Chương 88: The Ceremony

In an unfamiliar living room, a zombie corpse lay in front of the TV stand. Foul blood was splattered across the TV and the coffee table, giving the originally domestic atmosphere a somewhat eerie feel. Vince and his group stood beside the zombie's corpse. Claire was somewhat clumsily helping Zoe tighten the armor plates on her forearms. It wasn't just Zoe; everyone had pieces of cut-up car tires fastened to their vulnerable areas with cloth strips or iron wire, acting like armor.

These armor plates, cut from small tires, were something Vince had requested from Ben. According to him, this was virtually natural anti-zombie armor. Whether it was the outer layer of rubber or the tough inner cord fabric, it was impossible for a regular zombie to bite through it in one go. As long as they weren't bitten through instantly, the spears of the teammates behind them would immediately follow up, greatly increasing their margin of error.

And this piece of tire rubber strapped to the forearm had already saved three people's lives. In order to arm these forty or fifty people, he had specifically organized personnel to collect and cut up the tires of small family cars.... Watching the group readjust their gear, Vince finally held his short spear, pointed at the corpse on the ground, and spoke:"A zombie's weak point is the head. On the front of the skull, the weak points are the eye sockets or the nasal cavity. Either works.

But don't aim for the mouth; it's too low and might not damage the brain..." Meanwhile, Claire and the others, fully armed and holding their spears, stood to the side, listening intently. They gestured with their spears, aiming at the corpse on the ground. This place was originally being swept by Ben and his men. Vince had contacted him and taken over this building unit. Behind the group stood two other men, borrowed by Vince from Ben, whose job was to pry open doors....

"Then each of you stab it once to overcome your psychological barriers... Cody and Seth, you two stab the chest. Zoe and Claire, you two stab the head..." Seeing that they all seemed mentally prepared, Vince waved his hand and stepped aside to make room for them. Claire moved first. Because she was wearing a face mask, her expression couldn't be seen, but a trace of struggle could still be felt from her furrowed brows and tightened gaze.

Watching someone else kill zombies and personally facing a corpse that used to be human were two completely different things. But she hesitated for less than a second. Gripping the spear tightly with both hands, she recalled Vince's combat posture in her mind and thrust down decisively. Squelch! The spearhead sank into the eye socket. When she pulled it out, the tip of the spear dripped with thick, foul blood...

"Ugh..." If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Appearing slightly nauseated, Claire's shoulders trembled faintly, but she immediately held it back, taking a half-step in retreat to yield her spot. Next was Zoe. She wasn't as hesitant as Claire. It seemed she had long been prepared for this; her strike carried a sharp edge.

"Hmph..." With a muffled grunt, she drove the spear in her hands down like a massive spike! The force was so immense that it pierced through the eye socket and the skull, striking the concrete floor below with a sharp clang. She turned her head to glance at Vince, a smile of unclear meaning in her eyes. Then came Cody, and finally, Seth. Both of them knew that this was something that had to be done in order to survive, so they simply did it. That was all. What surprised Vince was Seth.

Although he hesitated for two seconds longer than Cody, the moment he actually thrust down, he gripped the spear tightly and exerted even more force than Cody had... One by one, the group thrust their spears into the corpse on the ground, overcoming their final layer of fear toward the humanoid form of these monsters... Although it had only been a few short days, Vince seemed to have already forgotten what thoughts went through his own mind the very first time he faced that zombie in the stairwell.

Was it fear, or a bit of excitement, or perhaps a curiosity about the Health Bar... He looked at the Health Bars floating above their heads: [105], [67], [56], [55]. Although the three students were still at half-health, the main forces this time were inherently Zoe, the sports student, and Claire, who had full health. As long as Cody and Seth could hold the zombie back, it would be fine. This was exactly the battle formation he had learned from Ben.

However, over there, it was five burly men; here, Vince had two weakling college boys and two women—a complete 'lite' version... But it shouldn't be a big problem for two guys to hold back a single zombie. There's a first time for everything. Leading the group out of the apartment and into the stairwell hallway, he knocked on the door of the apartment across from them. A zombie's roar immediately echoed from inside.

"Give it to me..." Vince's expression remained calm as he reached out and took the crowbar from one of the men. With a clack, he jammed it into the door gap. This was also something Vince had learned from the two men. These old-style security doors basically only had one lock point if they weren't deadbolted. By jamming a crowbar into the latch and prying hard, the door could be popped open. The downside was that it was a bit too noisy and would alert the zombies inside.

Sure enough, the moment Vince jammed the crowbar into the door frame, the zombie inside became even more agitated, slapping wildly against the iron door with a rapid smack-smack-smack.

"Get ready..." Vince told the group. Hearing the order, Claire and the others hurriedly formed their formation in an orderly manner. The two holding the cross-shaped spears aimed them directly at the doorway, while the other two staggered themselves half a step behind, pulling their spears back in preparation for a fatal thrust. As for the two door-prying specialists, they had already slipped back into the apartment the group had just exited to hide. They weren't responsible for fighting.

"3... 2... 1..." Vince stood on the hinge side of the door. As he counted down, he gradually applied force. The iron door and frame slowly deformed, prying open a gap. The gap grew wider and wider until it passed a critical threshold! BANG! The security door instantly popped open. The swinging iron door concealed Vince entirely behind it, completely exposing the four of them to the line of sight of the zombie inside. This was something everyone had mutually agreed upon...

Originally, Vince had planned to have the two men pry the door while he stood behind the group, ready to intervene in case of any accidents. But this plan was jointly vetoed by Claire and Zoe. Vince wasn't a babysitter. He had no absolute obligation to protect them, nor could he stand behind them in every single battle. That being the case, they might as well not form the habit from the start. It was just one zombie. Four people, four spears.

If they couldn't handle a single zombie, it only meant they weren't fit to survive in this world. That was what they had all said. Therefore, Vince just stood behind the door and closed his eyes. He listened to the heavy footsteps and roars of the zombie lunging out from inside the room. He listened to the somewhat panicked clanking of steel pipes hitting the stairwell handrails. He listened to the spearheads piercing flesh and that incredibly familiar sound of skulls cracking open.

When the zombie's roars abruptly ceased, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor, Vince finally opened his eyes. Stepping out from behind the door, he looked at the group before him with a somewhat complex expression.

"Congratulations, you've graduated..."