A large wave of zombies rushed towards the security post which Brick and Alice were within.
Blood and severed limbs dropped inside each time a hand or other body part was pushed through the small gaps or the larger gap in the window.
The heads were pressed against the strong metal bars and the ferocious and unyielding zombies kept trying to get inside.
A knife pushed through the gap into the head of a zombie then retreated which allowed Brick to avoid a hand which came through another place.
He stopped attacking and looked to the side. "Damnit.."
Alice had been grabbed by a hand after she killed one and it tried to drag her close towards the window where the bars were. "Aah.. let me go.. stop!"
More zombies became excited and reached out towards her through the bars.
If she was pulled close enough then it would be easy for them to dig their hands into her body or bite an exposed body part which had been pulled through or was close enough to the gaps for them to reach.
Brick wasted no time and ran over then the axe aimed downward towards the exposed arm.
One strong swing was able to cut deeply but it did not sever it right away so he continued to hack away at it. "Let go. Alice.. do not resist too much otherwise you could get stretched and open up a wound."
They were surrounded by zombie blood and their bodies were already covered from head to toe in blood and guts of them.
The overalls did protect them well but if there was too much of a resistance and the zombie reached into the sleeves, the nails would scrape onto the skin and produce a wound.
The open wound could easily be infected so it was best for them to prevent that.
Alice was still panicking but leaned her body back a little and spaced out her legs to root herself in place. "Hurry."
She felt like she was going to die and as if time had slowed down.
Everything was in slow motion and the image of the blood coming from the arm which gripped onto her flew out in front of her along with the axe which hacked at it.
The grip had lessened in strength once the muscles had been damaged along with most of the bone being severed which allowed her arm to slip out of the grip before more hands reached out towards her.
She heard a stern voice to the side of her. "Retreat."
Alice took a breathe and stepped away from the window while Brick was busy attacking the arms while keeping his distance from them. "Thank you."
Brick showed a slight smile. "Cannot have you dying so soon. We still have much to do after this so take a quick break then get back to work. Do not make the same mistake again."
Alice nodded as she watched the techniques and tactics Brick displayed as he dealt with the zombies. 'I let him down this time. No, I let down myself. I could have died there and would have become one of those things. Come on Alice! You can do this!'
Brick was not aware of the effects of his actions on Alice since he was too busy harvesting the lives of the zombies.
From the previous time, he had already gotten used to killing them when they were stopped by the bars and avoiding the hands which poked through the gaps so the second time, he was far more proficient in his actions.
Alice jumped back into combat shortly after she regained her composure but instead of going off on her own, she worked along with Brick to assist him in killing or fending off zombies.
Later, both of them were panting heavily within the security post after an intense battle without rest.
The crowd of zombies had attracted more that were passing by so there were more numbers to deal with than what had been expected.
Brick took a short break then turned to Alice. "The outer walls should be safe now so you can go back home but I would recommend that you do not use tap water to wash or drink. Although it is safe, there could always be additional problems so you need to be careful. Take the car with you and you have a gun to protect you if things are that bad."
The buildings in the area had not been checked over and in some of them there could be different numbers staying within depending on the family or working situation.
Some workers were assigned a building to share, some stayed alone but there were those that were allowed to move their family into the homes in the outer area.
It would not be strange for a door to be opened from one of the buildings which would release zombies from within.
Alice let out a sigh. "Fine but what are you going to do?"
Brick looked over many corpses laid outside and his showed a brief look of greed in her eyes before hiding it. "I will stay here and fortify this area. If you have nothing to do then can you find the keys to one or two larger cars then bring them here before you go."
Alice nodded. "Hm.. alright. I will go drag Tristan out since I know his place is confirmed to be safe."
Brick looked over thoughtfully. "Fine then.. you may include him but remember to knock first and be careful when you go find him. We do not know if he has been infected or not yet."
While it had been confirmed that the bite was not deep enough to break the skin, there were always ways people could infect themselves by opening up a wound and exposing their skin to the blood on their clothing.
One moment of carelessness or clumsiness could result in infection which is why Brick had been acting so strictly with himself when he did everything.
He felt like a clean freak who was addicted to using wet wiped wet wipes the moment he was done with one task and was constantly checking for any small cuts or scratches on his body.
Even when he was walking around, he was trying to observe anything nearby that was poking out which could become a hazard whether it was something to be tripped over or something like a nail that was poking out near somewhere he was passing through.
When Alice had left, Brick started to deal with the heads that had been collected within the walls as more crystal nucleus were collected one after another.
Many severed heads were thrown to the side with the back of the skull cracked open and they were piled up by the wall.
Whenever there was zombie moans nearby, Brick moved towards the gate and stabbed through the gap into the head of the zombie after it had been attracted close to him.
Through repetition and gaining familiarity with finding the location of the crystal nucleus, Brick increased his pace of harvesting and storing them away ready for cleaning and processing.
Some plans were coming to his mind as he was thinking over how to deal with the corpses and the bodies laying outside until there was a sound coming from nearby.
The sound of a running engine was getting slightly closer until Brick could see the two cars pulling up. "Just on time."