Let Me Take a Look

"Hell yeah!"

As soon as Eugene finished speaking, Madison shouted his approval and slammed his massive body into the side of the Tyrannosaurus, making the pickup rock.

Once he was sure the pickup was blocking him completely, Madison crouched beside it, bracing himself against the truck as he spoke to Eugene.

"You can actually tell what kind of gun it is just by the sound?"

"That's nothing. After you've spent ten or so years messing around with guns, you'll be able to tell too!"

Eugene replied, then flipped Madison the middle finger.

Nearby, Gavin leaned against the wheel well, still listening to the gunfire that kept ringing out.

Rat-tat-tat...

After listening for a moment, Gavin stuck out a leg and kicked Eugene, shouting, "Shit, that gunfire's a long way off!"

"Huh?"

Eugene froze. He listened closely for a moment, then hurriedly answered Gavin, "Oh, yeah, yeah, it's far away. At least five or six hundred meters. Fuck, you scared the hell out of me!"

As he spoke, Eugene raised his lever-action shotgun toward the sky and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

After firing one shot to blow off steam, Eugene stood up, cursing under his breath, and peered through the pickup toward the source of the gunfire.

At the same time, Gavin leaned out from beside the truck and took a couple of looks through his binoculars.

Beside an RV not far away, William kept making a downward-pressing gesture with his hand toward Doris and Winnie. Leaning against the RV, he called out to the three men, "How's it looking?"

"You finally decided to speak, little William!"

Eugene shouted excitedly at William, then looked into the distance through his eight-power scope and continued, "Motherfucker, the gunfire's drawn all the zombies back to the Rich District. Whoever's shooting is probably about to get surrounded!"

After he finished, Eugene fired another shot into the sky.

As soon as Eugene fired, Gavin watched the zombies' movements and cursed, "Shit, our gunfire doesn't work as well as the gunfire in the Rich District. The zombies are probably more sensitive to continuous noise!"

"Ever since they started shooting over there, the zombies haven't even bothered with us, even though our gunfire is closer to them!"

As he spoke, Gavin raised the Python and started shooting too.

Bang, bang, bang!

Rat-tat-tat-tat...

He'd just fired his last three rounds when the distant rat-tat-tat drowned out his gunfire.

Lowering his weapon, Gavin reloaded and rolled his eyes. "Damn it, that gunfire's still going. We can be pretty sure the zombies prefer chasing higher-frequency sounds!"

"Is that so?" Madison couldn't help asking Gavin, "Is that good news or bad news?"

"Good news, of course. The more we learn about the zombies, the better our chances of surviving, no matter what the information is!"

Just as Gavin said this, Eugene suddenly interrupted him with a shout. "Wait, at ten o'clock, about six hundred and thirty meters away! The villa with two rows of oak trees in the yard!"

"Got it!"

Gavin answered quickly and looked in the direction Eugene had indicated.

After a brief search, Gavin finally focused on the villa.

But he couldn't see the person firing. He only saw the two nearest zombies charging toward the second window from the left on the villa's first floor.

"Phew, we can relax. There's only one shooter, and he's not shooting at us!"

Gavin called out, then stepped out from behind the Tyrannosaurus and went to keep watch beside the highway guardrail.

Behind him, Eugene got up with a carefree swagger, slung his shotgun over his shoulder, and wandered over to Gavin. He propped his eight-power scope against the guardrail, peering through it as he cursed.

"Lucky bastard. He might get eaten by zombies any second now. Otherwise, once I get over there, I'll turn his balls into a fucking honeycomb, motherfucker!"

After he finished, Eugene crouched beside Gavin, rested the hand holding the scope on the guardrail, and asked, "What do we do next, boss? Should we try to save him? He is a living person, after all. Heh."

When Eugene said this, Madison and William's ears perked up.

Even Doris and her daughter, who were lying inside the RV, raised their heads to listen.

Gavin pursed his lips and replied with a laugh, "Save him? How? His gun keeps firing, and the zombies from the nearest villas have already charged into his place!"

"Unless he runs out of ammo right now and gives us a chance to draw the zombies over, every second that gun keeps firing brings him closer to death!"

