280 Back to tribal times
“They’ve started to take apart their last layer of barricades,” Norbert reported with his eyes closed.
He then took a deep breath and opened his eyes before looking at Mathew, clearly expecting him to give the order.
Yet, as seconds continued to tick by, Mathew kept his mouth shut, showing no intentions of speaking out.
“Shouldn’t we go in?” Nadia suggested with an uneasy look on her face. Her expression appeared to scream worry that their argument from two days ago at the school’s staircase could possibly resurface.
Mathew held on with his lips pursed into a thin line. He took a deep breath and looked around.
And just like one would expect, everyone’s attention was currently centered on him.
“Guys…” Mathew finally spoke up, only to throw another look around before shaking his head. “I never expected I would need to say it out loud. But ask yourself this,” Mathew requested.
He then turned his eyes to Nadia’s face and forced her to withhold his intense stare.
‘I didn’t fail to notice that look of yours from a moment ago,’ he thought, sighing inwardly.
“What will that other group of people think if they break all their barricades open and see not zombies but us?” Mathew finally posed the one question that continued to ring at the back of his head ever since he learned about the other party’s presence.
“They would be happy someone came to their…” Daria was the first one to speak out, only to cut her words short when she visualized the situation in her head.
And no matter how she looked at it, if she were to put herself into the other party’s shoes… she wouldn’t be welcoming to her saviors at all.
Because in this apocalyptic world, one would have to be unbearably naive to expect other humans to turn out to be saviors. The more likely scenario would make them out to be aggressors, out for the sparse resources left in the world.
Or, in the worst-case scenario, they would be a bunch of militia looking for some women to play with and men to enslave.
“Times like those brings out the worst in humans,” Mathew stated while shaking his head. “We basically went back to tribal times the day people started to turn into zombies.”
Back in the past, people stuck to their tribe because wild animals were actually a real, tangible threat. And yet, it wasn’t the animals that tribal people would fear the most. Save for the intangible like the wrath of their gods, their worst enemy would be other tribes!
“I understand your point,” Nadia said, lowering her head and looking down as if in an attempt to hide her expression. “But…” she hesitated for a second only to raise her face back up and look at Mathew. “Isn’t this too much?”
“Dear, if we appear before they get busy killing the zombies, they are likely to take us for a threat,” Mathew said, taking a shot at a direct approach.
“Won’t they take us for opportunists looking to exploit their unfavorable situation if we conveniently appear right when they need us the most?” Nadia countered.
And her words actually managed to make Mathew hesitate.
‘So it’s a question of predicting their reaction,’ Mathew thought, lowering his chin and closing his eyes to focus on the topic. ‘How would I react? Especially, back in my first life?’
Mathew actually didn’t need to imagine. All he needed was to go back to some of the memories that he preferred to leave buried at the bottom of his mind.
The feeling of elation when a group of system users happened to pass through the school, taking out all the evolved monsters that they chanced up. The massive relief when they finished off the last of the monsters. And the immense desperation and disbelief when they left the school right afterward, unwilling to bother saving those stuck inside or cleaning the normal zombies out.
‘Back then I was helpless. I can’t compare my feelings from back then with how people that actively seek to survive in this world will feel,’ Mathew told himself, gritting his teeth in mute frustration.
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“Fine,” Mathew finally spoke, raising his head and looking at Nadia. “You might be right,” he admitted.
“Let’s go, then,” Nadia ordered right away, taking the reins of the situation as soon as Mathew approved her idea and approach.
Once the decision was made, Mathew didn’t try to be a drag for the rest of the group. Instead, while he let Nadia take the charge, he still followed her inside the mall, ready to support her in the fights to come.
Their group found themselves within the mall, right on the main alley that went from one of its ends to the other.
To their right, there was a line of service points and specialized shops. Their shopfronts were all broken into. And just a single look at the content of those smaller areas was enough to confirm there was hardly anything of value left in there.
‘At least the traffic shop isn’t fully looted yet,’ Mathew thought, glancing over at the shelf filled to the brim with cigarettes, lighters, and other small items like that. ‘Those could prove to be extremely valuable later,’ he thought, making a mental note to gather everything they could from the shop on a later date.
It was only a matter of time before his group would grow strong enough to restore a semblance of safety and stability to a small area they could control. And once that time would come, stuff like cigarettes, alcohol, or even something as simple as sweets would skyrocket in value!
But for now, rather than focusing on the goods, they could loot from the mall, Mathew’s group stepped inside the general-store area that occupied the majority of the entire mall building.
Before the apocalypse, one could buy literally everything and anything in here, as long as it wasn’t extremely niche or illegal. From standard groceries, through kitchen tools and utensils, all the way to furniture, electronics, or hardware.
And it was the area that housed the last of those that became the objective of the group.
“They tore down half of their barricades so far,” Norbert reported right as they passed the line of the cashing machines, entering the area of the general store proper.
“We have a few minutes to reach them, then,” Mathew commented. He then shook the saber in his hand before taking a leisurely look at the insides of the shop. “And since we decided on meeting them, let’s not make them wait for us!”