novelraw Chapter 36 36: Do you think… something happened?
Chapter 36 36: Do you think… something happened?
Leon looked toward the metal door that led into the kitchen's back area, the sound had come from there.
He moved slowly, without rushing, placing each step carefully so he wouldn't kick any of the scattered junk across the floor. Only when he was right up against the door did he lean in and glance through the narrow, grime-smeared window set into the metal.
A sour, metallic stench leaked through the seams of the door, thick enough that Leon instinctively slowed his breathing before even seeing what waited on the other side.
The kitchen was cramped. Stainless counters, carts, hanging shelves, everything packed tight. And between all of it stood about ten zombies, shuffling lazily with their heads cocked at wrong angles, limbs dragging like they'd forgotten how joints were supposed to work.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then, almost in perfect unison, they turned their heads toward him. Empty. Mechanical.
They'd sensed life.
Leon's brows drew together, not out of fear, but calculation. One glance was enough to tell him the truth: the kitchen was the worst possible place to fight. Too narrow. Too many hard edges. He wouldn't be able to use his speed or footwork, and moving at his pace in tight corridors meant one slip, one wrong angle, one accidental brush against a hand,
One scratch.
One mistake.
So he simply opened the door.
He didn't step inside. He didn't try to clear them in there. He opened it wide, then calmly backed into the café, leaving the passage open as if he were inviting them out.
The zombies lurched forward immediately, bumping into each other, spilling into the café one by one. And after only a few steps, Leon's initial read was confirmed, they were slow. Stiff. Less coordinated. Their movements heavy and delayed, like they'd been standing inert for too long and hadn't "warmed up."
Compared to what he'd fought outside, they were almost pathetic.
When the last one crossed the threshold, Leon vanished.
Not literally, but to any ordinary eye it would've looked that way. His silhouette melted into motion, and in the next heartbeat he was behind the first zombie, driving a dagger into exactly the point his new instincts told him meant instant shutdown. No mess. No wasted force.
Then he was gone again.
Reappearing at the next. And the next.
The blades worked short and clean, no big swings, no drama, just precise, minimal movement, like he'd done it a thousand times.
This wasn't a fight.
It was a technical execution.
[Essence Record - Kill Confirmed]
[Target: 10x Normal Zombie (LVL 3)]
In three seconds, ten bodies collapsed onto tables, chairs, and the floor, landing with dull, wet impacts that echoed through the café loud enough that no one outside could possibly miss them.
Leon was already standing calmly in the middle of the room when the last corpse stopped twitching. Without haste, he wiped both daggers on a strip of fabric torn from one of the café tables, like it was routine.
A few moments later, Adam, Marek, and Natalia appeared in the doorway, tense and armed, ready for the worst.
Adam froze first when he saw the bodies lined across the floor and Leon standing in the center of it all. His eyes widened despite himself.
Marek, on the other hand, nearly shouted before he fully processed what he was seeing.
"We need to search the entire building immediately," he snapped, not even looking back at the other two. "If there are more surprises like this and we've got over a hundred people inside, it only takes one zombie for this to turn into hell."
Adam nodded without hesitation.
Natalia was already turning, prepared to move on, but before she disappeared back through the door, she threw Leon a long, cold look. She gave a quiet snort and lifted her chin, as if none of this impressed her the way it clearly did everyone else.
Adam took a step to follow her,
And Leon spoke, calm and level, stopping him mid-motion.
"You."
He tipped his head at the bow in Adam's hand.
Adam blinked, confused, not yet understanding.
Leon raised a hand and pointed toward the other bow lying on the counter beside the scattered loot, speaking in the same matter-of-fact tone he'd used all day: if Adam wanted it, he could take it. Leon had no use for it. Carrying a weapon you couldn't use was pointless in a world where everything had to justify its weight.
Only then did Adam really look at it.
From a distance it looked almost primitive, like something pulled from a museum display or a school archery club. He approached more out of politeness than belief… but the moment his eyes caught the artifact description, he stopped.
Then he looked again. At the wood. The taut string. Then back at Leon, as if checking he'd read it right.
"Wait… you're serious?" Adam asked, pointing at it. "I can really take it?"
