TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 266: The Whisperers (Patreon)

After ending the call, Luke went to find Claire.

Claire was one of his most capable people right now. There was no way he could casually let such a competent woman walk away.

Still, he wanted to test the waters and see what she thought.

If she really wanted to leave, then he’d have no choice but to let her go, however reluctantly.

A tearful farewell.

“...You’re saying my brother is still alive, in another city-state?”

“Yep!”

“And he got so excited that he smashed a few things?”

“Yep.”

“What exactly did you say to him?”

Claire was wearing a cute set of pajamas. It was her day off, so she was staying home with Sherry.

“Hi, Luke!” Sherry waved at him.

The little girl was becoming livelier by the day.

“Here you go, little Sherry!” Luke pulled a small can of beef out of his pocket, or rather, the System Space.

“Have some.”

Claire gave him a strange look.

“You carry canned beef around with you?”

“What’s wrong with that? It’s nutritious. Sherry’s too skinny. Putting on a little weight would be healthier.”

Sherry held the can of beef and sneezed.

Why did it smell faintly like dog?

Luke then repeated his entire conversation with Chris to Claire, word for word.

Claire: “...”

Luke: “Your brother’s pretty ripped, huh? Tell him to ease up. Moderate exercise attracts the opposite sex. Too much exercise makes you fall for the same sex. I’m seriously not into men!”

Claire: “He’s not interested in men. He’s specifically interested in you!”

Luke: “Huh? Why? I barely even know him!”

Claire: “You will...”

...

Luke was left with a head full of questions.

He had originally wanted to find out whether Claire planned on leaving, but Claire had simply shut him out.

Strange.

Were all the Redfields this hard to understand?

...

“Claire, did you tell Luke about me?” Sherry opened the can of beef and took a bite. It wasn’t too salty.

Claire slapped her forehead.

“Crap, I completely forgot about that. I need to find a chance to talk to him soon. If I wait too long, someone’s going to end up as a cloud of blood!”

...

“Achoo!”

Luke sneezed.

“Don’t tell me I’m catching a cold.”

He rubbed his nose. Ever since his Constitution had improved, he hadn’t caught a cold even once.

...

At the Commonwealth, near the outpost.

“Luke, can you hear me?”

The radio at Luke’s waist crackled to life.

“Leon, I hear you. Something happen?”

“Yeah. We’ve got a small situation. It’s pretty... strange.”

“Go on.” Luke’s expression immediately turned serious.

If even the Steelback Beast thought something was strange, then it probably was. Leon had seen more than his share, having fought his way out of Raccoon City.

Come to think of it, Sherry should probably count as a daughter to him too.

Damn, he’d forgotten to mention that to Chris.

Leon was basically filling the role of her father.

“About five kilometers east of the outpost, a huge group of walkers is gathering. There are... at least a thousand of them.”

“A thousand?” Luke raised an eyebrow.

“What about the pheromones? Aren’t they working? With that many walkers gathering, you didn’t detect them beforehand?”

Normally, the Commonwealth’s reverse pheromones could drive walkers away across a wide area. It was a defense that worked at the viral level.

“That’s the problem. The pheromones did affect them. At first, they moved away, but for some reason, something forced them back.”

“Then there’s probably a nest nearby with a high-level mutant.”

“I already ruled that out. There were three nests near the outpost, and I blasted all three to pieces.”

Leon said it without the slightest change in expression.

In truth, he hadn’t.

He had only brought a gun and a knife, along with targeted UV equipment and pheromones, and wiped out all three nests himself.

The process had been difficult, even dangerous, but every mutant had died by his own hand.

There was no chance some high-level mutant was still around controlling the walkers.

“They’re staying in that open field about five kilometers east of the outpost. They just keep circling and wandering back and forth. They don’t advance, but they don’t leave either.”

Leon continued, “There are a lot of them, and more are still gathering. I want to request additional support, mainly so we can wipe them all out.”

“Over the last couple of days, several survivor groups have been following the coordinates toward the outpost.”

“But that horde seems to have a purpose. They’re specifically intercepting the survivors.”

“Two groups have already been cut off by the walkers. They can’t reach us, but they can’t retreat either. They’re trapped in that area.”

Luke’s expression grew more serious.

“So you’re saying those walkers are hunting living people?”

Leon nodded. “That’s what it looks like.”

“Where’s Crane?”

“He took a team out to bring those survivors in.”

“I’m heading over now. Everyone else stays on standby. Tell Crane to watch the horde carefully. There are living people inside it...”

“Living people?”

Beep...

Half an hour later, before the helicopter had even descended to a safe altitude, a figure jumped from it and landed steadily on the ground.

Luke looked in the direction his senses were pointing.

Sure enough, just as Leon had said, a massive dark swarm of walkers had gathered in the wilderness five kilometers east of the outpost.

There were at least a thousand of them.

They wandered around like an ordinary horde, but they never left that area. Whenever some walkers began straying too far, others would somehow draw them back.

There was an eerie order to it, almost like someone was herding them.

Through his binoculars, Luke could see two ragged groups of survivors trapped near the outer edge of the horde.

There were a few real fighters among them.

Luke watched one young man cut down a walker on the spot, smear its blood over himself, then charge straight into the horde and start slaughtering walkers left and right.

His companions immediately copied him.

But they seemed to notice something as well, because all of them quickly retreated.

The living had become trapped like turtles in a jar.

This was absolutely not natural.

Luke swept his gaze across the horde and immediately understood.

Walkers weren’t considered living people, so they normally had no buffs above their heads.

And yet Luke could clearly see negative traits over several of them.

Damn it!

Several figures were wearing suits made from rotting human skin, staggering among the walkers.

Their movements were more agile than those of ordinary walkers, and their mouths were moving faintly. From this distance, Luke obviously couldn’t make out what they were saying.

But he wasn’t watching their mouths.

He was looking at the buffs above their heads.

Whisperers.

Those sneaky bastards.

Luke could already confirm who they were. Judging by the numbers, the Whisperers had sent quite a few people this time.

The coordinates had attracted plenty of survivors. If the Whisperers managed to swallow up this group as well, the number of walkers they could herd would increase dramatically.

At the same time, they clearly didn’t understand why the horde refused to attack the outpost, so they were staying nearby and observing.

“Uh, sir, if you’re the only one coming as reinforcement...” Leon hesitated, unsure whether he should finish.

“Don’t bother.”

Luke shook his head, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

There was nothing worth discussing when it came to the Whisperers.

These people had abandoned civilization, abandoned walls, and abandoned every trace of what it meant to be human.

They peeled the skin from the dead, wore it over themselves, and blended into the hordes. They walked with the walkers, ate among them, and slept beside them.

They spoke in voices barely louder than murmurs, almost like delirious whispers.

That was how they had earned the name Whisperers.

But Luke preferred another name for them.

Traitors to the human race!