Everyone was like a headless chicken and it was a complete chaos.
Two of Duke's men who have normal signs named Eagle and Hawk, immediately went into action and dealt with the zombies that were within a 5-meter radius near them. They even want to deal with two of their brothers named Sparrow and Vulture thinking that since they will turn into zombies, they better kill them while they still have human consciousness because they know that those two would want that too.
The two members of Duke's team that were twisting around on the floor have yet to finish their transition so Kisha does not allow Duke and the others to make a move because it is still unknown if this is an early awakening. After all, she has yet to see the symptoms that they are transforming into zombies.
This possibility is only 10% because there are times that a transition will happen silently without much shaking and jerking like normal.
Besides, an awakening can also cause severe pain in the body as if the internal organs are being stirred violently. The blood vessels would bulge because of the increase in pressure for blood circulation. Especially in the head.
It would feel like their head would explode at any minute as it forcefully and quickly stimulates the brain. Which will then create the central hub of the awaken's source of power. The Crystal Core.
After explaining this to Duke, she made him call all his executives so that they don't accidentally kill the awakened.
Duke made a conference call to his executives, once they started answering the call one by one, he turned it into speaker mode and made Kisha repeat her explanation.
After the explanation, she asks them to send those who fit the bill for a few days of quarantine. If they do not turn, that means they are successful. If they turn, they need to be killed.
One of the executives asks. "Why is the awakening similar to transitioning to a zombie?"
"It's because the virus and crystal core are one. If the virus eats the brain, then they become zombies and after it eats the brain, the concentration of the virus in the brain will then create a crystal core but if the virus successfully integrates with the human brain, positively. Then the human evolves and the crystal core will be the power source like a battery." She stopped and thought again because she thought that it was kinda messy so she said. "You can just think of it as Evolution, the other has a negative impact while the other is beneficial to us."
"And the only difference with their crystal core is that the zombie core will form after they turned and so, their core is impure. On the other hand, the awakened's core will form during the virus's stimulation, and in turn, the core is pure and has more energy in it."
Everyone understood what she meant and started working. These people are Duke's most trusted people that will not turn on him, Kisha has seen their trust and devotion towards Duke. He once said that these people were kids from orphanages, Duke decided to nurture his own people when he was just 10 years old, they all grew up with him and treated each other as brothers.
This is the reason why Kisha was so open with the information with them, she knew that they would not share this information with anyone without Duke's go signal, even if the one questioning them were his family.
These people are Duke's limbs, eyes, and ears. They all covered all kinds of industries that Duke would only need to relax and let them work without telling them what to do.
Kisha wished to create such a squad before but it was hard to find elite people that could be trusted, most of them wanted to be the head of the power and not be a mere subordinate so she gave up halfway.
Seeing Eagle and Hawk busy dealing with the zombies nearby, she looked around to see the situation in the store and it was a bloody mess. A woman ran in their direction shouting for help but Duke kicked her in the stomach, the impact of the kick sent her flying a few feet away.
Duke can't be blamed on this one, because the woman has a few gushing bite wounds on her thigh and arms. It was 2 inches deep and a palm wide, it looked like it was bit and forcefully pulled. The muscles are visibly twitching and the blood vessels spray blood every time the muscles move.
The wound was starting to turn purplish black and she was weakly crying and repeatedly asking for help even when she couldn't speak properly from pain. But Duke did not even bat an eyelid when he kicked her and just looked at her indifferently.
When the woman met Duke's eyes, she was eaten by agony and kept asking in her heart why no one wanted to help her. She was just a weak woman who wanted to help those who fell but was attacked instead. She doesn't understand what's going on or what she has done wrong.
She was asking for help from Kisha's group because she saw them dealing with these crazy people with ease but they didn't want to help her. She was wondering why, she was not crazy like them. She just wants to be safe.
She cried and cried until her tears turned red and her sobs turned to grunts and low growls. Her limbs turned stiff, and the nerves in her eyes became even more visible, like purple centipedes. Her porcelain white skin turned purplish with a green hue, just like a corpse. And the wounds turned black and the blood coming out of the wound turned coagulated black blood too.
But the woman still has little consciousness left in her as she still looks pitifully at Duke and turns to Kisha thinking that as a fellow woman, she would sympathize with her kind.
She was hoping and praying until her vision turned dark, she was no longer the kind and pitiful woman she once was but a ferocious beast that would never feel full and is now only roaming to kill and eat any living creature.
The female zombie roared and stood up stiffly, not feeling any pain, only hunger. She looked at Duke and charged, with the only thought of eating her food. Even though her body was a little stiff she was a little agile, however, Duke is a well-trained man and well-versed in mixed martial arts and military close combat.
Before the female zombie gets too close to him, he does a really fast tornado kick with his long legs and he looks like he is flying, Kisha could only hear the loud cracking sound of a bone. She did not know if it was the zombie's spine or skull that snapped and broke from the kick.
It was an Insta kill, the female zombie never crawled back up after the blow.
Duke took care of the zombies in the storefront with his swift and deadly kicks aimed at the weak heads. When he came back and stood next to Kisha, he looked indifferent but if you looked up a little, you'd see his smiling eyes full of smugness.
He's just short of directly asking Kisha if she has seen his cool moves.
Kisha held back her smile, but this was the first time she had seen Duke like this and it was tugging at her heartstrings. His image and his cute antics don't match up and look kinda funny.
She smiled. "That was a cool move. Keep up the good work!" She immediately turns around, her shoulders shaking but she forcefully held it in. And she went inside the store. "Out of sight, out of mind." She thought
She waved her hand and put everything in the store inside her inventory. Then she went to the back where the warehouse is located and made sure to get all the supplies from it, accidentally, she saw two fuel transport trucks parked nearby, each had two tanks installed.
She checked if it had gas stored in it by opening the manhole assembly and poking a long steel stick to see how much it has. Luckily, all two trucks were new. They must have just arrived this morning to refill the gas station. She stored all of it in her inventory and went back to where her group was with a big grin on her face.