The Silent Zombie Horde

The roar of engines tore through the wilderness's silence.

The modified pickup carrying Lynn hurtled down the bumpy, abandoned highway, its headlights piercing the darkness to illuminate twisted dead trees and scattered wrecked cars ahead.

Daryl wove nimbly ahead on his motorcycle, leading the way, while Merle crouched on the roof of another vehicle, warily scanning both sides of the road.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle was grim.

Glenn and T-Dog gripped their weapons tightly, their anxious eyes scanning the darkness and occasionally flicking toward Lynn.

Lynn sat in the passenger seat, his expression taut.

The hidden danger at the southeastern corner, the abnormal horde, Zhao Jinghong's peril, The Jackal's gunfire... the fragments rapidly came together in his mind.

The Jackal's voice suddenly sounded through his helmet communicator, calm beneath the static and the distant howls of the horde:

"Boss, confirmed! Large-scale horde, visually estimated at over a hundred and fifty, clearly targeting the base's southeastern corner. Abnormal behavior: not drawn to living bait, moving in unison."

"Key point: there are impostors in the horde. The Whisperers' presence confirmed. Took one out in close combat. Characteristics: living people wearing walker skins, carrying daggers, skilled at disguise and ambush."

"Zhao Jinghong (new) is holding back the vanguard under heavy pressure. I'm providing ranged suppression and clearing a path. The main horde is still advancing, approximately a hundred and fifty meters from the wall. Report complete."

"The Whisperers!"

Those words hit Lynn like a bullet.

This early in the apocalypse!

How long had it even been since the cataclysm?

How could a group that required time and utterly twisted humanity to form already exist? Right near his base?

This was no coincidence.

Probe's operation? The destruction of Vulture's Claw? Had they drawn these demons hiding in the horde here?

An icy sense of danger gripped him.

The Whisperers were no ordinary bandits.

They were monsters who turned themselves into walkers and could herd the dead like livestock.

If they gained a foothold, the zoo base was finished.

They would send endless seas of corpses crashing against it, again and again, until they devoured the base.

They had to be wiped out before they grew into a force.

At any cost!

The instant Lynn resolved to kill them-

The translucent system interface at the edge of his vision abruptly flashed! No longer blue, but a glaring scarlet! A cold mechanical voice sounded directly in his mind:

[Fundamental survival threat detected...]

[Emergency side quest triggered: purge the Whisperers' nest]

[Quest objectives:

1. Completely eliminate the Whisperers combat unit currently threatening the zoo base (0/?, number unknown).

2. Locate and destroy their temporary nest or command node in this region.

3. Ensure the Whisperers' organizational structure in this region is shattered, preventing them from resuming operations in the short term.]

[Quest type: mandatory (acceptance strongly recommended)]

[Time limit: 72 hours]

[Failure penalty: survival points -1500, the Whisperers' threat level will increase exponentially, the base will suffer long-term targeted assaults by organized hordes, and survival conditions will deteriorate severely.]

[Quest rewards: survival points x 1200, character creation privilege x 1, rare supply crate (contains: advanced melee weapon maintenance kit x 1, tactical-grade suppressors x 2, antibiotic injections x 5)]

[Special warning: this threat is highly contagious and capable of spreading widely. The host is advised to take immediate, decisive action.]

Scarlet words, brutal penalties, generous rewards, and the "character creation privilege" appearing once again...

The system had judged The Whisperers a "fundamental threat" capable of destroying the base. They had to be eradicated immediately.

"Accept!" Lynn made his choice in his mind.

For the base, for everyone, he had to send those demons in human skin to hell.

"Jackal!" Lynn responded immediately, his voice resolute. "Intel confirmed! Change of objectives! Highest priority: clear out all zombies and take prisoners! Protect Zhao Jinghong! Reinforcements are almost there!"

"Copy! Prioritizing zombie elimination!" The Jackal's voice remained cold, but now carried an added edge of killing intent.

At the center of the battlefield.

Zhao Jinghong's situation deteriorated rapidly.

The Awakening of Insects spear in her hands thrust, swept, and parried without pause.

Every attack aimed to knock down a walker or burst its head outright.

She barely maintained a small pocket of space within the horde's vanguard. Her movements remained fast, her dodges timely.

But despair began to spread.

There was simply no end to them.

For every one that fell, two or three immediately took its place.

Ordinary walkers surged forward like a tide.

More troublesome were the "brutes" and "runners" mixed among them.

The brutes were tough and took more effort; the runners were fast and attacked from tricky angles, forcing her to divide her attention.

She felt trapped in a mire, each desperate fight buying her an ever-shorter respite as the horde continued pressing forward.

Worse still, their numbers were growing!

There had been just over a hundred at first. Now a dense mass filled her vision, their howls merging together-nearly two hundred.

It was as though something was driving more walkers out of the wilderness toward this spot.

The Whisperers' methods were even more sinister than she had imagined.

The deadliest threat was the Whisperers hidden within the horde.

"Dead tree on your left!" The Jackal's urgent warning rang out.

Without thinking, Zhao Jinghong snapped her spear left to block.

Clang!

The shaft knocked aside a rusty axe that came flying out of the dead tree's shadow.

Almost simultaneously, a "corpse" to her right sprang up, clutching a sharpened iron pipe and stabbing viciously at her calf.

Startled, Zhao Jinghong forcibly twisted around and brought the butt of her spear smashing down.

Thud!

The iron pipe scraped across her calf, leaving a bloody gash.

Having missed, the impostor immediately withdrew into the horde, vanishing among the churning rotten flesh.

"Three o'clock! Behind the runner!" The Jackal fired.

Bang!

A runner's head burst in midleap, splattering Zhao Jinghong with filthy blood and bone fragments.

Behind the falling corpse, an impostor was revealed, about to throw something.

The Jackal's bullet grazed his shoulder, drawing only a spray of blood.

The impostor let out a strange cry and ducked back.

Zhao Jinghong panted, forced to devote most of her attention to guarding against these insidious ambushes.

Every strike became hesitant, preventing her from bringing her spear's power to bear.

She was trapped in a net of walkers bristling with poisonous barbs.

She could sense at least four or five malicious "things" moving within the horde.

They were watching, waiting for her to collapse from exhaustion, or... directing the horde to hem her in.

Squelch!

The spearhead punched into the eye socket of a lunging walker.

Zhao Jinghong used the force to step back, her chest heaving as sweat mingled with filthy blood and ran down her body.

She glimpsed headlights rapidly approaching from the direction of the base.

Reinforcements were almost here.

But the pressure before her was already becoming... difficult to bear.

She needed space, needed a moment to breathe, needed to drag those vipers out of hiding.

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the rear of the horde.

One figure seemed to stand a little straighter than the surrounding "walkers," its head turning slightly as though surveying the entire situation.

That impression... it seemed like a leader.

Zhao Jinghong's gaze hardened. She had to do something.