Once they arrived at Glen's secret hideout, he went to check on his horse and supplies. He also asked the boy to start a camp fire.
Of course, starting a camp fire inside a cave was a dangerous thing unlike what mainstream media would lead you to believe.
You see, creating any source of fire inside a closed space without any proper ventilation would result in carbon dioxide poisoning. However, Glen had already checked his little cave before so he knew they wouldn't have such a problem here.
The point is just be careful if you are lighting fire in enclosed spaces if you don't want to suffocate while you sleep. Although it would be a peaceful death so you wouldn't be in any pain so there was that at least.
As Glen started to brush his horse, he was nervously thinking about what to do with the kid. He had only saved him in the spur of the moment because he was lonely and needed someone to speak with.
Granted his horse Gisebelle was a good listener but he always had that feeling that whatever he said came in one ear and came out from the other. Though there were also times that he felt like she was mocking him but that was a debate for another time.
So first of all let's talk about Glen's current plan for surviving the apocalypse. Yes, this might come off as a shocker but he was not planning on living the remainder of his life in this mortal coil, hunting zombies.
Such a crazy idea am I right?
Well, curing the zombie infection was impossible due to low technology level of this world but escaping might not be impossible.
Now I can imagine you wondering 'but Glen isn't the zombie virus airborne? How are you going to escape from it?' and I would say 'haha! You are f*cking wrong!'
How did Glen know it? Simple! In the past 6 years since the zombie apocalypse started Glen had some 'disagreements' with certain people. As a result he knew that as long as the zombies didn't bite or scratch you, once you died you stayed dead.
Though it was still safer to just burn the dead bodies. Just in case you know.
Anyway Glen's current plan was to cross the ocean on a boat and reach the other continent. Yes, Albrecht continent was colonized just like the America of back then and from what he gathered there was supposed to be an empire named 'Dominez' on the other side of the ocean.
So as long as he managed to reach there he would be set for life... well not exactly considering how broke he would be but he could still make money working as a soldier and if that didn't work out he could always go back to his old job.
What? You are asking how Glen was so sure that the virus didn't make it to the other continent on a boat?
Well that was elementary dear reader. From his personal experience once you are bitten by a zombie it takes at most 5 minutes for you to turn. As for scratches and what not it takes 24 hours tops.
So even if a carrier went on to the boat, they would have long turned before they made it to the empire. As for those that managed to survive in the boat despite the outbreak, well Glen had no idea really but if he looked at the history of his original world, specifically the 'Black Death', it was safe to assume that they wouldn't even make it to the shore.
That's why Glen planned on finding a way to get on a boat to leave this continent but that was where the problem was.
First of all, he didn't know which coastal cities and ports were still standing and which ones were already taken over by the undead. Normally he would be sure that they would be safe as last bastions of humanity but 'The Church of Night' made things a little bit hard for him to guess their fate.
I mean even the strongest castles could fall if someone from inside opened the gates to the enemy.
Second of all he didn't have much interactions with other humans for a long time and his previous identity prior to apocalypse was kinda 'sensitive' so he wasn't sure he would be allowed on the boat. So he needed to find a way to create a fake identity first and then get enough money and lastly find a still standing coastal city that was still actively trading with the 'Dominez' empire.
*Sigh*
Glen heaved a big sigh. Things were getting more complicated by the minute. It felt like he was in the middle of a storm but unfortunately he was not a main character. He didn't have a powerful golden finger, a cheat-like wise old grandpa or even any backing.
He was not even in the eye of the storm so he was getting ravaged by the winds... that sounded poetic, Glen decided to take a mental note of this to use in a future book of his. Even if he could not be an author this time there was still the next world for him right?
Even if he was not a genius writer if he kept working on a book for nearly a hundred years he should still be able to create a master piece.
Actually from his perspective, the longer someone worked on a book the better it would be. Think of it like this. First you create the general storyline and write it. To be honest the work in your hand would either be a genius work of art or just plain old trash. But what if you went back and started writing the same book from the prologue and started add foreshadows for the later events. Now imagine you started writing it a third time.
It's not always true that what you have will be a masterpiece that will be spoken for generations but it will definitely be a book that will be spoken for a long time. At least that was Glen's view on the matter.
Anyway, back to the Kid Glen still had zero clue about what to do with him. He usually just raided zombie infested towns for supplies and leave afterwards. Actually that was one of the perks of having a zombie apocalypse in such a backwards age.
Normally, you would think attacking a town by yourself is idiotic and impossible. Possibly the second fastest way to get yourself killed following suicide. However this was the past, or at least it could be counted as such.
Anyway, big towns normally had around a hundred people at most and usually they had somewhere around thirty to sixty residents. So actually it was very profitable to attack these towns to get supplies. Especially if they were newly raided by the horde.
Yeah, with his current skill set the only thing he had to be worried about was the horde itself. Even that horde only about thousands of zombies and tens of thousands at most. Usually in modern apocalypses a city itself has more zombies than that. So his time in apocalypse could be considered laid back.
"Mister?" Glen finally managed to sober up from his stray thoughts.
"*Cough* What?" The boy looked at Glen with apprehension in his eyes. He guessed it might be because a handsome man such as himself saved him out of nowhere but what was with the Mister bit? He was still single okay? He wasn't old enough to called Mister yet. I mean he was in his late twenties but he was not thirty yet okay? ONLY 27 YEARS OLD!! Gosh!
Calm down Glen, you shouldn't fight with a kid. You should be more generous to the younger generation. You shouldn't hold it against them.
"Look kid-"
"Ezekiel! My name is Ezekiel Mister!" Glen scratched his scruffy beard to hold back his anger.
"Look, EZEKIEL, first of all if you cut me off one more time I will put a bullet right between your brows understood?" Glen said while threatening the little kid. To be fair, it didn't feel good to do such a thing but he felt like he needed to draw a line.
When he was young Glen was taught that in relationships there always have to be a hierarchy. And once you meet someone you have to decide on that as soon as possible. Usually the fastest way to do that was to just scare the other party.
"Certainly Mister! I definitely won't cut you off from now on" said the boy with a glint in his eyes. That was kinda weird from Glen's perspective but it would work for him I guess?