Benji looked back a last time at the apartment and sighed, there was nothing he could do about Miriam, he was on his own again..."Maybe it"s better this way..."
He still had a dangerous way in front of him to reach his mother"s house.
"I would only need around an hour if I take the way through the central part of Dortmund...." Thought Benji as he arrived down at the street.
"But the central part should be flooded with zombies!"
He was confident in his new powers but alone the thought to face hundred thousands of zombies made his scalp grow cold.
He decided to the the long route through the west and make his way slowly towards the north.
Benji pushed his hood over his head, it was 2pm and it was cold outside.
He only walked for 10 minutes before his new sense picked up presences....a lot of them!
"d.a.m.n why are there so many of them here?" Cursed Benji.
His new sense to detect zombies had expanded after consuming the 6 red crystals. He estimated that it covered an area of 30 meters around him.
Benji looked around, trying to find a way around the horde.
He took a longer route, entering more west wards than he first intended.
"This won"t be a walk in the park."
He traveled another 15 minutes when he sensed two zombies not far in front of him.
A nasty smile appeared on his face, he was secretly hoping to meet some drifters that he could kill to eat their crystals...
Benji entered his hunting mode, taking out his combat knife. He hid behind a green truck that was damaged, picking up a stone that lied on the street.
He threw the stone to the side, attracting the two zombies.
Their head snapped to the side, they rushed towards the source of the noise.
Benji smiled behind the green truck, "Easy money!"
He sprinted faster than a human could, arriving beside the zombies in a few seconds.
"Freeze!" Ordered Benji with his thoughts.
They froze on the spot and his knife stabbed deep into their heads killing them quickly.
He became happier as he noticed how easier it was to control them in comparison to earlier...
Benji didn"t waste even a second, taking the crystals away from their brains.
It was pretty disgusting but the gains were definitely worth it.
"I wonder how strong I can get..." Benji stored the two crystals inside his backpack, continuing his travel.
It went pretty good, he collected a total of 14 little crystals stored inside his backpack, avoiding the larger groups and only hunting the drifters.
"Bachstraße(1), I"m getting closer the north..." Benji observed the city, not sure what to think.
Dortmund an once proud city of Germany turned into chaos...Burned down buildings, tons of devastated cars and it wouldn"t be extracted to say that every 10 meters lied dried blood on the streets...
His sense picked up another group of zombies not far from him, forcing him to turn around and take another route.
It took him twenty minutes and Benji had and extreme ugly expression in the end.
He took every way possible but the group of zombies was too large, they literally occupied the whole zone.
Benji"s observed the horde deep in thought, his face hidden under the hood, with a violent glint flashing across his red eyes.
"I can"t avoid them and trying to sneak past them is pure suicide..."
He sighed, "The only thing I can do right now is to grind them slowly down..."
Benji decided to use an empty house near the horde as temporary base.
"I will use my control power and order two or three of them to head my way, then kill them and continue that as long possible." His plan was simple and everyone could do it if they had his powers, but the fact remained that he didn"t exactly know how many zombies were out there.
He knew it himself but he sticked with his decision.
And so the grind began...
Meanwhile at the secluded facility at the border between Italy and Austria...
A group of people in operation clothes were baffled by their findings.
"What on earth is this? The scanners didn"t detect it!" Said a doctor while staring at the objekt between the tweezers. It was a small red crystal that was connected to many thin roots.
The other doctors stayed silent, they didn"t know what to say.
They were inside a cube made of gla.s.s, in the middle was an operating desk on which lied the body of a woman. Her body was cut open and her organs were already removed, orderly separated beside the body inside containers.
The last part was the brain, it was then that they discovered the small red crystal buried inside it. They had scanned the body before opening it but, the equipment didn"t show them anything out of the ordinary.
They had thought that the specimen would be brought back alive but it went berserk while they were in the air. The squad had no choice but to eliminate it because it became immune to the tranquilizers.
The researchers were disappointed but they could only accept it in the end and work with what they got.
The other researchers stood outside the gla.s.s cube, observing everything with great interest.
"How did this thing appear inside her brain? What is this?"
Those questions were spoken out in the air, the others outside began to discuss it too.
Amidst them stood Amelia Volari, she was frowning deeply.
She played with her raven black hair, "We have dissected many guinea pigs but never found something like that! How? Why now after we started the project?"
Amelia was confused, things didn"t developed like they initially planned.
She grabbed a tablet, starting a video call.
A soldier answered the call, "Yes Professor Volari?"
"I have a mission for your men, secure some of the infected and open their skulls, call me back if you find something unusual inside their brain!"
The soldier saluted, "Understood Professor, It will take us roughly 20 minutes."
"Good!" Spoke Amelia before ending the call.
The other researchers around her had listened to her and nodded.
"We need more samples to understand how these things were created." Agreed another Professor to her side.
One of the operating doctors held the small red crystal in front of the light, observing it.
Benji would be surprised if he saw the crystal, it was at least thrice times bigger than the ones he collected so far.
Suddenly the thin roots connected to the crystal began to wriggle, they drilled through the gloves, into the fingers of the doctor who was holding it.
"AHHH AHHHHH IT HURTS!" The doctor cried out like a pig that was being slaughtered.
The other doctors panicked and ran towards the exit.
They noticed to their horror that the door was locked, it made them come back to their senses.
The red crystal had already turned into liquid and forced its way through the arm of the doctor until it reached his face.
The other researchers had distanced themselves from the poor doctor who was now lying on the floor shivering in pain.
"AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHH!" His screams echoed through the gla.s.s cube.
The soldiers stationed outside were ready to storm the ice cube to put and end to the doctor but they were called back by Amelia.
"Don"t act yet, I want to see what happens."
The soldier looked at each other and stepped back. The other researchers beside her nodded, the way they looked at the doctor on the floor had changed.
The poor doctor would shudder if he saw the way how they stared at him, it was the same way he stared at their guinea pigs.
Even the other doctors trapped together with him, stared at him with that strange look in their eyes.
The screams became weaker after one hour pa.s.sed and the doctor on the floor calmed down.
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The doctor sat slowly up, sweating a lot.
Everyone paid more attention to him, his eyes were red now.
"I thought I would die...that really hurt." Spoke the doctor.
"Pashli? How do you feel?" Asked a doctor that was close to him.
The doctor looked up and frowned, "I"m not sure but I feel...changed, but I"m still me." Answered the doctor as he began to move his fingers in wonder.
Amelia"s attention was interrupted by a video call. She took it and the same soldier from earlier saluted.
"Reporting our findings Professor! We did find something unusual inside the brains of the infected..." The soldier held a plastic container in front of the camera. There were 5 tiny red crystals inside.
The researchers eyes widened when they heard the soldier.
Amelia frowned, "How many did you kill to get these five pieces?"
"We eliminated the first five infected we encountered and every single one of them had such a thing inside their brains Professor!"
Everyone gasped in shock, even Amelia.
She fell into deep thoughts trying to connect the dots.
"I have a new mission, for you. Collect as many of these things possible and bring them back. You can request help from other squads, this mission has now the highest priority!"
"Understood Professor!" Answered the Soldier.
Amelia licked her lips, "We will find everything about this anomaly out!" Her sharp gaze locked into the poor doctor inside the gla.s.s cube.
Everyone"s gaze fell upon him, causing him to gulp hard.