Break Up
"Damn, Jack, you just got bitten by a zombie—move your ass, or I'll blow your head off with one shot!" Phillip roared as he glared at Jack, who was limping from his bite.
"Please, I've got a gun—just take me with you!" Jack pleaded, his face as pale as chalk. Seeing a group of people pointing their guns at him, he began trembling.
"Bastard! Phillip! You promised Rick you'd protect these women and kids. Now you're abandoning them during the breakout! Are you talking crap? Fuck!" Elena burst in like a whirlwind, shouting and cursing at him.
Phillip frowned and simply said, "If you've got a gun, come with us. Otherwise, stay behind!"
Elena slowly lowered her head. Her outburst had been just a moment of impulse—she was scared too. I mean, who in their right mind wants to die from a zombie bite, get dismembered, and eaten alive?
But then, with a look of pure fury, Elena glared at Phillip and yelled, "Fuck, you're not even human! Coward! Useless!"
Phillip ignored her and started leading the others away.
Seeing the group move off and leave the bitten folks behind, Jack screamed in despair, "Fuck, Phillip, Elena's been bitten too—look at her leg!"
"What?" Phillip turned to look at Elena, and sure enough, her lower leg was stained with blood. In an instant, he shoved her backwards, knocking her to the ground.
"Fuck! I wasn't bitten—I got cut by a stray rebar on the ground! Get the hell out, all of you!" Elena shouted bitterly, glaring at a laughing Jack.
"Let's go!" With over sixty people in tow, Phillip didn't care about the crying wounded or whether the others could keep up. He even shot a few of the injured who clung to him, and then disappeared into the night.
"Bastard! You're lying—why are you blaming me? I wasn't bitten by any zombie!" Elena rushed over to Jack, slapping him several times before pulling out her gun and pressing it against his forehead.
Jack, now with a couple of teeth knocked out and bruised all over, laughed bitterly, his eyes filled with spite: "Listen, Elena, stop slapping. It's useless—we're all gonna die! We're gonna turn into zombies!"
Elena coldly stared at Jack without a word of hesitation, and then—bang—a shot rang out. Jack's stinking blood and brain matter sprayed all over the place. With a huge gaping hole in his head, he collapsed in shock.
At that moment, those without weapons scattered in terror. Some injured guys kept fighting desperately until they ran out of bullets and started howling in pain.
Although Elena wanted to help the women and kids, the terrified people were too panicked to hear her shouts. Everyone was scrambling off in different directions.
Rick's huge group of over 500 people, which he had worked so hard to organize, completely fell apart in that moment! Elena had no choice but to grab Jack's shotgun, find a direction with fewer zombies, and charge ahead.
…
John had been watching this whole mess. He knew these people had heavy firepower, but attracting so many zombies meant that sooner or later, they'd run out of ammo and food.
But before John could enjoy the show for even a few minutes, a dark figure suddenly appeared out of the shadows. In one swift slash, it killed a middle-aged man in the crowd—who clutched his bleeding throat as he died! Its speed was like lightning!
"Jesus—this thing can vanish in the shadows and move like a bat out of hell! And its speed? Damn, it's unreal! Could it be a higher-level mutant zombie?" John thought in shock as his bloodshot eyes fixed on that strange, insanely nimble dark figure.
In the dim light and with everyone in panic, ordinary human eyes wouldn't pick up on this creature camouflaged in the shadows. But John's evolved vision clearly saw a red blur and easily tracked its movements.
This guy was clearly playing around! John suddenly got an idea.
Many ordinary people had already been knocked down and were screaming in agony from zombie bites, but this mutant zombie didn't seem hungry at all—it just wanted to slit the throats of every armed man one by one!
Maybe it was trying to savor the thrill of dancing on the edge of life and death? Damn, this creature is a real psycho!
John felt a surge of excitement. He had been tracking high-level mutant zombies for a long time, all to get their evolutionary crystals and get stronger. But this mutant's strength and speed were on another level—and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle it later.
Elena ran for her life, her Remington shotgun booming with each shot, blasting any zombie that dared block her path—sending them flying with shattered heads.
Fueled by a fierce will to survive and a bit of luck, Elena finally broke through the zombie blockade and, in a desperate scramble, ducked into a narrow alley.
There had been too much chaos in the plaza recently—zombies from nearly a dozen nearby streets were drawn to the sound of gunfire. Now, this alley—only about 3 or 4 meters wide and a dozen meters long—was eerily quiet.
It was so quiet—it felt downright creepy! After sprinting for hundreds of meters, Elena could practically hear her own heart pounding in terror, warning her of imminent danger.
Glancing back, she realized the alley behind her was completely empty—no zombies in sight.
