Chapter 15: The Ferals
His eyes glowed with a faint red light in the darkness. When he looked up at the Blood Moon, this light would grow even more intense. He sat in the car, panting slightly, his heartbeat so loud it was almost audible from outside.
Shawn gripped the steering wheel, completely unaware of the bulging veins on his arms. The steam from his rapidly circulating blood slowly exhaled from his mouth. At this moment, Shawn looked like a machine operating at high speed.
'Thump!'
Shawn turned his head, his face expressionless. A walker was banging its head against the car window. It couldn't see him through the one-way glass, but its actions went from gentle bumps… to now roaring and smashing its head with abandon, even as its brain matter splattered.
And right now, it was 11:59 PM.
Shawn put his hand on the gearshift, gripped the steering wheel with both hands, and shot forward with a roar. His eyes were filled with a bloody haze. Under this Blood Moon, it wasn't just the walkers that were going crazy.
Shawn glanced in the rearview mirror. The walker that had been banging on his window was now running, chasing him at a frantic pace. Its running posture was somewhat similar to a living person's, but stranger, unsettling enough to make one's blood run cold just by looking at it.
'CRACK—!!'
A bolt of lightning flashed through the blood-red fog that obscured everything. Behind that first walker, a dozen more blurry figures swayed. They were sprinting, rushing toward Shawn with reckless abandon!
"Less than twenty of them. Their running speed is only a little slower than a normal human's. If I get surrounded by them head-on, I don't stand a chance."
"This is fucking insane. Are these the same walkers that could barely shamble steadily during the day?!" Shawn gritted his teeth. Even with his current strength, a single careless mistake against these dozen Feral walkers would get him bitten to death.
Above Shawn's car, the Blood Moon followed closely. If anyone else could see it, they would think that Shawn himself was the one carrying the Blood Moon.
'ZZZRAAACK—!!!'
Under the Blood Moon, the lightning grew even more ferocious. It tore across the sky, splitting the blood-red fog and revealing the dozen hideous faces of the walkers. They knew no fatigue, no fear. They only wanted to eat Shawn, or be 'eaten' by him and turned into experience points.
From the moment he received the '7 Days to Die' system, Shawn stood in absolute, mortal opposition to them.
Seeing the increasingly familiar road ahead, Shawn's eyes were red, and an uncharacteristic, savage grin appeared on his lips.
"It's hard for me to fight them alone, but it's a different story if I have some help."
"Damn you, system. You want me dead? Well, I refuse to die!"
The familiar courtyard came into view. Shawn yanked the steering wheel, sending the car into a sideways drift, and crashed directly into the compound.
'BANG—!'
The massive crash woke everyone up. But before they could react, Shawn had already pulled the pin on the smoke grenade and thrown it out. He himself, with the horse bone club on his back, vaulted over the car and climbed onto the roof.
At this moment, the sound of rapid footsteps came from the house. One person pushed the door open, followed closely by a dozen more.
"Son of a bitch, you dare to come back?!"
"Keep an eye on him! Don't let him get away this time! I'm gonna burn him alive!" a bald man roared, his body radiating malice. His right hand was covered in burns, tightly wrapped in bandages that were seeping blood. He looked miserable. Clearly, the earlier car explosion had affected him too.
All their usable vehicles had been destroyed, so they couldn't track Shawn's group. They never expected him to actually dare to return. This played right into the bald man's hands.
The dozen or so remaining members of the bald man's group raised their guns, squinting as they tried to see through the smoke. Finally, a swaying figure appeared, its silhouette gradually outlined by the dissipating smoke.
The bald man was ecstatic! "FIRE!!"
At his command, a dozen armed men pulled their triggers simultaneously. For a moment, the flashes of gunfire mixed with the smoke, which was thick with the smell of gunpowder. The swaying figure was suddenly riddled with dozens of bullet holes. It struggled for a moment, then collapsed to the ground.
The smoke completely cleared. The group slowly approached. The bald man rushed to the front impatiently and used his rifle to flip over the body on the ground.
"This is… a walker!?" the bald man's eyes widened. At the same time, he heard a dozen roars from behind him, sounds that were neither human nor beast.
The expressions on the men's faces froze. They turned their stiff necks to look at the gate. Standing there were over a dozen walkers. Their heads trembled at different frequencies, and their eyes were actually moving. Just one look was enough to make the men swallow hard and take a step back.
"Take them down," the bald man waved his hand and turned to go back inside. "After you kill them, search! Those people must still be nearby. We're ending this tonight! They killed so many of my men and destroyed all…"
The bald man muttered, but before he could finish, a series of blood-curdling screams erupted amidst the dense gunfire!
A sudden emptiness filled the bald man's heart. His breathing hitched, and he spun around with a look of utter disbelief. What met his eyes was a rotten, foul-smelling face, less than 20 centimeters from his own.
"Fuc—" The bald man struggled to raise his rifle. At such a close distance, the long rifle could only be aimed at the walker's abdomen. He fired several shots.
The walker lunged forward, then yanked its head back. Amidst a deafening scream, it tore out the bald man's eyeball along with the optic nerve and flesh. It swallowed, and its second bite latched onto the bald man's throat, tearing off half his neck. The man's head, no longer properly attached, rolled to the ground with a gurgle.
Lying on the roof, Shawn watched this gruesome scene. He felt no pity, merely clicked his tongue and said, "What a waste."
"This group wasn't weak. They had looted a lot of weapons, ammo, and resources. They were much stronger than the farm. But unfortunately, they treated these Ferals like normal walkers. That doomed them to be devoured one by one."
"15 against 15. A crushing defeat!" Shawn lamented.
For these survivors, the Ferals were an attack on a whole other level. The survivors, accustomed to the slow, shambling pace of normal walkers, could never have predicted that these Ferals were barely slower than a normal person and were not afraid of bullets unless shot in the head. And given the Ferals' speed, the probability of landing a clean headshot was not high.
So, seeing this, Shawn was almost certain that this ruthless group of survivors would be completely wiped out tonight. They had always relied on numbers, weapons, cruelty, and striking first to attack other survivors. How could they have known that one day, Shawn would lead 'Ferals' to reap their lives?