The large conference room had a circle of tables set up. There were already a few other groups inside, and some of them had brought a large enough party that they had people standing behind them.

Will and Jacques' groups were directed to sit between Gerald's small group and the others from Hope, while Norman had taken his place among the other armed guards on Nirvana's side.

There were a few quiet conversations in progress, but for the most part, everyone waited for about 10 minutes until the final group arrived. In total, there were 7 separate groups, this included Will's trio, Gerald's group, Hope, Nirvana, and 3 other groups.

Lastly, a well-shaven man, with long blond hair that had been combed back and dressed in a tailored suit, entered the room. He stood at the central position of Nirvana's table, looking extremely out of place among everyone else in the room—who were either dressed more practically or armored up.

"It's good that all of you could come today. My name is Joseph Giles, and I'm the first mayor of Nirvana. As I'm sure you're all aware, we are all here today in hopes of solving a problem that everyone here is either experiencing or will soon experience in the near future. That, of course, is the water scarcity we are all facing."

"Why don't we wait for the government? Or at least try to get in contact with them?" A man with salt and pepper hair asked.

"We've seen one of the military helicopters flying over our hotel." A woman said.

"Wake up people! What government? Take a look around you. The world is falling apart. We don't even know if the government fully intact anymore. That's why we have to take things into our own hands." Joseph said as he scanned the room.

"What about bringing the electricity back online? Then we'd be able to check how bad the damage really is everywhere else." The woman argued.

"It's not that easy, I saw several utility poles and power lines that need repair on the way here alone, and I can only imagine the damage to the facilities. Even without the world falling apart around us, fixing the power grid in its current state would normally take months." Another man explained.

"That's right." Joseph nodded. "Now, how about some introductions?"

"I think we should stop wasting time and get this meeting moving on, some of us still have to make it back before dark." The man with salt and pepper hair said.

"Alright then, our friends from Hope here have brought in someone who can help us solve our water problem." Joseph pointed at Hope's table.

Everyone looked over to Jerry, who nodded at Will, who gestured for Gerald to go ahead.

Gerald stood up from his sit. "Ahem, hello everyone. I'm Gerald Brown, and I work as the area supervisor at Green Water. As my job title states, I was in charge of supervising and directing the operations team to ensure that the wastewater treatment plant ran smoothly."

Gerald rolled out a map on his table with a region of Toronto shaded in red.

"This is the region of the city that our plant services."

People stood up and gathered around Gerald's table.

"I think it's best if everyone marks their location on the map, so we know how to better coordinate all this." Joseph said.

Everyone took their turns marking their spots. Once it was Will's turn, he marked a fake location a good distance away from the others.

"It appears that Nirvana, our friends from Redwood Place apartments, and our friends from the Delmont condos are outside the service area." Joseph remarked once everyone finished. He turned to the other two who were left out. "Nirvana will still be going through with it. What is your plan now?"

"We're in." A man from Redwood Place agreed.

"We'll have to withdraw from this one, sorry." The man with salt and pepper hair from the Delmont condominium said.

"That's a shame." Joseph said. "You should at least stay until the end for the information sharing. If anything, it would help us all get through this crisis better."

The older man nodded and sat back in his seat.

"So, Gerald, you look like you already have a plan?"

Gerald nodded. "Now the plan is very simple, we will clear the way into the plant and then resume operations for a few days so that everyone can stockpile enough water to tide them through this crisis. I know the ins and outs of how to run the plant, so I'll need several volunteers to take on the job of operators. We'll also need diesel fuel to run the generator. And if any of you could find people with experience as an electrician, that would be helpful in the case that we need to fix any damages."

They spent over an hour going through the plan and assigning duties. Will's group had taken up the job of clearing and defending the plant from the zeroes. He also volunteered for a job that no one wanted—disposing the bodies. This way he would be able to check any of the corpses for Parasites.

Because Nirvana and the group from Redwood Place apartment were outside the service region, they would help clear the plant and then send most of their people away to find ways to secure water for themselves.

The compound was also outside the service region, so Will would have to come up with a way to secure the water they needed as well.

They soon moved onto sharing information. Joseph gestured to an older woman sitting beside him, who had been taking notes, to start off the conversation. "Go ahead, Amira."

"I'm sure some of you have noticed by now that people are starting to show certain traits. We've discovered that some zombies are also exhibiting similar traits. You should be aware that those who have been 'reborn'," Amira glanced Joseph's way for an instant. "As we are calling it, are the same as the zombies. We noticed this first when a woman kissed her boyfriend and turned into a zombie afterwards. But the good news is that those who are reborn also become immune to the zombies."

"Yes, we've started isolating people at our place." A man from a group that was holed up in a hotel resort spoke up.

"We've made an announcement, everyone is on the same page here." Joseph said.

"We've tried that at first, but people slip up. One man accidentally sneezed on his child, turning them. I recommend playing it safe."

"A man that had been 'reborn' shared food with his family that hadn't and nothing happened to them." Someone mentioned.

