TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 315: Jill and Rebecca (Patreon)

Chris stood at the door of his helicopter, completely dumbfounded.

That thing didn't even look like a grappling hook. Crane had apparently thrown it by hand, then used it to swing himself across?

Judging by how smooth and practiced Crane's movements were, this clearly wasn't his first time doing it.

What the hell kind of strength was that?!

Even Chris clicked his tongue in amazement.

"That move... reminds me of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!"

Using the grappling hook, Crane swung nimbly between the buildings as though he were back home. Nothing about his movements suggested that he was in Atlanta.

Of course, things hadn't been much better back when he was surviving in Harran.

He'd survived a hellish level of his own and had plenty of experience with places like this.

Chris didn't hesitate any longer.

He grabbed a parachute pack, strapped it on, tightened the buckles, and jumped from the helicopter.

He'd almost forgotten about Jill.

Crane landed first.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he heard something land behind him.

His expression sharpened, and his hand instinctively moved toward his gun.

"It's me!"

A deep voice came from behind him.

Crane turned around.

It was Chris, already gathering up his parachute. Not only had he landed safely, he'd come down right behind Crane.

"Weren't you supposed to be protecting your president?" Crane raised an eyebrow, sounding somewhat surprised. "Why'd you jump down too? Aren't you worried someone might shoot his helicopter out of the sky?"

Chris didn't have time to answer.

He drew the suppressed handgun at his waist and fired several shots at the walkers lunging toward them, cleanly blowing their heads apart.

The walkers collapsed.

But even more were rapidly closing in on the two of them from every direction.

The mutants were especially dangerous.

Some of them remained unusually active even during the day. Hunters darted through the shadows between buildings, and with the thick fog covering the sky, they could even move around outside.

The situation was extremely dangerous.

"Report the president's status!"

"Signal received! The president has reached the safe zone!"

Chris clipped the radio back onto his waist.

"Alright. The president's safe now, so it's time to rescue my people. Jill was on that helicopter that went down too."

Chris scanned the area warily before continuing in a low voice.

"I need to confirm whether she's alive."

"And if the attacker is still somewhere in this city, he probably won't be leaving anytime soon. I need to find out exactly who's behind this and why they're trying to kill us!"

Crane snorted and said nothing else.

He picked up his grappling hook again and hooked it onto a building ahead.

"Then quit wasting time," Crane said. "Keep up. I saw Luke and Rebecca come down in that direction!"

Using the grappling hook, he once again moved swiftly between the buildings, racing toward the area where Luke and the others had parachuted down.

Chris clicked his tongue.

Ever since he'd started bulking up, he'd gained quite a bit of weight.

Watching Crane move around with that kind of agility was honestly impressive.

Still, trading Speed for Strength was a pretty efficient stat build.

...

On the other side of the city.

High atop a skyscraper, Wesker stood in his trench coat and sunglasses, silently watching everything unfold.

Data collection begins!

Threats?

He'd been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Anyone who could survive the Million Walker Tide was truly among the strongest.

As for who represented the result of natural evolution, they could settle that themselves!

Wesker stepped into the hunting ground as well.

...

Elsewhere.

Luke landed steadily on the rooftop of an abandoned building with Claire in his arms.

The moment they touched down, he removed the parachute harness and looked around cautiously.

The building wasn't particularly tall, only six or seven stories.

The rooftop was completely empty, making it a temporarily safe place to stop.

But the countless walkers below, along with the roars rising and falling throughout the city, constantly reminded them where they were.

This was fucking Atlanta.

The center of the Million Walker Tide.

Even for someone as superhuman as Luke, this place was a genuine restricted zone!

They had barely landed when Luke looked up and spotted another parachute drifting slowly overhead.

Another expert!

The person hanging beneath it was naturally Jill.

And her luck with the landing spot was exactly what you'd expect from a heroine of the Resident Evil series.

Her parachute was carrying her straight toward an open area, a rare clearing surrounded by a sea of walkers.

Well, she could deal with that herself!

"It's Jill!"

Claire spotted her too, and her expression immediately turned anxious.

"Luke, she's landing in the wrong place. That's way too close to the horde! Should we go help her?"

In a place like this, one extra companion meant one extra fighter.

"Help her my ass."

Luke rejected the idea without even thinking about it.

"We can barely keep ourselves alive. You think we've got time to save her? Helping someone out normally is one thing, but at a time like this, protecting your own life comes first!"

"Don't try to play the hero!"

Claire fell silent after Luke refused.

She wasn't about to risk someone else's life just so she could play the saint, especially when that someone was Luke.

Besides, if the two of them went over there now, they'd just be feeding themselves into the horde one at a time.

"Come on."

Luke pulled her along.

"Let's find somewhere safe to stay first."

The two turned around, preparing to leave the rooftop.

But just then...

Another parachute descended from the sky and drifted into Luke's field of view.

What was this, a mass airdrop?

How had he managed to run into so many absolute geniuses in a single day?

Were they all fighting for the chance to jump straight into the walker horde?

Did they have a death wish?!

Almost at the same moment, a familiar voice came through the communicator at his waist.

"Luke, it's me, Rebecca."

She sounded slightly out of breath, but her words were still perfectly clear.

"I jumped from the president's helicopter. I'm heading toward you now. I couldn't let them take me back with them, right?"

Luke's expression changed, and he immediately looked up.

The parachute carrying Rebecca was riding the air currents and drifting toward his position.

But that direction...

Luke's face suddenly darkened.

By some ridiculous twist of fate, Rebecca's parachute was drifting in the same direction as Jill's.

The two parachutes were almost following one another.

Luke and Claire had jumped after Jill, but they'd landed on top of a high-rise while Jill had drifted toward the open ground.

Rebecca had clearly mistaken Jill's parachute for Luke's.

"Fuck!"

Luke couldn't help cursing.

His own Luck stat might be pretty good, but apparently the people around him weren't nearly as fortunate.

And of all possible times, the Commonwealth's most valuable head of research had just been carried straight into the walker horde.

Was this some kind of joke?

He could leave Jill to fend for herself.

Rebecca was another matter.

Nothing could happen to her.

"Claire, follow me!"

Luke didn't hesitate any longer.

He sprinted toward the area where the two parachutes were descending.

Once he started moving, his speed was downright terrifying.

Reaching the edge of the rooftop, he jumped without the slightest hesitation.

In midair, he used the building's walls and protruding window ledges as footholds.

With just a few quick movements, he dropped toward the street like a blur.

Anyone who didn't know better might have thought a Hunter had just appeared.

Luke landed without even slowing down.

His feet kept moving as he turned into a gust of wind and raced toward his destination.

Claire followed behind him and rushed to the edge of the rooftop.

Then she slammed on the brakes.

No fucking way!

How the hell did he get down there?!

Was he even human?!

Claire turned around and decided to take the stairs instead.

There were plenty of walkers inside the building, but all that brutal training she'd gone through hadn't been for nothing!

Claire had to push herself almost to the limit before finally bursting out of the building at street level.

The hand holding her gun was still wiping blood from her face.

Even after all that, she could only see Luke's back in the distance.

Claire immediately chased after him.

But the distance between them kept growing.

It wasn't getting any smaller at all.

Fortunately, Luke was bulldozing through everything in his path like an armored vehicle.

Claire wasn't sure whether her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Was Luke... not even using a weapon?

It looked like he was just using a few knife-hand strikes to cut through the walkers' necks.

That had to be a hallucination!