If there is one truth that Drake didn't want to admit, is that humans can't survive alone. As a part of social creatures, sooner or later, he would be forced to reckon with them.
But only those with power and status can take advantage of this social structure.
Since he just happened to have both, he would exploit that advantage.
…
If Drake were to compare what type of animal he is, it was the raven. Raven were vengeful, solitary and intelligent creatures.
You can do him harm, but know that he will never forget it. He would bide his time to take revenge by any means necessary.
That's why, even if Drake generally doesn't like humans, he wasn't an inflexible person.
The idea to gather some minions that he could nurture to do his bidding took form in his mind.
But he can't bring just anyone with him. Only those who were useful, capable and with potential individuals will be accepted and taken in.
Drake doesn't have any plan to play as leader of any sort.
Leaders are generally the one who lead by example, inspiring and empowering people to work together towards a common goal.
While Drake might be flexible, there is also a limit to it. As a socially inept person, having passionate interaction with everyone just wasn't his thing.
What Drake had in mind was to establish an organization where he could impose his will and his will alone.
He doesn't need a second opinion or opposition from someone.
That's why, taking the role of a leader is not an option for him.
Drake intends to focus on controlling and optimizing processes, not to listen to some corrupted fool's blabbering who only thinks for themselves.
Leaving these groups of people behind was already predetermined.
…
Drake turns to his sister and picks up the topic where they left off last night. He vaguely explained what he did without going into elaborate explanation.
While he wanted to tell her about the little one, now wasn't the time for that since there's many eyes and ears in their surroundings.
The matter regarding the little dragon was his secret. Keeping it in the dark would be more beneficial as it could be his trump card.
While exposing it wasn't a problem, it also wasn't something helpful.
It would only make people wary of him. Worst, they can make some counter plan against it.
The little dragon might also attract unnecessary trouble like those greedy eyes of some ambitious people.
He would only reveal the matter about the little dragon to his sister, and maybe his future accolades.
…
"Ms. President, let's hurry up or we might get surrounded."
A beautiful, serious looking lady was together with a group of young adults who were still in their school uniforms, hurriedly moved as they ransacked the school cafeteria.
"Okay, let's hurry and pack up all the edible things in here and move out!" Said by the beautiful, serious looking girl.
"Double time! double time! The zombies are coming!"
Another student barged in the school cafeteria and alarmed the students who were still packing all the food they could get in the building.
It made the beautiful, serious looking girl's face hardened, becoming more serious than before as a frown etched on her smooth brow.
"That's enough. Let's move out!" She commanded as she helped the group to move the goods out.
…
Andrea was a fourth year college student in the architectural department. She was a senior that was expected to graduate this year.
But now, it seems that it was impossible to happen. She would never get a chance to get her college diploma and make her parents proud now that the world was doomed.
Andrea wasn't even sure if she or her parents would survive this ordeal.
She can only steel herself and hope that nothing happened yet to her parents.
Everything had started that previous morning, when she was on her way to her classroom.
After getting unconscious, she woke up after hearing a weird mechanical-sounding voice inside her head. She thought that it was just some auditory hallucinations after getting unconscious.
But things get weirder when some strange people suddenly begin eating one another.
She also saw some of her classmates turning into something crazy and bloodthirsty.
Andrea thought to herself that things definitely weren't looking good, so she hurriedly got something in her bag to defend herself.
Tightly holding the sharp steel wing divider, she evacuated to the slightly uncrowded place.
The whole campus was undergoing mass hysteria at that time.
While she made her escape, she immediately had an unlucky encounter with one of those bloodthirsty people.
With a weird gait, as if suffering from a stroke, it suddenly lunged at her.
She was stunned for a moment, making her unable to move.
After getting tackled by the zombie, since she was unable to react on time, she was caught as they fell together.
The zombie was about to bite Andrea, but just as the zombie's teeth was about to sink into her flesh, she blocked it with her bag using her left hand.
After blocking it, using the sharp edge of her steel wing divider, she pierced the zombie's eye with it.
She struggled hard to free herself away from the zombie's constraint. She desperately kicked and pushed the thing on top of her but to no avail.
Then Andrea saw the steel wing divider stuck on its left eye. Using all her strength, she pushed it deeper inside its head, making lots of dark inky blood seep through the wounds in its eye.
After a few seconds, the zombie stopped moving and she heard the mechanical voice sounding inside her head again.
[Ding! You've slain a lvl 1 zombie, you got 10 exp points.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You gain 5 stat points. You can now freely allocate your status point.]
Andrea was again momentarily stunned. But she didn't bother to check that weird noise inside her head.
She pushed away the zombie on top of her.
