C22 Third Level Zombie

After about twenty minutes, Han Feng pulled up to the front of a sprawling supermarket.

Stepping out of the car, he took a moment to survey the three-story structure, noting the sparse presence of zombies inside.

This was a promising sign; now was the optimal moment to act swiftly.

"First team, come with me. Second team, station two soldiers at the entrance for watch. The rest, you're with me," Han Feng commanded from the supermarket's threshold.

"Move out." With that, he strode into the dimly lit supermarket, where disheveled shelves littered the floor.

The overhead lights crackled intermittently, betraying a faulty connection.

Without a word, Han Feng hastened toward the grains and oils section, his eight red-clad police soldiers trailing closely behind.

The silence was deafening, punctuated only by their footsteps and breaths.

The murky atmosphere, the intermittent lighting, and the eerie stillness all spelled out an unsettling scene.

Reaching the grains and oils, Han Feng halted.

"Something's off... there could be trouble," he observed, scanning the area. "The supplies are too orderly; survivors wouldn't overlook such crucial provisions unless..."

"Everyone, brace for combat!" he ordered abruptly.

The soldiers instantly encircled Han Feng, readying their weapons.

One second... two seconds...

Dozens of seconds ticked by in continued silence.

??

"Am I overreacting? Is there really no threat?" Han Feng chuckled to himself before instructing the Winter Soldier, "Grab a bag of rice."

Obediently, the Winter Soldier set down his weapon and approached the rice.

But as he reached out, chaos erupted!

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Roar!"

Zombies surged from the shadows and doorways of the supermarket in overwhelming numbers!

From the restroom, the warehouse door, the break room, and numerous first-floor shops, hordes of the undead emerged!

"Damn it! What's happening? Fire! Fire!" Han Feng was taken aback by the sudden onslaught.

Zombies swarmed from every direction, cutting off Han Feng and his team's escape route.

"Ratatat! Ratatat!" The AK47 and M60 machine guns relentlessly sprayed bullets at the encircling zombies.

"Break out! Ready the grenades!" Han Feng's instincts kicked in. They couldn't afford to stay put; they needed a way out—and fast.

Han Feng eyed the exit, a mere fifty meters away. A distance usually covered in under a minute now seemed as distant as the heavens.

"Toss me a grenade!" Han Feng barked at a conscript beside him while keeping his gun blazing.

"Duck!"

"Boom!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Han Feng grabbed the grenade and hurled it towards the advancing horde of zombies.

But with the sheer number of undead, the grenade's impact was less than expected, barely making a dent in their ranks.

"We're trapped, Captain Han! There's no breaking through!" Wynne yelled back to Han Feng, not taking his eyes off his target.

"Damn it!" Han Feng swore under his breath, his gaze fixed on the distant exit.

He hadn't made much headway; the exit was still far off, with a dense swarm of zombies cutting off any chance of escape.

This was the gravest zombie crisis Han Feng had ever faced. The last encounter at the police station was child's play compared to this...

"Upstairs!" Han Feng's eyes snapped to the second floor. The zombies were plentiful, but their numbers paled in comparison to the first floor.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Grenades flew towards the staircase in quick succession, blasting a clear path through the undead.

The nine of them doubled their pace, charging up the stairs.

Two American soldiers led the charge with their machine guns, securing a temporary safe spot on the second floor.

"Wynne, get the HE grenades ready. Aim for the staircase!" Han Feng instructed once they were upstairs.

Boom! The explosion echoed through the supermarket, the staircase giving way and cutting off the zombies' ascent.

Hugging the wall of the second floor, Han Feng scanned his surroundings.

As desperation set in, a solitary figure caught his eye...

Between two shelves deeper inside the second floor stood a lean figure, utterly still.

While the red-clad soldiers continued to fend off the surrounding zombies, Han Feng stood motionless.

Their eyes locked, and in the midst of chaos, they simply stared at each other.

Seconds later, Han Feng broke the silence.

"What the hell is that? Blow it up!"

The four conscripted soldiers quickly pulled out their HE grenades and hurled them at the enigmatic figure.

"Boom!"

The four explosions erupted simultaneously, sending a massive shockwave rippling through the area.

Han Feng rose to his feet, his eyes locked onto the figure, a look of utter disbelief etched across his face.

He couldn't fathom what he had just witnessed.

Right before the grenades detonated, the figure had moved with a speed that eluded even Han Feng's perception.

The grenades had exploded in vain!

The figure had sustained only minor injuries...

Though standing at an angle, its eyes now bore a more savage gleam than before.

"Da Da! Click..."

An AK47 in the hands of one of the conscripts ran dry.

As if things weren't bad enough, facing a horde of zombies without ample ammunition was now a deadly predicament.

Suddenly, the figure charged at Han Feng.

In an instant, the soldiers couldn't pivot their weapons fast enough, and one conscript was seized.

This extraordinary zombie grasped the soldier, not retreating with its prior swiftness, but instead locking eyes with Han Feng at close range...

All this transpired in mere seconds. As the other conscripts swung their guns toward it, the figure retreated swiftly,

taking the conscript back into the throng of zombies.

The surrounding zombies came to a standstill.

Though it seemed to unfold slowly, barely a minute had passed since the zombies' abrupt emergence.

The zombies began to close in on the figure, encircling Han Feng in a semi-circle.

The conscript was dead.

The adversary methodically devoured the soldier, occasionally lifting its head to throw a defiant glance at Han Feng.

Han Feng had an epiphany.

This entire ordeal was orchestrated by him!

Han Feng had sensed something amiss earlier due to the eerie silence.

Zombies, devoid of consciousness, should be constantly on the move. Even if the supermarket had few zombies, it couldn't be completely empty, could it?

Han Feng's thoughts raced back to the running zombie he had encountered an hour earlier.

They... they were evolving!

The concept of 'evolution' flashed through Han Feng's mind!

Indeed, he was right! The initial zombies were mindless, but the running ones exhibited a trace of awareness, and this one... likely orchestrated the silence, waiting to ambush him with a full-scale encirclement once he was fully inside the supermarket.

"Third-level zombie?" Han Feng whispered under his breath.

The air fell silent once more... Oh no, except for the gnawing of that Third-Level zombie...

Seeing the zombie motionless, the red police soldiers ceased fire to conserve ammunition.

Time ticked away slowly...

Han Feng could hear the pounding of his own heart...

At last, the Third-Level zombie stopped its gnawing.

It looked up at Han Feng, its eyes filled with mockery.

Then, rising to its feet, the zombie charged once more.

"Da-da-da-da-da!" Twin machine guns blazed to life.

But not a single bullet found its mark!

In a flash, the Third-Level zombie broke through the red police soldiers' perimeter.

Its gaze locked with Han Feng's once again, and just like before, another soldier was snatched away.

Seconds later, the meticulous sound of chewing resumed among the horde.

Cold sweat trickled down Han Feng's forehead. He ignored it, overwhelmed by a profound sense of dread.

He... he was toying with us!

He knows I'm the leader! He's saving me for last!

Tremors seized Han Feng as he stared at the Third-Level zombie...

Only three or four days since the outbreak, and such a formidable zombie had emerged?

What to do? What to do? Han Feng's mind raced with the question!

Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he desperately reached out to the system in his mind, "System! Can I build a sentry gun or a Pillbox right now?!"

"No, construction cannot exceed a range of one kilometer from the base or temporary base." The icy, mechanical voice crushed Han Feng's last sliver of hope without mercy.