An Unexpected Attack
Just then-
"Ugh... urgh..."
A low, muffled growl, thick and guttural, came without warning from beneath the RV, right where Dale was working.
Right beside him!
Dale had been bent over a rusted bolt. The sudden, terrifying sound made his hand jerk, and his wrench clanged against the chassis.
Almost simultaneously, a badly rotted arm with exposed bone shot out from the shadows beneath the vehicle. Its fingers twisted like claws, it reeked as it snatched viciously at Dale's ankle sticking out from under the RV.
"Aah!"
Dale cried out and scrambled backward.
The scream and strange noises instantly shattered the camp's silence. Everyone looked toward the underside of the RV in horror.
"Walker! Under the RV!"
Glenn cried out, his face deathly pale.
The rotting arm clawed wildly at the air. Then a head with tangled hair and a face rotted beyond recognition suddenly emerged from beneath the vehicle, bringing a powerful stench of decay.
Its hollow eye sockets faced the nearest living person-little Carl, who was peeking out curiously in Lori's arms.
"Carl!"
Lori screamed and instinctively tried to shield him behind her, but she was a moment too slow.
The walker snarled, its rotting body erupting with strength as it lunged more than halfway out from under the RV. Its withered arm swept through the air, reaching straight for Carl's face.
Carl froze in terror, her eyes filled with fear.
"Fuck!"
Shane's furious roar rang out. He was closest and reacted fastest. The instant he saw the walker lunge at Carl, he raised his shotgun. There was no time to aim, and he could no longer heed Lynn's order not to shoot.
BANG!!!
The deafening gunshot erupted in the dead silence of dawn, unleashing a savage blast of shot from less than three meters away.
Splat! Crash!
The rotting arm reaching for Carl, along with a small portion of its shoulder, was instantly blasted to pieces! Foul blood and shredded flesh sprayed everywhere. A chunk of the walker's head was torn away too, and the tremendous impact sent its body tumbling backward into an RV tire.
Terrified by the gunshot and the spraying filth, Carl burst into tears. Lori rushed up and held him tightly, her body shaking uncontrollably.
"Carl! Carl!"
The danger seemed to have passed.
But Shane's shot had stirred up a hornet's nest.
"Urrgh-!"
"Hhh... hhh..."
"Thump... clatter..."
In the distance, countless shuffling, scraping, and snarling sounds suddenly rose from every direction. Like an awakened swarm, they surged closer from afar. The gunshot was the perfect signal.
"Shit, a herd! The gunshot drew them!"
Glenn shouted a warning from his elevated position. He saw indistinct figures emerging from the tall weeds on both sides of the highway and behind abandoned vehicles, swaying as they rapidly converged.
"Damn it!"
Shane's face was livid, but regret was useless now.
"Get ready to fight!"
Lynn's voice was ice-cold, instantly cutting through the chaos. He snatched up the rifle beside the jeep and pulled the bolt back with a click, chambering a round.
Hearing the commotion, the others hurried back as well.
Davis's massive frame was already poised for action, his shotgun held level.
Hearing the gunshot, Merle and Daryl immediately abandoned their perimeter search and sprinted back from different directions.
"Glenn! T-Dog! Andrea! Hold the front and left flank.
Davis, block the gap in front of the vehicle.
Min-seon! Get the women and children inside the RV. Hurry!"
Lynn's orders were clear and efficient, hammering into everyone's ears through the fading echo of the shot.
The camp instantly became a battlefield.
Drawn by the gunshot, walkers poured out from the weeds and piles of abandoned vehicles on both sides of the highway, far more numerous than before.
They snarled, stretching out withered arms as they lunged toward the scent of the living.
Bang!
Andrea's rifle fired first, dropping one of the walkers charging at the front.
Davis's shotgun roared: BOOM!
The shot tore apart two walkers crowded together.
Gritting his teeth, Glenn raised his pistol and fired. Though his aim was poor, he still slowed their advance.
T-Dog roared as he swung his machete, guarding Glenn's flank and hacking down a walker that lunged at them.
After rushing back, Merle wielded both razor and machete with ruthless movements, targeting joints and legs as he cursed nonstop. "Motherfuckers! You wanna die?!"
Daryl's bolt sliced through the air and buried itself in a walker's eye socket with a wet thud, its tip protruding from the back of the head.
Shane's eyes had reddened too. He fired his shotgun into the densest clusters of walkers.
Gunshots, hacking blows, and the walkers' snarls mingled in the cramped space.
The scene was chaotic, but Lynn directed them well, and the core members had enough fighting strength.
The dozen or so walkers at the front were quickly dispatched.
"Hold! Don't let the zombies surround us!"
Lynn fired single shots with his pistol while surveying the battlefield, always keeping the vehicle with the women and children in the corner of his eye.
Min-seon reacted extremely quickly. The moment the gun went off, she pulled Lori, who was holding Carl, along with Carol and Sophia toward the RV.
Carol gripped Sophia's hand tightly as mother and daughter stumbled through the chaos.
Just as they were about to enter the RV, a walker that had lost half its body to Davis's shotgun but was not quite dead dragged its ruined body into a sudden lunge from the side, its rotting claws reaching for the back of Carol, who was bringing up the rear.
"Mom!" Sophia screamed.
"Watch out!"
Min-seon immediately turned back to pull Carol away.
Terrified by the attack, Carol's legs buckled and she fell forward. The instant she fell, she instinctively released Sophia's hand.
"No, Sophia!"
Carol cried out in despair.
Little Sophia stumbled from the pull, leaving her right in front of the mangled walker.
The walker's mouth, dripping black saliva, snapped toward Sophia's neck.
Thunk!
A cold crossbow bolt flew in and pierced the walker's eye socket with perfect accuracy, its force jerking the creature's head backward.
It was Daryl. Even amid the chaos, his aim remained precise.
"Get inside!"
Min-seon yanked the terrified, frozen Sophia behind her while viciously kicking the walker's ruined body away.
Lori helped Carol up, and they scrambled into the RV.
The fight ended a few minutes later.
Davis and Shane finished off the last few walkers.
Another dozen or so rotting corpses littered the open ground around them, foul blood seeping into the dust.
The gunfire stopped, leaving only heavy breathing.
"Head count! Check for casualties!"
Lynn's voice was tight.
"Everyone's okay!"
Glenn looked around and shouted between breaths.
Min-seon's voice came from the RV doorway. "Rick's fine. Lori and Carl got a scare. Carol scraped herself a little..."
Her words suddenly caught. Her face went deathly pale, and her voice filled with terror. "So... Sophia?! Where's Sophia?!"
Carol suddenly rushed out of the vehicle on the other side, her hair disheveled, tears mingling with dirt on her face. Her eyes swept frantically over their surroundings as she let out a heart-rending scream. "Sophia! My Sophia! Sophia's missing!!"
Lynn's heart sank.
His sharp gaze instantly shifted to the edge of the chaotic battlefield-the woods, deep as a gaping mouth in the faint dawn light.
There was no one there.
Only a few patches of trampled weeds remained, the tracks leading deeper into the woods.
The worst had happened after all.
Amid the utter chaos and terror, Sophia had run into the forest.
System countdown: [69:22:17]