Amateur Detective Files On Paranormal Encounters

Saving Checks

“It’s working—the zombies are looping around with us just as I expected. With just a few more loops, I should’ve gathered most of all the zombies in the area, allowing me easy access to the core area. If there’s any other secret to this place that I haven’t figured out yet, then it’s definitely in there.”

Duncan felt excited within himself. His plan was working, and nothing seemed to be going wrong with it at all.

Several minutes had passed since Duncan and Grant began carrying out the plan, and already Duncan had looped around back to the light three times.

Every time Duncan did so, he would attract a large crowd of zombies to chase after him before leading them away for another loop.

The process was as simple as they come, but this only worked so well because Duncan himself was extremely fit physically and could keep pace with the surge of frenzied zombies.

On the other hand, things weren’t so easy for Grant.

“I wonder how he’s doing right now?” Duncan wondered, thinking about how Grant was faring.

“I think he should be on his second loop by now, and it shouldn’t be very long before he can’t hold on anymore.”

Duncan ran the estimates in his mind.

Judging by how much stamina Duncan imagined Grant should have, Duncan figured that Grant should’ve just completed his second loop, which should’ve been fairly easy for him to do so.

But it would be difficult for Grant to complete a third loop, and he might find himself surrounded at any moment if he wasn’t careful.

All of this was part of Duncan’s plan...

Apart from really needing to lure all the zombies away from the exit, there was actually a hidden facet to Duncan’s plan that he hadn’t mentioned to Grant at all because it directly involved him.

Duncan wanted to know what would happen when the zombies captured a living person—this was the hidden agenda behind this plan he had concocted.

“According to my guess based on what Grant described, it didn’t look like the zombies wanted to attack and eat him. Firstly, zombies don’t eat living creatures—they possess no biological functions to process flesh and thus no desire to consume it.”

“Therefore, the only reason they could’ve attacked Grant was to capture him alive and take him away for some reason. And my bet is that them being so close to this exit makes this the only place they could’ve taken a captured Grant to.”

This was the thought process that had caused Duncan to set up this little charade—it was to see what would happen after a living person was captured and taken to the exit by the zombies.

If it was only to lure away the zombies, Duncan could’ve come up with many other plans to do that, but he had settled on this plan after taking into consideration Grant’s stamina and how much strength it would require to carry out this plan.

“It should be right about time for something to happen!”

Duncan thought, waiting in anticipation for whatever it was.

Grwah!

And indeed, a few minutes later, Duncan noticed a commotion happening not too far from him.

By this time, Duncan was actually completing his third loop and was about to begin his fourth around the exit when he suddenly noticed many of the zombies rushing off toward a particular direction.

There was seemingly nothing in that direction, but seeing where they were actually headed, Duncan immediately beamed with happiness.

“It’s time!”

Knowing the time had finally come, Duncan immediately went into action.

With a renewed burst of power, Duncan’s speed suddenly increased, and he sprinted toward the direction of the disturbance he had heard.

Duncan was fast, very fast—much faster than he had initially displayed. His physical attributes were very impressive and could be comparable with those of genuine professional athletes, if not even faster.

At his age, it was quite surprising for Duncan to maintain such an incredible level of speed, but given his background and circumstances, it wasn’t all that shocking.

Before becoming a private investigator, Duncan was a genuine policeman, a legitimate police detective who had served in the police force for almost fifteen years, starting as a new recruit.

He had always been physically fit, and even as Duncan advanced in age, his fitness hadn’t decreased at all.

But when Duncan became cursed and started getting entangled with the supernatural, his physical fitness actually increased; mainly due to the cursed boots he was wearing that gave him an added bonus to his agility stat, but also because his constant exposure to cursed supernatural energy greatly increased his overall stamina.

In essence, although Duncan wasn’t truly supernatural, he was borderline so, making seemingly surprising feats of physical prowess relatively easy for Duncan to achieve.

Using his exceptional speed, Duncan chased after the zombies running ahead of him.

The current position Duncan was in was in the leftward direction from where he had been running before.

This was the place Grant was supposed to be luring the zombies around in a loop, yet Grant was currently nowhere in sight.

During the loop toward the exit and back, Duncan and Grant were bound to run into each other, which was how Duncan could determine Grant’s progress when he was carrying out the plan.

But recently, until Duncan completed his third loop and was about to begin his fourth, he hadn’t seen Grant running at all.

Now that Duncan was in the same place Grant was supposed to be and he still wasn’t anywhere to be found, it wasn’t hard to figure out what had actually happened.

“So he actually gave up and ran away on his own, eh?” Duncan thought to himself.

“Well, it’s just what I expected him to do, and truly this person didn’t disappoint me at all.”

Listening to Duncan’s thoughts, it appeared he wasn’t surprised by Grant abandoning the plan and running away... in fact, it seemed like he had actually counted on him doing exactly just that.

The reason for this is actually quite simple...

Although it appeared that luring away the zombies by looping back and forth between the exit and the wilderness was easy, the reality was actually far from it.

Carrying out Duncan’s plan was a true test of one’s speed, stamina, endurance, will, and fortitude.

It tested one’s speed and stamina to be able to maintain a steady pace ahead of the zombies, and your endurance to be able to adjust that pace when the time called for it without affecting your physical ability.

It also tested one’s will and fortitude in their resolve and patience in order to hold on even when it seems you couldn’t endure anymore and wanted to give up.

Without all of these things, it would be impossible to carry out Duncan’s plan to completion.

Duncan knew all this when he had crafted this plan, and he had deliberately come up with it while keeping all these checks in mind, knowing that Grant was going to fail all of them; and indeed, he did.

If this were a game, then this is how it would’ve probably played out...

Grant runs while experiencing a speed and stamina check every ten seconds. For every time he dodges a zombie, he rolls a dexterity check, and every loop incurs an endurance and fortitude check.

With every single zombie Grant lures away, a will check is conducted on him. Failing one or two checks doesn’t mean failure, but with every time Grant fails a check, his resolve to see the plan through to the end decreases, and his chances of passing any other checks further decrease.

In the end, once Grant has failed every check, he gives up on carrying out the plan and runs away.

But there is a penalty for failing every check and giving up, which is exactly what Grant was about to experience very soon.