Chapter 53: Near the Fishport

The night shadowed the black-clothed figures as they crossed an empty street. The person in front raised their hands, pointing two of their fingers forward.

They broke into an alley, jumped through a fence, and slid down the steep dirt. Upon landing at the bottom, they gathered under black steel fence.

Warehouses stood on the other side like behemoths with their mouths open. Parked vans, trucks, and cars littered across the wide open area, along with their already zombified drivers.

A chilly breeze drifted past by, carrying the mysterious orange particles that floated in the air.

“Surveillance and clean up. Radio if something’s up.”

Dmitri signaled to their six-man team. The other group split away, moving further on the road.

Dmitri vaulted over the three-meter fence. Through the night-vision goggles, the dark expanse was brightly illuminated.

The vehicles covered not only their approach, but concealed the zombies too.

Dmitri shifted from cover and turned to the right.

A zombie suddenly came into his view. He shot once into its head and down it go.

Along the way, bodies dropped silently. Nobody knew who killed them, for the cartridges had long vanished from the ground.

Dmitri’s squad closed in on the first warehouse.

The open large doors welcomed their arrival. The zombies conducted their graceful hospitability, only to be greeted rudely by their guests.

Smoke wafted out from the barrel. Dmitri stepped over their corpses and headed into the center.

The towering boxes loomed over him, though he was more concerned about the trucks in front.

“Check these trucks.”

He climbed over the back of the truck and shoved the tarpaulin cover aside. Boxes were laid in place, the covers printed with the brand of canned sardines.

“The fringe will need this,” he muttered while glancing at the other trucks. “Canned goods here. There?”

“All canned goods, squad leader.” Hopkins replied.

“Put the cover back,” Dmitri ordered. “The rest will take care of this.”

The three-men squad quickly secured the trucks before setting out to the next warehouse.

Although the main target was the processing center farther ahead, Hans didn’t want to miss anything. When Dmitri’s eyes laid on a mountain of boxes at the second warehouse, he knew they had lucked out again.

Everything’s going too smoothly.

He cautioned as they approached the warehouses further back. The one on the left was locked from the other side, and the last was empty.

Indeed, one shouldn’t hope for too much.

“Warehouses checked,” Dmitri and his squad gathered. “Secure the area, then rendezvous with the rest. Careful on the exit.”

With accuracy and speed, the three-man squad swept the place of zombies.

The corpses were swiftly gathered on a corner. Hopkins poured a can of gasoline, lit up a match, tossed it on the pile, and walked away as the fire burned brightly.

Outside, Dmitri and the other scout waited.

“Took you long enough,” he said while pushing the gate shut.

“Wanted to savor this,” Hopkins tilted his head, stressing the cigar on his mouth. “You should try it too, squad leader.”

“I’ll pass.”

Dmitri waved his hand. Adrian’s second-hand smoking sessions always irritated him. He would rather die from combat than smoke for once.

“How far is the other team?” Dmitri asked.

“They’re out of sight, squad leader.”

“Is that so?”

Dmitri pressed on the comms, “Echo Two, respond if you can hear me, over,” only to receive static. He repeated a few times, yet the result stayed the same.

“Echo Two isn’t picking up,” he squinted for moment. “We should hurry up.”

The asphalt road straightened across the terrain. As they inched closer, a strong burning and sour stench assaulted their noses.

“Squad leader, look at that!” Hopkins whispered.

Dmitri turned to where Hopkins pointed and stopped. A strange lump of flesh slithered from the wall on the other side and landed into the ground.

The skin underneath slushed in motion.

“Ignore it.”

Dmitri moved along, not wanting to interact with such a disgusting thing. When he reached the second warehouse area’s entrance, he stopped.

“Even blocking the path,” his expression darkened. “Ignore the warehouses. Find Echo Two. We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

The familiar sense of unease grew within him. Dmitri didn’t want to take his chances, nor should the rest of the team.

“Split up. I’ll head into the processing center. You two, search the area near the river.”

“Yes, squad leader!”

“Be careful, these spores may have affected our comms,” Dmitri warned. “We’ll meet back at the warehouse 30 minutes.”

He veered northeast, trailing the lump of meat on the ground. Just as he stepped into an intersection, a low groan from above reached his ears.

Dmitri rolled backward and then stood back up. A shriveling tongue latched onto the position where he was a second ago.

“Lasher!”

He quickly moved his aim upwards and saw a slim silhouette standing at the edge of a rooftop.

