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‘Is it really a good idea to rush to the other hotspot of zombies before making sure we are strong enough to do so?’ Mathew asked himself as he followed at the front of the entire group.

This was the one doubt that the young man couldn’t get rid of. Yet, the frantic nature of everything that his group did so far made him more inclined to just grab any and all opportunity rather than taking things slow.

‘Thinking back, we couldn’t take our time yesterday because it would likely lead to the entire compound collapsing,’ Mathew thought as he glanced over his shoulder at the compound in the distance. ‘But is it really necessary to be in a hurry right now?’

The doubts continued to plauge Mathew’s head for every step that he took. And yet, he didn’t stop. He didn’t even slow down, opting to just follow the words he said to his police allies.

‘If we don’t go help them right away, there will be no one to help later on.’

This was an undeniable truth.

Mathew’s group could play around their options with the zombie army that besieged them… precisely because of this simple reason. They were besieged, not relentlessly attacked without any way of defending themselves. And the walls of the fortress gave them options. Without the fortress, those would be limited to just the two most basic instincts of living beings.

Fighting or fleeing.

‘And the chances of anyone setting up a fortress so quickly…’ Mathew thought only to bite his lips and cull his thoughts._.

‘There is no point deliberating over this problem now. The decision is made so all I can do right now is to stick to it,’ he decided.

“We are getting close,” Norbert suddenly announced from the back of the group.

As he had yet to learn how to both use his skill and move around in a physical world, he had to rely on Daniel’s help whenever he went for a quick scout with his ghostly form.

“Why can’t we see any zombies, then?” Mathew asked, looking around the place they were in right now.

ɴ[0)ᴠᴇʟ Despite him going to the school in this exact area of the town, Mathew never really bothered to explore it in the past. While other students of the school would often go waste their time in the service industry scattered all over the place and nearby school, the young man opted most of the time to just enjoy himself before the screen of his computer instead.

Yet, even without the experience of traveling those streets many times in the past, Mathew could still recognize the general area his group found themselves in.

‘We are just a single intersection away from the media building so how come we don’t see any of those zombies yet?’

“They are focused on the northern’s side of the building,” Norbert replied shortly. “I don’t know why, but the southern side is nearly completely devoid of any z’s,” he added, introducing a new form of referring to zombies.

“Guys, we need to stop,” Daniel suddenly announced, right after Norbert gave them some basic info about the situation.

“What’s wrong?” Mathew asked, glancing over his shoulder.

Seeing how the girls actually listened to Daniel’s request, Mathew ended up having no other choice but to fall in line and stop himself too.

“What’s the plan?” Daniel posed a short yet insanely important question. “Are we going to kill all the zombies and hope to establish another fortress in the media building?” he asked while looking over everyone’s faces. His eyes then landed on Mathew’s face. “Or maybe we are going to bring them back with us?”

‘It’s not like we are limited to just those two possible outcomes, are we?’ Mathew noticed the small lapse in Daniel’s suggestion. ‘But those two are indeed both the easiest and the most reasonable paths we can take,’ he then quickly admitted to himself.

Yet, Mathew noticed one additional thing. It was a small detail about his own way of thinking.

It was the fact that his initial reaction to Daniel’s suggestion wasn’t to verify its validity. It was to deny it at all cost, even if his suggestion was perfectly fine.

“I don’t think I can answer that yet,” Mathew replied, shaking his head over his own naive mindset. “We are already struggling to keep our small group cohesive. I don’t think going happy-go-lucky and bringing everyone back with us is the smartest thing we can do either,” he added.

“Why are we going out of our way, hurrying as if the world could end, if we are not going to bring them back, though?” Norbert asked, his face twisting in an ugly grimace. “I mean, I don’t really mind helping the others, but shouldn’t we aim to achieve something by doing so?”

Mathew bit down on his lips again.

“There is nothing wrong with helping another, especially in times like that,” Nadia countered.

Given her position in relation to Mathew, she couldn’t really see his expression. As such, those were her own, honest thoughts, rather than the girl’s attempt to back Mathew up.

“I understand the sentiment,” Daniel said as he nodded his head. Yet, he then steeled his resolve which soon reflected on his tensed-up face. “But the time of an apocalypse isn’t exactly the best time to plan anything on the basis of sentiment,” he pointed out in a surprisingly cold-hearted way.

“And you somehow made it to the police,” Leila scoffed. “Aren’t you ashamed to keep wearing your badge?” she then asked while resting her hands on her hips.

‘Not good,’ Mathew thought when the atmosphere started to turn tense. ‘If we allow something like this to stop us so quickly, we will never get to the building in time.’

“Guys, for now, let’s just get to the building,” Mathew proposed. “What we will do after helping the other party out, we can always decide once they are safe and sound,” he added.

“That’s true,” Daniel was quick to admit even though a hint of residual annoyance could be seen behind his eyes. “But I believe we still need some sort of a goal,” he stated. “We can’t go in there and fight with just the idea of saving someone. If we don’t have the goal we will never stop fighting.”

‘That’s a valid point,’ Mathew admitted before lowering his face and even going as far as to raise his hand only to then bite on the nail of his tongue. ‘What should be our goal for this mission?’

For how simple this question appeared to be, Mathew struggled to find its answer. In the end, it would be his next few words that would likely decide the course of the events in the near future.

‘So this is the burden of being a leader, huh?’ the young man thought, his lips somehow twitching up into a smile despite the turmoil going on in his soul.

“I can’t give you the clear goal,” Mathew finally came to the terms of the situation he found himself in. “I don’t have enough information about the other group, their own aims, their numbers or their knowledge about the system to declare some sort of lofty goal,” he said, ready to defend his stance. “And I believe that assuming some goal right now would only make us less flexible to adjust to the situation as it develops down the line.”

“I never said that the goal has the be final,” Daniel countered. “It doesn’t need to be big, but we need to have some sort of goal,” he continued to press the issue.

“We need to get on top of the building, to a relatively safe location, to give Norbert enough time and peace of mind to spy on the other group,” Mathew quickly replied.

‘We already gave the zombies a headstart when we didn’t follow them right away when they left,’ Mathew thought. ‘We only wasted more time by dealing with our potential inner strife. And what we are doing now?’ Mathew asked himself while tightening his fists. ‘Wasting even more time,’ he thought.

The young man then raised his eyes at the older officer. “Doesn’t that work for you?”

For a moment, Daniel simply looked down at Mathew’s face.

The contest of stares then ensued, lasting for nearly half a minute.

“That’s reasonable,” the policeman finally replied before heaving a deep sigh. “So, we are going to the roof to the building and then trying to scout out the situation of the other group so that we can decide what to do next, right?” he paraphrased Mathew’s makeshift plan.

“THat’s right,” the young man answered before turning around and finally taking another step in the direction of their temporary goal. “Are we good to go now, or are there any other problems that you deem important enough to stall us even further?”

Mathew wasn’t provoking the other party. He was simply expressing his displeasure over how much time their group wasted on less than absolutely necessary stuff, even though they were all supposed to be in a great hurry.

“There are none,” Daniel replied. His eyes flashed with annoyance, yet the policeman managed to rein his emotions in.

“Great,” Mathew replied in a sarcastic tone before turning around and finally facing the direction their party had to go to. “How about we hurry up and put our plan in motion, then?”