The sound of hurried footsteps pulled them out of their shock. Dozens of them. Something was headed their way.
Hana turned around and saw a horde of zombies charging at them.
No one said a word. They just turned around and ran as fast as they could... through the corpse wall.
Their boots made a constant crunching sound as they ran on top of the corpse floor, but no matter how fast they ran, the footsteps kept getting closer.
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" one soldier screamed.
The chosen were faster than the ordinary folks, and so were the undead. They were bound to get devoured first. Hailey knew that and deliberately kept them back, hoping to slow down the zombies.
Then it happened again.
"Wait!" Barry shouted in vain.
The floor behind him gave collapsed. In less than a second, the man was gone. Only a sickening crunch followed, but even that was faint as they kept running. A couple of zombies also fell into the hole, but it didn’t even put a dent in their numbers.
"Dammit!" Barry cursed, but he didn’t slow down.
None of them did. The fear was fueling them. They who were trained to fight were scared out of their wits.
But it was about to get worse... much worse.
Through the dark, winding corridors, more zombies joined in. They were fast, faster than the ones who were chasing them till now.
"Fast ones!" Hana shouted, continuously casting speed buffs on the chosen.
From the shadows, three figures jumped out from cavities made in the walls. But they weren’t ordinary sprinters. Their bodies were strange. Their limbs were too long, and they ran on all fours.
"They’re not sprinters," Hailey yelled. "They are frogs!"
"What?" Arby yelled. "Frogs? I don’t remember them being this big!"
One soldier screamed as a frog tripped him with its tongue. The soldier fell to the ground, and in panic, began firing everywhere. He hit some zombies, but the armor-piercing rounds didn’t do much against them.
The bullets just went through their rotting flesh, not doing any lasting damage. Only headshots would work on them, but the soldier didn’t have the time to take aim in the dark halls.
The next second, a bunch of zombies descended on him, tearing him while he was still alive.
"Keep running!" Hailey shouted, drawing his makeshift club.
It was one issue with being chosen. All of them were given a class, prohibiting them from using weapons or gear that didn’t correspond to their class.
As a berserker, he could only use dual-handed blunt weapons. It was the same with Barry. That’s why he was carrying two Humvee doors as shields. If they could use proper weapons, then dealing with the zombies would have been easier.
No, there’s no point thinking about that.
The soldiers were getting devoured left and right. Hailey knew soon they would have to fight the undead and those frogs.
More traps triggered, but thankfully, the halls were wide, giving them space for sudden maneuvers.
Spike walls shot up from the sides, forcing the squad into a narrow path. Arby nearly lost his leg when one blade grazed him, but Hana’s healing saved him.
It felt as if they were running in circles, but the gate they had entered through was nowhere to be seen.
"Fuck it! I’ll make an exit if there isn’t one!"
Barry held his shields tight as he rammed through a wall. The wall was flimsier than he expected and tore open, throwing him outside. Others followed him, happy to be out in the open.
They didn’t have the time to stop. They weren’t out of danger yet, as the zombies were still after them, along with the frogs.
"Why aren’t they attacking the frogs!?" Hana asked, panting.
"Who the heck knows?" Arby yelled back, firing a couple of shots.
Hailey didn’t say anything, but his mind was in overdrive. Everything about the zoo was strange.
His plan to go for an all-out strike was the correct one. They had to kill this Blaze guy as soon as possible, or he’d kill everyone in the city.
That Neha... she knows nothing about this! Her foresight is useless!
Lost in his thoughts, he kept cursing everyone who got him into that situation. Only for Hana to pull him out of it.
"Look! Those zombies, they stopped!" she said, pointing behind.
Hailey turned around, and sure enough, the zombies and the frogs had all stopped.
"What is going on here?"
No one had an answer to Arby’s query. They were all equally baffled. The zombies were hungry for them seconds ago, but now didn’t show any interest in them at all?
"It doesn’t matter," Hailey said, turning around. "We need to get out of here first."
Everyone agreed, and they turned, only to find another surprise waiting for them. A wall, bigger than the ones they saw before, blocked the exit.
A chair, no, a throne, was placed between them and the wall. A throne made of... bones. A lone zombie sat on it.
From one look, they knew the zombie wasn’t like the rest. He sat there, one leg on top of the other, staring at them. Black veins pulsed across his body like roots under the skin.
Hailey knew why the zombies stopped. Their leader had instructed them to stop.
"Blaze..." he murmured.
Hailey didn’t know how the guy looked, but it had to be him. The intelligent zombie.
They understood they had fallen into his trap. No, it was more like he was toying with them.
Hana pointed behind Blaze, where more zombies appeared. They were nothing like the ones they had seen before.
One of them looked like a furless dog, showing off its teeth. Another was a massive frog whose tongue touched and coiled on the ground.
Then there were the humanoid ones.
One had four arms, standing behind the throne like a bodyguard, the other was a towering giant, made entirely of bones and muscles. Finally, the flat-creature, like a man squashed by a truck, was crawling on the wall.
Hana’s legs gave out. Despair had taken hold of her. The others weren’t much better.
Barry’s hands were trembling. Arby was clutching his head in fear. Only Hailey stood tall. No, he was frozen at his spot.
They were crushed even before the fight began.