After several battles, Aiden and the group of survivors managed to reach the parking lot safely.
During their journey, there were four groups of zombies in total, numbering around 100.
“Ha... huff...”
Survivors who wielded their weapons relentlessly during such battles were catching their breaths.
Although it wasn’t a long battle, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the crazily leaping corpses consud as much energy as the previous all-out sprint.
Therefore, Aiden had them sit between the parked cars and take a break.
“...”
anwhile, Aiden walked to the east side of the parking lot.
Hiding behind the car bodies, he cautiously observed the direction of the hospital building and another parking lot behind it.
There, nurous zombies were still wandering around.
“That’s too many, isn’t it?”
Arian, who followed Aiden, remarked as such.
As she had said, the zombies scattered across the hospital grounds seed to number in the hundreds at a glance.
It was several tis more than the zombies they had already taken down.
Fortunately, the noise from the previous battle didn’t seem to reach there, not provoking them.
However, if those zombies started coming towards them, a retreat should be considered.
Dealing with a number like that with lee weapons alone was impossible.
“Yeah, we need to avoid unnecessary fights.”
So, the best option was not to attract their attention at all.
But that wasn’t as easy as saying it.
Luckily, there were many abandoned cars in the parking lot, serving as makeshift shields to so extent.
Even so, it seed that they could only explore about half of the parking lot relying on this.
“Is it not too difficult for you?”
Claire asked Aiden as he returned to the original position.
The survivors, who fought more fiercely than themselves, were looking at Aiden and Arian strangely, as if they were peculiar.
But Aiden ignored the survivors’ doubts, urged Claire:
“Let’s start.”
“Uh... okay.”
Having caught her breath to so extent, she nodded and stood up.
Then, Claire opened the hood of the nearest car and checked the engine inside.
Creak-
While doing so, a squeaky sound was a bit annoying, but it wasn’t dangerously loud.
Checking four or five cars like this.
Then Claire opened the hood of a gray sedan
“This is it. This is the engine I was looking for.”
“How’s the condition?”
“It looks fine from the outside. I can’t say for sure about the inside.”
Claire put down her weapon, took a wrench from the toolbox she brought, and said:
“I need to disassemble it. Let know when you’re ready.”
With the prospect of starting the operation, Aiden imdiately called over the other survivors.
Then, arranging the mbers like a large semicircle with Claire at the center.
Just in case, to prevent any accidental approach by zombies.
The direction of the hospital was left to Aiden and Arian.
If the zombies happened to notice, Arian should be the first to act, so Sadie was with Aiden.
Thus, the team was placed in designated positions.
Aiden nodded to Claire.
“Let’s begin.”
After Aiden’s permission, Claire started the operation.
Clicks or clunks of tal sounds were heard intermittently.
Although Claire tried to make as little noise as possible, it was inevitable that so sound would be produced.
“...”
Listening to such irregular noises, the survivors anxiously looked beyond the cars.
Claire’s operation sounds weren’t that loud.
However, in the unnaturally quiet parking lot filled only with the moans of the lifeless corpses, those sounds echoed particularly loudly.
Since there were only groans of the undead crawling on the broken asphalt, there was nothing else to mask the noise.
Therefore, it wasn’t loud enough for the zombies to hear from a distance, yet in the current eerily silent parking lot, the sound stood out vividly.
Amidst the graveyard-like setting with only the groans of corpses, the noise spread clearly.
The worries and concerns about zombies approaching again darkened the expressions of the survivors.
“Sigh...”
How much ti had passed?
Claire let out a long sigh.
Unfortunately, luck didn’t favor them by providing all the necessary parts in one go.
Claire closed the car’s hood and lightly tapped it twice.
The work was finished, but the signal that they couldn’t find the parts – the pre-arranged sign.
Survivors and Aiden’s group imdiately gathered around Claire.
“Weren’t they here?”
Joseph asked with a slightly annoyed tone.
Claire lowered her head, seemingly embarrassed.
“Yes. It looked fine on the outside, but the inside was completely rusted. I think we need to look at another car.”
“Is this really okay? Those things are slowly coming this way.”
At Joseph’s words, uttered like a sigh, Aiden turned to look in the direction he was guarding.
The southern residential area adjacent to the parking lot, which was on the opposite side of the safe zone.
There, a zombie had truly crossed the road halfway and was limping. Moreover, two other zombies were following a few ters behind it.
