TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 317: A Few Days on a Business Trip in Atlanta (Patreon)

Even the Hercules of legend might not have been able to beat him in a fight.

Luke looked over at Jill. Her foot was injured, and her face was pale, but she was still staring at the slaughterhouse-like scene around his feet.

This was the first time she'd ever seen Luke fight.

There wasn't a single intact corpse on the ground.

Calling this walker killing didn't even begin to cover it. The guy was tearing through bodies more casually than a butcher grinding meat!

"Hey, hey! This isn't the time to space out. Can you walk on your own?"

Luke snapped his fingers a few times in front of her.

"I can."

Jill gritted her teeth, shook off his hand, and forced herself to stand upright.

"It's just a minor injury. I'll be fine."

This woman was pretty damn tough.

Luke raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else.

Right now, their top priority was finding somewhere to take shelter.

They'd caused too much commotion in the open area, and walkers from all over the city were converging on their position.

They absolutely couldn't stay here any longer.

"Follow me."

Luke took the lead, clearing a path ahead.

He scanned the surroundings and pointed toward a relatively intact building.

It was an abandoned chain supermarket, a three-story structure with most of its doors and windows still in place.

Easy to defend and difficult to attack.

It was an ideal place to hold up temporarily.

The four of them fought their way to the supermarket entrance.

There were more mutants than they'd expected.

A Hunter poked its upper body through a second-floor window, let out a piercing shriek, and prepared to leap down.

Luke didn't even look up.

He casually fired his Magnum with a backward flick of his hand.

"Bang!"

The Hunter's head burst apart, and it fell from the window.

With his Handgun skill upgraded to Lv.9, his accuracy had improved considerably. He could draw faster, hit harder, and practically never miss.

Combined with the Agility he'd just gained, it was an absolutely nasty combination.

"Clear the building."

Luke kicked open the supermarket's metal roll-up door.

The interior was pitch-black, with a handful of walkers wandering around.

Luke didn't even bother using his gun.

He charged forward in a few quick strides, striking repeatedly with his knife-hands and cleanly cutting down the walkers.

Claire and Rebecca followed behind him, finishing off the occasional straggler.

In less than two minutes, they'd cleared the entire first floor.

Luke pulled the roll-up door most of the way back down, then dragged several shelving units over to barricade it from the inside.

That should keep the walkers outside from breaking in for a while.

At last, they had somewhere to catch their breath.

Jill sat down against the wall, carefully moved her sprained ankle, and looked around their makeshift shelter.

"You certainly know what you're doing."

She looked at Luke.

"I thought you were the type who gradually worked his way up the ranks, but you look like you've done this plenty of times before!"

"Are you trying to distract yourself from the pain by making conversation?" Luke replied casually.

They had barely settled in when Crane's voice came through the communicator.

"Luke, Chris and I made it down safely. We're heading your way. Give us your location."

Luke thought for a moment.

"There's a chain supermarket on the west side of the city. Three stories tall, with a bunch of overturned shopping carts piled up near the entrance. Should be easy to recognize."

"Copy!"

Crane promptly ended the transmission.

Luke was just about to put the communicator away when it started crackling again.

This time, the transmission was filled with harsh static and interference.

It sounded as though something was blocking the signal.

"...Luke... can you hear me...?"

Luke immediately perked up.

It was Ada!

She must have received news that the summit had come under attack.

"Ada? It's me. Can you hear me?" Luke responded at once.

"...The summit... we received reports... of an attack..."

Ada's voice kept breaking up.

"...I'm already... gathering our people... I'll bring a team... over there right away..."

That's what he liked to hear!

The retreating Commonwealth helicopters must have sent word back.

Unfortunately, the distance between the Commonwealth and Atlanta was considerable. Even if Ada left immediately, it would probably take her the better part of a day to arrive.

It would practically be dark by the time she got here.

"We're alright for now. Don't rush!"

Help coming from that far away wasn't going to solve their immediate problem.

"...You'd better hang in there..."

For the first time, Luke could hear genuine anxiety in Ada's voice.

"...No matter what... stay alive... wait for me..."

"Uh, I don't want to jinx myself or anything, but this place is pretty big, and there are so many interesting people here. Every last one of them is gorgeous! I'm really loving the atmosphere!"

Luke grinned.

"You... smartass... at a time like this..."

Ada's voice was becoming so faint he could barely hear her.

"...There's interference... over Atlanta... we'll... find a way... into the city..."

"Zzzzt!"

The signal cut out completely.

Luke nodded.

When things got serious, Ada really was someone he could count on!

Still, he needed to find Wesker and kill him before Ada arrived.

Otherwise, the rescue helicopters would probably fall victim to the bastard's tricks too.

That sneaky old bastard!

So he wanted to put Luke through some kind of trial?

Perfect!

Luke happened to be running short on Essence right now, and Atlanta was practically a paradise for farming it.

He could clear this place as quickly as possible!

Once he maxed out all his attributes, he'd practically be a miniature Superman on the ground!

"What's wrong?"

Rebecca noticed the change in his expression.

"Do you know who was behind the attack? I suspect the Southern city-state. There's a good chance I was the target!"

Luke didn't answer immediately.

Jill quickly shook her head.

"It definitely wasn't the city-state. Before we left, only a handful of people knew about the summit. Just a few trustworthy senior officials..."

"Oh, come on. If I'm right, those trustworthy senior officials of yours are exactly the ones who leaked the information."

Luke shook his head, cutting off Jill's attempt to defend them.

"Ada's bringing people to rescue us, but she's a long way away. And with the attacker still somewhere in Atlanta, we'll have to rely on ourselves for now."

Luke directed those words at Claire and Rebecca.

He had three heroines from the Resident Evil series right here, plus himself, who was practically an alien.

Clearing Atlanta with a team like this... that should count as a pretty standard dungeon run, right?

And they still had Crane Superman and Chris.

"A few days?"

Claire's pupils contracted.

"You mean we're going to have to stay in a place like this for several days?"

"What else do you expect?"

Luke spread his hands.

"Someone's taking potshots at us from a hiding spot up there, so there's no guarantee aircraft can get in safely. And down on the ground, we've got the walker horde. Trying to force our way through would be suicide."

"By my estimate, even if reinforcements move as fast as possible, it'll take them at least half a day to reach the outskirts. And who knows how much longer it'll take them to actually get into the city?"

"Don't worry. Sometimes the most dangerous place is the safest. At least somewhere like this, we're far less likely to be attacked by humans than by walkers..."

"And walkers... well, they're not that big a deal!"

Luke said it so casually, but everyone else's expression was deadly serious.

Dude, this was Atlanta!

A million-strong walker horde!

And a million was just a figure of speech!

If you included all the surrounding areas, there had to be at least three or four million walkers in and around Atlanta!

How the hell were they supposed to fight that?

Even a nuclear bomb might not be enough to wipe them all out!

Spending even one more night in a place like this meant risking your life every second.

Even an Astartes would have to spend the better part of a day hacking through that many walkers!

Jill leaned against the wall, calmly analyzing their situation.

"Whoever attacked us must have been from a third-party organization. But are you sure there couldn't be a mole within your own ranks?"

Rebecca shook her head.

"Impossible. Only a few people knew what was going on, and they're all... well, you could say they're Luke's family."

"It was Wesker," Luke said outright.

Rebecca immediately understood.

She instinctively rubbed her shoulder.

"No wonder... If it's that bastard, I'm not surprised he managed to get his hands on information like that!"