As he spoke, Gavin clearly saw that the zombie horde, which his gunfire had drawn together, was now only three hundred meters from the villa where the SCAR was firing.

The SCAR kept firing. It sounded like the shooter had already fired more than forty rounds. Who knew how many magazines he had left?

Hearing that, William pressed his lips together regretfully, then lowered his head to look at the badge on his chest.

The moment he saw it, he hurriedly looked away, as if he were afraid its reflection would burn him.

As for Eugene, the old buddy slapped his thigh and grinned. "You're lucky, Quarterback. If you wanted to charge into that villa with me and do God's work, I'd punch you in the face. Even if you were the Virgin Mary, I'd beat you so hard I'd make you miscarry!"

"Just you wait. Once we get to the farm, I'll give you a proper workout!"

Gavin jabbed Eugene with his elbow while continuing to watch the distant villa.

The gunfire continued. It took another twenty-odd shots before there was a pause.

"Tsk, tsk. He's probably changing magazines. How many zombies do you think he can take out? I'm betting five!"

Eugene teased him, but Gavin shook his head. "I'm betting eight. The bet's that pack of cigarettes I gave you. Once the shooting stops, I'll personally take you to the villa to check the results!"

"Fuck, if you want me dead, just say so. How the hell could I—wait!"

Eugene cursed irritably, then suddenly cut himself off and slapped the guardrail hard.

"Look! That son of a bitch is a fucking war god! He's coming out, and he's got a woman with him!"

"I see him!"

Through Gavin's eyes, more than six hundred meters away, a black-haired man in a suit held a gun in one hand. He jumped straight out of the villa window, grabbed the Red Dress Woman behind him, and sprinted toward the yellow McLaren in the yard.

At the same time, Madison hurried over to Eugene and shouted anxiously, "A woman? Fuck! Let me take a look!"

"Ha! You old Black, here, take it! Take the damn thing!"

Eugene laughed and handed Madison the eight-power scope. Madison hurriedly looked through it.

At the same time, Gavin saw two more zombies lunge at the man.

The suited man suddenly threw the woman aside, then swung his rifle and smashed the first zombie with its stock. He raised the gun and fired, using seven rounds to blow the heads off two zombies.

By the time he'd dealt with the zombies, the woman still hadn't gotten up from the ground. So he simply grabbed her by the hair and dragged her toward the McLaren.

The woman screamed. Her voice sounded even shriller than the gunfire.

But the short-haired man didn't hesitate for a moment. He dragged her to the car by her hair, opened the door, and tossed her straight into the passenger seat.

"Whoa."

Gavin opened his mouth. He'd clearly seen the woman's head slam hard against the roof of the car the first time the man threw her.

After a half-second delay, the short-haired man pulled her up and shoved her in at last. Then he jumped into the driver's seat, started the car, smashed through the approaching zombies, and sped toward the villa's gate.

As he drove, he braced the gun against his chest, shot through the car window, and fired at the zombies blocking his way and the ones leaping toward the McLaren.

Seeing this, Gavin felt the situation was getting bad.

The zombies in the villa district where the man and woman were had originally been drawn together by his gunfire, giving the pair a chance to escape.

Now, though, the large horde had abandoned Gavin and was running back. It was only about two hundred and forty meters from the villa where the McLaren was.

Even if a few scattered zombies remained in the villa district, the ones that couldn't form a horde were hardly likely to stop the McLaren.

So...

As the McLaren raced out of the villa district and toward Highway 283, Gavin slapped Eugene hard on the back.

"Get in the truck! Now! We have to charge through right away!"

With that, Gavin dashed toward the Tyrannosaurus, kicking Old Mac along the way.

"Quit staring and get the RV moving!"

"The zombies in the Rich District were originally drawn by the SCAR's gunfire toward the villas on the left. Those were still some distance from the road, so they wouldn't have stopped us from crossing the Rich District."

"But now that asshole's shooting while he drives, and he's drawn all the zombies toward the highway!"

"We have to drive through the damn Rich District before the zombies reach the highway and form a one-way-running horde like the one in Ennis!"

"Otherwise, we'll have to trail the zombie horde chasing the McLaren all the way to my place. Who knows what kind of trouble that'll cause!"