JD finally arrived, bringing along Matt, whose hands were cuffed.
Seeing Rain holding her gun nervously at a stranger and questioning him cautiously, JD asked, "What's going on? Why the gunshots? Weren't we supposed to have found a survivor?"
Rain responded with a glance but didn't take her eyes off the stranger. "There was a survivor, but this guy suddenly appeared and shot them in the head. The body's lying back there."
JD followed her gaze and looked behind them. Sure enough, there lay a corpse with a gaping hole in its head.
"WHAT?!" JD immediately raised his gun toward the stranger, his expression as wary as Rain's.
"Wow, you two must be cut from the same cloth—treating the guy who saved your life like this," Wang Ye (Night Wang) muttered, shaking his head. If he didn't need their help for what lay ahead, he wouldn't have bothered saving them.
"What happened here? We heard gunshots while heading to shut down the Red Queen. Did something dangerous happen?" Kaplan and the others, returning from the laser corridor, arrived in haste.
Alice curiously observed the stranger, her interest piqued by this sudden arrival. Spence's gaze quickly landed on the body. "Did he kill that employee?"
"No," Wang Ye calmly explained, "Technically, it wasn't a person anymore. After being infected by the T-virus, it turned into a zombie."
The group stared at him, confused and clueless.
"You mean to tell me... you all came down here without the slightest idea of what's going on?" Wang Ye's tone carried a hint of disbelief.
Kaplan frowned, trying to process this. "Wait a second—you're saying this thing," he gestured at the body, "is a zombie?"
Wang Ye nodded.
"But we weren't briefed on anything about the T-virus or zombies. How do you know?" Kaplan asked, trying to clarify matters. His instincts told him that someone equipped like Wang Ye wasn't an ordinary person.
"You can ask her." Wang Ye tilted his head toward Rain. "She shot it multiple times. She can tell you what happened."
All eyes turned to Rain, waiting for her to explain.
"I shot it five times—legs, chest—but it just kept coming at me. Then this... Nicholas shot it in the head, killing it instantly," Rain admitted. She was starting to believe Wang Ye's words, though grudgingly so. After all, a normal human wouldn't shrug off gunshots like that.
Wang Ye spread his hands, a told-you-so look on his face.
He walked to the body, pointing at the congealed blood. "Take a look. The blood's already clotted. These things have been dead for hours, probably killed by the Red Queen's nerve gas when she locked down the Hive. Afterward, they were reanimated by the leaked T-virus."
Skepticism was gradually replaced with belief as they inspected the body. The blood confirmed Wang Ye's claims—the victim had indeed been dead for several hours. Reluctantly, the three who had their guns trained on him finally lowered them.
Satisfied they were coming around, Wang Ye introduced himself.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself. I'm Nicholas, a Major General and the leader of the Hydra Special Forces Unit. I've been assigned a top-secret mission to prevent the T-virus outbreak and investigate the source of the leak."
Straightening his posture, Wang Ye confidently fabricated his identity.
"To kill these zombies, you need to destroy their brains. Anything else is a waste of ammo. And, under no circumstances, let them scratch or bite you. Without an antidote, you'll die within hours and turn into one of them."
Before anyone could question his story further, the sound of shuffling grew louder. Zombies had begun surrounding them, with more pouring in through the dining hall's corridor.
"JD, Rain, Kaplan—form a defensive line with me. Protect the unarmed ones!" Wang Ye commanded, lifting his gun to shoot at the encroaching horde.
Rain, JD, and Kaplan stopped questioning his motives and quickly formed a defensive position, shielding Alice, Matt, and Spence.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Zombies fell one after another, but they kept coming in waves.
After clearing the zombies in front of him, Wang Ye turned his attention to the swarm flooding in from the corridor. The precise, rapid way he dispatched zombies astonished the others, lending further credibility to his claims.
"That's some marksmanship... definitely not something a civilian could pull off," Kaplan muttered, impressed.
Even Rain, who had initially been suspicious, had to admit Wang Ye's sharp-shooting was beyond ordinary.
"Rain, I'm running low on ammo!" Kaplan called out after checking his remaining clips.
"Me too," JD added, while Rain discovered her ammo was also nearly depleted.
The group exchanged worried looks. The zombies kept coming, and without ammo, they'd have to resort to hand-to-hand combat—a death sentence against these creatures.
Wang Ye, unfazed, continued firing with deadly accuracy. Rain noticed something peculiar: he hadn't reloaded even once. Was he cheating? Ahem, or perhaps his weapon was special?
"Sir, we're almost out of bullets. Should we retreat the way we came?" Rain suggested hesitantly.
Wang Ye glanced at them before pulling three Desert Eagle-style energy pistols from his belt and tossing them over.
"These are advanced energy handguns. Unlock the safety and fire. But be careful—this isn't something most people can handle easily."
"Pfft, how bad could the recoil be?" Rain scoffed, gripping the pistol confidently. Raising it with one hand, she fired into the horde.
A blue energy beam shot out, piercing through five zombies in a row. But the recoil was so powerful it almost ripped the gun from her grasp, leaving her hand trembling.
Embarrassed, Rain quickly switched to a two-handed grip and vented her frustration on the zombies.
JD and Kaplan, having learned from Rain's mistake, braced themselves with two hands and solid footing. Even so, the recoil was significant—but manageable. The pistols' destructive power was undeniable, though accuracy became tricky.
(These weapons are designed for super-soldiers injected with enhanced serums, so regular humans find the recoil a challenge.)
Wang Ye then handed two more pistols to Alice and Spence. "Don't just stand there. We need all the help we can get to finish this quickly!"
(End of Chapter)
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