TWD: Saving Merle First - Chapter 76: A Hair’s Breadth Between Life and Death (Patreon)

After Wade and the others emptied their weapons, the movement beneath the rubble gradually died down.

“Stay alert!”

Wade shouted as he reached into his pocket for more shells and began reloading.

His eyes never left the ruins. He fed shells into the tube magazine entirely by feel.

Relax?

Not a chance.

How many capable people had survived everything thrown at them, only to die right before victory because of some insignificant enemy?

Click. Click.

One shell after another went in.

Wade chambered a round with a sharp click, signaled to Shane, and the two began moving forward.

He had a strong feeling that there were still Volatiles alive under the rubble.

They had simply gone quiet for the moment.

The four of them advanced in an arrowhead formation, moving as carefully as if they were walking a tightrope. Every step was slow and deliberate.

Creak... creak...

Something underneath the rubble started struggling.

All four stopped at almost the same time, their weapons swinging toward the sound.

Nobody fired.

They were waiting for it to show itself.

Otherwise, they would just be wasting ammunition shooting into wood.

Creak... creak...

Movement came from another spot.

“Wade, should we...” Andrew asked quietly.

Wade knew what he meant and shook his head.

“They’re trapped under there. It’s not that they’re refusing to come out. Those are two different things.”

Andrew nodded and dropped the idea for now.

Wade was starting to get impatient too.

Shooting them while they were trapped had been satisfying, but if they stayed pinned under there and didn’t...

Creak!

Creak!

Creak!

CRASH!

Three Volatiles erupted from the wreckage almost simultaneously.

They didn’t crawl out.

They didn’t climb out.

They lunged.

Shane fired first.

As for why...

If you know, you know.

Then the others opened fire.

Four shotguns going off together at this range produced an overwhelming wall of firepower.

Two of the Volatiles were torn apart the instant they exposed themselves and tried to rush forward.

The last one sprang straight at Wade like a wildcat.

Wade’s pupils contracted sharply.

That size...

It was the leader.

Adrenaline flooded through him.

His body reacted faster than his mind. He raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger.

“Bang!”

The blast struck the creature.

The pellets missed its vital areas, but the sheer impact still stopped it cold. Its speed dropped instantly, and its body even began to pitch backward.

Wade seized the opening and immediately rolled forward and to the right, clearing the line of fire behind him.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

As he rolled, he vaguely heard bullets punching into flesh.

He had no idea who fired them.

But he was still alive.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Merle’s eyes were bloodshot as he hammered the trigger, completely blowing the leader’s head apart.

“Wade! You good?!”

Wade completed the roll and came up on one knee.

His heart was pounding like a drum, and his ears were ringing.

A deep chill spread through his body, as though he had been dropped into freezing water.

So this was what it felt like to stand right at death’s door.

Exciting.

Thrilling.

And hopefully something he would never experience again.

Color slowly returned to Shane’s face.

For that one second, his mind had gone completely blank.

His body hadn’t responded at all.

A wave of shame surged through him, and his expression hardened.

He suddenly wanted to smash something just to vent the frustration.

“I’m fine! Snap out of it and stay sharp, guys!”

Wade’s shout dragged everyone’s attention back to the battlefield.

Marcus wiped the sweat from his forehead and glanced toward Ryan.

He had actually fired in a situation like that.

The guy was unbelievably steady.

Sensing Marcus’s gaze, Ryan shifted his eyes toward him and gave a slight nod.

Wade and the others continued advancing.

This time, nothing else moved beneath the wreckage.

Wade began the final count.

Thirteen bodies were visible.

Add the four killed in the initial blast.

Seventeen.

All of them.

He finally lowered his weapon and let out a long breath before dropping onto the ground.

“They’re all dead. Merle, you got a cigarette? Give me one.”

Merle stared at him for a second, lowered his gun, and tossed over the pack.

Wade pulled one out and lit it.

The hot smoke filled his lungs before he slowly breathed it back out, bringing a little warmth to his ice-cold body.

Then he tossed the pack back to Merle, grinned stupidly, and asked with exaggerated confidence,

“Was I cool just now or what? That reaction speed, that trust in you guys. Cool, right?!”

Everyone froze for a moment.

Then they all started laughing.

Nobody thought about why they had failed to react earlier anymore.

Nobody blamed themselves.

Merle lit a cigarette, then tossed the pack to Shane with a grin.

“Not bad. Almost half as good as I used to be.”

Daryl paused.

“...You mean that time you almost got flattened by a wild boar?”

“Cough, cough... fuck! I was... cough... trying to give you an opening...”

Merle’s face immediately turned red.

Whether it was from choking on the smoke or embarrassment, nobody could tell.

Wade held his cigarette between two fingers and immediately burst out laughing.

“Pfft... hahahaha!”

Daryl smiled too but didn’t say anything else.

The corners of Shane and Andrew’s mouths lifted, though neither laughed out loud.

Marcus and Ryan walked over with their rifles in hand.

Neither of them knew what everyone was laughing about, but their fingers still stayed near the trigger guards.

After resting for a while and making sure the area wasn’t at risk of catching fire, the group headed back to the farm.

...

None of them noticed the two men in camouflage standing on a distant hillside, watching and recording everything through binoculars and a video camera.

“Mature Mutated Walker Horde No. 079 has been eliminated. Observation point erased. All data recorded.”

The man holding the camera finished compiling and uploading the footage, then closed his terminal.

“What a shame. If it weren’t for that Asian kid, 079 might’ve eventually surpassed 054.”

The man with the binoculars chewed his gum, bent down, and picked up a long rectangular case from the ground.

“Doesn’t matter. The evolutionary data from 079 is enough to keep us comfortable for a while. Let those big shots worry about the rest.”

“True enough. Ah, time to head home.”