"Graaah!"
The evolved infected growled as it struck the wooden door.
Edward appeared by Jun's side. Since he was alone with Jun, he didn't talk bullshit and started talking normally.
"What's happening here? Can I help? Should we fight it? I have better energy control now; I practiced."
"Go help at the back, follow Adrian, tell him to go quickly but quietly. I can't stall these infecteds for a long time."
"Why don't we just fight them?"
Edward's suggestion garnered the attention of some of the nearby group members.
Adrian was the first to voice out his opinion. "Yeah, we can try to fight them here. We can use the door as—"
But before he could finish his sentence, a hand with sharp fingernails pierced through the door, clawing at the nearby space around it.
The area around the wrist was scraped and was bleeding profusely—lines after lines of blood formed around it. As the infected continued clawing on the space, droplets of blood flew everywhere.
There's something a bit unusual, though. The infecteds hands that should have taken damage for piercing the door have no injuries at all. Instead, there were small pieces of wood stuck on its fingernails.
Jun aimed with the shotgun and shot the infecteds hand. It was impossible to miss with such a close distance, and the shot hit right into its palm, which caused Jun to be shocked. Not because the shot missed the infected, but because the shot didn't achieve his expected result.
Imagine a shotgun fired at close proximity. What would happen to its target? It should be gone! Blasted to pieces! Or at least destroyed!
"F*cking heck!"
Jun fired once again and aimed at the arms instead. Pieces of flesh got blown off, but the bones received little to no damage.
The infected wailed and shrieked as it pulled back its arms. Its yellow eyes glared at Jun through the hole on the door.
Jun stared back and raised the shotgun wanting to fire one more time, but the infected quickly dashed away. Jun turned around then shouted.
"Run! Go! Adrian, take the lead."
Everyone was already awake and was now gathered in the living room. Some of the women were already showing panic on their faces.
"Do you need help?" Evo asked indifferently. Marianne beside him had a worried expression as she stared at Jun.
"No, I'll just stall them until everyone gets a head start."
"Take this."
Evo handed a green stress ball to Jun.
"Squeeze tight for three seconds, then throw it. Remember, three seconds. No more, no less."
"Okay."
The group then headed to the backdoor with Adrian and Edward as the front.
At the same time, the horde of infected finally reached the front door. They started hitting the door while others got pushed into the window, their faces being crushed by the metal bars.
"Where's the plants when you need them?"
Splinters of wood flew everywhere. Maybe because it already received damage and was already on the brink of being destroyed, the door got broken unusually fast.
When the door broke into pieces and fell on the floor, the evolved infected appeared on the doorway. It was surrounded by dead infected that probably died due to friendly fire.
It sat like a dog on the ground while ravenously feasting on a severed infected's arm.
When most of the flesh was gone, it tossed the bone to the sides. It stared at Jun with eyes that showed hints of vengeance within them.
The evolved infected's injured arm brightened. When the lights dimmed down, the missing flesh from its arm has completely recovered.
The evolved infected shrieked at Jun before charging forward.
"Bang!"
Jun fired and hit the evolved infected's shoulder, causing it to stop and be overtaken by other infected. Although there was no visible damage, it chose to back down and hid behind the horde.
At first, there were only two infected who charged at him. They ran while opening their mouths wide as if they wanted to swallow him whole.
Jun stepped to the side, waiting for the two to make a single line. And when they did, Jun fired. The chest of both infected had a huge gaping hole in it. Jun can even see the evolved infected on the back, glaring at him. It went further back and disappeared from his sight.
There's only one way to 'truly' kill an infected as far as Jun's knowledge could remember, and that is by looting their bodies, vanishing them into stardust.
Since he didn't have enough time to loot them, he chose the best method when dealing with a large number of enemies at the same time.
Kiting!
Jun took something from his pockets as he slowly retreated towards the kitchen doorway. He then made a fist as he waited for new infected to charged at him. The two dead bodies on the floor showed no movements and have become crushed after being stepped on by the others. Most of the infected ran towards Jun, while those who tripped became another set of obstacles for others to trip on.
More than seven infected charged at him at the same time. It seemed like it was the most number of infected the room could handle as the others were left behind only able to follow the seven's lead.
Jun threw the item that he had been squeezing since earlier on the nearest infected. It hit the face of the infected and bounced on the floor while shaking three times.
At the same time when the green stress ball was still shaking, a few infected ran past it. Those infected haven't even taken two steps when they were suddenly pushed back to the ground, unable to move.
The small stress ball was now expanding non-stop. The spikes on its round body struck the infected but didn't kill them. The ragged elastic spikes only kept the infecteds in its place.
The rate of sudden expansion was less than a second. Though it continued expanding, it was a bit slow.
And after reaching the roof, it finally stopped.