The gruesome sight of the detached head of someone they once considered a friend along with a body that looked similar to a dog's chew toy but worse was, of course, disgusting and terrifying but they only felt disgusted. The feeling of death was just far too vivid and while they did feel some slight apprehension towards the corpse it was a child's play compared to death.
If there was something to be frightened of, it's the creature that seems to have cleanly pierced the chest. There was no point in letting fear control them though, they could only increase their alertness as they resumed their journey downtown.
There was no particular reason why they wanted to go there, the numbers of zombies might be higher but they at least had a stronger shelter and a stable source of food. Riku also thought it was better to be an area where they know the dangers rather than going to a different unaware of the danger.
The scene before when Riku was driving through this city compared to what the city looked now was incomparable. Cars where burning, the smell of rotting flesh was in the air and humans, were eaten like first-class snacks. No humans could be seen on the streets, at least no live humans could be seen.
There were quite a lot of zombies in the streets but they avoided the huge groups so usually only had to deal with not more than 3 zombies every time, of course, that doesn't mean they completely avoid more than a million zombies in the city, luckily with the help of the zombies and the fact that the zombies are slow so they could manage to outrun and hide from these groups.
They decided to stay in an apartment that was famous not just because of its semi-traditional modern room designs but for the security of the apartment. It must've been the fact that only a few people could live in this apartment but there were only 7 zombies in the lobby. Their experience with dodging and dealing with zombies, in general, led to them not needing to say any word.
Riku first attracted the zombie's attention while Eliza who invested 5 points into strength and 4 points into agility struck a zombie at the back of the head, two zombies who were attracted to the noise rushed towards Eliza who immediately bashed one of the zombies down. Riku looking at the four approaching him struck a zombie with his two hatchets, one aimed at the forehead the other towards the side of its skull where it died on the spot.
Both of them knew what the other was capable of after fighting and running for almost half a day only taking breaks for a short amount of time so Eliza didn't bother helping him though she still looked at him from time to time to make sure that there were no mishaps.
Riku, who was getting surrounded kicked one of the zombies in the chest. Afterward, with his right-hand holding a hatchet he struck the zombie's face and stopped it from getting close to him as he used his other hand holding a hatchet and aimed at the other zombie's neck, he didn't have the strength to chop it off but he the sudden impact on its next threw it off balance he then proceeded to use the hatchet to finish off the zombie that he was holding back with his other hatchet.
Each floor of the apartment was a security gate. The residents had a spare key to open the gate, this was to increase the security and prevent burglary, which used to happen often. Finding the spare keys which were kind of hidden in the lobby counter.
Reaching the top floor, after dealing with the zombies on the security gate they got rid of every zombie on the top floor and chose the rather clean room. They opted to go for the top floor because of the high ground where they could see the city furthermore in the event where they had to run the stairs would naturally delay the zombies and by the time they arrive upstairs, Riku and Eliza would've already escaped using the emergency fire exit.
There wasn't that much to change, the security gate already provided a better defense than they could ever make, all they added was a simple bell on a string that would ring when there's movement in the hall. If there was a creature that was smart enough to avoid triggering the bells then Riku and Eliza would probably die without any contest.
The apartment room consisted of three rooms, the living room, the kitchen, and the bedroom with a bathroom inside. Electricity wasn't a problem because there was a standby generator, though they'd have to check on that later on.
"An apartment, that only the rich could live in and we are using it as a base that we would abandon later if necessary. Can you imagine doing that before this whole thing started?" Eliza asked as she looked at the room. The apartment was just that fancy before the zombies came, there were no sane people who'd use this apartment as a base.
"Yeah, the zombies have their good points." He said as a joke, it was only when they lost the things that mattered did they truly realize what they need.
"Still, I can't believe that the System is real. It kinda makes me angry thinking about whoever created this thought of our lives as a game to be played with." Eliza who was only in her 20's has played some games before and she was able to recognize the System which was common in games and recent novels. There are no living humans who wouldn't get angry when their lives that they value so much were treated as a toy.
"We can't do anything though, we are powerless. We should worry about that when we're strong enough." Riku said as a reminder for himself. He was determined to reach the top and find the answers to his every question