As the group watched the fire, five Crawlers, hidden by the dense smoke, climbed the walls of the building. Three others circled around to the right and advanced through the steep terrain that gave way shortly after to the superblock behind the wall that bordered the courtyard of the new shelter.
Adam was the first to spot the Crawlers on the walls.
"Watch out, they're trying to surround us!"
The whole group fired towards the new enemies. All except Krieg, whose Class was [Gunslinger] and one of his skills was called [Danger Detection]. The greatest risk came not from the group climbing the building to his left, but to his right, from the three that had surrounded the building. The old man restrained Darry and pointed his gun at the wall, knowing that something would happen.
His patience was rewarded when he saw the head of a Crawler protrude over the wall. Without much hesitation he fired and blew its head off. The other two jumped and landed in the yard behind the group. Darry intercepted one, but the other was free.
"Watch out! Behind you" the old man warned. The others had finished killing the others Crawlers without much trouble, but were taken by surprise by Krieg's words.
Tarin panicked and fell to the ground as he stumbled. Miriam turned around and cast holy light on a Crawler that was about to fall on Jane and paralyzed it. Jane took advantage of this moment to pierce its head with an arrow.
For his part, Darry immobilized his enemy with a quick bite and Krieg finished it off with a shot.
Just when it looked like it was all over, four Brawlers jumped out of the flames and ran toward the group. Adam turn his attention to intercept them with another arc of fire.
The flame only stopped them for a few seconds, but it was enough time for Marlen to ram one of them. The zombie fell to the ground, where the woman cut off its head. However, she suffered some burns from Adam's fire and had to retreat to where her sister was.
The other three Brawlers charged at high speed at Adam, but Jane and Tarin attacked one of them and killed him. Adam dodged one, but the other hit him and pushed him into the wall of the building behind him. Somewhat dazed, he retained enough consciousness to dodge a second attack and unloaded the second charge of the flamethrower at point-blank range, inches from the zombie's head.
The Brawler didn't die right away, but was so badly affected that it fell to the ground and never got up again. The remaining Brawler took advantage of that moment and hit Adam even harder, sending him back against the wall. The attack fractured several bones in his body, so he was unable to get up again. Luckily, Jane and Tarin killed the zombie before he managed to reach Adam.
Once the fight was over, Miriam healed Adam as best she could and everyone gathered to rest. They silently watched the remains of Adam's fire as it slowly died. On the other side a crowd of zombie Stalkers awaited them, but killing them proved simple. Adam simply doused them with flames.
When all was quiet and the fire was extinguished, Krieg nodded in Adam's direction and then took Darry to feed on the zombies.
Jane and Tarin were tired, but they were also surprised. The zombies were strong, yet between all of them they had been able to take them out.
Adam was not so surprised at the results. After all, he could only take on a Brawler or Crawler, the real problem was the evolved ones like the Gorger and the Spore Spreeder. While Adam had beaten a Gorger by himself, he also understood that it had been mostly luck. So he hoped that in the parking lot there wasn't anything too strong.
Also, they had been lucky that there were no Glutons in the parking lot, because the acid they were shooting, combined with the Crawlers and Brawlers, would have been quite a nightmare. That got Adam thinking about what determined the evolution of a zombie: was it random, or something already determined? Looking at the zombie population in the parking lot, it seemed to be the latter.
Adam tried to find an answer to his doubts while everyone rested, but without more evidence he still couldn't know if he was right.
He stood for a moment to observe the results of the combat. The courtyard of the building was scorched and the Crawlers had damaged the walls. Adam hoped to be able to repair everything at some point, but for now it looked like they would have to wait a week.
The parking lot had been left empty. To his surprise, they found special packages on the ground. One of them caught his attention, as the Class it belonged to was [Guard]. On the other side, in a corner, between the space between two cars, emanated green smoke similar to that of the Spore Spreeder.
This zombie didn't seem as powerful as the one on the first floor, so he was relieved. Marlen pulled the gas mask out of a roomy backpack, identical to Adam's, and proceeded to walk into the smoke by herself. It wasn't long when all the smoke was gone. Marlen returned holding the corpse of a tiny zombie with a head inflated like a mushroom.
[Zombie Fungi].
Without any doubt, the zombie Spore Spreeder must have been the evolution of that creature. Marlen tossed the corpse onto the pile they were gathering and then removed her mask. Despite the protection, she felt dizzy and her eyes were red.
"The mask protects well, but it only retains the effects. We have to make sure that another Spore Spreeder doesn't appear, I wouldn't want to repeat the experience."
Everyone who had been in that battle nodded. Tarin suppressed a shudder as he remembered what Adam had told them about the Spore Spreeder.
With the zombie Fungi dead, the parking lot was safe. Adam and the others were soon alerted by the system.
[Congratulations on clearing a small parking lot of hostiles. Since the territory is adjacent to the Nuevo Sol haven and the team that cleared it belongs to that shelter, Adam Rega has obtained ownership of the parking lot].
Satisfied, everyone returned to the building to rest and prepare for the difficult task ahead, the cleaning of the superblock. It was already six o'clock in the evening and it would soon be dark. No one could believe that the world as they knew it had only ended a few hours ago, especially after all they had been through. In the end, Adam decided to save the exploration of the superblock for the next day. He went back to his apartment, made himself something to eat and then lay down to sleep; noticing for the first time how exhausted he felt.
However, he remembered that he had picked up a special package from the parking lot. The guard package contained a bulletproof vest, a pistol, a round of bullets, several potions, and a manual with a series of military tactics. At first, he thought about using the pistol, but then realized he had no idea how to use it. Adam thought it odd that his skill with mechanical weapons didn't teach him how to handle firearms and their complicated mechanisms. But he was too tired to think much about it. Finally, feeling exhausted, he put everything away in the pack and went to bed. Before he fell asleep, he heard the message from the System with good news.
[Engineer, you have risen to level 5.]
[New skills unlocked:].
[Pyromaniac: you love to murder your enemies with fire. This skill increases the damage of any fire you use. It also allows you to control where it spreads and what should and shouldn't burn].
Without paying much attention to it, Adam let himself sink into a deep sleep... only to be awakened a few hours later by screams and grunts.
Still confused, Adam thought he had gone back to the evening of the day before, when the System had just started and he could hear noise of fighting everywhere. But he soon realized that it was still night, so he got up, grabbed the flamethrower and ran out to find out what was going on.
During the night he took off his armor and wore only thin pajamas. Adam grabbed his backpack and, with no time to change, left his house and headed for the railing. Down in the courtyard, dozens of Stalkers were rushing at Marlen, while a strange golden light of unknown origin illuminated the whole scene. Adam sped down the stairs.
As he descended, he noticed that the Stalkers' eyes glowed blood red. Also, their movements were much faster and more agile.
He soon caught up with Jane on the second floor. She was fighting alone against two zombies and one of them managed to bite her arm and didn't want to let go.