The girl-shaped zombie emerged from the darkness.
Li Yun knew exactly what she was.
The invisible zombie he had encountered earlier had already made him suspicious; this merely confirmed the answer.
At the same time, heavy footsteps thundered closer and a squat, bulky monster burst from the black smoke.
It charged like a tank, smashing other zombies aside as it barreled straight toward Li Yun.
Fortunately, Andrey was no pushover.
He held down the trigger, and several rounds from his oversized SVD Custom stopped the creature’s charge cold.
Li Yun dropped his rifle, drew a pistol and tactical knife, and engaged the Light Zombie at close range.
Her body looked slight and nimble, yet it was hard enough to clash directly with the knife and still possessed remarkable toughness.
Li Yun almost wondered whether he could skin the damn thing and make body armor out of her hide.
This time, the Light Zombie did not retreat into the darkness.
Instead, she came straight at Li Yun, relying on pure agility and speed to fight him head-on.
The limited intelligence she possessed told her that these humans were fighting while retreating and were almost out of the underground laboratory.
She had to kill them before they reached the first floor.
On the other side, Andrey engaged the Heavy Zombie trying to charge toward them.
Compared with the agile Light Zombie, however, the Heavy Zombie could hardly have drawn a worse opponent.
Its enormous body had no hope of evading the heavy rounds fired by the SVD Custom.
Every pull of Andrey’s trigger punched another bloody crater into the creature.
“Keep firing while you withdraw!
Do not let these things close the distance!” The instant Andrey began reloading, the others immediately took over the fire on the Heavy Zombie, refusing to let the monster enter a safe charging distance.
They were almost back at the massive hole connecting the basement to the first floor.
Once they reached it, they could at least secure their immediate safety.
Li Yun carefully slipped past the Light Zombie’s claws without rushing to counterattack.
The vicious creature did not know fatigue.
Against something like this, striking casually without aiming for a decisive kill was only asking for trouble.
Like a hunter facing a wild animal, Li Yun maintained his patience.
He remained ready to strike the instant a true opening appeared.
No matter how frenzied the Light Zombie’s attacks became, eventually she would expose one.
Finally, the opening came.
After dodging another swipe, Li Yun snapped up his pistol and fired twice, striking the side of the Light Zombie’s knee.
Both rounds tore through the critical joint.
The Light Zombie immediately lost her balance and collapsed toward the floor.
The thrust killed her outright, eliminating the threat behind them as they withdrew.
At almost the same time, the Heavy Zombie finally crashed to the ground.
After absorbing a magazine and a half from the SVD Custom, even that thick-skinned brute could do nothing but howl and fall.
“Move!
Li Yun, hurry!
Everyone else is already upstairs!”
Natasha, having escorted the others out, had doubled back to help the rear guard withdraw.
Li Yun did not linger.
He left the knife where it was and sprinted toward her.
The group covering the retreat soon reached the rooftop.
Transport helicopters were already hauling the researchers away.
More helicopters were approaching from the distance, apparently having noticed the dense crowd on the roof during their patrols.
A few stray zombies still emerged from the stairwell, but that handful was no longer enough to threaten the surviving advance team.
If going back down were not so dangerous, Li Yun would actually have liked to recover the bodies of the Light Zombie and Heavy Zombie for research.
Andrey stood on the roof looking down over the chaos in Zeta City.
Only wandering zombies remained on the streets.
The living had evacuated as completely as possible.
Once this last group left, the city would probably be abandoned altogether.
“Dad, time to go.” Li Yun called from behind him.
Andrey immediately turned and boarded the transport helicopter with him.
They were the final group to get on; the earlier flights had probably already landed at General Victor’s camp.
Gerard sat slumped in his seat.
Andrey knew exactly what he was thinking and gently patted his shoulder, telling him without words not to sink into grief.
Gerard looked up at him, then let out a long sigh.
That was the nature of their profession, after all.
Any one of them might die on a battlefield tomorrow.
David had simply been even less fortunate than most—there was not even a body to bring home.
Li Yun watched the two men in silence.
Whatever.
Once Black eventually joined the T faction and stabbed them hard in the back, they would learn what real pain felt like.
Her performance today had been excellent.
For her first bioweapon operation, she had remained remarkably calm and effective.
She was absolutely worth developing further.
The moment they reached Victor’s camp, Li Yun lightly patted Natasha on the shoulder and had barely said her name when she ripped off her gas mask and vomited violently.
Only then did Li Yun realize she had been forcing herself to hold it in the entire way.
Which was understandable.
Natasha normally served as a sniper and had never taken part in close assault work.
Her first close-range battle had been against infected corpses.
The fact she had held herself together until now was already impressive.
Thinking about it made Li Yun appreciate how terrifyingly strong the nerves of those game and movie protagonists were.
They could meet some revolting zombie for the first time and immediately blow its head apart without hesitation.
After the beautiful sniper finally finished emptying her stomach and wiped her mouth, Li Yun handed her a bottle of mineral water.
Natasha immediately rinsed thoroughly and spat it out, trying to wash the taste from her mouth.
She had a feeling every dream she had tonight would be filled with the shocking images of zombies rushing at her.
She had watched the combat footage from Li Yun’s Helgen mission.
At the time, those raging zombies had not looked especially difficult to deal with.
Only after facing that kind of battle herself today did she realize how badly she had underestimated it.
“Li Yun…
aren’t you scared at all?” Natasha looked at him and finally asked the question.
She had begun to realize that his reaction was the unusual one.
They were both young.
Staying this calm today was already impressive, but the composure Li Yun had shown leading his team out of Helgen had looked nothing like a rookie encountering bioweapon monsters for the first time.
Li Yun raised an eyebrow and removed his own gas mask.
It was a strangely naive question, and he doubted there was any perfect answer.
“Would you believe me if I said I was missing a few emotions?
Of course you wouldn’t.
The truth is simply that something more important kept my attention.
That night, I had to find a way to get my men out alive.
On this mission, I had people I needed to rescue.”
That was true enough.
More important things had demanded his attention, leaving him no time to dwell on fear.
“Once you have enough things you need to save—enough people and things you need to protect—you stop having room in your head for the useless thoughts.”