Chapter 114: Northern Reconnaissance – Departure (II)

Echo One, led by Matilda—Codename Fairy, treaded the first few kilometers of Grefort City’s western bypass road.

“Watch the sides,” she said while pointed forward.

Dmitri and the other Scouts picked their aim. Their cold fingers rested at the trigger guard, holding their breath in anticipation.

From Matilda’s view, the zombies distanced themselves at least ten meters away from the road. She did not want to separate from the main path, but ignoring these zombies wasn’t a good thing either.

“Bar,” she commed in. “Contacts—nine and three o’clocks. Ten meters. Clear them out.”

“Rog’ your last.”

Echo Two, who was fifty meters behind, split their formation into two and went offroad. Kross vaulted over the rusted rail and landed on softened soil.

Green foilage filled his vision, but his eyes pierced through the interference and quickly locked in on several zombies ahead.

His boots made contact with the dried leaves yet left no sound whatsoever. His hands moved just enough to push the bushes and branches away, but not enough to snap or rustle in distress.

He lowered his HCMAR and pulled the handle of his retracted combat blade. With a flick, the blade decompressed itself into a 1.5-meter long weapon. A sharp glint reflected off its surface and mirrored Kross’s venomous eyes.

Kross took two more steps closer to the unaware zombie. His muscles bulged slightly, gripping the combat blade with murderous intent.

Blade light flashed on the periphery. From it, a headless zombie slumped to the ground.

Just as the rest turned their heads over to the disturbance, several blade lights made a continuous arc in a large area.

Plants were snapped into two.

Barks were chipped away into dust.

Zombies were decapitated into death.

Kross stared at his combat blade, dark blood dripping off its tip. He flicked the blade rightward, smearing the roots of a large tree.

“Right side clear. Echo Two Actual, give me an update.”

Adrian popped off the last zombie on his area, then reached to his comms. “Left zone clear. We can proceed, Bar.”

“Keep your feet off the road until I say otherwise,” Kross said before switching to a different channel. “Bastion One, this is Codename Bar leading Echo Two. Road is clear. Bring the boys up.”

“Roger that, Bar,” Bastion One replied. “Convoy is moving in.”

“Bar copies,” Kross switched channel again. “Fairy, how’s the front, over?”

“Keep moving,” Matilda spoke, air drifting on her mic. “You’re a hundred meters behind now.”

“Copy that.”

The fog did not vanish, not for a while.

And when it did, it seemed to have been caged in a limited area, unable to flow farther from its center.

Meter by meter, the white curtain thinned into threads. Light filtered through the branches that grew less wild and more deliberate in their spacing.

The trees didn’t feel belonging to a forest. It was as if they were arranged—no, they rearranged themselves.

Symmetrical and patterned.

Hans narrowed his eyes from inside the armored SUV.

The bypass curved gently around a wide clearing. Iron fences emerged from the mist—bent to the ground, barely standing.

Beyond the stretch was what used to be Grefort’s Conservatory Park.

Glass domes rose like skulls cracked against the skyline. Some panels shattered, their debris scattering on the ground.

Others remained intact, catching the pale sunlight. The warm rays reflected across the creeping vines that had slowly overtaken the structures.

Concrete walkways wounded through artificial ponds—now thick with green algae.

Statues of birds and stone figures stood half-shadowed by moss.

The place did not rot into chaos as far as others were concerned. It decayed with elegance, preserving the beauty of mother nature the artificial way or not.

Johannes, seated at the back of the armored SUV, followed Hans’s gaze.

“Does it bring back memories?” he asked.

“No,” Hans muttered. “I wouldn’t call it a memory.”

He zoomed in on his Radar map interface. Red dots blinked in; their locations deeper inside the park.

The Central Dome, he thought while his eyes shifted back on the largest dome inside the park.

A large crack could be seen on its top; the origin too mysterious for Hans to investigate from a distance.

Rebars protruded randomly on the top; the concrete it once held was nowhere to be found.

“Shard.”

Hans’s single word alarmed Johannes.

“Should we go in?”

“Leave it be for now,” Hans retreated to his seat, his frown still planted on his face. “We have better things to do.”

The convoy rolled past the broken fences and left it to its own fate.

Echo One moved farther ahead, their boots crunching lightly over scattered glass.

Cars lined up across this section of the road.

Some were small—sedans, compact SUVs, etc.

A few larger than the rest.

But the biggest obstacle remained a truck the zigzagged like a maniac.

It jackknifed into the guardrail, its rear wheels digging into the embankment. The hillside behind it had given way, unable to support the earth under the sudden disfigurement.

Soil and broke roots spilled over the asphalt in a slanted mound, claiming half of the road at once.

Matilda slowed down.

“Check the truck.”

Dmitri and the other Scouts scattered, investigating every inch of the incident.

Matilda vaulted over three meters high, landing on the other side.

There, the corpse of the driver lay naked in the middle of the road.

Beside him seemed to be his co-driver, dead and naked as well.

Both bodies had no bite marks or visible wounds. Just bruising around the wrists.

It was as if they either died a natural death, or someone else killed them.

Matilda furrowed her brows and shifted her eyes to the fallen earth.

She crouched and grabbed a pint of dirt.

The top layer crumbled easily, but beneath it, the earth was compact and dry.

This mound hadn’t slid naturally. It had been moved.

She rubbed the dirt between her fingers and brought it closer to her nose.

There was a faint scent of fuel beneath the clay.

“An intentional work.”

Matilda glanced back, taking another look at this totaled truck.

Just as she approached for a close look, her spine chilled in a fraction of a second.

Without hesitation, she quickly leapt sideways, then narrowly dashed between the small space of the truck head and its container.

Her rough landing gathered the attention of Echo One.

“Get in position!” she yelled. “It’s an ambush!”

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