Grill Smith son of Krewton Crunchmaster descendant of the warrior God Slag, knew of over 300 types of Zombies in the world. However, only 37 subspecies were deemed edible by Orc Chef standards, so he had not paid much attention to his wasteland monster classes about them. why would a chef need to know about zombies, that was a scavenger or hunters work.

He regretted his younger self's indifference as he ran with his three surviving charges. He checked his Quick Status.

Grill Smith D(75)

Quick Status

8 Phys (Str 9 Dex 8 Con 7)

7 Ment (Int 7 Wis 8 Cha 6)

Luck -hidden-

Health: 70%

Stamina: 40% Running+Overburdened (-2% every 5 minutes)

Active Effects:

Running.

Overburdened.

Enhanced Endurance (D Rank Orc Passive Feat) -Lowers Stamina Drain.

Big Game Chef (C Rank Orc Chef Passive Achievement)-reduced endurance cost and required Strength of carrying over-sized living things or carcass as long as they are edible by orc chef standards).

Terrified (-50% Morale) 2 Hours 17 minutes 25 seconds.

So he had about an hour and fifteen minutes of running at this speed before he dropped below 10% Stamina and started taking large penalties. Penalties that would make him unable to continue with all 3 kids. kids he was only able to carry like this because they were technically edible according to his C Rank Achievement, he had gained 10 levels from that Achievement and never found it very useful until now. Now he certainly was not going to look that gift Dire Boar in the mouth.

The only kitchen willing to hire an Orc chef was an orphanage on the edge of the wastes, An Orphanage that had just been demolished by Mini Boomers.

Luckily for Grill and his young charges; he had been showing a few children how to gather spider eggs for breakfast when the first explosions rocked the front of the compound.

He saw the children killed in the blast get back up and begin to change, having already begun to become new Mini Boomers, he could see their internal organs begin to glow an unnatural orange colour as they crouched. Their legs and arms shifted to become more like those of a frog. powerful back legs launched some of the new Mini Boomers forward, causing more explosions, more death. More undead. Orphanage Staff and other adults got back up slowly as more powerful, or at least longer-lasting zombie variants.

Most of the new explosive undead, however, joined the horde of Zombies, Ghouls, and other types of undead that attacked anyone not already killed in the initial blasts. Thus turning the surviving adult staff and older children into more members of the horde.

The kids always became the Mini Boomers though. most monsters in the system won't attack children below the age of 13, but Zombies bypass this by killing them with non-targeted attacks like exploding zombie children. The worst part was that the ones who killed people in their suicide attack gain enough death mana to pull themselves back together and do it again, better. The process can take up to a week though. So at least the already exploded boomer zombies will not rejoin the horde too quickly.

Grill did not stare long, he quickly grabbed the biggest child with him, a chubby 10-year-old half-elf boy named Billy, and tossed him on his back, having the kid hold his neck for dear life. Grill then scooped up the two stunned girls, one under each arm. Sarah and Tiffany, A Halfling teenager and a half Troll/Ogre toddler respectively, both being about the same size kept Grill nice and balanced as he sprinted off into the wastes, Chef knives and pot of spider eggs hanging off his tool belt and clanging together occasionally.

He had no idea how long the Zombie horde would chase him, how far they could track him, how fast the fastest members of the horde were, or if they would all stick together. Really, he didn't know anything about zombies, and it was starting to feel like a bigger hole in his education then he would like.

Grill also figured he should figure out where he was going. Maybe Hank could help, he was a Scavenger and had experience with these things, even if he was a lower level. Grill remembered Hank had just headed to his family "treasure vault" this morning. The man thought it was a big secret, but he always blabbed all about it when he was drunk. Grill had been there before, having gone treasure hunting only to be stopped by the same huge door that had stumped generations of Hanks family.

After half an hour his pace slowed to a jog, Orcs may have much better physical endurance than most races, but he was a chef and not a warrior, and he was carrying three now squirming children. He was not very good with kids outside of instructing them on how to cook or find food. So he just mumbled about settling down as he jogged from one minor wasteland hex to another. Finally to the hex with the rundown candy shoppe.

Not being a Tracker, Grill missed the claw marks of the steel talons that had been chasing his friend Hank. He could still hear the undead horde closing in on him across the wastes, maybe they could sense the living, or track his smell. He was not sure of anything besides a need for something to help kill a lot of zombies. and maybe something to eat. Running was hungry work.

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At the same time as Grills mad dash across the wastes, Omega Scout 1 was headed into an Ant nest, and Doctor Omega was entering an Insane Laboratories long-forgotten back door.