As Joseph had said, it wasn’t that far.
If they started the operation now, there was a high chance that they would be noticed first.
“I’ll handle that.”
So, Aiden moved imdiately.
First, he bent down and approached the car closest to the zombie.
There, he tapped the ground lightly with a crowbar, luring the zombie.
“Uuuh...”
The zombie closest to the rhythmic sound emanating from behind the abandoned car turned its gaze.
The other two didn’t react, but Aiden didn’t hurry.
He just continued making the sa sound with the sa rhythm.
Then, the zombie standing in the middle of the road slowly staggered towards the back of the car.
Quack!
At that mont, the crowbar swung from below to above, pierced through the zombie’s head from the jaw, and passed through.
Then, Aiden snapped the crowbar to the ground.
The entire body of the zombie with its head pierced through fell backward behind the car and disappeared from view in an instant.
It was as if a single zombie had fallen into a trap, unable to even make a single groan before eting its demise.
The other zombies’ reactions... were non-existent.
Even though a zombie stood just a few ters away on the other side of the road, they seed to sense nothing.
In this way, Aiden dealt with the remaining two zombies in the sa manner.
“Ha...”
“Wow...!”
Witnessing his skilled technique, Miles and Maverick couldn’t help but exclaim.
Although it hadn’t been three years since the zombies appeared, Aiden moved like an expert who had been hunting zombies for decades.
Joseph, who had been saying sothing about the three zombies behind, closed his mouth.
“Done. Where’s the next vehicle?”
Aiden, who returned as if nothing had happened, asked Claire.
Claire imdiately opened the hood of a nearby car, checking the engine’s condition.
After an hour of disassembling the second vehicle and experiencing defeat once again, Claire was now dismantling the third vehicle.
During that ti, a few zombies approached, but each ti Aiden stepped forward to silently assassinate them, concealing the noise in the parking lot.
As a result.
“...”
Claire, who was touching the engine in silence, smiled with satisfaction.
Holding only a fist-sized part with wiped-off oil stains, she finally beca sure.
And after closing the hood slowly, she tapped it three tis.
“...Looks like it’s over.”
The signal that the parts had been found.
Upon this, the survivors collectively sighed in relief.
Those who had been hiding and holding their breath in the parking lot gathered in one place.
“Is it really over?”
“Yes. This should be enough.”
Claire confidently presented the parts.
However, Aiden, who didn’t know exactly what the cylinder-shaped item was, just nodded his head.
“Now let’s go back.”
Joseph said.
Perhaps it was because they had been in tension for several hours.
Not only him but also the other survivors had fatigued expressions.
So Aiden imdiately chose to return.
There was no need to drag out the ti. They could simply retrace their steps.
As the group was about to wrap up the mission, that’s when it happened.
“Grrrr-“
A distant sound of sothing howling reached their ears.
It was much thicker and lower in resonance than the usual zombie groans.
Simultaneously, the faces of the survivors wrinkled in unison at the noise that seed to scratch at their nerves.
“This... is the sound a mutant makes, isn’t it?”
Claire spoke.
The direction was towards the hospital, but judging by the volu of the sound, it seed to co from beyond there.
The distance from the mutant was quite far.
Far enough not to worry about direct contact.
“Still, it’s fortunate that the distance is far.”
Miles said.
But Aiden drew his gun and shook his head.
“Not fortunate at all.”
“What do you an?”
“This is the howl of a Bigfoot.”
At his words, a defeatist expression appeared on the faces of the survivors.
They were well aware of the information about the mutant called Bigfoot.
A deford zombie that swelled in size by continuously consuming sothing.
But more importantly, what was crucial was that its appetite didn’t distinguish between humans and zombies.
Therefore, a Bigfoot stimulated ordinary zombies, and ordinary zombies reacted to such Bigfoot.
Just like herbivores eting a predator, sensing danger just by hearing its howl.
Because of that-
“Kiik...!”
Among the zombies, confusion was already setting in.
Those who had been staring blankly at the ground raised their heads and looked around.
Dangerous.
At the mont when that judgnt flashed through Aiden’s mind, the second howl of the Bigfoot exploded.
“They’re coming. Run!”
Aiden shouted.
Simultaneously.
“Kiaaaa!”
“Woaaagh!”
Hundreds of zombies crowded in the hospital parking lot dispersed left and right.
