Under the cover of the rain, John took aim at the infected nearest to him and let off one shot as the storm relentlessly poured over the city. The zed dropped to the ground as expected when that powerful 10mm round blasted right through its head, and as he was preparing for the other zombies to react to the sound of their fellow infected collapsing and the spent brass shell casing clattering to the ground, no such reaction occurred.
Hmm, I was praying the rain would be enough to cover the noise my kill would inevitably produce, and it appears those prayers were answered.
Although the rain was kind of a pain to be running around in, he was glad that it was raining a boatload since it would make what was to come that much easier. Seeing that the infected were completely unaware of his presence, he continued and quickly began carving out a bloody path through these aimless undead, and soon enough, he reached the street.
He couldn't tell what building was what initially, with him being so far from the road before but now that he made it here he could tell what was what, so he examined the buildings one by one whilst keeping an eye on the wandering infected and sticking to the shadows. Unfortunately, none of them tickled his fancy because they were all pretty much commercial buildings and didn't appear all that sturdy from what he could observe. Chargers and Tanks were a very real concern when picking a spot to stay, so he was going to need a place with a solid structure, otherwise God knows what could happen while he was passed out snoring away.
Mmm, none of these buildings are gonna work…
John looked around the area a bit more, but nothing truly caught his attention.
Yeah, none of these are gonna work... Ahh, you know what; I remember seeing a cluster of residential towers a bit away from here on the map, so I better head there first, otherwise I'll just be running about aimlessly like these zeds.
Having found no viable place to stay the night around here and running increasingly low on energy, John wasted no time moving southward and adding even more bodies to those already decomposing on the ground. The heavy rainfall provided plenty of cover, so he took full advantage of it and stealthily weaved through the cluttered streets.
Our protagonist transitioned from the many abandoned vehicles that littered the roads, took cover behind various corners when he needed to, and cut through over a dozen alleyways as he traveled across the northern region of Fairfield. And after raising his body count by around another 300 zombies, more than half of which he dispatched through a single fast stab to the head or swift swipe to the neck, he made it to an area full of prospects and, most importantly, undetected.
Now this area has some potential. I mean, just look at em. The buildings here are obviously a hell of a lot sturdier, with them being made from concrete instead of the typical brick construction I've seen throughout a significant portion of the city.
Liking what he was seeing, John continued looking around the new section he found himself in, and before long his eyes locked onto a particular building in the distance, a towering high-end residential building with an old-world facade. The apartment building stood way above those that surrounded it and appeared to be comparable in height to the Mercy Hospital downtown… Or at least from what he could tell through all this goddamn rain.
That building over there looks like it has some potential… Yeah, the exterior looks pretty sturdy as well, so let me start with that and go from there.
With his sights set on the grand, old-styled stone building jutting into the sky, John advanced in the direction of the structure. However, there were a number of infected wandering around the area that required a good hack to head before he could arrive at the building, so he went ahead and started silently taking out only those that were absolutely necessary. Once he had eliminated every infected in his path, he stepped over his last kill and passed in between the tall granite columns decorating the exterior of this residential building. He was excited to head on inside and investigate; unfortunately, the front door was sealed shut by a solid layer of metal plus an equally solid door that was reminiscent of a survivor safe room door.
Welp, it's locked. What am I going to do now...
The armored door didn't budge even a smidge when he tried to open it initially, so he fell into thought and began brainstorming. A handful of seconds went by before he decided to give his lock picking set a whirl. He was unsure if it would work since the lock on the door seemed unordinary and much higher grade than anything he had come across thus far, but it was worth at least a try before he took any more drastic measures. So as soon as he brought the set out, he got to work setting the pins off of feel alone since it was much too dark to peer inside the keyhole.
This should serve as good practice.
A dozen seconds quickly passed by as he worked away on the mechanism and kept an occasional eye on his surroundings, then a minute, and before he knew it, over ten minutes flew right by as he continued jingling his pick. Fortunately, lady luck took pity on John's plight, so the next thing he knew the last pin he was struggling to get got set and his pry bar that he'd been applying light pressure to began to turn.
Aye, there we go.
With the lock defeated finally, John slowly cracked the large, heavy door and took a peek inside. What lay within was a grand lobby covered in high-end finishes, luxurious furniture, and fully decked out in white marble, particularly one you'd expect to find in a luxury hotel. There was even one of those fancy crystal chandeliers installed in the ceiling. But beyond the boatload of money that had obviously been poured into the build quality of the place, there were 4 zombies actively devouring a security guard right smack dab in the middle of the lobby floor.
Looks like even with this hefty door blocking the way in they weren't able to keep the Green Flu, and the infected out… Well, that's to be expected since I doubt this place has the sort of filtration system required to filter out the airborne virus.
