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"Everyone ready?" Mathew asked, turning his head over his shoulder and casting a quick glance at his team.

There were only five of them in total. A pretty small number for an expedition that had several objectives on the to-do list, all of which required a long-distance trip.

"We are ready," Nadia replied, taking a step forward and nodding her head as she spoke for all three of Mathew\'s wives that participated.

"I\'m ready," Norbert reported, nodding his head.

Counting Mathew, five of them. A skeletal crew if there was any way to call them.

But all the disadvantages of lacking numbers were counteracted by the individual strength of the participants. And the two advantages of their small number, their mobility and their ability to sneak around, made this kind of arrangement pretty favorable.

​ "Good," Mathew nodded his head, acknowledging everyone\'s presence. He turned his head back in the proper direction before raising his hand at the survivors standing guard by the sides of the main gate of the compound. "Let\'s move out!"

The gate swung open, the courtesy of the survivors working hard to save the group even with the tiniest effort of opening the gate themselves.

"All the best and may you return safely," Beatrice said, raising her hand.

Save for the few survivors that came for the sake of convenience, she was the only one to see the group off.

Mathew didn\'t bother to reply with his voice, opting to just raise his hand as he walked through the gate without looking back.

And just like that, the group left the safety of the school\'s compound barrier, stepping into the dangers of the outside world.

The group moved forth through the empty streets. All the signs of fighting or zombie corpses were long gone from the school\'s perimeter, turned into ashes in the controlled fire Mathew\'s group brought forth just yesterday.

"It\'s pretty unnerving, isn\'t it?" Mathew muttered under his nose while caressing the handle of his saber attached to a simple belt on his hips. "How silent this street is, I mean," he then added, looking around the place.

\'I never expected that something as simple as silence would put me more on edge than a sight of an approaching horde,\' he thought, gulping down his saliva.

There was no denying that the noises of the zombies would make any man uneasy, especially when one was forced to listen to them all the time. And yet, the lack of any of those noises turned out to be heavier on everyone\'s mind than their presence.

After all, without noises, one couldn\'t hear the incoming zombies in advance. And even if it most likely mean there were no zombies anywhere near, it wasn\'t something one could enforce one\'s consciousness to accept.

"It really is silent," Nadia muttered, agreeing with her man. "Too silent."

"Guys, stop raising unnecessary flags," Leila commented, showcasing a bit of common gaming knowledge. "It\'s silent because all the zombies are either dead or gone hunting somewhere else," she stated the obvious yet surprisingly hard-to-accept truth.

"We know," Daria said. She rolled her eyes before stepping slightly to the side, taking the left flank of the group.

"Then why are you all silent?" Leila asked with a small, slightly ironic smile. "Your anxiety is almost palpable!"

Leila kept on teasing the entire group while taking a position to the right.

"It\'s unnerving because we are not used to it," Nadia gave her own two cents. She then slowed down a little, allowing both Mathew and Norbert to pass her. She only picked up the pace once there everyone else moved at least two meters away from her.

"Guys, focus on the task," Mathew finally cut the needles chatter. "And speaking of the task, which of the objectives should we shoot for first?"

"I think we should go for the local market," Norbert said, joining the conversation while moving comfortably in the very middle of the formation.

Norbert was a former police officer. He served on the front lines during his military days and even then, upon transferring over to law enforcement, he still opted to join special forces and risk his life rather than punching the numbers behind the desk or slapping parking and speeding tickets on the windshields of the careless drivers.

All things considered, he was the one with the greatest combat experience in their small group. Yet, his non-combat-oriented system and abilities meant that all his prior advantages were now worthless, making him the only \'civilian\' within their group.

"Any particular reason?" Mathew inquired, looking over his shoulder and casting a curious glance at the oldest in the group.

"The electricity in the city died yesterday," Norbert pointed out. "This is our last shot to get our hands on some of the perishable foods," he said. "And no matter which supermarket we go to, there are bound to be medicinal supplies there, assuming they are yet to be fully looted."

It was only the second point that the former police officer made that was actually and pragmatically important. Yet, the vision of getting their hands on the food that would soon pretty much disappear never to be produced again…

There was no denying that such a perspective was what drew everyone to Norbert\'s idea. And if the luxury drew their attention, it was the pragmatic side of the deal that forced the idea to stay.

"Well, we might as well do it," Mathew said, shaking his shoulders. "As long as we don\'t carry too much on us, it shouldn\'t hinder the rest of the objectives," he presented his stance on the matter.

And just like that, the group picked up the first objective for the expedition.

"I didn\'t think it would go that smoothly," Norbert admitted in a half-voice. From the look on his face, it was clear he had yet to shake off the surprise the quick and positive response of Mathew\'s group gave him.

"Did you have some ulterior motives when proposing the shop?" Mathew asked, leaning his head over his shoulder to cast a glance at the man behind him.

"Well…" Norbert averted his eyes. "It\'s been a while since I last had any booze."