Time had been cruel to the ZIA outpost, the walls were cracked, windows broken and a red moss growing inside on all of the walls. Elias used his tablet once again to look through the ZIA database and find the quickest path towards the armory.
Turns out, the armory was in the basement. And one could only access the basement through the Director's office. He didn't waste a second and started walking straight towards the administration offices. He passed by many doors, all opened with a bloody mess inside. But thankfully no zombies inside the outpost.
He kept checking the rot meter. The Rot Index was steady so he didn't have to worry about anything. Moving further he reached the Director's office. However, the doors leading into it were closed. He pushed the door but it was useless. He'd have to break the door.
He couldn't risk alerting the two people by using a gun to break the glass door, he remembered one of his skills. "Distribution". Which allowed him to redistribute the grafted flesh anywhere on his body. He used the skill and the flesh from the left side of his body peeled off and attached to his right hand, making it bigger and reinforcing it.
He remembered the elite squad of Nova Terra used an exosuit with different combat enhancing features just like this. He breathed in and punched the glass with full force. It cracked and broke as his fist went through, shards of glass stuck on his knuckle.
From the inside he opened the door and went inside. The Director's room was fully intact. The chairs, the desk, all of the things were in place. A stack of files was on the desk and others were scattered around. He tried turning on the pc but there was no power in the building.
He picked up a file and flipped the pages inside, records of day to day things happening in the Sector were logged on the file. He moved on the next one, this one had a list of ZIA officers stationed at the Sector. The last Director of Redline Sector-31 was Dr. Erikson.
Fragments of memories came back to him. When he was doing his field training, Dr. Erikson was the officer who overlooked the trainees. He was a respectable man, who died in the last but not before creating The Echo Trench by exploding the highway leading directly to Nova Terra.
Using the same hand he yanked open the locked drawer, inside he found one file, a picture of Dr. Erikson with his daughter and wife and some cigars. Elias took all of the things outside. Putting the picture inside his bag and the cigars in his pocket, he opened the file.
"What in the world is this. Trying to replicate the regeneration shown by tier 4 zombies. This is fucking absurd." Elias blurted out.
"How far had they gone? How far was he from what they experimented." Elias thought, disgust, betrayal and the fear of becoming a full zombie flared up and he felt intense hatred for himself.
ZIA had banned any and all experiments regarding the replication of certain phenomenon exhibited by zombies. Yet, Redline Sector-31 had one ongoing and what's worse was that Dr. Erikson knew about it.
He gathered important files and put them inside his bag. These would come in handy when he gets back to Nova Terra. On the left side of the room there was a small door. He opened it and went down the stairs leading to the basement.
The basement was dark, and a pungent smell made its way to his nose. He covered it with a hand and walked further. A flashlight in his hand illuminated the way forward. The basement corridor had split with one path going towards the armory and the other towards a research lab.
He decided to go to the armory first to stock up. He inserted his ZIA ID inside the door lock and the door opened with a click. He was a team leader for the DZR, he had enough clearance to enter. The armory lit up, the power source for it had been separate from the rest of the building.
Inside he saw rows of different guns on display, Kevlar vests, ammunition, explosives and even an old exosuit. He put his bag on the table and emptied it. He grabbed another bigger bag from a corner and started putting the files and other stuff he had inside.
Then he changed into a white t-shirt, a blue jeans, a brown jacket with a fur collar and commando boots. He did this as to not get unwanted attention from the people in The Dregs.
He took out a box of paralyzing bullets and put it inside his bag. After that he grabbed a better rifle, it was not the best but it was still an old top of the line model. The scope was adjustable and it was silenced. It was perfect for him to carry out his quest.
He then grabbed a handgun and put it inside his holster. He also grabbed a machete, first-aid, some medicine and anything else he needed.
"All done, now let's check the lab." He said to himself.
Being alone made him start to talk to himself from time to time. His mental state was in a dismay but he was somehow holding on. He was nearing 40, he'd been through enough traumatic experiences before the fall that this may as well be his coping mechanism.
*****
Elias entered the lab and he felt nauseous all of a sudden. The smell of the rot was unbearable, he turned on the lights only to be greeted by a horrifying scene. A bunch of big test tubes were placed side by side. All of them were cracked and a weird mushy pulsating flesh was spreading from the first test tube to the last one.
On the left side of the test tube was a man, his skin looked fine but he was half inside the fleshy substance and half outside, the flesh tendrils went through his body and kept him at one place. The mans eyes suddenly shot open as he turned his head towards Elias.
Elias instinctively aimed his rifle and shot the mans ear off, there was no cry, no plea to save him. This mutated experimented zombie had taken over his body without corrupting it. He was shocked, if these kinds of experiments happened all those years ago then what could've been happening currently in secrecy.
He took a step forward but suddenly a tendril shot forward and smacked Elias into a wall. The man opened his eyes once again and jumped at him. Half of him was still human while the other side had multiple tentacles coiling around each other forming his arm, leg and his torso.
Elias took out the machete and sliced off his arm in one strike and then grabbed it twisting its neck and stabbing the heart. The fleshy mass screeched and more tendrils shot towards him, some impaled his body while some missed but he was determined.
He grabbed the dead doctors body and activated his skill. The skin peeled off from the doctor and clung onto his arm and slithered like a snake up his arm which pushed out the tendrils and distributed itself and closed off his wounds.
The green floating screen appeared him with a level up announcement.
[You have leveled up]
[Skill Grafting has leveled up]
[Skill Distribution has leveled up]
[Skill Disguise has leveled up]
[You have unlocked stat point allocation]
Stat points can be allocated into one of your core stats.
Current owned stat points: 2.
Elias got up and sprinted outside and up to the Director's office. The system window changed and showed him a new quest.
[Special Quest #1 - Pest Extermination]
A mutated Tier 4 - Huskbrute is in the basement, it is going to escape soon and make things difficult for you. Exterminate it before it ends you. There is no preferred method, just do what you want to do.
The reward for this will be the ability to copy one of its ability and make it a skill. Do remember, that only special quests will give you rewards like these.
Elias had started to understand the system more. Before he kept following what it told him but the special quest made him realize that the system was making him stronger. For what reason? He did not know that, neither did he care enough. Right now his top priority was to return to Nova Terra.
He walked out from the outpost and went towards the building the two survivors Jane and Derek were staying in. If he were to kill that thing, he would need their help.