After leaving the supermarket, Ethan, Chris, and Henry set out again with the orange tabby, Pumpkin, on the hunt for another Tier 3 zombie.
Because of his size, Pumpkin tended to draw stares—he was a little too conspicuous for comfort. So Ethan had told him to steer clear of people when they were around, to go off on his own and grow at his own pace.
And grow he had. Pumpkin was now Tier 3 himself—not from devouring Tier 3 crystal cores like the others, but through his own evolution.
It seemed that mutant beasts and zombies each had their own unique ways of advancing. Humans, on the other hand, still hadn't cracked the code. For now, the only path forward was to consume crystal cores.
Still, Ethan had a hunch. Maybe all that nightly stargazing, soaking in that strange, ambient energy—maybe if they did it long enough, it could lead to a breakthrough too.
