For the first time in years, Dilan woke up with a faint smile on his lips.
'I am still alive!' He thought, happy to feel pain coursing through his chest.
Trying to lift his upper body, he noticed that every single move made his muscles ache terribly, and the first Survivor to notice that he had woken up quickly approached Dilan.
"Don't move. You have to rest! The two nurses said that your wound might tear open again if you move… If you need something just ask, I might be able to help!"
Dilan had not expected to be cared for and receive nice treatment after being shot by someone he had trusted a bit.
Thus, he couldn't help but turn his head towards another man, who was in his 30s with visible confusion in his eyes.
"How long have I been knocked out?"
Dilan had no idea what time it was, or how long he had been knocked out.
He faintly recalled having woken up a few times, before using his Origin ability, only to collapse once again.
As such, his body was in a much better condition than before after having rested a bit.
But even then, it was impossible for him to move properly without the fear of tearing his wound open.
This only showed that his earlier condition was much worse than expected as his endurance and healing capabilities were four times the average of an ordinary human before the Primordial Ascension.
Meanwhile, the passive and active effect of his ability should be enough to accelerate his healing even more.
"You slept for…16 hours, I guess?" The young man answered before saying,
"By the way, Ailee took your spear to hunt her first zombie. She thought that you wouldn't need it for the time being. So don't worry too much about that."
Dilan just nodded his head, before his stomach began to grumble.
"Is there some leftover food from lunch? I could eat a whole cow right now…"
Nodding his head, the man rushed into the kitchen and returned with a few pieces of bread and some spicy beef stew.
Because the Survivors had many things to talk about and even more tasks at hand, they had set aside a large pot of stew for everyone to have whenever they felt hungry.
This made things much easier and it didn't require many ingredients to be cooked either.
Slowly pushing himself into a sitting position, Dilan leaned against the wall behind him before he was handed the bowl of stew and bread slices.
Only then did he clearly understand that he had been shifted to a different place instead of the familiar corner where he usually slept.
"Did everyone recover from the shock of yesterday's incident…I mean mentally? And is everyone out hunting? I think quite a few Survivors are missing."
Dilan wanted to know what had happened in the last 16 hours, thus Richard, the man in his 30s, answered him with some discomfort in his eyes.
"If they recovered from the incident? Well…I think nobody can trust anyone anymore, so I don't think we can go back to being completely trustful of each other. Oliver, Ailee, and a few others went out hunting, yes.
We decided that everyone should help out hunting, or at the very least, kill one zombie in order to procure an ability crystal.
Like this, everyone does something for the group's survival. If someone wants to continue hunting, they can do so, but if they don't want to, they should just hand over the ability crystal, and do other chores to help the group in whatever way they can."
This was quite a surprise, and Dilan couldn't help but look at Richard with slight astonishment.
He had not expected that someone like Bianne, and a few other Survivors would dare to go out and hunt zombies.
But when Dilan recalled that Jack killed his three loyal followers, and nearly him as well, he could only nod his head.
While having the stew, he figured that it was quite tasty, which Richard noticed from his expressions.
He gave him a second helping of the soup before starting to speak once again,
"The door of the front corridor on the second floor broke open, and the others have already procured a few ability crystals by killing some zombies.
But for now, most Survivors decided to use the ability crystals they were able to procure and hunt a minimum of three more zombies each to gain a few status points.
As such, we have only three extra ability crystals. Now that you are awake we can decide which one of us gets another ability."
Richard's summary was quite helpful, which was why Dilan thanked him.
'So everyone's trust has been shattered, and they chose to level up as well. That's quite risky but definitely good.' The more survivors decided to fight and to become stronger, the better.
It would make things much easier. Maybe they would be able to clear the first and second floor after he was fully healed and well-rest.
Once that was done, they could find out more about the Gates as well, and if it was possible to use them to their advantage.
Quite a few thoughts flashed through his mind, and after he was done eating, Richard took the soup bowl and spoon before leaving him alone.
Looking around, he noticed that almost every survivor was doing something or the other. This was great as well, indicating showing that everyone now understood that reality was far from their wishful thinking.
'Looks like the incident with Jack allowed everyone to realize that they can only survive if they work as well. Lazing around doing nothing will just kill them.'
In total, they were now 16 Survivors, and if all of them were to work together, it would be a perfect team.
Unfortunately, the trust issue seemed to be quite big because nobody was really talking with each other. They were simply doing their work and keeping to themselves.
But before he could even ask himself if there was something he could do to help everyone, the doors of the cafeteria opened, and he saw Bianne and Sarah enter the room.
Bianne saw that Dilan was awake and thought about something.
However, she only bit her lip, shook her head, and left instead of talking to him.
She wanted to apologize for shooting him but felt incapable of doing so.
Meanwhile, Sarah approached him with slight astonishment, not expecting that he would already be fit enough to lift himself up in a sitting position.
"You two went hunting as well?" He just asked as he saw Sarah walking towards him.
"We wanted to become Ascenders as well!" Sarah answered with a faint smile on her face. Seeing that Dilan was fine made her feel both happy and relieved.
Having faced a group of three zombies was already enough for her to be pressured. If it was not for Oliver's help, she would have died earlier.
As such, with another powerful Ascender by their side, it would be much easier to clear the first and second floor of the hospital.
"Ascender? Where does that name come from all of a sudden?" He asked her with an amused smile as Sarah looked at Oliver, who had just returned from their hunt.
"It was Oliver's idea, and I think it's quite suitable, don't you think so?"
Somehow, Dilan felt like her voice was filled with warmth and joy.
This astonished him quite a bit, and he began to ask himself why everyone was being so nice to him all of a sudden.
'Did I do something while being unconscious?'
However, what Dilan didn't know was that he had replaced Jack as their leader and had become one of the only people the others trusted a bit.
From the beginning, Dilan had never particularly tried to be overly nice to anyone, and he didn't even think of favoring anyone because of whatever reason.
That was, at least, what he thought about himself, even if it might not be true in reality.
Dilan was just a grumpy young man, who would do everything to survive.
As such, his goal was never hidden from anyone, and after observing him for some time, one could notice that he took care of people around him in a rather subtle and subconscious manner and wouldn't make a big show of how helpful he was.
If one didn't pay attention to him, one wouldn't even notice this.
Because of that, even though he was intimidating, and certainly not afraid of clearly stating his opinion, the others felt that it would be quite difficult for him to lie or betray them owing to his character.
That gave them a little bit of comfort and reassurance in a world that seemed to have gone insane.