Garret sat in the store with his squad mates, Hicks, Tomoe, Marina, and Mboto. All of them expectant as he was cleaning his glock pieces with them all having taken apart their guns to clean and make sure they were all at a hundred percent since they had no army bunker or depot nearby to use.
Garret explains everything he can from the party, the weird pill, how and where he woke up, no clue about his youthful appearance and body, and how he has a store he can buy things from by showing them the sudden appearance of the glock clip he uses 15 points for.
And explains to them how he can grab stat gems and his stats. He can't see their stats but he promises to save up and buy gems for them to see if they can get the benefit too.
At first all of them thought he had lost it. Then the reality hit them as they remembered the zombies, the clip appearing out of thin air from a magic circle, and how they all had a weird green pill before this. And all of them agree on the 3 day gap. It just didn't make sense.
But it was what happened so they were all stuck trying to figure it out together.
Garrett catches what they agree on, "Hold on? All of you had a green pill before this?"
They all nod as Mboto says, "Indeed. We found them in the barracks when we went back to our dorms. It was labeled as some sort of health supplement from the military so we all took one. The florescent flow was written off as a way it could be seen in the dark when we asked a superior about them before we took them. And we took them the same day you did. Just later than you since we had further to go."
Garretts mind works overtime as he thinks this information through. So they all came to this apocalypse world of zombies after a pill was taken. They don't have a system but he does. They haven't changed physically... At least based on what they have seen so far. And no one knows how the world went to shit in a matter of days.
Okay... So they either had this pill to make them immune to the coming virus and were transported here to fight the growing infection. Or they were somehow flung into an anime or another world like so many isekai comics and books he had read when he was younger.... None of this bodes well though.
In the first one their government would know about the coming threat and would be either keeping people quiet to avoid panic or would have facilitated it to make others test it so it becomes survival of the fittest.
On the other hand if this was isekai. They would be screwed as they don't know which universe that landed them in. They could be in any of the 100+ zombie stories he has read, watched, or seen in comics. And there are a lot!
He sighs out loud causing his squad to perk up and he goes, "Alright troops. Listen up. We are going to stock up hard. Grab all weapons and ammo we can from this survival store and any food stores nearby to ensure we are fully loaded and fully stocked before we go hunting for others. That's step one. Step two is we establish a base of operations with said survivors we find as long as they are friendly. And we then go on to research the world. Are we in our own? Are we in another like those isekai stories kids have been enjoying recently? We don't know. So step three is to understand where we are and the news of this area. And once that is done step four is to make our base long lasting and survive this world. Am I understood troops?"
All four soldiers yell out, "Sir yes sir!"
Garrett nods and sets up a rotation schedule for every two hours so they all get in at least 8 hours of sleep for the days ahead.
They all manage to rest well and no other zombie hordes. One or two stragglers per shift but nothing a quick crossbow bolt or knife to the head couldn't fix.
Garrett knew he had to save up for those gems for stats so during his shift he did a little scouting.
Setting up a noise booby trap and leaving a note. He took about 50 crossbow bolts, two crossbows, and a walkie talkie along his knife and pistol and went hunting for the surrounding two blocks.
He found quite a few zombies shambling around and managed to spear them through the skull at key angles that only cost him one bolt per kill.
During the entire two hours of killing, recovering bolts, sneaking, drop kicking a head in here or there, maybe a knife stab or two, and then repeating the process. He accumulated over 180 kills.
He was satisfied with his progress as he made it back in time for the shift change.
He greets Tomoe as she set up for her shift and blocked a bit at why he had full gear on before explaining to her he was busy scouting out about two blocks down for their route to City Hall in the morning.
Nodding to herself she went to her post while Garrett set down his gear and checked his stats.
Garret Grimsborne:
Str- 26
Agi- 21
Sta- 27
Int- 19
Sense- 21
Store points - 2,025
Grinning to himself he grabs the stat gems.
He grabs 4 of each for a solid 2000 points and put them away for now.
They had a test to do in the morning.
He wakes up with the squad and asks them to gather around as they cook up some basic field spread of dried fruits and some fried meat with some electrolyte charged lemon water.
They all gather as he hands out the stones.
They all gasp and Hicks asks, "You sure sir? You said this costs you around ten zombies for just one of them. You gave out 4! This is hard to come by!"
Garrett admits to his scouting activity being about gathering points. But he admits as well that they are his squad he wants to see if this can help them.
They all nod and try to absorb the crystals.
But soon they all see a notification appear in front of them.
They all have a screen saying, Stat system is not available for this player at this time thus player can't consume the stat gems. To consume stat gems please wait until stats are available. Please wait for the next-
And they all had around 3 more days before they could access their systems.
Garrett was confused by this time limit but his troops all shrug it off and agree that if they could unlock this system as well then they can rely on their own points versus mooching off of their commanders. Garrett nods as he is basically forced to absorb the crystals for himself from his squad.
With them down the hatch he feels his body tone up and his eyes get sharper. Not only that but he feels like he can take a lot more punishment in battle and in exercises. He grips his hand hard around a metal clothing rack and notices the aluminum iron alloy actually bends way more easily than normal.
He would normally have to push himself some to leave behind dents. But now? He only had to do a basic flex of his fingers and arm and he had it bent into his fists shape.
He looks to his hand in pride while his squad cheers.
He grins as he looks up at them and goes, "Should I call myself captain America if I keep this up?"
They all laugh as Colonel Grimsborne stands with a new outlook for this world. It was determined but with hope lighting up his eyes. He goes, "Let's follow our plan and get ready to fight these rotting corpses!"
They all salute and cheer before grabbing the food, clothes, weapons, ammo, and any other useful and daily necessities they could grab from the survival store and the general store three shops down the street.
And thankfully they were unimpeded by any zombies. For they were all dead.
They look to their Colonel with suspicion on how many he hunted last night as he sheepishly goes, "Iiiiiii may have been.... A bit motivated to grab those star crystals. But hey! It works for us don't it?"
They all roll their eyes with good humor and load up a Ford truck and a uhaul that Mboto and Hicks got up and running with Marinas help while Garrett and Tomoe loaded the supplies in.
With the truck working and the uhaul behind it being driven by Mboto while marina is his passenger. Hicks grabs the Ford and has Tomoe join him in the seating up front.
Garrett himself takes the back with his crossbow ready and they head towards City Hall as carefully as they could.
It was going to be a long day but a good day to progress their goals for the moment.
Current stats of Garret Grimsborne:
Str- 26 +4 =30
Agi- 21 +4= 25
Sta- 27 +4= 31
Int- 19 +4= 23
Sense- 21 +4= 25
Store points - 25