Where's That Tractor Sound Coming From?

After speaking, Gavin smiled at the group, doing his best to suppress the unease in their hearts.

He then turned back, raised his binoculars, and began a more meticulous observation of the situation in Coskana.

Coskana City had highways leading in six different directions.

First was the highway Gavin was currently on, which led to Dallas in one direction and Houston in the other.

Next was the target Gavin intended to reach, Highway 283, which led toward Chambers Reservoir and the Richard Natural Scenic Area, passing through Gavin's family farm and extending all the way to Palestine City.

The remaining two roads led to Tyler City and Waco City, both of which were larger cities than Coskana.

The final road was located to the west of Coskana, leading in a straight line to Hillsboro, from where one could divert to Dallas or Austin, the capital of Texas.

Because Coskana was positioned as a logistics hub, a vast area of land to the east of the city, where the highways connected, was occupied by logistics and warehousing centers.

At the same time, the warehouse district was connected to the Coskana train station, which was the very area currently engulfed in a massive explosion...

Gavin looked carefully at the blast site. By now, zombies had already surrounded the explosion zone in tight circles.

But what made Gavin's scalp tingle was that even though the zombies on the outer perimeter were still being drawn by the faint sounds of explosions, pushing forward one after another toward the blast site, the closer they got to the center, the less eager they were to charge.

In fact, the zombies closest to the blast zone—some as near as thirty meters away—were not only failing to move forward, but were actively avoiding the tremors and flames, beginning to retreat!

At this moment, the explosion zone looked like a besieged city: the zombies on the outermost edge wanted to get closer, while those closest to the center wanted to get away!

This discovery made Gavin swallow hard with difficulty.

He could basically conclude that the zombies possessed a degree of biological instinct.

And the zombies were definitely not relying solely on their auditory systems to hunt.

If the zombies lacked vision, they should have mindlessly charged into the blast site and perished alongside the burning oil train and the other vehicles!

But the scene before him could only prove that while zombies prioritized their sense of hearing to lock onto targets, once they approached the source of the sound, they relied on their remaining vision to complete a dual-sensory lock on their prey!

In that light, Eugene and William had been incredibly lucky back then.

The zombies had vision; they just hadn't truly noticed Eugene and William!

As for now, once the zombies determined that the train explosion zone was not the target they craved, they had to rely on their biological instinct for self-preservation to make the move to distance themselves from the blast!

And self-preservation and biological instinct...

Damn it, this was not a good thing!

Gavin let out a heavy breath. The zombies he was encountering were completely different from any he had seen in any zombie media!

Based on the information he had gathered so far, Gavin had to admit that the zombies he was facing were like a hybrid of the movies World War Z and I Am Legend!

The zombies here might look like dead people, but they had essentially turned into animals.

They were animals that were agile, full of stamina, fearless of injury, and while their intelligence was near zero, they were still driven by biological instincts!

For a moment, Gavin's hand gripping the binoculars tightened involuntarily.

He kept reminding himself in his heart not to think about anything too far removed from his current situation; he had to keep his focus on his core needs!

After secretly adjusting himself for a dozen seconds, Gavin finally pulled himself away from those nightmarish conjectures and continued to observe the road the team would be traveling next.

After scanning the direction of the highway a few times, Gavin lowered his binoculars and turned his back to the group to adjust his expression.

Feeling that he wouldn't reveal any emotions, Gavin turned back with a smile and gestured with the binoculars.

"I have some good news for everyone. Although there was an unexpected chain-reaction train collision and explosion in Coskana, the explosion didn't damage the elevated ring road!"

Gavin pointed toward the elevated highway extending into the distance and continued.

"Moving forward, we will try our best to use the ring road and will not go anywhere near the city center."

"The path we need to take does pass through the rail explosion zone, but as you can all see, it's an elevated bridge, and the explosion happened below the road!"

"We just need to cross the elevated bridge as quickly as possible, bypass the city from the east side of Coskana to the west, and we will reach our next key location!"

At this point, Gavin spread the map out on the road and crouched down to point things out to the group.

Winnie wanted to crouch down to take a look, but Madison was taking up a large amount of space by herself, and with Eugene and the silent William crowding in, there was no room left for her.

Consequently, Winnie made a face at the backs of Madison and the others, then took her mother's hand and waited to the side.

Meanwhile, Gavin pointed to the west of Coskana on the map and said.

"The road ahead requires us to go halfway around Coskana. We can't see it from here with binoculars, so I'll point it out to you on the map."

"After we cross the explosion zone via the elevated bridge, we will drive for about four and a half kilometers before finally exiting the bridge at the roundabout on the west side of the city."

