Chereads / infectents / Chapter 14 - facing the uncomfortable

Chapter 14 - facing the uncomfortable

Upon waking up, Hruday felt a parched sensation in his throat. With a groggy head, he moved towards and reached for the glass of water that was on the stone slab, lifting it to his lips. As the cool liquid trickled down his throat, he noticed an unusual tint to the watercolor. Frowning, he spat some out, watching as it splattered against the sink.

Then he did his daily check on the zombies outside the window. There, amidst the desolate streets, stood a lone figure—a zombie, its grotesque face grin stretching unnaturally wide as it fixed its gaze on him. A chill crept down Hruday's spine as he realized zombies might have attacked his base.

Heart pounding, he stumbled out into the hallway, towards the main door. Reaching the balcony, he turned the corner, and his worst fears were realized: his friends were all turned into zombies, all turned into the very monsters they had fought so hard to evade. Panic surged within him, urging him to flee. To escape this nightmare, he asked himself, Is this real? He hoped "surely someone would be alive.".

Racing back into the safety of his apartment, the hruday's frantic gaze fell upon the glass of water one more time. Its yellowish-red hue sent a shiver down his spine, a sickening realization dawning upon him. Could it be contaminated? Could this tainted liquid be the cause of their downfall? with this impending doom of a realization,

he rubbed his tongue with his fingers all the way up to his throat. Terrified, he vomited, and then he saw Roy coming towards him, feeling groggy. Yesterday, I suddenly asked in a panic, did you drink the water!!?,

Roy, who was perplexed, said, Wait, no, like, are you asking, did I drink now or yesterday? he said as his heart throbbed. Suddenly, hruday felt that the world around him seemed to warp and distort, the colors blending into a nightmarish tableau of reds and blacks. Desperation clawed at his chest as he struggled to make sense of his surroundings, his vision swimming in a sea of ominous hues.

He heard the muffled noise of the alarmed voice of Roy, hruday clenching his teeth. He tried to vomit everything 

Just as the darkness threatened to engulf him entirely, a hand shook his shoulder, jolting him awake from his fevered dream. Blinking rapidly, he found himself back in the safety of reality, his friend's concerned face hovering above him.

"Are you alright?" his friend asked, voice tinged with worry.

With a shaky breath, hruday said It didn't stop. Today, he took out his notebook and started writing his dream Then, flipping the book backward, he wrote his new project idea: making a rain harvest system and using corporate water to increase underground water. He tried not to use corporate water, making sure to boil water every time they drank 

He also made a rough sketch that only he and God could understand. Sighing, he stood up and looked at Roy, who silently observed his frantic behavior, thinking, Does he have PTSD?

"No, he mentioned that these dreams were coming before the world turned into an apocalypse He sure is a staio-type crazy genius, huh?" "I mean, writing ideas in a book could be okay now that he is even trying to analyze his dreams," and man, how can he have so many ideas in 2 days? There are at least 10 pages with his ideas. I probably I shouldn't have looked without permission, though.". 

looking at Roy, who was busy thinking and analyzing his friend's problems, ahh, it's just a dream diary; I am trying to explore myself, and it is good for your brain You should do it too

Roy haha Okay, man, I will try but it's hard even to keep one journal diary. I don't know about two. I will try to keep my journal. This is my 15th try 

Hruday said Haha, I guess even I couldn't do it continuously at first, but I started because I had to stop these noises. If I show it to a psychiatrist, he might be able to analyze it 

Roy Ya, but speaking of psychology, how is your chemistry with your future aspect? The store manager, Hruday, said, raising his voice tinged with irritation Hey, I told you not to bring that up. I didn't make her store manager on purpose for any favors" again. "I really don't like her in that way." 

Roy said, "I mean, I didn't say anything, man. I was actually asking about one of the project plans that involved you and Chemistry", and you just confessed 

hruday replied, his voice slowly going into a high pitch as his anger did. "No, I don't have a project involving her." "Also, why did you read my diary, man? "it's embarrassing, and Never do that again."

