Bossie and Danny used the terrain to their advantage, skillfully splitting the horde with their firepower and easing the pressure on the teammates up front.
Leah and Calista stood back-to-back.
Leah used a bayonet, Calista a dagger. The two moved in perfect sync, parrying, thrusting, and dodging with seamless precision.
The battle was chaos.
The snarls of the mutated walkers, the sound of blades sinking into flesh, the crack of breaking bones, and the team's roars and ragged breaths all tangled together.
Everyone was splattered from head to toe with foul black blood and shredded tissue.
Calista could feel her heart hammering in her chest. Not from fear, but from some strange, burning energy rushing through her veins.
She did not know if she had simply lost herself in the killing, but for a moment, she almost felt their hunger and murderous intent.
The feeling vanished quickly, but it had been real.
Was the experimental vaccine inside her starting to take effect?
The question flashed through Calista's mind, only to be drowned out by the more urgent battle in front of her.
She slid sideways with perfect timing, avoiding a mutated walker's pounce, then drove her dagger up through its lower jaw. With a twist of her wrist, she destroyed its brainstem completely.
The fight raged on. The floor was covered in twisted, mangled bodies, and the stench was overwhelming.
Almost everyone in the squad had taken injuries, mostly bruises and impact wounds. Fortunately, no one had been bitten or clawed directly.
They were all gasping for breath, their combat uniforms soaked through with sweat, blood, and filth.
The passage was too narrow. They could not move freely, and they could not use heavy firepower. Stray machine-gun rounds and grenade blasts would tear through them before they drove the mutated walkers back, and there was a very real chance they would collapse the passage and bury everyone alive.
The circular corridor had become a death trap.
The mutated walkers pouring in from both ends were like two black walls closing in, trapping the squad tightly in the middle.
Their ammunition was almost gone, because these mutated walkers were much harder to punch through than ordinary walkers.
"We're almost out of bullets!" Turner shouted. His barrel was burning hot, and his rate of fire had clearly slowed.
"The left passage is completely blocked! The right side's even worse!" Bossie's voice was unusually tense. His rifle could only manage precise single shots now, no longer enough to provide real suppression.
Mike and Carver were drenched in blood, most of it splashed on them from close combat.
The two stood back-to-back, breathing hard. The melee weapons in their hands were already chipped and curled at the edges.
Daryl had only a few crossbow bolts left.
Leah stayed close beside Calista, her anxious eyes searching for a breakthrough that almost did not exist.
Despair began to spread.
These mutated walkers were far more difficult to deal with than expected. Their vitality was terrifying. Unless their brains were completely destroyed through the eyes or mouth, they could keep attacking even when badly injured.
Calista spat out a curse. "Fuck!"
Since when did The Walking Dead have mutated walkers like this?!
Had the zombies from Resident Evil wandered onto the wrong set?
Sweat slid down Calista's temple as her gaze swept over the mutated walkers snarling wildly and desperately trying to break through the fire net. Then one detail struck her hard.
When Lorenzo was being devoured, the mutants had shown an extreme craving for fresh flesh. Then there was what Dr. Jenner had mentioned, that "Wildfire" might have strengthened her metabolism and certain unknown traits.
And the living walker experiments they had secretly conducted in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Her blood.
If her blood worked on ordinary walkers, maybe it had an irresistible pull on these mutated walkers too.
There was no time to test it. No time to hesitate.
This was the only chance they had to tear open a path for the team.
"Leah!" Calista snapped her head around and looked at her sister beside her, her eyes resolute.
"What?" Leah's heart tightened, an ominous feeling rising inside her.
The next second, Calista threw away her dulled combat dagger, drew a clean new one from her tactical belt, ripped off her glove, and without the slightest hesitation, slashed the blade hard across the palm of her left hand.
A wound split open at once, and bright red blood poured out.
"What are you doing?!" Leah and Carver, who was nearby, cried out almost at the same time.
Calista sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, but her movements did not stop.
"Take them through the left passage! Hurry!" Calista shouted hoarsely at Leah, her voice strained by pain. "I'll draw them away!"
"No!" Leah grabbed her arm, her nails nearly digging into Calista's flesh, terror filling her eyes. "I won't let you go get yourself killed!"
Carver also stepped in front of her, gripping Calista's shoulders with rare force, the blood draining from his face. "Calista! If someone has to draw them away, I'll do it! You can't..."
"That's an order!" Calista wrenched free from Leah and Carver. "Remember? My blood might have a special effect on them! This is our only chance! Follow the order, Leah! Get everyone out! Wait for me in the equipment transfer zone on Level B5!"
Before she had even finished speaking, she shot forward like an arrow from a bow, charging toward the right corridor, the one under heavier pressure, opposite the left passage.
As she ran, she swung her injured left hand hard, flinging hot blood across the floor and walls along the way.
A miracle happened.
The mutated walkers that had been attacking the defensive line in a frenzy all froze at once, as if they had caught the scent of the finest meal in the world. Their crimson eyes instantly locked onto the running figure giving off that irresistible scent.
The fresh smell of blood spreading through the air seemed to call to them in a way they could not resist.
"ROAR—!!!"
Their deafening snarls merged into a wave of sound. More than seventy percent of the mutated walkers abandoned the humans in front of them, turned, and charged after Calista like sharks scenting blood.
The pressure at the front of the circular corridor suddenly eased.
"No!" Leah let out a heartbroken scream and tried to chase after her, but Mike and Bossie held her back with all their strength.
"Go! Move!" Carver roared, his eyes red, as he punched a mutated walker away and repeated the same words over and over like a machine. "She'll come find us. She'll come find us..."
Michonne silently sheathed her sword, grabbed the still-struggling Leah, and pulled her along.
Carrying endless grief and unwillingness, the team seized the opening Calista had bought with her life, rushed into the left corridor, and fought their way through the scattered walkers blocking them as they searched for a way out.
...
Calista pushed her speed to the limit.
Compared with the mutated walkers, her smaller frame let her slip through the gaps between them like a fish, darting forward at full speed.
The frantic pursuit behind her made the ground beneath her feet tremble. She could smell the stench getting closer and closer.
Run. Faster!
Calista felt her heart pounding like a war drum, her body growing hotter and hotter.
Was it "Wildfire"?
Was it not only strengthening her body, but also turning her blood into the sweetest poison?
The thought sent a chill through her, but right now, it was Calista's only weapon.
...
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