After destroying the plant, he didn't feel faint and disoriented any longer.
With that, he returned to the ground floor. Alice and Ben didn't ask him what he saw on the second floor, so he didn't tell them anything and rested for a while to recover his stamina.
After half an hour, he had recovered 2 stamina points.
"Let's go." Saying this, he stood up and walked out of the room.
Alice and Ben followed him. Alice had rested enough while Ben wasn't exhausted to begin with.
Luke carefully opened the door and peeked outside. Fortunately, their fights hadn't attracted any zombie from the neighbourhood.
The trio carefully moved to the next house.
Grrr! Grawr!
Thud! Thud!
Before they even entered the house, they heard zombies snarl, and it seemed they were hitting something.
"Let's get in. Stay alert." With that, the trio entered the house.
Grrr! Grawr!
Thud! Thud!
"It's coming from upstairs." Alice whispered.
Luke nodded. Then they made their way upstairs and arrived in front of the room from where all the disturbance was originating.
The door was opened wide. Inside, they could see a middle-aged man and woman zombie punching and scratching the wooden closet.
"There seems to be someone hiding in the closet." Alice said, her hand clenching the wooden club tightly. If it wasn't for Luke stopping her, she would've charged inside by now.
"The closet is about to collapse. Someone is in danger. Why are you stopping me?" She frowned.
Luke didn't respond to her. He glanced at Ben and said, "I'll distract and injure one of them. You just need to land a finishing blow. You can do it, right?"
Ben tensed up immediately and stiffly nodded. "Yes. I can do it."
Luke patted his shoulder. "You don't have to worry. I'll be here if something goes wrong."
Ben nodded and took a deep breath. "Let's go."
Whoosh!
Three of them charged into the room. As soon as the zombie felt their presence, they turned around.
"These are only level 1s." Luke shouted. He was telling Ben not to worry. Ben understood this, and he felt very gratified in his heart.
As usual, Alice pulled away one zombie and easily killed it.
Luke faced the last one and not long after, he had seriously injured its head. Then he shouted, "Ben, it's ready. Come and finish it."
Ben's hands and legs were trembling slightly. He slowly snuck behind the zombie and raised his club. Just as he was about to strike, a panicked shout came from the closet.
"No. Don't kill my mother."
Hearing the shout, Ben almost lost the grip on his club.
Grawr!
The zombie growled when it felt Ben's presence behind it and turned around before slashing at Ben with her claws.
"You fucking idiot!" Luke shouted in anger and frustration before quickly moving to block the zombie's strike with his club.
Bang!
He then kicked it back and shouted at Ben, "You idiot! What are you hesitating for? Do you want to die?"
"I... I was about to kill it but..." Ben tried to explain, but Luke coldly cut him off.
"What? You heard someone say stop at such a dangerous moment and you stopped. Are fucking kidding me?"
After saying this, he kicked the closet's door.
Bang!
His kick destroyed easily the closet door, which was already battered badly by the zombies. They then saw a boy of their age crouching inside, shivering in fear.
Luke pointed at the female zombie, who was already charging toward them, and spoke to the boy. "You don't want us to kill it. Sure. We won't kill it."
Saying this, he pulled Ben along and jumped out of the zombie's way. The zombie glanced in Luke's direction but didn't go after them because there was another prey in front of it, the boy.
Seeing 'his mother' came running toward him, the boy was frightened out of his wits and loudly shouted, "M-Mother. Stop! It's me. Your son."
The zombie, however, acted as if it didn't hear the boy's cries and appeared in front of him and bit toward his neck.
"Nooooo!" The boy shouted in horror and closed his eyes.
Whoosh!
Bang!
Before the zombie could bite him, Luke appeared beside him and kicked it away.
The death he expected didn't come to embrace him, so the boy opened his eyes and mumbled, "I… I'm not dead yet."
Luke sneered from the side. "You'll be if you still can't see the reality." He then narrowed his eyes and asked, "Tell me, are you really incapable of telling if she is still your mother?"
"I… I… know. I know she is not my mother any longer. How can I not know? She is the one who turned my father like herself." The boy shouted and then broke out in sobs, "But… she is still my mother."
Luke didn't say anything. He could sympathise with him because he had also seen many of his fellow slaves who had become close to him die or turned into a zombie by others in front of his eyes.
He glanced at Alice. "Can you hold it back for a while without killing her?"
"Leave it to me." Alice nodded and engaged in a fight with the zombie.
Luke squatted down beside the crying boy and patted his shoulder. "I know it's difficult to accept, but you have to if you want to survive because it's not only your parents who have turned into these mindless zombies, but more than half of the population. Countless people are dying as we speak."
"What?" The boy's eyes widened when he heard this.
"Yeah. So, tell me now, should we put your mother to rest or do you want her to suffer like this?" Luke asked.
The boy looked at 'his mother' who was relentlessly attacking Alice like some machine. He closed his eyes and nodded. "Please put her to rest."
"Good." Luke stood up. He then glanced at Ben and sternly said. "Don't hesitate this time. If you do, don't ever ask for my help again."
Ben gulped his saliva nervously and nodded. "I-I'll do it this time."
"Good. Now go and kill it while she is distracting it." Luke ordered him.
Ben took a deep breath. Clenching his club, he ran behind the zombie, raised his club high in the air and brought it on the zombie's head with all his might.
Bang!
Because its head was already damaged badly, it burst apart as soon as the club landed on it.
Then an orb of white light which only he could see shot out of the dead zombie and entered his body. Immediately after, he heard the evolution announcement and could access his status window now.
After the announcements ended, he was grinning from ear to ear. Turning around, he ran toward Luke with his arms open wide., "Bro. I did it. I'm an evolver now."
Whoosh!
Luke dodged his bear hug and calmly said. "Let's go out now. We need to speed things up."