East of the CDC, there was a hidden clearing in the forest.
Merle stood at the edge of the clearing with his ten-man squad, looking bewildered.
"The Boss just wants us to wait here?"
A team member asked in a low voice.
Merle puffed on his cigarette, squinting as he surveyed the clearing—an ordinary patch of grass surrounded by dense woods, with blue skies and white clouds overhead.
There was nothing special about it.
"We wait, that's all."
He said, "The Boss has his own plans."
The team members dispersed, some leaning against trees, others squatting on the ground, chatting idly.
They were all newcomers recently recruited by Merle, having gone out on a few sweeps with him. While their marksmanship was still rough, their courage had been tempered.
They waited for about ten minutes.
Suddenly, the ground shook.
Everyone straightened up.
"What's going on?"
Someone asked.
Before the words had even faded, the lawn in the center of the clearing began to split open.
It wasn't a natural fissure, but a neat, mechanical opening.
The grass, like two enormous doors, slowly retracted to the left and right.
Beneath the soil and turf, cold metal structures were revealed.
The cigarette in Merle's mouth fell to the ground.
The team members all widened their eyes and dropped their jaws.
The gap grew larger and larger, finally becoming a massive, circular pit.
It was bottomless, with only dim lights shining up from below.
A mechanical female voice came from below:
[Ready—Ready—Lifting platform activating—]
The roar of metal echoed. A huge, circular platform slowly rose from the deep pit.
On the platform sat a gray helicopter emblazoned with the Umbrella Corporation logo—a Puma.
The rotors weren't spinning yet, but the streamlined fuselage under the sunlight, the mounted anti-tank missiles, and the gaping cannon barrels—everything felt so real, yet so surreal.
"Holy sh*t..."
Someone muttered.
"This helicopter has been hidden underground the whole time?"
"The ground beneath our feet is hollow?"
Merle was stunned for a few seconds, then grinned: "Damn, the Boss is the Boss."
In the cockpit, Wu Fan waved at them and made a gesture to "come up."
Merle turned back and shouted to his team: "What are you standing around for? Board!"
The eleven men ran toward the helicopter and climbed into the cabin.
The cabin door closed, and the rotors began to spin, faster and faster.
The Puma slowly ascended and flew out of the pit.
Behind them, the massive circular platform began to descend, and the split grass closed back up, returning to an ordinary-looking clearing.
The helicopter climbed to high altitude, changed direction, and flew toward Athens.
Inside the cabin, Merle and his team huddled together, looking at the scenery outside through the windows.
After flying for about twenty minutes, a team member suddenly pointed out the window and shouted:
"Look over there!"
Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing.
To the west, on an open, hillside meadow, swarms of black dots were moving.
There were so many black dots that, viewed from high above, they looked like a slowly flowing black river.
Walkerss.
They were all Walkerss.
"This is f*cking too many..."
Someone muttered.
Merle frowned, estimating the numbers: "At least over a hundred thousand, to say the least."
Another team member pointed to the road: "Look down there."
On the road, there were vehicles stuck everywhere.
Overturned trucks, wrecked cars, and private vehicles jammed together every which way.
Some cars still had people inside—people who had turned into Walkerss, struggling futilely in the cabins.
"The Walkerss from Athens have come out."
Merle said: "There are no living people left in the city, so they've started a mass migration to find food."
He thought of the University of Georgia.
No wonder they were surrounded.
With so many Walkerss pouring out of the city, the university must have been the first to bear the brunt.
The Puma continued to fly forward.
Ten minutes later, the University of Georgia appeared in their field of vision.
Everyone gasped.
On campus, it was swarming with Walkerss.
On the sports field, between the teaching buildings, on the tree-lined paths—they were everywhere.
They were packed together, moving slowly, emitting low, guttural growls.
The scale was even larger than what they had seen on the hillside earlier.
"Tens of thousands..."
Merle muttered: "At least over thirty thousand..."
He thought of Marcus.
That kid was lucky to have escaped from a place like this.
Wu Fan maneuvered the helicopter to lower its altitude, hovering over the teaching building.
The main entrance of a five-story teaching building had been breached by Walkerss, glass shattered all over the floor, and several corpses were piled at the door.
The windows on the second floor and above were all closed; no one could be seen inside.
