Michael breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of purified air from the park's industrial filters. Although it was nearly impossible to notice, there was a thin film over the entire park, as there was with most, that prevented the clean air from escaping and the disgusting everyday air from getting in.
That was part of the reason that parks were so popular. Every day, people's lungs fought to draw in the proper amount of oxygen due to pollution. Although much of it had been cleared up and the production of things like non-industrial, non-biodegradable plastic had been banned, along with a list of different energy plants that polluted the atmosphere, much of it was too late to immediately see effects. The hope was that humans might be able to continue to exist as a species if they stopped destroying their environment. Things like natural parks, which had quickly been depleted and removed, and even most non-industrial farms, having been hacked, burned, and harvested into the ground, then paved over and built on top of, were reinstated and forcefully protected by many government's militaries. All noncompliant countries also faced a long, dirty war, and most had broken under the pressure within a few years, while the remaining ones had been conquered or defeated in battle.
There was also a ridiculous sum of money pumped into things like nature preserves and seed banks, with a new system developed that was now implemented in almost every natural park across the world. This system was the massive balloon-like field that covered the forest, and it was the reason for the gates, and the checkpoint they had passed through soon after Kane had defeated the zombies. That was probably also why there was such a crowd of zombies there and so few in the actual park. They must have been waiting to get in. It was a luxury to drink in the clean, pure air of the preserve's environment, and it helped calm continuously overworked lungs. The air quality was still bad, but humans had adapted to it enough that they could force the impure air through their respiratory system and withdraw oxygen from it, then expel it again. A large part of this integration and adaptation was because of how slow the buildup had been. But for this park, as long as the energy worked and the system remained intact, few of the creatures would be likely to even try to come here, much less succeed, until a later stage of the infection, where they would likely grow stronger and form more Mutated.
If they really didn't rely on their senses at all, as Luke had theorized, then they would follow something else. Being mindless, they had no sense of deduction, and none of them would or could think that the humans might be hiding in the clean place to try to escape them. If they were lucky, the zombies' essence would be made of something impure, and therefore they would be driven away from the park by instinct, which would make it that much easier for Michael, Luke, and the others to survive.
At least, that was the idea. Michael wouldn't have counted the lack of zombies as a plus otherwise. After all, as a general rule, zombies congregated where there was a large amount of humans. Although their group wasn't exactly "large", if they had the highest concentration of living humans in the area, then the zombies would undoubtedly attack them.
They really didn't know much about this infection at all. It seemed to use something beyond the physical senses, or at least, that was Luke's guess...
Michael paused. When had Luke said that again? Wasn't it when they were...
He frowned. He couldn't remember. It hadn't been before the outbreak, surely? No, of course not. After all, it couldn't have been. But in the time since it happened, he didn't know when it could have been, yet the memory was as clear as day. How strange. He couldn't recall the words, but he knew the gist.
The zombies didn't rely on any physical senses. They had some other method of knowing where to go.
Michael carefully blanked his mind. This could be big. He was close to something, something much larger than the zombie invasion.
Something as large as their entire existence.