Wasteland: I Awakened A Plant System - Chapter 91: Necrotic Fog

Chapter 91: Necrotic Fog

Isha paused briefly, then added, “But if one wave isn’t finished before the next begins, the next wave will merge with the previous one, and the numbers will grow.”

Her tone remained steady, but the meaning was clear, what was already dangerous would become overwhelming.

“If that happens,” she continued, “the pressure on the walls increases. Weak points start to break… and once a breach forms—”

She didn’t finish the sentence, and she didn’t need to. Everyone there already understood. Once a zombie entered the town, it would only increase their difficulties.

“But don’t worry,” she added calmly, “Raghav, Neha, and Imran always take care of such situations.”

Vikram nodded slightly, his eyes shifting toward the horizon beyond the wall. The sun was still high but slowly descending. Time was moving. Three hours were left before the first wave began.

His gaze swept across the defenses, the wall structure, the positioning of the awakeners, the spacing between them, the angles of fire. Then he looked outward.

Beyond the wall, there was still nothing. Not a single zombie in sight.

His brows furrowed slightly as he asked again, “Aunt, why aren’t there any zombies yet, if they’re supposed to appear here?”

Isha simply smiled at his question. “When the time comes, you’ll see them,” she said calmly.

Vikram nodded. There was no need to ask further.

Then Sana stepped forward again, her gaze fixed on him.

“What exactly are your awakened abilities?” she asked directly.

Vikram glanced at her for a moment before replying in a simple tone, “I can summon plant fighters.”

It was the easiest explanation.

No details. No complications.

Sana nodded slightly, then shifted her gaze toward the figures behind him. “And what do these plant beings do?”

Vikram pointed casually. “The one with the blade is called the Warrior Druid. It has strong combat abilities.”

Sana’s eyes showed interest. “Show me. Give a small demonstration.”

But before Vikram could respond, another voice interrupted.

“Sana, please maintain your distance from Vikram.”

Kavya stepped forward and stood beside him, her expression calm but firm.

Sana turned toward her, slightly shocked. “Why?”

Kavya didn’t hesitate. “Because he is my future husband.”

She then sat beside Vikram and held his hand naturally.

For a moment, silence appeared their.

Then Sana’s expression darkened. “Future husband? Do you even know him properly? He can only become Bushra’s husband. He has already done what should only happen after marriage with her.”

Kavya didn’t back down. “So what? This is the apocalypse. He can have as many wives as he wants. And you hated him before, so you should maintain your distance.”

The tension between them rose instantly. Their voices sharpened. Neither willing to step back.

Vikram, caught in between, didn’t know what to do.

He simply sat there, watching their drama.

Meanwhile, Isha watched everything with a faint, mischievous smile, as if silently telling him that he didn’t need to worry… he could have as many women as he wanted.

Sana spoke again, “Don’t you know? A sister-in-law is already half a wife. From that point of view, even if he takes multiple women, it should be me before you.”

The words left her mouth, before she realized what she had said.

“What?”

Kavya froze, her eyes widening as she looked at Sana with a strange expression.

“You old woman, you want someone younger? Don’t you have any shame? And you’re even openly saying that you want your sister’s husband?” Kavya spoke bluntly.

Hearing this, Sana realized that in the flow of the moment, she had said something inappropriate.

But since she had already said it, she refused to back down.

“So what if I want him? I’m not that old, I’m just twenty-five,” she replied.

“You… don’t you have any shame?” Kavya shot back angrily.

“La la la…” Sana started humming and whistling, deliberately ignoring her, while casually touching Vikram’s muscles.

From the first time she had touched him, she had liked it.

Seeing herself being ignored, Kavya turned toward Vikram and asked seriously, “Vikram, do you want her or me?”

Hearing this, the others also turned their attention toward them. They were all waiting for his answer.

Vikram, being Vikram, looked at both of them openly, admiring them.

Since both were sitting beside him on either side, he placed one hand on each of their waists and said, “Only a noob chooses one. A legend takes both. I can take care of both of you.”

“What?” both of them shouted at the same time, while the others burst into laughter.

How could they forget? Before awakening, Vikram had always been a lecherous guy.

Both Sana and Kavya looked embarrassed, but neither of them removed Vikram’s hands from their waists. Even if they didn’t say it, they didn’t entirely dislike it.

Isha watched the scene with a faint smile. For her, even if Vikram took both girls, it didn’t matter.

