Hunter's Game 2: Zombie Paradise - Chapter 6

Only then did I remember the newspaper I had picked up from the factory floor.

Curiosity stirred. I pulled it from my pocket.

By the dim light, I finished the article titled CHEMICAL PLANT LEAK KILLS EVERY WORKER—OFFICIAL STORY IN DOUBT!

The report mentioned two things.

First, forty-four workers had been inside the plant when the accident occurred, but only forty-three had turned. One female employee had escaped. Her current whereabouts were unknown.

Second, after the leak, not only had the workers become zombies, but the local climate had changed. Heavy fog now occurred frequently.

At last I understood why fog kept appearing.

Then I remembered the line in the *Map of Apocalypse Island* that imitated the printed type.

“Fog warnings use three colors. Green indicates visibility of approximately fifty meters, yellow approximately twenty meters, and red approximately five meters.”

Red, yellow, green—the same colors as the signal lamp. Were the two connected, or was it merely a coincidence?

What deeper meaning did that passage conceal?

I wrestled with it all the way onward but found no answer.

After another hour or so, a little past nine that evening, the mine cart stopped again.

My heart began pounding for no reason. By now, I knew that when the cart stopped, nothing good was likely to follow.

Sure enough, through the drifting mist I made out a gigantic glass building in the open ground ahead.

The others saw it too.

We waited in the cart, but the system gave no instructions at all.

“Why don’t we go down and take a look?” Qin Wu suggested.

Everyone looked back and forth. After careful discussion, they decided that Chen Lang, Qin Wu, and I would investigate while the others guarded the cart.

I climbed out, forcing myself to be brave, and followed the other two.

We soon reached the glass building.

The fog inside was so thick that condensation filmed the glass and blocked our view.

From outside, we could see nothing.

We circled the building but found no doors or windows.

I located a patch of glass with slightly less condensation, pressed my face against it, and strained to peer through the gloom.

What I saw nearly frightened my soul out of my body.

Hundreds of zombies stood packed together in the cavernous room!

My brain buzzed, and my scalp prickled all over.

Chen Lang and Qin Wu saw them too. They signaled me, and the three of us hurried back to the cart.

“What’s inside?”

Seeing our expressions, the others asked in cautious voices.

“Zombies. At least a hundred.”

No one cried out. No one spoke at all.

In the weak light, fog seemed to cling to every face.

After what felt like an eternity, I forced my mouth open and found my voice.

“When I looked in, I think their eyes were closed.”

Chen Lang nodded. “That’s right. I got a better look. They’re asleep.”

Gamer Lin hesitated, then asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“So when are they… planning to wake up?”

No one could answer.

In the clammy air, a chill seeped into every heart.

At the height of the tension, our earpieces finally crackled.

“Ksssh… players… attention! Zombies… glass… ksssh… signal interference!”

I turned the volume to maximum, but the interference grew worse.

“Warning! System malfunction! Warning! System malfunction!”

“All personnel evacuate immediately! All personnel evacuate immediately!”

Panic swept through the group.

Then a crisp crack came from the distant glass building.

In that dreadful place, the sound carried with terrible clarity.

I went rigid and turned around.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Fractures spread across the glass, multiplying into radial streaks of lightning.

Crash!

With a deafening report, the thing we feared most came to pass.

The glass building shattered completely, and the fog inside rapidly dispersed.

More than a hundred zombies stood amid the swirling vapor.

“Khrrr… aaah…”

The dozens at the front opened their eyes and woke.

Chen Lang reacted first.

“Senior, throw your grenade! Now!”

“Everyone, switch to firearms!”

The others snapped out of their stupor.

They swiftly discarded their cold weapons and reached for pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, and the rest.

Knowing we had no time, I pulled out my grenade, yanked the pin, sprinted a few dozen steps, and hurled it into the horde.

Boom!

The explosion obliterated the heads of more than a dozen zombies.

Two other players threw their grenades in quick succession.

Boom!

Boom!

The pair of blasts killed nearly half the horde on the spot.

The rest were mangled by the shock waves—legs crippled, arms torn off, half their bodies missing—yet they kept writhing forward with stubborn devotion.

Those farther from the centers of the explosions charged us in a frenzy.

“Fire! Aim for the head!” Chen Lang commanded.

Pistols cracked and machine guns hammered.

When the barrage ended, more than a hundred zombies carpeted the ground. Intestines, organs, severed limbs, and heads made a gruesome tableau.

Gunpowder and blood mingled in the air, stinging our eyes.

We had just begun to relax when an eerie voice drifted from the distant fog.

“Red means stop, green means go, yellow means wait a little…”