Chapter 17: Diverting the Horde
“Beep—”
“Beep—”
Faint alarm sounds echoed throughout the Yangzhou Tower camp. The sound was so subtle that even footsteps could mask it. It was like the alarms used in pre-apocalypse establishments during police inspections.
The quiet alarm was deliberately designed to avoid attracting a horde.
In reality, the gunshots within the camp had already caused the remaining members to gather.
By the time the short, thin man and Adong arrived at the scene, a crowd had already formed.
It was a military tent erected at the base of Yangzhou Tower. The faces of those outside were filled with shock.
“Little D, you’re here,” one person said to the short, thin man, staring at him blankly. “Ale’s gone crazy! He killed the boss and then himself!”
“Move! Move!!!” The short, thin man, known as Little D, pushed his way through the crowd and reached the tent entrance.
Through the opened flaps, he stared wide-eyed at the bloody scene inside.
The camp leader, Brother Uying, nearly two meters tall, had his head blown open by a pistol, only some skin and flesh remaining on his neck.
If it weren’t for his large, muscular build, no one would have recognized him.
Lying beside the leader’s corpse were Ale and the other patrol member.
They had also been shot in the head, lying in a pool of blood. Ale’s hand still clutched a revolver.
“Fucking hell, was it another Awakened?” Little D stared at the scene in horror.
Whoever had orchestrated this had used Ale’s gun as a frame-up. It couldn’t have been a zombie; they weren’t that clever.
But Little D knew that Ale’s revolver was purely for show. The trigger was broken; it couldn’t even be fired! It was a harmless prop. How could Ale have used it to kill the boss?
Little D’s gaze shifted to the headless female corpse in the middle.
The corpse was no longer as white as he remembered. The level of decay was shocking, emitting a foul odor.
And the beautiful head, like a sculpture from ancient Greece, was gone.
Little D’s heart sank, his legs trembling uncontrollably. His mind raced.
Suddenly, he raised his hand and shouted, “Ale’s gun can’t fire! This is all a setup! The gun must still be on one of you. Achun, search everyone!”
“Adong, you come with me. Let’s call the others back, no need to search anyone else.”
Little D beckoned to Adong, who nodded dumbly and followed.
No one stopped Little D’s decisive actions. Everyone had seen them arrive last; they couldn’t have been the shooter.
Away from the crowd, Little D quickened his pace, almost breaking into a run.
Adong, trailing behind, asked curiously, “Little D, why didn’t you tell them about the missing spider-head?”
“Don’t ask questions.”
“Little D, why are we going to the warehouse? Shouldn’t we be calling the others back?”
“Shut up!” Little D stopped, turned, and grabbed Adong by the collar. “Adong, do you want to live? Do you want to find your mother?”
“Yes,” Adong nodded simply. “The boss said he’d take me to the village when I saved up a blood crystal.”
After a moment, Adong said blankly, “The boss’s head is gone…”
“Forget about the head!” Little D was exasperated by the man’s simplemindedness.
If it weren’t for Adong’s exceptional marksmanship, he wouldn’t have brought him along.
And, most importantly, he was loyal.
“The boss is dead. The camp will be in chaos soon. There’s no Awakened strong enough to keep things in order, understand?”
Little D lowered his voice as he opened the warehouse door. “Load as many supplies as you can into the truck, preferably fill it up. We’re taking the truck and leaving.”
To prevent further questions, Little D continued, “Everyone left here is going to die. The truck can’t carry everyone, only us.”
“We’ll escape on the highway. It’s almost nightfall. We’ll drive all night, and by daytime, we should reach your village. I’ll take you to see your mother.”
“Really?” Adong only understood the last part. “You’ll really take me?”
“Absolutely.” Little D waved his hand, urging Adong to hurry. “Load up on gasoline.”
The camp would effectively cease to exist the moment their truck broke through the fence.
Loading the truck took about half an hour, but they only managed to fill it halfway.
A strange howl suddenly came from the fence. Little D stopped loading and looked through his binoculars towards the source of the sound.
Through the lenses, he saw a pale head with white hair, using bone spikes to grip the neck of a zombie as it crawled towards the camp.
The zombie’s legs were almost completely atrophied, and its neck was riddled with holes, seemingly designed for producing sound.
“Adong! Adong! Forget the supplies, get in the truck! Hurry!”
Little D quickly climbed out of the truck bed, closed the tailgate, and got into the driver’s seat.
As Adong got in, Little D saw the head-spider throw the zombie it had been dragging into the camp.
Freed from restraint, the zombie slumped to the ground, bloody tears streaming from its blind, decaying eyes. The holes in its neck, like a honeycomb, slowly expanded.
“Waaaaaiiiii—”
A piercing shriek, like hundreds of babies crying simultaneously, echoed through the otherwise silent Yangzhou Tower.
“Hold on tight, Adong.”
“Roar—”
With the shriek, the blue truck’s headlights flashed on, and the engine roared to life.
“Ugh—”
“Hiss—”
“Click, click, click—”
With the Wailer’s scream, the area around Yangzhou Tower seemed to come alive, filled with the howls of countless zombies.
Dusk was approaching. Little D slammed on the gas, the truck lurching forward like a wild beast, out of the warehouse, and towards the park gates.
He could see a horde of zombies charging towards the park, the apocalyptic scene turning his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
The head-spider was nowhere to be seen.
Gritting his teeth, Little D drove over the Wailer blocking the gate, swerved the wheel sharply, and turned onto the adjacent road.
At that moment, the horde arrived.
“Thump, thump, thump—”
Countless Sprinters, steam rising from their bodies as they were scorched by the UV lights, slammed into the truck, but most of the horde surged towards the park.
Little D’s lips trembled as he drove. Even after escaping the zombies, he couldn’t calm down.
Others might think that a single Wailer had caused the downfall of an entire camp.
But he knew it had nothing to do with the Wailer.
It was all because of that terrifyingly intelligent, likely Awakened-controlled head-spider.
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