Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"It's just a random idea," Mathew said before putting a small grin on his lips, "but wouldn't it be nice to find a wheelchair for you?"

If the encounter with the freshly infected brought everyone's mood down, then Mathew's suggestion took them by a surprise harder than a teenage kid would take his classmate in the school's toilet when given a chance.

"Excuse me?" Norbert uttered in a small voice, struggling to produce any sound through his tightened throat.

​ "Look," Mathew quickly picked up at the chance to deepen the topic. "You can't scan our surroundings while moving, can you?" he pointed out. "That means, every time we want to orient ourselves in the area or check for some dangers, we need to grind to a complete halt!"

"Wait, this might sound stupid, but if something works then it's not stupid at all," Leila said. A wide smile then appeared on her lips as she turned her eyes towards the former policeman. "I mean, it would allow us to move faster than even if we were to ditch the idea of using your ability in the first place!"

"And what exactly could you mean by that?" Norbert asked, his expression darkening. "If I'm just a burden then why…"

"Oh, my bad," Leila quickly interrupted Norbert's words as soon as she realized where he was going with his reply. "That's not what I wanted to say. Without your ability, we would have to move far slower. A single step," she shook her shoulders, "and we would end up in the middle of the horde bigger than anything we faced before."

"And?" Norbert pressed on, clearly not comfortable with the current topic, especially with how everyone actually approached it from a logical and pragmatic side.

"Without you, we would have to scout the area ourselves. And doing so in the middle of the city…" Leila pursed her lips into a thin line.

The girl then turned her eyes towards the nearby alley and the buildings surrounding it… only for her eyes to move up as she followed the edge of the building to its several-stories-high top.

In the dense concrete of buildings like that, one would have climbed all the way to its top to figure out the situation in the small area around. And doing so… would likely mean cleaning all the infected residents and potential points of resistance from those who survived and took the scout for yet another source of danger.

"So, don't take my words as an insult to your ability. It's really helpful," Leila pointed out as she brought her eyes back to Norbert's face. "But since there is such an easy and convenient way to exploit your ability even harder," she shook her shoulders again, "then why not?"

Norbert didn't reply right away, opting to stare at Leila with a cold gleam in his eyes for a moment. He then turned his head around, moving his eyes from one person to the other only to finally land his sight on Mathew's eyes.

"Are you… for real?"

The reasons for Mathew's suggestion were all pragmatic and logical. As such, they were infinitely hard to refute. Especially when the only downside to the idea was nothing more than Norbert's own pride.

"I am," Mathew said, nodding his head. "To be honest, obtaining a wheelchair is the one problematic part of this idea," he admitted, averting his eyes.

"Hospitals surely would have some," Daria pointed out, her face lighting up with satisfaction when her suggestion could prove useful. Yet, her face quickly sank back into darker tones. "No, nevermind," she muttered, "I don't think we have it in us to carelessly attempt scavenging hospital grounds."

"It's possible, but it surely would be a huge undertaking," Nadia finally offered her own perspective that she held back so far. "As for other places where we could find wheelchairs…" she cut her sentence short as she raised her hand and rubbed her chin while thinking hard.

"Areas with loads of services and huge traffic," Mathew pointed out. "Those should have some wheelchairs just in case. Airports, shopping malls…" he suggested only for his voice to cut off just like Nadia's did. "Each of them would be a task as hard if not harder than a hospital," he then added.

"Airports are way too far for us to venture all the way just for a wheelchair," Leila sneered. She then cast a quick glance around to ensure there were no zombies in their direct proximity. "Shopping mall seems more plausible… But still, it would be a massive task to complete."

Leila turned her face to Norbert's troubled eyes. "It seems you don't need to worry about this topic," she added while smiling widely.

"Guys, I understand your wish to speed up the exploration," Norbert finally gathered his wits and thoughts to speak up for himself, "but it would take longer to find one than we would save by removing those short stops I need."

"Well, it was only a small, random idea that popped into my mind," Mathew said, smiling gently.

'Or rather, a topic I wanted to use to get everyone's mind off those poor people we were too late to save,' he thought, keeping the simple truth behind the barrier of his mouth.

Revealing it would serve against the purpose of making others forget about the depressing topic from before, after all!

"I guess I should make myself useful now," Norbert muttered, turning his face away only to let out a stealthy sigh of relief.

"Someone's eager to prove his usefulness," Leila sneered again, not minding Norbert's feelings at all.

The policeman didn't react to the obvious provocation, though. He closed his eyes and focused on scanning their surroundings instead.

"Guys," Norbert soon called out, opening his eyes only to put a troubled expression on his lips. "I have both good news and bad news," he announced.

Norbert didn't bother to play around with building up theatrical tension after his words. Instead, he turned around and pointed in the direction only slightly deviating from their original course. "There is a massive horde in this direction," he announced.

"And the good news?" Mathew inquired.

"There is a relatively small mall nearby."