday, too, and since most of them were in level 2, with only Lillian, who was near level 2, Yuki, who was actually balanced as a level 1 -normal people really had a hard time raising their attributes-, and Alice, who was just a kid, that Lillian and Yuki would have most of the points, since the rest were already at level 2, and after they reach level 2, Lillian will have the remaining Sharable Status Points, because she's more likely to stay behind at most times, which meant, she wouldn't be able to raise her status as easily as the rest does. So, after that, Yuki had reached level 2, and the teen tearfully thanked everyone, while Lillian, who was around 20s in her attributes, promised to be better.
Anyway, back to now. Currently, they were distributing the work. For today's Raid Team, which would at most times have both Derierei and Shizuka, were the two already mentioned, Yuki, and Kiriko, who were to make a quick search around Shoshoramu, finding buildings to raid, and killing zombies along the way, with the SUV.
And while the Raid Team go around Shoshoramu, the remaining would continue to chop down trees, and start making the wooden spiked barricades and the small game traps!
Also, the Raid Team would also passively search for people. But since their using the SUV, it would be better if they don't meet anyone yet.
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With the SUV going at full speed, the Raid Team reached Shoshoramu under 35 minutes! So, without any complications, the Raid Team drove around town, checking for any raid-worthy places. They passed by a convenience store, but it had already been looted, and it wasn't them who had cleaned up the place.
Next, there was another convenience store that had been devoid of anything important, and at this point, the team was starting to get suspicious. So, Derierei told Shizuka to finally use her mini-map to find anything hostile. Derierei had told Shizuka that human's would be darker orange, and should move faster, or active, than normal zombies, and also should glow.
So, having been told to, Shizuka finally used her Map without trying to ignore the dots other than orange. She was surprised to see the amount of orange dots that still filled Shoshoramu, not by much, but there was still enough to worry. And other than that, there was a group of glowing dots!
But more surprisingly, there were two glowing black dots that was currently moving very slowly, like zombies.
"Umm... I~ thi~nk I found~ the evo~lved zombi~es!" Shizuka exclaimed while putting a hand on her cheek.
"Really?" Yuki asked, curious about this evolved zombies and how they looked.
Kiriko, still keeping her focus on the road, suggested, "Should we check on them?" The older spear-wielder was worried that this may become a problem in the future, for them and anybody else. Fortunately, they had Derierei and Shizuka with them, their strongest fighters.
"I~ think we~- wait! One of them suddenly got quicker! And it's heading towards what might possibly people!" From the Map, she zoomed in and watched as one of the black dots suddenly sped up and head towards the group of grey dots, which had soon turned brown!
"Kiri-chan! They just turned brown! Go left, now!" Seeing the sudden shift in color, Shizuka had gone from airheaded, to stern and commanding. Her [Leader's Aura] suddenly passively taking over.
Then, Kiriko, having heard the severity in her leader's tone, immediately followed through and went left.
"Go straight. Now another right! Step on it, Kiri-chan! Now another right! We're getting closer! Left!" The nurse instructed their driver, using the Map to find the fastest route to the black and brown dots!
"Derierei-chan! Get ready!" Shizuka shouted as she punched the SUV's roof, preparing Derierei to act as fast as she could. Then, receiving a *Thud! Thud!*, Shizuka pulled out the SCAR and gave it to Yuki, who received it and immediately went to open the roof hatch to position herself.
"We're about to see them!" Then, with Shizuka's notice, they soon got a look at a zombie they hadn't seen before. It was tall, about 3 meters, bloated in random places, making it look bigger and more disgusting, and it currently swung its hand at a man, sending him flying towards a wall.
Then, once they got closer, Derierei jumped from the roof of the car, towards the unassuming zombie, while the SUV drifted to show its left side, where the passenger seat opened, spitting out Shizuka, who now had Kiriko's modified spear, while the woman mentioned propped herself up on the driver side's roof and aimed her pistol, with Yuki also aiming the SCAR at the zombie.
While the three women got into position, Derierei had already attacked the zombie from behind, dragging the tip of the scythe along the zombie's spine. Surprisingly though, the scythe hadn't deeply pierced the zombie's back, but once the scythe reached a bloated part, it exploded and visible green gas left that part, assaulting Derierei's nostril and nearly making her vomit.
"F-! Fuck! This fucking bastard stinks! Just fucking shoot it!" She complained, then she signaled the attack to start. Derierei rolled away from the zombie's attack, dodging it's swing. And it was about to swing its unusually long arms, when Yuki and Kiriko began shooting at it! They hit a lot of the bloated parts, causing a green haze appear around it. And luckily for Derierei, Shizuka had pulled her away, saving her from having to empty the contents of her stomach.
"Tinx...Shizu. That was fucking disgusting!!" Derierei walked away from the roaring zombie, with her and Shizuka's weapon pointed at it, prepared to intercept it if it suddenly rushed towards them.
