Chapter 127 Who was bitten?

Chapter 127: Chapter 127 Who was bitten?

They all ran after the skeletal hands, trying desperately to see where they were taking Rowan and Ethan as both men were dragged backward at an alarming speed. The hands kept moving so fast that Luna—who already had a gun materialized in her hand from her system—tried desperately to fire at the moving terror. She aimed carefully, not wanting to hit Rowan or Ethan, but none of her gunshots seemed to be helping. The bullets struck the skeletal hands and bounced off the strange energy surrounding them as if they were nothing more than harmless pebbles.

"Get off me, you disgusting thing!" Rowan yelled as he grabbed the skeletal structure and tried to pull himself free. His muscles strained as he dug his boots into the sandy ground, but the strange energy being used by the hands seemed to increase tremendously. The harder Rowan fought, the harder the force dragged him backward. "Fuck!"

Kai was already running after them. He lifted one hand and immediately summoned his Frost power. The temperature inside the tunnel dropped so quickly that Luna could feel the cold against her skin. A massive ice splinter formed in front of Kai before racing forward like a spear. It slammed into the ground directly in front of the skeletal hands, creating a thick barrier and blocking the path they were trying to follow.

At the same time, Ethan—still being dragged—reached desperately for anything he could use to stop himself. His hand caught a bent piece of iron that had been impaled through the wall. Ethan grabbed it with everything he had. The skeletal hand continued pulling. His entire body jerked violently. His feet scraped against the sandy floor as he tried to hold his ground.

"Son of a—" The pressure increased. Ethan’s arms trembled as he wrapped both hands around the bent iron. The skeletal hand pulled harder. His legs kicked wildly as he tried to force it away from his feet. "Let go of me!"

The irritating thing refused to listen. It continued dragging him as though Ethan weighed absolutely nothing.

Kai was getting closer now, and so was Luna. Luna kept firing at the skeletal hands while trying her best not to hit her targets. "Kai! Do something!"

"I’m trying!"

Kai reached into one of the many pockets attached to his uniform and pulled out a bottle of water. His uniform had been designed with several deep pockets around his body for efficiency. Water was especially important to him because it served as the source of his Frost abilities. He couldn’t afford to run out of it, especially inside an unknown place like this. He twisted the bottle open and poured the water into his palm. The liquid immediately froze. Ice spread rapidly across his fingers, climbing over his hand before becoming a thick mass of crystalline Frost.

Kai swung his arm. The ice surged forward. It slammed directly into the corner where the skeletal hand holding Rowan was trying to turn. The creature attempted to change direction, but before it could achieve that, the ice rapidly expanded. A thick wall of Frost rose from the ground and completely blocked its path.

The skeletal hand stopped. For the first time, the strange force dragging Rowan seemed to weaken. Rowan was released so suddenly that he almost fell flat on his face. "Damn!"

Ethan was also finally freed from the hand’s grip. He collapsed onto one knee, breathing heavily.

Luna lowered her gun. Something didn’t feel right. She looked around. Her eyes narrowed. The place wasn’t familiar. They were no longer anywhere near the path they had originally been following. They had somehow been dragged much deeper into the passage.

"How did we even get here?" Adrian asked, looking around in confusion. "Is it just that running?"

No one answered him. They were too busy trying to understand what had just happened. Adrian swallowed and decided to keep the question to himself. Instead, he looked around to see whether he could help any of them.

Luna slowly stopped moving. The skeletal hands had stopped too. The sudden silence was almost worse than the screaming from earlier.

Rowan and Ethan, who had been dragged for what felt like an eternity, finally fell onto the sandy floor with loud thuds. Rowan rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. "Here goes another one of our escape plans." He pushed himself up, still breathing heavily. "Just tell me where these horrible things came from." His expression was baffled. They had entered the tunnel expecting danger, but none of them had expected a group of skeletal hands to emerge from the walls and drag them deeper inside.

Luna stepped forward. She was the bravest one among them—or perhaps simply the one who was most willing to investigate something that could get them killed. She walked toward Rowan and Ethan, her eyes fixed on the skeletal hands. They had been vicious only moments ago. Now they were completely motionless. They lay uselessly on the floor as though they had never moved in the first place.

Luna crouched beside one of them and studied it carefully. "That’s strange."

Kai moved closer. "How did something like this just stop working?" He looked toward the dark passage. "Is there some kind of ploy to bring us here that we don’t know about? Because this isn’t natural."

The word "natural" immediately caught everyone’s attention. Kai mentioning nature was almost surprising. Nature had become practically worthless after the apocalypse began. The world they had known no longer existed. Animals had mutated. Plants had changed. The weather itself had become deadly. Yet even with all of that, what they were seeing still felt wrong.

They hadn’t seen the true danger yet. But no one wanted to wait around for it to introduce itself.

"Rowan, Ethan, can you two get up?" Luna asked.

"Yeah." Rowan pushed himself up. Ethan also tried to stand.

Luna leaned closer to the skeletal hand, wanting to see whether her system could scan it. Before she could activate anything, however—CRACK! Everyone turned. The ice wall Kai had created suddenly developed a massive crack.

"What the—" CRASH! The entire wall broke apart. Chunks of ice shattered across the ground.

Luna immediately stood. Her eyes widened.

