Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 191: A New Journey (Second Half)

A few minutes earlier, back at the survivor camp.

*Ratatata!*

"That! Those are gunshots and it sounds like coming from a machine gun! Is a group of survivors fighting zombies in the dead of the night!?" one of the night guards yelled in horror at his companion, after all, if a swarm of zombies heads towards them, then they can only pray that walls would be able to hold them off or they're doomed!

The sounds of wild gunfire immediately awakened the survivors in confusion as they immediately jumped out of their beds, grabbed their weapons and ran outside, as they thought that the guards are fighting a lot of zombies, but when they reached outside, only now do they remember that they don't have that kind of a firearm here.

The survivors continuously ran outside while holding their own weapons in their hands, and most of them ran on top of the wall to look what's happening outside.

*Ratatata!*

"What's happening!?" Derek ran out from a nearby shed turned into a room as he hastily tried to wear his shirt while holding a machete on one of his hands, then suddenly a chestnut haired woman also ran out from the room.

Ariel, Emily and their other companions looked at them weirdly and some had wide smiles on their faces.

"I knew it" Ariel chuckled as walked towards the platform attached from the wall.

"Yeah, yeah, shut it Ariel. We don't have time for this" the woman with chestnut hair glared at him.

The woman was one of their companions, the woman who had fitness or gym like body, and she's called Snow.

"Anyway, what the heck is going on?" Derek said, as he squinted his eyes towards the direction where the sound of gunfire is coming from.

"The heck do I know, I can't see shit in these darkness" Mitchell said, a bit annoyed.

"Damn, it's too dark, the only thing we could see are the flash after a bullet is fired" Ariel commented from the side, as he gripped his weapon tightly, his hands covered in sweat from nervousness as all of them could hear the moaning of those zombies from a distance, a sign that there's a lot of them ahead.

*Ratatata!*

While they are discussing how they should proceed from this, Derek suddenly remembered someone, "Hey, why isn't the boss here?"

The moment he said those words, a horrified voice of a woman sounded from behind them.

"Bad news! The boss is nowhere to be found! He's also not in his room!" the woman shouted in horror.

"What!? No way!"

"Did he abandon us!?"

The survivors started panicking, and the moaning of probably hundreds of zombies just made it worse!

Derek was about to yell angrily at them, when suddenly, they hear someone cursing coming from the direction of where the gunfire is occurring.

"Stop running, you fucktards!"

"Die! Die! Die for me, you bastards!"

*Ratatata!*

Derek and others were suddenly startled because of that and then Emily suddenly shouted in glee, "That's...that's Leo's voice! I can recognize it even from here!"

Mitchell looked at Derek if he could also recognize that voice, and so Derek nodded at him and said, "Yeah, Emily is right, that sure sounds like the boss"

"Maybe that's why they can't find him anywhere because he already went and faced those zombies without telling us" Michelle said, with a bit of admiration in his voice, but the moment he said those words, he suddenly realized something.

"Wait, does that mean he's fighting in pitch black darkness?" he sounded a bit horrified.

"Let's go help him then!" Emily yelled at them, and then just as she was about to descend from there, a hand suddenly grabbed her arm and when she turned her head, she saw that it was Derek who grabbed her.

"Derek, what are you doing!?" Emily she yelled as she shook his hands off of her.

"We can't! It's too dangerous outside! We won't be able to see in these pitch black darkness, and even if we have torch lights, it would still be useless as the darkness would obviously reduce our reaction in case a zombie attacks us" Derek said while shaking his head towards him.

"He's right Emily, if go there, we'd just be extra baggage to the boss" Ariel also agreed to Derek, as going there is certainly a bad idea.

"Then what do we do?" Emily asked.

"Nothing, we can only wait" Mitchell was the one who answered her.

"What!? This is stupid!" Emily angrily yelled at them!

"Shut up! You're forgetting something Emily, Leo is a mutant, you had already seen how powerful Ashton becomes when he turns into a werewolf!" Derek rebuked Emily, as he reminded her that mutants aren't that easy to kill from how they saw Ashton single handedly killing two hundred zombies on his own.

So this time the survivors just killed those zombies that discovered them when they got attracted by the sounds of gunfire, and so, they also became busy dealing with the zombies of their own.

A few minutes later, the gunfire slowly died down.

After clearing out the zombies around the base, the survivors started standing and looked towards the direction where the intense battle happened earlier.

*Thump* *Thump* *Thump*

The sound of footsteps rang out from the darkness in front of their eyes, after a few seconds of a nerve wracking moment, the figure of a man finally came within their sights.

"Boss!"

"Leo! I knew it!"

