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🕑 Added 2025-05-15 08:52:40 +0000 UTCStay Alive
Chapter 25 - Analysis
During the night, several things were analyzed, and Alan, who had figured out where Claire’s truck was, hesitated briefly before estimating how long it would take if they started running from the beginning.
Moreover, the traffic full of abandoned vehicles had not been taken into account.
After night fell, Alan only bothered to rest and check if there was any other problem to worry about. Then, he went up to the top floor to talk with Tommy, who said he had encountered several survivors.
Both agreed to meet at a good point where Tommy would provide cover, but that would only be possible if the streets were clear of infected. If that wasn’t the case, Tommy wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Alan, who saw Claire nearby, said to her, “The only difference between the infected and us is that they have a single goal: to infect the uninfected… At least for now, we’re not at a disadvantage.”
“Does the fungus change them?”
“Yes, much more than you can imagine…” The fungus changed people’s appearance, at least that’s what recent research had shown so far.
Claire seemed very calm and asked, “Do you think the bombings stopped completely?”
Alan thought for a moment and said, “If FEDRA doesn’t control Texas, that means the bombing was strategic. To be honest, I’d like to believe that attack was planned and not impulsive…”
The massacres Claire had told him about were heard from Tommy and his brother; as for Steven, before he died, he hadn’t mentioned anything about that.
Alan wanted to believe his brother died doing what they swore to protect; after all, as soldiers, killing their own people in a desperate measure was something that should be punished.
…
Early the next morning, Alan woke up again, but he hadn’t expected to have fallen into such a deep sleep so suddenly.
Before anything else, he felt his gun in its holster on his leg, so he sighed with relief. Then he felt Claire’s body resting against his. Her slow breathing told Alan that everything was okay.
This was not his first close contact with women. Alan had had many partners, some relationships longer than others. But none had lasted and all ended badly.
Since then, Alan thought he wasn’t made for romantic relationships; they all ended too badly.
Claire didn’t take long to wake up. Seeing herself leaning on Alan, she slowly moved away and murmured, “I’m sorry…”
“It’s nothing… Did you sleep well?” Alan smiled slightly and instead asked Claire.
“Of course. Are we still going to clear out the infected?” Claire hadn’t slept that well since she began her journey searching for her brother, which meant she trusted Alan.
“Yes, we have to clear out as many as we can and increase our chances of escape. The closest route to the vehicle is from the front. If we do it this way, we can get into the truck and exit through the back.”
When they stood up, they saw the infected standing still, and indeed, there were more than before, but Claire asked, noticing something strange, “Did you notice the infected aren’t there? I mean the bodies we threw off the second floor yesterday.”
Alan looked closer and sure enough, it was true. Yesterday, they had thrown more than forty bodies from above. After one night, all the heads of those infected were gone; all the heads and stomachs of those corpses had been eaten by something.
Alan murmured after thinking about what had happened, “The infected are evolving; I wouldn’t be surprised if they start doing things we don’t understand.”
“In a few years, we might have the advantage—the fungus will blind them, and then we’ll be able to eliminate them more easily.”
Thinking about it, Claire changed the topic and asked, “How long will it take us to clear out all those infected?”
Alan thought for a moment and said, “A few more days, if we have the strength, maybe today or tomorrow, but we should do more than we did yesterday.”
At that moment, Carlos walked out of the bathroom and said, “The problem is there are hundreds of thousands of humans in this city. Even if we manage to clear the way, that doesn’t guarantee a clear path to the truck.”
Raj walked over to the window and said, “Yes, there are so many, but aren’t we just killing enough to get to your truck?”
Alan shook his head and said, “We need, besides the truck, a big truck. We, the ones heading to the vehicle, will clear the way for those whose mission is to get on the big truck. Only then will you have the chance to clear the path and draw the infected that surround us.”
“Several people have already died, now there are ten of us, which makes things difficult…” Edward, Raj’s brother, was very determined, and if you think about it, besides the woman and her child, no one else directly supported them.
Alan noticed this early on and murmured, “Yes, but we don’t have a choice. We only have food for today and maybe tomorrow. If we don’t try to escape with what we have, we’ll starve. Then maybe one of you will choose cannibalism to survive longer—is that what you want by being so pessimistic?”
Raj smiled bitterly and said, “Some cried all night; not everyone has the willpower to keep doing this… We were terrified at first too, don’t you remember?”
Claire knows that everyone acted paranoid at first, which was perfectly understandable given everything they had been through so far.
At this point, now that things had calmed and everyone was somewhat aware of what was happening, it was time to do something for themselves.
“Me, Claire, and Raj can go for the truck, draw some attention so that after that you have time to find a large vehicle that can crush hundreds of infected and clear the path full of vehicles. What do you think?” Alan looked at Raj, then at his brother.
This plan of bringing a brother was the best he could think of so that he and Claire wouldn’t be abandoned after the people here had the chance to escape.
