It took Ray about half an hour of walking to finally approach the city wall, these walls were as tall as Seven story building and were easily thirty feet thick with huge gates.
"I need to move fast even though the mission is relatively easy, it would still take me a while to even get to the destination" thought Ray as he began to make his way through the gate.
At the gates everybody had to be checked whether they were coming in or going out, to ensure nobody was infected by the zombie virus. They had been incidents where an infected person had made his way into a city infecting over hundreds of people in a single night, so the procedure had become stricter.
Ray easily passed the inspection, in five minutes he was travelling the empty road as quickly as he could his swords on his back as he ran.
The first ten kilometers of the city was relatively safe the number of zombies to be found in that area was usually less than a hundred, so Ray sprinted freely as he headed to the location he was told to investigate as well as collect some zombie samples.
"The mission said to check out Nikton Avenue" said Ray as he brought out the map from his bag, as he spread it on the broken down and unsalvageable car.
He easily found the Nikton Avenue on the map, as he traced his fingers over the map as he traced the path he was supposed to follow.
After drinking some water, he put the map back in his back as he continued on the journey.
"Maybe I should have formed a team?" thought Ray as he ran.
Occasionally he would duck behind buildings as he used them as cover whenever he saw zombies, although he could easily kill them he chose not to, so as to save his energy for the mission.
As he approached Nikton Avenue he noticed something strange. Usually zombies around the area do not move in large groups but were scattered, instead of them being scattered the zombies were moving in swarms of almost twenty as they moved about blindly.
The farther into Nikton Avenue Ray went the more he encountered this strange situation.
"I have to report this to the Hunter's Association" Making up his mind he thought. "This is more than strange, I just hope there's nothing more to it" he said to himself as he slipped around the corner as he avoided this swarm of zombies.
"According to the mission information, I just need to collect a few samples from the zombies in this area" said Ray as he approached his initial destination.
He began to observe his surroundings since he was slightly overwhelmed by the feeling that something might go wrong.
After about half an hour of careful observation he decided it was clear to make his move.
It took him less than five minutes to find a zombie straggler as he lured it easily before killing it with one swift strike, before he extracted some brain samples from the dead zombie as he placed it into a petri dish before placing it into the cooler in his bag.
He continued with this routine a couple more times as he extracted multiple samples from other zombies.
The day was far spent by the time he had finished collecting the samples, when he began to think he should start preparing to move out.
He hurried into a rundown building, as he rested. He took out the rations he had prepared for the mission as he ate before resting for a while.
"I better get a move on before sundown" he thought as he left the building.
He was not even six hundred meters out when he saw a zombie swarm suddenly pour out of the corner noiselessly, wasting no time he ducked behind some rubble as he hid. Thankfully the zombies didn't notice him.
Peering out of the corner of huge block he hid behind he could easily make out the number of zombies to be at least twice that of the swarms he saw earlier when he made his way her.
"How did this many zombies appear" he wondered as he watched them.
He watched them from his hidden position as they moved in a coordinated manner. Just by watching their movements he had goosebumps all over his body.
Of course, it was nothing new to see coordinated zombies but these were the lowest level zombies which usually lacked intelligence, not even a single advanced class zombie could be found in their midst yet they were still coordinated.
"I need to leave here" thought Ray as he felt staying here any longer would be dangerous.
He quietly waited for the zombie swarm to disappear before making his move once more as he disappeared behind the clutters of destroyed cars and junk down the street, occasionally he would duck behind a dumpster when he saw a swarm of zombies while he quickly killed any lone zombie he encountered in clean swift strikes.
He had encountered no less than four swarms of zombies which were in a group of twenty and two that were twice that number.
"There's definitely something strange going on here" he thought as he ran.
Ray was not that far from leaving Nikton Avenue when he was spotted by a small group of zombies, as they began to make loud noises to attract other zombies as they gave chase. Ray instantly turned around to run since staying behind would only put him in dilemma since more zombies would gather around here quickly.
"Shit! Why is my luck so bad" he said as he ran swiftly around the corner only to bump into another group of zombies.
He knew that there was no running from this fight and the best option was to end the fight quickly or he might end up dead.