Even as Lear and Bard were speaking, Carlos led Murphy and followed Brad to the second floor of the hospital, intending to reach the roof via the ladder outside the rooftop.
Bang!
"There are way fewer Infected in this hospital than I imagined," Murphy remarked, holstering his gun after a dull gunshot rang out. "I thought this place would be crawling with them, but we've only run into a dozen or so zombies in total."
Carlos shook his head. "Don't get complacent. Looking at the amount of blood in here, there's no way it was caused by just a few zombies. Stay sharp."
As soon as Carlos finished speaking, a noise drifted from the laundry room on the outer side of the corridor behind them.
The men exchanged a look, silently raised their guns, and slowly approached the laundry room.
As they drew closer, the noise inside the laundry room became more distinct.
The three of them crouched by the door as Carlos signaled with his hand.
"Three, two, one, go!"
They immediately breached the room in a combat formation, and the scene inside was blood-curdling.
Before Carlos and the others stood an upright monster covered in dark green scales, its form resembling some sort of dinosaur-man, frantically tearing at the corpse of a zombie. The walls of the laundry room were splattered with black, foul-smelling, and pungent blood.
Hearing the movement behind it, the monster whipped around. Slit, snake-like pupils locked onto Carlos and his team, and its massive maw, filled with fangs, slowly peeled open.
The monster's gaze sent an involuntary shiver down their spines.
"Holy shit, what the hell is that?!"
Brad's eyes widened as he let out a cry of shock.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
By then, Carlos and Murphy had already opened fire.
"Stop staring and start shooting! Kill it!"
Bullets struck the monster with wet thuds. The Hunter let out a pained screech but didn't flinch; instead, it shielded its face with his sharp claws and charged straight at the three of them.
Under the Hunter's onslaught, the three were forced to scatter.
As Carlos dove out of the way, the claws swiped across the rifle strapped to his chest, snapping the weapon in two instantly.
"Damn it, is this thing bulletproof?"
Carlos tossed the broken rifle aside, rolled to the side, and drew his tactical knife, staring intently at the Hunter's next move.
Worse still, there wasn't just one of them.
Inside the laundry room, another Hunter stepped out from the treatment room further back.
They hadn't even dealt with the first one, and another had appeared.
The moment Carlos saw the second monster, his heart sank.
Watching Murphy and Brad struggle to fend off the first Hunter, Carlos gritted his teeth and lunged toward the second Hunter.
His sudden action clearly caught the Hunter off guard.
It seemed unable to comprehend why this human dared to charge at it. Nevertheless, instinct drove it to swing its massive claws.
Carlos quickly reached the Hunter's striking range. He jerked his body to the side, dodging the attack, then put his full weight into a punch that slammed directly into the Hunter's face.
The Hunter was actually sent flying by the sheer force of Carlos's strike.
It twitched once or twice on the floor and then stopped moving, clearly dead.
Murphy, who was busy dodging the claws of another Hunter, saw this scene and his eyes widened in shock.
Before Murphy could say anything, Carlos turned and charged toward the first Hunter, delivering a brutal kick to its back that sent it flying out of the laundry room.
The Hunter crashed heavily through the laundry room door. Brad, standing guard at the entrance, glanced outside, and his face instantly paled. The hallway was swarming with at least four or five Hunters preparing to storm in.
His voice was tight and dry. "Carlos, go! Get back to the Main Hall and we'll figure something else out! There are too many of these damn things!"
Carlos caught sight of the situation outside through Brad's perspective.
He took a deep breath and said grimly, "There's no way out that way. Fall back!"
Carlos's eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. When he spotted a small door at the back of the laundry room, his eyes lit up.
"Murphy, Brad, you two go first! I'll cover the rear! Go through the treatment room to the hallway and get to the nurse station! Wait for Lear and the others there!" Carlos shouted, pointing toward the treatment room.
The two didn't hesitate. They scrambled over the clutter in the laundry room and ran toward the hallway outside the treatment room.
Carlos pulled a grenade from his belt, yanked the pin, and tossed it outside before turning to make a break for it himself.
Just as Carlos stepped into the hallway outside the treatment room, a violent explosion roared behind him. Before the smoke could even clear, three Hunters tore through the haze and lunged forward.
The three had no choice but to speed through the corridor, but at that moment, several zombies appeared in the previously empty hallway out of nowhere, severely hindering their progress.
Behind them, the three Hunters were closing in. Carlos and his teammates exchanged looks, each seeing a grim resolve in the others' eyes.
The three took a triangular formation in the hallway. Carlos and Murphy faced the Hunters while Brad handed his submachine gun to Carlos, drawing his pistol to deal with the zombies in the hall.
It seemed like a long preparation, but only a dozen seconds had passed.
For Brad, these few zombies weren't difficult to handle, but the pressure on Carlos and Murphy was immense. Brad knew they had chosen to face the greater threat to look out for him.
He had to clear them out fast to open a path. Brad gripped his gun tight, calmed his mind, and began picking off the zombies ahead with aimed shots.
While Brad was clearing the zombies, the three Hunters reached Carlos and Murphy.
Aggravated by some unknown stimulus, the creatures attacked with ferocity, forcing Carlos and the others to retreat step by step.
Fortunately, the hallway was narrow. Combined with the Hunters' broad, bulky frames, only one could effectively attack at a time, allowing Carlos and Murphy to hold them off for now.
Just as Carlos and Murphy were about to reach their limit, Brad's voice called out from behind.
"Carlos! Murphy! Get in here, quick!"
The two exerted themselves to shove back another round of fierce attacks from the Hunters. They glanced back to see that Brad had finished off the zombies and opened the door to the nurse station, waving them over urgently.
They returned fire as they retreated in turns, finally managing to scramble inside the nurse station.
Brad and Carlos, the last one through, slammed the door shut and put their full weight against it.
An instant later, the heavy door shuddered under the frenzied impact of the Hunters outside, producing a series of dull, violent thuds.
The pounding lasted for about half a minute before silence fell outside.
Just as the three were about to discuss their next move, the walkie-talkie at Carlos's waist crackled to life.
"Static—Carlos! What's going on over there? I heard a hand grenade and a long burst of gunfire!"
Carlos picked up the walkie-talkie. "Tyrell? We're okay for now, but I don't know for how long. We've run into a bunch of monsters we've never seen before. We're pinned down in the nurse station on the second floor."
"The nurse station? Right, I've got it. Lear is back and he brought Dr. Bard with him. He's coming for you now. Hang in there, brothers, he's almost there!"
(Translated by yourtl.app)