Then, after a while, the zombie finally fell down. However, Shizuka and Derierei didn't let their guard down and continued to watch the zombie's body. After a while, Kiriko and Yuki were now standing beside them, observing the zombie's unusual body, while also staying a fair distance away from the light green haze. They both saw how Derierei reacted when she was attacked by it, and they wouldn't want to experience that. Derierei was always focused when in a battle, but for her to lose composure and nearly vomit? Then this green haze was something strong.
"Is it dead-dead?" Yuki broke the silence, feeling a bit weirded out about the zombie, not because it was her first evolved kill, but because it just gave a feeling that it wasn't completely dead, zombie-wise.
"It's not dead yet. It still has its dot on the Map, so it must still be 'alive'. But how? It lost about twenty-percent of its head!" Shizuka was definitely curious as to how this zombie on the ground was still considered alive by the System. Looking around its body for any other irregularities, Shizuka noticed something shiny on its shoulder.
"What's that?" The nurse pointed at a black gem-lick thing stuck to the zombies while voicing out her question. The two women immediately went to look at what Shizuka was pointing at, and they, too, noticed it.
The blonde was about to voice out more questions, but a holo-screen appeared in front of her.
"Ah! I got something from the System! Hmm. {Evolved zombies would be stronger, faster, a bit smarter, and thicker than your average zombies, and will randomly appear here and there. They'll have all kind of abnormalities, unique or not, but all of them have a black crystal, their core, which gives them their aberration, and also what keeps it together. Even if you cut up the body into pieces, it would slowly gather the pieces back, unless they turn completely into nothing, until you destroy the gem! Also, when the zombie is defeated and is slowly taking back its form, the gem wouldn't wait for it to complete its form and would emit signals only the zombies would feel, calling them towards itself. Then, once a zombie finds the incapacitated evolved zombie, it would eat the gem and evolve! Other evolved zombies could also eat the gem, but it would take a lot more than just one gem to cause them to evolve to the next evolutionary state.}..." Shizuka read the explanation out loud, so that Kiriko and Yuki would also know about this. And, through the end, they had gotten a bit worried, since zombies could achieve another evolutionary step, which might easily kill them.
"Then what are we waiting for! The gems a beacon for zombies! We better destroy it before the other one appears!" Yuki was understandably panicking, but Shizuka was quick to use her skill on the teen, calming her down.
"Go for it." The blonde gestured the gem to Yuki, making the teen nod in a hurry. Aiming the SCAR at the gem, Yuki pressed the trigger for a moment, letting out one bullet that hit the gem, destroying it.
"Good." Shizuka nodded, content with Yuki's work. Then, suddenly remembering that other people were here, she immediately turned around to search for them. And, since they were all in the middle of a wide road, it was easy to find them dealing with a man laying on the ground.
Immediately noticing the blood leaking out of the man's head, Shizuka took out a Med-Kit from her inventory, since the people they had just saved were too focused on caring for the man.
Once she reached the group, Shizuka instantly went into action. "I'm a nurse. Let me take care of him." The blonde informed the group while opening the Med-Kit. And as she was taking out the items she needed to treat the man's cut -she deduced that the man may also have a skull fracture, and hopefully, it wasn't severe.-, the only woman in the group tearfully begged, "Please! Sa-sa-save my husband! We'll give you our re-re-remaining fo-food! Just pl-please! Save him!"
"Don't worry ma'am. If all else fails, I have something that could save him!" Shizuka reassured the man's wife with a smile. While she did so, she used [Soothing Charm] to keep the woman from panicking. The blonde guessed that the girl and the teenage boy with them were their children, so having their mother panic would just make the current situation worse.
"Kiriko! Get the car! We'll have to bring them back!" Shizuka was tempted to just use a Healing Pill on the man, she truly was. But she had to think about °her° people first. And it's not like what she's doing now was useless. The man, if they don't find any major injuries on, or in, him, would need a few months of recovery of course, but in the end, he'll be saved. The Healing Pills were for her people and for emergency uses. Shizuka knows that Derierei could reward her with them, but completely relying on the rewards wouldn't be good, and Derierei wouldn't just reward her items to save other people, too, and just reward her items that they'll use for themselves! Though Derierei cared so much about Shizuka and the rest, she doesn't care much about others.
But, back to the man at hand, Shizuka used [Status Check] and was glad that his Status showed the injured parts of his body! And fortunately for him, nothing major, and his spine was fine, so carrying him to the SUV was possible.
And while Shizuka bandaged the man's head, Kiriko had backed up the SUV to them. She then exited the car, and went to open the rear hatch. "He can fit in here, but he'll need someone to make sure that his body won't move much." The orange-haired woman stated as she went beside Shizuka, ready to lift the man onto the back of the SUV.
"I'll do it! I'll make sure dad will stay in place." The teenage boy immediately volunteered, worried about his father's current condition.
"Okay. We good to go?" Kiriko nodded at the boy, appreciating how readily he volunteered himself for his father's health.
Shizuka, gave the man a once over, before nodding and putting her hand under the man's shoulder, and then says, "Get ready."
[A/N: The family will temporarily stay with the group.]