John scanned what he could from the gap, but there was only so much he could gather from his limited viewpoint; hence he flung the door the rest of the way and charged at the unsuspecting undead. He got the drop on them as expected, and after madly swinging his machete around in a practiced flurry, the four infected lay bent over and headless.
This blade is gonna need to be replaced because it has dulled way too much.
His blade had served him well throughout his venture across this city, but its inadequacies and lack of durability were beginning to show and become too obvious to ignore any longer, so it was time to say farewell to this starter weapon, which was inching ever closer to retirement. But that would have to wait till he figured out where he was going to hunker down for tonight, so he moved his attention from the dulling blade of his machete and examined the large luxurious space. His eyes systematically roamed back and forth over the space, and before long, his eyes that had been darting around the opulent room ended up right beside the half eaten corpse the group of zombies had been chowing down on.
And what do we have here?
Bending down next to the deceased security officer, John discovered a ring of blood stained keys.
I wonder if any of these would work for the door I just spent the last 10 minutes lock picking… Well, I won't know unless I try.
Not a single zed was left alive in the entryway, so he put any further exploration of this many-storied structure on hold and excitedly bounded over to the front door. The moment he arrived back outside, he attempted to insert the first key he grabbed, but it didn't even fit in the hole.
Ugh, this is gonna take a minute.
Not losing hope, he went through one key after the next, and when he was on the very last one, he finally found the key he was looking for.
Christ almighty, it just had to be the very last one, didn't it!
Having determined that he now possessed a way of securing the front door of this building… After an aggravating few minutes, John wandered on back inside, shut the beefy security door behind him, and locked it down tight. Once the over-engineered locking mechanism was engaged, his eyes roamed over the entrance one more time before he passed the mess he contributed to on the marble-tiled floor. From there, he walked over to the counter on the side and circled around it, finding yet another chewed-up body.
Poor bastard went out rough.
Paying no mind to the corpse that was left mostly as bones, he approached the door he had spotted originally from the other side of the counter and attempted to open it. Our cautious protagonist needed to check and scour every inch of this place before he could feel comfortable enough to finally pass out, so he turned the handle slowly and used the same strat as before. Luckily, all he found inside was a back office for the building's security and those who would've been operating the counter.
This room is clear; time to push in deeper.
Having ensured there weren't any infected or other possible dangers hiding there, he left that back room and roamed the entirety of the first floor. However, after exploring absolutely everything here on the ground floor, he only managed to find another couple dozen infected, all of which appeared to be the building's former employees if their outfits were anything to go by.
The place has a basement level along with an underground parking garage, so I guess I'll look there next before I start clearing every level one by one. Once that's done, I'll see about occupying one of the units for myself and getting some rest. That being said, I got quite a lot of work ahead of me because with the world's situation being as it is there's no freaking way I can take the elevator since I can't afford to get stuck in a floating metal coffin, so I'm gonna have to take the stairs… Yeah, this is going to fucking suck.
Determined to get some much-needed rest, John set off for the underground level this time around. Fortunately, there was nothing that required disposing of, with it being mainly used for parking cars, storage, and housing some of this apartment building's utilities. Hence, he began his journey of clearing the second floor, the apartments on that level, and the many that would soon follow them on the many floors above.
…
The lower levels had residents as expected, but they were all of the undead variety, unfortunately, so blood had to be spilled in a number of the units, including those of children who had succumbed to the infection. But that was better than the alternative because trying to manhandle multiple berserk infected all on his own and at once wouldn't have been an easy nor very safe task. As for the levels past the first handful, they were kind of a mixed bag of residents that offed themselves and their families, people stupidly opening their doors, and entire levels succumbing to a sudden outbreak on their floor.
I kind of expected these results, but I was hoping not every single resident had turned… Haaah, it's whatever, I got a few more floors to go, so there's still a chance of there being someone else being left alive here besides myself. I mean, I'm fine existing and operating on my own for extended periods, but I'm not gonna lie, having someone else to interact with and break up my day would be nice.
Although he was beginning to wish he could find just one person left alive, he knew he had no control over it, so he left the 18th floor behind and entered the stairwell. The stairwell was deathly silent, just as it was before, so John climbed the opulent marble steps with his Glock 20 in his right hand and his soon to be replaced machete in his left. He encountered no trouble on his way to the 19th floor and this continued the rest of the way till he reached the door, where he encountered a locked door, surprisingly.
Hmm, that's strange. This is the first locked door I encountered in the stairwell… Welp, good thing I got this set of keys.
Unbothered by the stoppage, John got the big ole ring of keys out and started testing them one by one.
Hopefully, this doesn't take as long as the first time.