Xiao Ke settled into the passenger seat of the armored truck, letting Duan Canglong take the wheel. In the back, a mountain of a man named Luo Hou manned the mounted machine gun. Xiao had picked him for his size, figuring he was the right guy to handle the heavy firepower.
The wilderness was a mess of ruts and potholes, and Duan Canglong drove like he was trying to shake the truck apart. The vehicle bucked and lurched violently.
Xiao Ke closed his eyes, his body swaying with the motion, effortlessly keeping his balance. The rough ride didn't bother him; it was a chance to grab a few moments of rest, to tune his body for the fight he knew was coming.
Back in the gunner's seat, Luo Hou wasn't having as easy a time. The big man was turning a little green from the relentless jostling. If Captain Xiao hadn't been so calm, Luo Hou would have been cursing Canglong out.
Suddenly, the lead truck—Qin Bing's—screeched to a halt. Duan Canglong slammed on the brakes, and the rest of the small convoy, a few trucks and transport vehicles, followed suit.
Soldiers piled out, their movements sharp and practiced. The gunners, including Luo Hou, swiveled their heavy machine guns, scanning the desolate landscape.
Xiao Ke was already out, landing lightly on the cracked earth. He and the other squad leaders—the Decurions—made their way to the front where Qin Bing stood.
She was out of her vehicle, staring into the distance. About five hundred yards away, two figures shambled over a fresh corpse. From the tattered remains of the uniform, it was one of theirs—a scout from the Fifth Combat Squad, sent ahead to recon. He'd been taken down by the two zombies now feasting on his body.
"Wuaah!"
The zombies finally noticed the convoy. One was a lumbering Level 2 Jiangshi, the other a faster Level 3 Assaulter. They had a flicker of cunning but were mostly driven by instinct. The sight of fresh prey sent them into a frenzy. With guttural howls, they broke into a charge.
Luo Hou and the other gunners swung their barrels around, ready to open up. The infantrymen raised their standard-issue "Hornet" assault rifles, sights trained on the approaching targets.
But Qin Bing raised a hand, her voice cutting through the tension. "Hold your fire," she commanded Duan Canglong and the gunners. "Machine gun ammo is low. Don't waste it."
She turned to the rest of the soldiers. "You too. Hold off. The Hornet is most effective at two hundred meters. Remember your training."
Finally, she addressed Xiao Ke and the other Decurions. "You see that Assaulter in the lead? It's a Level 3. Strong as a man, but fast as a cheetah. One bite, and without the anti-serum, you're dead. And as luck would have it, we're fresh out of serum. So be smart, be careful. Any injury is a death sentence."
The two zombies charged together, but the Level 3 Assaulter quickly outpaced the slower, stronger Jiangshi.
As Qin Bing spoke, the Assaulter closed the distance, now just two hundred yards out. The soldiers held their positions, weapons tight in their grips, eyes locked on the creature as it devoured the ground between them.
Qin Bing saw the tension on the faces of her squad leaders. She stepped back, gesturing toward the zombie. "This one is yours," she said to the four Decurions. "A little field test. You'll take it down from right where you stand. Sidearms only."
The Assaulter was now only a hundred yards away, its arms flailing, a terrifying silhouette of hunger and rage.
The other three Decurions paled, fumbling for their pistols.
Xiao Ke, however, remained unnervingly calm. He'd tangled with the dead before, back when he was a refugee. He'd even outsmarted and killed an Assaulter just like this one in the forest, right before they'd branded him a deserter. This wasn't new to him.
His movements were fluid and economical. He drew his Thunder pistol, flicked off the safety, his eyes never leaving the target.
Beside him, the other three were already firing in a panic, their shots wild. Bang, bang, bang! The Thunder's effective range was fifty meters; at this distance, they were just wasting lead. A couple of stray rounds struck the zombie's torso, making it stumble for a second before it resumed its relentless charge. Hits to the body meant nothing. It was the head or nothing.
Qin Bing's voice was sharp with frustration as she watched the three men empty their magazines. "What are you doing? Firing so early? Control your fear! Fifty meters is your kill zone. And never, ever empty your clip. Always save the last bullet."
At the time, Xiao Ke and the others thought she meant to save it for another zombie. They would later learn the grim truth: the last bullet was for yourself. A zombie's bite was a fate worse than death, a slow, agonizing descent into being torn apart. A quick end was a mercy.
As the three Decurions frantically tried to reload, the Assaulter crossed the fifty-meter line. Its face, a mask of green, rotting flesh, was now horribly clear. The air grew thick with dread.
Then, Xiao Ke moved. He raised his pistol in a single, smooth motion.
Bang.
One shot. The bullet punched a hole right between the zombie's eyes. It snapped backward and crumpled to the ground.
Just as it fell, another volley of shots erupted—bang, bang, bang—slamming into the now corpse.
Xiao Ke and Qin Bing turned to see the other three Decurions, guns still smoking, faces flushed with embarrassment. They had finished reloading just as the zombie closed in and opened fire blindly, a half-second too late.
"Are you three serious?" Qin Bing snapped. "You look like a bunch of rookies! Conserve your damn ammo. When you're out of bullets, all you've got left is a knife and a prayer."
