I smiled under the mask that was wrapped around my face. I knew I could count on Kevin to surely back me despite whatever happens. Perhaps we really do have a chance in this strange new world we've found ourselves in?

The ash started falling two days ago, and already there was a thick layer of it covering the ground. It had gotten to the point where pretty much everybody had sequestered themselves inside Alex's house. Despite our best attempts at trying to keep the multitude of ash out, it was still getting in. Regardless, however, our most recent exhibition from the house wasn't like our previous patrols to cull the undead presence near the home. No, our mission today was dual-focused. The 'Council', after some discussion, had agreed that our best course of action was going to be to search the surrounding homes for survivors as well as supplies, and potentially new living space. If we were able to ensure the safety of the surrounding homes, we may be able to begin moving some members of the community into those homes.

It was becoming increasingly important as nerves were beginning to be frayed with so many people in such close contact. So, that's how Kevin, Dante, and myself had wound up outside the safety of the immediate abode of Alex's house.

Our immediate task at hand was to actually clear the four houses that surrounded the immediate vicinity of the property. This included two houses that bordered the northern end of the small property, as well as two more adjacent to the west and east. The south actually had a small line of trees that at the moment we weren't as concerned about, especially as it would draw us even closer to the leyline. We had all silently agreed that for now we should use the house as a station to form as a bulwark against any undead incursions and slowly expand our reach behind us until we hit the limits of the leyline. That way we could at least get some rudimentary defenses set up before we anticipated the emergence of the undead from outside The Zone.

Luckily there were only a few homes between the house and the edge of what The Zone constituted. That was clear as the temperature outside of the Mana Zone would skyrocket to nearly ninety or so degrees right off the bat, even despite the thick clouds of ash in the atmosphere. We imagined that would begin falling soon as well though. Right now our situation in the Zone was much worse for wear as the presence of the Leyline resulted in Winter-like conditions.

Unfortunately, the destruction wrought by the [Demon Champion] resulted in the power within the entire area being completely shut down, and I would bet on the fact that we would likely never be having electricity again unless we built our own power sources.

That problem might not last nearly as long as we'd thought, however, since both Kevin and I have had some interest in delving into some degree of Magitech research. The game had plenty of examples of mana stones being incorporated into technology for power generation. The only issue was that neither of us had delved into the more profession-oriented classes of the game. So, much of it was going to end up being experimentation. We were up to the task, however, and even Jackson was quite interested in the project. He seemed much more excited about the prospect of being able to help out with something other than feeling like he was free-loading from the community.

Regardless, my thoughts were distracting us from our current objective, and that was to breach the fourth and final house of our immediate vicinity. The first three had already proven clear, without any worry of undead in the area. As a result, we simply scavenged for some immediate supplies such as water and the like, as well as attempting to find any other weapons to add to our arsenal. We managed to find another handgun, but after the discovery of the basic functions of the system, most were unwilling to take the massive experience loss to use a gun. As a result, our other finds became much more appreciated. Being a more rural suburbia, we located a few sheds on the properties, and in them were mostly gardening tools, but even shovels and axes would prove quite useful should the need present itself.

Our plan was to actually move a multitude of the abandoned vehicles from the various neighbors to form a sort of makeshift barricade between the Community and what we feared would be an eventual undead horde. To our luck, it appeared that most cars had been completely left where they were when the mana wave had rendered them immobile. In the future, it could be possible to get them working once again, but I imagined we'd need a much larger mana-stone than what we've procured from the undead.

Nonetheless, the three of us slowly walked our way to the final home, crouching as we did so. This fourth home was the one we considered may likely be the most dangerous as it was located parallel to the main road leading to the cemetery, which also happened to be the road where most of our conflicts with the meandering dead had happened.

As we neared the home, in our bundled-up forms, it was clear that this attempt may not be nearly as easy as our others. Several of the front windows were broken, and the front door had also been busted open. It seemed victim to some of the undead more arduous attempts at sniffing out any life sources within their new territory.

We quickly made our way to the wall, and, while pressing our backs against it, inched our way along with it until we came up to one of the broken windows. I lifted my hand and motioned for the other two members of our team to stop. It was in universal agreement that I was chosen to lead the way considering my much stronger stats.

I slowly poked my head over the bottom of the window and peered into the now ruined home. It was In complete disarray, and it was clear some massive struggle had taken place.

What I was looking into appeared to be the living room, or what was left of it. The couch was completely torn apart, with the fabric torn and frayed about all across the room. The television set was completely destroyed and there were numerous holes in the walls. If that was all, I might have not felt my stomach begin to turn, but no, there was also an exorbitant amount of blood everywhere.

Clearly, the room had once held host to somebody who was alive, but likely the undead had gotten here long before our group had managed to get here. I cursed silently. If we had gotten here earlier, could we have prevented what happened?

Regardless though, we were going to need to enter the house and clear it. Considering how close this place was to our own, there's no way we could just skip it. If there was a dangerous threat in here, then we needed to face it.

From what I was aware, monsters had a slightly different system when it came to getting stronger. Of course, they'd gain levels as they gained experience from battles, but the more worrying aspect of monsters was that when they consumed flesh, whether it be human or monster, they could mutate. Undead were no different. Their bones would change from being more brittle to being harder than steel. If they consumed enough and leveled up, they would also evolve into higher versions of the undead. From [Ghouls] to [Ferals], to eventually becoming [Lich]'s. It was a scary thought if we left any super-leveled undead alive for too long. The potential danger would likely be astronomical for our fledgling community.

