“Captain, what do we do?
These things just won’t die!
And once one of these monsters bites or scratches you, it doesn’t take long before you end up just like them—crazy, with nothing on your mind but tearing into people!”
A fully armed soldier shouted at Li Yun as he kept firing.
He did not dare let up even while he spoke, which showed just how desperate the situation had become.
“Aim for the head!” Li Yun shouted.
His M4A1 barked again, another round punching cleanly into a zombie’s skull.
The Special Operations Team, facing monsters like these for the first time, froze for a heartbeat.
Then they immediately followed Li Yun’s order and concentrated their fire on the heads of the zombies surging toward them.
Sure enough, once most of the zombies went down from headshots, they stayed down.
The captain’s call worked!
Once they confirmed the monsters could actually be killed, most of the men relaxed a little.
They still could not drop every target with one bullet, but this was far better than having to pour round after round into a zombie until it finally stopped moving.
Li Yun showed no trace of satisfaction.
His expression remained grim as he led the team backward, fighting every step of the way.
This fucking town.
If I’d known, I never would’ve come here.
Those damned researchers!
They ought to be dragged out here and fed to these zombies.
Damn you, Dr.
Rex!
But there was no point dwelling on that now.
The immediate priority was to fight their way out of town.
Zombies kept crawling out of the ground in an endless stream; if the team could not break through, they would be worn down and killed here.
[Damn it.
Why didn’t I ever bother learning CSO’s zombie lore properly?
My head’s full of the Zombie Scenario plot, and I barely know anything about how the outbreak started.
I got so many of my brothers killed.]
Yes—Li Yun was a transmigrator.
In his previous life he had no parents and no attachments, and while saving a child he had been rammed into this world by that legendary interdimensional transportation device: a truck.
He had not thought too hard about it afterward.
His start in this life had been much better.
He was still an orphan, but his adoptive father, Andrey, raised him as his own son.
Andrey not only took care of him, but also gave him extensive training.
Once Li Yun came of age, he joined the international CT organization directly.
Life had been going about as well as he could have asked.
This was not Li Yun’s first operation.
He had taken part in plenty of strikes against the T faction before.
He had assumed this mission would be nothing more than an investigation in some remote European town, so he had not paid it much mind.
Then night fell.
The zombies sensed the presence of the living and erupted from underground like lunatics, catching the Special Operations Team completely off guard.
After their initial losses, the surviving operators recovered and re-formed their combat formation.
But none of them had fought zombies before, and several paid dearly for their lack of experience in bioweapon combat.
At the worst point, one man right beside Li Yun had even turned on the spot.
Fortunately, Li Yun reacted fast enough to kick the bastard away.
“There are lights over there!
Fall back toward them!
See if we can find help!”
While they still had enough firepower to move, Li Yun hurriedly swapped magazines and led the others in a push toward the lights.
The rest of the team fired as they followed.
Moving quickly, they managed to open some distance between themselves and the zombies.
They had barely retreated any farther when a huge pack of zombies suddenly charged in from the flank.
At the head of the pack was a red-haired woman, and from the way she was running for her life, the situation had clearly scared the hell out of her too.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Li Yun could not stop the curse from bursting out.
Of course.
The one thing he did not want to see.
Lady, are you trying to screw us over?
Why the hell are you bringing that whole mob straight at us?!
There was no time to complain.
The Special Operations Team immediately shifted formation to engage enemies coming from two directions at once.
The redhead was no pushover either.
She quickly identified Li Yun as the group’s leader, moved naturally to his side, and started firing at the approaching zombies.
She wielded a pair of Silver Lugers.
Firing both at once, she placed every round squarely into a zombie’s head.
As irritated as Li Yun was with her at that moment, even he had to admire that kind of marksmanship.
“Silver Lugers…
You’re Blair, that famous Irish hunter?” The pistols gave away her identity.
Li Yun had never expected to run into her in a place like this.
“We can talk once we’re safe.
Right now, help me deal with these monsters!” Blair hurriedly changed magazines.
She swore that when she got back, she was going to put a bullet straight through her employer.
Li Yun could not be bothered arguing.
He led the team onward, killing plenty of zombies along the way, but he knew they could not keep this up forever.
There was no telling how many corpses in a town this size had been infected and turned.
If they failed to break out, sooner or later they would be exhausted and killed here.
But when they finally reached the source of the light, the color drained from Li Yun’s face.
It was a cemetery.
The light they had seen was simply a lamp illuminating the entrance, and beyond it lay a crypt descending underground.
Li Yun swallowed.
His instincts told him their mission objective was probably somewhere inside that crypt.
But after the losses they had already suffered, how many of them would come back out if they went in?
More importantly, was completing the mission even worth it anymore?
At the same time, as they drew closer to the underground crypt, the zombies pursuing them became even more ferocious.
The Special Operations Team’s concentrated fire dropped most of the zombies before they could touch anyone, but a handful still made it all the way to the operators and nearly inflicted more casualties.
Li Yun clenched his teeth and stopped hesitating.
A failed mission was better than getting more people killed.
He turned and gave the order without a second thought.
“Withdraw!
Take the map we made!
We’re getting out of here!”
The zombie data itself was not a problem.
Their body cameras had been running the entire time, and the brass could hardly watch that footage and remain indifferent.
As long as they brought back a proper map, the next team would not have to stumble around blind like they had.
Blair, who had joined them halfway through, did not dare say much either.
She knew perfectly well that her arrival had done little except put even more pressure on the team.
Her marksmanship helped, but the trouble she had dragged in was worse.
“Yes, sir!” The Special Operations Team members who were still alive and uninjured immediately obeyed Li Yun’s order and prepared to withdraw from the town.
For quite some time, though, the horrific faces of those zombies would probably haunt their dreams.
The group quickly fought its way out along a route with fewer zombies.
Time passed, dawn broke—and to Li Yun’s surprise, the zombies actually began to retreat.
As the zombies withdrew, everyone finally began to settle down.
Blair, abandoning every trace of ladylike poise, plopped down on the ground, gasping for breath.
She had never imagined those old legends could actually be true.
After running into those two terrifying monsters, she had nearly lost her life here.
While the others relaxed and took a short rest, Li Yun immediately ordered the radio operator to transmit a message to the European Branch:
“Inform the European Branch and have them send helicopters.
We failed this mission.
I’ll also submit a formal request to Headquarters to have this area sealed off—or destroyed completely.
This is not something humanity should ever touch.”
He still wanted to try, even though he knew his request might amount to nothing.
Li Yun understood far too well how the people above them schemed and fought among themselves.
Still, if he had any chance at all, he wanted to keep the Zombie Scenario from becoming reality.