"*Sigh* Good thing, he's not dead or it will really spell trouble for us if no one like him protects us from mutated zombies that would attack us from time to time"

Leo then stood in front of them covered in blood and light injuries...well, it's just scratches though, while holding a huge sword with one hand as it rested on his shoulder and a machine gun on the other hand, he looked absolutely cool right now.

*Sigh*

Leo sighed to himself when he saw the people watching him from the wall, so he just waved his hand towards them and leapt over at the other side.

"Boss!"

"Leo!"

Derek, Emily, Ariel and the others immediately surrounded him, some of them are looking at him with reverent gazes, while some of them looked at him with envy, mostly because he had a machine gun in his hand, which really is a must to have as it would certainly increased someone's survival.

"Are you okay!?" Emily said as she inspected his body.

"Yes, just some light injuries, thank you for your concern" Leo smiled at them.

"Boss! How many zombies did you faced this time!? You're really awesome you know, fighting them in the dark" Ariel said, his voice was full of amazement and buttkissing or flattery.

"I think I killed over a hundred mutated zombies" Leo strapped his machine gun on his back while saying those words.

Then Leo realized that no one is talking, and then when he lifted his head up, he saw them just staring at him, which really creeped him out.

"Uhh..I'm going then" Leo said, as he hastily walked inside the house and slammed the door behind him while the survivors followed him with their eyes.

"Phew~ Those people are creepy as heck...don't tell me this place is actually a cult and they are its members!?" Leo muttered, even a strong person would certainly feel creeped out if over fifty people would stare at him with a blank look on their faces.

But then his playful look suddenly turned sharp, as Leo opened his [Inventory] and took out something, it was in the shape of an orb and colored in pure white, with a size similar to that of a marble bead.

[Mutation Crystal

Grade: Common

Mutation Success Rate: 1%]

*Pssh!*

Leo suddenly spurted the drink he was having the moment he saw those words.

"W-what the heck!? System, what the heck is this!?" Leo almost screamed in disbelief.

[A Mutation Crystal] the [System] replied.

'Of course I know that! I'm asking why something like this exist!?' Leo was screaming in his mind.

[This is the last protocol that was designed and was just implemented today. It was because the rate humans undergoing mutations is too low, and this would be the last time that there would be changes in the world, because from now the fate of this world be in your ends and the rest of humanity] the [System] said something really ominous.

"Wait, you're not gonna disappear, right?" Leo said in a low voice, as he suddenly grew worried about what the [System] said.

[No, I would still be assisting you, but interferences that constantly disrupts the balance of the world would cease from now on] the [System] replied.

"Oh good" Leo immediately sighed in relief, as he was worried that the [System] would suddenly say yes right there.

"Does that mean this [Mutation Crystal] would start appearing from now on?" Leo suddenly asked, because it would be absurd to think that every zombie has this.

[Yes, but the chances of ordinary zombies carrying those would be less than five percent, and mutated zombies like the [Hunter] and [Striker] would have ten to fifteen percent, and killing a [Charger] gives you thirty percent, and [The Big One] a whopping fifty percent, and last but not the least, [Darkseeker], a ninety percent that it has one]

[The grades of the Mutation Crystal and success rate would depend on the kind of zombie you killed]

"Wow" was the only word that Leo muttered as he listened to the explanation of the [System].

"So..what part of their bodies would hide these crystals then?" Leo asked, after all, the [System] would always automatically picks up this kind of items.

[In their heads] the [System] immediately replied.

Then Leo closed his [Inventory] after putting the crystal back inside.

"It seems I would need to hunt more mutated zombies from now on" Leo muttered with a huge grin on his face.

Leo then went and took a bath using the water that's stored in a huge drum from his [Inventory] and because this place doesn't have any electricity, where they only rely on oil lamps or fire torches, so Leo used a lamp light that run in batteries, just to give a bit of illumination in the bathroom.

"Apocalypse must really sucks for survivors, because they can't take a bath whenever they want and there's no electricity anymore" Leo muttered as he soaked his body in the bathtub.

"Good thing that nights are not that hot anymore or we'd be sleeping like some kind of a sauna" Leo sighed as he closed his eyes, trying to relax his body with the warm water.

"Right, I should tell Alex about this, just in case I forget. After all, it would be a waste if they just kill some mutated zombies and leave them be without checking if they have [Mutation Crystal]'s inside their heads" Leo immediately snapped his eyes open and called Alex, as he told him about the [Mutation Crystal]'s.

"It seems that I don't need to hunt [Darkseeker]'s anymore, with the presence of [Mutation Crystal]'s, the others would surely discover it sooner or later, but hunting them would become a different story. After all, not just everyone could take down a mutated zombie" Leo said, realizing that it would still be quite a while till every human could put up a fight against their enemies, excluding them of course.

*****

The next day at noon

"Go! Move faster! Kids should go first!" Derek shouted as he picked up a little boy and helped him up inside the back of the truck.

