The leader was a woman in her thirties. She had a dark complexion and dark orange, tightly curled hair tied back into a low ponytail.
Dirt and dried blood covered her face, but her dark eyes remained sharp and piercing.
Summer stood in utter confusion as Captain Robin and the two surviving soldiers rushed forward to support their leader.
The woman ignored their hands for a moment, her gaze locked entirely on Summer.
"You are Summer, right?" the woman asked again, her voice raspy from the dust she had inhaled under the overturned truck.
"Captain... do you know her?" Captain Robin asked, his eyes widening in shock as he helped steady her weight.
Leader Imani nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact with the pale girl.
"Captain, how do you know a zombie?" one of the other soldiers asked, his hand hovering nervously near his empty sidearm.
"Huh? A zombie?" Imani frowned, staring at him as if he had lost his mind.
"Haha! Idiots!" Angela burst out laughing, leaning heavily against Ilas while holding her bandaged shoulder.
"Captain Robin, your men are dense. Obviously, your captain knew Summer back when she was still a normal human! Gosh, what kind of idiotic squad did I team up with? Luckily, I have Chubby Cheeks on my side now."
"Zombie?"
Leader Imani turned her head sharply back toward Summer. Her eyes narrowed as she finally registered the pale skin, the glowing crimson pupils, and the thin dark red veins running along the sides of the girl’s face.
Instinct took over. Her right hand shot down toward the custom rifle holstered at her hip.
Whoosh.
A sudden, unnatural cold breeze swept through the intersection. Before Imani’s fingers could even touch the grip of her weapon, Summer vanished completely from her sight.
In the next millisecond, the cold air rippled again. Summer reappeared in the exact same spot she had been standing before, holding the heavy rifle casually in her iron-clad hands.
Shadow Mirage was truly an overpowered racial trait. Unlike Undead Body, which acted as a passive healing trait, Shadow Mirage was an active skill that allowed her to bypass all physical and mental tracking for a brief duration.
Paired with her exceptionally high Agility attribute, Summer could literally move back and forth before the opposing party could even finish formulating a thought.
Summer had felt the human woman’s split-second surge of killing intent. She did not want to eat her, but she wanted to show the woman how ridiculous that reaction was.
It seemed to work perfectly.
Imani stared at her empty holster, then at the small zombie girl casually inspecting the rifle. Cold sweat broke out on the back of the leader’s neck.
Her fingers twitched, but she froze in place, utterly unable to process the sheer speed she had just witnessed.
"Leader Imani! Stop!" Captain Robin yelled hurriedly, stepping directly between his leader and the girl. He had been standing right beside Imani when she reached for her gun, and he knew how much his leader hated zombies.
After all, her twin sons had been torn apart right in front of her eyes during the initial hours of the outbreak.
"Leader, listen to me," Captain Robin said quickly, his voice laced with urgent desperation. "She saved us. She killed that super strong zombie in one hit."
Captain Robin began explaining everything that had happened while Imani was trapped under the heavy truck.
He described how the monster had crushed their defenses, how One had been thrown through concrete pillars, and how Summer had materialized out of thin air to destroy the creature’s skull without taking a single scratch.
As Robin spoke, One let out a low, gut-churning growl. The four-armed giant took two massive steps forward, his broad shadow falling over the soldiers as he stood protectively beside his master.
His remaining two upper arms flexed, giving the humans a nasty glare that warned them against taking another step.
Summer paid no attention to the giant or the soldiers. She lowered the heavy rifle and stared down at the cold metal, her dark red eyes filled with quiet curiosity.
Who was she?
She felt like a faint echo drifting through a hollow cavern.
The system had given her that name when she first gained consciousness as a Feral, but hearing a living human who knew the name call her by it felt entirely different.
She stared at Leader Imani, her mind churning with questions. How did this woman know her?
What was the old Summer like? Was she strong? Did she have a family? Did she like sweet candies back then too?
Beside her, Ella, Ilas, and Angela noticed the blank, confused expression on Summer’s face.
They watched her stare at the ground in silence, her soft brows furrowing as if she were struggling to solve a painful puzzle.
The three girls exchanged worried glances. They feared that trying to remember her lost human life would make Summer sad by triggering painful memories of how she died and turned into a zombie.
"Hey, Chubby!" Ella called out cheerfully, quickly stepping forward to break the heavy silence. "Don’t mind them! It doesn’t matter who you were before. You’re our Chubby now!"
"Yeah!" Ilas joined in, waving her hand with a bright smile. "Look at your cool new gauntlets and your awesome red eyes! You’re way cooler now anyway!"
"Exactly," Angela added with a grin, winking at her. "Human memories are overrated. All you need to remember is that we’re going to find better food than rotten cores next time."
"They aren’t rotten. They taste like candies," Summer defended her favourite food, making the three girls fall silent for a moment, then burst out giggling.
She looked up at the three girls. Hearing their noisy, comforting chatter brought a slight warmth back to her chest, pushing away the lingering confusion in her mind.
Meanwhile, Leader Imani listened quietly as Captain Robin finished his explanation. She looked at the giant four-armed mutant standing guard, then at the headless corpse of the Feral Boss lying in the middle of the street.
Finally, her eyes settled on the three teenage girls standing comfortably around the pale zombie, laughing and talking as if they were on a school trip rather than in the middle of a bloodbath.
Imani took a deep breath, forcing the deep-seated hatred in her heart to calm down. She was a military commander first.
She could see clearly that this zombie girl possessed complete rationality and had no intention of eating them.
Imani nodded slowly to Robin, lowering her stance and releasing the tension in her shoulders.
Seeing that the human woman had completely dropped her hostile posture, Summer took a few slow steps forward.
She stopped right in front of Leader Imani, her small frame looking tiny compared to the tall, battle-weary officer.
Summer looked directly into Imani’s dark eyes, raised her small hand, and pointed a finger at her own chest.
"Who... am I?" Summer asked, her voice clear, straightforward, and filled with quiet curiosity.