After twenty minutes of wandering around the neighborhood, I finally stumbled upon a clothing store. At last—I'd begun to think there wasn't one here at all! Entering the store, I headed straight for the men's section, silently cursing the zombies who had knocked over most of the racks, leaving the place in utter chaos. Still, after finding clean, undamaged clothes, I began selecting items that met my criteria: dark, inconspicuous colors. I needed to blend in, not shine like a garland in the night.
The result of my search—and the agonizing indecision that came with it—was a new pair of black jeans that had proven themselves well, and a dark gray, almost black windbreaker with a hood, which is quite deep. So now, if I stood close to a building, I'd have a real chance of remaining unnoticed. I couldn't find a decent T-shirt, though, so I kept the same red one. By zipping up the windbreaker, however, I managed to hide both the eyesore color and the annoying slogan. Next, I went to the shoe department and chose a pair of black athletic shoes. I decided not to wear socks: if I had to get rid of my shoes in a hurry, slippery socks would only get in the way, and it would be easier to go barefoot. Besides, they couldn't rub my feet—or rather, they wouldn't cause me any discomfort at all.
Satisfied with my outfit, I went outside and, using my claws again, climbed onto a building. The view was the same as before: a joyless atmosphere of despondency, smoke rising from certain areas, and gunshots echoing from different parts of the city—clear signs that the skirmishes with the survivors were still ongoing. Maybe I should take a walk toward one of those places? At the same time, I could see who was so nimble over there. Maybe I'd get lucky and it would turn out to be one of the characters—though I didn't really believe in that kind of luck.
After thinking it over for a while, and noting that dusk would fall in a couple of hours, I headed toward the nearest shootout. So, what did we have there? Through the building, I could see figures glowing red as they ran, and the one in the lead suddenly turned around in a doorway and froze? Strange. The others too were standing opposite him, not moving forward. Although what was that fluttering? Ah, I see—one of them was pounding on the door, another had climbed onto something high—a cabinet or something similar—and the third had been knocked down and was being eaten, judging by his twitching and the gradual fading of his color. But what a scoundrel there was among them! Still, he survived and continued the race, while another of the remaining ones was dragged down and beaten severely—or whatever was happening; it was hard to tell, since in this spectrum I could only see the living.
While watching all this, I didn't forget to move closer to the building. After mentally mapping out the path of the "quick one," I crawled through a second-floor window, immediately twisting my body and letting the zombie's carcass rush past me. What the hell was this? There were no living people here, ordinary zombies didn't react to me at all, and that one had been far too fast for a normal dead man. Good thing there was a window behind me—it flew out through it like a swallow.
The approaching footsteps, however, didn't encourage me to look at the corpse outside, which had finally come to rest after meeting the asphalt. I turned around and saw its kin approaching me a little too eagerly. The claws on their hands hinted at a higher degree of viral infection than in standard zombies. What were they called? It was somewhere in my head, but I couldn't quite remember. Aloe? No—what does a plant have to do with it? Scarlet? Closer… yes, that was it: Scarlet Heads! The next stage in the evolution of ordinary zombies. Much faster, far more dangerous, and their claws worked pretty well, too. I couldn't recall much else about them, but I didn't need to. There were only two, and this wasn't Lisa. I had no doubts about myself.
Having finally decided whether I was a threat or a snack, the zombies started running.
Well, let's see who's faster.
I sprinted toward them, closed the distance in an instant, and smashed their heads with my regrown claws. Yeah, I sure felt better about myself after beating up a bunch of nearly ordinary zombies—but on the other hand, I'd deal with a Licker too, and I really didn't want to mess with monsters right now. I automatically licked the blood that hadn't completely soaked into my claws.
Yum!
These were decent food as well, but after my encounter in the pit, I had an irrational desire to snack on someone stronger. But Lisa wasn't suitable for that yet. I wouldn't even have time to close my jaws before she turned me into mincemeat, and it wasn't certain I could digest her blood with all its viruses anyway. So for now, I needed something lighter. I'd come back to Miss Trevor later.
I continue moving forward, noticing that more figures—illuminated by a red glow, only they are somewhat dim—were emerging from somewhere on the opposite side, presumably from the sewers. Interesting. I needed to take a closer look, but carefully.
And the person who had caught my interest was heading straight there.