That first week of encountering undead, looters and the experiment was so overwhelming that we forgot our natural instinct to survive in this broken world.

Although I said that, we still stuck to our way of thinking into uncovering the secret of what they're trying to hide. The Kobold Corporation, Government and lastly, Sanctuary.

As dangerous as it seems, we couldn't help but to proceed and find out what happened. By figuring out who they are, not only would we know who our enemies are, we also could find out about the experiment and helping Tyler to get out the chip or at least lessen the effect of using the chip unconsciously.

Right now, this was the time we managed to gather together after a month of wandering around, doing jobs in this sanctuary and looking for information which was not easy considering how hard they made us work.

Tyler and I sat down on the chair which was in a fine condition. Andrew and Linda standing around, back against the wall to keep their head stuck into the conversation.

"In the fighter quarter, I didn't manage to find a single clue regarding any experiment on the X-02 or even X-01."

Linda sighed heavily.

"You're supposed to find information, Andrew." The said boy wasn't having it and tried to explain further to the lady in a white apron, hiding her identity from the other people.

"Hey! At least I found out one thing. The owner, Mr. X had a close relationship with the one in charge of leading the fighter."

"And?"

"It was the director's private guard we've seen on the way we were escaping to the boat. His name is Vince O'Neil." He whispered to us quietly.

"... Interesting." Linda put a finger on her chin as she pondered the reason of government involving themselves into allying with the source of zombie apocalypse.

"What about you, Linda?" Andrew seemed to be upset at how Linda treated him like he was useless.

"Unlike you, Mr. Andrew, I dug around a little bit deeper and engaging with both the fighter and scout."

""What?""

Both of us asked at the same time.

"Not like what you two imagined. I just snuck around an alcohol to them and ask them nicely."

"Oh..." I let out a breath of relief. Andrew was hugely relieved too.

"While you two are having a moment with your imagination, I'm gonna continue. A fighter was telling me that sanctuary was built by private company, Kobold Corporation around four months ago."

"..."

"I don't know if they knew about the experiment failure beforehand or they already built it around the time of outbreak coincidently but he said that the director told him to help him around here since the public discovery on the medicine, or we could say X-02 medicine."

"That's suspicious." Linda nodded her head.

"I think so too. What's more a scout was telling me that the government officials arrived here. Last week, secretary of defence too has just arrived."

"You mean the ironhand minister? That minister?"

"Yeah. He brought ten soldiers with him."

The four of us exchanged glances with each other.

"This is getting complicated." It came from Andrew. He looked reluctant to continue what he was saying as he didn't expect the danger of coming into contact with the famous minister.

"..."

Of course, no one said anything seeing it was getting serious except for Linda who knew the risk of being exposed to that man.

"Don't get a cold feet. We managed to get this far and you'll willing to back down after our exhausting effort?" She snapped with her eyes burned with anger.

"Of course not. It's just..."

"I know what you mean. Let's do what we can, Andrew."

We agreed to talk about it together but deep down, we knew how deep their involvement was into the apocalypse seeing suspicion kept rising through the new information we gathered.~

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Down under the secret room was an underground filled with the former experiment equipment and a group of young individuals.

It was so tense that the room felt quite dark in the heavy atmosphere.

I was in an argument with Linda because I can't accept what she said.

["... Any subject related to X-01 experiment had the possibility of being exposed to an infection just like what happen to X-02 subject."]

"That's absurd. I've been with Tyler since he was coming to my house and he hasn't been like that!"

"Calm down."

Linda explained in detail that I couldn't deny any of her comments.

The undead physical's abilities exceed those of normal human beings. At the same, the bodily growth rapidly decreasing as time went on. That is due to the restriction of self-healing capabilities placed on their body every time they get injured.

"But Tyler was not like that, you know?"

"I told you, it's just my opinion. I need to see the full data on it to confirm my theory and—"

"Hm?"

Sniff!

Tyler was frowning at the puppy that kept sniffing and circling around us.

"What is it, little guy?"

I noticed that the dog liked the name and wagging his tail. He ran the other way, outside the door and stopped at the odd looking wall.

"Why is he acting like this?"

The ill-looking dog whose eyes stood firmly on the wall could be seen clearly under the faint light while wagging his tail cutely.

"Hmm..." Linda mumbled with a dazed expression.

It was at that moment, he started to tap the wall.

The dog placed his front paw on the wall. He then looked up at Linda .

"I think something is on this wall."

"Really?"

Andrew put his hand on the wall cautiously but it didn't change or did anything.

"If I'm correct, this one..."

Linda continued in a confident tone after seeing serious gaze focused on her.

"... is the key."

Rumble!

"Woah!"

It opened up a path downward. Unlike before it's a stairway to who knows where but we were sure it was an escape route for everyone here in case things happen inside the building.

The dog tilted his head as his tail continued to wag cutely, like nothing happened.

"Let's go."

Our path begins now as we descended down the stairs, walking carefully for the path ahead. I never thought we would get out of here after we were trapped by looters.

In fact, I was more glad to finally escape than to be shock at something like before. A light reached our eyes as it shone brightly, showing signs that we were almost reach the outside world.

And then... it was beyond our expectation.

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𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝟮! 

𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘇𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘆𝗽𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻’𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲.