Chapter 80: Surrounded and Facing a Life-or-Death Crisis

“Damn it!” Skinny Monkey, though the farthest from Du Yun, still heard her warning. He swiftly finished setting the last explosive device, looked up, and saw exactly what she had described—a massive horde of zombies. Without hesitation, he turned and sprinted back.

“Skinny Monkey, come back!” Big Zhuang shouted anxiously, as Skinny Monkey was still on the walkway and no one dared use their heavy weapons while he was there.

Only Du Yun and the Boss, with their remarkable precision, began attacking the zombies closest to Skinny Monkey, providing him cover as he retreated.

As Skinny Monkey raced back towards the group, the swarm of zombies behind him had already made it halfway across the walkway. Some of the faster, nearer ones were taken down by Du Yun and the Boss, only to be torn apart by the flood of zombies surging from behind.

Arrows were no longer enough to deal with such overwhelming numbers. Du Yun retrieved a machine gun from her storage compartment and unleashed a stream of bullets upon the charging zombies, fire blazing from the muzzle.

The relentless tide of zombies clashed with the constant hail of gunfire on the walkway. Zombies kept falling, but even more surged forward. The dense, unending wave seemed to appear from thin air—so numerous and ferocious that it felt as if this nightmare would never end, the pressure mounting unbearably.

As Du Yun watched the relentless advance, she could almost smell the iron tang of blood wafting from their bodies. The strain was immense; it felt as if, at any moment, they would break through the defenses and tear apart the last remaining survivors.

“Aaah!” Though this was no battlefield, it was even more brutal. At last, someone broke under the inhuman pressure. He tossed aside his weapon and fled in panic.

Seeing this, others—especially Dong Tiehammer and the other ordinary civilians—began to waver. The horde was simply too vast. If the Boss and the others held the rear, could they perhaps escape?

As they hesitated, the man who had fled barely more than ten meters suddenly screamed and ran back toward them. A fresh swarm of zombies was hot on his heels, these ones not soldiers but a motley assortment of the infected.

Where could they possibly run? Behind them, only three buildings had been cleared; countless others still teemed with zombies, red-eyed and waiting for prey. Even the open ground of the port was scattered with wandering undead.

It seemed all the zombies had gathered together for a grim reunion.

Du Yun watched coldly as the young man ran back and forth, on the verge of collapse, and saw the others’ resolve faltering as well. She sighed deeply, realizing that, if this continued, they would soon be surrounded and overwhelmed.

“Blow the bridge!” the Boss barked, instantly recognizing the urgency of the situation.

Their original plan had been to rig explosives on all the connecting walkways and destroy them simultaneously, preventing the explosion of one from drawing more zombies from elsewhere. But reality moved faster than their plans, and to survive, they couldn’t risk being attacked on all sides.

“Got it!” Skinny Monkey replied, his excitement rising as a horde of zombies approached the section he’d rigged. He slammed down the detonator.

A tremendous explosion echoed out. Flames shot skyward as the walkway snapped, sections crashing into the sea along with the zombies atop them. With the walkway severed, the remaining zombies on it were quickly finished off under the group’s fire, allowing everyone to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Just as Du Yun relaxed and prepared to turn her gun on the zombies advancing from the port, she noticed something troubling: the red dots on her scanner—signifying zombies—had barely diminished at the walkway’s edge, still clustered in a dense mass.

“They’re not dead!” Du Yun peered toward the walkway and saw the blue-black sea littered with floating zombies, their bodies stiff as they tried to move forward, prevented only by their inability to swim.

“Damn it, they just won’t die!” Skinny Monkey roared, spraying the water with gunfire, but there were simply too many—wiping them all out was impossible.

“They can’t climb up. Leave someone to guard here—zombies are coming from the other side!” Big Zhuang called out, noticing Skinny Monkey’s agitation.

Energy packs were precious, and with the group surrounded, it was impossible to know how many more zombies might be drawn by the explosions. If they wasted all their ammunition now, they’d have no hope of survival later.

Another volley of fire brought down a new wave of the undead drawn by the noise, but even without Du Yun’s psychic sense, it was clear from sight alone—more zombies were charging in, wave after wave without end.

Du Yun realized there would be no easy way out today. The nearest walkway was already destroyed; to recklessly move elsewhere might attract even more of the horde. Yet to stay and keep fighting here, she couldn’t be sure they would last until the zombies were all eradicated.

“Fall back to the small building!” Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her: the small building they’d cleared earlier, which had only housed two or three zombies and appeared to be some kind of secure facility, was sturdily built. If they could seize it and use it as a defensible position, taking turns to stand guard, perhaps they could hold out longer.

“Go!” The Boss had come to the same conclusion and began directing the group toward the small building.

The zombies, drawn by the noise, poured in from every direction, so the group had to guard against threats on all sides.

But their abilities varied greatly. Though the Boss, Du Yun, and the other two took responsibility for each direction, there were more than a dozen people in the group, and the rest simply weren’t as capable—gaps inevitably appeared.

Zombies repeatedly broke through the ring of fire, getting within a few meters, sometimes even closer, sending the less experienced into panicked flight. Du Yun and the others had to contain the zombies in their assigned sectors while picking off those that got through, a desperate and exhausting struggle.

It took half an hour of fighting just to reach the previously-cleared building, and by then, everyone—including Du Yun—was utterly spent.

At last, there was hope of survival. But a new challenge awaited: how to secure the building and establish a defensive perimeter to keep the zombies at bay.