Chapter 17: The Walking Dead

This was a dilapidated road, and as far as one could see, there were no cars on the road leading into the city, but the road from the city to the outside was extremely crowded. Thousands of vehicles jammed the road that was only a few kilometers long.

Under the blazing sun, Selene stood alone in the center of the road leading into the city, gazing at the distant steel city. She had a sense of déjà vu, “This is the world of The Walking Dead.”

A light breeze blew past, and the hot air immediately carried a strong scent of blood mixed with the stench of decaying flesh, making one nauseous.

“Luckily, I had the foresight to bring a gas mask.” Fighting the urge to vomit, Selene hurriedly put on her 3M gas mask, which made her feel a bit better. She couldn’t help but laugh at herself, “Have I become spoiled?”

The priority now was to find a safe place to hide for a few days. Once the storage space could be used, she could deploy the military robots, making it much safer to explore outside.

After all, she was now a “weak girl” without superpowers and “incapable of even trussing a chicken.”

Ahead was a city filled with countless zombies, and Selene’s immediate task was to find a safe hiding place.

Logically, leaving Atlanta would be the right choice, but Selene chose to continue moving into the city.

Yes, entering the city ahead seemed, rationally, a wrong choice and a rather uncomfortable challenge for Selene, who had some degree of cleanliness obsession. In this life, she had grown up in a comfort zone without facing significant challenges, but now, she decided to use the zombies to toughen her courage.

I remember Qian Lao said: “Having a sword and not using it are two different things.” Selene strongly agreed; she wanted to overcome her obsession with cleanliness and disgust because perhaps the environment she would find herself in the future might be even worse.

“A true hero dares to face a bleak life.” Even though she had become female inside and out, this didn’t hinder Selene’s psychological drive to overcome her weaknesses.

Selene walked toward the city center, the streets lined with numerous flaming, wrecked cars. Besides a few scattered zombies, the streets were empty of any living people. The nearby restaurants, supermarkets, and bars had broken windows and wide-open doors.

On the surrounding ground and windows, there were many corpses, some with missing limbs, and even more disgustingly, a few bodies were only torsos, with intestines strewn everywhere, and large pools of blood already congealed and blackened, the intestines sticking to it, extremely disgusting.

Perhaps attracted by the bright smell of flesh on Selene, several staggering zombies let out low growls and lunged toward her.

Due to the drawback of her super vision, Selene could see every pore on the zombies up close. Even with a gas mask on, she seemed to smell the stench wafting toward her, “Tsk, this is really disgusting.”

Suppressing her nausea, Selene agilely sidestepped at the moment the zombies lunged, dodging their attacks with wide movements.

Then she drew a hand axe from her back and executed a sideways chop.

Clang!

With a clear sound of bones cracking, the head was severed from the body, and the axe blade sliced through the zombie’s neck like butter, causing the rotting, foul-smelling body to collapse.

Repeating the same process, accompanied by several whistling sounds, the remaining zombies met the same fate.

With a casual flick, the blood on the axe blade fell to the ground. Besides feeling nauseated, Selene felt nothing, neither blushing nor her heart racing, and none of the typical symptoms like rapid heartbeat or limb fatigue appeared.

“I really overprepared… I thought it was going to be a high-difficulty world.” Looking up at the sky, Selene was speechless. She had made so many preparations, yet in such a low-combat world, besides feeling disgusted, it was like she was just traveling.

As she continued deeper into the city, the sky gradually darkened, and light rain began to fall. Selene put on a baseball cap and walked to a nearby building. With a fierce push, her fingers embedded in the concrete wall, and with a few jumps, Selene effortlessly scaled the rooftop.

This wasn’t surprising; although she temporarily couldn’t use her superpowers, the Kaslana family’s innate “super strength” and “resilient” physical traits hadn’t disappeared.

Hearing the car alarm, engine noise, and a large group of zombies growling from the street, Selene looked over and saw a robust, short-haired, unkempt-bearded middle-aged white man wearing a sleeveless vest with exposed arms, handcuffed to a rooftop pipe, shouting and screaming.

Merle Dixon.

A tragic man who first appeared as a racist and was handcuffed to a rooftop water pipe by Rick. To avoid zombie attacks, Merle Dixon cut off his hand and left the building. In the end, while ambushing the Governor, he was killed and turned into a zombie, eventually dying at the hands of his brother Daryl Dixon.

The plot had just begun; this was the scene where Merle cuts off his hand. Thinking of this, Selene withdrew her gaze and quickly leaped across rooftops, speeding toward the department store rooftop.

