330 Nadia takes the innitiative
“What do you mean, you can’t find them?” Mathew asked, more surprised than angry or scared.
‘You knew where they were coming from, how fast they were approaching, and could keep tabs on them at all times,’ the young man thought, accounting for every possible advantage that Norbert had when it came to surveillance. ‘So how in all hells could he lose them?’
Mathew didn’t direct his internal question at Norbert. A single look at the man’s face was enough to confirm he was just as surprised as Mathew.
No, Mathew directed his question was the situation itself.
“It’s impossible for me to lose their tracks,” Norbert muttered, lowering his eyes and rubbing his chin. “It’s more like…” he hesitated for a second before raising his eyes and opening them wide as he looked right at Mathew’s face.
“I can no longer track them with my ghost form!”
‘That’s… a different explanation,’ Mathew quickly figured out the meaning behind Norbert’s words.
His surveillance wasn’t based on modern technology that they could understand. It was based on his ability and system alone.
‘And just by going with the rules of the systems and how they affect the world…’ Mathew thought, only for his face to darken.
Mathew then closed his eyes in order to pretend not to notice the intense look that Norbert gave him.
“In other words…” Norbert spoke out…
“Your level is too low to keep track of those zombies,” Nadia joined in on the conversation. “Whether it’s their passive ability to hide their tracks or whether one of the evolved ones can actively interfere with your ability, it doesn’t matter.”
‘His level is too low,’ Mathew thought, gulping down his saliva and tightening his fists. ‘I spoke so often about helping him grow, yet I didn’t do anything in regard to that. And now it came to bite me right in the ass…’
There was no other ability that Mathew’s group relied on as heavily as they did on Norbert’s ghost form. And yet, due to how they didn’t have any direct way to help him grow, Mathew continued to indefinitely put the task of raising Norbert’s level for later.
“If only I had some way to level up,” Norbert muttered in an anguished voice.
Mathew opened his eyes, ready to accept the scorn of his ally… Only to see how Norbert wasn’t even looking his way.
“I’m sorry, man,” Mathew said, lowering his head a little as he apologized. “I really wanted to look into it but with everything happening all at once…”
Mathew cut his words short as soon as Norbert raised his face and looked him in the eyes.
The young man then shook his head.
“No, I’m just looking for excused right now,” Mathew admitted. “For not finding a way to help you level up, I’m sorry.”
The two men looked in silence at each other for a short while.
Norbert raised his hand as if aiming to slap Mathew’s cheek… Only to then wave it away.
“Don’t let it bother you,” Norbert said, turning sideways to the young man and turning his eyes away. “I was the one to report the situation to you, so don’t act as if I don’t know just how rushed things are,” he then added.
“Either way, it’s a big problem to lose our means of tracking the zombies,” Nadia entered the discussion as soon as the atmosphere cleared out a bit. “But that doesn’t mean we can just sit and do nothing,” she quickly added, proving that fearmongering wasn’t her intention.
And from the flash in her eyes, it was clear that she had something in mind.
“You tracked their movements up to a certain place and time. Meaning, they should still be somewhere within the circle as big as far they could get from where you last saw them in the time since you last saw them.”
‘That’s right,’ Mathew opened up his eyes a bit wider. ‘There is no use in panicking for nothing. If one part of the plan gets screwed over, everyone will be in deep shit. Right now, rather than lamenting over the situation…’ he raised his eyes at the girl while pride filled his face. ‘We need to do whatever is still within our range!’
“I last checked up on them seven blocks down the road and then two blocks east,” Norbert quickly reported, jumping on the opportunity Nadia created with her sheer peace of mind. “They couldn’t move any further than two blocks since I checked up on them.”
“And that gives us something to work with,” Nadia said with a smile. “I think it would be for the best if the two of us were to move in opposite directions in a three-block-wide circle while getting Norbert to move through the middle.”
Nadia seized the initiative of the situation, coming up with a plan that would make the best of what we knew to salvage the situation.
‘I’m happy to let her take the reins right now… but isn’t there a flaw in her way of thinking?’ Mathew thought.
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to keep Norbert in the middle?” Mathew then voiced his concerns. “If they are only hiding their presence, without changing their course at all, he would be the one to stumble upon them!”
Nadia’s eyelids moved a tiny bit down.
“It’s partially true. I myself think it would be pointless to hide their presence and then continue down the same path. But yeah, just as undeniable truth it is that there will is a huge risk in letting Norbert go through the middle,” Nadia turned her eyes towards the former policeman, “It’s also an undeniable truth that we have to split up into three. And from where I stand, no matter where one will go…”
Nadia hesitated for a bit.
She then looked down and to the side, averting her eyes.
“And no matter where each of us will go, we can’t avoid the risks.”
‘That’s true,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth.
Nadia’s point about there being a range where the zombies could currently be was correct. And the most efficient way to search for it was by splitting up.
Thanks to the square-based blockiness of the city, the circle actually turned into a set of straight streets that the zombies could be on. And by circling around the perimeter of those, one could cover the least ground while covering the biggest number of places where the zombies could be!
The problem was, as one could expect, that the area right in the middle would be the most obscured one, right at the edge of both flanking parties’ sight. And once they would move sufficiently far enough from the zombie’s original route, both Mathew and Nadia, even in spite of their enhanced senses, could miss them!
pAnD a(-)n0ve1.com And that’s why, someone had to go through the middle, to ensure that didn’t happen.
Thankfully, Mathew’s unit was composed of three people. A perfect number for this strategy. Yet, regretfully, one of them was a non-combatant.
“Don’t worry about me,” Norbert muttered with a dark expression on his face. “I know my limits,” he stated before raising his eyes and looking right at the couple. “Just be alert to my ghost’s communication, so that once either of us finds them, I will relay the message to let us gather back up!”