A black shadow as tall as two stories rose from the ground, wrapped in countless stone fragments, body engulfed in rolling flames, roaring in pain across the highway, each chest pound shaking off countless rotting flesh, raining down on the ground.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang!!!
Zhou Rong leaped onto the vehicle’s roof, raising an 8-9 type heavy machine gun, firing ruthlessly!
Bullets rapidly fed into the gun, metal shells scattering everywhere. The black shadow roared amid the storm of bullets, lifting its foot and stomping forward!
Yan Hao rushed into the rear compartment, flipping out an armor-piercing explosive round and tossing it to the roof. Zhou Rong, without looking, steadily caught it and loaded it into the gun.
Immediately after, Yan Hao rushed to the front of the car, wanting to pull Sinan, but in the chaos, he only saw Sinan leap across the other side of the highway, rolling into the green belt and hugging his head.
In the critical moment, Yan Hao couldn’t reach him and could only crouch down to protect his head.
The next instant, Zhou Rong pulled the trigger, and the armor-piercing explosive round whistled through the air, blowing the monster’s head off!
Boom—
The monster didn’t even have time to cry out; its body heavily smashed to the ground, finally motionless.
Flames burned on the corpse, making slight crackling sounds. The ruins were leveled, and the special forces, still in shock, jumped down from the armored vehicle.
Yan Hao stood up shakily, shaking his head, wanting to help Sinan.
But as soon as he took a step toward the roadside, he heard Sinan’s sharp stop: “Stay there!”
Yan Hao hesitated.
Sinan covered his nose and stepped back: “Don’t come over!”
Chun Cao patted his shoulder from behind, whispering: “Let him be embarrassed for a moment.”
The flames gradually extinguished, the putrid smell mixed with gunpowder smoke permeating the entire highway, zombies within hundreds of meters swept away by the explosion’s shockwave.
The asphalt road was pockmarked, radiating terrifying cracked patterns extending dozens of meters.
Sinan finally washed away the nosebleed with mineral water, sniffling as he approached. Everyone gathered around the huge corpse, with Zhou Rong using his submachine gun barrel to prod the monster’s remaining head tissue, softly saying: “Gorilla.”
Chun Cao was stunned: “King Kong?!”
Yan Hao was full of suspicion: “Impossible. It’s clearly infected.”
This huge black gorilla was completely rotting, fur fallen out, limbs exposing bone, emitting the unique zombie stench—though the foul smell was shocking, no one was paying attention to that now.
Everyone was incredulous, simultaneously forming a terrifying speculation.
“If the zombie virus can infect animals…” Yan Hao murmured. “But that’s not right. We haven’t seen other animals infected along the way. Rats, insects, chickens, ducks, cats, dogs… they all avoid zombies, and there are no records of zombie animals attacking humans.”
Zhang Yingjie also frowned deeply: “And how could the virus possibly mutate the carrier into a King Kong? Has the virus itself evolved? Impossible, the evolutionary direction is completely wrong.”
“Are you sure it’s a black gorilla, Brother Rong?”
“Black gorillas have extremely high genetic similarity to humans, so maybe in virus infection…”
Zhou Rong ignored the surrounding discussions, walking toward the zombie gorilla’s sprawled front paw.
He put on full-fingered black leather gloves, tightening them, and crouched down to search through the dirty, putrid fur. Sinan walked over and squatted beside him, silently watching. Moments later, Zhou Rong finally found what he was looking for.
—On the zombie gorilla’s right front limb near the hand, a metal fine chain was caught in the fur. The chain was now very tight, deeply embedded in the blackened flesh.
Zhou Rong pinched the chain with two fingers, nodding to Sinan.
Sinan drew a military knife from his thigh, cutting the metal chain, and the bloody stainless steel tag fell with a clink.
“E Group Number 71998,” Zhou Rong read softly.
Sinan asked, “What does that mean?”
Zhou Rong clutched the tag with the steel stamp in his palm, speaking in a low voice: “Laboratory code. Someone was using black gorillas as carriers to research antiviral vaccines, but the virus mutated, and they accidentally went too far…”
He slowly stood up, looking northward.
At the highway’s end, smoke billowed, half a dead city away, was the B military area buried by ruins.
At the beginning of the disaster, the military district restarted it at the cost of countless lives and transformed it into a shelter capable of accommodating over a million people within just a few days.”
Zhou Rong opened the tablet computer, clicked to enlarge, and the screen displayed a complex floor plan.
“The shelter is excavated eleven layers deep, in a pyramid shape, divided into five areas. The eastern A area is mainly for settling disaster victims, the western B area concentrates management, communication, and energy supply, the southern C area is for troop rotation and armory, and the central D area is the underground drainage system and transportation hub.”
“The northern E area is the most important and highest classified, responsible for medical quarantine and biological virus research.”
“As the highest classified unit 118, our identity keys can access the entire A area, B area, D area, and part of C area. When summoned, we can enter E area under restricted conditions, which is the biological research institute now suspected of virus outbreak.”
Zhou Rong drew a line on the map and said:
“Our initial plan is to enter the central area through the drainage system, then split into two groups. One group will go to the B area armory along the underground light rail” – he marked on the map – “to transport supplies and replenish ammunition, and preferably acquire an armored vehicle. This group will be led by Yan Hao, with Xiang Zi and Ding Shi accompanying.”
“The other group will follow me to C area to check the situation, with the goal of using the base’s satellite communication facilities to contact other military district shelters. If necessary, enter E area to obtain the latest virus research data before the research institute’s collapse, preserving the seed for future research by other institutions.”
Zhou Rong looked around and asked, “Who will be in this group? I’ll lead, with Chun Cao and Ying Jie accompanying. Any questions?”
In the armored vehicle, the special forces soldiers huddled in a circle on the floor.
Si Nan raised his hand, and Zhou Rong pointed with his pen: “Comrade Xiao Si, please speak.”
Comrade Xiao Si asked, “Which group am I in?”
“Which group do you want to be in?”
After a moment, Yan Hao coughed and said to Zhou Rong, “The armory has a low danger level. Big Ding will come with you, Si Nan will come with us.”
Zhou Rong neither agreed nor responded, asking Si Nan, “What do you think? Choose for yourself.”
Si Nan was silent for a while. After what seemed like a long time, he suddenly spoke in a hoarse, brief voice:
“I’ll go with you.”
When he said this, he wasn’t looking at anyone, but Yan Hao instantly knew he was speaking to Zhou Rong.
“Excellent, groups are set!” Zhou Rong tucked the military tablet under his arm and stood up abruptly: “Everyone stay alert, check your equipment, move out!”
With a muffled boom, the underground water pipe gate was blown open, and a foul stench accompanied by distant screams from the depths of the earth rushed forward.
Everyone unanimously pulled down their gas masks. Zhou Rong was choked and coughed a few times, pointing forcefully forward, signaling everyone to stay close, then jumped into the black water up to his calves.
