The freezing rain gradually stopped the following afternoon, leaving behind a world sealed in ice and a sudden plunge in temperature.
Tonight, Zhou's team was responsible for the night watch at Blackberry Ranch and Rock Fortress.
Leon, Murphy, and two teammates were stationed at Blackberry Ranch, while Zhou and three others were at Rock Fortress.
Blackberry Ranch.
Four watchtowers stood at the four corners of the outer barbed-wire fence, and an unmanned watchtower in the middle had a searchlight mounted on it.
However, the searchlight's wiring had been damaged by the freezing rain earlier that day.
Fortunately, a small backup generator was kept right beside the searchlight, so it could still be used.
For the moment, no one had gotten around to repairing it. During the day, the base's maintenance personnel had been rushing to fix other, more urgent equipment.
Someone would be sent over first thing tomorrow morning to repair the searchlight.
The sentries at the tops of the watchtowers wrapped their blankets tighter around themselves and huddled inside the small compartments with charcoal braziers, fighting off the exhaustion that was slowly creeping in.
East Watchtower.
After resting in the compartment for a while, Leon rubbed his face, pulled his face mask higher, and went back out to patrol.
He leaned over the icy railing. His goggles were fogged from the freezing rain, leaving his vision unclear, so he relied more on his hearing.
At first, it was only a few faint, out-of-place scraping sounds mixed into the wind.
Soon, Leon saw shapes swaying in the darkness outside the fence, shadows darker than the night itself.
Not one or two. Dozens.
"All watchtowers, attention. A group of walkers has been spotted outside the eastern perimeter of Blackberry Ranch. Number... estimated over thirty."
He pressed the button on the walkie-talkie, keeping his voice low to avoid causing unnecessary panic.
The barbed-wire fence around Blackberry Ranch was sturdy enough, in theory, to hold back this many walkers, as long as they did not gather at one point and keep pushing against it.
Unlike Rock Fortress, Blackberry Ranch covered a much larger area, including wide stretches of farmland and woods. Surrounding it with trenches, high walls, and barricades like Rock Fortress was not very realistic.
That was why there was another ring of wire fencing between the outer barbed wire and the farm itself, with enough buffer space between them. On top of that, there were "sentry walkers" outside the outer fence and in the surrounding woods.
Tripwires were also buried in the mountain forests near Blackberry Ranch and Rock Fortress.
It could be said that the defenses were already extremely solid.
Leon steadily raised his issued rifle and, using the blurry outline he could make out, aimed at the walker closest to the barbed wire, one that seemed to still be trying to gnaw at it.
"Bang!"
The sharp gunshot carried far through the silent, frigid night.
The bullet neatly blew open the top of the walker's skull, and it dropped to the ground without a sound.
"One cleared on the east side," Leon reported calmly, shifting his muzzle again to find the next target.
He did not call for help. The situation was still under control. It was just that the damned darkness and ice made everything slow and awkward.
The south watchtower was manned by Daniels, a National Guard member and one of the two National Guard soldiers Calista had pulled out of Lorenzo's basement cell.
He was younger, and his actual combat experience was far below Leon's.
When Daniels heard Leon's report, his heart tightened. He quickly widened his eyes and looked toward the southern area he was responsible for.
"Where? Damn it, I can't see anything..." he muttered, vaguely feeling that the bushes outside the fence seemed to be moving.
Daniels raised his gun and fired toward the rough direction of the shifting shadow.
"Bang!"
The bullet struck the frozen ground, scattering ice chips and missing the target by a wide margin.
Instead, the shadow moved more violently. It really was a walker, drawn by the gunshot, now staggering toward the watchtower.
"South side... there's a walker on the south side too! I missed!" Daniels rubbed the bridge of his nose and reported with some embarrassment.
At the west watchtower was another National Guard member, Leslie, who was also the team's deputy leader.
The situation there was similar.
Leslie had also spotted a blurry, moving shadow in his assigned area.
He was steadier than Daniels and took his time aiming, but the ice-covered fence and the frozen clothing on the walkers made their outlines just as hard to pin down.
Besides, the bushes on his side were denser, making the walkers even harder to see than on Leon's side.
Leslie pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
The bullet brushed past a walker's shoulder and shattered the icicles on a small tree behind it.
The walker only swayed, then continued stubbornly clawing at the barbed wire.
"Target on the west side not cleared!" Leslie felt a little frustrated, but quickly resumed trying to aim at the next target.
Murphy's north watchtower seemed to have been forgotten in another world.
His side was unusually quiet. Outside the barbed wire was only a frozen, motionless field.
Murphy could clearly hear the uneven bursts of gunfire and reports coming from the other three directions, but in front of him there was nothing but darkness and silence.
"North side is clear." Every time he reported, it felt a little pointless.
Murphy strained to look toward the direction of the gunfire, but darkness and distance swallowed everything. He could only vaguely judge by sound that the fighting was concentrated on the east and south sides.
"Leon's firing... that kid Daniels seems to have missed..." he thought, gripping his gun tighter, yet unable to do anything. Sometimes, being stuck on the sidelines felt even more frustrating than facing danger head-on.
For a while, an eerie stalemate formed around the ranch perimeter.
Relying on his experience, Leon dropped two more walkers.
But the group of walkers was still slowly gathering. Drawn by sound and the scent of the living, they began instinctively shoving and slamming against the barbed wire.
The ice made their movements clumsy, and also made the barbed wire slick and hard to grip, temporarily preventing the risk of a large-scale climb.
Daniels and Leslie tried firing several more times, but their accuracy remained poor.
The darkness and ice severely affected their judgment and shooting precision.
They knew the barbed wire was strong, but if more and more walkers gathered, if the pressure reached a breaking point, or if it drew walkers from farther away...
"How did so many walkers suddenly show up?" Daniels complained irritably.
Murphy leaned against the watchtower railing and tried hard to look toward the areas around the other three watchtowers with his binoculars, but it was pitch-black. He could not see a thing.
"Maybe the freezing rain hit their nest and dragged all this hibernating rotten meat out!"
Leslie spoke while aiming. "Blackberry Ranch has taken in a lot more people lately, but we haven't added many sentry walkers around the perimeter. Maybe the human smell is covering the walker smell?"
Leon nodded. "I think so too. The freezing rain drove them out, and the smell of people and livestock here drew in the scattered walkers nearby.
Looks like we'll need to remind Calista and the others to get more walkers to strengthen the scent."
"We might need backup. The key problem is that the searchlight is broken. We can't see a damn thing!" Daniels reminded everyone.
Leslie looked at the growing number of shadows in the darkness below and fell silent for a moment.
A moment later, he pulled the alarm on his watchtower and used the walkie-talkie to notify the base.
"There's a horde! Number unknown! Approaching the ranch from the east!"