With her gun trained ahead, Elena pressed her back against the wall, scanning both sides of the alley. All the times she'd narrowly escaped zombie attacks had taught her something—something wasn't right here!
It felt as if she'd wandered into the territory of something dangerous, as if an unseen, ill-intentioned presence was watching her—fixated on her back, on her throat!
Her skin began to crawl, as if a venomous snake was slowly slithering over her, leaving her drenched in sweat—but she dared not blink.
"Bastard, come out—come out! I'll blow your head off with one shot! I know you're here, you damn zombie—come out and meet your death!"
Her anger mixed with fear, and she hollered at the empty alley, her Remington shotgun trembling in her sweaty hand.
But still, not a single zombie appeared.
It felt like her heart was being lifted off the ground, drifting without any anchor. Suddenly, Elena bolted from the alley's exit, sprinting as fast as she could, her long red hair streaming in the wind.
Then, an ominous gust of wind swept in, and a dark figure descended—its knife-like silhouette slicing through the air, aimed straight for Elena's pale neck!
"Boom!" Without looking back, Elena fired a shot from her Remington, the muzzle flipping over her shoulder as if it had eyes in the back of its head!
In a flash, the dark figure used the recoil to leap and execute an acrobatic roll, barely dodging the shot!
Hidden behind the wall, John watched this scene with a furrowed brow. How could anyone move that fast? To pull off a mid-air roll like that without proper prep—it was impossible, yet this zombie did it with ease!
This mutant zombie must be two or three levels above him! And a Remington isn't exactly a precision weapon—it's a brutal, wide-spray gun that, at close range, would tear you to pieces. If John had been in that spot, he'd have been a bloody mess by now!
Before he could process it, Elena used the shotgun's recoil to propel herself forward, rolling ahead and then spinning back to fire another shot at the airborne dark figure!
The dark figure, though clearly worn, managed to brace itself with its left foot against the brick wall of the alley. With a slight push, it vaulted upward, spinning rapidly to shrink its profile and minimize the area it presented to the gunfire!
Gunfire exploded and blood sprayed everywhere!
A deafening roar rang out as the dark figure's leg was blown apart, leaving it tumbling on the ground.
Elena didn't hesitate—she charged forward and let her Remington roar again at the dark figure lying on the ground!
"Click!" Just at that crucial moment, her shotgun suddenly ran out of ammo!
"Click, click!" She pulled the trigger repeatedly, but nothing fired. Elena's face turned white with panic!
She scrambled to find spare shells and reload her shotgun.
"Roar!" That tormented mutant zombie wouldn't miss this chance. Suddenly, it leapt up and, with a swift move, knocked Elena's shotgun—with the shells still unspooled—out of her hands. Its enormous, vicious mouth, dripping with saliva, lunged to bite her throat!
Elena stumbled backward, and in a flash, she fumbled at her waist. Two Colt .357 revolvers materialized in her hands!
Seeing Elena pull out the revolvers, the mutant zombie sprang into a frenzied, acrobatic dash, darting back and forth in the narrow alley!
Elena gritted her teeth and fired the Colt in rapid succession!
Shockingly, despite being so close, not a single shot hit the mutant zombie!
Seeing wisps of smoke rising from her gun's barrel, Elena stopped shooting. The evolved zombie finally halted its movement and turned its horrific face toward her.
Its left side was horribly mangled—half of its jaw and skin had been torn off, leaving only a gruesome display of bloody, red gums and razor-sharp teeth.
Its body was a mess of jagged wounds and rotting flesh, barely bleeding now, hanging in tatters. It wasn't muscled or bulky—instead, it was gaunt and bony, except for the long, gleaming claws on its hands that it used to slash the throats of its prey.
Its gloomy, almost human-like gaze fixed on the red-haired beauty Elena—despite her still clutching two smoking guns.
Elena kept her gun aimed at the mutant zombie but began to tremble uncontrollably; her pretty face turned as pale as paper.
The mutant zombie looked at the gun in her hand, and its hideous face, partly gnawed away, revealed a hint of a mocking, almost human-like sneer.
Elena shivered violently. She hadn't expected this terrifying creature to be so perceptive—and to know that, in her panic, she had already fired all her ammo!
The zombie was evolving too! And this mutant, so powerful, now showed signs of basic thinking. Glancing at its right leg, which had been torn apart by her shotgun, the mutant zombie let out a hissing laugh and slowly stalked toward a panicked Elena.
Desperate, Elena tossed both of her spent revolvers at the mutant zombie and, scrambling for a moment, pulled out a shiny military tactical knife. Waving it in front of her, she tried to scare the bloodthirsty creature.