An abandoned town. Although the houses were still standing, there were no people to be seen. Occasionally, a zombie wandered along the road, or a black crow landed on a corpse and pecked at the rotting flesh.
Buzz...
The car slowly drove into the town. Jason looked around and found the place to be rather small. There were houses on both sides of the road, appearing to be a residential area. Most of the doors had been broken long ago—it was hard to tell if they had been smashed open before or after the town fell.
"It's so clean here," Rick said, sticking his head out of the window.By "clean," he didn't mean hygienic, but that the houses seemed completely emptied out.
"Let's try our luck," Jason suggested.
Since there was no point in driving further, Jason parked the car by the roadside. After putting on their gear, the four of them got out.
Standing in the middle of the deserted street, they hesitated for a moment, unsure what to do next. Finally, they decided to split up and search the houses one by one.
Their main goal was to find tools to repair the car; anything else would just be a bonus.
Crunch...
Pushing open a broken door, Jason was about to step inside when a foul stench hit him so hard he nearly vomited. Coughing, he quickly stepped back. Peeking inside, he saw several corpses lying in the corridor, hacked into pieces. The hatred behind the violence was chilling.
"What lousy luck. Like stepping in dog shit as soon as you leave the house," Jason muttered, frustrated.
He didn't want to use the front door anymore, so he pried open a nearby window and climbed inside.
It was clear the place had been attacked by zombies. Black bloodstains covered the furniture, and broken objects littered the ground—a grim reminder of the battle that had taken place.
After a quick search, Jason found a body hidden in the closet and managed to salvage several wooden boards, which could be useful.
At least he found something. The others weren't so lucky.
Glenn, Henry, and Rick came back empty-handed, disgusted by what they had seen. The corpses in the other houses had rotted down to bones, but the stench was still overpowering—disgusting and terrifying at once.
"I swear, I'm never coming out here again," Glenn said, retching as he stumbled out of a house. Inside, he had seen a crib in a small bedroom—and the mangled remains of a baby inside it. The sight made him dry-heave uncontrollably.
Henry, meanwhile, stayed relatively calm. Aside from a slight change in expression, he didn't vomit like Glenn. He just looked deeply uncomfortable.
"Let's check ahead. There's nothing worth finding here," Jason said.
He tossed the wooden boards into the car and drove the group a little further. Soon, they spotted a supermarket up ahead and decided to check it out.
The supermarket's glass doors were shattered, and the shelves had collapsed, but a few goods still remained, most of them already looted.
"I'm heading to the warehouse to look for tools," Jason said. "You guys grab whatever daily supplies you can find."
He headed toward the back of the supermarket. Usually, tools were kept in the storage areas.
Bang!
Just as Jason passed a shelf, it suddenly toppled over—and from underneath, a zombie lunged out, grabbing his foot.
"Oh, shit!" Jason yelled, startled.
Reacting instinctively, he stomped hard with his free foot. There was a sickening crack as the zombie's rotten flesh gave way, exposing jagged white bones.