Chapter 48 – Into The Armory
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Chris then took Alice, Zeel, and Crystal to the elevator shaft. The plan was to get access to the Armoury.

Alice was forced to accompany Zeel the entire time, her abilities could be useful elsewhere, but she knew of Zeel's tendencies to kill the extra baggage – Crystal.

There was a point in time when she disliked this side of Zeel very much, but over the years, his need for efficiency had somewhat grown on her.

Ever since the nanites upgrade the previous night, she had also begun to experience flashes of his memories.

"They had pumps to keep the water out of the foundations. When the electricity failed, some of the lower levels start filling up. There are another two floors down there," Chris said looking at the flooded elevator shaft that was their only hope of accessing the lower floors.

"How far down is the armory?" asked Zeel as he opened his Mbeamer for the first time since meeting Alice.

The Mbeamer had a minor upgrade due to the upgrade of the nanites. Every time the nanites upgraded, all tech on Zeel also upgraded.

This was due to the sentient, symbiotic aspect of the nanites.

"All the way," Chris said raising three fingers, that indicated three floors below.

"This isn't gonna work," Zeel said but before he could continue Crystal started stretching.

Zeel looked at her silently, considering if he should leave her be or tell her they had a better way than swimming.

Crystal, taking Zeel's look for confusion, opted to explain "Swim team in high school,"

"I may have another way so please stop undressing," Zeel said, not because he didn't want to see her naked but because Alice would kill him if he did.

Besides he didn't want to take a view at Luther's lover.

However, like any normal male, Zeel was inclined towards beautiful females but Alice kept his promiscuous nature in check. At one point in time, meaningless sex and survival were all Zeel had to confirm his existence.

Zeel grew a sort of dependency on sex and princesses. The fact that sex in his Universe was spiritually, physically, and mentally fulfilling, just added to his dissatisfaction with the current era's sex practices.

"Al let's go, we need to find somewhere directly on top of the armory," Zeel said as he ignored the questioning look of Chris and the redressing of Crystal.

Zeel and Alice walked around in circles for a while.

Alice was busy sending pulses, trying to locate a spot just above the armory.

"Here, it's directly under here," Alice shouted to Zeel.

"Okay everyone might want to take a couple steps back," Zeel said as he knocked the ground with the tips of his toes to locate a weak point in the infrastructure.

He then bent his knees, causing veins to start bulging on his legs. This inflated his muscles to inhuman sizes.

Zeel then leaped into the air, reaching the ceiling in the blink of an eye. Using his hands, which also bulged to inhuman sizes, Zeel then pushed the ceiling with all his strength.

This caused the ceiling to fracture and shake. The momentum launched Zeel toward the ground with renewed intensity.

The motion was too swift for anyone other than Alice to notice. The moment Zeel reached the ceiling, his figure once again disappeared from the ceiling.

The next thing the group heard was a loud booming noise. A hole the size of an underground drainage cap appeared in the ground. Looking below, Crystal and Chris realized the hole spanned exactly three floors down.

They had little doubt that it led directly into the Armoury. At the bottom of the crevice, Alice could see Zeel panting as even for him that was a tiring task.

Alice then jumped down and said "Sometimes as smart as you are, you're still an idiot, what if you landed on a grenade or something,"

"I hadn't thought of that," Zeel replied as he was genuinely surprised at his own impulsive actions.

Had he made this error in the training camp from his Universe, Zeel would have been tortured in a reverse-genesis chamber for months.

Thinking about the past few months, Zeel realized his actions could be considered borderline reckless.

Stomping the ground in an Amazon jungle, triggering vibranium that could have killed him, walking into an Umbrella ambush without proper preparations, and now executing a plan without proper grasp of the consequences.

Then he felt it, a new emotional response he had not taken note of.

It felt like a sense of urgency.

Zeel had a theory that his emotional health would start with sub-emotional responses before discovering the true basic emotion.

He discovered revenge but anger only came later. He discovered love but has yet to experience true happiness. Now, he felt a sense of urgency but had yet to experience surprise.

Not minding Zeel's moment of deep thought, Chris and Crystal slid down a rope into the armory. The group began packing weapons.

Crystal and Alice were considering their choice carefully. This caused both Zeel and Chris to look at each other with their thoughts aligning 'Women are always gonna be women!'.

Zeel's main priority was knives and bombs, then anything else useful he could carry with him. Chris and Alice took only what they required, while Crystal opened the door and went into the corridor.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh"

All of a sudden, the group heard a cry as Crystal came running into the room.

By the time she was near the door of the armory, she was dragged outside by zombies that infiltrated from the underground.

Zeel responded immediately by shutting the entrance to the Armoury. He could care less about Crystal or anyone besides himself and Alice.

Alice facepalms while Chris only lets out a wry smile as he said "Truly someone who has been surviving since he was 10. You truly don't take any chances,"

"Hesitation leads to death, that's what I was taught," Zeel replied grabbing Alice and jumping three stories up.

The height was a bit more than Zeel could do in a single leap, so Alice floated them to the top.

Currently, the limit of her power had increased, she could now float objects or other people weighing no more than 1000 lbs.

She could probably go way beyond those limits if she had a reason to. Alice had trouble floating herself.

It was a much more complicated matter. It was akin to, trying to fly by jumping towards the sky and pulling your own hair. At best she can float for a couple of seconds.

After Zeel and Alice settled themselves on the surface floor, Alice floated Chris to the top. Chris tried to fight her pull by hugging the rope, but Alice was a bit too strong for him to resist.

At the same time elsewhere...

After opening the garage, the trio of Bennett, Kim, and Angel noticed the engine was indeed not inside the car as Zeel had earlier pointed out.

"What do we do now?" asked Kim.

"Like the guy Zeel said, Take the engine, maybe we can somehow use it to escape," Angel said as only two options were present before him – do nothing and die here, or ignore Zeel's instructions and be killed by him.

He opted to follow Zeel's instructions.

"Why listen to that guy? I know what to do," Said Bennett as he took a gun from his pocket and shot both Angel and Kim in their backs.

He then shot a couple more times to be absolutely sure that both guys were dead.

"I am gonna go get a ride out of this place, I am not sure about you," Bennett said to Angel's and Kim's dead bodies, clearly traumatized by all the events since the apocalypse.

He went from a high and mighty Hollywood producer, to leaching on other people to barely survive.

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