A certain small town, 2:00 PM.
The sun lazily shone down on the dilapidated street; with its overturned cars, shattered windows, and scattered debris, it was no different from countless other small towns in the apocalypse.
A Walkers rounded the corner, dragging its stiff legs as it wandered aimlessly forward.
It wore a shirt whose color was no longer discernable, and half of its face had been gnawed away by something, exposing dark red muscle and bone.
Bang.
The muffled thud of a silencer.
The Walkers's head was like a watermelon struck by a hammer, exploding into a cloud of dark red blood mist.
It didn't even have time to let out a roar before falling straight to the ground.
"Yee-haw—"
On the roof of a convenience store, Merle Dixon sat in a folding chair, propping up an AMW Sniper Rifle with two dozen beers sitting by his feet.
He wore a set of black combat fatigues, complete with knee and elbow pads, and his tactical vest pockets were filled with magazines, but his helmet was tossed aside, revealing messy hair and his perpetually punchable expression.
He took a swig of beer, his favorite rock music playing in his headphones, as he aimed through the sniper scope at another Walkers that had just emerged from an alley.
Bang.
Headshot.
Another one.
Bang.
Headshot.
He lowered his gun, leaned back against the chair, crossed his legs, and squinted as he watched his team members practice in the town.
Ten guys in black uniforms were scattered on both sides of the street in pairs, using the machetes, axes, and crowbars in their hands to clear out the Walkerss emerging from various corners.
This was Wu Fan's requirement—marksmanship could be practiced slowly, but close combat skills had to be up to standard.
In case they ran out of bullets one day, they could at least survive with a blade.
Merle watched a new kid downstairs miss a swing; he was nearly tackled by a Walkers before a teammate nearby stepped in with an axe, splitting the thing's head in two.
He shook his head and took another swig of beer.
A rookie is a rookie.
He pulled out his MP3 player, changed the song, and closed his eyes. With the sun on his face, beer in his hand, music in his ears, and Walkerss in his sniper scope—this life was fucking fantastic.
Hmm?
He opened his eyes and subconsciously looked toward the woods outside the town.
A few hundred meters away at the edge of the woods, several Walkerss were stumbling out.
Merle perked up and raised his sniper rifle, centering the scope on the head of the foremost one. Bang. Headshot.
The second one. Bang. Headshot.
The third one. Bang—he missed, only taking off half a shoulder. The Walkers wobbled but continued to move forward.
He clicked his tongue and fired a follow-up shot. Headshot.
He was about to shift his aim back to the town when he suddenly paused.
More Walkerss were emerging from the woods—not three or five, but a dozen.
And it wasn't just in front of him; Walkerss were continuously pouring out from the woods to the north and east of the town as well.
Those grayish-white figures were like ants emerging from the ground, becoming more numerous and more dense.
Merle set down his beer can, grabbed his walkie-talkie, and his voice turned cold: "Everyone, evacuate! Now! Get in the vehicles!"
He grabbed his sniper rifle and dashed toward the roof's stairwell, taking the three flights of stairs in three steps each, practically jumping down.
He pushed open the convenience store door, and that modified humvee was parked right by the roadside.
He yanked open the passenger door, flopped inside, and propped his sniper rifle on the window frame.
One minute. Two minutes.
They weren't back yet.
Merle gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white.
Through the windshield, he looked toward the end of the street, and those ten figures in black uniforms finally burst from the corner.
They were running for their lives, and behind them followed not dozens, not hundreds—but a dense, endless sea of Walkerss.
"What the fuck!"
Merle cursed, started the engine, shifted into reverse, and slammed the gas pedal to the floor.
The humvee screamed as it reversed, its tires kicking up white smoke from the pavement.
He steered with one hand, swinging the front of the car around so the side door faced the sprinting team members.
"Get in!"
He roared.
The first team member lunged forward, grabbed the door handle, and was shoved inside by someone behind him.
The second, third, fourth—some grabbed the roof rack, some hung off the side, and some sprawled across the hood.
The humvee started forward, moving as slowly as an old man.
Through the windshield, Merle saw the ass of the guy on the hood right in front of his face, completely blocking his view.
"Move your damn ass toward the passenger side!"
He yelled.
The guy scrambled to the side, and Merle finally saw the road ahead—the closest Walkers in the horde was less than ten meters from the front of the car.
The humvee roared as it lunged forward, knocking aside two Walkerss blocking the way and charging out of the town.
In the rearview mirror, those grayish-white figures were still chasing, but they were falling further and further behind.
Another humvee was parked on the highway outside the town, its engine still running.
As soon as Merle's car came to a stop, the people hanging on the outside jumped off and scrambled into the other vehicle.
Merle hit the gas, and the two humvees sped onto the highway one after the other.
He glanced back toward the town, and his breath hitched for a second.
