The small convoy continued their advance to the south.
The asphalt thinned as the city’s view faded behind them. Pavement turned rough, patched by old cracks from weeds that refused to die.
On both sides, the plain opened wide and exposed, quiet in the way of a dead man’s land.
Grass sprouted in uneven spots, pale and young against the washed darkish soil.
Here and there, trees stood out like burnt matches. Their trunks were gray and dry. Their branches stripped bare of any leaf by the winds that shaved them clean.
Barely any birds sat on them. The insects making their way in and out of them.
Only the occasional husk of a shrub clung to the ground, bent lower than regularly.
To Hans’s right, the land rose into a line of low mountains. A defense stretched from north to south, as if it protected whatever lay behind.
Or did it protect Grefort from whatever was behind?
Hans was unsure. He only knew that it led to the capital, coupled with a sneaky diversion road used by truckers.
Farther on the left, another range sat distant and hazy. It was no different from a wall drawn on the horizon.
Big Rhino rolled ahead. Its tracks left shallow marks on the road edges whenever it drifted.
The armored SUV followed at a safe distance, not wanting to be crushed together with the cars under its wheels.
Hans kept one hand near the Radar, eyes flicking between the open land and the blinking cluster of red dots.
They neared.
But the longer the convoy moved, the more the silence drowned his ears.
It was an unsettling kind of silence, one where he would expect to experience something terrifying in the next moment.
"Commander, Big Rhino here," the Vanguard dialed in. "Target on sight. That’s a horde right there."
"Fire at will," Hans ordered. "Do what you do best."
"Understood, Commander," Big Rhino laughed. "We’re good at our job. Killing targets, that is!"
Callum alighted, having no intention to feel the recoil and shockwave of the tank.
Inside the Vanguard, the vision narrowed into screens, glasses, and lines.
Big Rhino’s crew moved with experience—even if they had been born an hour ago.
"Driver, slow to thirty," Big Rhino ordered. "Keep the hull steady."
"At thirty," the driver confirmed. At the same time, the engine dipped. The tracks rolled slower on the road.
The gunner’s view was a rectangle of barren land. He toggled optics once.
Daylight to thermal.
The plain lit up with heat signatures, all belonging to the zombies.
"Contacts confirmed," the gunner said. "Massed cluster. Can’t verify specials. Range—thirteen hundred, over."
"Perfect." Big Rhino chuckled.
The turret adjusted with a soft electric howl. Stabilizers kept the cannon level even as the tank rolled over the broken asphalt.
"Load HE," Big Rhino ordered.
A heavy round slid into place with a metallic thump. The whole tank seemed to hold its breath.
"On your mark, sir," the gunner waited, reticle settling on the densest part of the horde.
Outside, the zombies were oblivious to their impending death. Heads remained low, eyes drifting everywhere.
Their bodies stilled, waiting for a trigger.
"Send it," Big Rhino shouted.
The cannon fired.
The recoil kicked through the hull as if impacted by a giant fist. A shockwave smacked the nearby weeds flat.
The HE round landed in the middle of the cluster and detonated. Earth and flesh burst upward in a wide, ugly boom.
Limbs spun erratically, bodies folding faster than drunk people.
A crater appeared where dozens had been.
"Direct hit!" The gunner called.
"Coax next," Big Rhino said, voice sharp now. "Sweep left when they break. Don’t let runners close."
"Got it, commander. What about any specials?"
"Let that monster outside deal with it," Big Rhino furrowed his brows, then eased after a while.
Big Rhino’s coaxial gun opened.
The chatter wasn’t loud from this distance, but Hans’s ears still picked it up.
Lines of infected dropped one by one as the coax gunner sweep to his left, then to his right without pause. The ranks of enemies were controlled from afar, quicker than before any of the zombies realized the danger they were in.
At thirteen hundred meters, charging no longer made sense.
It was a crucial mistake.
The first explosion had already deleted the center. The survivors tried to scatter, but there was nowhere to hide on open ground.
Each time a cluster formed, the Vanguard would look their way and soon, there was no way with them.
Short bursts and precise explosions—no bullets wasted in every seamless execution.
The horde thinned fast. But too fast than what Hans had expected.
He watched through the windshield as bodies fell like grass being cut down by a sharp blade.
The plain was soon smeared ugly by dark blood, broken limbs, and uneven craters that scarred the soil.
No screams of death reached their ears. Even Callum’s calloused due to the monotonous slaughter.
Only the distant thumps of impact and the steady rhythm of the coax and the cannon as they played in the background.
Hans brought up the Radar. Red dots vanished in batches, several pixels at a time.
One. Then five. Then dozens of them... until the once large cluster became nothing but an ethereal flicker of the past.
This is what true armor is, Hans exhaled. In-game, those light tanks cannot do something as simple as this.
Whether it was a game engine limitation, or the disparity between games and reality, he now knew better than blindly trusting the system’s foundation.
System, what truly are you? I thought you were just a re-imagination of that game.
While drowned on his own thoughts, the armored SUV slowed behind the Vanguard.
Callum stood outside, watchful of any surprise attacks.
Up ahead, Big Rhino remained planted on the road, its turret slightly angled, and the cannon pointed where no enemy was present.
Thin smoke drifted from the barrel and was carried away by a soft breeze.
Hans keyed his comms.
"Report status."
Big Rhino’s voice came back, pleased but calmer than before.
"Targets neutralized, Commander. No resistance worth mentioning."
Hans glanced at the empty plains again.
"Good," he said. "Hold position. Scan for movement."
"Roger that," the Vanguard replied. "Big Rhino standing by."
Hans leaned back in his seat, the silence returning from the void.
He wondered how far the sound of that cannon traveled.
Whether something was stirred up.
Or not.