TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 314: What Is Spider-Man? (Patreon)

"Crane, calm down!" Chris said in a low voice. "The most important thing right now is getting the president to safety. Only then can we investigate who launched the attack!"

"Besides, with a horde like this below us, even a helicopter might not make it out intact!"

"We might not even be able to reach them down there. We could just end up adding more casualties!"

"Bullshit. You've got a president to protect, so my leader is just supposed to sit helplessly down there?" Crane snorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Chris, Luke and Rebecca are the two most important people in the Commonwealth. Right in the middle of this summit, both of them were forced to bail out and ended up in this death zone."

"And you expect me to believe this isn't some scheme set up by your Southern city-states?"

"Investigate? Investigate my ass. I only care about the result, and the result is... your city-states are about to get hit with a few biochemical bombs!"

Chris's breath caught.

"We didn't do this!"

He immediately denied it. "You saw it yourself. Even the president's helicopter was attacked. This is the work of a third party. We need time to find out what's going on!"

"If it wasn't you, then fine..."

Crane kept his teeth clenched around the grenade's pull ring.

"Our people will escort your president out. You come with me and help bring them back! This isn't a negotiation. If you want to prove you're innocent, then show it with your actions!"

"Let me make one thing clear first."

Crane's voice turned ice-cold.

"If Luke and Rebecca really die in Atlanta, then your Southern city-states will become dead cities overnight!"

That was no empty threat.

If something really happened to Luke, the Commonwealth's upper ranks were packed with his people.

Ada, Maggie, Shane, Merle, Daryl, Jade...

There was a reason Luke had always placed the hardliners in the most important positions.

The doves, people like Rick and Glenn, were mainly responsible for civilian affairs.

It was precisely for situations like this.

If Luke ever went down, those hardliners wouldn't care who you were or how important you thought you were.

They would bring the Commonwealth's military under control as quickly as possible, then launch a retaliatory strike against the city-states.

The Commonwealth's greatest advantage was that it lay deep within the Dark Forest.

The city-states didn't have that luxury.

Anyone could predict how that would end.

Chris frowned deeply.

They had personally witnessed the terrifying power of the antidote, so they understood better than anyone just how much weight Crane's threat carried.

"Fuck!"

Chris swore.

Which idiot had launched this attack?

Had those troublesome politicians back in the city-state completely lost their minds?

The walking riddle began weighing his options.

The president had to make it back safely.

He was the core of the entire city-state. If something happened to him, the people who came to power next would all be ambitious opportunists.

But Crane's threat couldn't be ignored either.

If something really went wrong, the Commonwealth wouldn't play by their rules.

That was the advantage of having hardliners backing you up.

A hardliner who would follow through on a threat inspired fear; someone who hesitated did not.

That was the logic behind it.

In the end, Chris gritted his teeth and made his decision.

"Team C, Team D, escort the president's helicopter! Evacuate at full speed and return to Greene Farm!" Chris ordered. "Protect the president at all costs!"

"My helicopter is going down to pick them up!"

With the arrangements made, Chris's helicopter broke away from the retreating formation, turned around, and descended toward the part of the city where Luke and the others had gone down.

But just as the helicopter dropped to a certain altitude...

"Whoosh!"

Another familiar streak of fire shot out from a concealed corner of the city and flew straight toward Chris's helicopter!

"Pull up! Pull up now!" Chris roared.

The pilot reacted instantly and yanked back on the controls.

The helicopter's nose snapped upward, narrowly skimming past the edge of the rocket's trajectory.

The rocket tore beneath the aircraft and exploded in the air a short distance away.

That was close!

"Someone doesn't want us rescuing them!"

Chris's expression turned extremely grim.

The enemy had stopped targeting the president's helicopter.

Now they were trying to prevent the rescue.

This was bad.

Could it really be those idiots from the city-state?

"Have you found the attacker's position?" Crane looked around.

But the attacker was hiding well, constantly changing positions, and moving extremely fast.

"There's no time," Chris said grimly. "They're hidden, and we're a sitting duck up here. If we keep circling over this place, we're going to get shot down sooner or later."

"Then land," Crane said.

"Are you insane?" Chris frowned. "Do you know what's down there? This is Atlanta! The walker density in this city is terrifying. If we go down wrong, even a helicopter's steel frame could be stripped clean within minutes!"

"Landing is a death sentence!"

Crane grabbed Chris by the collar.

The force behind it was so great that even Chris's powerful frame jolted, his entire body being pulled forward.

"Chris, let me ask you something."

"If the person down there were President Graham..."

"What would you do?"

Chris's expression shifted.

If it were Graham down there, or Jill, he wouldn't hesitate for a second.

Wait.

Jill?

Fuck!

Wasn't Jill on Luke's helicopter?!

Chris didn't argue anymore.

"Find us a place to land," he told the pilot in a low voice. "I'm going down to get them."

The helicopter began cautiously searching for a place to touch down.

But the closer they got to the ground, the heavier the stench of decay became.

Countless walkers had already been drawn over by the commotion in the sky.

They shuffled toward the descending helicopter, roaring hoarsely and stretching their rotting arms upward.

The mutants were even worse.

Ordinary walkers had no way to attack living targets in the air.

Some mutants were a different story.

One particularly massive mutant was perhaps even broader than Chris.

It wasn't the Tank type, but its entire body was still packed with thick, knotted muscle.

It dug its fingers into the concrete and actually tore a rusty manhole cover straight out of the ground!

Then it swung its arm and hurled the manhole cover like a discus toward the helicopter.

The metal disk screamed through the air with tremendous force, heading straight for the cabin!

Sometimes, raw strength alone was enough to scare someone half to death!

"Watch out!"

At the last possible moment, the pilot jerked the controls and banked sharply to one side.

The manhole cover scraped past the edge of the cabin, missing the helicopter by only a few inches.

Fortunately, it flew past and slammed into an abandoned car instead, ripping the roof clean off.

What terrifying Strength!

"This height is good enough," Crane said.

He wasn't going to demand any more than that.

He stopped waiting.

Reaching behind him, Crane pulled out a steel cable with a grappling hook attached to the end.

He aimed toward the roof of a low building nearby, swung it twice, then hurled it.

The grappling hook shot through the air and caught firmly on the edge of the building.

Crane gave the cable a hard pull.

Using the grappling hook's tension, he leaped straight out of the helicopter and sailed through the air.

This was Crane Superman.

In a city, he was basically Spider-Man.

...

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