Looking around Dean wasn't able to see any corpses or zombies in the street. It was almost as quiet as it had been in the webs.
'Sigh, what happened here?'
It was speculation that a mutant zombie would appear in this area but it was becoming more likely that something had happened. Dean surveyed the surroundings and couldn't find any noticeable dangers. He was looking for any mutants that were visibly stronger, he could only come across isolated normal zombies that wandered in back streets.
'Should I just leave and go to the supermarket to grab supplies?'
After half an hour of searching, Dean still couldn't find anything. His senses were focused and he had a broad view by moving in the air but still couldn't find anything.
However, a slight sound was heard and Dean focused on a building sensing that something moved ever so slightly. He rushed there and hid himself to see what moved. From the struggled movements he thought it was a zombie that had trouble moving but soon discovered that it was a survivor.
"Cough..cough"
A woman who was missing a leg was struggling to move to get inside the building. A table had fallen where a medkit had presumably been. Dean stood at the doorway and watched her crawl with her bloody leg. A trail was left that suggested she had crawled for some time. Her leg was freshly bleeding blood and Dean had thoughts of how she had such an injury. From his surroundings there were too few zombies and mutated creatures, quickly coming to the conclusion that the woman had chanced upon whatever ate the corpses. Her leg didn't appear to be cut and it seemed to be more similar to a mangled bite wound from a bear or something similar.
The woman realized that someone was behind her and hesitantly checked to see if they were dangerous. She slowly turned and saw a man with calm eyes look at her. She didn't feel any danger from the man but that didn't mean she trusted him. Trusting people was what had left her in this miserable state. Although the man stood calmly looking at her and the surroundings, she could tell that he was ready to attack at any moment.
She begrudgingly swallowed and hesitantly opened her mouth.
"Can…can you help me please"
Dean looked at the woman and thought of a plan. He needed to find the mutated zombie and although he could force her to talk, she could leave out vital information and let Dean encounter a dangerous situation. The area had changed too much in such a short time and Dean wanted her to tell him everything that had happened the past few days. He crouched down and put out his hand.
"Give me the medkit"
"Tha..thank you"
Dean quickly disinfected her wound and did some rudimentary stitches. The book from Kim Hannah was showing it's value, although some information was too advanced for Dean it was simple to stitch a simple interrupted suture. Although it wasn't the prettiest stitches and could easily be judged as trash by someone in the medical field, it stopped the bleeding and closed the wound.
"Haah…Aah"
Dean finished applying the stitches and quickly bandaged the wound in a thick gauze.
"And done. Make sure to not get blood from an infected on the wound. Now care to tell me what happened"
"Huu…huuu….okay"
The woman lifted herself with Dean's help and they made their way to a more secure room. Although there were few zombies roaming around, it was dangerous to stay on the lower floor where the entrance was. The woman was also still on edge and was constantly looking outside clearly watching if her attacker was chasing her. Dean had no qualms helping her up the stairs and carefully helped her to sit down.
"Kang Sora"
"Dean"
Kang Sora nodded her head and started to explain what had happened the past day.
"Zombies started to disappear ever since yesterday. I and some other people who lived in the same building decided to leave our building and look for supplies"
"Did you try to go to the supermarket?"
"Hm, but there was still a horde that stayed almost always in front of the store. We tried to head there when we saw some people escaping but someone in our group said that we should wait and let those people be bait"
Kang Sora paused to look at Dean trying to read his expression. If what she said happened to anger him, she could be in danger. Luckily though Dean's face didn't express any hostility at her words. She quietly sighed and continued talking.
"Eventually we managed to sneak past the horde and got inside the store"
She clenched her fist
"That's when we met a group of people that were hiding inside. It went well at first, we cooperated with them and shared information equally but that was when one person in our group made a mistake. When night came she ended up drinking with the leader of the other group and telling them everything, she left our group and joined the leader"
She clenched her teeth and continued
"When morning came they said they had no use for us and were going to be a waste of resources so they said they'd give food and protection for whoever joined them. The supermarket had been raided a lot ever since an explosion occurred the day before near an alley. The zombies in the area for some reason left and went into a docile state. They eyed at the woman from our group..myself included…and forced the men to stay quiet with their weapons"
Dean thought back to the day he and Sang Woo fought and realised that his actions had a strong butterfly of events. He took note of the docile trait the zombies exhibited, he thought for a bit and concluded that it was most likely because of the will inside of him forcing the weaker beings to hide. 'It' was a king and wanted to defeat stronger beings, those beneath 'it' could only hide or incur it's wrath.