After getting away, she gets up and crouches, vomiting the contents of her stomach.
The rancid smell of her vomit and the rotting smell of the zombie's blood on her, made her puke a few more times.
Tears and snot covered her face.
No one knows whether it was the reflexive bodily reaction after vomiting, or her exposure to that frightening situation.
After surviving that, she hurriedly composed herself and escaped to a safer place, meeting other students from the architecture and other departments later on.
…
Back to the current situation.
Andrea and Co. evacuated the school cafeteria. After getting out, they hurriedly left and headed back to their temporary camp.
Their temporary camp was the wide spectators' seat inside the school oval or a sports field. It was a wide open sports ground with a 5 meters tall fence surrounding it.
On their way, they encountered some wandering zombies. But Andrea smashed the heads of those zombies with the steel pipe she was holding.
In her group, she had the highest level among them, at level 7.
Despite being a girl, she is by far the strongest in the group.
With her dumping almost half of her free stat points to strength, she can easily snap someone's neck.
…
After making it back safely, they heave a sigh of relief.
Seeing that Andrea and Co. came back, the other people that remained on the temporary camp surrounded them.
With a flattering smile, an arrogant-looking man steps forward and welcomes them.
"Ms. Andrea, I'm glad you all made it back."
The arrogant-looking man said as he scanned the goods that the group of more than twenty odd people brought back.
"Come, let's prepare it so that everyone can get a share. All of us also haven't eaten anything since yesterday, making us famished. You'll share some with us, right?"
"This guy…"
"Since when did we have an agreement on something like this? This guy's skin was so thick!"
Some men with Andrea instantly become dissatisfied after hearing the arrogant-looking guy deciding over their hard-earned food rations. The guy shamelessly uses obvious guilt-tripping to get free food from them without risking anything.
"Did you hear it guys? These people are unreasonably selfish. We are all the same human survivors here, but they want us to starve to death!"
The arrogant-looking guy turned to the hundred or so people behind his back, inciting them to pressure Andreas' group into sharing their goods.
"Fuck, this guy is really…!"
"President, leave this guy to me. I'll fix his arrogant behavior for you, so he won't talk shit anymore."
Seeing how things unfold makes Andrea frown.
What those two guys with her said earlier was right. They didn't have an agreement before this that they would share their goods when they left the temporary camp in search of some food.
Before going out, they made it clear that those who want food can tag along with them.
Since the people in this temporary camp didn't necessarily know each other, there was no unity among them. They all have their own faction and group circles.
Andrea was caught between a rock and a hard place.
She was the appointed leader within that group of twenty-odd people she goes with outside.
Since most people in the group are in architecture dept, Andrea has been anonymously assigned as their leader.
Because before the apocalypse, she was also the president of the entire Architectural department.
Making her well-known among the Architect dept as well as other departments.
Now that she faced a tricky situation, Andrea has a hard time deciding.
While her group was on the right, they were going up against hundreds of other hungry survivors.
Even if her group's level was higher than the rest of the people here, they were few in numbers.
And they can't just kill them like they did on the zombies outside, right?
Andrea didn't want to relent to that manipulative, arrogant guy since she didn't want to betray the feelings of those who followed her.
But in the end, she wasn't like the psychopath Drake, who would cripple the guy on the spot after swaggering in front of him.
"Sighhhhh… Mark, that's enough. Chrezem, get food enough for us twenty-eight and leave the rest for them."
"Such bullsh*t–"
"I said, that's enough. What do you want me to do? Fight them? We already have our hands full of those flesh-eating bastards. Infighting is the last thing we need."
"But–"
"Mark, give Ms. President a break. She was right. Infighting is the last thing we need. And besides, we can get the food ourselves."
One of the guys called Anton, who was close to Mark, tried to dissuade him.
"Bro, we risked our lives for these things. One of our members even got eaten by those zombies outside after trying so hard to get these foods. Will we just give it to them for free as if nothing happened to that one guy's sacrifice?"
"We all understand what you feel Mark, but–"
"Stop, stop it. I don't need your explanation. I'm fine already. I'm just not quite myself today."
Anton, who still wants to dissuade Mark, was lost for words.
Mark appeared to be calm outside as he said his last piece before turning around.
"You guys can have it your way. I'll be out to get some air"
Mark left the temporary camp as he exited the gate on the back of the spectators' seat.
After Mark left, Andrea bit her lip as she had a downcast look.
Everything returned to normal as the people there didn't know nor cared that it was the last time they would see the guy called Mark, except for the 27 people.
___________________________
A/N: Man, pulling an all-nighter definitely wasn't good. (;´༎ຶٹ༎ຶ')