15: Chapter 15 First Battle

Just as everyone was still digesting the shock of this "airdropped fuel depot", a palm-sized reconnaissance drone hummed its way back.

The person controlling the drone was Liu Feng, an electronic reconnaissance soldier from the Special Operations Brigade. He was twenty-four years old, wore thick-framed glasses, and looked the least like a soldier in the entire squad.

However, his drone-handling skills were exceptionally precise. He maneuvered the two micro-reconnaissance drones like eyed hummingbirds, thoroughly scanning the terrain within a two-kilometer radius in fifteen minutes.

"Brigade Commander Fang!"

Liu Feng stared at the real-time image on the tablet computer, his voice suddenly tightening:

"To the northeast, at a straight-line distance of about one kilometer, a group of targets has been discovered!"

Fang Zhiyuan strode over to his side, looking down at the screen.

The image was captured from a high-altitude overhead view——

On an open grassland behind a patch of bushes, a dense cluster of grayish-white figures had gathered.

They wandered about aimlessly, like a group of marionettes with broken strings, their knees bending in directions they shouldn't, their heads listlessly drooping to one side.

It was identical to what Su Mingyuan had described.

"Number."

Fang Zhiyuan said in a deep voice.

Liu Feng maneuvered the drone to lower its altitude, the camera slowly sweeping across the entire area.

"...Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine... forty-two."

He paused for a moment, tapped the screen twice with his finger, and the image magnified——

"Brigade Commander, take a look at this."

In the center of the image, right in the middle of that group of grayish-white zombies, there was something obviously different.

It was a full circle larger than the other zombies.

No, more than a circle.

The other zombies were about the size of a normal adult male, thin, hunchbacked, and shriveled.

As for this one——its shoulders were as broad as a door panel, its height visually estimated to exceed 3.3 meters, and its limbs disproportionately thick, with each arm as thick as a normal person's thigh.

The most eerie thing was its head.

It was nearly twice as large as a normal zombie's head, and the shape was wrong too——not round, but slightly extending backward, as if something inside the cranium was expanding, deforming the skull.

Its skin color was also different.

The other zombies were grayish-white, while it presented a dark gray-to-black hue, with dark red veins faintly visible on the surface of its skin, like a dried-up riverbed.

"What is this? A mutant?" Fang Zhiyuan frowned.

Su Mingyuan leaned over to take a look at the screen, the hairs on his back instantly standing on end.

The more than one hundred zombies he encountered last time were all about the same size; there was no such big guy.

"I didn't see this kind last time," he said honestly.

Tao Zhe also walked over, staring at the huge figure on the screen, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Interesting."

He pushed up his glasses:

"With such a big difference in size, it's either the product of different stages of infection, or the difference in individual responses to the virus."

"Whichever it is—"

He looked at Fang Zhiyuan:

"I need its corpse."

Fang Zhiyuan did not answer Tao Zhe, but instead turned to look at his own team.

"Distance 1.2 kilometers, open terrain, forty-two targets, one of which is a suspected mutant."

His tone was as bland as if he were reading training subjects:

"The first squad and second squad are responsible for clearing ordinary targets, using crossfire, and making sure to maintain distance. The third squad carries flamethrowers and is responsible for blocking potential outflanking routes."

"Sniper group—"

He looked at the two team members carrying sniper rifles:

"Keep an eye on the big one. If its behavior pattern is different from ordinary zombies, prioritize killing it."

"But pay attention—"

He emphasized his tone: "Greet the limbs and torso however you like, just don't blow its head to pieces."

"Yes!"

...

Fifteen minutes later.

The battle commenced.

The first squad and second squad opened fire simultaneously from two directions, the gunfire of automatic rifles exploding across the open wilderness like dense firecrackers.

Bullets tore through the air, precisely hitting their targets.

The reactions of the ordinary zombies were the same as what Su Mingyuan described——sluggish, mechanical, and completely devoid of fear.

They did not dodge, did not retreat, and wouldn't even change direction because of being shot.

Their chests were pierced through, yet they kept walking forward.

Their arms were broken, yet the remaining arm still reached forward.

Only when bullets hit their heads would they crash to the ground like marionettes with broken strings and completely stop moving.

"The head is the weak point!" Fang Zhiyuan ordered via walkie-talkie, "Everyone aim for the head and shoot! Save ammunition!"

The gunfire became more rhythmic.

Every gunshot precisely corresponded to the fall of a grayish-white figure.

The shooting skills of the special operations team members were extremely high. The skills honed bitterly on the training ground were displayed vividly at this moment.

Within three minutes, more than thirty ordinary zombies all fell to the ground.

But that big guy——

It moved.

From the moment the gunfire sounded, it began to move.

Unlike other zombies, it did not charge straight toward the direction of the gunfire.

Instead——it circled around.

"It's taking a detour?!"

Liu Feng stared at the drone screen, his voice suddenly rising: "Brigade Commander! That big one is outflanking the second squad's flank!"

Fang Zhiyuan's pupils shrank violently.

It can take a detour?

Zombies can take a detour?!

This meant it wasn't a pure Walker.

It had a certain degree of——thought.

"Second squad, watch your flanks! Large target approaching!"

The second squad leader's reply came over the walkie-talkie: "Received! Target visually spotted—fuck, it's so fast!"

The big guy's speed completely mismatched its body size.

With a 3.3-meter body, every step slamming into the ground carried a dull vibration, but its movement speed was terrifyingly fast—at least three to four times faster than ordinary zombies.

Bushes were directly smashed by its body, and broken branches and rotten leaves kicked up a cloud of dust behind it.

"Fire!"

The second squad's rifles concentrated fire, a rain of bullets pouring onto that huge body.

The bullets penetrated.

Su Mingyuan even saw the bullet holes through the telescope——chest, shoulders, abdomen, having taken at least twenty or thirty rounds.

But it didn't fall.

It didn't even slow down.

What oozed from those bullet holes wasn't fresh blood, but a dark, nearly solidified viscous liquid, like asphalt.

The skin around the wounds rapidly contracted and squeezed, and although it didn't completely heal, the bleeding amount was absurdly small.

"Ordinary bullets don't have much effect on it!"

The second squad leader's voice came from the walkie-talkie, carrying a hint of tension.

"Use incendiary grenades!" Fang Zhiyuan decisively ordered.

A combatant pulled the pin of the incendiary grenade and forcefully threw the cylindrical projectile out.

The orange-red flames exploded at the big guy's feet, instantly engulfing its lower body.

It finally stopped its steps.

Not because of pain—zombies had no sense of pain.

But because the flames burned through the joint at its left knee.

That thick leg snapped like a burned-out bridge pier, crashing down as the whole body lost balance and fell to one side.

But even so, it was still moving.

The body with one broken leg lay on the ground, dragging itself with its arms and the remaining leg, continuing to crawl toward the direction of the second squad.

Although the speed was slower, that relentless sense of oppression made the backs of the nearest combatants tense up.

"Another one!"

The second incendiary grenade landed on it, flames swallowing it whole.

This time, the high temperature finally began to take effect.

Its armor-like dark gray skin began to carbonize and peel off, revealing the dark red muscle tissue underneath——those muscles were also rapidly shrinking, withering, and shattering.

Two minutes later, the flames gradually extinguished.

That huge body finally lay on the ground, motionless.

But unlike last time——it didn't turn to ashes.

Fang Zhiyuan walked over to the corpse, glanced at it, and turned back to say to Tao Zhe:

"The head is still there, kept for you."