The zombies crawled up the staircase in droves. Students we had gone to school with were now trying to kill us.
"Dammit! What are we going to do?" Jason hissed.
Liora froze, as if she couldn't believe this was happening.
"They'll overrun the entire floor in a matter of minutes. We have to do something," Jason protested as he readied his katana. "It will only get worse from here, so the best thing for us to do is fight."
His words snapped her out of her trance.
"No, we can't. It's too dangerous. Let's retreat for now."
Jason stared at her coldly before finally giving in.
"Fine then."
The three of us retreated down the hall and went back into the nursing station where we had been before.
"So, what are we going to do next?" Jason asked. He seemed on edge, pacing up and down the room.
"The three of us can come up with a plan to get out of here, but for now, let's just wait it out."
"Wait," Jason clicked his tongue bitterly. "We're sitting ducks here. The situation will only get worse if we wait."
"Maybe the others will come to help us. It's stupid to rush into things blindly."
"No one is coming for us. Don't be delusional. The most they'll do is assume we're dead. We're on our own."
The two of them continued to argue back and forth about the best course of action. For the most part, I agreed with Jason.
The situation would only get worse since more zombies were making their way up the stairs by the second.
They argued heatedly until both retreated into separate corners, clearly frustrated with one another.
I went over to Liora to speak with her.
"What do you think we should do?" she asked as I approached. "You can't stay quiet forever. This situation affects you too, you know."
I nodded.
"I told you, I'm a spectator. If you two don't figure a way out of here, then I'll die alongside you both."
She shook her head solemnly, clearly disappointed by my answer.
She was looking for a crutch. It was a constant habit of hers to look for someone to save her. I wanted to free her from that mentality, and the best way to do that was through despair.
She needed to feel hopelessness and triumph through it. It is through that hopelessness that her true talents would shine. This system allowed us to evolve to be stronger. It would be foolish not to make use of it.
"I'm not asking you to single-handedly get us out of here. I just want some advice on what to do."
"Okay then."
She froze, clearly not expecting that answer.
"Let's make a trade," I said. "I'll tell you what I think and what I've observed about the situation, but in return, I want some information from you."
"What kind of information?"
"About your system. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?"
She raised an eyebrow, curious about what I could want to know about her system.
"Okay then, fine. What do you want to know?"
"Your status screen. Tell me about the statuses that are there."
"My status? It's nothing you don't already know. It has my name, age, rank, bloodline, and my race."
It was the same as mine. So far nothing stuck out.
"What about your rank, race and bloodline?"
She sighed and crossed her arms, clearly annoyed.
"My rank is Supernatural Beast, my race is Werewolf, and my bloodline is Lycan. It's the same as yours, so why are you asking?"
Lycan? On my status screen it says that my bloodline was primordial. If the two of us shared different bloodlines then we would be given different skills as we leveled up. Why is her bloodline different from mine? We are the same race, twins, even. So why?
Noticing the change in my expression, Liora's face suddenly grew serious.
"Is something the matter?"
"Hmm? No. It's the same as mine; I was just curious," I said. "Anyway, about what I think of the situation: I believe we are sitting ducks here, and that faint hope you have that someone will save us will likely get us killed."
"I… I don't know what to do. I can't come up with a solution to get us out of this mess."
"Not every problem needs a genius solution. In this case, it's the execution that matters. If you want to get out of here, you need to fight tooth and nail for it. That goes without saying that you also can't be stupid while doing so."
Liora held her head down, but I could see she was contemplating what I was saying. After sharing my thoughts on the situation, I decided to give her space. The ball was in her court, and I was curious to see how she would handle it.
She sat in a corner for a while, deep in thought. Jason was on the other side of the room, and I could feel his frustration building. His hand tightened on the hilt of the katana as he stared intensely at his blade. The tension in the room grew with every passing second.
After a while, Liora finally stood up with a look of determination on her face. At the same time, Jason shifted his gaze to her.
"You were right. No one is coming. The only way is to fight our way through. But I was also right, it's not smart to rush into things unprepared. One of the major advantages we have over those creatures is our brain, so we should use it."
"What else is there to do but fight?" Jason asked.
"They have the numbers advantage, so they can easily outnumber us. We don't know how many zombies there are on the stairs; we could easily get overwhelmed. If we can't beat them all at once, then the smart thing to do is divide them. Here is the plan…"
Liora went on to explain the plan she had come up with. Honestly, I was a little impressed with her. It was a solid plan.
Her plan was simple. The two of them would split up to lure the zombies away, dividing their forces in half. They would achieve this by creating small traps and barricading the zombies inside classrooms.
Jason didn't say much. Instead, he just nodded along to her plan, and since he didn't offer any complaints, we took it as his acceptance.
Without wasting any more time, the three of us set out to execute the plan. As we stealthily walked down the hall, I couldn't help but notice some missing parts in the plan, so I decided to ask Liora.
"What exactly am I supposed to be doing while the two of you take care of the zombies?"
At first, she didn't say a word and ignored me completely. After a few seconds, she finally spoke.
"I'm sorry, but you're not on the list of priorities. You'll have to figure things out for yourself."