Without another word, she raised her own pistol, aimed, and fired. A hundred yards away, the Level 2 Jiangshi dropped, a clean kill.
If Xiao Ke's shot had been impressive, Qin Bing's was legendary. A casual, no-look shot that perfectly dispatched a distant target. The soldiers stared, their respect for her deepening into awe. Xiao Ke felt it too. This woman was on another level.
"Dig a hole," Qin Bing ordered. "Bury our man and these things. And pull the brain cores before you cover them up. Then we move out. We need to find the rest of the Fifth Squad and clear any other stragglers in the area."
A few soldiers immediately got to work, their movements practiced. They quickly extracted two small, crystal-like cores from the zombies' skulls. These were proof of their kills, currency for military honors. Superiors could tell the zombie's level from the core's size and color. Since Xiao Ke had landed the killing blow on the Assaulter, he was credited with the primary kill—a mark that would be crucial for his advancement.
Once the bodies were buried, Qin Bing gathered the four Decurions. "Alright, listen up. Each of you will take your squad and sweep a different sector. Hunt down any zombies you find. You're cleared to engage anything up to a Level 5. If you see something higher, you run. Bullets won't stop them."
"Yes, ma'am!" they all responded.
But Xiao Ke hesitated. "Commander, if we take all the troops, you'll be left without a guard."
"Worry about your own asses, not me," she said, her tone flat. "I'm pushing forward to find the rest of the Fifth Squad. Someone has to bring them home. We rendezvous back here in three hours."
"Yes, ma'am!"
With that, Qin Bing climbed into a truck and drove off alone into the wasteland.
Xiao Ke returned to his squad. Duan Canglong, Luo Hou, and the others crowded around him. "What's the plan, Captain?"
"Simple," Xiao Ke said. "We're on our own. We pick a direction, we patrol, and we kill any zombies we find."
Duan Canglong cracked a wide grin. "Sounds easy enough. Let's roll."
"Yeah," Luo Hou boomed from the truck. "Let's hope we find a whole mess of 'em. I'm ready to rack up some kills with this machine gun."
On squad missions, merits were split evenly, so there was no jealousy. The men just laughed. "It's all on you then, Luo Hou!"
The squads split up, heading off in different directions. Xiao Ke's unit, the First Squad, drove southwest.
It didn't take long to find more targets: a small group of walkers, the most common and least dangerous type of zombie. They were slow, about as strong as a normal person, but their bite was just as deadly. Without the anti-serum, one mistake was all it took.
They proceeded with caution. Even if they had the serum, it was no guarantee. It was useless against anything Level 5 or higher.
The soldiers picked off the walkers from a safe distance with their Hornets. It was almost too easy. They collected the cores, buried the bodies, and moved on.
After an hour, they had taken down over a dozen low-level zombies. The men were getting cocky.
"Ha! I used to dread this stuff," Duan Canglong laughed. "But bagging zombies for merit? This ain't so bad."
Xiao Ke saw the lax attitude spreading through his men. He was about to tell them to stay sharp, that they hadn't seen anything truly dangerous yet, when Duan Canglong suddenly hit the brakes.
"Captain, listen," he said, his ear cocked. "Do you hear that? Sounds like someone yelling for help."
Xiao Ke and Luo Hou went quiet. Faintly, they could hear it too. Luo Hou popped his head through the gunner's hatch. "It's coming from over there," he said, pointing toward a wide expanse of waist-high silvergrass.
"Could it be one of our scouts?" Duan Canglong asked.
"Let's find out," Xiao Ke ordered. "Go."
The armored truck plowed through the tall grass, the transport vehicle close behind, heading toward the desperate cries.
They found him a few minutes later. A civilian, a wanderer by the looks of him, lying in a rapidly expanding pool of his own blood. His left leg was gone, completely torn off at the hip. He was in shock, his voice a weak, repetitive croak. "Help... me..."
Xiao Ke approached cautiously, rifle ready. "An animal didn't attack him," he said, studying the gruesome wound. "What kind of predator is out here?"
"Never heard of any," one of the soldiers said. "Maybe a tiger?"
Xiao Ke shook his head. "No tiger does this. The wound is too clean, as if it were ripped off in a single bite. And the leg is missing, probably eaten. But why would it attack him and then just leave him here to bleed out?"
Luo Hou's voice was a shaky whisper. "I know what did this. It's a Level 5. A Hellhound." He was trembling. "It didn't kill him because it's using him as bait. It wants his screams to draw more of us in. It's hunting for a bigger meal."
A cold dread settled over the squad.
"What are you talking about, Luo Hou? Stop trying to spook everyone," Xiao Ke snapped, though he felt a knot tighten in his own stomach.
"No, Captain, I'm serious!" Luo Hou stammered, his eyes wide with terror. "Look! Over there!"
Everyone turned to where he was pointing. And then they saw it. Rising from the tall grass was a creature the size of a lion. It had the powerful build of a great cat, but sprouting from its shoulders were three canine heads, each one snarling, baring rows of needle-like teeth. A thick, green venom dripped from their jaws.
Duan Canglong sucked in a sharp breath. "A Hellhound. A goddamn Level 5."