Next, the group prepared to clean up the building's second garden and backyard. This garden had been the private garden of one of the first floor dwellings, but with the inhabitants dead, the gate was opened and the few zombies that were there were killed. A portion of the zombies that had attacked in the night had come from this place, so now there were not many left. As for the backyard, it had an entrance through the secondary garden. It was smaller than the main yard and contained even fewer zombies, so cleanup was simple.
To the left, a wall separated the courtyard from a narrow path across the top of a small, grassy ravine, which led down to the street below. On the pathway towered over everyone's heads a mango tree, a fruit that Adam enjoyed eating in season.
The next few hours passed quickly as everyone prepared for the assault on the superblock. Finally, Terry woke up and sent Rony to explore the apartments one by one.
When he returned, an hour later, Terry handed them a set of blueprints where he marked the presences on each of the floors.
The superblock consisted of 12 floors, with the stairs in the middle. On each floor there was a hallway to the left and to the right, and on each floor there were 5 apartments. In total, the superblock consisted of 120 apartments.
Adam noted with alarm that there were only 9 apartments free of hostile presences. The rest were full of zombies and, in particular, about 5 places in the building stood out, where, according to Terry, presences of the same power as the Spore Spreeder could be read.
5 zombies with the level of the Gorger and the Spore Spreeder. Without any doubt, it would be a tough fight, especially on the fifth floor, where there were 2 such presences, one in each hallway. In addition, Terry pointed out a particular area on the 12th floor, where one of the apartments was steadily smoking, as if there was a fire burning. This alerted Adam to the presence of a strange zombie variant.
With everything prepared, the entire group assembled outside the building: Jane, Tarin, Miriam, Marlen and Adam. Krieg stayed behind, waiting for Darry to wake up, while Terry refused, again, to send Rony into the fight.
They all gathered in the parking lot and stood in front of the superblock.
"Tarin, what are you doing? Don't hang back," Jane shouted at him. Tarin, who had been standing at the door of the building, put his phone in a pocket and then reached for the group.
"I'm sorry," he said apologetically as he rejoined everyone. From where they stood, they could see smoke rising from the apartment Terry had indicated. Adam and the rest nodded and didn't pay much attention to it at the time.
They all crossed the bridge that connected the third floor of the building to the parking lot. The bridge crossed over a ravine overgrown with weeds and the second floor and first floor could be seen below.
Fortunately, the third floor was easy to clean. The group even got several special packages. Adam grabbed one designed especially for engineers, but they all decided that they would check the contents after the operation. The important thing now was to move quickly. One of the apartments with no hostiles present was located on the far left side of the building, so the group knocked on the door and waited for an answer.
A woman opened the door and looked at them suspiciously.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?"
What followed was a long conversation to explain what they were doing. The woman demanded that they leave her apartment alone and asked for ownership of the two nearest apartments. So as not to conflict, Adam gave her the properties she wanted and then they left her alone.
Inside the apartment, a group of people were waiting for the woman.
"It was Adam's group, wasn't it?"
"Yes Carlos, it was them. They have already cleaned all the apartments on this floor. The good thing is that I was able to take ownership of the closest apartments."
"Good job Nadia, any help will be needed," said Carlos, before turning to the rest of the people gathered in the apartment. The group was about 6 people, who had managed to escape before the zombies devoured them.
"We'd better get ready to start cleaning the apartments. There is almost no one alive in the building, but I have already communicated with all the survivors and they agree to act now. If what Tracel said is true, as long as we leave the most powerful zombies to Adam and his team, then we will gain ownership of many apartments without them being able to do anything."
"I understand you dad, but why should we hide from Adam?"
"It's because this is a competition. Alfred, you have to understand that it's important not to fall behind. Thanks to Tracel we know the importance of shelters and apartment ownership. We can't fall behind if we intend to maintain some power once Adam takes care of the more dangerous zombies. The more apartments we have the better, we might even be able to wrest the leadership from Adam."
Alfred sighed, somewhat irritated, but he had to admit that his father's words made some sense. However, he couldn't help but be annoyed by his attitude. Even if the world was a mess, his father was still clinging to his ambition.
"We just have to wait for that bunch of idiots to die and we'll get all the benefits."
The speaker was a thin man in his forties who couldn't wait for this nightmare to end and return to a halfway normal life. Besides, he knew very well that in this new world the powerful will reign, so he wished for power above all else.
"I see you're still the same idiot Antony," said Carlos. Adam and his group must not die. This may not be a friendly competition, but every person who can stand up to these monsters is worth their weight in gold. If at any time they find themselves in danger, we will help them. Now enough talk, soon it will all begin and we must be ready.
Outside, in the hallway, Marlen thought there was something strange about the woman they had found in the apartment.
"Adam, don't you think that lady is hiding something from us?"
"What do you mean?" The group paused and Adam looked at Marlen, curious.
"I just find it odd that he asked us for ownership of the apartments at the end. In our explanations we didn't talk much about the shelter or the ownership of the apartments. It's as if she knew in advance about their importance."
Adam pondered for a few seconds, but he couldn't make sense of the lady hiding what she knew. Although he had to admit that Marlen had a point.
It's suspicious, but unless we're willing to break into her house and question her, I doubt we can learn the truth. The important thing for now is to clear the building before it becomes a danger to us. Let's go down to the second floor and deal with the first of the zombies."
One of the 5 dangerous presences was located on the second floor, on the right, in the last apartment. On the way to it, the group cleared, without much trouble, the rest of the apartments.
Finally, they all gathered in front of the door of their target. Adam felt nervous, what kind of zombie was inside?
Without further ado, Adam kicked the door with all his might. His body was quite a bit stronger having reached level five, so the door burst open and an angry growl was heard inside.
"Get back! Prepare for combat."
The angry growls approached them at high speed. Adam could hear the heavy footsteps of the zombie as it approached. The others backed up halfway down the hallway, while Adam stopped about a quarter of the way down the hall.
It didn't take long for the zombie to emerge.
[Zombie Berseker].
The zombie must have been nearly ten feet tall. Its hunched, muscular figure, barely fit through the door. The zombie looked at them for a few seconds before screaming and running towards Adam.
He fired a full charge from the flamethrower, but this didn't stop the monster, which continued to run as flames scorched its skin. Without much time to dodge, Adam rolled to the side and slammed into the wall.
Luckily, the flames had blinded the zombie, which sped past him. However, Adam received an elbow that fractured his right arm and knocked him to the ground, where he tried to stifle a scream of pain.
The others reacted in time and entered one of the empty apartments. The Berserker passed them by, engulfed in a ball of fire.
Miriam ran out of the apartment and ran to Adam. Whom was getting up from the floor and trying to prepare for another attack.