Gods Descend

While Madison was busy intimidating Eugene, William finally regained his freedom.

He scrambled and crawled over to his father, weeping silently as he looked at his father's corpse.

"Madison!"

Gavin, standing to the side, wiped his tactical knife clean, stood up, and shouted to Old Mac, who was still suppressing Eugene.

"Stop playing with him. Bring him over; I have questions for him!"

"You got it, Boss!"

Madison responded with a heavy shout, and when he deliberately emphasized the word "Boss," he leaned his head close to Eugene's face, staring intensely into his eyes.

Meeting Madison's gaze, Eugene nodded repeatedly and said, "I get it, I get it."

"That's for the best!"

Madison snorted coldly and hauled Eugene up by the shoulder, dragging him toward Gavin.

Eugene was lifted so high his feet barely touched the ground, and he was dumped unceremoniously in front of Gavin.

Gavin stood before Eugene, looking down at the face Eugene lifted from the asphalt, and asked, "What's the situation in Ennis?"

"What kind of situation could it be? I had just arrived outside the town when I saw thousands of zombies surrounding that RV and charging straight at me!"

"How many?" Gavin frowned.

"I don't know, but at least a thousand. You know Ennis is a big town!"

"And then?" Gavin narrowed his eyes.

"Then William saw his old man embedded in the bumper..."

"I care about the zombie horde!"

Gavin cut Eugene off sharply, leaning down to emphasize his point. "When you left Ennis, did the horde keep following you, heading toward our current position?"

With that, Gavin leaned over and hauled Eugene to his feet.

Eugene used Gavin's momentum to steady himself, and just as he went to brush off his clothes, Gavin grabbed him by the throat!

Using only one hand, Gavin hoisted Eugene into the air by his neck.

Watching Eugene struggle in his grip, Gavin remained silent for a moment before turning to Madison.

"Old Mac, there's a woman passed out in the RV. Go check on her."

"Haha, this is so satisfying. I'm on it!"

Madison laughed and walked toward the RV, opening the door and climbing inside.

Only after Madison had boarded did Gavin stare at Eugene for a moment before tossing the purple-faced man aside.

Thud.

After Eugene hit the ground, he didn't even have time to feel the pain before he began clutching his throat and coughing.

After a dozen heavy coughs, Eugene wheezed as he climbed to his feet, glaring viciously at Gavin. "You win this round!"

"Enough talk. What's the status of the horde?" Gavin asked coldly.

Hearing this, Eugene rubbed his neck vigorously and said sheepishly, "I only know that the last time I saw them, they were still chasing our two vehicles. As for what happened after, how would I know if I couldn't see them anymore? Anyway, the road ahead is definitely blocked by the horde. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

As he spoke, Eugene realized the gravity of the situation.

He had been toward Dallas, and the roads there were already swarming with zombies—he'd even hit a few himself. Now, the road toward Ennis was blocked by zombies too!

Eugene's expression turned deathly pale, while Gavin exhaled a breath of foul air and said, "We're a long way from being doomed, so stop making that damn face. I'm going to head toward Ennis to check the scene; there might still be a way out."

"As for you, keep that cop with the half-a-dad under control. His crying is going to attract every zombie in Texas!"

With that, Gavin pointed toward William and his father's remains.

Seeing this, Eugene couldn't help but grunt, "Bullshit. I'm not some lackey following your ass around, you... fuck!"

Halfway through his sentence, Eugene's pupils constricted, and he rubbed his neck, quietly taking a step back.

Seeing that Gavin didn't hold it against him, Eugene finally exhaled and grumbled as he dragged William away from his father.

"Let go of me! Let me take one more look at my dad! How could you just kill him like that? He might still be alive, he's still moving, he...?!"

William continued to struggle, his mouth spewing nonsense. Annoyed, Eugene simply drove a heavy knee into William's neck.

In the end, William fell completely unconscious and was tossed by Eugene into the passenger seat of the Old Ford.

