TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 71: A Sudden Horde of Mutated Walkers (Patreon)

Ryan silently slipped a magazine into his chest rig, then glanced up at Wade, who was talking to Glenn and the others. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

He had barely finished asking where the enemy camp was, and now he was already getting ready to lead a group over there and attack it...

Whether Wade was vindictive or simply extremely cautious was hard to say, but there was no denying how quickly he acted once he made a decision.

“Remember, if something goes wrong, don’t start shooting wildly and don’t run off on your own. Follow orders. Stay calm if you want to live, and stay alive if you want to fight.” Wade patted Glenn on the chest, his voice serious.

Glenn nodded. Fear, nervousness, and excitement were all tangled together inside him. He reached beneath his bulletproof vest and felt the ceramic plate inside, which helped settle his nerves a little.

Wade turned to Daryl and Ryan. “You two are scouting ahead this time. If there are sentries, take them out quietly.”

The two exchanged a look and silently nodded.

Wade was actually looking forward to seeing how they performed. One was a top-tier hunter, while the other was an active-duty reconnaissance soldier. When it came to scouting enemy positions, he was curious which of them would come out on top.

“All right, that’s everything. Just remember one thing. Stay safe.”

Merle, Marcus, Shane, and Maggie nodded, grabbed their weapons, and headed for the pickup.

Wade turned toward Rick. “I’m leaving the camp to you.”

Rick looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end he only nodded. “All right. Come back soon.”

“Don’t worry, we will. If nothing unexpected happens, we might even make it back in time for a late-night snack.” Wade smiled, jogged a few steps, and jumped into the pickup.

Merle started the truck and drove off with the others as the setting sun hung on the horizon.

Half an hour later, using the information they had gotten earlier, Merle found another farm.

They parked well away from it, then quietly climbed the hillside beside the property and crouched behind bushes and trees.

Wade raised his binoculars and studied the farm below. Its layout was fairly similar to Hershel’s farm, but there were almost no additional defensive measures. It looked more like a temporary stopping point than a permanent camp.

“No wonder nothing happened while we were working on the defenses back at the farm. These guys probably wandered into the area recently.”

He slowly swept his binoculars across the camp. Inside the barbed-wire fence were several cars and pickups, along with three large trucks.

Near the center of the camp, several metal fuel drums had been filled with burning firewood and were being used as lights. The people down there apparently weren’t worried in the slightest about the bright flames attracting walkers.

Maybe because it was dinnertime, the group below seemed to be having some kind of party. Wade had only been watching for a short while, yet he had already spotted several people who were completely drunk.

And the drunks weren’t even the worst of it.

Several others were so high they had completely lost control of themselves. They were stark naked and tangled together right there in the open...

Wade’s expression darkened as he lowered the binoculars.

That was enough. Any more of that and he was going to need eye bleach.

When Maggie saw that he was finished, she reached for the binoculars to have a look herself, but Wade smoothly moved them out of her reach.

“Don’t. It’s bad for your physical and mental health.”

Maggie: ???

She looked toward the others who had binoculars.

Every single one of them wore the same dark, disgusted expression.

What a cursed sight...

Wade was just about to say something when a dark shape flashed at the edge of his vision.

His head snapped toward it.

Something was moving rapidly across the distant hillside.

And there were quite a few of them.

Wade immediately raised the binoculars again. The moment he got a clear look, his eyes widened and his teeth clenched.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What the hell?! How did those things from last time show up again?!”

Merle and Marcus immediately raised their binoculars and followed his line of sight.

Both fell silent for a moment.

“Fuck! Where the hell did these things come from? Did those damn walkers really mutate?!”

Cold sweat broke out across Merle’s back. He hadn’t forgotten how close he had come to dying the last time they encountered those things.

“What are those? Some new kind of Mutated Walker? How come I’ve never seen them before?”

Wade lowered the binoculars and looked up at the sun, which had already sunk more than halfway below the horizon.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Walkers? Compared to these things, regular walkers aren’t even worth mentioning.”

...

Completely unaware that death was closing in, the thugs were still singing at the top of their lungs, shouting things no one could make sense of and raising their liquor bottles as though they were celebrating something.

A few were already sprawled on the ground with strange smiles plastered across their faces.

Among them was an especially burly middle-aged man wearing a punk jacket. His tattoo-covered arms were bare, and a thick cigar hung from his mouth as he looked around with smug satisfaction.

It had taken him only a month to go from having nothing to leading a gang of fifty people.

And all he had needed to provide were some miracle drugs and women.

Once Diniel crushed that small camp to the north, their food problem would be eased considerably. Maybe he would even bring back a few women.

Hopefully those ones would last a little longer.

As for the possibility of Diniel failing?

Was that even possible?

What chance did some little old man, a handful of employees, and his two daughters have against a group of more than twenty men?

“Boss, grilled steak. Want some?” A skinny man approached with a flattering smile and held out a plate.

The burly middle-aged man glanced at it. It looked decent enough, so he took it without a word and casually set it on the fuel drum being used as a table.

He removed the cigar from his mouth with his right hand and looked mockingly at the scrawny man in front of him.

He was just about to say something when he noticed the man’s expression suddenly twist with terror.

His eyes were fixed on something behind him.

What the hell?

The burly man turned around.

In the distance, a group of monsters with dark purplish-black skin were crawling across the ground at terrifying speed.

Straight toward them.

He froze for two seconds before his eyes went wide and he roared, “Fuck! We’re under attack?!”

He threw away his cigar and immediately sprinted toward one of the large trucks.

Fight them head-on?

The thought never even crossed his mind.

Those things were crawling across the ground as fast as coyotes could run. What were the useless bastards under him, men whose only real talent was bullying the weak and abusing women, supposed to do against something like that?

Smother the monsters to death with their own bodies?

There was nothing to think about.

Run.

As long as he could get inside the truck and shut the doors, its steel shell would protect him from the monsters’ bites. There was also plenty of food and water stored inside, enough for him to survive for a long time.

Even if the monsters refused to leave immediately, once there was nothing left outside for them to eat, they would eventually move on.

Then he would be safe.

But while he was running, his leg suddenly gave out beneath him.

He slammed face-first into the ground.

What the hell?!

He rolled over and saw blood pouring from his thigh.

A moment later, an indescribable pain shot straight through his body and into his brain.

“Aaaaaaagh!”

Those monsters could attack from a distance too?!