The World Cataclysm

"Where are the keys of the vans?"

As his eyes were running wild, looking at the valuable resources, Dave decided to concentrate on their next task. They needed to clean the backside of the cafeteria and secure their path to the vans, while also finding the keys for them.

So he decided to seek an answer to his question from the person who was the most knowledgable about a cafeteria. Sara worked as an administrator, so she should know where the keys were located.

"They are either in a staff room or directly on the body of the driver. I'll go check a staff room."

With such words, Sara ran into one of the rooms and started searching for keys. Not waiting for her, Dave decided to move to the backside and kill zombies wandering there.

As he opened wide doors at the end of the corridor, he was welcomed by a poor sight of narrow alleys produced by the building constructed close to each other. Several trash bins were put close to the walls and two black vans were parked five meters from him.

They were common vans specially built for transporting products and delivering items over the distances. Except for driver's seat and passenger's seat next to it, everything else inside was empty space.

Even though cafeteria looked grandiose and stylish from the front, the back wall of it was just plain and simple, painted into pure white colour. It seemed that the design of the cafeteria had also been influenced by an attitude of cheap businessmen who tried to minimize their losses.

At least, the person who owned the cafeteria still painted its back walls. Some of the buildings, looking from their backsides, weren't even painted, as they glimmered in a dull stony colour.

Finally killing the last zombie, Dave returned to the same corridor and saw Sara who was holding a key in her hands. Seeing it, he clearly understood what it meant as he furrowed his brows.

"Sorry, there was only one key in a staff room. Probably, the second one is on a driver, who either fleed from the building or turned into a zombie."

She seemed apologetic since she was an administrator, yet she didn't know a thing about a driver's location. However, she was more worried that Dave would decide to forsake them, leaving her in a cafeteria. She clearly understood that it was impossible to take all eight people and boxes from a storeroom into one van.

"You're not at fault, so don't blame yourself. We should check corpses in case one of them is a corpse of a driver."

Sighing inwardly, he felt his temples started hurting badly, as he rubbed them with his right hand. If they don't find keys from one of the corpses, he decided to leave a small group here, so he could return after them. Their priority was to transport back as many resources as they could, so they could last longer in the coming days.

Gathering everyone around him, he shared their problem and his decision to leave someone behind if they couldn't find a driver. Even though they were worried about his suggestion, Adam, Brian and Rebecca didn't freak too much about it since they were strong enough to care for themselves.

Also, if they lock themselves up in one of the rooms, they were confident to last till Dave came and took them with him. However, the same thing couldn't be said about non-fighters in their group.

Sara, Rachel and Katelyn's faces immediately turned ashen, as they were praying not to be left behind, while Adrian accepted it more easily than them, though he still mulled over it. He wanted to quickly get into a safe place, eat to his full and sleep in a bed.

He already had time to ask others about their base when Dave was killing zombies on the backside, so he held a simple but strong desire to leave cafeteria as fast as he could.

"So let's search dead bodies of zombies to find a driver of a van."

At his words, it was Adam's turn to change in his face as it had turned into a slightly darker shade and Dave clearly understood his reaction since he knew that Adam was a guy who was obsessed with being clean, not till the point of having a phobia, just a habit of his.

He always found it funny when Adam entered a shower for half an hour to scrab every spot of blood on his body. He could only imagine how disgusted Adam would feel, ransacking the dead bodies. Fortunately for him, coins and chests drop close to the corpse.

At his words, everyone was hurriedly checking the dead bodies for the presence of keys, yet nobody was able to find them. As they were already having thoughts about giving up and deciding who would remain behind, Sara suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

"I found him!"

Everybody looked at her and started gazing at corpses around her, seeking for the one who was a driver. However, unable to identify a driver, they looked at her questioningly as they were asking for a clue.

But when Sara lifted her right hand and pointed somewhere in particular, everyone seemed stunned. They looked there and back at her. Catching their strange glances at her as they were looking at someone insane, she blushed slightly.

"It should be him. There outside, look!"

Everyone looked strange at her since Sara had pointed not at one of the corpses but to the outside, through one of the windows.

"How confident are you?"

Looking at the zombie she was pointing, Dave decided to try it since it wouldn't cause much of a harm. It was wandering right before the doors of a cafeteria.

"I may be mistaken, but he looks like a driver to me."

Sara replied while looking sideways. She didn't seem to be completely sure about it, but Dave decided to trust her.

"Adam, can you pull it to us? When I open the doors, you need to pull it to us, so we won't cause much of a commotion."

Adam only nodded with his head, contemplating his chances to do his task. As Dave opened the doors, Adam reached with his hands towards the zombie and made a pulling motion. At the same time as he did it, a zombie flew towards them in a straight line.

As it had entered into the cafeteria, Dave swiftly killed it and searched its body, finding a key of the van.

'Must be nice to have an innate ability. So convenient!'

Having side thoughts, Dave showed everyone a key, causing delight to spread in their hearts. They let a sigh of relief, thinking that they could finally leave now.

"Everyone, transport boxes inside the vans, while Adam and I will stay on guard."

In such a way, they lifted boxes and bags, which were specifically selected by Rebecca, to the vans. Katelyn was displeased by the fact that she needed to lift heavy boxes, yet she didn't dare to voice her thoughts since Dave still looked threatening to her.

After they had filled the vans with food, they divided into two groups, each consisting of four. As it had been discovered, only two of them had driven a van before. They were Adam and Rachel who both came from well-brought family.

However, Rachel said that she only had an experience of driving one before, so Dave thought that it was better than nothing.

Even though Sara was oldest among them, she doubted her abilities to ride a van well enough to the dormitory, considering that she suffered from continuous days of bad sleep. Her mentality and abilities didn't fit the task.

Taking everything into consideration, he decided to balance strengths of the groups, so he teamed Adam with Brian, who could guide him through zombies, and added Adrian and Sara to his group while accompanying Rachel himself.

Even though he didn't have Brian's Life Pulse, he still could guide her through zombies by his Mana Sensing. Indeed, its range was lower than of a Life Pulse, yet it should be enough.

He wasn't much worried about Adam since he was confident in his driving skills, yet he was more worried about Rachel, particularly about her mentality. He didn't know how she will behave in case something goes south.

"Adam, listen to me, if something goes wrong during our trip to the dormitory, don't try to save us! Return to the base, and wait for us there. Don't worry about us and continue hunting, so I won't worry about you excessively."

He pulled Adam closer to him, distancing him from others, and whispered it to Adam. He was sure that nobody heard what he had said to Adam.

"But..."

"No buts! Don't worry, I won't die easily. And it's only in case if something goes wrong."

Understanding the severity of the situation and due to Dave's insistence, he could only nod his head to Dave's request...no, it was more an order than a request. Even though both of them were whispering to each other looked suspicious, others didn't heed it any attention.

Finally, they had divided into two groups, sat in two vans and prepared to start engines of the vans. Dave had already noticed that Rachel was shaking as she was turning the car key, yet he could only pray that everything proceeds smoothly for them.

Rachel knew what was responsibility and how to cope with it since she had engaged in lots of projects for her profile, but never did her life had depended on her actions. The thought of making a mistake and losing her life scared her too much, so she was anxious all along.

"To whom I'm fucking lying! At such moments, when did everything go as planned?"

Observing Rachel who was literally shaking as she turned a key, Dave prepared himself for the worst.