Chapter 10

Helen began searching the van for foodstuffs in the caravan, but she suddenly stood still, which made Daniel nervous. He asked Helen, "What's wrong? Did you find something?"

Helen turned around with an assault rifle in her hands and said, "I didn't find foodstuffs, but I did find a gun."

Daniel reached out to take the gun from her and started questioning himself as he checked the gun, "Why would a gun and ammo be lying around in a vehicle like this?"

He then turned to Helen and said, "Let's quickly pack the foodstuffs that we can find. I have a bad feeling about this van."

"Um, hey," said Helen. She continued, "Hmm, Daniel, I'm not feeling so good. Can we please rest in the van for a little bit to recover our energy? I'm kind of tired."

Daniel listened to Helen and found her request reasonable. He thought to himself that there might not be a safer place around the city. He let out a sigh and agreed, "I think it's okay if we rest a little."

"Get some sleep, Daniel," said Helen, letting out a little laugh.

"You too, Helen," said Daniel, as he lay on the seat of the van, while Helen lay down on the bed of the van, and they both fell asleep.

---

"Yawn," Daniel said as he woke up, feeling pain coursing through his body due to the stress and stunts he had gone through while trying to escape from the hospital building.

A question ran through his mind amidst the pain: how long had he been asleep? The pain was so intense that he couldn't move, and he screamed Helen's name for help.

But there was no reply from Helen. He looked at the bed where she had been lying, but she was gone. The question echoed in his mind, "Where did she go?"

Daniel tried to stand up, but the moment he put his left foot on the floor, he felt intense pain and let out a scream. He rolled up his trousers and saw that his leg was swollen.

"Why is my leg swollen? I hope it isn't broken," Daniel thought to himself.

Then, a knock echoed from outside the van.

"Is that you, Helen?" asked Daniel.

As he said that, the van door swung open, revealing not Helen but a soldier.

"Please help me; I can't move," Daniel pleaded.

The soldier stood silently, pointing his gun at Daniel and fired a shot. Daniel narrowly dodged the bullet by bending his head to the right, and the bullet struck the van near his head. He had just narrowly escaped death.

Not wanting to die, Daniel quickly grabbed the gun that Helen had shown him, which was right beside him, and fired back at the soldier. It was a lucky shot that hit the soldier, causing him to fall to the ground.

Daniel went to the van's entrance and asked the soldier, "Are you okay?" His eyes displayed fear, as he had never shot someone before.

The soldier began screaming loudly and vomiting green liquid from his mouth. In a hurry to silence him, as the noise could attract zombies, Daniel ran toward the soldier lying on the ground.

As he was about to reach the soldier, a man wearing a helmet and a firefighter costume grabbed him by the collar and yelled at Daniel, "You idiot, do you want to get killed?"

The man used the flamethrower in his hands to burn the soldier while remarking, "I never thought zombies were real until four days ago when everything changed."

"Follow me, young man, if you don't want to die," the helmeted man said, holding Daniel by the collar and running with him. "Stop stumbling, kid, and start running. The zombies will start coming."

They both started running. Daniel looked back and saw about ten zombies chasing after them. Looking ahead, there was an abandoned armored tank right in front of them.

"Get into this vehicle, kid," said the man with the helmet.

Voicing his concern, Daniel asked, "What about you, sir?"

"Don't worry about me; I'll get in after you," said the helmeted man.

Daniel quickly entered the vehicle and waited for the man to follow him inside. But the man stood outside with the flamethrower in hand, preparing for the impending encounter with the pursuing zombies.

"Come and get me," said the man with the helmet.

The zombie right in front of the man rushed toward him.

The first zombie was the first to succumb to the searing inferno, its grotesque form writhing and contorting in the blazing onslaught. Its agonized screams echoed through the desolate surroundings, but the man's determination remained unshaken.

One by one, the undead fell before the relentless blaze. The unholy creatures, driven by an insatiable hunger for flesh, were no match for the unrelenting tide of liquid fire. Their grotesque forms were reduced to smoldering, ashen remnants, leaving behind only the stench of burning flesh and charred bones.

The man continued to advance, his flamethrower spewing fiery death upon the approaching undead. However, the battle was far from over. As he neared the last three zombies, a momentary lapse in focus allowed one of the undead to close in, its decaying maw snapping hungrily

With a guttural growl, the zombie lunged at the man, its jaws nearly brushing against his face. In the face of impending doom, the man struggled to maintain his composure.

Just as the zombie was about to sink its rotten teeth into his helmet, a gunshot rang out, a deafening report that echoed through the desolation. The zombie's head snapped back violently, a gaping hole torn through its rotting skull. It collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

The man, gasping for breath, looked in the direction of the shot, and there stood Daniel, a determined and resolute expression on his face. He was armed with a high-caliber rifle, the smoking barrel a testament to his deadly accuracy.

"Need a hand?" Daniel called out, a wry smile playing on his lips, his hands shaking while holding the gun.

The man nodded gratefully. "I'm glad you showed up when you did. Let's finish this."