…

After T-Dog accidentally lost the handcuff keys and closed the rooftop door, Merle completely broke down, cursing all sorts of profanities.

“Damn! You’ll pay for this! Go to hell! Come back here! Don’t leave me!”

“You’ll burn in hell! Go to hell! Damn it! You’ll be damned to the 18th level of hell!”

Gradually, Merle collapsed by the pipe, resigned, mumbling with a hint of madness, “Yeah, you heard it, fuck, got a problem?”

“If you’re man enough, bring it on; otherwise, just accept your fate. You heard it, you pansy son of a bitch, you’re not deaf, to hell with following orders…”

His expression increasingly deranged, Merle glanced at a saw lying nearby, seemingly making a decision. He rolled his body, unbuckled his belt, and exerted all his strength to reach the saw, his mind slightly unhinged, “Forget it, you moron Jesus, I’ve never begged you, don’t expect me to now, I’d rather die than beg! You…”

At this moment, Selene flipped over the water pipes and stood before the handcuffed Merle.

“Hey, sir, if you can stay quiet, I’ll unlock your handcuffs,” a voice came, making Merle feel like he had grabbed a lifeline.

“Oh, beautiful young… no, my angel, please save me!” In such a dire situation, Merle didn’t have time to think much and stopped blustering, directly asking for help.

Selene tore off the handcuffs, and without waiting for Merle to react, she picked him up and, with a single leap amidst Merle’s exclamations, landed on the rooftop of another building.

With a toss, Merle rolled and lay sprawled on the rooftop, taking a long while to recover.

“Oh! Thank you, beautiful lady.”

While politeness wasn’t typically Merle’s style, recalling Selene tearing off the handcuffs and single-handedly leaping five meters, Merle couldn’t help but be impressed.

Selene beckoned him over and asked, “Name?”

Although Selene knew who he was, she asked anyway.

“Merle Dixon,” Merle raised his hands, indicating he posed no threat.

Only then did Merle get a good look at Selene. “Either wealthy or noble” was his only impression.

Since Merle had raised his hands, Selene introduced herself as well.

“My name is Selene, roughly considered Austrian. By the way, sir, I just saw your companions driving away. Why did they leave you?”

“You’re neither bitten nor disabled…”

Before she finished speaking, mentioning his companions made Merle bristle instantly.

“Companions, my ass, a bunch of bastards who should go to hell…”

Selene interrupted Merle’s rambling, squinting at the white man before her, pointing in the direction the vehicles had left, “Are you going back to them?”

According to Merle’s temperament, he would definitely never interact with the camp people again, but remembering his brother Daryl waiting at the camp, he calmed down, forced a wry smile, and chuckled, “Going back? Of course, I have to settle the score with them.”

“Selene, will you go back to the camp with me?”

“Sure, why not, I want to see what your camp is like.”

Selene’s sudden idea to visit the survivor camp was just a whim; she wanted to see the real human condition in the apocalypse.

For instance, in the show, Rick and Shane; early on, Rick was very upright and sentimental, while Shane was cold and rational. Over time, after Rick killed Shane, he eventually became like Shane, though still somewhat friendly, but with much more hostility.

“Lead the way, Merle,” Selene said, tossing a bag of guns to Merle.

Indeed, these were Rick’s dropped guns, which Selene discovered and picked up when passing a horse carcass.

After a while, Selene found a relatively intact car, opened the back door, let Merle drive, while she sat in the back seat.

Soon, Merle started the car and drove them away.

This was a police car equipped with a radio, looking somewhat dated. Selene vaguely recalled the show being set in the early 2000s.

During the drive, Merle kept calling on the radio, wanting to know if the camp location had changed.

…

Meanwhile, at the survivor mountain camp.

The camp was immersed in the joy of reunion.

Through previous exchanges with Atlanta survivors, everyone knew it was a life-or-death situation there. Mentally prepared for the worst, when they returned from Atlanta, everyone’s emotions soared and plummeted like a rollercoaster.

But two people felt conflicted.

One was Rick’s colleague and friend, Shane, whose mind went through a storm when Rick appeared.

The other was Merle’s younger brother, Daryl. Learning Merle hadn’t returned, Daryl was eager to head to Atlanta to find Merle, calming down only after being persuaded by everyone.

Suddenly, the radio buzzed, “Sizzle… is anyone there?”

A white-bearded old man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, Dale, hurried over, “This is the survivor camp, we’re… huh? Merle?! That’s great, you’re alive!”

“Daryl! Daryl, come here, your brother’s alive,” Dale shouted excitedly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep