The Apocalypse Solution Provider

Chapter 50: The Zombies Are Evolving

After executing the suspicious child, Su Jin turned toward Fu Hu and Cheng Du.

The two men stood frozen, entirely speechless.

A second or two ticked by before they simultaneously snapped their stiff necks toward Su Jin.

The kid had still been crying… and he’d just walked up and blew its brains out.

“Director! That was a kid, why the hell did you kill him?” Fu Hu finally blurted out in horror.

“Yeah! Why?” Cheng Du’s face was chalk-white.

Su Jin’s brow knitted into a tight knot. He leaned in, eyes narrowing. “I swear… what is wrong with you two! How can you not see the obvious?!”

“Let’s skip whether or not that brat was a potential infected. Three corpses and one child—so where’s the Zombie? Without a target, Zombies don’t just wander off unless something provokes them.”

“We checked upstairs and downstairs. Did you see a single shadow of a Zombie? Are your brains stuffed with wax? You see a kid and your first instinct is to play savior?”

The two blinked, exchanging a bewildered glance.

Cheng Du hesitantly raised a finger, pointing at the pile of corpses. “Well… isn’t the Zombie right there? One has a stab wound in its heart. The other two, a man and a woman, fought the Zombie to the death. The kid hid, and after the parents took the Zombie down with them, he came out.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought. Even if the kid might be infected, he was fine for now. No need to just immediately cap him.”

“Huh?” Su Jin snapped his head back, genuinely thrown off.

Looking closer, they were right!

One corpse lay sprawled on the ground with a punctured heart, its mouth smeared with gore.

Another had its neck ripped open, clearly chewed out by the first corpse.

As for the third, lying face down with long hair, it was undeniably a woman.

Su Jin scratched his cheek, a rare moment of sheer confusion washing over him.

So… I was the one who didn’t look carefully?

“Director, you just committed friendly fire, didn’t you…” Cheng Du stammered.

“Friendly fire? What friendly fire? There are no mistakes!” Su Jin’s eyes hardened as he glared at the duo. “I don’t give a damn if that brat was a Zombie or not, he had to die! We don’t have the luxury of running background checks to see who’s a Disguised Infected! Drill this into your skulls: no matter the situation, if you see a straggler, as long as it breathes, you shoot to kill!”

Brushing off their shocked reactions, Su Jin strode forward to inspect the body.

He flipped the kid’s corpse over and immediately sucked in a sharp breath.

“You two, get over here!!”

Hearing the urgency, Fu Hu and Cheng Du jogged over.

“Take a good look. What the hell is this!”

The two squinted, and their expressions instantly plummeted, cold sweat prickling their spines.

The child’s mouth was packed with razor-sharp teeth, jagged bits of meat and dried blood wedged between the gaps.

It was glaringly obvious. The kid was the real maneater.

“Is this a Disguised Infected?!”

“The body temp is all wrong. It’s a Zombie!” Su Jin pressed two fingers against the thing’s neck, his face turning an ugly shade of iron. “The Zombies are evolving. They’re actually growing brains.”

It had only been a few days since the apocalypse kicked off…

At this rate, it was practically guaranteed that the Disguised Infected and regular Zombies would merge in the near future.

I have to bring this intel back. We need to fast-track our base of operations.

He lowered his head, continuing his grim autopsy.

Su Jin pried the three tangled corpses apart.

“The woman has been dead a while. These two guys are fresh. Hmm… scavenging for meds. They were probably part of a larger group huddled together, maybe keeping some elderly alive.”

Staring at the two male corpses, Su Jin let out a cynical sigh and swiped a hand over their wide, dead eyes, shutting them.

“Fell for a Zombie’s trap. Anyone willing to stick their necks out for a team must be decent guys. Too bad decent people are going extinct…”

Fu Hu and Cheng Du felt a heavy pit form in their stomachs.