Wu Fan circled it again and again.
He saw no signs of any living people.
Not on the second floor.
Not on the third floor either.
Fourth floor, fifth floor—no one was at the windows calling for help.
But if Sandra and her team were really trapped here, they should still be alive.
Otherwise, Marcus wouldn't have waited three days without seeing anyone come out.
Unless they had already...
Wu Fan shook his head, pushing the thought away.
He pulled the control stick, and the helicopter hovered above the roof.
"Merle!"
He shouted to the rear cabin: "Take your men and rappel down! Search!"
The cabin door opened, and the rope ladder was tossed down.
Merle slid down first, with the ten men following closely behind.
They landed on the concrete roof and quickly dispersed into a tactical formation.
Merle walked to the roof exit and kicked open the iron door.
It was pitch black inside, and a stench of rot rushed out to meet them.
He raised his MP5 and led the way down.
The team members followed behind him, their guns pointed in all directions, their footsteps extremely light.
The stairwell was very dark, with only emergency lights emitting a faint green glow.
There were many bloodstains on the walls and debris scattered on the floor.
When they reached the fifth floor, the hallway was empty.
But a few Walkerss were wandering about.
Merle raised his gun, and the silencer made a soft pfft-pfft sound.
Two Walkerss fell to the ground in response, their heads blown open.
They continued downward.
Fourth floor.
Third floor.
There were Walkerss on every floor, not many, but they were scattered. Merle's squad cooperated seamlessly, clearing them out quickly.
When they reached the second floor, a team member suddenly stopped.
"Captain..."
Merle walked over and saw the corpse.
Black combat uniform, bulletproof vest, MP5 submachine gun tossed to the side.
He was lying face down with a bullet hole in his head—he had been killed by a headshot.
Merle squatted down and turned the body over.
Brock.
That bald, burly man, one of the original team members who had followed Wu Fan from the start, a key member of Sandra's squad.
Merle was silent for a few seconds.
He lit a cigarette, placed it in the corner of the man's mouth, and stood up.
"Keep searching."
He said, his voice hoarse.
The team members dispersed to search every room on the second floor.
Classrooms, offices, restrooms, storage rooms—they searched them all.
Nothing.
Not a single person.
No living people, and no corpses—except for Brock.
"Captain,"
A team member ran over: "We've searched everywhere, there's no one."
Merle frowned.
They went back to the third, fourth, and fifth floors and searched again.
Still nothing.
"That's impossible."
Another team member said: "If Sandra and the others aren't here, why would Marcus have waited three days?"
Merle stood in the hallway, his mind racing.
Sandra and her team were trapped in the teaching building; Marcus had seen it with his own eyes.
But what happened in these three days after Marcus left?
If the Walkerss had broken in, they should have retreated to the upper floors. The highest point would be the fifth floor, then the roof.
But the roof door was closed, with no signs of having been opened.
Which meant they hadn't gone up to the roof.
So where did they go?
Merle walked to the window and looked out.
Below, the Walkerss were packed together, still wandering.
In the distance, there were also shadows of Walkerss at another teaching building.
Suddenly, he noticed a detail.
About fifty meters away from this building, there was a shorter teaching building.
Between the two buildings, there was a skybridge—an enclosed glass corridor connecting the second-floor hallways.
Merle's eyes lit up.
He walked quickly to the second floor and found the entrance to that skybridge.
The door was ajar.
He pushed the door open and walked in.
The glass corridor was dark, but he could see the hallway of the building opposite.
There were bloodstains on the floor, and a few footprints.
Merle turned back and said to the team members following him: "They might have moved to the building next door."
"Should we keep looking then?"
Merle thought for a moment and shook his head: "Report to the Boss first. There's no one left in this building; if they're still alive, they should find a way to contact us."
He led his team back to the roof and turned on the radio transceiver.
Wu Fan, at a helipad on a nearby high-rise, was silent for a few seconds after hearing Merle's report.
"Brock is dead."
He said, not as a question.
"Yes."
Merle nodded: "He was headshot; he must have been bitten during the fight, and his teammates helped him find release."
Wu Fan took a deep breath and looked at the teaching building outside the window.
Sandra, Abraham's daughter, and those few team members.
Are they all still alive?