TRAPPED

Jeremy and his team of fifty men arrived at the mall but were greeted with silence. It was nothing new to see a base falling in a single night, but he just had a talk with his men, just a few hrs ago and everything was fine then. He noticed that the cars were all parked inside the broken barricade around the mall. Something just happened and judging by the blood marks on the floor and the broken doors and windows, something big must have happened.

He touched the blood on the ground and it was still wet. His eyes fell on the empty shells on the floor. The smell of gunpowder was fresh in the air.

'A mutated zombie?!' Jeremy clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The mutated zombie has become very rare to appear. To his knowledge, they mostly only attacked big cities with large-scale destruction. Not this kind of small town, but occasionally a few still wander from the nearby city, going around the zone to the nearest town and wreaking havoc among the survivors, causing massive chaos in the area.

If it really was a mutated zombie then everyone must be dead. Things weren't going his way. He wanted to leave immediately for the safe base, but after a journey that long, they needed a break. His gang was tired. The cars and bikes need fuel and maintenance to avoid breaking down in the midway. And the supplies must be refilled too.

In short, Jeremy had no choice but to go inside the mall where a mutated zombie might lurk somewhere, and secure food and other supplies.

His men, who were checking at the back, came back to the front gate after fixing and starting the backup generator. The lights in and around the mall lit up once again.

"Man, you should see this..." One masked guy holding a shotgun walked towards Jeremy and said.

He took Jeremy to the back where the generator was. There lay Jace's headless body and something tore open his guts and his internal organs were all over the place. There was too much blood.

"Fucking hell!" Jeremy cursed out loudly. He bent down and examined the wounds on Jace's dead body and saw fine slices that were made with something sharp, like a blade or short sword for example. But what surprised him more was the fact that the weapon was sharp enough to slice through the armor. His eyes went up at the ceiling. Under the flickering light, he saw bloody palm marks scattered on the wall.

Jeremy frowned. Something wasn't quite right.

"Nick, tell everyone to arm up. There's an intelligent fucker that wants a playtime," He patted his subordinate on the shoulders, with an uneasy frown hanging on his face, and walked outside the back door.

"An intelligent zombie?! We should get out of here, right now, man. What the fuck are you waiting for?!" The guy called Nick spoke while shivering, his voice clearly giving out his fear.

Jeremy just glared at the shivering punk with annoyance and walked past him, "Running for a mutated zombie is possible, but running from an intelligent fucker... Haa..." He shook his head and sighed, "It's nearly impossible. And judging from the wounds on Jayce's body, our guy is a nimble zombie with blades, sharp enough to slice through armor and he might be one of those nifty crawlers."

Crawler variants are evolved versions of Speeder variants and as their name suggests, bastards are faster like a freaking cheetah. The Speeder zombie variant usually targets their prey, hunts them down, and corners them to have their meal. But Crawlers, they strike, run away, and attack again, running out your stamina and strength. Plus this one is an intelligent zombie who has no problem waiting for its prey for days and when it does so, one would run out of food and water for real.

Jeremy and his men started the process of setting up a defensive perimeter in the front hall.

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[Abandoned Mine]

The mine was just a few km away from the mall. This place can be said to be the den of regular zombies. They live in groups and there could easily be hundreds of them inside there.

Karl was running toward the mine like a shadow. There wasn't even a single noise of his footsteps and on his way, he was spraying blood on the road, the walls, and sometimes on the trees. He made sure to leave a stench of blood on his way which links directly to the mall. Once he was close enough to the mine, he equipped his bow and arrow.

On the tip of his arrows, he attached little vials filled with blood and small scraps of meat. He aimed and shot six arrows into the mine's entrance. Then he dumped the rest of the blood on the road and ran away to the vantage point, deep within the forest.

He crouched down near the bushes, took out his binoculars, and saw a hoard of zombies exiting the mines and searching everywhere, the bloody meat, for its owner. Some came out of their own accord and others were pulled or forced to get out thanks to the appetizing smell of fresh blood.

Among the mob of undead, some looked normal and some looked more deformed and feral. They were also those born from the fusion of multiple zombies and they have multiple legs and limbs. The growling increased with their numbers and they began to rush toward the source of the fresh blood. They followed the blood trail that Karl left for them and made their way to the mall. They howled and shrieked excitedly as they ran on the bloody trail.

Luckily there weren't any mutated zombies among them, which made Karl and his team's job easier.

After the zombies left their den, Karl ran into the forest and took the route to the higher land, where Tyger and the others were hiding. Things went according to plan. Now the zombie wave will attack the mall and Jeremy and his men will have no choice but to fight because they won't be able to run in the fear of getting killed by that intelligent zombie that doesn't even exist and is all made up by Karl before he left the mall with Tyger and her team.

Now, they will wait for Jeremy and his men to lower the number of the zombies and empty their ammunition and stamina. Then, when they have exhausted everything, Ange, Jenny, and Lisa will snipe the remaining men. After that Karl, Tyger, and her team will rush in, killing the remaining zombies and capturing Jeremy alive.

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Back at the mall...

Jeremy's men caught a glimpse of the oncoming zombie hoard and heard their growlings coming from not far away. Everyone armed up and readied themselves for the incoming battle.

"Dammit, fucking blood attracted them. Boss, there are a lot, many feral and fused. Let's get the fuck out of here," Nick yelled.

"No! We won't survive five days out there if we leave everything and run away. And where the fuck would we run with that Crawler fucker behind us?" Jeremy snorted at Nick, "That bastard would surely pick us up one by one. We will hold the forte, there is no other option."

"Damn it! Boss," Nick couldn't say anything more. What he feared was about to begin. The reason why Nick is a coward, in a sense, is that he has no fucking confidence in facing these deformed monsters. How did they even evolve that way? These fused deformed zombies could easily smash a grown adult's skull apart with their mere flick. Even their defense is freakishly strong. 'Why did you kill Tyger? If she was alive, things might have gone our way for once. Shit!' His eyes were looking for an escape route, 'I'm gonna dash when things get a little crazy and hopefully meet another gang. Fuck you, Jeremy. Damn, you and the undead freaks!'

"Bring out the big guns, don't hold anything back. We just need to survive tonight at any cost. Let's fuck'em up, boys," Jeremy yelled and his men yelled, giving their war cries.

He then checked his military knife with his face lit by an emotion of pure rage. 'Sorry to tell you this, Nick, but if you try to run away, I'm cutting off your balls and feed them to your motherfucking face. Fucking punks!'

"Keep the melee weapons ready and scatter out the daggers around the room. No matter where we go, we'll have a weapon at our hands reach," He repeated the usual drill and his men followed. They quickly scattered the melee weapons and knives all around the room. In the worst-case scenario, if the zombies break through, they will at least have something within their arms reach and won't die immediately like a fucking wuss.

It was really tough to be an outlaw in a world where people will always make sure that every second will be their last.

"Let's end this together," Jeremy roared and walked into the front. "We'll fucking light them up just like a Christmas tree..."

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[15 advance chapters] [No double billing. You get 1 month regardless of the date you join]

Next Chapter, Ch: 16> Zombie wave

Ch: 17> Karma

Ch: 18> Gang Takeover