The Walking Dead: A New Beginning From the End of the World

In a completely desolate town, a group of more than thirty people moved stealthily through the streets of the small settlement; all of them walking in single file.

From time to time, a figure would break away from the group to take out walkers using melee weapons, then rejoin the line and continue advancing.

Just then, the person leading the group gave a signal, and they split into three different groups moving in separate directions.

At that moment, Jason was leading a group of five people, including himself, through the silent streets toward the location where the abandoned military resources were said to be.

Everyone was equipped with black uniforms, gas masks, and assault rifles. This full gear wasn't something they wore often since it usually wasn't necessary, but now, due to the unknown situation, everyone had to be prepared for anything.

Elias and Sasha were positioned in the forest at a considerable distance, along with a few others. Their job was to protect the team exploring the camp and provide intel on the surroundings.

Jason's group was being led by Billy, who held a black ballistic shield to protect the group in case they were attacked by people. The others kept watch around them, ignoring the walkers following behind.

George glanced at the empty streets and said quietly, "Boss, there's only walkers here. Why don't we just take care of them quickly?"

"Can't you think beyond our current situation?"

Hearing this, Jason turned his head and looked away as he replied, "It may be easy for you to deal with them now, but if we've got enemies waiting ahead, it's going to turn into a serious problem."

Then, without waiting for George to say anything else, he continued advancing silently.

"Move quickly, we're on a tight schedule—we need to reach the camp soon."

This town wasn't very large, so in a matter of minutes, Jason's group reached an open area.

They looked at the abandoned Humvees with machine guns, military trucks with corpses in the driver's seats, numerous lifeless bodies on the ground, and many large tents spread out across the area.

"Zz... We're on-site. Tell me, what do you see?" —Jason asked through the radio as his group waited silently for a reply.

"Zz... Sir, I can't see much beyond the bodies. The tents block a lot of my view, but I can see you."

Jason frowned as he cautiously entered the area. Just before walking in, he had reminded his team to properly secure their gas masks.

The place was eerily quiet; there weren't even any walkers inside the tents—just corpses lying on the ground. Assault rifles, pistols, and many other things were scattered across the floor.

"Something doesn't feel right…"

As they walked among the bodies, Jason noticed there was no movement around them. He approached a tent where there were boxes of ammunition and many other supplies.

"Is there really anything here?" —Jon asked in a low voice.

Opening some of the large military tents at random, Jason found all kinds of items inside. He looked at the spent casings on the ground and then said, "It's like they fired in all directions. There's no way a military group killed each other like this."

"There's a lot of bodies here. Should we check how they died?"

Jason looked around, inspected some manmade structures, and found many daily necessities and abandoned weapons.

"Boss, there's a body over here!"

As Jason was observing, he suddenly heard Billy calling him. When he walked over, he saw Billy standing beside a separate bed inside one of the tents, and sure enough, there was a shriveled corpse lying there.

It had thick bandages around its chest and a towel on its forehead. It looked like the person had died there from a wound. The fact that he hadn't turned into an infected suggested he had likely died from a gunshot.

"Don't spread out."

Although Jason wondered why that person had died there without turning, he didn't dwell on it too much. He turned around, listened to the outside, and continued deeper into the tent area.

But soon he found something new. Right at the entrance to one of the tents leading farther in, he saw a piece of paper stuck to the side.

Reaching out to remove the paper, Jason read what was written carefully:

"Commander, I don't know if you'll read this, but the walkers from the reports have undergone a serious change. I can't explain it with words, but they're smarter.

There's one in particular attacking my camp right now. If you're reading this note, I really hope you wipe out all the walkers in this camp.

That damned walker is unlike any we've ever faced, and we fought hard to eliminate it. But the soldiers panicked, there was friendly fire, and those walkers overran us long before we could escape.

Remember, the walkers here are much smarter. Some can climb wire fences, and there's one that's the smartest of them all."

After reading the contents of the note, Jason looked at the shriveled corpse lying on the bed in the distance and figured that person was likely a high-ranking officer at this base.

Just as Jason was about to leave the tent, he heard a creaking noise behind him and immediately turned around—what he saw shocked him.

"Argh!"

With a slow growl, the dried-up corpse on the bed slowly sat up and looked at Jason with eyes full of hunger.

But that wasn't the most important part. Jason knew these corpses had supposedly been dead for a while. So how was it possible that this one got up?

Recalling the contents of the letter again and the idea that walker variants might exist, Jason felt a chill run down his spine.

"Zz… Intelligent walkers."

"Zz… Boss, what do you mean?"

"Zz… The corpses are walkers. Shoot any you see lying on the ground."

When Elias heard those words, he frowned and shifted his scope toward a body. Just as he was about to pull away from the view, he saw it move—then fall still again.

One by one, the corpses around the camp began standing up. All of them moved and surrounded the area, but then stood completely still.

"This is impossible…" Elias couldn't believe what he was seeing. Those corpses, which should've been rotting, had stood up.

"Zz... Sir, you must leave that place immediately! You're surrounded by walkers. These aren't normal walkers."

Elias looked at Sasha and ordered, "Quick—we need to clear an escape route for the group!"

Sasha, sweating nervously, nodded and aimed her rifle at a few walkers before opening fire. "How can they get up off the ground if they were already dead? They're completely different from normal walkers. It makes no sense."