It seemed that zombies could evolve, both by gaining possession of property and by devouring humans. It was the only explanation as to why he hadn't found the Zoila bodies. Besides, Adam realized how lucky he had been, for when he entered Emma's house, the zombie was in the process of devouring the corpse and he had interrupted it.
When he felt ready to continue, he descended to the second floor. There he received good news. All the zombies in the hallway were dead and two of the three apartments had open doors. After making sure the two apartments were empty, he approached the third door and knocked.
"Terry? Are you alive?"
Terry was a programmer Adam had known for years. A young man who lived his life alone and cooped up in his house, tucked into his computer and doing who knows what.
To Adam's surprise, the door opened and he was greeted by some sort of flying device hovering suspended off the floor and pointing what looked like a gun at him.
"What the hell? " Adam shouted, jumping to the side to avoid possible gunfire. To his luck, the robot only displayed a screen of light from which Terry looked at him.
"Adam, good to see you! I thought I was the last human on Earth. Can you believe there's nothing I can do to remove the limitations of the internet? I can't get on any websites, youtube or download any content. I'm going crazy."
Adam had never seen Terry talk so much in his life, but he was relieved that his friend seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
"What is this robot Terry? " Adam asked, unable to suppress his curiosity.
"It's my personal combat drone. I received it in my starter pack and it's been the best gift I've ever received. Programming the drone has been quite an experience, I didn't even know there were zombies in my house until they broke down my door. Luckily I had already gotten my drone up and running. Killing zombies feels like a video game. What do you say, how are they all on the top floor?"
Adam sighed and told him everything that had happened.
"Shit, it's worse than I thought, I don't understand how you have the courage to leave your house."
"Yes, I'm surprised too. I need your help to clean the floors."
Terry seemed to hesitate for a moment, so Adam continued talking.
"Maybe once we clean the building the services will improve"
"I agree, but if Rony is in danger, I'll remove him."
"Rony? " Adam asked, trying to contain his laughter.
Exactly, it's like my own son. I don't want anything to happen to him."
"Okay, I promise we'll be careful."
The conversation with Terry had allowed him to relax a bit and forget about the Zolia affair. Besides, with the third floor cleared, there was nothing to stop him from continuing his descent. However, at that moment, horrible screams stopped him. Adam recognized the voice of Mr. Oswald, who lived on the first floor.
Followed by Rony, with Terry still watching, Adam approached the railing and surveyed the courtyard. Some kind of green smoke was rising from the first floor and billowing into the air. Oswald was in the middle of the smoke, trying to escape.
Get away from me, damn it! Don't think I'll let you get away with this, you can all die, for all I care."
Mr. Oswald wielded a sword and seemed to be fighting invisible beings. Adam, who did not understand what was happening, was paralyzed. It didn't take him long to understand that Oswald was seeing things that didn't exist. At first, the man swung his sword hard, but little by little he grew tired and in the end he began to bleed from his nose, eyes and ears; before falling dead to the ground.
"That's not good at all, I think there's a strong one downstairs."
Adam swallowed saliva at Terry's words and wordlessly made his way to the stairs and down to the second floor. Before checking the apartments on it, he looked at the stairs to the first floor and the green smoke rising from them.
"Terry Do you think Rony can investigate whatever is down there?"
"I won't send him alone to his death Adam, but I can help you. Rony has a hostile presence scanner that goes through walls. However, its range is only a few meters. You should enter the apartments and help Rony sense what is below. By the way, you have a flamethrower, why don't you just incinerate the smoke with it."
"Please, I'm not that stupid. That's the perfect recipe for blowing everything up, us included. Until I test the reaction of this smoke to fire, I'd better not try it. By the way, how do you know I have a flamethrower? I never mentioned it.
"Rony helps me identify objects from afar, it's quite useful."
"What's all this noise you're making outside my apartment? You'd better not be looking for trouble or I'll throw Darry at you."
Adam jumped when Mr. Krieg's voice startled him. The old man had come out of his apartment with a gun in his hand and was watching them suspiciously.
Before Adam could respond, the old man continued speaking.
"Did you have anything to do with what happened to Oswald? I watched the whole thing from the window, so don't try anything strange. I don't know what the hell you did to turn yourself into a robot, Terry, but don't think you'll be able to escape a shot from this distance."
As the old man spoke, Darry appeared at his side and began to growl. Adam remembered him as a big bulldog, but now he had grown into a real monster that came up to Mr. Krieg's waist.
[Bulldog].
"Relax Mr. Krieg, we were just talking about the zombie that must have attacked Oswald. We believe it is the source of the smoke."
Adam pointed to the smoke rising up the stairs from the first floor and Krieg, for the first time, looked uneasy. He was an elderly man of nearly 75 who had once been a police officer. He rarely came out of his house to cause trouble, although when he did, everyone made a point of running away before he started threatening them with Darry.
"Come in, I hope I can help you with something" He said.
Adam passed, followed by Rony, and once inside, they looked at the house with some curiosity, it was strange that Krieg would allow anyone into his home.
Krieg had hung a series of photos from his time as a cop in his living room, and even had his old bulletproof gear hanging on the wall.
"It's just a reproduction I had made, the original was taken from me after 40 years of service. Damn ungrateful guys, they couldn't even leave me equipment that was already obsolete anyway."
The anger in Krieg's voice alerted Darry, who up to that point was sitting by the table, taking up much of the room and nibbling on what looked like the remains of a zombie.
"Well, what are you waiting for? I heard the end of their conversation and understood that they can detect whatever is going on in the apartment downstairs. Don't waste any more time, I'm the one who has to live with that menacing smoke under my place. Quickly."
Terry, who hadn't said a word, proceeded to instruct Rony to scan the downstairs apartment. He soon realized there was nothing there and shook his head in Adam's direction.
Adam then remembered that the apartment directly below Krieg belonged to Oswald, so it was likely that in either of the other two, the zombie was to be found.
"Thanks Krieg, but it looks like the zombie doesn't live under your apartment, we'd better investigate the others"
"Well, finally some good news. You can go now. Don't worry about the zombies in the hallway, Darry already had his lunch. I haven't gone into the apartments, though."
Without another word, Krieg practically pushed them out of his house before closing the door. Terry breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Krieg always makes me nervous. He reminds me of my father."
Adam held back his laughter, stood in front of the next apartment and repeated the procedure to attract the zombies. When no one answered, Adam opened the door by partially melting the lock.
The apartment was a mess. There were zombie remains all over the place. Rony's scanner showed no hostile presence, but Adam couldn't calm down anyway.
"This is Miriam and Marlen's apartment, isn't it?" asked Terry, who wasn't feeling the same pressure as Adam, as he was in the safety of his apartment.
"Yes, and it looks like they killed all the zombies."
After entering the kitchen and two of the apartment's three rooms, they found Miriam and Marlen in the bathroom, both unconscious, but apparently intact.
Adam, glad that more people had survived, grabbed one of them by the shoulder and tried to wake her up.
After a few seconds, Marlen opened her eyes and Adam had to dodge the kick that almost hit him in the stomach.
"Adam? What are you doing in my room? You'll never create the strange dream I had."