Severed

After nearly ten minutes of waiting, Professor Amrin was still facing the Display Screen, repeating his words over and over without giving up.

"Boss, could everyone inside already be dead?"

Merle scratched his chin and said speculatively:

"Could some injured survivors have gone inside, turned into Zombies, and killed everyone in there?"

Leon frowned. He had the same suspicion, but if that was really the case, then he would be suffering a huge loss from this operation.

If they made such a grand show of force without achieving anything worthwhile, it could very well diminish his authority in the eyes of his employees.

At the thought, a wave of irritation rose in his heart, along with a powerful urge to destroy something.

Just then, beeping sounds rang out from inside the steel gate. Professor Amrin shouted excitedly:

"It's open! It's open! The gate is opening!"

Leon sensed that something was wrong. If the people inside the Shelter were still normal, why hadn't they made contact beforehand? Why open the gate directly?

He drew the Silenced Pistol from his belt and pulled the agitated Professor Amrin to the back of the group, shouting:

"Something's not right. Everyone, stay alert and prepare for battle!"

Hearing their boss's warning, Glenn, T-Dog, Merle, and the others quickly wiped the joy from their faces. Each held a short knife in one hand and a Silenced Pistol in the other, aiming them all at the Shelter's gate.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

The metal gate slowly began retracting to the right, revealing a narrow gap. From within came a girl's terrified, desperate screams, a man's furious roar, and the dense snarls of countless Zombies.

Leon approached the gap and looked inside. In a spacious, modern hall, more than a hundred Zombies were surrounding a petite girl like a pack of wolves.

The girl moved with remarkable agility, darting around the hall as she dodged the Zombies' pursuit and cried out in terror.

In another corner of the hall, a burly man was fighting the Zombies with a metal chair. He swung it with all his might while shouting for his sister, roaring furiously and repeatedly casting worried glances toward the girl.

Behind the burly man, beyond a glass wall, twenty or thirty haggard-looking young people clutched all kinds of bizarre weapons. Some stared angrily, some anxiously, some fearfully, and some guiltily at the scene in the hall, yet none had the courage to rush through the barrier and join the battle.

After twenty or thirty seconds, the girl was gradually surrounded by the vast horde of Zombies in a tiny area. She could no longer dart around as before and seemed moments away from being torn apart, while after half a minute, the metal gate had only opened a gap wide enough for a child to squeeze through.

Leon knew they could wait no longer. He raised his Silenced Pistol and, through the tiny opening, aimed by instinct at the Zombies blocking the girl from reaching the gate. He rapidly pulled the trigger, emptying a magazine within seconds.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The shooting was wildly inaccurate. Only one Zombie was struck in the head and collapsed. The rest of the bullets hit the Zombies' bodies and failed to inflict any effective damage.

Still, the gunfire at least disrupted the Zombies' movements somewhat.

Leon had no time to worry about that. Without time to change magazines, he simply reached over and snatched the Silenced Pistol from Glenn, handing him his own before beginning another round of shooting.

"Run toward the gate! Stay close to the wall and watch out for stray bullets!"

Leon shouted at the girl, then emptied another magazine within seconds.

This time, he hit two Zombies in the head.

Without hesitation, he took the pistol from T-Dog and continued aiming and firing.

As the gap in the gate grew wider, Leon's accuracy improved as well. This magazine killed four Zombies outright, successfully opening a small breach in the surrounding horde.

The girl seemed to see hope. Summoning all her strength, she tried to break through the Zombies and run toward Leon.

But at the final moment before escaping the encirclement, a strong Zombie suddenly grabbed her arm, bent down, and bit into her forearm.

Blood spurted alongside the girl's scream, making Leon's brows knit tightly. He immediately shot the Zombie's head apart and shouted toward the girl, whose face was contorted in pain and whose eyes had dimmed:

"Get over here! We can still save you!"

Hearing Leon's words, Peggy gritted her teeth. A flicker of longing for life passed through her dim eyes. Clutching her injured forearm, she dodged the Zombies still lunging at her and desperately ran toward the man at the gate.

By the time she reached him, the Shelter gate had only just opened wide enough for one person to pass through. Before she could speak, the tall, handsome man crossed through the gate, seized her injured arm, and flashed a blade in his other hand.

Peggy suddenly felt a chill in her forearm, followed by excruciating pain. When she turned to look, she saw that the arm she had possessed for more than twenty years had been severed below the elbow by the man's single slash.

Leon frowned slightly and put away the brand-new short knife he had drawn from Professor Amrin. He yanked off the relatively clean white shirt Professor Amrin was wearing and wrapped Peggy's bleeding stump, then pushed the shoulder bag from his lower back and the nearly unconscious girl onto the professor before saying:

"Amrin, she probably hasn't been infected yet. There are painkillers and hemostatic bandages in my bag. Treat her wound quickly and don't let her bleed out."

After giving his orders, Leon ignored the flustered professor and withdrew from the passage at the Shelter gate. He said to the team beside him:

"Let's get to work, brothers. Hold this passage and don't let the Zombies get out. They're very slow, so aim before firing. Don't waste ammunition."

The others acknowledged his order and gathered around Leon. Under his instructions, they divided up the firing sequence.

Six people with six guns guarding a single passage were enough to create a storm of bullets. The enemy, however, was made up of Zombies that advanced stiffly without dodging. As more and more Zombies poured into the passage, the faint sounds of the Silenced Pistols rang out one after another.

Many Zombies were shot in the head and killed. They collapsed onto the floor, and gradually, their bodies piled up throughout the passage, creating an increasingly severe obstacle for those behind them.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Zombies moved more and more slowly, while everyone's shooting became increasingly practiced.

Five minutes later, Leon and the others had used up nearly three hundred rounds of ammunition. Inside the passage, the corpses had piled and tangled over one another, filling the entire space.

The Zombies had also been almost completely wiped out. Not a single moving figure could be seen anymore. Foul-smelling black blood slowly flowed together into a shallow pool.

Leon looked back at the girl whose arm he had severed. Her wound had already been wrapped in bandages, and her pretty face was pale from excessive blood loss.

The girl placed her right hand over her severed left arm and raised her head, gazing into Leon's eyes with her hazy brown eyes.

Peggy's gaze held many emotions, complex and difficult to describe. She tugged at the corner of her mouth in a bitter smile and spoke in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Thank you, sir. You saved my life."

Leon's expression did not change. He merely nodded lightly at the girl and said:

"You're welcome, ma'am."

"Now that the Zombies in the Shelter have been cleared out, could you go find your companions and have them clean this place up?"

"Afterward, we can discuss what happens next in detail."