"There was also a scout on our side that had been bitten by a zombie and didn't change. Anyone know the reason?" Jacques asked.

"It's hard to tell without more information, the best we could find out with the limited equipment we have here is we think that the virus is slowly infecting everyone. It's in everyone's blood samples. It's just that those who have mutated seem to have a higher concentration of the virus." Amira continued her explanation.

"It's not just everyone but everything. One of the cats in our apartment grew to the size of a dog." The man from Redwood Place said, turning to look at the giant man standing behind Joseph.

"I saw a big bird." Another person added.

"I also saw a ginormous ass rat the other day. Thing had to be the size of a cat." A young man standing behind the Delmont group spoke up. "It almost bit off someone's dic-"

"That's enough, Ben." The man with salt and pepper hair interrupted.

"Well, that's not concerning at all..." Someone said wryly.

"We have a theory that the zombies are people who have failed their rebirth somehow, and that the zombies will stop propagating sooner or later once everyone has been reborn." Amira said.

"So if we get rid of all the zombies, this whole thing will be over eventually?" Someone asked, hopefully.

"We'll still have to deal with these 'reborn' animals, won't we? It will be like the cavemen era all over again." Jerry said.

"Law of the jungle." Joseph nodded in agreement.

The groups shared what they learned about the virus and what they had suspicions about. Donny also shared "common" knowledge about the virus to make it look like their group was cooperating, while Karen was reeling at the revelation to the change in the world.

"What about you, Biology Student, have you learned anything?" Norman suddenly called out Will during a lull.

"You mentioned something about the super zombies last time?" Jacques added.

Will hid his annoyance at being singled out and responded. "I've noticed that the 'super zombies' seem to appear around large crowds, so we should be extra careful when clearing out the plant."

"That's good to know."

"There must be a reason for that?" The man from Redwood Place asked.

"I'd imagine because they have higher concentration of the virus? Maybe they're sharing the virus somehow?" Amira conjectured, taking down notes.

"How would they do that? They're not exactly swapping kisses."

"Airborne?" Someone guessed.

"Then there would be multiple super zombies. I've only seen one, the thing could punch a hole in a brick wall."

"I've noticed that they don't attack other zombies, they seem to be able to identify each other somehow, even though they are supposed to be dumb." Jerry said.

"Beats me."

Other people shrugged or shook their heads, unable to answer.

"I did notice that when the zombies 'die' for good, that's the only time they turn on their 'allies' and eat their corpses." One of the young men on the sides said.

"So you're suggesting that they become super zombies by eating their fallen?"

"It sounds plausible."

"Then do you think people who have been through 'rebirth' can become stronger by eating zombies?"

Did they just figure out one of the ways to progress towards further evolution from that little warning? Will glanced in Norman's direction to see him deep in thought. If he just learned something he wouldn't have for another couple of months, then all the more reason I need to take him out.

"Yeah, that's a no for me. I'm not gonna try that one out if I have to resort to cannibalism to get stronger. Even the animal zombies. Who knows what they've eaten." The giant man said when some of his fellow guards began looking in his direction.

The meeting was soon finished. Joseph left everyone with an offer to join Nirvana if they wanted before exiting the room. While some people began to mingle and talk about engaging in possible trades—the topic of toilet paper came up a lot, a few of them left immediately. Will exited the conference room and slipped away when no one was paying attention to him. He moved around the building, searching for his objective.

When Will neared the stairs, he heard a quiet conversation taking place around the corner. He recognized the two voices as the leader of the Redwood Place apartment group and the leader of Delmont condominium.

"I thought you were in this with us, Quin. Why did you bow out?"

"Are you serious? His name is Joseph, and he names himself the mayor of a place called Nirvana. And don't get me started with that rebirth business. Don't you remember that peacock show they put on the moment we arrived? We're not so down that we have to resort to rubbing shoulders with some egotist with a god complex and a militia."

"I think you're overreacting. And Joseph is a common name."

"Something about the way he brushed off the topic on the government also rubs me the wrong way..."

Will walked away from the conversation and resumed his search. He soon found his objective—the server room. He could finally get rid of the evidence the police had on them about their illegal betting.

Because their meeting here was brought up last minute, Will couldn't prepare anything ahead of time. So the only thing Will could do was manually pull the hard drives out of the server rack and smash a hole in them with his climbing pick one by one.

When he got about a fifth of the way through, the door to the server room opened. Will turned to see that it was Donny entering the dark room.

"Great minds think alike, I see." Donny grinned as he brought out his flashlight in order to see.

"Good, you're here." Will began quickly pulling out all the hard drives before stepping back and pointing at them. "You know what to do, make sure you aim for the circular disks."

Donny stepped forward and breathed out a spray of white, searing chemicals that scarred the surfaces of the hard drives.

"Do it for the rest." Will pointed at the ones he hadn't done yet. "I'll keep an eye out."

A few moments after he closed the door and stepped away, he felt someone coming from around the corner. A guard quickly rounded the corner and spotted Will.

"What are you doing here?"