System Of The Undead

Chapter 309: A Horseman...

The explosion rocked the area and everyone suspected that the forest fire must have caught something that contained either gas or explosives for such a thing to happen.

The noise drew all the zombies nearby to it, which was located deep in the middle of the forest fire meaning the zombies killed themselves, walking right into it.

The horde of evolved zombies paled in number to an actual horde but this didn’t mean their threat was to be overlooked.

Everyone used this opportunity to slip past the defensive lines as the horsemen were nowhere to be found, they couldn’t be seen as their formation was nonexistent.

Whatever caused this explosion was enough to disrupt their formation.

Or did it have to do with the distracted look on the first horseman that Rachel encountered?

It lost interest in her a second before the explosion rocked the area, which was strange.

Rachel was lucky it happened when it did because she was about to be killed.

She was alone, secluded from the rest of them but they had to regroup and fast.

"What the hell was that!?" Rachel thought to herself, there was no telling what would happen.

She needed to return to the camp, she knew that everyone had this same train of thought.

She ran and ran but to her surprise, the formation that supposedly kept them confined was nowhere to be seen.

She could catch her breath, the dense forest came to an end as she finally saw a path that she had no idea where to go from.

The road was there but it was littered with vehicles, it was like a barricade of some sort that drew a line to keep the dead and the sign on the window smeared in blood also warned to keep humans away.

Rachel realized she wasn’t alone as Corey and his men were some distance away and the moment their eyes met, her blood ran cold.

She wasn’t scared of Corey but she knew he was bad news, he was a man who had a similar philosophy to Sam except he was driven by the thing between his legs, unlike Sam who never sexually looked at her despite seeing her in multiple compromising positions.

But she knew that Corey had no problems forcing his way on her should he see it fit.

"Well, well. Would you look at that!?" Corey called out to Rachel, he was glad that she was alive as it would be such a waste for such a beauty to end up as zombie food but looking around, he saw that Dimitris and Glenn were nowhere to be seen.

"The others have turned to zombie food?" Corey mocked and Rachel’s fist balled in a fist.

She had nothing to say but even she knew that sticking close to them was her best chance at survival.

Corey knew that they couldn’t return to their vehicles, if these zombies were capable of thought then there was no way they wouldn’t be lurking around there.

"It looks like we didn’t need to dirty our hands to get rid of these fools," Corey exclaimed as he kept walking towards Rachel.

Rachel didn’t know if she was out of ammunition or not but either way, she was going to put a stop to this.

She pointed her gun right at Corey but the look on his face showed that he called her bluff.

If she killed Corey, she would be sentencing herself to death in this situation because if she didn’t get executed by his men then she would no doubt be dinner for the undead.

The explosion managed to throw them into disarray but if they heard a gunshot in the opposite direction, they would be right back to square one.

Rachel sighed as she lowered her gun in defeat but Corey slapped her right across the face the moment she did.

"Don’t do that ever again or I will fucking kill you!" Corey threatened her, he had to put her in line.

He had to break her so she wouldn’t defy him so openly and with Glenn and Dimitris presumably dead, it wasn’t a far stretch to say she was at Corey’s mercy.

-

Glenn and Dimitris managed to leave the congested area of the undead, they could finally catch their breath.

The smell of the undead was something that they had forgotten, they forgot how bad they smelled and more so, how terrifying a horde could be.

It didn’t matter how skilled you were, their sheer numbers would overwhelm you and even if you ran as fast as you could, unlike them, humans didn’t have unlimited stamina.

However, they had the advantage of decay as the zombies had been dead for quite some time so their flesh was barely hanging on their bones.

Even if they became skeletons, they would still wander but they all had an expiration date as they wouldn’t be able to walk forever depending on the level of decay experienced by them.

"That was a close call! I thought you were dead!" Glenn exclaimed, catching his breath as he realized that things could be worse but seeing Dimitris just told him that everything would be alright.

That was the level of trust he had in him because Dimitris could handle almost any situation.

He also noted that Dimitris looked scared of the zombies which wasn’t right, he already encountered countless zombies so why did a few evolved zombies rattle him the way they did?

"We need to leave this place!" Dimitris warned, he was looking over his shoulder constantly like someone was following him but he realized that Rachel was nowhere to be seen.

"We need to find Rachel!" Glenn exclaimed but Dimitris was a man that used common sense.

He didn’t believe in hope and knew that if Rachel was separated from them, the chances of her surviving were exponentially low.

"She’s dead," Dimitris said with certainty, one would think he witnessed her death himself.

"What do you mean she’s dead, did you see her die?" Glenn fired back.

"Look around you, Glenn! There is nothing left, do you think you would have survived if I didn’t come along!?" Dimitris snapped him back to reality.

"The idea of zombie guts, she must have used that strategy too!" Glenn remained hopeful.

"It only works if the zombies do not know of your presence already and something tells me she was firing her gun," Dimitris said and Glenn’s silence gave him his answer.

"I thought so too, I want her to be alive too... I do but there is only so much we can do," Dimitris said, they weren’t even talking about Brayden and the children he had with him.

That was no longer their concern, they did the best they could and they weren’t going to sacrifice themselves to ensure that they lived another day.

They were displaced and with what Corey did, it was only a matter of time before they died.

Dimitris heard something in the distance and placed a finger across his lips to shut Glenn up.

Before gesturing for him to duck, both men did just that as they heard footsteps approaching them but this wasn’t the step of the undead.

Rather than the dead; this must have been someone who got separated from the rest of their group as well.

Dimitris didn’t know why but there was something off about the person and he was right, they had a wound at the side of their neck with blood spurting out of it like a fountain.

It took a second or two before zombies were on him, finishing what they had started as they ripped him to shreds.

"We need to move," Dimitris muttered and they did just that, the men moved quietly and left the area.

They could have a proper conversation once they were out of danger but it was beginning to look like the worst was over as they headed in a different direction from where Corey and co currently were.

-

Brayden and the rest of them found solace, they heard the explosion and the kids all ducked down with his men turning their heads in every direction to make sure that they left no area unchecked.

"W-What the fuck was that!?" One of his men shouted but Brayden was quick to tell him to keep quiet, they didn’t know who or what was around them nor could they risk it.

They had time to rest and they needed all the rest they needed right now before continuing, they had kids with them and their bodies could only do so much.

They needed to keep moving forward but Brayden also knew the importance of rest as they combed through the area, they saw something that stunned them.

They couldn’t believe what they had seen, there were over a dozen zombies dead on the ground and this included one of the horsemen.

It had its head ripped apart but what could be responsible for such a thing?