As if the elusive zombie sensed the call of his superior, he appeared from the shadow of a Stalker, who was paralyzed with fear at the proximity of two such powerful zombies. The Breeder was glad to see Shadow, as he had begun to call him, and approached him.
With a mental command he asked him to take a look at the human shelter. Of course, he also ordered him not to attract anyone's attention and to hurry back. Shadow didn't think anyone could detect him, but he was wrong.
Adam interrupted his conversation with Miguel when the mini-computer on his wrist beeped annoyingly.
"What's going on?"
"It's the geophones, they seem to have detected something unusual. The problem is that the signal is very diffuse and seems to be coming from nowhere."
Adam had used his new ability without hesitation, so there were already two geophones installed. He couldn't help but think how advanced the system was. In the previous world a geophone could be used to detect passing vehicles by the vibrations they generated, but now it could detect the vibrations generated by footsteps or the passage of energies hundreds of meters away, which was absurd.
Adam looked at the small screen and pressed a button on the side of it. The screen generated a hologram and they could both see the information it contained.
"It's near the superblock, it looks like something just entered the building. Call Noah and put everyone on alert."
Meanwhile, the little zombie noticed right away that something wasn't right. The humans started patrolling the area, as if they were looking for something. They had detected it! Now he understood why the supreme leader wanted to attack this place. He would never have thought a human could detect him.
He soon realized that they couldn't find him even if they knew he was there, so he continued to investigate. The orders he had received were vague, as it was just to look around, so he made sure to look at everything he could look at.
However, he found something new that caught his attention. Was it a zombie? A human? Both? He approached Menil and after a moment's hesitation, revealed his presence.
Adam was immediately notified of the zombie's presence, so he ordered by mobile phone that everyone move into position before continuing on their way to the superblock.
Menil received the order on his phone, but was busy trying to figure out what a zombie was doing there.
[Shadow Zombie]
The tiny zombie watched him curiously. Menil prepared to fight, but was even more surprised when the zombie tried to communicate with him.
"What are you... strange... unusual... curious?"
It took him a moment to realize that the zombie wasn't talking, but was establishing some sort of mental bridge with him. However, the meaning of the thoughts was incomplete. He felt he was missing something vital to understand the full meaning.
"Enemy? Serve... Leader... Captured?"
The zombie continued to send him strange meanings, but Menil got an idea of what it wanted. It looked like the zombie worked for the Breeder or something. Menil tried to fire back a response and, to his surprise, the zombie seemed to understand.
Before he received an answer, the zombie disappeared into the shadows and its presence vanished. Moments later, Noah entered the room and looked around as he pointed the gun at them.
"What's going on here? Adam says he detected the presence of a zombie here."
Menil remembered the geophones, but he didn't lose his cool.
"A zombie came out of nowhere and tried to talk to me."
Noah raised an eyebrow.
"That's funny, as far as I know none of them can talk."
"No, they can't, but this one tried to establish a dialogue between our minds, instead of speaking he sent the meaning of his thought straight into my head."
"Interesting, but I have a question. Why did he come to talk to you?"
"I don't know, it's the first time I've seen him."
Noah looked at him suspiciously and that tension remained until the others arrived. The first was Zack and his group, followed by Leonard and Ivy and finally Miguel and Adam's whole group. Finally the rest of the infected arrived, who had been on the road to block 1, in the secondary car park of the superblock.
Noah began to explain the situation to the others. Menil felt a little nervous, but waited patiently for the man to finish.
"A couple of days and you're already thinking of betraying us, aren't you? -asked Leonard aggressively."
"No, this is the first time a zombie has tried to communicate with me, in fact, I find it curious that it wanted to talk. I honestly think we can use this as an opportunity to learn more about our enemies."
"What could we learn from these monsters? They're obviously pretty stupid," said Leonard.
"Yes, stupid enough to lose an arm fighting them."
Leonard turned red with anger, but before he could speak he was stopped by Adam.
"Enough! What do you mean, Menil? How do you think we could take advantage of this situation?"
"That zombie seemed to want me to meet their leader, who I believe is the Breeder."
Miguel and Adam looked at each other for a moment.
"I get the idea, but don't you think it's too risky? I mean, you're only a Stalker, after all."
Menil sighed, Adam was right, the zombie that had come could have killed him in an instant. He realized that he had been wasting his time trying not to attract the attention of the other inhabitants and watching his behavior. Yes, he had helped Adam clean up the car park and had devoured a few zombies in the process, but he had failed to evolve. He had the impression that he had to consume a lot more corpses if he wanted to advance to his next state. He knew that consuming humans would be much faster, but he still felt a chill at the thought of trying. However, there was a serious problem with this... Menil cursed himself for being so bold.
"In that case I think it's time we started to evolve and become more useful. We told you at the ceremony that we were at your command, but our power is really quite irrelevant. There's just one problem, I answered that zombie in the affirmative before it disappeared, so I think it's going to come after me anyway."
Adam frowned.
"I'm afraid there's no way around it then, we'll go with your plan, I just hope it's worth it. Besides, Menil, I don't think I need to explain your situation to you, this is a good opportunity to show that you can be trusted. But only you can go, the others will stay here."
The other infected were visibly relieved, not seeming to agree with Menil's idea. All except one of them, who stepped forward.
"I offer to accompany him, I don't think it's a good idea for him to go alone."
"Are you sure, Arnold? I think I was hasty in accepting that invitation."
"I'm sure, Menil, I think it's a good idea indeed."
"Very nice and all, but I'd like to remind you that there's a zombie missing and we need to find it. Miguel, Adam, I have a feeling that this bastard is responsible for the deaths in block 3. Remember what I told you? I didn't find any trace of any powerful zombies in that place, just like in this case."
Adam checked his mini-computer and the geophone near the superblock was still emitting a proximity alert. Adam made sure that all allied presences were being ignored by the device and found nothing wrong.
"You're right Zack, that thing is still around, we'd better split up."
"Bad idea," said Miguel and Menil in unison. The soldier looked at the infected with some curiosity.
"That zombie seems to be capable of becoming completely immaterial. If it ambushes them at the right time, it could certainly kill them."
"But what else can we do? If that thing attacks a survivor while we're not around, it'll be a complete disaster."
"I don't think they should be afraid of that. I get the impression that a zombie is a scout," said Menil. He seems to have revealed his presence only because it was the first time he'd encountered an infected.
"If only we could be sure of that. As of this moment, all hands are on high alert. Tell all survivors not to leave their flats," Adam ordered.
"Another thing boy, if this Breeder has sent a scout, then he's a lot smarter than we thought. Besides, that alone indicates that he plans to attack soon, I suspect tomorrow at night. So everyone prepare for combat," said Miguel.
"This is never going to end, is it?"
Adam turned to look at Miriam, but didn't know what to say, so he just looked at Marlen and she nodded. Leaving the matter to the next best person, Adam joined the group trying to find the zombie.
Meanwhile, about two floors down, Shadow slipped silently through the corridors. The humans were a lot more rowdy than he expected. Moreover, he could sense a particular presence that made him feel threatened. After watching the humans some more, Shadow grew bored and decided that he would try to talk to the curious creature that seemed to be a zombie and a human at the same time. He could feel that everyone had moved away from him, so he took advantage of the moment.