System Of The Undead

Chapter 178: Brains! I Want Brains!

[[New evolved zombie detected!]]

The system alerted him and Jason could tell this already, he was getting ready to fight but he knew that they needed to get out of there as soon as possible or they risked being slaughtered.

Jason was beginning to feel the fatigue resonate through his entire body but he could still handle himself for the time being.

Jason was standing right in front of a gorilla and he knew that there was no escape, the gorilla would not only have him beat in a contest of physical strength but it would also pummel him to a pulp.

"This isn’t looking good," Jason muttered, he had his gun in hand and knew a bullet to the head would do enough damage.

The gorilla charged at Jason and Jason was cautious, he didn’t want to use his gun, at least not yet.

Jason thought about running but the average gorilla was faster than the average man even though he wasn’t exactly an average man.

He lost a few valuable stamina points with his earlier skill and knew he couldn’t risk exhausting everything.

Jason managed to jump out of its way before it grabbed him, gorillas were vicious and there was no telling what it would do once it grabbed him.

"...Not yet," Jason muttered as he took a couple of steps back and the gorilla charged at him once again.

Jason tried to take a step back but he found himself falling to the ground, he had tripped over something.

Jason knew this was bad but it wasn’t time yet, he had devised a hasty plan to take down the evolved zombie using as little firepower as possible.

However, there was no escaping this, the gorilla grabbed him by the feet and immediately attempted to sink its teeth into it.

Jason kicked its head but the force wasn’t enough to repel the gorilla.

"Fucking hell! The gorilla doesn’t feel pain," Jason recalled and there was nothing he could do at this very moment.

Jason aligned the barrel of his gun to the gorilla’s head and the gorilla immediately grabbed it like it knew the danger it posed.

This zombie had intelligence and Jason smirked the moment it did because this was what he was banking on.

It cancelled its earlier action to defend itself, this meant that it valued its survival overfeeding.

Jason was beginning to understand how evolved zombies thought, they weren’t just mindless creatures that had only food on their mind.

He noticed the bullet wounds on the gorilla’s chest and realized that this must be why he recognized the threat that the gun possessed.

Jason rolled to the side before jumping to his feet, there was no way that he could take down the zombie on his own.

He knew that this would be the case but Jason had an idea and just started sprinting in the opposite direction with the gorilla giving chase.

Clementine appeared out of the carcass of the zombie she had hidden in to catch the evolved zombie unaware.

The plan was for Jason to keep it distracted so she could exploit any opening that he created but he was deviating from the plan.

Clementine wondered what the hell he was doing but she didn’t know if she should give chase or wait for him to return.

"Damn it, Jason," She cussed under her breath as she gave chase, there was no telling what this gorilla was capable of and she had no intentions of gambling on Jason’s safety.

-

Franklin was vulnerable, he didn’t care what happened to him anymore but this only showed how important Debra was to him.

Brayden was out of range as well and there was nothing he could do to help Franklin.

Brayden hissed as he brandished his gun and let loose a barrage of bullets but the zombie shielded itself by raising its hand.

The bullet plunged into its deformed arm but it didn’t turn its attention to Brayden.

It remained focused on Franklin.

The only way Franklin was surviving this was if he snapped back to it.

He walked over to her corpse, standing right above it with his back turned to the zombie.

He saw the necklace he had gotten for Debra wrapped around her neck.

It looked very much like an engagement ring but it wasn’t on her finger because Debra wanted it close to her heart.

That, and the ring was too small to fit on her fingers, it was the apocalypse so they had limited options when it came to this.

The zombie loomed over Franklin, its massive shadow consuming everything in its path.

"Y-You said you would never leave me," Franklin muttered under his breath but the look in his eyes changed to rage.

And his sanity came back, there was no way in fucking hell where he would let the person that killed his woman go unharmed.

The zombie’s hand descended, trying to grab Franklin but Franklin could process its movement thanks to its shadow.

He jumped forward while doing a 180 turn, he equipped the pistol he had on him and tried to aim for the zombie’s head but once again, it defended itself.

"That’s it!" Brayden exclaimed because the only chance they stood was if they fought together.

There was no way that only one of them could defeat this abomination but why the fuck was it eating their brain.

Franklin flashed Brayden a look before looking at a specific part of the zombie’s body.

Brayden understood this non-verbal signal and fired multiple bullets but it wasn’t aimed at its head but rather, legs.

This was the least protected part of the zombie’s body but the zombie wasn’t affected by this

The bullets weren’t doing as much damage as they had hoped and the zombie finally registered Brayden’s presence as a threat.

It stretched its hand in his direction and Brayden raised his brow because he was out of the zombie’s reach so what the fuck was it doing?

Franklin was just as confused as Brayden but the zombie’s deformed hand began to make a strange sound.

"What the fuck?" Brayden muttered and before he could even react, something shot past him.

The zombie tilted its head like it was processing information.

Brayden slowly looked over his shoulder and noticed there was metal lodged into one of the abandoned cars behind him before returning his gaze to the zombie.

"It is shooting out the bullets!?" Brayden thought and before the zombie could release even more bullets, Brayden jumped, taking cover.

The bullet pelted the car but they were covered in some strange fluids.

Franklin knew that this zombie was way past what they could handle but he couldn’t leave Debra unavenged.

He had to make the zombie pay for killing her or he would forever regret this moment.

He couldn’t save her but this he could do, Franklin knew that if it could somehow expel the bullets in its body then shooting it would simply be giving it more ammunition.

Franklin found that the zombie soon returned its attention to Franklin with that same hand outstretched and he knew what came next with it.

Franklin looked to his left and right but he didn’t have any cover.

But the zombie lowered its hand before looking up to the sky with a pointed finger and Franklin’s jaw dropped.

"What are you doing? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!?" Franklin barked and the reason he did was because the zombie was doing something that only Debra did.

He couldn’t believe what was happening and this made his stomach turn.

The zombie could have killed him but it didn’t kill him and Franklin wondered why.

"... Debra?" Franklin muttered in disbelief and only then did the zombie respond to him.

It looked down at him and Franklin could swear it heard it call his name but there was a simple logical explanation to this.

The zombie assimilated the memories of those it ate, it started as an accident as it happened to eat the brain but it slowly developed an appetite for it.

The zombie was dead and for it to ’relive’ through the brains it consumed was addictive.

But what else was it learning from consuming their brain?

The only reason that this zombie was showing mannerisms similar to Debra’s was because it was still assimilating her memory. However, Franklin wasn’t willing to let go; this gave birth to delusion.

This was the opening they had been looking for, they had to take it.

Brayden readied his gun to fire that decisive shot through its head but what happened next surprised him, Franklin stood right in the path of fire, once again backing the zombie.

"I won’t let you kill her," Franklin said to which Brayden was confused about what he meant.

That was not a her, that was a fucking abomination.

"Now isn’t the time to be fucking around! Get out of the way!" Brayden barked.

"I said, I WON’T LET YOU KILL HER! SHE IS IN THERE BRAYDEN! SHE CALLED MY NAME!" Franklin screamed and this was when Brayden realized that Debra’s death had broken him.

The zombie didn’t call him, this was all in his mind.

There was no saving Franklin and Brayden knew this but the opening he had was gone as the zombie turned towards Franklin.

This time, it had no intention of sparing him.