The deeper path of the tunnel was finally exposed. And what she saw on the other side was a complete nightmare.

Hundreds—almost hundreds—of zombies stood there. Some were packed so tightly together that their bodies were practically touching. Others were mixed among piles of old skeletons that had dried until their bones had turned pale. The sight was horrifying.

Kai’s eyes widened. He blinked several times, almost expecting the scene to disappear. It didn’t. The zombies remained there. Some had gigantic mouths that were stretched unnaturally wide, their jaws hanging open as though they had become permanently stuck that way. Others had swollen bodies covered in wounds. One zombie’s stomach had completely split open, its intestines hanging from its body and dragging along the ground. Fresh blood dripped from the exposed flesh. It should have been dried. It should have been rotten. But somehow, it still looked fresh.

Kai’s face paled. "I can’t stomach this." And for once, nobody laughed at him. It wasn’t the skeletons that bothered him. It was the zombies. There were simply too many of them. The entire passage seemed to be filled with their bodies.

Rowan slowly stepped backward. "That’s a lot."

"That’s more than a lot," Ethan muttered.

The squad stood completely speechless. They had been trying to escape. Now they were faced with a choice: run, or fight hundreds of zombies in a narrow tunnel. Neither option sounded good.

Then the zombies began to move. Their bodies jerked. Their heads lifted. Their eyes locked onto the humans standing in front of them. A low growl echoed through the passage. Then another. Then hundreds. The zombies began staggering forward. Their claws scraped against the ground as they reached toward them. Some slammed against the walls. Others opened their mouths and released horrible screams. They wanted flesh. Especially the people lying closest to them.

Rowan immediately stood fully upright. He moved in front of the others. "These people are at my back."

Before he could do anything else, Ethan grabbed his arm. "Run!" Ethan dragged Rowan backward. "We can’t fight all of them here!"

Rowan resisted for half a second before realizing Ethan was right. They needed to regroup. They needed space. They needed a way out.

But Luna suddenly froze. Her eyes shifted toward the skeletal hands. They had been motionless. They had been completely useless. So why—the fingers moved. Luna’s eyes widened. The skeletal hand twitched. Then it suddenly shot forward.

"Luna!"

The hand slammed into Rowan. Its claws nearly reached his face. Rowan threw himself backward just in time.

At the same moment, the zombies attacked. All of them moved at once. Not randomly. Not mindlessly. Together.

Luna’s expression changed. Something was very wrong.

"These zombies..." Kai stared at the horde. "They’re not attacking."

"What?" Adrian asked.

Kai’s voice dropped. "Look at them." The zombies had stopped. Their mouths were open. Their claws were raised. But they weren’t immediately rushing forward. Instead, they were looking at them. Waiting. Waiting for something.

Kai’s breathing became heavier. "This shouldn’t be happening, Luna. Something is wrong somewhere, and I don’t know who is having the upper hand anymore." He pointed toward the horde. "But why the fuck aren’t the zombies attacking immediately? Why did they stand like that and look at us as if they’re waiting for instructions?"

Luna’s eyes narrowed. "We know how zombies are."

"Exactly!" Kai snapped. "They’re mindless beasts. This shouldn’t even exist." He swallowed. "And now look."

The zombies suddenly began moving again. One took a step. Then another. Then the entire horde surged forward.

Luna’s instincts screamed at her. This particular world was filled with horrors she wasn’t sure a normal person could survive. Every time she thought she understood how the apocalypse worked, something new appeared to prove her wrong. First there had been mutated creatures. Then supernatural abilities. Then strange tunnels. Now zombies that seemed to be waiting for instructions. Who—or what—was controlling them?

She didn’t have time to figure it out. "We have to get rid of all of them!" Luna shouted. She raised her weapon. "Fight and don’t let any one of us get taken!"

The others immediately prepared themselves. Kai’s Frost erupted from his hands. Rowan summoned his power. Ethan raised his weapon. Adrian prepared his portals. Luna’s system activated several weapons at once.

Then the horde came. A massive wave of bodies poured through the passage. The tunnel exploded into chaos. Zombies clawed at them. Jaws snapped. Bodies slammed against bodies. The air filled with screams and growls as the squad fought desperately to keep them away.

Luna fired. Bang! Bang! Bang! A zombie’s head exploded. Another lunged toward her. She ducked beneath its claws and drove her weapon through its skull. Rowan grabbed another creature by the throat and threw it against the wall. Ethan swung his weapon, cutting down two more. Kai unleashed a blast of Frost that froze several zombies in place.

But there were too many. Every time one fell, another climbed over its corpse. Adrian opened a portal beneath a group of them and sent them crashing into another section of the tunnel. "There’s too many!" he shouted.

"Then keep killing them!" Luna fired again.

A zombie suddenly slipped past Rowan. It lunged. Its claws tore across someone’s body. Blood sprayed. Someone screamed. Another zombie snapped its jaws toward exposed flesh.

Luna turned. Her heart stopped. One of them had actually managed to take a piece of flesh. But whose? The question hung in the air. Nobody knew. And that was the terrifying part.

Because one bite was enough. One wound was enough. One infected person among them could destroy the entire group.

Luna’s eyes swept across the battlefield. Her gaze moved frantically from one person to another. "Who got bitten?"