"Everybody out," the driver calls back,"We're going on foot from here."
"What?!" Angie gasps. "You can't be serious. We have to drive back."
"No," the driver responds, a grim expression on his face,"We need to find out what happened, and if there are any survivors."
"We don't have any weapons to defend ourselves," Carter protests,"Maybe we can head back and bring reinforcements."
The driver opens the large trunk compartment. A display of firearms, neatly arranged. He turns his head back, already loading a clip into a rifle,"Who says we don't have weapons? Pick one and let's go."
We leave the truck about a hundred meters away from the wall and start on foot, each of us equipped with a firearm, alert and anxious. The gap in the wall is even bigger up close, with wood splinters and logs scattered around the area. The groans of the undead are audible even outside. We step inside and a few zombies shamble towards us, which we quickly neutralize with our guns.
The camp looks like a hurricane blew right through it.
Small tents and huts; trampled and demolished. Some zombies lie on the grass, unable to move from crushed legs and destroyed lower bodies. As if they were tossed around and run over by a semi truck. We put them down silently and move on to the massive barn in the middle of the compound. The wall was also smashed in, leaving a gaping entrance to the structure. Inside however, there's a lot more carnage. Blood and bullet holes decorating the floor and walls. Bodies scattered around the area. One zombie is only a head and torso crawling towards us slowly, its legs nowhere to be seen like it was ripped in half. As we're clearing out the zombies, I notice a body in the middle of the clearing, untouched and not turned into an undead. A girl, probably a little older than me. We move towards it to get a better look. No signs of bites, or any indication of transformation. Her eyes are unseeing.
Theres shuffling in a far corner of the barn. We all quickly move forward, guns at the ready.
"Wait don't shoot!" a woman begs, holding up her trembling hands as we get closer. I breathe a sigh of relief and lower my weapon.
"Vera?" the driver asks."My God, what happened here?"
The woman falls to her knees and begins to sob. "It all happened so fast." she whispers,"We...we were preparing your shipment this morning when we were attacked. It was like nothing I've ever seen before."
The driver walks over to her, the rest of us remaining on alert, surveying the scene. Something terrible happened here, that much is for sure. But what the hell was it?
"It's all right now, you're safe." the driver whispers to her, a gentle hand on her shoulder,"I'm terribly sorry this happened Vera, but please, anything you know could help us greatly. What exactly attacked you?"
"Just one," she mutters.
"One what, zombie?"
She nods.
"How could one infected do this?" Mia speaks up.
Vera pauses for a moment before glancing up, strands of hair falling in front of her eyes.
"Look around you." she nods her head towards the rest of the barn,"It only took one zombie to destroy everything I've worked so damn hard to create. Massacre the people I swore to protect. It was like a tank. Smashing through anyone who tried to stop it." She motions to the body in the middle of the room. "See her? She wasn't killed in here. That girl fought along with some others in the courtyard. "Vera raises her voice, tears streaming down her face. "She died as she was flung like a baseball through the barn door after that thing crushed her spine in one hand and smashed her skull."
I glance at Carter, who looks back with a grim, knowing expression. Another abnormal. Turns out whatever we faced at the cabin two weeks ago isn't dead after all. This sounds like a new kind of threat though. The ones we fought were fast and quiet, but this new type seems like a wrecking ball.
"Are there any other survivors?"
She nods motioning to behind a crate nearby, a body visible, chest slowly rising and falling. "Just one other. He was knocked unconscious as the creature flung him into the barn wall. I dragged him back here as that monster was busy with slaughtering the rest of my people. There was nothing else I could do."
"We can take you back with us if you'd like that. It's the least we can do," the driver shrugs. Vera tilts her head low.
"Thank you. It'll be hard to move on, but I guess I don't have a choice anymore," she stands to her feet, motioning to the man in the corner. "You two help me with Wes over here."
Minutes later we're back in the truck driving back to our base, after Vera paid her respects to the dead and gathered up the most valuable supplies that they had. Unfortunately, most of the food and medicine stockpiles were destroyed during the rampage, but there was still a decent amount to salvage. I look back at the Farmstead as we drive away. It was a thriving community yesterday, only to be annihilated by a cruel blow that came out of nowhere. And the mention of an abnormal zombie...is anything but calming. Either that thing we fought at the cabin is still alive and survived being burnt to crisp, or there's more of them. Either way, this world is already changing for the worse.
We've had it easy so far. The real challenge has yet to come.
ns 172.71.194.190da2
and then Add to home screen.