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“Huff, huff, huff.”

Mathew exhaled the air from his lung in perfect harmony with the stepping of his jog.

From an outsider’s perspective, he appeared like a typical young adult going for an energetic stroll mixed with a periodic run.

Or rather, he would appear like that if not for the rest of his group tagging along as they all kept just enough speed to keep the zombies chasing them at a constant distance.

“Just a little bit more,” Mathew called out once he could see the outline of the school’s compound emerging from beyond the other buildings of the now-dead city. “Make sure not to be too fast!”

Mathew’s idea was simple. Since he didn’t want to waste time hunting the zombies, the best bet his group had was to avoid them. And yet, even though they could easily outrun them on the relatively open streets of the city with most of the zombies nearby either dead or away in some other place, Mathew decided against it.

Because once all their tasks at the school would be completed, they would be left with a massive lack of cores necessary to establish the third fortress, not to speak about the potential cost of establishing a settlement.

‘We need to guide them just a little bit more and then they should be stuck by the school’s wall,’ Mathew thought, controlling his breath as he continued to make his way forward. ‘Still, it’s weird how little zombies we saw on our way.’

The city before their trip to the media building and the city that he could see during their return turned out to be extremely different.

Back just a single day, Mathew believed it would be madness to take the shortest and the most convenient path of the main city’s road. It was too open, too exposed to the attacks from all the side roads and the zombies hustling around.

And yet, right now, even though they paid no effort to keep themselves silent or hard to notice, only three different groups of zombies totaling roughly fifty specimens appeared on their path. And right now, those fifty zombies continued their mad rush… Only to remain about twenty meters behind Norbert at all times.

“How are you holding up?” Mathew asked, glancing to the back at the weakest member of his group.

“I will…” Norbert opened his mouth and started his reply, only to cut it short when he had to desperately gasp for air.

He was a relatively athletic person. As a member of the anti-terrorist unit of the local law enforcement of the past, he had to represent a certain level of fitness in order to keep his position.

And yet, after only two kilometers long run, he was already reaching his limit.

‘I guess the growth of our strength is also warping our perception,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth. ‘And thinking back to what Daniel pointed out, it seems that our perception of things might be an insanely important element of this new world.’

“I will manage,” Norbert finally managed to stabilize his breath to the point where he could afford to utter a short sentence. “Don’t worry about me,” he then added only to close his eyes and once again struggle to stabilize his breath.

“Make sure to call it out when it’s too much,” Mathew added only to turn his eyes back to the road ahead.

‘We are close… But that also means I’m more likely to fall into the near success fallacy,’ the young man reminded himself, tightening his fist to the point his nails cut through the skin of his palms.

In a moment of a relative rush, the pain was the easiest carrier for the warnings that Mathew would utter to himself.

Mathew’s group took a turn to the right, leaving the main street of the city only to enter the main local road of the district.

“SCREEEE!”

It was then and only then that the mystery of all the missing zombies finally revealed itself.

‘They there are,’ Mathew thought when he heard a loud noise made by a huge number of zombies coming out from a nearby area.

“There is another horde stuck by the school’s wall!” Norbert reported from the back.

“Get ready to cut through them!” Mathew shouted, just in case the rush of the run would make it harder for some to hear his orders.

Everyone pulled out their weapon even before the horde of zombies entered their sight.

Mathew pushed his upper body a little bit forward while allowing his leading hand to lag behind along with the saber in it.

They passed through the first intersection. Then a second one. And then, after taking one more right turn, they reached the direct area around the school.

“Screee!”

The horde of zombies was truly stuck by the school’s invisible wall.

Some were attempting to break the physical objects that the wall was anchored on. Others were stacked in a single point, attempting to scale it over. Even more zombies were scattered all over the place, probing every possible point of the barrier with their rotting hands.

Yet, if there was one place that housed the greatest number of zombies, it was the area directly around the gate.

‘Thank God we kept it closed,’ Mathew thought, not even daring to think what would happen if even a single zombie were to break through.

“Norbert, can you scale the fence?” Mathew asked, halting in his steps right around the last corner behind which his group could hide before venturing to the fully open area around the compound.

“That’s…” the officer turned his eyes towards the fence surrounding the compound’s grounds. He hesitated only for a moment before averting his eyes to the side. “I can try, but I can’t say for sure I will be able to do it,” he uttered his first longer sentence ever since the group started to run.

“Want me to throw you over?” Mathew suggested, unable to stop a small smirk from appearing on his face.

“As bad as it sounds… It’s still a better idea than cutting through all those zombies just to get to the gate,” Norbert quickly answered, ignoring his pride as a man and opting to vie for the optimal solution to the problem.

“I believe you girls won’t have any problems jumping over,” Mathew muttered as he turned his eyes toward the rest of his group.

“No problem here,” Nadia reported.

“Same here,” Leila was quick to follow suit.

“I might actually need you to help me as well,” Daria said last, averting her eyes to hide a smug smirk that surfaced on her lips.

“Well then,” Mathew muttered, rolling his eyes as he swung his saber around to warm up his wrists. “Nadia, you are with me,” he gave his order. “We are going to clear one of the less crowded spots. Then, we will help Daria and Norbert to get over the fence,” he added, already scanning the area for a suitable spot to breach through the horde.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill them all?” Leila suggested, the slight trembling of her weapon-wielding hand betraying how eager she was to revel in the carnage. “This way, we could avoid all that throwing stuff,” she added, her eyes moving over Daria and Norbert only to end up resting on Mathew’s face.

“We can save it for later,” Mathew decided, cutting Leila’s hopes for some exciting fighting down. “For now, we need to get to the other side of the fence. And with that…” Mathew smiled. “Let’s move!”