Chapter 46: Evolved Zombies
Before setting off, the soldiers issued several rules. Once on the road, military vehicles would lead the way, and under no circumstances were survivor vehicles allowed to overtake them. In addition, honking was strictly forbidden—if zombies were drawn in, the consequences would be their own to bear.
The massive convoy traveled several kilometers before entering the highway. At this point, however, it could hardly be called a highway anymore. Wrecked vehicles littered the road, and unless they were moved aside, there was no way for so many cars to pass through.
The military vehicles at the very front were responsible for clearing the way, followed by the survivors’ cars, while seven or eight military trucks brought up the rear, handling security from behind. Although their progress was slow, no one showed any impatience. All the vehicles crawled forward steadily.
From time to time, one or two gunshots rang out as soldiers dealt with the occasional stray zombie that appeared along the road.
The pace was slow, but they were still moving. At this speed, if nothing went wrong, they really would be able to reach the next service area before dawn.
Four hours later, they saw the sign for the service area—only about fifteen kilometers to go.
However, the closer they got, the slower their progress became, and the gunfire grew increasingly intense. A City was a tourist city, with a great many tour buses passing through on a daily basis, most of which would stop to rest at this service area near the city. As a result, when the apocalypse broke out, nearly everyone in this service area had turned into zombies.
Several hundred zombies, drawn by the scent of fresh flesh and blood, surged madly toward the convoy. Faced with numbers like this, the teams responsible for clearing the roadblocks were struggling to hold them back.
“All personnel, dismount and reinforce!” an urgent order came through the intercom.
To the survivors, however, all they could hear were the constant gunshots ringing in their ears and see soldiers leaping down from the military trucks and running toward the front. As for what was actually happening, they had no clear idea.
Zhan Yun’s group was the same. Their vehicle was positioned toward the front-middle of the convoy, and they couldn’t see anything either, though they could already smell the faint stench of blood in the air.
“Zombies! It’s zombies!” a survivor screamed as they ran back from the front. The gunfire ahead grew even more intense.
Zhan Yun frowned slightly. It was inevitable that there would be zombies in the service area, but for the fighting to be this fierce seemed unusual. With several thousand soldiers, could they really not handle a few hundred zombies? Unless…
Su Ruizhe clearly thought of the same thing. The two exchanged a glance and immediately opened the car doors and got out.
“Old Song, A-Liang, Wu Jing—you stay here and protect Dongdong. Jiahe, let’s go.”
“Got it!” Zheng Jiahe replied, grabbing his golf club and jumping out of the car as well.
The three of them headed forward. The faint smell of blood quickly grew stronger, and more and more people abandoned their cars, screaming as they fled from the front toward the rear.
Suddenly, a zombie appeared out of nowhere and lunged at a person, knocking them to the ground. It opened its mouth and bit into the person’s neck, tearing off a huge chunk of flesh. Bright red blood sprayed everywhere, splattering against the window of a nearby car.
Inside that car, a woman witnessed the bloody scene at close range, and her shriek was sharp enough to pierce eardrums.
The zombie gulped down a few mouthfuls of the victim’s blood, then lifted its head and turned its gaze toward the woman in the car. It extended its razor-sharp claws and effortlessly pierced the car window, reaching in to grab the prey that was screaming nonstop.
“Ahhh! Help! Somebody help me!” the woman screamed hysterically, tears and snot streaming down her face as she dability userately tried to dodge.
Only then did the three of them get a clear look at the zombie. It had long, slender, razor-sharp claws. Its skin wasn’t the bluish-gray of ordinary zombies but a much darker indigo hue. The flesh on its body wasn’t rotten and slack like that of normal zombies either; instead, it showed signs of obvious hardening.
Its blood-red eyeballs held black pupils, shaped like the vertical slits of a wild beast’s eyes, making it look even more like a man-eating monster.
Being stared at by such bloodthirsty, cruel eyes sent a chill straight through one’s bones.
“An evolved zombie! Be careful!” Su Ruizhe warned.
The moment he spoke, the evolved zombie seemed to have found something even more delicious. It turned its head and fixed its blood-red vertical pupils on the three of them.
Zheng Jiahe raised the golf club in his hands and swung it viciously toward the zombie’s head.
As if sensing the attack, the zombie twisted its body and dodged, successfully avoiding the blow. The head of the golf club smashed into the roof of the nearby car, denting it deeply—clear evidence of Zheng Jiahe’s tremendous strength.
