I had no time to worry about Alpheus now. I quickly ran to the martial arts hall's main entrance and locked the door. Then, I proceeded to close the windows in every room. Thankfully, I had kept Kaelen’s thugs out of the hall except when moving supplies, so apart from the zombie that had sneaked in earlier, I hadn’t noticed any others inside.

Returning to the main hall, the zombie had already risen from the floor. At this point, it was impossible to throw it out through the door. I scanned the area and, in the end, decided to tie it up and toss it into the well. After the incident with Kaelen falling into the water, I discovered that zombies couldn’t swim. However, the water in this well would be undrinkable from now on.

Just as I was about to reinforce the doors and windows, Alpheus crawled out of the well again.

"Ah, the young soon-to-be mother. Did you toss this silver zombie into the well? Or perhaps... this one?"

Before Alpheus could finish speaking, he quickly retreated under my sharp glare. I vaguely heard some gurgling sounds, but my mind was too occupied with other matters to dwell on it.

After double-checking the supplies in the warehouse, I felt a bit more at ease. We wouldn’t have to worry about running out of resources in the short term, but due to Kaelen’s presence, I hadn’t fortified the martial arts hall for security.

That’s when I remembered that I had left Kaelen in the filthy ditch. He was probably bubbling in the water by now. I hesitated for a moment but decided to leave him there. Retrieving him would require washing him, and water was too precious right now to waste on something so unnecessary.

In my past life, I had been relieved to hide out in the martial arts hall, appreciating the open training area as it gave me more space to move. But now, that same open area was constantly at risk of zombie invasion. Even if I wanted to fortify the hall at this point, there was no way to do so without workers, and even then, the noise would make the hall a target for every zombie in the area.

To ensure the martial arts hall’s safety, I used the weapons inside to create a few simple traps at possible points of entry. Luckily, there were plenty of weapons to work with. As long as it wasn’t a full-blown zombie horde, the hall should hold out until help arrived, just like it did in my previous life.

Once the traps were set, my stomach growled with hunger. I debated whether to have hotpot or instant noodles as I made my way to the warehouse. But when I entered, I was stunned. The warehouse, which had been filled with supplies a few hours ago, was now visibly lacking some items.

Could there be more zombies that had gotten in? Or perhaps other survivors?

In the apocalypse, humans were more dangerous than zombies. As society’s structure collapsed with the zombie outbreak, people had started with reason, but as food grew scarce, that reason was gradually consumed by the primal urge to survive.

I had witnessed this firsthand at the residential building across from the martial arts hall. I saw a group of people searching for food. Armed with kitchen knives, they barged into a small supermarket on the first floor, shoving the store owner into a crowd of zombies. The only reason they did this was that the store owner had initially used drones to deliver supplies to the residents, but when the supply ran out, he stopped, sparking dissatisfaction among others.

Of course, those who had raided the supermarket were now among the zombies roaming outside.

Clutching the large machete that I had forgotten to put away earlier, I decided to search each room. As I approached the training area, I smelled the unmistakable scent of instant noodles. Looking closer, I saw steam rising from the well.

I carefully placed the machete at the well’s edge, and through the reflection, I saw Alpheus happily eating a bowl of instant noodles. My lips twitched. How the hell did this guy manage to get hot water down there?

"Hey!"

Alpheus, startled by my voice, sank instantly into the water, with a few noodles floating to the surface.

"You’re a god, how can you steal things?"

Alpheus popped his head out of the water, half of his face above the surface.