Zhou ignored his teammates' comments. His gaze swept quickly over the entire battlefield.
The hunters were still in disarray, but under Joe's direction, they were gradually regaining their footing. They closed ranks, fighting as they retreated toward the dirt road on the far side of the hollow.
They had killed three or four walkers, while the remaining two or three had either been shaken off or drawn away for the moment.
Joe blew the head off the closest walker with a single shot, then shouted, "Move! Forget him! Go!"
The six men bolted onto the dirt road without looking back and quickly disappeared among the trees.
As the gunfire faded and most of the living moved farther away, the walkers in the hollow lost their clear target and began wandering aimlessly.
Dan's luck was remarkably "good."
The walker biting at his arm had gotten its teeth caught in the thick sleeve of his jacket. While struggling desperately, Dan's hand happened to find a sharp rock on the ground. He slammed it into the walker's temple with all his strength, actually caving in part of its skull.
The thing twitched and went still.
He managed to kick away the other walker clawing at his leg.
Seizing the chance, Dan scrambled and rolled his way out from between them.
The sleeve on his left arm had been completely torn apart. His face was white as paper, his entire body trembling violently, tears and snot smeared across his face.
He saw his companions abandon him.
Then he saw the walkers beginning to shuffle toward him again.
Despair overwhelmed him completely.
Dan collapsed onto the cold, damp leaves with his back against a large tree.
The hunting rifle he had dropped in his panic lay only a few meters away, but he seemed too weak even to crawl over and retrieve it.
He simply clutched his arm and sobbed quietly.
Then, through his tear-blurred vision, he thought he saw movement.
Off to his rear and side, near the rocks at the edge of the hollow, several shapes seemed to blend almost perfectly into the surroundings.
They weren't moving with the stiff, shambling gait of walkers.
They were... people?
His survival instinct overwhelmed everything else.
As though he had found his last lifeline, Dan gathered every bit of strength he had and shouted toward them.
"Hey! Hey, you over there! Help me! Please, help me! I'm not a bad guy! I've got food, I can give you things! Don't leave! Please!"
As he shouted, he tried to crawl toward the rocks.
Behind them, Leon glanced at Zhou and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, boss. The trash is calling for us. Says he's 'not a bad guy.' Tsk, tsk."
Murphy lowered his binoculars.
"Three walkers still nearby. Thirty to fifty meters out and closing on him. Our position is secure."
Leslie said nothing.
He simply looked at Zhou, one hand resting on his knife.
Zhou's expression didn't change.
He looked at Dan, crawling and begging for help, then toward the dirt road where the other hunters had disappeared.
His silence lasted only two seconds.
"Clear them out," Zhou ordered. "Quietly. Don't let those three walkers get too close."
Leon grinned and slipped silently out from behind the rocks.
Leslie moved out from the opposite side.
Murphy remained in position, raised his sniper rifle, and steadied the muzzle on the nearest walker shambling toward Dan.
Zhou kept watch on the farther approaches.
When Dan realized people had actually come out to help him, and saw how professionally they moved, his despair instantly turned to wild joy.
His tears flowed even harder.
"Thank you! Thank you! God bless you! I..."
Leon moved swiftly behind a walker less than ten meters from Dan.
He drew his dagger and drove it viciously upward beneath the walker's jaw.
The blade punched through the roof of its mouth and into the brain.
The walker collapsed without even managing a groan.
At the same moment, Murphy's suppressed sniper rifle gave a soft pop.
Fifty meters away, another walker's head snapped backward.
A small hole appeared between its eyes, and it dropped straight to the ground.
The third walker turned toward the sound of its companion falling.
Leslie was already on it.
He darted forward and delivered a sharp low kick to the side of its knee, knocking it off balance and forcing it down.
A flash of steel followed.
His dagger plunged deep into the walker's temple.
It twitched twice and stopped moving.
Less than a minute had passed from the moment they moved to the moment all three walkers were down.
Dan stared at the scene.
The joy on his face froze, then transformed into something even deeper.
Fear.
These people were terrifying.
They killed walkers as easily as chopping vegetables.
But at least the walkers were dead.
He was saved... right?
Leon and Leslie didn't leave after killing them.
Instead, they started walking toward him.
Dan's heart began pounding.
A terrible feeling tightened around his throat.
"Y-you... thank you. Thank you so much..."
He tried to force a smile, but it looked worse than crying.
His body instinctively shrank backward until his back pressed tightly against the tree.
"I-I can take you to my group. They went to that community up ahead. Terminus, I think it's called. There has to be something useful there. I..."
Leon stopped a few steps away and looked down at him.
There was something strange in his expression, as though he were examining an interesting insect.
Leslie stopped behind and slightly to the side of Dan, cutting off any possible escape.
"Terminus?" Leon tilted his head. "Oh, you mean wherever that pretty blue sign is pointing?"
"Yes! Yes, exactly!"
Dan nodded frantically, as though he had suddenly found something he could bargain with.
"My people already went there! We saw the sign! It's real! There has to be food there, and it's safe! I can take you. I know the way! As long as you..."
He never finished.
Leon suddenly crouched in front of him.
He came close enough that Dan could smell sweat and walker blood on him.
"Take us there?"
Leon's smile widened slightly, but there was no warmth in his eyes.
"No need. We already know the way."
Dan froze.
Leon leaned closer and lowered his voice, amusement mixed with cruelty.
"And besides, buddy, we heard what you said to your friends earlier.
"You like kids, huh?"
Dan's face instantly went deathly pale.
It felt as though all the blood in his body had frozen.
He understood.
These people had heard him.
And they cared.
"N-no, that's not what I meant. I was joking, I..."
He stumbled over the words, desperately trying to explain himself.
The fear was so intense he nearly lost control of his bladder.
"Joking?"
Leon repeated the word softly.
Then he shrugged, as though he had already lost interest, and glanced at Leslie.
Dan followed his gaze and turned fearfully toward the man behind him.
Leslie crouched as well.
He didn't look Dan in the eyes.
Instead, his gaze settled on the wound on Dan's left arm, where the skin had been torn open against rocks during his struggle.
"That's a deep wound," Leslie said calmly. "It'll get infected. Hurts, doesn't it?"
"I-I'm fine. I can keep going," Dan said, trembling, with no idea what Leslie intended.
"You don't have to."
The instant Leslie finished speaking, Dan didn't even see him move.
He only felt something cold against the side of his neck.
Then came a strange sensation, as though something inside him had suddenly emptied out.
Dan's eyes widened in confusion.
He instinctively raised a hand toward his throat.
Bright red blood surged between his fingers and splattered across the leaves and mud in front of him with soft pattering sounds.
Dan opened his mouth to scream.
Only wet, rasping breaths came out.
His vision rapidly blurred and darkened.
The last thing he saw was Leslie calmly wiping the blood from his blade on Dan's clothes.
Beside him, Leon stood up with the casual air of someone who had just swatted a mosquito.
Leslie smoothly sheathed his knife and rose to his feet.
He glanced once at Dan as the life rapidly drained from him.
There wasn't a trace of emotion in his eyes.
Leon whistled.
"Clean work, brother."
Zhou and Murphy emerged from behind the rocks.
Neither of them even looked at the body.
Zhou gave a hand signal.
"Keep moving. They shouldn't be far ahead. The gunfire and all that commotion might have drawn Terminus's attention."
The four crossed the hollow once more, stepped onto the dirt road, and continued after Joe's group.
...
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