The zombie’s vertical pupils locked onto Zheng Jiahe as it let out an enraged hiss and suddenly leaped into the air, pouncing straight toward him.
Its jumping power and speed were astonishing. It raised a hand tipped with sharp claws and stabbed straight down toward Zheng Jiahe’s head!
“Duck!” Su Ruizhe shouted.
Zheng Jiahe quickly dropped into a crouch. Seizing the opportunity, Zhan Yun thrust both palms forward, using his gravity ability to forcibly shove the zombie two or three meters away.
Before the zombie could even get back to its feet, a round, red bomb had already landed at its feet.
With a loud boom, the zombie was blown to pieces.
Su Ruizhe walked over and retrieved a faintly red crystal core from the zombie’s head.
Having dealt with one evolved zombie, the three of them moved forward against the flow of fleeing people, continuing on.
At last, they could clearly see what was happening ahead.
The ground was littered with countless corpses—zombie bodies, but also the bodies of soldiers. The bloody, horrific scene looked like a living hell.
There were four more zombies like the evolved one they had just killed, and they were currently locked in a standoff with the soldiers.
All four evolved zombies were more powerfully built than ordinary zombies, yet their movement speed was extremely fast, and their reactions far sharper than those of normal zombies. Attacking their bodies did nothing to hinder their actions; only a precise hit to the head could kill them.
But against evolved zombies, landing a one-shot headshot was far easier said than done.
Unable to accurately aim for their heads, the soldiers could only resort to suppressive fire, but the results were minimal.
The damage these four evolved zombies could inflict was terrifying. One particularly large evolved zombie was riddled with bullet holes, practically turned into a sieve by gunfire. As long as the attacks weren’t aimed at its head, it didn’t even bother to dodge, recklessly harvesting one living life after another with its claws and fangs.
Seeing this, Zhan Yun immediately took action, using his gravity ability to forcibly suppress all four zombies at once.
But zombies were different from humans. Humans would be wracked with agony from broken bones or the crushing pain of a compressed chest, but zombies felt none of that. They only sensed some heavy force pressing down on them and would struggle even harder—continuing to thrash about even if their bones shattered.
With Zhan Yun’s beginner-level ability, trying to restrain four evolved zombies at the same time was far too much. Every one of their struggles drained him of a massive amount of power, and his face quickly turned pale.
That was especially true of the large evolved zombie, whose strength was immense. It actually managed to break free from Zhan Yun’s gravity suppression.
As it roared and charged straight at Zhan Yun, Su Ruizhe had already taken two air rifles loaded with pea bullets out of his space and began firing at the zombie.
A continuous spray of green bullets struck the zombie squarely in the chest. Strangely enough, the zombie—which ordinary bullets had been completely unable to injure—suddenly came to a halt.
Its skin rapidly reverted to the dull bluish-gray of an ordinary zombie. Once it lost its evolved state, the body that had been riddled with bullets could no longer support itself. It shattered apart entirely, and finally its head fell from its neck, rolling across the ground toward Su Ruizhe, where it was smashed to bits by Zheng Jiahe with his golf club.
Under Zheng Jiahe’s cover, Su Ruizhe swiftly picked up the inconspicuous, pale-red crystal core from the ground, then continued firing at the remaining zombies.
There was no need to hit their heads. The pea bullets seemed to have a peculiar weakening effect, causing them to devolve into ordinary zombies, which were then easily dispatched.
Once all the evolved zombies were dealt with, Su Ruizhe supported Zhan Yun, who was extremely fatigued from overexerting his ability, and fed him two transparent crystal cores to help replenish his depleted power.
With the greatest threat eliminated, the remaining zombies were much easier to handle and were quickly killed by the soldiers.
The soldiers gathered around to thank the three of them, then went back to clearing the road. They had to enter the service area before dawn.
After the vehicles blocking the road ahead were moved aside, the convoy regained order and continued forward, finally reaching the service area before daybreak.
However, as soon as Zhan Yun and the others parked their car, a soldier came over to ask them to go to the command center—his purpose was self-evident.
Only Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe went. The others stayed behind to park the car. With so many eyes around and a considerable amount of supplies in their vehicle, it was better to be cautious.
“Thank you so much for stepping in to help just now! What kind of move was that you used earlier? How was it so powerful?” As soon as the two entered the command center, several soldiers excitedly crowded around them, bombarding them with questions.
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