"Ha ha! It's mine!"
One of the fastest-running refugees reached the corpse of the deceased apocalypse warrior first and picked up the gray crystal that had fallen on the ground.
"Get your damn hands off it! It's mine!"
However, before he could even experience holding the crystal for a few seconds, other refugees caught up and began punching and kicking him, snatching the crystal away.
In the end, what was supposed to be a cooperative hunt for the living dead had turned into complete chaos. Everyone was fighting each other to seize the crystal.
The gray crystal was like Pandora's box, inciting people to kill one another…
With the ticket to a better life so close, all reason was swept away, and they completely forgot that they were still in the dark street of the living dead, even if it was just on the edge.
The screams and smell of blood from their mutual slaughter quickly spread throughout the block!
Xia Leng, watching from the rear, quietly drew his dagger and observed the chaotic scene, waiting to see which "mantis" would seize the crystal first, while he would be the "cicada."
As the original group of over twenty refugees dwindled to only about ten men who could still move, fighting over the single crystal.
Roar!!!
Suddenly, a sharp roar came from a corner, instantly overshadowing the sounds of fighting!
Everyone immediately recognized that a new living dead had appeared!
But their first reaction wasn't to cooperate and hunt the second living dead or flee.
Instead, they fought even more fiercely over the crystal, trying to grab it before the living dead attacked them.
As the roar grew louder, a living dead with rotting skin but intact legs slowly emerged from the black fog in the street.
Everyone looked at it in terror, but their hands still clutched each other tightly, unwilling to release the crystal. The scene was quite absurd.
Roar!!!
The zombie, seemingly confused by the refugees fighting among themselves and not fearing it, snapped out of its stupor and charged like a cheetah, moving almost twice as fast as the previously limping living dead!
In the blink of an eye, it covered the short distance of a few dozen meters and pounced on one of the refugees, opening its venomous maw and sinking its fangs into the refugee's neck!
Crunch! Like biting into crunchy bones, the living dead tore off a large chunk of flesh and bone from the refugee's neck, happily chewing it, making a crisp cracking sound.
The unfortunate refugee was left with only a thin layer of skin connecting to his head, his eyes wide open with a look of unwillingness as he fell to the ground, heading to "heaven"...
Finally, after witnessing this terrifying scene, the deep-rooted fear in these people was reignited!
Some finally remembered the saying "you have to give up to gain," and abandoned the crystal, turning and running away!
Just as these people were about to reach the safety of the sunlit area.
Clang!
Suddenly!
Windows in the high-rise buildings on both sides of the street shattered, and with a dense roar, several emaciated black shadows burst through the glass and pounced down!
Roar!!!
One of the refugees was about to step into the sunlight but was unexpectedly knocked to the ground by a shadow leaping from the building.
When he looked up in shock, his eyes widened in horror!
A living dead, with its decayed body revealing exposed bones, was pressing on top of him. As he instinctively tried to scream like a woman, the living dead's sharp claws swung viciously at his head...
Other fleeing people fared no better, being pounced on by these falling zombies and torn apart like hand-torn cabbage, their bodies left in tatters before the living dead.
Perhaps driven by a primal survival instinct, one refugee managed to run with incredible speed and reached the sunlight, causing the zombies to stop at the edge of the UV rays, roaring in frustration at the "fresh meat" so close!
Once in the "safe zone," the refugee's legs gave way, and he collapsed to the ground, still shaken by the horrific scene. He couldn't help but shout, "I survived!!"
However, as soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a tightness around his ankle, followed by an irresistible force dragging him backward!
The refugee looked back in horror to see a headless zombie with its brain exposed, using a barbed, long tongue to grab his foot from several meters away, pulling him towards the bloodthirsty monsters...
"No!!!!!!"
His desperate scream echoed over the street, and then, amidst the sounds of flesh being torn apart, it faded away...
As for the remaining refugees still fighting over the crystal, it was too late to escape. The path to the sunlight was blocked by the living dead that had suddenly dropped from the buildings.
And in the depths of the street, more zombies emerged from the darkness!
With the inside and outside working together, they trapped the remaining desperate refugees in the center...
In the end, the continuous screams and the zombies' excited roars mixed together, creating an unforgettable symphony of sound.
The crystal that was supposed to be a ticket into the fortress still lay on the ground, splattered with blood, as if mocking humanity's greed...
Xia Leng, who had been watching the entire scene from behind the vehicle, was equally shocked.
Were these living dead cooperating in the hunt?!!
It turned out that the increasingly heavy sense of danger he felt earlier was actually the living dead gathering quietly in the buildings, cutting off the refugees' retreat and then trapping them...
It was like a pod of dolphins skillfully surrounding a school of fish, attacking from the outer layer, and gradually tightening until they had caught every last fish.
Xia Leng now understood why only one old, weak, and sickly zombie appeared at the beginning; it was probably the bait to lure the entire refugee group into the sunless street, forming a trap.
It seemed that these living dead understood human greed and selfishness very well...
The living dead Xia Leng had encountered before had never shown such behavior. Although they were equally fast and brutal, they had never displayed such cooperative social structures, and even fought each other over food.
Could it be that these zombies, which were supposed to only have beastly instincts, had evolved to have human-like intelligence?!
The thought of a group of rotting, powerful monsters having the same, if not more sophisticated, intelligence and cooperation as humans was terrifying beyond imagination...
However, the even more bizarre scene that followed shattered Xia Leng's worldview once again...