Dmitri fired three shots. The lasher staggered, groaning in pain over its weakened chest. Right as it was about to escape, three more shots followed into its torso.

Its lungs bloated. Then, it emitted a puff of smoke, ragdolling down to the streets.

“There are specials here,” Dmitri cursed. “I need to be careful.”

Just as he said that, a group of fast moving zombies rushed from the right. Their small statures chilled his spine.

“Child zombies?”

Dmitri’s feet shuffled in retreat while shooting down the pesky child zombies. The last one dropped together with his mag.

From a fresh new mag, he straightened his back and focused on his surroundings. In the distance, he could see another group of zombies gathering into his position.

The entire scenario felt too familiar to him.

I must have rattled the entire horde! He gritted his teeth, looking for some cover. Just how potent is that meteorite shard?

A low whistle suddenly came from the right. Through his night goggles, an IR beam flashed from an open window.

Friendlies!

He toggled his IR beam and slowly approached the small building.

“Don’t loiter outside, get in!”

A familiar voice hushed to Dmitri. He vaulted over the window, then crouched inside.

“Echo Two,” a feeling of relief washed over him.

“Took you long enough to rendezvous, Echo One,” Adrian grinned. “So how was it? Finding things a little familiar?”

“You’ve found an answer to this?” Dmitri clicked his tongue.

Zombies had almost zero intelligence to pull something so structured. Responding to the death of one akin to a chain reaction was unviable to him.

“Ah, about that. You should thank Jenkins for this one.” Adrian guided him deeper into the small block of houses.

“Spill it.” Dmitri said.

“Come on, can’t you be a little more impatient?” Adrian shook his head and observed Dmitri’s expression.

Feeling the coldness reaching his hands, Adrian quickly added, “To see is to believe, right? Even if I explain it to you know, you won’t believe me.”

After a couple of turns, they got out from the rows of houses and arrived at the fish port.

“Alright, we’re here. Everyone has gathered, except for you.”

Four scouts cautiously crouched behind the low wall. Though the face mask had hidden more than half of their faces, their somber expressions couldn’t escape from Dmitri.

“What’s happening?”

“Squad leader,” Hopkins noticed his approach. “Peek from the wall, and you’ll understand.”

Dmitri did as Hopkins said. He slowly poked out, equipped with night vision goggles, while tightly holding onto the concrete wall.

At the center of the fish port, there stood a large chunk of meteorite shard pulsing with indistinguishable light.

A mass of flesh surrounded it, bulging like a tumor while it attempted to swallow the shard from top to bottom.

The disgusting lump of flesh extended outward like a network of nerves—some touching the wandering zombies, others entangling over the columns, the rest going into the river water.

Suddenly, that tumor-like skin popped, spraying blood and flesh everywhere. On its place was a zombie, all freshened up with blood dripping all over its body.

With a growl, it stepped out of the “skin crater” and joined his buddies.

Dmitri felt his gut regurtitate. That scene was too bizzarre and brutal, even for someone like him. A special forces member is still human, and humans still have emotions intact.

“Damn it,” he cursed, retreating to cover. “You call this a revelation?”

“I heard that’s how people are born.” Adrian flashed a knowing smile.

Dmitri scoffed. To think that his guy still dares to joke during such serious times.

“Meteorite shards and zombies,” Dmitri calmed his stammering heart. “This can’t be all a coincidence. If the shards are granting those zombies intelligence, then we need to hurry.”

“Want to destroy it now?” Adrian suggested.

“There’s at least a thousand zombies nearby,” Dmitri snorted. “We’re here to monitor the situation, not become martyrs.

That flesh is feeding at the water, the fishes, and possibly that meteorite shard. It should be a hive, and the first of its kind we have seen.”

Everyone took a deep breath. The army wasn’t the only one dependent on time to grow—zombies were too.

And in an alarming rate.

“The shard may be the network that connects these zombies’s together,” Dmitri introspected. “Whenever one is alerted or killed, those who are nearby will retaliate.”

No wonder the zombies rushed into them earlier that morning.

No wonder the zombies retreated when Dmitri and the team were too far.

No wonder they seemed endless when even reinforcements arrived at that intersection. It seemed that the hive was breeding through the fish, shard, and water—

“Wait, water!”

The image of the hive flashed on his mind. And then, the memory of that kid and his words back on the bridge—

“Damn it,” he almost shouted, veins protruding from his head. “Get back to base ASAP! The river’s water has been compromised!”

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