Yo, yo, come down Look, you have a project that involves someone who has the best science knowledge, which you know is her, who is studying science for her college 

hruday had no comments, "You seem to have learned how to make an argument with me, and it is annoying, ok?" "I admit, man, I was sensitive, as you have already fucking mentioned it twice, even in front of Troy". 

after that, he discussed his plans for the future, which felt far-fetched thinking for Roy, but it was good as on that topic, Roy mentioned that he had run out of space to download and he said he has been able to download most of his brain games and small games, mostly mobile games Roy was a cultured man who had hidden 2 micro-memory cards for culture stuff but technically he didn't steal from storage so he convinced himself as now that the internet was gone, he had to preserve culture, and with that, the wifi internet was gone 

Now that the zip line that took them to the next building was used, it was a gamble to use it, although they checked for any damage using a toy binocular, of which there was none.

hruday was too hesitant to go but they had to kill zombies inside the building to feel safe, as they were going to use that building for a long time to reach the church, and having tons of zombies locked near them wasn't a good idea.

Also, if they got access to the building, they might be able to get a few strong cables as there was an electronic / dth setup box center This time, Roy made sure to bring Troy to the building 

after sliding, they reached the top of the building. Tory had to open the door, letting out some zombies Just as one or two zombies came out, he had to close it. Roy, who would be protecting Tory, attacked them while Troy held the zombies, still using the newly improved zombie holder and easily killing them. The cycle would continue until they were exhaled or all zombies were dead That was the plan 

After hearing the plan, Troy expressed his worries, mainly his having to be there. That was what he was worried about. After that, they reached the building's roof Troy opened the door but there was no zombie They made noise 

Then the zombies rushed, screaming, scaring shit out of Troy. He quickly closed it after 3 zombies came in Originally, they were trying to gang up on 1 or 2 zombies, but now that there were 3, it was heard that 6 of them were fiddling. They won pretty easily but if all six of them fought, they couldn't rest, which meant less work done but they still continued to do so for an hour or so, and they were completely exhausted They all rested

Troy was especially exhausted as he had to not only feel the opposite force towards the door whenever these zombies were inertia to come in, but he also had to quickly switch between defending and attacking.

after resting for an hour, they switched roles and started After the second round, all the zombies were empty They all cautiously went inside They cautiously approached a tailor shop Was it because the building was old or was it zombies work? The lights were off they still approached even though they didn't have lights It was mildly dark and dried up Red blood was painted on the floor Troy's sixth sense was screaming as he was feeling chills. With every sound he heard, the feeling got worse but couldn't address as he had already tried to convince the group 10 times and got threatened by inertia Roy said that if he uttered a single word, he would experience a horrible experience Troy cursed at Roy internally and called him psycho-sadist

after searching the store, anything they couldn't find or something they moved to towards the next shop, which was an electronic/offline TV cable recharge shop, which hruday was all too familiar with, he looked around and collected all the cables he could. Just as they were going to leave, he noticed feet under the table, which made yesterday's heart skip a beat Then he slowly moved away and bent himself to see if it was human He was scared out of his soul when the fellow human screamed, whose face almost looked like a zombie. 

at this point, everyone except Roy was near them but Roy who was cautious that zombies would rush towards them, was guarding the shop entrance, ready to pull the shutter Lucky for them, there weren't any After talking, hruday finally recognized the young man who was in his late 20s as a cable operator They talked after checking he wasn't injured

Roy asked, Are you the one who closed the building Sutter door? to which he said "no" and said that it was someone else as there were many people who had survived but since he was afraid what was happening, he hid under the table for 2 days, as at the first day he had managed to close the store but then due to survivors checking out, he had to hide inside, which was a good thing as he had survived because of it but when hruday asked how survivors had turned, they couldn't get a clear picture but convincing him to come with them was a hell of a circus but in the end, he came because of hunger and promised food

they also found the inverter store but couldn't transport it as it was really hard to transport it on the cable as they did not have any carrier made yet

after that they sent him back to the apartment with the new cables after taking urgent materials they left now they had to start backing the wall and rescue Roy's father who was beside the building but the problem was his father was on the back side of the building on the ground floor which was exposed they had to prepare some kind of makeshift wall so that it would at least give time to escape towards the church but this was the same problem they had to deal later to collect food so he needs to prepare some plan and it had to be today as humans are said to die after 3 days of no water although hruday didn't know much about Roy s father work shop he still had to assume the worst hruday reassured Roy and came back 

after that, hruday observed the zombies looking concerned on top of his apartment Roy came wanting to help him out of his worries He asked what happened hruday told the man there were too many problems yarr sighed, Look, did you remember when I told you that the dead bodies would rot and could cause us a lot of problems even if we threw it away on the road? Also, did you notice there is no barking noise whatsoever? 