It was like lifting a flat rock, and the swarm of cockroaches hidden beneath it scattered in all directions.
The tidal wave of black corpses overwheld the group.
“Crazy...!”
Joseph exclaid in horror, swearing under his breath.
Survivors who had been hiding behind the cars quickly stood up.
At the sa ti, in a hurry, they grabbed the guns they had strapped to their backs.
In this way, fearing the gunshots might attract the zombies, wasn’t a concern.
The surroundings were already filled with the screams of the corpses stimulated by the Bigfoot.
anwhile, Aiden’s gaze found Sadie.
Unbeknownst to him, Arian had already picked up Sadie and was looking at Aiden.
As if entrusting her to him.
Upon this, Aiden shouted the only destination they should head towards.
“To the church!”
The survivors and Aiden’s group ran down the road.
The distance to the church was barely 100 ters.
However, the corpses that had already covered half of the parking lot where Aiden’s group had been were finally in their sight.
“Kieeee!”
In the eyes of those who were chased by predators, clear madness shone.
In an instant, zombies that had turned from prey to predators rushed towards the group.
“They’re coming!”
Joseph scread as he witnessed the scene.
However, the distance between the group and the zombie horde quickly narrowed.
An ordinary person couldn’t escape the pursuit of zombies.
Because their rotten flesh didn’t care about muscles tearing.
It was because zombies could achieve a speed much faster than humans.
Because of that, before reaching half of the road leading to the church, the distance with the approaching zombies, which was tens of ters away, was reduced to 10 ters.
And soon, it narrowed down to just 5 ters.
“Kiiii!”
“Grrrrrr!”
Then, the roars emitted by the creatures seed to grow louder, as if they were echoing in the ears of the survivors.
A chill ran down the survivors’ spines.
They couldn’t afford to be caught like this.
Soone thought so.
Bang!
The dry sound of a gunshot ripped through the monstrous roars.
It was Aiden.
With a gun in one hand and a crowbar in the other, he was blowing off the heads of the zombies that were chasing him just up to the back.
“Keep going!”
At his command, the survivors gritted their teeth and ran.
Now, there was only about 20 ters left to reach the church.
“Kraaa-“
Aiden swung the crowbar toward the zombie that had approached.
With a crunching sound, the zombie, whose skull had been crushed, collapsed.
But before the creature fell, another zombie pushed its body aside.
“Tsk...!”
Even if they reached the church, there was no room to block the entrance.
So Aiden put away his gun and took out a grenade from his pocket.
Without hesitation, he pulled the pin with his teeth and threw it over the head of the approaching zombie.
Thunk!
The grenade hit the head of a zombie and fell to the ground.
And then-
Boooom!
A massive explosion engulfed the center of the zombie horde.
Fragnted pieces of corpses rained down from the sky, and a large hole appeared in the swarm that filled the road.
“We’ve arrived!”
Arian, who was at the forefront, entered the church.
Upon this, Aiden swung the crowbar at one more zombie and shouted.
“Get into the chapel! Block the entrance!”
Understanding Aiden’s intention, Arian quickly passed through the short corridor and headed to the chapel.
Arian, who had set Sadie down, imdiately brought long pews to block the door.
anwhile, the survivors rushed into the building.
Aiden, knocking down another zombie, followed their footsteps on the floor of the church.
“Grrrrrr!”
The corridor from the entrance to the chapel was only 3 ters wide and about 8 ters long.
Zombies, numbering dozens, began to crowd into the narrow corridor.
“Hurry!”
At that mont, a voice from behind Aiden reached him.
The thick wooden door, engraved with a cross, was half-closed.
Aiden imdiately jumped inside.
Clang!
Almost simultaneously, the door closed.
The long pews imdiately blocked the door, and the survivors supported it with their bodies.
Thud! Thump!
The wails of nurous bodies shook the door.
Zombies pounded on it as if trying to break it, and the glowing of the zombies scratching its surface vividly conveyed their aggression.
But thanks to the narrow corridor, there was a limit to the number of zombies that could stick to the door.
Thanks to this, the thick wooden door narrowly withstood the montum of the zombies.
“Now what do we do?”
While the zombies were frenzied in front of the door, Claire asked.
They could only hold on like this.
The door wouldn’t last long, and in the anti, they had to find a way to get past these creatures.
Upon this, Aiden looked towards the front of the chapel.
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