Ch. 11 - Detour

Jin and the others descended from the peak where the hospital rested. Colby, once like a living organism, is now a ghost town of tales and myths. The moment they entered, the stench of death that surrounded the town like a fog bombarded them.

Jin couldn’t smell it, but he acted as if he did and copied the other two who were puking their guts outs. After several minutes passed, they got used to it, or rather tolerated it, and they were finally fit to travel.

Not long into town, and growls crept from the sides and then in front of them. Jin readied his bat whilst the other two brought their guns out, but before they could fire a single shot, Jin swung his bat fiercely, smashed their heads, and floored the undead. Blood painted the ground crimson.

Kroll and Rena looked at one another in disbelief. They were unaware of two facts regarding the young man in front of them. First, Jin went to another world and spent a year there. Accumulated enough experience to deal with something like this and second, his growth of the last few days as an Undead with a system.

In comparison with a normal human being, Jin doesn’t stand a chance at winning, but with the earned experience added to the mix, it balances what he lacks.

After he defeated the undead and got some distance away from them, he took a quick peek behind him. He sighed internally and whispered. “What a waste…”

The return from the mountain proved to be easier than going up. Even with the brief interruption, they still arrived at the borders of the town around noon. At some point, when they weren’t looking, Kroll disappeared on them.

They looked around for a few minutes, but there was no sign of him. When they gave up their search, they heard a horn coming from behind them.

Kroll appeared driving a jeep. The engine roared something he enjoyed as he pushed the gas pedal over and over just to hear it. The thirty-five-inch solid tires rolled on the ground and scattered dust behind them. He parked beside them. “Get in!”

Whilst in the car, Kroll turned on the radio and went through the frequencies, hoping to find a station with information about the entire thing that befell them.

At first, he was getting static until he finally landed on a station that still ran. The signal wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t change it. “We… have… report… undead…”

Jin messed with the tuner a few times until he got to a better frequency. “Our reports say… global pandemic… already half the population… death toll rising…”

It carried on for a while. Jin and the others had gloom painted all over their faces. Rena stared out the window when her eyes welled up. She didn’t want the others to see her cry. Kroll wiped his tears with his sleeve and kept his eyes on the road, while Jin remained silent and stared out the window.

As they listened to the radio, Kroll hit the brakes suddenly, startling his passengers. The tracks left behind brought the smell of burning plastic into their nostrils when the Jeep stopped.

In front of them, many undead, like a pack, walked together. Rena, who sat at the back seat, slid in the middle to look outside. Her voice trembled out of her mouth. “It-It’s the herd… They must’ve left the Detention Facility.”

Jin’s mouth gaped. “How many is that…?!”

“Who cares?!”

Kroll pushed on the gas pedal. His sneer sent chills down their spines. “We can go through them with this car…”

Jin grabbed the wheel. “Are you insane? Just the sheer number of them. They’ll flip us in seconds. Turn around!”

After a while, when he calmed down, he considered Jin’s proposal and did just that. He turned the jeep around and took a different road. “It’s a good thing they left, right? My son could still be alive…”

Rena didn’t reply. She didn’t want to give him false hope the moment she was unsure of his son’s fate. When she didn’t reply, Kroll said nothing else. He simply kept his eyes on the road and drove as fast as he could.

Once they reached a junction, more of the undead cut them off. This time around, though, Kroll couldn’t avoid them by taking another road. It was impossible. The undead were everywhere.

The growls coming from them brought about an uneasy feeling that kept welling up in their hearts. Jin’s words earlier may have seemed over the top, but after seeing their numbers up close, they didn’t doubt him further.

They looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Kroll took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. “Shall I press on…?"

Jin got out the window and stood on top of the jeep. Rena and Kroll didn’t even have the time to stop him. Seconds later, they heard a bang on above them. Jin’s voice reached their ears. “Go back! There’s a dirt road that can take us behind the herd…”

Kroll didn’t ask questions and did as Jin told him to. Indeed, a few meters the other way, and they found a dirt road, as he said. Jin went back in the same way he got out and pointed. “That way!”

The dirt road expanded for several miles, but it would lead them safely behind the corpses. Kroll got to enjoy his ride with the Jeep. Rena at the back, not so much.

They drove for a few hours and reached a clearing. There were no undead in sight, and they all sighed in relief. The trip all the way around the herd, though, left them with little gas, and there was nothing around that could provide them with more. “We are running on fumes here…”

“Just keep going…”

Rena, who knew her way around this area, pointed toward the setting sun. "There's a gas station over there, behind that hill..."

Kroll drove as in the direction Rena showed them and soon enough, right after the hill, they found an abandoned gas station. Since it got dark outside, they spent the night in the jeep after consideration, and travel in the morning with a full tank. One of them would keep watch and rotate every couple of hours.

A couple of hours before morning came, Jin was on watch. He leaned back on the hood and enjoyed the chirping of crickets until their melody got interrupted by growls. Jin jumped off the hood and looked around.

Even though it wasn’t as powerful, sunlight still brightened his surroundings. He could tell apart their figure in the distance. He grabbed his bat and charged at them. Blood splattered everywhere and painted the ground.

Jin smirked as he stood over them. “Feeding time!”

He felt indescribably happy he had gotten the chance to do this again after so long and took his time. When it was over, he stood up and wiped his mouth off the undead blood and brain matter.

A female voice crept behind him. “What are you doing…?”