Leo had already told them about his plans of moving them into his own survivor base, and everyone was ecstatic about it and at the same time, they were shocked that Leo actually had another survivor base including theirs, but the only difference is that the other one is far more secured than the one they're staying at, and Emily on the other hand was shocked when heard that Leo actually had two pregnant women waiting for him back home, and only then did she realized the reason why Leo never made any moves towards her. This also made her stop having advances towards Leo, which made the latter heave a sigh of relief as he really had a hard time controlling himself into pushing Emily on the bed and just get on with it.

Leo had also taken care of the four prisoners, he spared Daryl and the other two but executed Negan on the spot, the moment walked out from the makeshift prison...or something similar that has the same use. Negan's death brought joy to the survivors as they really hated the guy, as he would always abused them before.

Currently, there are five trucks, three commercial pick up trucks and two storage trucks, the storage trucks would where the food supplies and items would be stored at, while the rest of the trucks would become the survivors temporary mode of transportation until they can find a better one on the road.

Leo had already made plans at the nearest base from them, where there would be a military escort that would meet halfway through the journey.

Leo walked over to his bike and sat on it, as he yelled, "Let's go!"

*Vroom!* *Vroom!* *Vroom!*

Leo had left the security to the three [Dark Warriors] as they pincered both sides and the rear of the convoy. Their sudden appearance made the Derek and the survivors puzzled, so they thought they were probably Leo's escorts but only till today that they revealed themselves, but even when have a lot of questions going through their minds, they were also amazed at them, because they look really cool and mysterious with their get ups, and they even thought that, that's how the soldiers looks like at the survivor base where Leo is taking them.

"Woohoo! We're finally leaving this godforsaken place!" Ariel yelled happily as he raised one of his hands from the driver's side window.

All of them, either kids or adults have smile and excited looks on their faces, as they look forward to a better future at their next home.

When Leo heard Ariel's shout, he suddenly smiled bitterly as he looked up towards the somewhat gray sky and muttered, "A god forsaken place, huh? What an appropriate name for our current era of humanity, where humans, zombies and beasts are vying for supremacy"

"Now that I think about it. Winter is coming a month from now" Leo said, as he just remembered that it would be December next month.

"Well, there's nothing to worry about now. We already prepared all the needed preparations for the incoming Winter, but the only problem would be that all activities outside would come to a complete halt for at least two months" Leo muttered to himself.

After that, Leo, for the first time in a long time, he summoned his Lightning Bird and the little beast perched over one of the trucks and would immediately struck any mutated zombies that wants to attack the survivors, the zombies either died from being due to being struck by lightning or they were filled with bloody holes in their bodies.

Leo is also using his machine gun with one hand as he cleared the zombies along their path, Leo plans to backtrack on the path he took to arrive here and at the same time, he also had another purpose, and that was to see if he could convince those survivors living beside the road to come with him.

And from time to time, Leo would receive notifications about him getting [Mutation Crystal]'s being sent into his [Inventory], which makes him really happy, even though he's only receiving Common Grade for the time being.

"Hehehe, If I have an army of mutants, then clearing out territories wouldn't become a problem anymore!" Leo suddenly wore a stupid look on his face as he imagined having an army of fully armed mutants, like those Spartans from the game Halo!

"Mwahahaha!" Leo suddenly started laughing like a maniac, as his bike swing from side to side.

"Uwaa~ so scary" Derek who is driving the truck at the very forefront of the convoy and Daryl who is with him suddenly shivered in their seats when they heard Leo's laugh that sounded like from a horror movie.

A few minutes later, they finally and safely left the town.

Their journey was a smooth ride because Leo had already cleared them and pushed all of the abandoned cars on the side of the road when he passed by here, the first time.

After that, everything was just smooth sailing, as they rarely met any zombies on the road except that there are really a lot of mutated beasts that they saw, but they immediately ran away from them because the Lightning Sparrow is far more powerful than them, and there's even the three Red Deers which made the nearby mutated beasts as bad news, but the kids on the other hand had shining eyes the moment they laid their eyes on the mutated beast that they encountered.

Everything is going great so far, as a new journey awaits them!

*****

[Current Stats]

[Name: Leo Wood

Age: 27

Lvl. 39

Title: Mankind's Last Hope (+10 to All Attributes)

Strength: 67 (+10) Agility: 42 (+10)

Stamina: 47 (+10) Luck: 10(+10)

Endurance: 35 (+10) Vitality: 40 (+10)

Free Stats: 25

Skills:

[Level Max] Sharpshooter (Passive)

[Level Max] Bear God Body Strengthening Technique (Passive)

[Level Max] Iron Skin (Passive)

Primal Roar (Active)

Sword Quake (Active)

Blade Fury (Active)

Ghost Step (Active)]