Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"There is a small mall nearby," Norbert reported.

"I guess we already know where we are going to go first," Mathew said, looking around the faces of everyone in the group before looking towards Norbert, eager to learn the direction the supermarket was in.

Yet, rather than seeing the former policeman move his arm to point in another direction, Mathew saw his companion bring his eyebrows together as if thinking about something really hard.

"Guys, give me just one more moment," Norbert requested while keeping his eyes closed and body frozen in place.

For the next few moments, all that happened was Norbert's expression slightly changing in accordance with what he was observing through his skill.

"The horde…" he muttered, only to open his eyes and swallow his saliva. "It's moving away."

Norbert raised his eyes and threw a meaningful look at Mathew's face.

'Is that a callback to the previous encounter?' Mathew guessed, gritting his teeth.

"Guys, I guess we need to decide whether we should go after the horde or after the mall," he said, closing his eyes and forcibly freezing his face.

'Are we seriously going to struggle to make the decision… again?'

​ "Let's ignore the horde," Nadia said before Mathew could even gather his thoughts to speak for himself. "Even if we ignore all the time it will take us to bring it down or the risks of doing so, we will only encumber ourselves with all the cores we would harvest from them."

"And it's not like we will be able to spend them right away either," Leila spoke up, clearly in favor of ignoring the horde and sticking to what they already decided on.

"Guys, I think you are missing the point," Daria said before heaving a long sigh. "If the horde is moving, then it's likely going somewhere, isn't it?" she pointed out the one thing Mathew already took into account. "Doesn't that mean it could guide us to a nest of survivors?"

"The main objective of our mission was to save people and bring them with us," Norbert joined in, openly taking the stance on the topic. "I don't think securing fancy food should take priority over saving people that we need to develop ourselves."

"Well, I personally would be worried about leaving an entire horde roaming behind our backs," Mathew added in a tired voice, seemingly taking the stance for going after the horde. Yet, rather than letting his voice fade away, Mathew took a step forward, standing dead in the middle of the group. "But I don't think we should exhaust ourselves by fighting an entire horde so early. We came out to scout the situation around our domain, not to conquer it, not yet."

It was true that one of the main objectives of this expedition was to gather survivors from around the area and bring them back. Yet, it wasn't the main objective.

The main reason why Mathew organized this expedition was to find and confirm the situation of the next location he wanted to claim as a fortress. Saving people, regardless of how important it would be in the long run, was only a secondary objective.

"So the mall it is," Leila said after a silence ensued for a few moments.

"Are you for real?" Norbert raised his eyebrows. "You are going to ignore people in need in favor of some fancy food?"

"I'm going to ignore people in potential need over resources we won't be able to obtain if we are too late to do so," Leila quickly countered, not allowing the former policeman to talk her over.

"Guys, let's not forget something obvious that you seem to be missing," Mathew said right as he took two steps forward and positioned himself between the two parties. "If there is an entire horde going somewhere, what does that mean?" he asked, rather than just giving out the answer right away.

"If a horde is formed, that means wherever it is going, managed to ward off a smaller number of zombies so far," Nadia spoke up. She then took a step forward and placed her hand on Mathew's shoulder before passing by him and putting herself in the center of the group.

Yet, she didn't speak out. Not right away, that is.

She patiently waited for everyone's attention to get on her as Mathew, his two other wives and Norbert ultimately fell in line and gave her the space to speak her mind.

"We've already decided what we are going to do, didn't we?" she pointed out. "And one more thing," she then added, turning her eyes to Norbert in particular. "Imagine our group appearing at a nest of a different group of survivors right as the horde comes out to siege them."

Just like Mathew a second earlier, Nadia opted to turn silent and let others figure out what her words implied rather than outright

"It would be easy for those survivors to assume we were the ones who brought the horde upon them," Daria muttered after a moment.

"That's why, it's not a bad idea to follow the horde after we conclude our business at the supermarket," Nadia concluded with a shake of her shoulders.

"Fine…" Norbert muttered. He then shook his head. "Let's get moving then," he added before getting on the move himself, low-key forcing everyone. Yet, he didn't even cross a hundred meters before coming to a complete stop and shutting his eyes close.

'What now, I wonder,' Mathew thought, heaving a deep sigh as he came to a stop as well. 'At least now I know the downsides of our formation,' he then thought.

If Norbert has stopped moving, everyone else had to stop as well. This much was obvious given how he was the only non-combatant in the group. And yet, while it was only mildly annoying when the former policeman would stop out of nowhere while they were just walking…

If that were to happen right before a horde of zombies were to come out and attack them, it would easily turn into one massive problem.

"Guys, I know this will sound weird…" Norbert blinked his eyes a few times before properly opening them and looking slightly to his right as if seeing far beyond the buildings obstructing everyone else's view. "But there is another, far smaller, horde at the mall."

Norbert then turned his head around and looked right at Mathew's face. "And they are sieging down a group of seven that barricaded themselves inside!"