More and more zombies, ranging from F+ to E+ rank, began arriving in the city.
At that moment, in a fairly large building with a high ceiling, the E-rank zombie dog, following Matthew's orders, was eating an E+ rank zombie they had hunted minutes earlier.
Matthew's goal was to strengthen his two zombie dogs as well, so they could have a more robust attack and defense.
A few days later, most of the zombies that had entered the city had mysteriously headed towards the city center; only a few remained, lingering on the outskirts.
That afternoon, as night was falling, the sound of heavy wheels approaching could be heard, along with the rattling of chains each time the sound of the wheels stopped or resumed.
…
Matthew had climbed onto a rooftop and ordered his dogs to stay hidden in the buildings.
Seconds later, a zombie nearly 8 feet tall, with a robust, almost fat body, dressed in leather, wore heavy chains on its head, neck, and shoulders, pulling an iron cart.
In one hand, the zombie carried a huge butcher knife.
An F+ rank zombie walked beside the imposing-looking zombie.
The zombie pulling the cart brandished its knife and sliced the F+ rank zombie in two.
Cut!
Rotten blood!
The zombie with the butcher knife grabbed the remains of the other zombie and threw them into the steel cart, then attacked another zombie to repeat the process.
...
[Butcher Zombie: Rank B]
"A Rank B zombie. Just by looking at it and its size, you can tell it's strong. But what is it doing?"
Matthew couldn't help but recall the zombie remains he'd seen upon entering the city. He also remembered how, not long before, the zombies that had entered the city had headed toward the central area.
"It's possible that this Rank B zombie is a henchman of a powerful zombie located in the central area. And if I can't defeat a zombie that outranks me in three seconds, I'm finished."
Matthew understood the reason for the instinctive sense of danger he felt when he looked toward the city's central area.
...
The butcher zombie raised and lowered his knife again and again, slicing to pieces any straggling zombies within reach.
Matthew just watched from the roof of the building until he heard the sound of another metal cart coming from a not-too-distant direction.
"There's more than one of those things," he thought immediately.
The butcher zombie had finished off every zombie he encountered.
Roar!
"Get down... from the roof," the butcher zombie said in a loud, guttural, chilling voice.
"This has gotten out of hand," was his first thought upon realizing the butcher zombie could speak.
To test the zombie's reasoning, he replied:
"You want to cut me to pieces. Why would I come down?"
"You can't... escape."
"I can't escape? What do you mean?"
Two sounds of steel carts approaching.
Matthew understood that those zombies were prepared to tear him to pieces.
Matthew only had to wait a few minutes, but he considered it absurd.
In three seconds, he could only be sure of killing two of them, and the third wasn't going to wait for him to finish eating.
Matthew began to run between the ruined rooftops of some buildings and others not so ruined, sometimes even throwing himself onto the walls, supported by his hands and feet, which now had claws that pierced the walls deeply enough to allow him to run along them.
One of the zombies began to run after him, but even though its rank was higher, the cart was heavy enough to slow it down.
In the end, Matthew managed to escape and hid in a building that had a structure similar to a basement.
Outside, the carts could still be heard; now there even seemed to be four carts.
Matthew saw a wooden door reinforced with iron in the place he was using as a refuge. He opened the door and a foul, concentrated smell wafted from inside.
...
Matthew opened the door after sensing no energy from any being powerful enough to defeat him.
He descended a few steps.
With his eyes enhanced from devouring the eyes of that zombie in the past, he could see despite the darkness.
There were dried corpses and some tunnels that allowed air to enter.
In a corner, he heard something chewing.
[Zombie: Rank F]
Matthew approached the thin zombie who wore only a dirty, threadbare dress.
The zombie had been a woman.
"Eat...live...live...eat"
"You have a low rank, and yet you still struggled to maintain a faint trace of lucidity," Matthew thought, approaching the zombie woman who instinctively huddled against the wall with the dead rat still in her thin, bony hands.