Chapter 41 Shadow
Thud! Thud! Thud!
When they were on the verge of passing out due to fear, suddenly, the sound of something falling sounded one after another.
"What happened?" Lori frowned before suddenly a smile appeared on her face and she said, "It seems Luke is back."
Phew!
Everyone let out the breath they were holding until now.
"I thought I was going to die even before zombies came up." Julia tried to smile while patting her chest with her trembling hands.
Rio and his family also calmed down and nodded in agreement with Julia's words.
Step! Step! Step!
The faint sound of footsteps sounded.
When Lori heard this, a frown appeared on her face because she could tell this sound was unlike Luke's footsteps.
"Everyone, be alert! It's not Luke." She hurriedly shouted.
Just before everyone could react, a voice sounded, "Not bad! You are quite attentive to details."
Following the voice, a man in a yellow t-shirt and black joggers entered the room. He was carrying a small backpack on his back, and an unconscious Luke on his shoulder while in right had were two swords and a bush like plant was tied to his backpack's strips.
He was average looking, had short brown hair and gave a harmless vibe with a light smile hanging on his lips.
When he arrived, Rio's family and Julia immediately recognized him as one of Derek's henchmen and this made their expression change for worse.
The man in question looked at their expression and chuckled. "Relax. I'm not here to "Thank you for bringing him back." She thanked the man before asking, "What happened to him? And who are you?"
hunt you down or anything.
He then put Luke down in front of them before wiping droplets of sweat off his forehead.
"Phew! This guy is surprisingly heavy." He chuckled and sat down in one corner, placing his backpack and other things beside him.
Lori hurriedly went over to Luke and checked him. After seeing he had no physical energy and seemed to be sleeping, she sighed in relief.
"Thank you for bringing him back." She thanked the man before asking, "What happened to him? And who are you?"
The man fiddling with the berry tree glanced at her and grinned. "You are welcome. As for what happened to him, this guy was reckless and ended up exhausting himself to fight that intelligent zombie."
Saying this, he glanced at Julia and others before saying, "As for my identity, you can ask them. They know."
"Mm?" Lori raised her brows and turned her gaze to the people beside her and saw them staring warily at the man.
"Huh? You guys seemed to know him. Is he someone from the food factory?" She guessed.
"Smart!" The man nodded. "I was one of Derek's subordinates. The guy your leader killed to save your daughter."
"I understand." Lori calmly nodded.
Her eyes then narrowed at him and said, "You said 'was' so I believe you are no longer part of that food factory gang. And from how you seem confident that we know about that intelligent zombie, you seemed to have been tailing us for quite a while, right?"
"I would have thought you had some ill intention toward us, but seeing how you brought him back safely, that doesn't seem to be the case. So, perhaps you want to join us?"
The man looked a little surprised before nodding appreciatively,
"No wonder this guy was willing to go against Derek to save your daughter. If someone like you was my subordinate, I would've done the same. And no. I don't want to join you, at least not yet."
"So, why are you here?" Julia asked. She didn't like him at all because he was Derek's henchmen.
"Simple. I want to survive. Although I'm quite strong, I know I can't survive alone. Especially when the zombies are becoming powerful by the second."
Julia glared at him but didn't say anything in response. Even though she wanted to kick him out right now, she couldn't do that because he had saved Luke and them too by killing all the zombies downstairs. Of course, she wasn't strong enough to kick him out if he insisted on staying.
Lori glanced at her daughter's gloomy face and understood what she was feeling. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it and could only wait for Luke to wake up.
"You didn't tell us your name?" She asked.
"You can call me shadow." He grinned.
Lori raised her brows because he didn't tell his name, but didn't say anything about it.
Soon, one hour passed, but Luke didn't show any signs of waking up.
"I think he has recovered enough. You can wake him up if you want." Shadow suggested.
Hearing this, Rio and his wife glanced at Lori. They wanted him to wake up as soon as possible so they could go to their residence and feed Keen because he was starving. Furthermore, the sun had already set, and it was getting darker by the moment.
Lori shook her head. "No. Let him rest a little more. He is too exhausted after fighting all day."
After that, the group continued to wait.
Meanwhile, back at the house where Ben and others were…
Alice had returned two hours ago. When she returned and Ben opened the door, he almost had a mini heart attack because of how horrifying she looked.
Her face and hair were messy and stained with a greenish substance — zombie's blood — she looked as if she hadn't taken a bath for a year.
Her clothes were completely in tatters, and there were many bruises and scratches all over her body. Despite looking worse than a beggar, she had a big smile on her face, which somehow looked very creepy to Ben.
When professor Nina saw her condition, she got worried about her because she thought she might get infected and turn into a zombie. Her worries only eased up when Alice told her she had already reached level 8, so there was no need to worry about getting infected.
When Ben heard that she had reached level 8, his expression was worth watching.
He was only a level 3 while she had already become level 8. As for Luke, Ben knew he would be at the same or even higher level than Alice when he returned. In the end, he could feel a little good by looking at professor Nina who still hadn't evolved.
Right now, all four, professor Nina, Ben, Alice and James, were sitting around a table, looking concerned. The reason for it was none other than Luke and Lori.
"Ben, Alice, didn't he say he will be back in an hour? It's already night right now. Why hasn't he come back?" Professor Nina asked anxiously.
When two hours had passed and he didn't come back, she had started to feel worried and wanted to go out and look for him, which gave Ben a huge headache because he knew going out on their own meant certain death.
So tried everything he could and finally managed to convince her not to do that. But as night approached, it was becoming difficult for him to stop her. Thankfully, Alice came back in time and with her help, they were barely able to stop her.
Alice had a frown on her beautiful face. When she returned from her 'adventure' outside, she had expected Luke to take the chance to scold her for being late and getting injured because he had told her to be in her top condition when he returned so they could directly head for the city walls and leave the city before nightfall. However, she found out that he hadn't returned yet.
She was angry at him for being irresponsible, but she also felt a little worried about his wellbeing. She knew he was strong, but there was no telling what would happen when you were out there.
Just like a while ago, when she was fighting the zombies. Normal low levelled zombies had stopped being a challenge for her and this made her a little overconfident. But when two level 7 zombies appeared out of nowhere and attacked her, she was overwhelmed and almost lost her life.
"Alice, we should go and find him. Maybe he is in some danger and needs our help. If it was any of you in that situation, I'm sure Luke would definitely go look for you guys," Professor Nina said.
Alice looked at her and said, "Professor, it isn't that I don't want to go look for him. It is that if we go, we may lose our lives even before we find him. The zombies out there are becoming stronger rapidly. I'm not confident to protect all of us if we face some of the stronger ones."
"But…"
Professor Nina wanted to say something but didn't find the words. Just because she was worried about him, she couldn't ask them to give their lives away, right?
Alice glanced at her, stood up and declared. "That's why I'm going alone. You guy stay here and wait for me. If I don't come before morning, you can… do as you see fit."
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