roy confirms acid ya hruday continued Now look, where are the bodies of zombies that we killed on that day? It's not there; they vanished 

Roy, that means... hruday said yes, it means so many things; it could not die or other zombies took it away 

Roy took a movement and said, We need to calm down It could be later; there is no way these zombies would be immortal, and if it is later, then it is good for us, that means the bodies will be cleaned 

sighing hruday it's not that simple, man That means these zombies are cannibals, or it could also mean they have a nest, and if we assume the worst, it means these zombies wouldn't die unless the head was completely severed. 

Roy put his hands on hruday check and shook him violently Hey, stop thinking negatively that you battered Even if that's the case, we will figure out a way Don't always assume the worst If you can't find a solution for it, it means less Also, take this roy's hands over a small pocket book 

keep this as an urgent notebook Write down your thoughts that you need to think about Kater, and don't exaggerate yourself. Just focus on now First, you know what to do. This way, you think about the future. I will help you focus when you go too far into the future, make your plan, and excuse the present 

hruday was extremely thankful. He thanked Roy and said that the first problem is we need to be able to rescue our father without calling all the zombies in the neighborhood, which is heard as it opens. Even if we came from the top of the building to the back using rope, we would still need to somehow block the space between the buildings so that when we opened your father's noisy shutter, it would at least give us some time to escape 

Roy isn't that easy these zombies are dumb. Some don't even have their eyes or ears working. Right, not all, but seriously, we'd make big shields Right, it takes time. Roy became silent, thinking 

hey we found some crackers yesterday that I forgot to mention we could use for distraction 

hruday eyes lit up and also dimmed how much Roy excitedly said, it's a big box, man It has everything I don't know—at least 10 types of different bombs 

ya, the problem is we might end up calling other zombies to us, and even if we throw like crazy distance on opposite sides, wait, it might work so how do we get through crazy distance? Then, wait, we have rats, right? Ya, that's it, now. We just need some sheds that are as big as walls It's crazy having crackers remove my mental barrier. I also could have used a Bluetooth speaker; well, that might not have worked, whatever 

hruday mumbled some more, some of which Roy understood This made him think of a funny phrase that would have made Michael and John laugh out of their asses. The crackers made hruday a crackhead, and he even imagined what Michael or John would say. Hey, hruday, you sick man, at least wash your head when bathing.

Roy left, as recently no one has been able to talk freely. Thinking about that made Roy's heart heavy, and the sense flashed, which made their asses. which made his eye fiery. Then the sorrow turned into anger. He wanted to kill as many of those zombies as he could. He wanted to torture those zombies. Their awesome friendship was broken 

then hruday left, as the sun's heat was unbearable. He felt his old annoying feeling where his body would feel kind of irritated and his skin would feel like there was some kind of small explosion, which wasn't painful but was like undoing small electric zaps 

on that note, he had not washed himself properly so he washed while the water was available. He got out after a relaxing bath. He would have slept if it were a normal day but now he had to survive 

He walked to the storage unit, where the girl named Sophia, whom he saved, was now a department head. His H.M. had installed a metal barrier that prevented him from talking to girls, a rule that had been enforced until now. He always faced punishment for breaking this taboo. He felt that only boys could be friends and girls could only be girlfriends, so he was hesitant to talk to girls. His big insecurity and his not wanting to fall in love made him too hesitant to talk. But now that it was necessary, he had to...

//////////

What do you think I tried to express? Should I do more?? I am trying to find balance, as novelty worlds sometimes make me feel obnoxious, and for this kind of zombie series, I wanted it to be raw.