Survival in the last days of America

The sudden turn of events caused Anna and Marlene, who were just about to part ways, to stop in their tracks, both turning their gazes toward the military trucks rolling down the street.

The military vehicles, arriving from both ends of the road, finally came to a halt outside a residential building constructed from pale gray bricks. All around, residents and onlookers watched in stunned silence.

Within moments, over twenty soldiers jumped down from the trucks. A portion of them immediately donned gas masks and, without a word, stormed into the building. The rest pulled out numerous warning signs from the trucks and placed them on the ground, forming a perimeter around the entrance. Then, rifles in hand, they took up positions at the gaps, scanning the surrounding crowd of residents with sharp, alert eyes.

"What… what's going on?" Sarah asked, rushing to Brian's side, her eyes wide with curiosity as she stared at the soldiers.

"I'm not exactly sure yet," Brian replied.

His gaze darted between the soldiers and the building behind them. Though he had gained a general understanding of the quarantine zone's situation from Anna and Lucy, he had only been out for a single day—many things were still unclear to him.

Suddenly, he remembered something Lucy had told him the previous day—the existence of a hidden passage connecting the quarantine zone to the outside world. Recalling how the soldiers had rushed in wearing gas masks, a suspicion began to form in his mind.

"Thoroughly search every room!" a female officer shouted from the building's entrance, speaking into a radio. "Verify all identification, scan everyone for infection. Bring down all individuals without proper ID—immediately!"

Her sudden appearance drew the attention of every civilian and soldier nearby. But for Anna and her companions, their eyes lit up with surprise and recognition.

"Look! It's Sister Tracy!" Sarah and Alan exclaimed at once, instantly recognizing the familiar face of the officer.

Their outburst drew curious glances from nearby residents.

As if she had heard her name, the officer paused briefly in her orders and glanced over at them. But she didn't acknowledge them. Instead, she turned back and continued issuing commands into the radio.

"Hey! Why didn't she say hi?" Alan asked, confused.

Thwack!

Brian smacked Alan on the forehead, annoyed.

"She's on duty, idiot! Do you think she has time to wave at you? What kind of privilege do you think you have?!"

Alan clutched his head, wincing in pain. He opened his mouth to argue, but one look at Brian's stern expression made him swallow his words.

—Aaaah!

—Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Just as they were speaking, a piercing scream echoed from one of the upper floors of the building, immediately followed by the sound of automatic gunfire. Flashes of light flickered behind the windows—someone was shooting from inside!

The sound of gunfire stunned everyone below. They stared upward, mouths agape, instinctively stepping backward. At the first sign of danger, they would flee.

Tracy's expression changed instantly. She raised her radio and shouted:

"Damn it! What's the si—"

Crash!

Before she could finish, a window on the fourteenth floor shattered from the inside. Two figures were hurled through the opening.

With a blood-curdling scream of terror, the two bodies crashed onto the concrete pavement below. Instantly, blood sprayed in all directions, quickly pooling into a deep crimson stain that spread across the ground, releasing a sharp, metallic stench.

When the onlookers finally focused, they saw a young woman in tattered clothes, her face and arms covered in bulging, dark veins, lying atop a soldier. The blood was pouring from the soldier's lifeless body.

—Grrraaah!

Before the crowd could react, the strange woman suddenly lifted her head, letting out a guttural roar. Her bloodshot eyes scanned the people around her, and with trembling arms, she began to push herself up!

"Run! It's an infected!"

"Aaaahhh!"

The residents, horrified by her grotesque face, were instantly thrown back into the nightmares of the early days of the apocalypse. Though they had lived in the quarantine zone for over three months, those traumatic memories were still etched deep in their minds.

The crowd erupted into chaos. Everyone scrambled to get away from the creature struggling to rise, terrified of being attacked and infected.

But their fear was short-lived. Before the infected woman could fully stand, Tracy had already charged forward. In one swift motion, she drew her combat knife and plunged it into the creature's skull.

She glanced at the dead soldier, then looked up at the building where the gunfire had ceased. Lifting her radio again, she barked:

"Report your status—now!"

With that, she led a group of soldiers back into the building, disappearing from view under the still-terrified stares of the crowd.

"Damn…"

Brian stared at the scene in shock. What had just unfolded completely shattered his earlier assumptions.

At first, he had assumed the soldiers were searching for possible escape routes to the outside. When he heard Tracy's orders, he was even more surprised—thinking someone had actually brought outsiders into the quarantine zone. But when an infected person emerged, he was nearly speechless.

What kind of joke was this? The quarantine zone had only existed for a few weeks, and already an infected individual had appeared inside. With so many witnesses, it wouldn't take days—maybe not even hours—before the news spread throughout the entire zone.

And when that happened, chaos was inevitable. The relatively stable quarantine zone would plunge into panic and disorder.

As Brian processed these thoughts, several soldiers in gas masks began exiting the building.

The first six or seven carried a group of ragged, ashen-faced people by force. Their filthy clothes and disheveled appearance made it clear—they weren't residents of the quarantine zone.

When the last soldier dragged out a middle-aged man, the man's eyes locked onto the young woman lying dead on the ground. His face twisted with pain and sorrow as he screamed:

"Daughter! My daughter!"

He began struggling violently, his eyes burning with hatred toward the soldier holding him. He howled, hysterical:

"It was you! You killed her! We were living just fine! Why did you come and destroy everything? Why?!"

The soldier holding him looked down with clear irritation.

"Your daughter was already infected when she died. Wake up, you fool. Accept your fate."

With that, he loosened his grip and, in one brutal motion, slammed the butt of his rifle into the man's head.

Thud!

The man's skull cracked against the pavement. A thin trail of blood trickled from his temple. But instead of pain, his expression grew even more delirious. He roared:

"She's not dead! She moved! She wasn't dead!"

"You killed her! All of you killed her!"

The soldier, staring at the man's wild, possessed expression, felt an unexpected chill. For a moment, he stepped back—half a step—overcome by a strange unease.

"Damn it!" he cursed silently.

Ashamed of his fear, he raised the rifle again and struck the man a second time, knocking him nearly unconscious.

"The man's daughter was already infected, right?" Sarah asked softly, her eyes filled with pity as she looked at the dazed man. "Then… why does he say she's not dead?"

Brian, still watching the man closely, instinctively took Sarah's hand.

"Yes, his daughter was infected. But he refuses to accept the truth."

Though he answered Sarah, his mind was racing. Something felt off. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Perhaps sensing the man was no longer resisting, the soldier nodded in satisfaction. He bent down to grab the man's arm and drag him forward.

But at that moment, Brian noticed something. As the soldier leaned over, the man's previously dazed eyes suddenly sharpened. A cold, murderous hatred flooded his face.

Brian's heart skipped a beat. Now he understood what had felt wrong. The man wasn't dazed.

He was faking it.

With shocking strength, the man seized the soldier's rifle, smashed his head into the soldier's face, and spun behind him, using the soldier's body as a shield. In one fluid motion, he grabbed the rifle slung across the soldier's back, aimed it at the stunned soldiers, and roared with pure hatred:

"You bastards! You'll all die with my daughter!"