TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 291: Ellie’s Performance (Patreon)

“The one in front of us is obviously a fast mover. It’s completely different from the slow walkers.”

“If you look closely, you can tell roughly how long they’ve been mutated by the condition of their muscles. According to the Tolga brothers’ research...”

“Walker mutations have a peak stage, but they can’t stay at their strongest forever. If they go too long without food, they’ll even turn on their own kind.”

“And once there’s nothing left for them to eat, mutated walkers eventually enter a weakened state.”

“If you want to tell whether a walker is weak, look at how badly its muscles have decayed. If the flesh is still pinkish, the mutation probably happened recently. If it’s bluish-brown, that means the walker is well-fed.”

“If the decay is severe, it hasn’t eaten in a long time, and the threat it poses drops significantly.”

“But no matter what, mutants are harder to deal with than ordinary slow walkers. Always be careful.”

Ellie listened intently.

She had never encountered knowledge like this back where she came from.

“Just hearing me explain it won’t make it stick.” Luke suddenly pulled a Handgun from his waistband.

It was a Glock 17, matte black and meticulously maintained. He ejected the magazine, carefully checked it, and confirmed everything was in order.

Then he racked the slide, chambered a round, and held it out to Ellie.

Next, he drew a knife from behind his back.

The blade was long and slender, with a vicious dragon head cast into the spine. It was Luke’s usual dragon-head knife.

The blade gleamed coldly.

Even at a glance, the material was clearly anything but ordinary.

“Take them,” Luke said.

Ellie paused.

“Let me see what you can do. One gun, one knife. Show me whether you’ve got what it takes to survive out here.” Luke took a step back.

The Hunter’s muscles were badly decayed.

That meant it hadn’t eaten in a long time. Its threat level was probably not much higher than that of an ordinary running walker.

“That mutant is yours.” Luke nodded toward the creature. “As for the ordinary ones in front of it, deal with them however you want. I’ll watch from here.”

Ellie took the gun and knife.

The Glock felt reassuringly heavy in her hand, its grip fitting comfortably against her palm. It was a good gun.

The knife had even more weight to it.

She looked up at Luke.

This man had given her weapons.

That meant she could fight back now.

She could even turn the gun on Luke and take her chances. If she managed to escape...

Ellie lowered her eyes.

The guy had an awful personality, a vicious mouth, and had even used her to threaten Joel.

But he had also bought her ice cream and introduced her to plenty of people...

Ellie made her choice almost instantly.

She tightened her grip on the weapons and turned to face the walkers charging toward her.

The Hunter noticed Ellie and dropped down from the tree.

It really was a badly deteriorated Hunter.

A Hunter at its peak would have launched itself straight from the tree onto Ellie by now. Even Ellie and Joel together would have had trouble dealing with one.

But this rotting thing was only slightly faster than an ordinary slow walker.

Once Ellie confirmed that the mutant posed no immediate threat, she turned her attention to the other walkers.

They were already getting close.

Bang!

Bang!

Bloody holes appeared in the slow walkers’ foreheads, and they dropped stiffly to the ground.

Ellie was a pretty good shot.

Every bullet struck the head cleanly. She was also careful with her ammunition, so she and Leon would probably have plenty to talk about.

She was a textbook ammo miser.

When several walkers got too close, Ellie moved in.

Her blade flashed.

Heads came off cleanly.

She was agile, decisive, and ruthless.

Within moments, the surrounding walkers had been cleared out.

Only the old Hunter remained.

Apparently, once anything got old enough, even the simplest things became a struggle.

Walkers were no exception.

Ellie slowly approached with the knife in hand.

Compared to a Hunter in its prime, this one looked almost as harmless as a house cat.

Even so, Ellie didn’t charge straight in.

What if the thing was baiting her?

She remembered what Luke had just said. There was nothing to gain from fighting it head-on.

She lowered herself and slipped between the trees and bushes, using them as cover while toying with the walker.

The mutant looked vicious, but apparently most of its skill points had gone into looking scary. After Ellie slipped out of sight, it just stood there in confusion.

Ellie held her breath and moved little by little until she had circled around to its rear flank.

Come on, this wasn’t even a game.

Was the thing blind?

Luke stared at the Hunter.

How long had it even been?

This Hunter had already deteriorated this badly.

The Clown, Tank, and Witch he had encountered back then...

Those things sure as hell hadn’t been this weak.

Ellie aimed at the back of the mutant’s knee.

Bang!

The shot rang out.

The bullet punched straight through the Hunter’s knee.

The Hunter let out a shrill howl as one leg gave way and its body crashed to the ground.

Now!

Ellie exploded forward at almost the exact same instant.

Like a leopard pouncing on its prey, she closed the distance in a flash.

The dragon-head knife gleamed coldly.

Then she drove it deep into the side of the monster’s neck.

This was a mutant?

That was it?

It was a fatal strike.

Any walker with its cervical spine destroyed would lose the ability to move. The Hunter twitched several times on the ground before going completely still.

Ellie pulled the knife free.

She immediately retreated several steps, putting distance between herself and the corpse, then scanned her surroundings to make sure there were no other threats.

Only then did she slowly straighten up.

Her chest rose and fell slightly, and a thin sheen of sweat covered her forehead.

But her eyes gleamed with sharp, unmistakable excitement.

Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought she had just leveled up.

Beautiful.

Good girl!

“Not bad, you clumsy little girl. That was smooth as hell!” Luke said, clapping.

Even Daryl, watching from a distance, raised an eyebrow.

She was fourteen?

A fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl had just taken down a mutant by herself with no support.

Most kids would have been scared out of their minds.

Even adults felt their blood run cold when they saw a mutant.

And she had simply circled around and hit it from behind.

What a prospect.

A genuinely rare talent.

[Legendary]-Candidate?

Forget that.

Legendary.

Definitely legendary.

Luke was certain Ellie’s potential went far beyond this.

After finishing off the mutant, the girl wiped the black blood from the blade and calmly turned around.

She was still holding the Glock.

This was the perfect opportunity.

But Ellie merely paused, made the gun safe, then held it out to Luke by the barrel.

She had guts, but she wasn’t the kind of person who would attack someone while their guard was down and repay kindness with betrayal.

She knew perfectly well who had treated her well.

“Not bad. Stealth, flanking, identifying weak points... Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Keep that kind of caution no matter what you’re facing.”

“Your fundamentals are solid. The only thing you’re lacking right now is stamina.”

“But that’s just your body. You’re still a kid. Once you finish growing, that’ll improve naturally.”

“Honestly... that mutant wasn’t nearly as scary as you made it sound.” Ellie put her hat back on.

“Fair enough. My mistake. With my luck these days, it’s hard to run into anything too nasty,” Luke said.

“Let’s have something different tonight. I’m getting hungry again.”

Luke patted his stomach.