"That is the edge of the commercial district in Coskana, commonly known as the wealthy area. Along the way, it's covered with various cinemas, hotels, clothing stores, and restaurants."

"But the key is that there isn't a high density of residential housing there. You know how it is in wealthy areas—they are characterized by low population density, beautiful environments, and very high consumption."

"I can't rely on the map for everything, so we will make final decisions on the specific situation once we reach the elevated roundabout."

Having said this, Gavin turned back and pointed toward the explosion zone.

"Guys."

He said with a smile.

Three in the morning was hardly the time for office workers to clog up half the city; even with the naked eye, one could see that the road ahead only held a few scattered, overturned, or parked vehicles, with not a single zombie in sight.

"Clearly, the zombies on the overpass were drawn down to the bridge base by the explosion. We're really in luck, haha~"

Amidst the laughter, Gavin stowed the map and walked over to the Tyrannosaurus.

Finally, waving his hand at the group, Gavin spoke.

"If there's nothing else, we're heading out."

"No problem!"

Madison nodded as a matter of course, while Eugene, standing to the side, cast a suspicious glance at his binoculars before nodding in agreement.

"Whatever you say. It's time for us to head to the big farm and live the good life!"

As the words fell, everyone climbed into their respective vehicles and followed the Tyrannosaurus as it continued along the overpass.

On the road, Gavin maintained a speed of around seventy kilometers per hour, reaching the area above the explosion site without encountering any obstacles.

Upon arriving, Gavin pondered for a moment, but ultimately decided not to stop and observe.

The Coskana Overpass was only nine to ten meters above the ground; as the group drove past, the zombies below were inevitably drawn to them, roaring as they attempted to chase the vehicles.

However, the zombies in the blast zone were too densely packed; even if some wanted to give chase, it was difficult for them to bypass the obstacles formed by the other zombies.

Moreover, the constant crackling of fires and the occasional secondary explosion in the blast zone continued to distract the zombies, preventing them from focusing on Gavin's two vehicles.

With that, Gavin cleared the blast zone entirely and headed toward the roundabout in the affluent district on the west side of the city.

As he approached the roundabout, Gavin slowed down and stopped, looking into the distance.

This roundabout required driving two full loops, spiraling down a height difference of nearly nine meters before one could merge back onto the highway.

The point where the roundabout merged with the highway was a full one hundred and eighty meters away from the roundabout itself.

The only problem was that the merge point happened to be right in front of a cinema and a hotel, where over a dozen zombies were currently wandering the road.

Furthermore, the road ahead led straight through the affluent district, which meant Gavin and his group would have to pass through it as well.

After assessing the situation in the distance, Gavin left the Tyrannosaurus and walked to the roadside, leaning over the guardrail to look left and right.

Looking ahead, he was less than two hundred and forty meters from the affluent district.

Looking down, the overpass was still nine meters above the ground, and there were only three support pillars nearby.

Next, he looked back at the blast zone where the zombies were gathered.

They were at least two kilometers away from the blast zone; the sound of gunfire wouldn't carry that far.

Within moments, Gavin had a plan.

Thus, when Madison stepped out of his vehicle and walked over to Gavin's side, he was surprised by what he saw.

Gavin drew his Colt Python with clean, decisive movements and raised the muzzle high.

Bang!

After the gunshot, the zombies in the affluent district immediately grew restless and charged toward Gavin's position.

Sure enough, since this area was relatively far from the blast zone, there were quite a few zombies that hadn't been drawn away by the explosion; Gavin estimated that at least four or five hundred zombies had surged out of the affluent district.

Seeing this, Madison hurried behind Gavin and asked.

"Gavin, you're going to lure the zombies from the affluent district to the area under the overpass, and then we'll drive down the roundabout and head straight through the district, right?"

"What else? The number of zombies in the affluent district isn't high enough to climb up the roundabout to the overpass anyway. As long as we draw them out, the zombies gathered under the overpass won't pose any threat to us."

After Gavin replied, he fired two more shots.

Bang!

Bang!

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!

"Hm?"

Gavin froze. He had only fired two shots—where was this tractor-like sound coming from?

Wait?

"Holy shit, who's shooting? Get behind the vehicles, quick!"

Gavin didn't have time to locate the source of the gunfire before shouting at the group.

At the same time, he dove toward the front wheel hub of the Tyrannosaurus to take cover.

Not far away, Eugene ran toward Gavin with wide eyes, cursing loudly.

"Oh, shit! There are still living people in that affluent district, and they're using a modified SCAR-PDW. Those rich bastards!"