System Of The Undead

Chapter 308: Something Lurks...

There was something wrong with this, Dimitris knew that they had to leave but where was Rachel? He knew that Glenn wouldn’t leave without Rachel.

Dimitris knew that if they wanted to survive, they had to leave now or there would be no chances to escape.

Dimitris was caught in a dilemma but luckily, his quick thinking was what saved Glenn’s life there was no way of knowing where Rachel was but one thing was certain.

They had a chance as long as the horsemen remained scattered but once they gathered, even Sam wouldn’t be able to survive them.

"We need to go," Dimitris urged him and Glenn got up to his feet as they began to make their way.

Glenn managed to grab a weapon before he hurried away but the dread he felt at the pit of his stomach was something he hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

They managed to blend in with the zombies but the thing about this was that they had to move at the zombies’ pace.

There was no way the evolved ones would notice their abnormal behaviour.

It was no secret that the zombies were learning and this included humanity’s strategy even though it would take a couple of hundred years to be on the same wavelength as the living.

Everything they knew was through Chronos due to Chronos being here before the apocalypse even began, there was a reason Schneider didn’t turn into a rabid corpse despite being bitten.

Dimitris and Glenn walked side by side, watching the zombies feed on not only the children but the women that they had brought along with them.

They couldn’t leave them back at the camp with the raging flames or they would be suffocated by the smoke so Brayden had to make a choice.

He knew that it would be impossible to save them all but there had to be sacrifices otherwise everything would be for naught.

Brayden wasn’t a child and after losing Andre, something in him changed as he knew he couldn’t save everyone.

Andre died to protect them but if he died, he knew that it would doom everyone else but he also couldn’t allow others to die for his sake.

That responsibility weighed on him but he understood that as long as even one person was alive, Brayden would consider that a success.

Dimitris and Glenn both kept their mouths shut, they didn’t know how evolved these zombies were but they couldn’t risk it whatsoever.

Nothing was stopping them from breaking through, if they could do this then they would be able to warn the community of this threat even though they hadn’t encountered a single zombie near there in over a year.

This evolution was unprecedented because they were actively riding horses but these were humans that were compatible with the fragment before death.

The horsemen, that is but Dimitris didn’t know this and needed to get out of here.

-

Brayden and his people managed to escape, the fire was spreading at an astronomical rate but he knew that the zombies would be moving away from the flames so the only choice they had was to go in the direction of the burning forest.

If they ran fast enough, they should be able to go around it even though they would most likely suffocate before doing so, the chances of that happening were high.

Brayden had no choice and unfortunately for them, the zombies were running after them like ferocious beasts.

Like they had a preferred appetite for children but Brayden and his men were more than enough to ward them off, combating and shooting them down.

The closer they got to the flames, the fewer zombies they encountered.

Brayden instructed everyone to wrap a piece of cloth around their nose and they did that, trying to move past the forest.

Brayden underestimated the size of the forest fire, it had already surrounded their camp so they couldn’t even return if they wanted to.

He quickly made a choice and a decision that could either make or break them, that was his responsibility as their leader.

They all looked up to him and Brayden decided to run west, they had to get out of range of the flames but still being close enough to keep the zombies away.

But one thing was certain, if they made contact with the horseman, they would all be killed without a doubt.

"I won’t let anyone die! I won’t let Andre’s sacrifice be in vain!" Brayden muttered to himself.

This was the resolve driving him and he managed to find shelter somewhere by following the path that Glenn had seen previously when coming here but opted to go by the path he was certain of.

The fire was catching up and the falling tree branches nearly landed right on them, missing them by inches but not everyone came out unscathed as a scream followed from behind.

A man had caught fire and his screams only acted as a beacon for the less intelligent zombies that were drawn by anything that made a sound regardless of where it was.

The zombies swarmed them, the situation was looking hopeless as they were almost out of ammunition but Brayden knew giving up would mean everything ended.

There were some zombies, covered in fire, walking towards them but Brayden knew they couldn’t use their guns.

If they did, they would only draw more of them but not only that, they had to conserve their ammunition.

This meant that they had to use melee combat but not everyone was skilled in this regard, this meant that they had to act as a shield against the undead.

The kids were asked to stand behind them but the women joined in the fight as they tried their best to support these men as best as they could.

But they were eventually surrounded by the zombies even though they tried their best to survive, Brayden lost even more people as what they could all do was limited.

However, the worst was yet to happen because one of the horsemen heard the scream.

-

Corey managed to make it out of the encirclement, it was every man for themselves and the fact that Dimitris and Glenn could potentially be dead was music to his ears as they were people that gave him the most trouble within the community.

This was welcomed news and he didn’t try to save anyone, they all had to keep up with him or be left behind, they had more than enough to dispose of the zombies after them.

Corey was lucky not to encounter a horseman but this could be both a blessing and a curse.

He was done with his task here, there was no need to do anything further because the zombies would take care of them but he had also taken the opportunity to burn down their home so they had no place to return to even if they did manage to survive.

No food, no pills, nothing. They had to start from scratch and the chances of them finding a place that hadn’t been raided were exponentially low so resources were limited.

If they were stupid enough to come to the community, they could just gun them down from the walls and turn them into walker food.

There was nothing to be done here, Corey needed to return to his vehicle so he could get the fuck out of there.

Even if it was just him, he was content, he was that selfish but he wished that this could have gone a lot smoother.

He used this approach to reduce the potential casualties only to incur more than he initially would have if he used his initial approach.

That would have been the quickest way as they would have left the area long before these zombies came here but they wouldn’t have the knowledge they possessed now.

At least Dimitris that was as Corey was oblivious to the main threats of these zombies and that was the horsemen.

-

Rachel stood right in front of a spear-wielding zombie and her body froze, she didn’t know what to do as it stared right at her, this zombie didn’t look as decayed as the others despite being dead for quite some time. It must have been decaying at a slower pace than the rest of the zombies.

Rachel quickly snapped out of it and raised her gun in its direction, letting loose multiple shots aimed at its head but with a swipe of its spear, the bullets were swiped out of the air even though a few pierced its head, they all missed its brain.

Rachel missed her single chance at catching it off guard and now her fate was decided.

She was going to die but there was an explosion in the distance that shook the earth forcing a tree to fall right on the horseman.

This was such a coincidence but she wasn’t going to question what the universe had in store for her and ran in the opposite direction but the look on the horseman’s face was distracted.

Like it was no longer interested in her but rather it had sensed something that caught its attention.