With William taken care of, Eugene returned to Gavin's side and stood there awkwardly for a moment.

A moment later, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, he spat on the ground and said, "I'll go take a look at that woman you mentioned. I picked up some first aid when I was in the service—it was all, uh... fuck, I mean, it was all experience!"

Without waiting for Gavin's response, Eugene headed toward the RV.

Gavin walked up behind the vomiting little girl and watched her in silence.

Sensing Gavin's approach, the child retched twice before looking up at him with her pale blue eyes.

Seeing the vomit at the corner of the little girl's mouth, Gavin's Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

"Gross."

He muttered the word, went back to the Tyrannosaurus to grab a bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and held it out to her.

"Wash your mouth out."

"Tha... thank—blegh!"

Before the little girl could finish her thanks, she caught sight of the young zombie nearby, which only made her retch more violently, sobbing as she did so.

Gavin didn't rush her, opting instead to lean against the RV and light a cigarette.

After only a couple of puffs, the little girl regained her composure, rinsed her mouth, and looked up.

"Thank you!"

She said earnestly.

"I'm Winnie, Winnie Baker. I know who you are—my brother loves watching you play football!"

At the mention of this, Winnie looked toward her brother with a sense of loss.

After taking a careful look at the bloody hole in her brother's head, she retched again, turned back to Gavin, and continued.

"My mom and dad thought he was just sick, but that's not a sickness, is it?"

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Either way, I don't want him having the chance to infect anyone else."

Gavin replied, taking a deep drag of his cigarette.

Watching the smoke drift away, Winnie took a deep breath and said to Gavin, "I know. A lot of people got the same sickness earlier. They tackled my dad, and my mom was almost dragged out of the car too. She slammed the door shut and knocked herself out in the process."

"So you were the one who drove out of there. You've got guts, kid."

Gavin nodded in approval.

The situation with this family in the RV was obvious: it was entirely thanks to this little girl stepping on the gas that they had managed to escape Ennis Town.

It matched Gavin's assessment—even the lucky ones who survived the early days of the apocalypse needed a certain level of grit to make it any further.

Take Eugene's decisiveness, or this little girl's calm and bravery, for example.

As for luck, that went without saying.

After all, once everyone else had turned into zombies, every person who hadn't was already being favored by luck.

Praised by Gavin, the little girl didn't act smug like a typical child; instead, she shook her head with the maturity of a miniature adult.

"I don't know how to drive. I just watched my dad do it, but once we were moving, I didn't know what to do. It's thanks to your help."

"Alright, if God doesn't mind giving you a hand, why should I be stingy enough to refuse you a ride? Do I really need to prove I'm colder than God?"

Gavin exhaled a cloud of smoke and gestured to the girl with his cigarette.

"Let's go. Let's check on your mom together. I hope her condition doesn't take up too much of our time."

With that, Gavin turned toward the RV, and the little girl followed him step by step, looking thoughtful.

As an American girl, she had been forming little cliques with the other girls in her class since the third grade.

So, in this small group of strangers, was the person most likely to be the leader worried that her mother would continue to waste their time?

Thinking of this, Winnie's small face twisted in contemplation for a moment before she suddenly turned to look at the passenger seat of the Ford.

When she caught sight of the unconscious police officer, her eyes lit up, and she immediately put on a look that said, "I am very clever."

Meanwhile, Gavin had already reached the RV. Madison was currently helping the woman sit up, while Eugene stood on the steps, grumbling.

"I'm telling you, two slaps and she'd be awake! She only scraped her head, two slaps would do the trick!"

"Shut your mouth, Red!"

Madison snapped back at Eugene while gripping the woman's chin and shaking her head back and forth. He seemed to shake her a bit too hard, as the woman blinked her eyes open in a daze.

"What is... wait, Edward! Winnie!"

The moment she regained consciousness, the woman screamed and tried to sit up, but the exertion made her head spin, and she stumbled backward.