She even glanced toward her other team members, Neha, Pooja, and Ayesha, thinking that they weren’t bad either.

—

As time passed, both Kavya and Sana stayed close to Vikram.

Sana slowly began to understand how his honeyed and sweet words had worked on her sister.

She herself was unable to resist them.

Everything he said made her feel lighter, happier… drawn in.

She no longer cared that Vikram had been involved with her sister, or that just a few hours ago she had wanted him to marry Bushra.

Now, she even felt that being his girlfriend wouldn’t be so bad.

Kavya felt the same.

As for Vikram, ever since coming to the Wasteland, he hadn’t been around many beautiful women. The first girl he had seen was Divya in a picture, and then Sophia.

So now, with two beautiful girls clinging to him, his mindset began to change. He became more open, more confident, casually placing his hands around their hips, while squeezing them lightly, growing bolder with his actions.

Both Sana and Kavya gave him annoyed looks at times, but neither of them stopped him or said anything.

It only made him bolder.

While his hands were going to explore more of them, an alarm rang out.

A sharp, loud sound that make everyone focused on this.

Instantly, everyone became alert. The atmosphere changed.

Sana and Kavya immediately stood up and moved away from Vikram, heading toward Isha.

The others gathered as well.

And Vikram, seeing that everyone was going there, he also followed.

“Aunt, why is the alarm ringing?” Vikram asked, not understanding its meaning.

Isha glanced at him. She had assumed since everyone already knew about this, be should also knows, but since he asked, she explained without questioning him.

“Whenever the alarm rings, it means all the citizens of Cameron Town must return to their homes and not step outside under any circumstances,” she said calmly.

“Meanwhile, we gather and prepare to fight the zombie waves.”

She paused briefly, then added, “We also stabilize everyone’s morale. During a zombie wave, anything can happen. If even one person falters and takes a step back, it can break the courage of the others.”

“Okay,” Vikram nodded, understanding the importance of it.

He glanced at the time on Sana’s wristwatch.

Currently it is 6:00 PM.

’So this one hour was preparation time.’ He thought while turning his gaze towards beyond the wall.

The evening sky over Cameron Town was still painted in soft orange, the last light of the sun stretching across the horizon. The massive defensive wall extended in both directions, solid and steady, with awakeners already taking their positions along it.

At first, everything looked normal.

Then, from the barren land beyond the wall, faint wisps of dark mist began to rise. At first, they were thin, almost invisible, but within seconds they multiplied, thickened, and spread rapidly.

Vikram’s eyes narrowed. The mist wasn’t natural.

It was blackish-purple, clinging low to the ground and slowly expanding like something alive. It crept across the land, gathering in scattered patches before merging into larger, denser masses.

“Aunt…” Vikram muttered, his voice tense.

Isha was already looking. Her eyes were fixed in the same direction.

The mist continued to grow. Roughly a kilometer away from the wall, the scattered fog began to converge, swirling together into a dense layer, and a faint stench of decay and rot drifted toward the wall.

“Aunt, why is that fog appearing?” Vikram asked.

Before Isha could answer, Sana spoke.

“This is called Necrotic Fog,” she said calmly. “Whenever it appears, it means the zombies will arrive soon.”

Vikram frowned. “Do the zombies come from that fog?”

“No,” Sana shook her head. “The fog is just a signal.”

Kavya stepped forward slightly and pointed toward the densest part of the mist. “Watch carefully.”

Vikram focused.

At the center of the fog, a small dark point appeared. At first, it was barely visible, but slowly it began to expand.

A circular tear formed in the air, its edges flickering with dark energy. The surrounding fog was pulled into it, feeding it and making it grow larger, from the size of a fist, to a wheel, and then to something as large as a doorway.

Vikram’s expression changed. More of them began to form.

One. Two. Three.

The mist thickened further, swallowing the last traces of sunlight, and the sky darkened faster than it should have.

Isha finally placed her hand on Vikram’s shoulder. “Every week, this happens,” she said calmly. “And the zombies appeared here like someone is sending them here regularly.”

Her tone remained steady. “At exactly seven, those openings will stabilize… and the first wave will begin.”

She looked at him, “The first wave always started with one hundred zombies.”

A faint smile appeared on her face. “But don’t worry,” she added confidently, “this is child’s play for our team. Now you’ll see everyone in action.”

Vikram took a slow breath.