Bad doggy

They soon left the crowd behind, reached an empty lot where the group took a small break. Each time they passed a large group of zombies, they would always check the vehicles afterward. They weren't build to continuously suffer the impacts of zombies, or continuously run over bodies and high speed. Fortunately, they only had to take care of a flat tire for the freezer truck, and Liushi was able to see some of the other paranormals in action.

Qingping jumped out of the freezer truck with surprising power, landing several meters away in the middle of the zombies. She spun around like a dancer, knives in her hands, and sliced the necks of the ones closest to her. Before the other zombies could reach her, she had already jumped back to her starting position.

"Qingping has improved leg muscles" explained Zhuying when she saw her brother's surprised face. "It's mostly her claf muscles that have evolved, giving her a great bouncing ability."

Then that Liushi witnessed the paranormal ability of Zhang Hai as he went to take care of the busted tire. Said man pulled a new tire from the truck and rolled his arms. He went to the flat tire, rubbed his hands and proceeded to change the tire at a fast speed. Without any tools, using only his hands.

"How is it, bro? Not bad, right? My fingers have mutated, giving them incredible power and agility. All muscles in these small things" said Zhang Hai with a proud face.

Liushi was surprised. He excepted something different, a bit more on the cool side. Not something that mundane. But it was still impressive, and didn't really know what to say.

"Excuse-me, what did you do before?"

"I was a mechanic! Hahaha!"

It wasn't really a combat oriented ability, and while he was still stronger than ordinary humans, he was the weakest of the 4 paranormals. Fortunately, he was far from being useless. His mutation combined with his professional skills made him a valued member for any survivor group. Car modifications and repairs were his responsibility.

Still, his subpar ability combined with his light and funny character made it hard for others to respect him. Especially for someone like Yang Qingping. She despised him and sometimes vented her anger and frustrations on him.

Soon, they resumed their trip to Satellite Town. Zombies were still attracted to the engines noise, but Zhuying told him that there number was a little less than the first time they passed. Suddenly, they heard a deep roar not far from their position. She sat up straight, suddenly very alert, and so were the rest of the people in the convoy.

[Energy core detected]

As soon as he heard the notification, Liushi pushed the switch to deploy the minigun. Outside, a big black shadow blasted through the ranks of zombies from the side, sending them flying, and closing onto the group of vehicle fast. Bursting through the last line of zombies, the black blur revealed itself to be a ferocious looking mutant dog.

"That size" said Zhuying as her pupils shrank and her complexion whitened.

The mutant dog didn't stop in its charge and attacked the rear of the convoy. The driver of the last car stepped on the brakes hard while swerving away from the beast's path. Behind the freezer truck, the man in charge of the machine gun had managed to point the gun in the general direction of the beast and released a burst of fire. The mutant dog mostly ignored it and crashed into the vehicle.

Trying to protect its eyes saved the crew of the vehicle from a clean hit. The SUV swerved away on 2 wheels for a bit, its body wrinkled, but the rest of it still operational. The people inside were certainly rattled, but noone was injured. The mutant dog took a sharp turn and went after the freezer truck.

BANG!

The beast crashed into the truck with full force, disrupting its direction and sending it into a flowerbed. The people in the SUVs were now busy fending of zombies, and couldn't provide assistance to the rest of the group. But they didn't need to.

When the mutant beast was revealed, Liushi stepped on the gas, and a second later pressed the emergency release switch for the trailer. The trailer limited the Doomtrooper manoeuvrability, and blocked the line of fire for the minigun. It had given the trailer some momentum to avoid having the freezer truck crash into it.

"Zhuying, use your console to lock onto the mutant dog and open fire. The interface is sufficiently simple and intuitive."

"O-okay!"

VRRROOOOAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!

Liushi had turned around and rushed toward the beast. The roar of the engine surprised everyone, and the speed at which the heavy vehicle reached them made them doubt their eyes. The mutant dog was concentrating on the freezer truck, and didn't have the time to recognise the danger the oncoming vehicle represented.

BRRRRT!!!

Several high calibre bullets passed through the beast's neck and head, ripping them appart. Its spine and skull were torn to pieces, splattering its brain around. The headless beast continued to advance a few steps before falling to the side, its body spasming. While the members of the survivor group were stunned by the sudden demise of the beast, Liushi was still quite alert, and used his car to run over the surrounding zombies. That brough the other out of their stuppor, and they cleaned the area of zombies. Liushi also reconnected the double trailer to his armored car.

"Bro! Thatwas awesome!" shouted Zhang Hai once the area was deemed secure enough. "You got him with the first shot!"

"He's right brother. Your targeting system is excellent!" gushed Zhuying. "You know, this kill is yours, brother" she added, calming down. "The mutant core and the meat are yours."

Hearing this, Qingping winced, and internally scowled furiously. Zhuying had a strong ability, and it was one of the reasons she followed her, because she was powerful. And yet, her brother basically soloed a mutant beast with his equipment in a record time. Spoils were distributed according to the contributions. Liushi, the non-paranormal, earned a whole mutant beast, bare the destroyed head.

While Zhang Hai checked the vehicles, the other rendered the beast for Liushi under Zhuying's orders. They were deft and quick, clearly used to it, though Liushi wished he had his own tools available. He quickly stored the core in his car, and the rest of the body, once cut appart, was fastened on top of the double trailer. He intended to sell it at the military camp.

Sattelite Town gave an oppressive feeling, with muzzles and rows of tanks visible beyond the barricade. It was surrounded by zombies corpses, some fresh ones and some old ones, some had been repeatedly crushed under the wheels of vehicles and become one with the ground. The inhabitants of the camp didn't try to clean the surrounding, and Liushi was sure it would become a health hazard before long. The soldiers on duty were fully armed and stared at the approaching vehicle frostily.

"As long as we have what they want or need, they won't treat us badly" Zhuying said after seeing his darkening expression.

She opened the window, stretched her hand out and let an electric spark leap between her fingers. The soldiers quickly moved the barricade to one side and allowed them to move forward. Liushi was surprised at the method of identification.

As they passed, the soldiers looked at the bleeding pieces of mutant beasts on top of the trailer with awe and envy. So did the other inhabitant of the town as they advanced in the narrow streets. They were also terrified by the corpse of the beast and the visible damage on the freezer truck and the armed SUV. It reminded them of the horror that existed beyond the walls of the camp.

"The headquaters are located over there" the sister said. "It used to be a school."

Liushi winced. Ever since he had witnessed the death of a mother and her baby at the start of the outbreak, he had tried to not think about children. That was made easier by the fact that he never had to travel near a school on his way to be reunited with his sister. So he didn't come across many underaged zombies. Also, Xiaotian was driving most of the time so he didn't see most of the zombies and corpses she had to run over. The idea of going into a former school didn't please him.

The student dormitories were now used by the soldiers, classrooms and offices were for stocking supplies and exchange goods with survivors. The bulletin board, used in the past for school notices, was turned into a request board with lists of what the military needed, such as basic medecines and batteries. Bullets were the most expensive items to trade. A mutant beast core could be exchanged for a ton of mutant meat or something equivalent.

"100 quilts and coats? Looks like they need a lot of basic items for the refugees."

"Yeah. Come on! I want to get my new weapon soon!"

"Mmh. I hope they have some interesting things for me as well."