Shane turned around abruptly and pulled open the door, only to be met with a thick stench of corpses. Outside the door, that yellow raincoat, smeared with blood and flesh, was lying there quietly.
"Louis..."
Shane whispered the name, and his eyes instantly turned red.
He remembered the boy's forced smile, his words "I am a Wizard," and his words "I have no home anymore."
This eleven-year-old Child, with his seemingly innocent "fairy tale," had created a miracle for himself that even adults wouldn't dare imagine.
Yet he didn't know the other party's current situation, or whether he was still alive!
Shane really wanted to go find the Child and confirm he was okay, but the last two lines of the letter made him stop in his tracks.
"There are more important people waiting for you."
"They must be very scared and lonely right now, just like I was before."
Yes, Lori, Carl... Shane's breathing became incredibly heavy. He knew he couldn't waste the opportunity this Child had risked his life to provide.
He grit his teeth, quickly packed all the supplies into his backpack, and then walked to the door. Looking at the disgusting raincoat, his gaze became incredibly determined... On a bench by the street, Louis had been quietly observing the activity in the office building.
Soon, Shane appeared in his line of sight.
To Louis's surprise, it seemed his act of "sacrificing" himself had left too deep an impression on the other party, as the Officer didn't leave immediately after coming out.
Shane, wearing that raincoat, tried to search for him on the street.
He searched from morning until afternoon, turning the area almost upside down, until finally, he reluctantly drove away in a functional car parked by the street and left the area.
After confirming Shane was completely gone, Louis got down from the bench, gave a tired stretch, and returned to the office building where he and Shane had stayed before.
He decided to temporarily use this place as his safe house.
The reason was simple. First, it was sturdy enough; all the doors and windows on the first floor had been basically blocked with heavy objects by him and Shane, and the building had been cleared once, so there were no hidden Walkers, making it relatively safe.
Second, the view from upstairs was wide, allowing him to monitor the surrounding movements at any time.
The most important point was that from the window of the manager's office, he could see the main entrance of the large hospital across the street perfectly.
According to the original plot, Rick Grimes, the true Child of destiny, would soon wake up in that hospital.
As soon as he appeared, it would mean the plot of the walking dead had officially begun. This would allow Louis to most accurately grasp the time node when the story starts.
Because he was truly too exhausted, Louis was in no hurry to go out and scavenge for supplies.
He re-blocked the exit on the first floor, returned to the manager's office on the second floor, and after eating a little, fell into a deep sleep, sleeping until the next morning.
Upon waking, he felt better than ever before. His physical strength had basically recovered, and his spirit was at its peak.
After planning in his mind, Louis began to prepare for today's exploration.
Although theoretically, he should leave the suitcase full of books here, Louis thought about it and really couldn't feel at ease.
After all, these textbooks were of great help to his magic. If something happened to him and he couldn't return, or if the building suddenly caught fire and burned them all, he couldn't afford the risk.
So after much consideration, Louis found a hiking pack in a nearby store, put the suitcase into the pack, and then, wearing the pack and draped in the invisibility cloak, went out to collect supplies.
His current strength was limited, and he couldn't carry too many things at once. So he decided to first collect necessary food and water, followed by medicine and weapons.
Louis was like a diligent ant, traveling back and forth between the safe house and nearby convenience stores and pharmacies time and again.
During this process, he also invented a clever trick.
First, he found a large coat and, just like making the raincoat, smeared it with Walker blood and flesh.
Then, he put the scavenged supplies like canned food and bottled water into the large bag and covered the entire hiking pack with the invisibility cloak.
He himself was covered by the raincoat, and then, holding his wand under the cover of the raincoat, he cast a Levitation Charm on the invisible bag.
This way, in the eyes of any potential voyeurs, he was just a thin and weak Child wearing bloody clothes and carrying an empty pack struggling to survive. No one could imagine that beside him, an invisible huge supply box was being held up by magic, moving in sync effortlessly.
This both ensured his own safety and solved the weight problem.
During this process, his use of the Levitation Charm became increasingly proficient.
Although he still couldn't achieve silent and wandless spellcasting, he could already make himself float off the ground for dozens of seconds and perform short-distance glides.
After obtaining enough resources to support his survival for about a week or two, Louis did not continue to venture out but instead focused on laying low in the room, beginning his true path of "magic leveling."
Perhaps because after successfully casting his first spell, he had fully grasped the trick to perceiving magic power, in the following days, he successfully mastered two more crucial practical spells from the Practical Spells Encyclopedia he had bought before.
"Aguamenti" and "Scourgify."
The reason for learning these two spells was very practical. The former allowed him to completely escape reliance on bottled water and have a continuous supply of clean water.
The latter allowed him to make the scavenged clothes and tools, which were covered in dust and blood, look brand new, greatly improving his quality of life and sparing him from having to endure that stench of corpses.
Of course, Louis also tried to learn more offensive spells, such as Incendio, Protego, Expelliarmus, and so on.
One reason was that he didn't have higher-grade textbooks, making learning very strenuous. The other was that the difficulty of these spells far exceeded his imagination; with his current magic level and comprehension ability, he simply couldn't cast them successfully.
Even Aguamenti was something he barely learned; this spell, which in the original work could be used to attack by controlling water flow, could currently only be used by him to conjure a bit of water to drink.
"Still too weak..."
Thinking of this, Louis couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated. The few spells he knew now were fine for improving his life, but if he really had to face vicious survivors, he probably couldn't even protect himself.
Just as he was immersed in the annoyance of his insufficient strength, an extremely faint but incredibly clear noise from downstairs made the hairs on his body stand on end!
Click... creak... that was not the sound of a Walker's mindless bumping.
Louis immediately held his breath. He extinguished the flashlight on the spot, hiding himself completely in the darkness, his ear pressed against the cold floor, listening carefully to the movements downstairs.
Soon, several voices, lowered but still unable to hide their vulgarity, drifted up intermittently.
"Fuck, this door is blocked so damn well... someone must have stayed in here," a hoarse male voice complained.
"Living people are even better; maybe there are a lot of supplies."
Another voice chimed in, with a hint of sickening lewdness in its tone, "Hey, I hope it's a pretty girl. Us brothers haven't had a taste of meat for several days."
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up! Move the stuff! Everyone search carefully for me, don't miss any corner!" The third voice sounded very impatient, seemingly the leader of this group.
The cold words, like a venomous snake, crawled into Louis's ears, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
His azure eyes were instantly filled with coldness.
A group of ill-intentioned survivors had invaded this place.