Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Bone-Deep Instinct
A hundred kilometers used to be a two-hour drive. Now it was a crawl through a graveyard.
Zombies appeared without warning. Wrecked vehicles lay strewn across the road like bones. Every so often, desperate people lunged out from the roadside—waving, begging, blocking lanes, grabbing at doors. Every one of them slowed the convoy.
The military airport sat in open ground—no residents, no tall buildings. Just flat land stretching in every direction. If a horde surrounded them out here, there would be nowhere to retreat, nowhere to anchor.
This time, Black Eagle went in at full strength—twelve members. Ying Yi led as captain; Ying Ao, captain of the second squad, served as deputy. With five additional ability users assigned, their total headcount hit seventeen.
They rolled out at sunrise.
The road stayed ugly. They skirted two large zombie hordes, then the density thinned as they neared the airport. Big clusters disappeared, leaving scattered stragglers—easy kills, easy crystal cores. Those cores were hard currency now.
They rotated short rests and quick meals, then pushed speed. They needed the airport before sunset. They’d be spending the night inside.
Lian Yi ate the rice balls she’d made herself—packed with braised meat, egg, sausage, mushrooms. Real food, heavy enough to keep a body moving. She finished five, each the size of an adult fist, then shut her eyes to rest.
Three months into the apocalypse, the gap between ability users and ordinary people was widening fast. With each rise, Lian Yi’s appetite grew. She absorbed energy from Level One cores faster and faster, and even so, Level One no longer felt like enough to push her to the next tier.
Ordinary people didn’t have abilities, but they were changing too—stronger bodies, sharper senses. Evolution, in its own cruel way. Now, an ordinary person could kill a Level Zero zombie. With tight teamwork, even a Level One could go down.
“Two kilometers,” Ying Yi’s voice crackled over the radio. “Prepare to move.”
Lian Yi opened her eyes, checked her gear, and jumped down as soon as the vehicle settled.
A drone rose into the air, sweeping the airport from above.
The runway held no planes. The aircraft were likely in the hangars. Zombies wandered inside the perimeter, slow and aimless—until the drone buzzed overhead. Then heads lifted in unison, pupil-less eyes tilting up.
In the northwest corner stood two separate two-story buildings—offices and dormitories. In the southeast sat a massive warehouse. Ammunition should be in logistics storage.
Once the layout was clear, Ying Yi assigned tasks.
Ying Ao took Squad Two and the space ability user to search the warehouse for ammunition. Everyone else cleared the runway and grounds, preparing for the possibility of flying jets out.
Lian Yi didn’t like that plan. Zombie animals had already shown up. If that was true, zombie birds were possible too. A fighter jet hitting a flock wouldn’t be a near miss—it would be a coffin.
“Zombie animals have already appeared,” Lian Yi said. “Have you considered zombie birds?”
Ying Yi nodded. “Airport regulations usually keep birds away, and the area gets cleaned regularly. But it’s been three months. Anything could happen. Stay sharp.”
“Move out!”
The two teams pushed in, tactical formation splitting left and right.
Eaglewing squad worked fast. Within an hour, they’d wiped out every zombie wandering the grounds. Most looked like former airport staff. The count felt wrong, though—too low.
“Captain,” someone reported, voice tight, “the numbers don’t match. We were told there were three hundred stationed here. We’ve killed less than a hundred.”
“Check the office building and dorms.”
They moved toward the northwest buildings. Through the windows, the truth showed itself—zombies jammed inside, clawing at the air, all of them crowding the second floor.
“Prepare to clear.”
They entered through the first floor and swept room by room. On the second, gunfire turned constant—short bursts, controlled fire. Lian Yi stayed near the rear, watching corners and blind spots.
Ten rooms. Each packed with ten, sometimes fifteen zombies. It took another hour to clear them.
In the deepest surveillance room, Ying Yi found a pilot—already turned. He was curled in a corner like a corpse, blackened lower leg visible beneath torn fabric.
The squad went silent.
It was obvious what had happened. He’d pulled the zombies into the building to contain them, gotten scratched, and turned.
He heard them. His head lifted slowly. His eyes were gone—only milky pits. A wet, ragged breath rasped in his throat.
But he didn’t lunge.
The stillness thickened until it hurt.
Lian Yi exhaled, stepped forward, and said, “Go check the dorm building behind us. I’ll handle this.”
“You—”
“I’ll send him off properly.”
Ying Yi’s jaw tightened. In the end, he lifted a hand and led the others out.
Lian Yi ended it with one clean sword stroke.
A crystal core rolled across the floor to her boot—larger than a Level One by a full ring.
Level Two.
That explained everything. The rest of the airport’s zombies had been trapped and contained under his influence—locked away to keep them from spilling out and killing more people.
Maybe it was the last instinct he had left in his bones, even after he turned.
Lian Yi pocketed the core and sprinted for the dorm building.
Without that Level Two presence suppressing them, the zombies inside surged at the squad the moment they entered. A hard, ugly clash erupted.
Half an hour later, the dorm building was clear. The squad stood among bodies, breathing hard, morale low.
“Captain Eaglewing,” the radio crackled, “our side is clear. Ammunition secured. Moving to link up.”
“Copy. Come to the dorm building. It’s clean.”
Squad Two arrived half an hour later. The two captains traded a few quiet words, then decided to spend the night inside and leave at first light.
Only Lian Yi kept scanning the sky.
The sinking sun bled red across the horizon. The wind tasted damp.
Rain was coming.
She remembered what she’d seen from her god’s-eye view and went straight to Ying Yi.
“Captain. I’ve got a bad feeling. Either we move tonight, or we prepare to be trapped.”