System Of The Undead

Chapter 166: Development

Rachel and Bella reached Rachel’s home, Lillian was already fast asleep so this allowed them to talk with a certain freedom.

"What was so urgent?" Rachel asked as she sat on the couch, Bella sat right beside her.

"I have a strange favour to ask," Bella said and Rachel gave her her full attention.

"I’m listening," Rachel responded, sighing in exhaustion, she needed some rest.

"I might have a lead in the case, I met someone who said he has information but he isn\t willing to give me until I do something for him," Bella said and Rachel’s body immediately jerked forward from her relaxed position.

"That reminds me! I spoke to Mr. Gabriel today and all the evidence points to his medicine being tampered with," Rachel said and Bella was clearly surprised by this information.

"It is just as we suspected. Whoever this person is, he has access to their meds and can get close enough without suspicion so they must be a trustworthy person," Bella said.

This was slowly making sense and she was connecting the dots but she hoped she wouldn’t be too late.

"My thoughts exactly, I don’t know what to do because we’re running in the blind here. We need something to work with," Rachel said.

"I might have that," Bella said, the conversation presented her the perfect opportunity to tilt the conversation in her favour.

"Tell me," Rachel said, brimming with energy.

"A man met me and informed me that he might have the information I needed but he needed me to do something for him," Bella said, pausing to gauge Rachel’s reaction.

"If he knew something, why hasn’t he come forth and informed Mariam with such valuable information?" Rachel asked a very good question but these things were never in black and white.

"I thought that at first but it’s never that easy from my experience," Bella responded and Rachel’s body language agreed with her.

"You do have a point so what did he want?" Rachel asked.

"Pills..." Bella blurted to which Rachel’s eyebrow arched in confusion.

"Pils? Why don’t they go and get them like everyone else?" Rachel asked.

"I have no idea but whoever this person is, he wants to stay off the record, I think it’s worth a try," Bella said but this could go south in so many ways.

The security around the hospital has not only tightened but there was no way that Rachel could leave the hospital without being searched as this had become common practice.

"You want me to take it, don’t you?" Rachel caught on and Bella nodded in agreement.

"That’s right but only if you can, I don’t want you to do anything that you aren’t comfortable with," Bella said. It was ironic how far they had come, these people were once enemies and now they were looking out for one another.

"No, I don’t have much of a choice, we have to get whoever is doing this or things could get worse. I will get it done but don’t take your eyes off the person," Rachel said and Bella was relieved by her response.

She couldn’t do it alone and Rachel was in the perfect position to make this a reality, this was why Rachel joined this unit in the first place.

-

Jason and Clementine were to have a conversation but Clementine didn’t know the words to use.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Clementine?" Jason asked, the silence was loud and he wanted to get some rest as it was looking like tomorrow would be the day that they would leave.

Jason was surprised that the other group didn’t return to try and rescue them if anything.

Were they even still alive? This was a question he began to ask.

Franklin was no Dimitris but Franklin felt the need to impress the higher-ups.

There was no way she would leave him to dry, especially with questions that would follow such a move.

"Jason, are you human?" Clementine asked out of the blue.

"Wait, what? Of course, I’m human!" Jason responded in a heartbeat but his response did little to change Clementine’s mind.

"Why did you eat that piece of rock you retrieved from the zombie?" Clementine finally asked the question.

She was tired of pretending and knew she needed answers so she knew how to act going forward.

She needed to know for certain if Jason was a threat or not.

Jason’s body language changed the moment this question was asked.

"Ah, so you saw that..." Jason said; he didn’t try to deny it and gaslight Clementine into thinking it was all in her head. He respected her too much for such a game.

"I did and I thought about putting you down. Do I need to put you down, Jason?" Clementine was blunt and direct, something that Jason appreciated as there weren’t so many people like this around.

"I would be lying if I said I knew, I feel like myself sometimes and other times, I feel like something I don’t even recognize," Jason confessed.

It wasn’t all a bed of roses, the more fragments he consumed, the stronger he became but it was like it was eating away at his emotions.

He felt less and less after each consumption.

"If the day should I ever come where I’m a threat to the community, put a bullet right through my head," Jason declared.

Clementine didn’t hesitate for a second because this was the least she could do.

"You have got it," Clementine responded.

"Damn! You’re cold, it’s really that easy? No ’Jason, I won’t let it come to that, I will bring you back from the abyss’?" Jason asked.

"This isn’t some romance novel, Jason... I need you to tell me everything you know about the fragment," Clementine found his joke funny but she knew if she laughed, she would not only lessen the seriousness of the current conversation but give room for diversion.

Jason conceded and told her everything he knew about fragment but he excluded every mention of a system and Chronos.

He knew that Clementine wouldn’t understand and the fragment was all she needed to know.

Clementine was amazed by this revelation, she could never have guessed it but it all made sense.

She also connected a missing piece that Jason couldn’t quite fit himself.

"This explains everything but Jason, doesn’t this mean you’re the reason that strange zombie found the camp?" Clementine asked.

The logic that zombies seek out the fragment could easily be translated to the zombies seek out Jason.

Jason had consumed more than one fragment at this point so the concentration should be higher.

And like everything, the zombies would be drawn to the bigger piece as it had the potential to further their evolution a lot better than a small fragment.

"You catch on quite quick but I don’t think the zombies can do that. I think it is a skill reserved for other zombies with this same fragment," Jason said but Clementine recalled them walking through the horde.

The horde was acting strange and they stopped the moment they separated from Jason.

Clementine bit her tongue because she knew this was Jason deluding himself, he was lying to himself so he wouldn’t have to face one fact.

Jason was a liability.

-

"Fucking hell! What the fuck is that?" A female voice echoed, watching as it tore through her men.

This was no doubt Debra, she was hiding alone in a secluded location.

"Did everyone in this goddamn city die!?" Debra muttered but what was more terrifying was the zombie they had encountered.

This zombie wasn’t just killing them and feasting on their corpse, it was ripping open their heads and consuming their brains.

This was the first time she had seen a zombie with such mannerisms and the fact that it took them unaware made it impossible for her or her men to react.

All they could do was run, Debra and one more person were alive.

They knew they couldn’t do anything to defeat the zombie but luckily for them, they were all packed up.

All they needed to do was get to the car but this zombie didn’t leave its position.

Debra peeped once again to see that it had eaten the brains of the corpses before devouring their entire body.

"This is bad! This is really bad!" She said, her body fidgeting.

They were in a deserted parking lot, the zombie was right in the path that they would take to get to their vehicle, and there was no winning at this point.

If they went forward, they would run right into the zombie and they couldn’t go around it because this place was crawling with over five hundred fucking zombies, the infection here was bad and now they understood why Dimitris did a thorough survey of the place he raided.

Dimitris had labelled this area a red zone, which meant that it was highly dangerous even for him to undertake but Franklin always thought he had to prove himself and what better way to do that than this?

A bird landed right in front of Debra, this was no doubt a vulture. It didn’t look to be dead and Debra heaved a sigh of relief only for the bird to turn to her upon the sigh.

This was when she noticed that its left side was missing with its left eyeball dangling out of its socket.

"Is this it?" Debra thought before the vulture lunged forward.