Night came and the barn became a bit dark, even with the light coming from outside. I could see the moon in the clear sky and the stars were twinkling in the night sky.
I decided to stay here for the night, since it would be safer than sleeping in a random house or building. The second floor of this barn was perfect to see through the entire area including the corn farm, making it an ideal location.
At night, the barn looked eerie. There were no lights around and everything looked black and white, just like in a movie.
I had a small lamp to give some illumination around me. But it was nothing special, just an ordinary oil lamp I found in the corner. Not very efficient but it served its purpose well.
My dinner was also pretty simple, the chips I found in the bike and some MRE from Miss Rika. It tasted... alright. Yes, that's all I could say.
And then I checked the surroundings of the barn. No movement. The only thing I could see was darkness, which made me feel slightly lonely.
Back in the previous world, I was used to being alone. Sitting behind the computer in my room all day or shooting my guns in the range alone. That's what I did in my free time.
But ever since I came here, being alone was the least thing that I could ever think about. The girls were always with me, or at least my sister was.
Now I felt a bit lonely without her or the other girls, even for just a night. They were so attached to me, I felt like I became a part of their family. Or my harem, in this case.
'I have to finish this quickly.' I sighed.
It's not that I hated staying alone , but I didn't want to be alone. Especially if there were dangers lurking around every corner.
After a few minutes of silence, I took out a book I brought from Miss Rika's house and read it under the lamp light. It was an old book that belonged to a friend of hers. A novel about a girl who traveled across the country by herself.
The world had already been destroyed and she was trying to survive alone. No one but her survived the catastrophe, and she had to rely on herself to survive.
She traveled across the country to find another human being, hoping that someone out there might be still alive. It was a tragic story about loneliness, hope and despair. And she finally met her end at the hands of a bandit who wanted to rob her of everything.
She killed herself before the bandits got their hands on her.
Something might happen in some part of the world right now. This world had changed into a lawless, dangerous place where everyone had to survive by themselves.
The government was still functioning in the safe zones, but not everywhere.
People in this kind of situation would need to fight to live. They had to fight to eat. To survive. Just book's main character, who was a strong and brave woman, the people living in the apocalypse were the same.
At that moment I heard a growl from the corn field. I closed the book and turned on my flashlight, illuminating the area in front of me with its powerful beam.
The light split the darkness, allowing me to observe what's in there.
It was a large pack of zombies with some dogs mixed into it. They advanced toward my location, walking between the rows of corn plants.
Their faces were dirty and they looked hungry.
A large number of flies were also following them around, making a buzzing noise that made me sick to my stomach.
So this was the reason why the system gave me such a generous reward. There were so many zombies in this area. This was the perfect place for them to hide and I missed them.
They had probably been wandering around here for a while now. But why did they show up tonight? I didn't even make any noise to attract their attention. It's not like I was making a fire or anything like that.
Did they know I was here?
No, I don't think they could track my smell. Zombies had poor smell sense and were blind, I was pretty sure of that.
But then there was also a zombie dog. They probably smelled me, barked, and attracted the other zombies. This was bad. Very bad. I was surrounded by them and they would reach me in no time.
Should I just wait until they reach the barn and start killing them one by one? Or should I just leave?
No, the system hadn't given me any reward yet. So, the danger must have just started.
I had to fight them. There were at least 25 of them in my sight.
Without a doubt more would come.
The system must have been preparing the choices and rewards right now. I just needed to hold on.
"Fuck. It can't get worse than this, right?" I said as I grabbed the rifle.
The zombies had reached the barn, but none of them was climbing up to where I was. Instead they were walking around, as if searching for something. And the zombie dogs were also growling, their eyes fixed on the barn's rooftop.
Growling sounds of zombies became louder as more came to the scene. The dogs ran toward the barn and barked loudly, causing the following zombies to rush to my direction. I shot them with the rifle.
One by one the zombies fell. But as one fell another one appeared, replacing their fallen comrades and filling the space.
My rifle went click and I realized that I was out of bullets. I immediately reloaded it and focused on killing the dogs first. They ran through the corn field so fast that they were about to reach me first. If I let them live, then I wouldn't have much of a chance.
The rest of the zombies could wait until I was finished with them.
I shot down three of the five zombie dogs and managed to slow the others down with a few shots at their legs. After reloading the third magazine, I aimed at the zombies that were closing in and shot them down one by one.
Headshots. Every bullet should be a headshot. Nothing else.
The zombie's head burst open with every hit. Blood sprayed out of their wounds and they fell backwards into the corn plants, leaving behind only a small puddle of red liquid.
There was another group of zombies coming out from behind. They seemed to hide behind the mill, but now they decided to attack me as well after being drawn by the noise.
My previous estimation was way off the mark. I thought there might only be 50 of them, but it's clear that there were more than that in this area. More were coming and coming from the corn fields, slowly surrounding the barn.
I already emptied 3 out of 6 magazines I brought. The good news was they were just normal zombies without any Lickers. The dogs had also been exterminated so the only thing I needed to do was to wait for them to come and then shoot.
Without much choice, I decided on melee combat. The stairs leading to the second floor were narrow, enough for me to keep them at bay and fight them.
This way, I would save some bullets for now.
I grabbed the sword and slung my rifle. My left hand wasn't empty either, I held a revolver to support the attack. With a deep breath I readied my weapon and prepared to fight.
The zombies had reached the bottom of the stairs and began climbing it one at a time. Their groaning sound echoed in the night air.
They were coming to me.
One zombie climbed the stairs and raised its arm to grab me, but I cut off its limb first and shot its head with the revolver.
Another one arrived and I decapitated it easily with the sword. A swarm followed right after and I kept swinging my sword to keep them at bay.
Their heads flew and rolled down the stairs.
My stamina was dropping and the number of zombies didn't seem to be less. I needed to make sure that my energy reserve would last, so I switched to shooting again, keeping them away from me with the gunshots and headshots.
Loud noises rang out as the bullets hit their targets and exploded into bits of flesh and bone.
But I didn't stop there.
After I ran out of the ammo, I continued using my sword, slicing and chopping the heads off the zombies like they were vegetables.
'This is impossible.'
Looking at the number of zombies that had arrived and the fact that more kept coming, I realized that it wasn't going to end anytime soon.
My energy reserve was also depleting, and I felt my muscles were getting sore from all the fighting.
If I could get some rest, then maybe I could finish this without much problem.
However, these zombies wouldn't give me that kind of chance. They were too numerous and I couldn't even take a step back because of their overwhelming number.