The day went by very quickly. The Miller brothers spent it remodeling a pickup truck they planned to use to escape in case they were attacked by a horde of infected.
The idea was to stay in the city as long as possible, move resources to secret locations, and find a favorable site to set up a secure base.
Alan had the idea of going to a hydroelectric plant, where they would have access to the most important resources that were now scarce: water and electricity.
Of course, going to some of those places wasn't ideal unless they had supplies and were well prepared. That's why they would first pass through Midland. They would stay there until they established contact with a military base and then try to travel to a hydroelectric plant.
There were some nearby that they could reach after traveling a few hundred miles. For now, it was impossible to get there, but later it wouldn't be out of reach. For the time being, what they needed most were weapons and a lot of canned food.
The next day, Alan managed to hit the head of an infected with precision from five meters away using the modified bow and killed it with a single shot.
What he noticed was that he just had to use a lot more force so that the metal arrow could cause enough damage to kill the infected.
On his way to the Sierra Vista Drive apartment building, west of Loop 250 near the intersection with Godfrey Street, Alan carefully avoided large groups of infected and took care of the ones that were more isolated.
Burning the bodies now was a problem, but he would definitely do it when he had the chance.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the apartment building Bob had mentioned. It was in a good location, similar in height to the apartments in downtown Midland.
It was a new urban area at the border between the city and the suburbs. It used to be arid land, but with development, residential areas, shopping centers, and large logistics hubs had been built.
Alan was able to get there because the population wasn't as dense as in downtown Austin, and the terrain was wide open.
He took off the metal mask from his face, revealing his features, and looked at the residential area in front of him, filled with green trees, flowers, and plants everywhere. He had rarely been in a mid-to-upper-class neighborhood.
Even so, everything was covered with fallen leaves, dust, and scattered debris, which created a cold and desolate feeling. It was a large community that could house thousands, but it had become unusable due to the lack of the aforementioned resources.
In the distance, several infected could still be seen wandering around.
After killing one infected who appeared to have once been a guard of the community, Alan found the map of the complex and located Bob's family unit.
Alan could guess that Bob's family had already left. After all, it had been nearly a month since the apocalypse began, so unless they had stocked up on food like Alan had, the rest were forced to go out searching for food or flee to a shelter.
Under those conditions, few were prepared to face the infected along the way.
Everyone needed help, to be rescued and fed. But Alan just did what he could.
These days, Alan hadn't seen anyone else alive besides Joel and Tommy, so he needed something to keep himself busy.
He slowly climbed the stairs and opened the apartment door. The place was empty. Alan remembered that people had to go out and work, unlike him—a retired soldier.
On the wall was a photo of Bob and his wife: a happy family. The man wasn't handsome, but he seemed very charismatic.
The woman wasn't beautiful, but she had a calm and content smile.
Alan rested there for a while. He was still determined to go to the mountains—the deathly silence of the city made him feel increasingly uneasy. Were most people really dead?
At that moment, a bright light lit up the window. Through the balcony, the room became unusually bright.
Alan ran to the balcony and saw that the light lasted a long time before growing larger. Then Alan understood that the bombing had begun.
The sky turned fiery red, and the bombs in the larger cities of Texas began to fall like meteors.
He then saw a missile cross the sky and crash far off in the distance with a deafening roar. Then came the sound of glass shattering in nearby buildings.
"Shit!"
Boom!
Alan was thrown back by the massive shockwave.
The windows of the entire building shattered.
Argh!
Alan winced as the glass fell on him. Then he saw several infected moving in the direction of the blast.
This desperate measure to contain the infected was the last action the army could take in this situation. That meant one thing: humanity was lost.
What would happen now?
Alan didn't want to think about it anymore. He decided to leave for the mountains immediately with Joel and Tommy, so he pulled out his radio and said, "See you at the location we picked for the camp!"
As he quickly packed his things, he heard a weak voice: "Hey, hey, you, the soldier!"
Alan stopped.
It was a human voice.
"You, soldier, over here!" the voice called out clearly.
Alan paused. It was the first time in over a week he had heard another person.
He ran to the balcony and saw a white sheet waving from the upper floor of the building across the street. Two people were shouting desperately at him.
The infected below also heard the shouting and started moving toward his building, while others continued in the direction of the missile.
Alan leaned out, and the people in the other building screamed, "Save us, save us!"
He saw clearly that it was a woman and a small child.
Those cries weren't imagined. Seeing living humans, he made several hand gestures for them to be quiet, but the woman and child kept screaming.
"Shut up! I'm coming! Do you want to draw all the infected to your location?" Alan shouted desperately. After hearing Alan's yelling, they quieted down.
Alan grabbed his things and rushed down the stairs. There were around seventy or eighty infected outside. Alan began taking them down with arrows while they were still at some distance.
He looked toward the building across the street. He wondered how those people had managed to survive for so long.
But those weren't his biggest concerns right now.