Novel Full 347 Situation deteriorates
“I know it’s been a while since we last saw each other, but…” Mathew spoke, turning his face to Daniel as soon as Carol understood the situation.
“It’s fine, I understand,” Daniel replied. He then put a small smile on his face. “Right now, every second counts, isn’t that right?”
Mathew took in a deep breath before slowly releasing it back.
“I wish it wasn’t the case,” he said while shaking his head. “But yeah, every second counts.”
“Just one last thing, then,” Daniel stated only for his smirk to vanish, replaced by a fully-serious expression. “I remember there were some reports about some sort of a huge threat still looming,” he pointed out while moving his eyes over to Norbert’s face. He allowed his stare to linger for a moment before looking back at Mathew. “And going back to the topic of the next level, I assume we will need some ungodly amount of cores to get it, right?”
Mathew pressed his lips together, annoyed by the mere motion of that possible requirement.
“When I asked to drop this topic before it wasn’t only because we don’t know that yet,” he stated, allowing a part of his annoyance to appear in his voice. “It’s also because I don’t really want to think about the potential cost of it.”
“Guys, we really need to…” Nadia attempted to cut in, hurrying the two men up.
“Five seconds won’t make the difference,” Mathew replied while giving the girl a quick, cold stare, before looking back at Daniel. “About the cores, we should be fine if we harvest all the zombies from the current horde. As for that big-ass evolved monster…”
Mathew hesitated for a second.
He didn’t see exactly what kind of threat it would be. All he knew about it came from Norbert’s report. And while it was better than nothing, the young man didn’t really have that much thrust in the former policeman’s words.
Not because he didn’t trust Norbert due to some personal reasons… But due to the point that Norbert brought recently himself.
Norbert’s ability still remained at either the very first level or somewhere near the extremely low levels. And with that in mind, not only the amount of information he could provide was limited, but what was even worse, it wasn’t all that reliable.
‘Given how the zombies can now mask their presence from his surveillance, there is no telling what kind of ability that evolved monster will have,’ Mathew thought.
“As for that big-ass monster, I can’t really tell you anything worth talking about,” Mathew admitted while spreading his arm open. “Once we deal with the trouble at Peter’s base, we will gather up the best fighters to try to challenge it.”
“I see.” Daniel nodded his head. “Good luck, then,” he said.
“Guys!” Nadia spoke out again. This time, however, her tone was harsher. “We really need to go!”
Mathew closed his eyes and nodded his head.
“She is right,” he said before taking his first step out toward the depth of the maze. “We might see each other later tonight,” Mathew said towards Daniel before turning in the direction they had to take to reach Peter’s base, “Let’s go!”
The situation in the city was just like during their earlier transit, although this time it was reversed. As such, rather than moving through entirely empty areas without a single zombie in sight before reaching areas where there was some leftover undead, Mathew’s now strengthened group had to first fight their way through a few mobs before finally reaching the areas completely devoid of any life or undead activity.
“How are we standing time-wise?” Mathew asked once they crossed roughly half the distance that separated Daniel’s fortress from Peter’s base.
“Depends on what you want to know,” Norbert replied before taking a stop and closing his eyes. “The situation at Peter’s base is… deteriorating.”
Mathew took a deep breath.
‘We really need to hurry,’ he thought, forcing his body to keep still given how he still has yet to get all the information he actually asked for.
“What about that big monster?” Mathew asked once he managed to calm himself down.
“An hour left before it hits the school,” Norbert replied a moment later with a darkened expression on his face. “And that’s assuming nothing out of ordinary will happen.”
This was the greatest source of anxiety for Mathew in regard to this unknown threat. He could deal with an extremely tough opponent, especially with all the help he would have on hand. He could deal with an armored enemy thanks to his new spell.
But how he was supposed to deal with something that he couldn’t expect?
“Well, let’s hope nothing strange will happen, then,” Mathew summed up after a few moments. “But I still would like to hear more about the situation at Peter’s place.”
Norbert opened his eyes, allowing the group to pick up the pace and get moving again.
After all, it was using the ability that robbed Norbert of his mobility, not the simple act of talking about what he saw through his ghost’s form.
‘Shit, that’s really bad,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth. “Let’s hurry up a bit more, then.”
It was easy to understand how the situation could devolve so quickly. In theory, cutting away the parts of one’s body that were bitten by a zombie was a rational thing to do. Yet, people were bound to cling to the hope that this scratch wasn’t deep enough or that bite came from a zombie with clean teeth.
Still, people who went through forced amputation were half the problem. The main reason behind the conflict likely came from Leila’s wish to finish off those who got infected in places that couldn’t be simply amputated in hopes of stalling for time.
“I don’t want to worry you, but Peter’s men already have their guns out too,” Norbert added in a silent voice once the group changed from a jog to a nearly full-on sprint.
“Then, we need to hurry even more,” Mathew muttered through his gritted teeth only to send a glance over his shoulder. “Or do you want me to carry you as we run?”