"They played with us…I was just lucky to be somewhat capable of fighting against the zombies unlike the other woman who became their playthings. They made the people who didn't join them escape and lure the horde away. I was tasked with fighting in the front and if I didn't agree I would have to be like the other woman"
Dean handed her a water from his bag to let her cool down. Her story was depressing and her anger was evident which made Dean have a good impression of her. Kang Sora relaxed a bit after taking huge gulps of water.
"Thank you….we ended up escaping and finding a building that didn't have any zombies in the surroundings. If only we knew…no I guess I should be happy that we didn't know"
She slightly chuckled thinking back and continued with her story
"The group went out leaving everyone in the building with no weapons, I guess they were going to abandon us since they had satiated their lust, their words were just so that the woman didn't fight back as much and let them do as they pleased in hopes of being saved"
"That's when one of the men came back covered with blood and tried to enter the building. He kept on screaming that it was coming for him, so I took that chance and barricaded the door with everyone so that he couldn't enter"
Dean's full attention was on her next words, any clue about what the mutated zombie could be helpful.
"What was chasing him?"
"A monster"
She replied bluntly
"Numerous heads of people, body parts that were mixed in it's pulsating huge body. It moved like a wheel and it's different arms and legs lifted it's huge body towards the pleading man..that's when a huge mouth formed on its body and took the upper body of the man in a single bite. Its limbs climbed over what was left from the man and smaller mouths appeared munching on the corpse"
She paused for a moment calming her shaking hands.
"A monster"
Kang Sora looked at her leg followed by Dean's eyes
"It did that to you?"
"Yeah, It managed to find me in an alleyway when I was retreating and one of its hands grabbed me taking a chunk…I'm guessing it was a child's limb otherwise my whole leg could've been bitten off entirely"
"What happened to the building everyone was in before?"
Dean questioned. Kang Sora had a sad look on her face at the question giving Dean the answer.
Dean nodded and gave her some food and other necessities. He got up and was about to leave the building.
"Wher…where are you going!?"
Dean looked back at her with a questioning look
"I thought you wouldn't like a man to stay with you…with all you've been through…besides it's not like we know each other, why should we stay together"
"But it's dangerous"
"Sigh"
He created a portal in front of her and flicked her forehead. Kang Sora had wide eyes watching that and couldn't help but exclaim.
"That's like the leader"
"Hmm?"
She covered her mouth and tried to move her eyes away.
She slowly looked at Dean who stood unmoving looking straight at her with a frown on his face.
"Explain"
"Umm…I didn't think you would believe me but since you also have abilities, the leader of the group was only the leader because he was the strongest. His hands could become super hot almost like fire"
She saw his frown and continued explaining in case she angered him. She was even more wary now that she had learnt that this man was the same as the leader.
"I didn't think you would believe me if I said that the leader had super powers. Sure zombies and monsters were fine but a human being able to make fire would be unbelievable unless one saw it in person"
Dean stopped frowning and thought deeply. If this leader was an evolver or even a mutator and still lost to the mutated zombie he would need to be extra careful. Dean thought that he would easily be able to dodge it with his enhanced body but it would seem he was wrong. From what Kang Sora had said his portals weren't going to be of much help against such a massive opponent, his firepower was also lacking and his speed would be hindered since the mutant could attack from all directions.
'Why am I always against things that can attack everywhere'
He left Kang Sora alone and headed towards the supermarket. He needed to stock up on supplies and he could find clues on the mutant zombie since there should be plenty of things for it to eat there.
He jumped through the air and managed to realise why the street had been so devoid of zombies. All the body parts and corpses must've been eaten by the mutant zombie. He focused on the streets and could imagine a behemoth rolling around picking up any corpse to feed itself. Moving through the air Dean quickly made it to the supermarket. There he could see a horde that surrounded the building.
'It's smaller than what I remember'
Dean thought back to when he had first made his escape from the supermarket and made a rough estimate of bodies.
'Roughly a hundred difference'
Dean made his way over the horde using his footholds and easily reached the supermarket. He entered.