Standing by the second-floor window, Miles suddenly chuckled.
It seemed he had underestimated the hidden depths of Cloudtop Heights; the residents here were anything but ordinary.
After all, anyone who had managed to survive these past two weeks must possess a certain resourcefulness—or, in the case of the large woman next door, a simply extraordinary reserve of body fat.
Ryan led the hundred or so people under Anthony's charge toward Section A of the villas.
The residents here, having just endured Anthony's recent pillaging, were already a collection of frightened, half-starved souls. And it was much the same in the other villa districts. Bereft of food, they now resorted to melting snow for water; while it provided temporary relief, they still faced a slow death by starvation.
So, with desperation mounting, they scoured every corner, each of them dreaming of winning that roasted chicken promised by Miles.
For now, the only confirmed zombie was Andrew, but there could be others, lurking in the unknown.
After a fruitless search, Anthony glanced at Ryan, who was smoking and shivering in the bitter cold.
"Ryan," he said, sidling up to him with a flattering smile, "it seems you and Miles share a unique connection."
Ryan took a drag from his cigarette, the icy air biting his lungs as he exhaled. "This damned weather…"
With a sigh, he tossed the cigarette away, but as soon as he did, a sudden scuffle broke out behind him. Several desperate smokers were lunging for the discarded stub.
Anthony was nearest; he darted forward and snatched up the half-smoked cigarette, glowering at the others. "Back off! You think you're fit to smoke?"
Ryan watched, a flicker of disbelief crossing his face. Were things this bad already?
When Miles had said that humanity, under such conditions, could become as low as animals, Ryan had taken it as an exaggeration. Surely, people wouldn't degrade so quickly. But now he understood.
If half a cigarette could reduce them to this…what would a mouthful of food do?
To test his theory, Ryan pulled a chocolate bar from his pocket and tossed it toward the crowd.
Chaos erupted.
The hundred or so residents surged, fighting and clawing at each other for the chocolate, the frenzy escalating to outright blows. Anthony, frustrated at his position on the outskirts, turned to Ryan with a look of resignation. "Ryan, showing off what you have isn't the safest strategy."
A single chocolate bar had caused this much havoc? These people truly had reached the end of their tether.
If only they knew Miles had enough supplies to stock an entire distribution warehouse…
"Enough! Get them back on task. We're here to find zombies," Ryan said, still unaccustomed to the authority now entrusted to him.
But Anthony, grinning, knew exactly what to do. "Don't worry, I'll handle it."
Bang! Bang!
Anthony fired two shots into the air, and the panicked crowd fell silent, eyes widening in fear as they stared at him.
"Get back to work, or it'll be your heads next!" he barked, pleased to see them fall in line.
Meanwhile, Sini led her hundred or so residents in a meticulous search of Section E.
She was a woman of unremarkable looks but possessed a magnetic, mature allure. Her sharp, calculating gaze gave her an air of competence.
After hours of fruitless searching, a burly man approached her. "Sini, we've been at this for two hours. The group is exhausted."
He was one of her trusted followers, and Sini shot him a quick, reassuring glance before lowering her voice. "We can't stop now. If we don't put in the effort, Miles will never give us food…"
Four hundred people in the Zombie Eradication Squad, but only thirty portions of food. It was clear that whoever claimed those portions would survive a little longer.
The man nodded but hesitated. "But what if these people rebel?"
With over a hundred desperate residents here, a riot could quickly spiral out of control.
Sini's eyes hardened as she replied with a cold smile. "You have a gun, don't you? Anyone who causes trouble, just shoot them. They're not going to live much longer anyway."
"But what if they become zombies?"
Miles had explained the two ways people transformed: either through exposure to radiation or infection. The sight of Andrew's twisted, undead face had left an indelible fear in everyone's minds.
Yet Sini's face remained coldly untroubled, a hint of malice in her gaze. "I'm counting on it."
"What?" Her follower's face registered shock as he finally grasped her meaning.
Sini planned to use these people as bait, deliberately creating zombies to collect Miles' reward.
Indeed, humanity's darkest cruelty lay hidden in the heart.
Sini shrugged, unfazed. "Cloudtop Heights still has over eight hundred residents, but how many will survive in the end? If starvation doesn't get them, infection will."
"Damn it!" her follower cursed under his breath, voice tinged with bitterness. "That Miles—he wants us to turn on each other."
Sini nodded grimly. "It doesn't matter what his intentions are. What matters is that we survive…"
"If only we could bring Miles out of his fortress," he muttered, envy thick in his tone.
Sini's own eyes darkened with longing, imagining Miles' luxuriously warm environment with every comfort at his disposal. But then she shook her head, resolute. "Miles' place is fortified. We can't break in, and he's far too cautious to come out. We need to follow his lead if we want to survive. Provoking him now would only be a death sentence."
In her heart, Sini longed to wrest control from Miles, to have even a fraction of what he possessed. But she was realistic; they had no leverage against him.
If they couldn't defeat him, submission was the only option.
Sini, a woman of seasoned ambition, had single-handedly built a beauty empire in her past life. She knew exactly how to play the long game.
She reassured her follower with a cold smile. "Get back to work. And if we do encounter a zombie...well, then our lives might just start looking up."
In her eyes, the residents had ceased to be people long ago. Now, they were little more than offerings, a potential feast waiting to be claimed.