“You two better sharpen up! I meant what I said: outside the residential zone, no strangers get near us. Shoot on sight!” After barking the order, Su Jin still felt unsatisfied. He glared up at them. “Tsk… what kind of soldiers were you anyway! Your situational awareness is worse than a civilian’s!”

“Well, yeah…” Fu Hu grumbled. “How can we compare to you, Director? You ran black ops overseas. I served for two years, blew out my lumbar during a drill, and got discharged… you already knew that.”

“And you! You shouldn’t have any excuses!” Su Jin pivoted to Cheng Du.

Cheng Du’s face locked up. “I… I haven’t seen combat either. Actually, I only served half a term before washing out.”

“Why?”

“It’s nothing… I was just sleeping in the middle of the night, got yanked out of bed, and they gave me the boot the very next day.”

Fu Hu leaned in, thoroughly confused. “You shitting me? They court-martialed you for taking a nap?”

“Pretty much… my squadmate got kicked out too. Sigh… maybe we just lacked emotional intelligence and pissed off the wrong brass,” Cheng Du mumbled defensively.

“Enough! Cut the chatter, grab the meds, and let’s move!”

…

Meds secured, the trio piled back into the vehicle and hit the road.

Su Jin pointed straight ahead. “Just a bit further is Longshan Middle School. High probability of a Zombie horde. Watch out for debris and gun it straight through.”

“Got it!” Fu Hu choked the steering wheel, slamming his boot onto the gas pedal.

In less than a mile, they breached the perimeter of Longshan Middle School.

When the scene finally registered, the scalps of all three men went completely numb.

Zombies… an ungodly amount of Zombies.

Well over a hundred of them, trapped out on the streets during the torrential downpour before turning.

Discarded umbrellas littered the wet asphalt like colorful gravestones.

Judging by their outfits, these monsters weren’t students.

The moment the engine roared into view, the entire horde pivoted in unison, sprinting down the avenue straight for their bumper.

Fu Hu violently wrenched the wheel, aiming the heavy vehicle toward a weak link in the undead wall.

“Why the hell were so many people out in a monsoon? Were they all parents trying to pick up their brats?” Cheng Du gripped the overhead handle, his face twisting with panicked fury.

“Motherfucker! Just our luck!” Su Jin’s face darkened with lethal pragmatism. “Keep it steady. We can punch right through.”

“Isn’t the sidewalk wide open? Jump the curb and flatten them!”

“Roger.” Grinding his teeth, Fu Hu jerked the wheel, evading the main cluster and mounting the wide sidewalk.

In seconds, the main horde was eating their exhaust, dozens of yards behind them.

Su Jin glanced back, searing the horde’s distribution pattern into his memory.

The mob was fast—clocking in at roughly twelve miles per hour—but without fresh meat to chase, their patrol radius wouldn’t expand much.

They had to backtrack through this exact route later. Mapping the threat now was a mandatory survival tactic.

Through the iron wrought fences flanking the school, an ocean of infected bodies twitched and writhed in the shadows.

“Watch out!!” Cheng Du suddenly shrieked.

BANG! A deafening crunch hammered the front grill.

A Zombie draped in a ruined school uniform, clutching a miserable plastic flower, was now splayed across the hood.

Judging by the getup, it was probably a kid assigned to greet visiting officials, who turned into a Zombie and simply wandered out the gates.

“Holy shit, a Greeter Zombie! Hit the brakes!” Su Jin roared.

Fu Hu stomped the brakes, launching the student Zombie several yards down the pavement.

“Go! Gun it!”

The engine roared back to life, finally leaving the horde firmly in their dust.

His pulse still hammering, Su Jin shot a glare at the pale-faced Fu Hu. “Old Fu, can you actually drive? There were barely any Zombies in front of us and you still managed to hit one?”

“I swear that thing was a good distance away…”

“Don’t blame Old Fu. That Zombie was freakin’ fast, way faster than the regular ones. It had to be a track star before it died,” Cheng Du interjected.

“And how do you know it was a track star?” Su Jin snapped back.

“I could just tell. Shut up, let’s not distract Old Fu.”