Leon nodded without hesitation, giving a slight shrug. He said he didn't know anything about bows, didn't plan to learn in the middle of an apocalypse, and Adam, judging by what Leon had seen outside, would make far better use of it than Leon ever could.
After that, Leon glanced down at his own daggers and, almost unconsciously, ran his fingers along the cool, smooth metal with quiet satisfaction. For now, he had a weapon that suited him. With his style, these gave him the best chance to stay alive.
Adam watched him for a moment with an expression that was hard to name. Seeing a guy stroke a pair of knives like they belonged in his hands was… unsettling.
But Adam didn't comment. He just nodded, muttered a quick "Thanks," and took the bow with both hands.
When he tested the draw, his eyebrows lifted. The resistance was far heavier than he'd expected from something that looked so plain. For a brief moment a certain look crossed his face, the look of someone realizing, fully and finally, what they'd just been handed.
Not wasting another second, Adam turned and headed quickly for the café exit, scanning nervously as if it had only now hit him that Natalia had already vanished from sight. He sped up, trying to catch her.
***
On the vast basketball court, where not long ago there'd been bouncing balls and cheering echoes, people now sat in small, chaotic clusters along the walls, the bleachers, and the crudely barricaded entrances. The air was thick with sweat, fear, and that specific tension that appears when no one knows if the next minute will be their last.
Conversations stayed quiet. Broken whispers. Half-sentences. Like everyone was afraid that speaking too loudly might attract something, even behind thick metal doors. Every so often, a muffled thud rolled through the building. A metallic clang. A dull tremor that didn't belong in any normal university gym.
"Do you think… something happened?" a younger girl asked softly, pulling her knees up and clutching her hoodie sleeves when another heavier impact echoed through the hall. "We keep hearing things… like they're fighting."
An older girl beside her turned her head and tried to smile, but it came out more like strained facial muscles than warmth. She shook her head slightly.
"It's okay," she said, forcing her voice to sound steady even if she herself was barely holding together. "I saw that girl… Natalia. She's really strong. If something shows up, then… it's not a problem for her."
She was saying it more for herself than for the other girl, as if words could become truth if you believed them hard enough.
But the younger girl didn't look calmer. Her eyes glassed over, her lower lip starting to tremble.
"I… I'm so scared," she whispered. And then the words began to spill out like they'd been waiting behind her teeth the whole time. "Karolina… she… she turned into a zombie. Just… suddenly. And then she bit Aurelia. Right in front of me. I couldn't do anything… nothing…"
Her shoulders started to shake. Her breathing went uneven, like every memory was a punch to the chest.
The older girl pulled her close on instinct, wrapping an arm around her, while feeling something tighten in her own throat.
"I know," she murmured, pressing the younger girl's head into her shoulder. "We all… we all lost someone in these last few hours."
She didn't say what was chewing at her most, though. In her own mind there was only that one looping thought: no signal, no answer, silence on the other end of the phone, and the fear that if she let herself picture it clearly, she wouldn't get back up.
She held the girl tighter, blinking hard as tears gathered, because all she wanted, more than anything, was to go home, sit at a table, and hear familiar voices again. Even if only for a moment.
Similar conversations floated everywhere: fragments about friends who didn't make it, screams heard through walls, someone who stepped out "for a second" and never returned. The entire hall seemed to pulse with a quiet, collective dread, people waiting for a future they couldn't even be sure still existed.
A bit farther away, leaning against a metal railing, stood a girl with light brown hair hanging messily over her shoulders, like she hadn't had the strength or time to deal with it for hours. She fidgeted with loose strands, then tied it up into a higher, tighter ponytail.
Elena Moreau bit her lip. Her hands, still trembling moments ago, slowly began to clench into fists, like she was trying to hold the fear in place through sheer force.
"This can't be what it is," she breathed, so softly no one could hear. "If I just stand here and wait… I'll end up like them."
Her heart hammered. Her mind flashed with blood and running and monsters.
But underneath all of that, another thought was forming, still raw, not fully shaped, but stubborn.
If she didn't get stronger… if she didn't try to do something… this world would simply grind her into the floor.
And in her mind, images kept returning: a man in a long coat with a sword, moving so fast he vanished from her sight, cutting down dozens of zombies in seconds.