Adam received no response, but he didn't expect any, everyone knew he was taking a great risk by attempting this. But at least now he knew he could survive in case the monster woke up. At that moment, he remembered something strange: the monster had noticed him without any doubt, but the zombie that had made the noise was the target of the attack. However, Adam remembered the scene Miguel had shown him where the Windwalkers were attacking the monstrosity. All the Windwalkers had died at the same time, which meant that he should have died unless what....
"Miguel, do you remember the video? That thing should have killed me instantly, but it didn't."
It took Miguel a moment to realize what Adam was referring to.
"You mean he only responds to direct aggression?"
"Not exactly, that Crawler didn't attack him, but it made enough noise to bother him. Maybe I'll be safe as long as I stay quiet."
"Maybe, though from here, it looked like it would attack you."
Adam thought for a moment and realized that Miguel might be right, just before the shot he had felt like he was dead.
"Well, maybe I can use that to my advantage, but I'll only try if the situation becomes desperate."
"All right, you'd better keep going, there are still three points to go."
"Yes."
Adam took a deep breath and prepared to leave again. For the first time, he paid attention to the inside of the store. The shelves were stocked with food, but it looked like the Crawler had killed someone inside, as there were some products scattered on the floor and a couple of fallen shelves. Adam had to hold back the urge to check what food there was, as he knew he had to dart outside and not waste any more time. He peeked out the window again and, as quietly as he could, slipped outside, where he stood frozen, watching the monstrosity with great tension.
A few seconds later, it appeared that the monster would not move, so Adam breathed a sigh of relief and advanced to the next spot, only a few feet from where the Crawler had attacked him.
He made sure there were no zombies before beginning the ritual. Minutes later, the trap was finished without a hitch, the monstrosity had continued to throb and spread slowly, paying no attention to Adam.
The result had been curious to Adam, the generated faults had connected with the first one and formed an even larger void of sorts underground. Adam could feel how this space formed and how its energy strengthened the few pillars that kept everything from falling.
It was indeed a strange experience for Adam, to be able to feel in that way what his energy was doing outside his body. The only problem was that this sensation distracted him very easily, so he had to constantly divert his attention to keep an eye on his surroundings.
Luckily, there was no problem and he now found himself moving towards the third point. The problem was that he would need to pass close to the monstrosity to reach it and, worse, there was another tent nearby from which a zombie could attack again.
In addition, Adam began to spot some Windwalkers in the sky. They seemed to be scouring the area, slowly approaching the monstrosity before retreating. This did not please him at all, but there was nothing he could do about it.
For the next point, Adam decided to scale one of the tents and reach the second floor of the apartment building directly above it. From there he would try to jump from window to window and then back down again.
Adam was nervous, as he had never attempted anything like this before, but to his surprise, it didn't take much. Reaching the first window was the most difficult step, due to the height, but once there, his arms could perfectly support his body weight.
There was a tense moment when a Windwalker landed on the roof of a nearby building while Adam was hanging out of a window, but the zombie seemed to pay more attention to the monstrosity and soon took off.
After getting a better grip on the window grate and managing to stand up on the narrow frame, he looked down at the monstrosity, which at that moment was only a few feet away, just below.
Adam felt a shudder as he observed the mass of flesh from the heights. Its amorphous, throbbing figure looked like red-hot flesh. Moreover, just below him, the monstrosity had expanded to reach the wall of the building, which was why he had had to climb up. Some of this expanding mass had built up next to the wall to form a mass high enough to enter through a window of the first floor store, which must have been open from the beginning.
Adam did not know the extent of the monstrosity inside the building, but he knew that this store, in particular, was connected to the upper floors by a staircase at the rear.
Also, Adam had not encountered any problems with zombie attacks from inside the building, which would have put him in serious trouble. He hoped the monstrosity had taken care of all of them inside.
It didn't take Adam long to find a place to descend to for the third spot, located right in front of the store, facing the street. Because of how exposed the location was to the Windwalkers in Block 2, whose entrance could be spotted from there, during planning, they placed the spot inside one of the dumpsters.
This was not a traditional dumpster, but a small cement building with a door, inside of which a small mountain of trash was stored waiting for the collection truck to arrive.
Unfortunately for Adam, the collection truck had not passed and when he broke the lock and opened the door he found that the inside was full of garbage. After an unpleasant moment of having to carry the garbage outside, Adam sat down on the dirty floor and began to channel his energy. This time Adam didn't dwell on anything else but creating the trap as quickly as possible. The foul smell, combined with the filthy ground, almost made him vomit, but he held on long enough to complete the job.
Once outside and away from the garbage, he communicated with Miguel.
"Third point ready, only one more to go."
"Ok, all good here. Any problems on your end, Zack?"
"A lot of Windwalkers are flitting all over the place. I think I have some bad news Miguel, that damn Breeder seems to be conquering other buildings and expanding his territory."
"Shit, I think he'll probably come after us tomorrow."
"I know it's worrying Miguel, but first we have to worry about this monstrosity. Zack, do you think I have time to finish the last point before any problems occur?" Adam asked.
"I don't know. They seem to be gathering in larger and larger groups."
Adam swallowed hard and prepared for the last point. This one was in the middle of the road, in completely clear territory and, unfortunately, very close to two lumps of meat from the monstrosity. They had run into a group of wrecked cars on the sidewalk and had split like a river, leaving a portion of the road clear.
Adam had to find a method of entering that area without attracting the attention of the monstrosity and the Windwalkers, from whom he was currently hiding behind a cart.
"I'm going in."
Adam knew that this was the most complicated point, so there was no room for error. He calmly surveyed the area. There were numerous carts on the street that he could use to get to the point in question, but the lumps of meat had only scaled a few. However, this would leave him in full view of all the nearby Windwalkers, which would likely result in his death. The Windwalkers were quite fragile, but Adam knew that fighting them in the open was suicide.
However, Adam saw no other option. The nearest building was too far away and there didn't seem to be any practical option.
So Adam watched the Windwalkers carefully and took advantage of a moment when the sky seemed clear to run with all his might. It didn't take him long to reach the first car, near one of the lumps of meat.
Adam watched the disturbing mass uneasily before carefully climbing into the car. There, he advanced step by step, trying not to lose his balance, until he was close enough to jump.
But Adam miscalculated the jump, as he wasn't used to how far he could jump, panicked, he lost his balance in mid-air and landed on the roof of the next car hard. Worse, he began to slide into the mass of flesh that was throbbing right next to the car.
Adam tried futilely to grab onto the roof, but continued to slide toward his possible death. What saved his life was that he managed to break his fall by holding on to one of the rearview mirrors. His legs were precariously holding on to the ceiling, while all his weight was supported by the mirror.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He tried to maneuver his body, so that he managed to comfortably climb back onto the roof, but then he froze as he realized that an eye was watching him from the mass of flesh just below him.