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The group had silently decided that they take back the family back to camp with them. After that, they'll have to discuss how they would deal with the family. Derierei was biased towards women, but that didn't mean she would just disregard men's exist. Shizuka naturally wanted to care for the man, not just as a nurse, but also because of her personality. Kiriko had sworn to protect the people as a police, and even if she did run away from her duty once, she still had her morales as a police officer there. Yuki just pitied the family, especially the little girl. Surviving in this apocalyptic world isn't easy for any children, and Alice was blessed to be protected by all of them.
But, for now, they will temporarily care for the family. And hopefully, they could find a suitable answer to this situation.
Anyway, along the way, the family introduced themselves to the group. Mero Sakura, the mother, Shiki, the older brother, Ichika, the younger sister, and Saito, the father. They told the group that they had been staying in their house since the beginning, and was able to go day-to-day without much problems. But yesterday, they suddenly heard someone playing an electric guitar, and thought, "Who's the lunatic playing something so loud in the middle of all this!?", which caused Derierei, who was on top of the SUV with Yuki to blush in embarrassment, and the others decided to not say anything. Then, Saito, curious as to what was happening, decided to check outside, and it seemed that he wasn't the only one. It turns out that there was a group of men that had just arrived at the house in front of them -because if they were there days ago, they would have known, since lights would have been turned on-, and had tried to get Saito to join them. Saito, however didn't trust them one bit, and he made the right decision of immediately locking up and blocking the door, because the men had begun to forcefully offer their "protection", in exchange for disgusting conditions. They had escaped through the back and had found a place to rest for the day, and when tomorrow came, they tried looking for other places, when the unusual zombie came and saw the them.
Understandably, the current Raid Team worried about these group of men, because not only did they resemble bandits, but they might also be the same group that Hina, Akeno, and Sara had used to be part of.
And, then, Shizuka had begun negotiating with the family after their retelling of their story. "Okay. Sakura-san, let me tell you this. We have a camp not too far away from where we are now, and it consists of all women, and we intend to keep it that way. We only accept women we deem that would not compromise our current position. But, we will make an exception for your husband and Shiki-san, to temporarily stay in the camp until Saito-san heals. Of course, we wouldn't force you and your daughter to stay with us while we kick out your son and husband. And that's why, we'll talk business."
Sakura, the only adult conscious in the family, accepted what their savior had said. She wasn't an unreasonable woman, so Sakura could tell that Shizuka was thinking about her group, but was also trying her best to care for her family, too. So, she'll continue to listen to what the nurse has to say.
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By the time the Raid Team and the family had reached the camp, they had come to a decision that after Saito was completely healed, instead of sending them to Shoshoramu and be part of something like a group there -Shizuka realized that some bad people would probably go to Shoshoramu at some, or just pass by it.-, they had decided to have Sakura's family start a camp of their own at the other side of the street from the summer camp, where they would be a second group still lead by Shizuka, and would be where most men -and some unwilling women to enter the all-female group- Shizuka's group saves will be sent to. And they would be tasked to make defenses, traps, and whatnot to give Shizuka's group more breathing space!
But, while the family stay with Shizuka's, they would help out with whatever, with Sakura probably helping out with the cooking and gardening, Shiki with the manual labor, he seemed to be in proper shape to do so, and Ichika would be Alice's playmate! Then, once the trees in a the 250 meter radius gets cleared, they would move to clearing trees on the place where the second camp would be made, and the trees chopped down from there would be easily transferred with Derierei's still unbelievable strength and the eighteen-wheeler.
Anyway, back to the Camp Team, they were surprised that the Raid Team had brought people back once again. Then, after finding out about the family's situation and Shizuka's plan, the rest greeted the family with friendly smiles before they transferred Saito to the infirmary.
Afterwards, since it wasn't even 1 in the afternoon, they had a feast, hoping that Sakura, Ichika and Shiki would gain some weight.
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[A/N: So change of plans, the second group still lead by Shizuka will be the men, and women who wasn't going to part of Shizuka's group, that they save and deem to not be bastards. Of course, Shizuka will be given a skill soon enough for that.
Anyway, next will have same base and base defense building, some romance, and some Rewards!
As for the the Evolved Zombies, Park_Dohyun suggested some good ones, but for now, there would be no zombies with magical abilities, Park. Thank you for the help, too!
Then, as for the hosts of Akame Ga Kill...
) Esdeath: 10
) Kurome: 12
) Najenda: 2
) Chelsea: 1
And, DaoistSoulDive suggested that if Kurome were to be the host, then she'll get it once Akame leaves her. And, while writing this, I just got an idea! The System will be a Teigu in a form of Derierei(Mori Calliope's) scythe! Which will mean Kurome will have two Teigu's but I'll just put some author bullshit in it.
Then, as I read people's slight dislike with Derierei in mortal form, in AKG, she'll just be a "ghost" that Kurome, or any othet hosts, would be able to see! Like the personification of their Teigu and whatev's!
Hope the chapter was adequate!]
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