I took nearly a minute, attempting to scope around the dark interior of the house. At first glance I failed to spot anything, however, my patience was rewarded.

There was a small shift in the shadows, in the corner of the room leading into the entryway of the home. There was an almost comatose-looking undead standing there, waiting for the slightest amount of stimulation to lash out.

We were lucky, if we had made any noise it would've attacked the beast, and I'd rather not have to face a surprise attack, especially from a more recently animated zombie.

I raised my hand once again, raising one finger, letting the others know that I had spotted at least one of the undead.

As a result, we slowly made our way to the front door, where we would at the very least find the easiest access into the building without hopefully causing too much noise.

As we made our way to the front, I looked through our new vantage point, and at that moment I saw a second undead, immediately complicating our situation. The hallway was narrow, and it would be difficult to use any of our weapons in the space, as such if we really wished to clear the building, it would be much better to draw them outside. Our only worry was that if they screeched we may have to worry about a lot more than just one undead. We needed to get both of them out here, and preferably at the same time.

In a very calm, and light whisper I told the others, "There are two of them now. I think it would be best if we tried to lure them outside and then take care of them instead of risking having to fight indoors."

After the others voiced their silent agreement, I had them back up. Grabbing a piece of fragile glass, I decided it would be the best way to lure them out without alarming them to the point where they screeched.

Taking the piece of glass, I threw it down hard on the side of the wall, next to the front door. The noise was loud enough where all three of us could hear the slight moan of both undead. To my satisfaction, I noted the sound of one of the undead climbing back to their feet and shuffling our way.

Fantastic, I thought. The plan appeared to be working well up to this point.

Luckily, both of the undead stumbled out of the house roughly at the same time, as we pressed ourselves against the building. As they excited, they appeared confused at finding nothing. Just then both Kevin and I individually took out the two undead. Disregarding the notification of my successful kill, we then cautiously advanced into the house.

As I entered I made the decision to lightly bang my sword three times against a wooden stand near the entryway door. The sound reverberated throughout the house, but no other signs of the undead were evident.

"Looks to be clear," I announced.

We made our way deeper into the house and decided to split up. Kevin took the Kitchen, Dante decided to check the garage and the area leading up to it, and I went ahead into the living room. The chaos that had erupted in the room wasn't for the faint of heart, that was for sure. The gore was gruesome to witness, but with my task at hand, I slowly scanned the room. My increased senses helped me make quick work of my effort as I quickly processed my surroundings. The room was bare of anything useful though. There was, however, a stairway that led up to the second story of the building.

As I made my way to its steps, I suddenly stopped as I heard a nearly inaudible, and muffled cough. Normally It would have been imperceptible, if not for my beyond-human senses.

Straining my ears towards where I heard the sound, I noticed that one of the couches that had been overturned had, in fact, been pressed up against the wall complimenting the staircase. And behind the couch, under the staircase, I could barely make out the top of a small entry door, likely into a small storage area under the stairs.

Was somebody in there? I wondered.

I cautiously made my way forward, and effortlessly moved the couch, making as little noise as possible. Confronted with the door, I turned its handle and opened it.

In the darkness of the room, I instantly saw what looked like a small child cover their eyes at the sudden increase in light. Beside the child were two other, smaller forms sprawled on the ground, apparently asleep. One of them appeared to be laying along with what I would have thought was a small dog, had I not noticed that something was obviously off about it. That wasn't my immediate concern though.

"Kevin!" I called out towards the kitchen.

Looking back at the startled child, I noticed the other two forms beginning to stir at my voice.

I knelt down in front of the boy, I softly asked, "are you okay?" I attempted a smile.

The boy only gave a slight nod in an understanding of my question but appeared to still be deathly afraid.

"A-Are th-they still out th-there?" The boy stammered out, in obvious trepidation.

I shook my head, assuming he was referring to the undead. "No, we took care of them." I said, "Is it just you three?" I asked and pulled down my mask, just as Kevin appeared behind me.

"Oh, hell," Kevin exclaimed but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

The boy, seemingly unphased by Kevin's interruption responded in answer to my question, "And Manes," the boy said while glancing at the dog that was prone on the floor. "But he hasn't woken up since our parents shut us in here," he said, with an extremely sad look in his eyes. It was too much for me though, as I drew in closer and gave the boy a hug. He flinched before giving a slight hug back.

I could feel the warm, and wet tears as they fell down his face and onto my cheek. It was clear that the boy knew his parents weren't around anymore. It was a fate I wouldn't wish on any child. The whole situation filled me with a newfound determination to clear the zone as quickly as possible. How many more survivors are out there?

The very least I could do would be to make a safe zone for those displaced with nowhere else to go.

I took the change, as the kid continues to sob, to take in the room. The boy I was holding appeared to be around twelve or so years old, and the other two who were just now realizing what was going on looked to be his younger siblings. There was the girl who was holding onto the dog, and she looked maybe a few years younger, and the other boy looked as though he was still just a toddler.

As it turned out after I was able to calm the boy down, his name was Max, and his two younger siblings were Emry and Ross. Emry being the girl holding onto the dog, and Ross being the toddler. They had managed to survive the past few days by themselves because the storage room they had found themselves shut in had also happened to be used as food storage. The room ranked however with the signs of the space having been coopted for bathroom usage.

As Dante came back and we informed him of the situation, we unanimously agreed to put the remainder of our scavenging operations on hold for the day.

I picked up Max, and we escorted the three children out the back door, doing our best to keep their focus away from the gore in the surroundings, and especially away from the sight of who we assumed were their parents just outside the front door.