NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25: Hunter & Bloat
After a brief laugh, Zack's expression turned serious. "Alright, let's move."
"Understood, Sir," Ego responded, and the vehicle accelerated, its engine roaring like a beast as it tore down the road, smashing anything in its path. "Sir, there's a small horde of corpses up ahead. Should we take a detour?"
"A small horde?" Zack asked, already knowing how Ego defined 'small'—a swarm of at least a thousand undead.
"How long would a detour take?" he asked.
"About thirty minutes."
"Forget it. Let's push through!" Zack decided, unwilling to waste time on the long route. As the vehicle continued, the horde soon came into view: a sea of walking corpses stretching as far as the eye could see. The engine's roar seemed to rouse the undead from their stupor, and, as if on cue, thousands of them surged toward the vehicle, shaking the ground with their frantic steps.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The vehicle slammed into the horde with such force that, despite its armored exterior, it started to slow, weighed down by the growing pile of bodies. The steel spikes meant to fend them off became jammed with corpses, their sheer numbers overwhelming the defenses. With more undead piling on, the vehicle's speed dropped, and it grew heavier by the second. The eight-cylinder diesel engine roared under the strain.
"Ego, activate backup power," Zack commanded calmly.
The graphene battery kicked in, releasing a surge of energy. With the combined force of the diesel engine, the vehicle roared back to life, speeding forward once again. The four tires gripped the ground with fierce intensity, kicking up clouds of dust as the vehicle plowed through the crowd of zombies. As it broke free from the horde, Zack gave another command.
"Ego, open the side door."
The door swung open, and Zack grabbed the edge, easily flipping himself up onto the roof. Thanks to the MV-02 suit's exceptional agility, Zack moved with ease. Once on top, he began clearing the zombies clinging to the vehicle, tossing them off one by one, including those stuck to the spikes. When the last of the undead were removed, the vehicle's speed picked up, leaving the horde behind.
But Zack didn't re-enter the vehicle. He remained seated on the roof for a moment, gazing out at the desolate landscape. The apocalyptic world, bathed in the fading light, had a haunting beauty that silently drew his attention. After a while, the grim scenery lost its appeal. Zack spotted a distant shape breaking the horizon—the nuclear power plant. Checking the time, he saw it was already past four in the afternoon.
"Ego, how long have we been on the road?" he asked.
"Three hours and twelve minutes," Ego replied.
The journey had taken longer than expected, thanks to a detour to reach the town where Erza and the others were.
"We've got to hurry. I don't want to go into that hellhole at night," Zack muttered, his gaze hardening as he saw the growing number of zombies near the nuclear plant. Even from a distance, he could make out a sizable group of mutants among them.
As they neared the plant, the vehicle suddenly slowed to a stop. "What's wrong, Ego?" Zack asked, sensing trouble.
"Bad news, Sir," Ego replied, projecting a live satellite feed onto the holographic display in the MV-02 suit. Zack's face tightened as he saw two of the cooling towers from the plant in the feed, both blown open at the top and spewing thick clouds of smoke. But Zack knew it wasn't just smoke—radiation was leaking into the air.
"A radiation leak?" Zack's expression darkened. Luckily, he had anticipated this possibility, and the MV-02 suit had been specially reinforced with three layers of anti-radiation coating.
"Sir, the radiation levels ahead exceed safety limits. The vehicle can't proceed. You'll have to go on foot," Ego informed him.
"Understood," Zack replied, jumping down from the roof and setting off toward the nuclear plant. While the MV-02 suit did have a flight system, it consumed a lot of power, draining eight graphene batteries in one go. So, Zack opted to run instead, and his speed on foot was impressive. In some rugged areas, he even outran the vehicle.
As he entered the high-radiation zone, a sharp, repetitive beep filled his ears—the radiation detector's alarm. The further he went, the faster the beeping became, the radiation levels rising with every step.
"Ego, silence the alarm unless radiation levels reach critical levels," Zack instructed.
"Understood, Sir," Ego responded, and the sudden quiet was a relief. In the eerie silence, Zack surveyed the landscape through the MV-02's visor. Aside from the hazy, contaminated air around the plant, there was little visible sign of the radiation danger. But the zombies in the area seemed to be thriving, unaffected by the lethal environment.
Zack couldn't help but wonder if the nuclear radiation was causing the zombies to mutate, making them even stronger. As he scanned the plant's grounds, he noticed a large group of zombies in the heart of the radiation zone. Some of them looked grotesque and deformed, unlike anything he had seen before. Even Ego's extensive database lacked records of these creatures.
"Ego, record all new zombie types," Zack commanded as he charged toward the plant.
A sudden, bone-chilling screech cut through the air.
Zack's eyes snapped to the sound and spotted a zombie clinging to a nearby wall. It resembled the Night Stalker breed—creatures that could scale walls—but this one was different. It had lost all semblance to a human. Its limbs were abnormally long, many times the size of a normal body, and looked like a grotesque, four-legged spider with a human torso. Each limb had six or seven joints, bending unnaturally.
"New mutant zombie detected," Ego reported, compiling data on the creature. "Temporary name: Hunter. Initial analysis suggests heightened sensory perception, beyond that of ordinary zombies."
The Hunter was staring right at Zack, its head twisted nearly 180 degrees, its glowing red eyes fixed on him. It clung to the wall, crouched, watching him with unnerving stillness.
"Does this thing have intelligence?" Zack murmured, feeling an uneasy chill.
He forced himself to look away from the Hunter as the swarm of zombies surrounding the plant finally noticed him. The first to approach were the standard undead, but one figure lumbered behind them—a massive, bloated mutant zombie.
"Another mutant… the Bloat."
The large, hulking figure slowly advanced—a behemoth weighing at least four to five hundred pounds. Beneath its thick layers of fat was a nearly impenetrable defense. Even if someone could break through this fatty barrier, they'd be facing another danger: the brute could self-destruct, releasing a cloud of toxic gas stored in his bloated body. It made him a tough opponent for anyone unprepared.
"You mentioned this guy before, but I didn't expect we'd actually run into him today!" Zack said, eyeing the swollen monster that was lurking behind a pile of corpses.