Chapter 179: The Living Network

Far beyond the forest, where even the military searchlights could no longer reach, a lone infected stood motionless among the trees. Beneath its feet, dark roots slowly spread across the ground, pulsing faintly with each beat as they crawled farther and farther through the soil, stretching toward the distant safe zone.

Across the battlefield, the corpses of infected that had fallen outside the walls were beginning to change.

Dark liquid slowly seeped from their bodies and soaked into the ground, while their flesh seemed to soften and merge with the earth. From beneath the corpses, thin strands of dark, flesh-like roots began spreading outward, connecting one body to another as they slowly extended through the forest.

At the center of it all, the lone infected remained completely still. It was almost as if the creature itself was the heart of the growing network.

Then its closed eyes slowly opened as pure darkness filled them, deeper than the night surrounding the forest.

.....

Meanwhile, on the northern wall, the situation remained far more stable than what was happening in the west.

No Behemoths had appeared on this side, but that didn’t make the battle easy. Thousands upon thousands of infected continued attacking the defenses, climbing over one another as they desperately tried to reach the top of the wall.

Bodies piled against the concrete, forming massive mounds of flesh that grew higher with every passing minute.

"Keep them off the wall!"

Mounted machine guns roared as commanders and soldiers directed their fire toward the largest concentrations.

Below the wall, armored vehicles continued moving along the defensive line, crushing infected beneath their wheels while their mounted weapons fired continuously into the swarm.

Above them, three helicopters swept across the battlefield, their weapons tearing through the infected from the air before they moved toward another section of the defensive line.

"Keep it up! Kill every last one of them!"

The northern forces continued pouring fire into the horde, cutting down hundreds of infected as they tried to breach the wall. Yet just as the northern defense seemed to settle into a rhythm, something strange happened.

The entire horde suddenly stopped as thousands of infected froze in place.

"What are they doing?"

"Don’t stop firing! Keep killing them!"

The soldiers continued shooting, but the infected no longer seemed interested in the wall.

Their bodies remained completely still as their heads slowly tilted upward. Their mouths opened unnaturally wide, while their eyes rolled toward the sky. Their heads began trembling rapidly, almost as if they were receiving a signal that none of the soldiers could hear.

A soldier lowered his rifle slightly. "Are they... listening to something?"

"Keep firing!" an officer immediately shouted. "Don’t worry about what they’re doing!"

Bullets continued raining into the motionless horde. Bodies dropped, but the remaining infected didn’t react. Then, almost simultaneously, thousands of heads turned toward the west.

The soldiers along the northern wall stared in confusion.

"Why are they looking that way?"

But they weren’t attacking the northern wall anymore.

Thousands of infected abruptly turned away from the defenses and began running sideways across the battlefield. They abandoned the attack completely, rushing through the forest and across the open ground as the entire horde redirected toward the western sector.

"Where are they going?"

The commander watched the horde disappear toward the west, his confusion slowly turning into realization. "They’re not retreating..."

His eyes widened. "They’re heading for the western wall!"

He immediately grabbed his radio. "Command, this is Northern Defense! The northern horde has changed direction. They’re moving toward the western sector!"

A response quickly came through the radio. "Understood. Reinforce the western wall immediately."

The commander turned toward the soldiers around him. "You heard that! Prepare the mobile units and send whoever we can spare. We’re reinforcing the west!"

"Yes, sir!"

The order spread rapidly through the northern defense. Armored vehicles began repositioning while soldiers were pulled from their defensive positions and prepared to move toward the western sector.

But the northern wall wasn’t the only place where it was happening.

At the southern defenses, infected that had been attacking the wall stopped. Then they turned west.

The same thing happened along the eastern wall. Thousands of infected abandoned their attacks and began moving toward the same destination, their numbers flowing across the battlefield like a massive tide.

Within minutes, units across the safe zone began receiving the same order. Reinforce the western sector.

...

The level-up notification rang inside Jaxon’s mind, but he barely paid attention to it. His eyes remained fixed on the breach as his finger continued pulling the trigger.

THUP! THUP! THUP!

Then something came flying toward him.

Jaxon’s rifle shifted instantly.

THUP! The bullet struck the airborne infected and tore straight through its body, splitting it apart before the corpse crashed onto the rooftop.

Jaxon quickly looked toward where it had come from.

Through the chaos, he spotted a familiar figure. The Dark Variant stood among the horde and for a brief moment, their eyes met.

’This bastard is still here?’ Jaxon immediately raised his DMR.

THUP!

The bullet tore through dozens of infected standing between them, but the Dark Variant had already disappeared. Bodies shifted and closed around it, allowing the creature to slip deeper into the mass before Jaxon’s next shot could find it.

Jaxon clicked his tongue and shifted his position. Then something suddenly came flying from his blind side.

His instincts reacted before his eyes could fully register it. Jaxon twisted around just as another infected came hurtling toward him, thrown by another Variant hidden somewhere within the horde.

The infected was already within arm’s reach as Jaxon raised his rifle until the barrel was almost touching its open mouth.

THUP! The suppressed shot blew its head apart at point-blank range, spraying blood across the rooftop.

Jaxon barely flinched as he lowered his rifle. ’So now you’re targeting me, huh?’

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the sea of infected below, searching for the second Variant. ’Fine, come at me.’

But before he could locate it, something caught his attention. "Hm?"

He turned back toward the breach and his expression immediately changed. "What the...?"

The number of infected pouring through the opening had suddenly increased.

Thousands were rapidly becoming tens of thousands. They weren’t simply rushing through the breach anymore. The infected were climbing over one another, forming massive piles of writhing bodies as they forced their way into the safe zone.

The pressure from behind was so great that the creatures at the front were being crushed beneath the weight of those following them, only for more infected to climb over their corpses and continue forward.

They spread across the streets, over the broken concrete, and around the remaining sections of the shattered wall.

From where Jaxon stood, it looked less like a horde and more like a living tide of black flesh swallowing the safe zone.