He had been to the beach before and seen the continuous coastline where the water stretched to the horizon, seemingly without end.
Now, he was seeing the same sight on land.
It wasn't the ocean; it was Walkerss.
Dense and overwhelming, they poured out from the woods, the fields, and every alleyway in the town like a gray tide, slowly and inexorably closing in.
Merle grabbed the walkie-talkie: "Everyone, floor it! Back to base!"
"Captain, they're catching up behind us!"
"They won't! They can't outrun a car!"
Merle roared back, but his eyes were fixed ahead, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
A horde of this scale couldn't possibly be just the scattered Walkerss from the town.
Where did they come from? A thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
Atlanta.
The city where three million people had turned into Walkerss.
They had finally come out in force.
Merle floored the accelerator, and the humvee sped wildly down the highway.
CDC, third-floor office.
When Merle pushed the door open and entered, Wu Fan was looking at the system panel.
Merle was covered in sweat, and his combat fatigues were stained with something that was either blood or mud. He floored himself into a chair and grabbed the water glass from Wu Fan's desk, taking a huge gulp.
"Boss..."
He panted: "The Atlanta Walkerss are out. They're everywhere. We were almost surrounded."
Wu Fan set down his pen and looked at him.
Merle wasn't the type to exaggerate. If he said they were "everywhere," then they truly were everywhere.
"How many?"
Wu Fan asked.
Merle shook his head: "I couldn't see the end of them. Hundreds of thousands? Millions? All I know is that looking out from the town, they filled the entire horizon."
Wu Fan stood up, walked to the window, and looked toward Atlanta.
The sky was a hazy gray, no different from usual.
But at this moment, beneath that hazy gray sky, a gray tide was surging toward them.
He turned and picked up the phone: "Amy, tell Jackie to stop work. Everyone, stop work immediately."
Ten minutes later, Jackie ran into the office, her face covered in dust and her hard hat still on.
"BOSS, the horde is coming."
Wu Fan said: "Halt construction on the walls. Shut down all machinery. No noise, no vibrations. Everyone stay indoors and keep quiet."
Jackie's expression changed, but she didn't ask questions; she turned and ran.
For the next hour, the entire CDC was like a machine that had been paused.
The construction crews withdrew, the humvees were garaged, training was cancelled, and the patrols retreated inside the walls.
All lights were turned off, all machines were stopped, and everyone stayed inside with the curtains drawn tight, speaking only in hushed whispers.
The entire building was as silent as a tomb.
Two hours later, the gray tide appeared in their field of vision.
They surged majestically along the highway to the north of the CDC.
They had come from Atlanta and were heading southwest along the highway.
No one knew where they were going; perhaps they were just walking instinctively, or perhaps they were drawn by some scent carried by the wind.
The Walkerss at the very front crashed into the newly built concrete wall.
That wall had just been finished; it faced Atlanta, and the grayish-white cement hadn't even fully dried yet.
The Walkerss hit it and stopped; those behind hit them, and those further back hit the ones in front of them.
Then they squeezed toward the Walkerss on their left and right.
The shoreline of the horde was forcibly split, creating a gap.
Part of the horde was blocked by the wall, milling around aimlessly.
Another part bypassed the end of the wall and continued heading southwest.
Rick stood by the window of the main building, watching the scene outside in silence for a long time.
Beside him, Shane was also silent.
Glenn whispered: "It's a good thing this side of the wall was built first..."
Wu Fan stood at the third-floor window, an unlit cigarette between his fingers.
He watched the Walkerss split and flow past both sides of the wall, like a river diverting around a giant boulder.
The wall wasn't long enough.
Those were the exact words Jackie had told him; there wasn't enough time or materials, so they could only build the most dangerous side first.
Now, this side had held.
But there were still gaps at both ends.
The Walkerss that bypassed it would approach the base from other directions.
If there were just as many at those gaps...
He didn't follow that thought further.
A day and a night.
The horde marched for an entire day and night.
When dawn broke the next day, those grayish-white figures were finally gone from the highway.
Only a few dozen stragglers, attracted by some scent, wandered in through the unfinished gaps in the wall only to be stopped by the wire fence, where they fruitlessly reached out and hissed.
Rick took a squad out to clear them.
The muffled thuds of silencers sounded one after another as they fell one by one.
Merle stood by the fence with a cigarette in his mouth, watching the fallen Walkerss.
He remembered the "sea" he had seen in the town yesterday, that feeling of endless despair.
He took a deep drag, exhaled, and said to Sandra beside him: "The first line of defense is alright."
Sandra ignored him.
In the third-floor office, Wu Fan looked at the points on the system panel and remained silent for a long time. Then he closed the panel and picked up the phone on the desk: "Amy, have Jackie come over."
The construction of the wall had to be accelerated.
~~~~~~
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