The moment several UV lamps shattered and the lights went out, everyone's hearts jumped into their throats.

Those areas plunged into darkness instantly. One of the gaps ran across a continuous stretch of the perimeter, and that one was impossible to miss.

"Fuck! Volatiles are coming in!"

"Marcus, Merle, Daryl — get ready to intercept those bastards with me! Everyone else, hold your positions!"

"Abraham! Hurl Molotovs out there! Light that ground up!"

"Crane, Orion — find every Toad out there and put them down!"

Lin Feng slapped a fresh mag into the M4, snatched up the Remington Shane had swapped out, looped around, and sprinted toward the darkest section of the breach.

He didn't know how many lamps had gone out, couldn't count them in the chaos. But Volatiles had just enough brains to punch through wherever it would hurt them least.

The three named fighters swung their muzzles around in unison. Merle grabbed the Remington left to the side, crouched low, and rushed toward the gap.

Daryl glanced over. "Hey. Don't die."

Merle broke stride for just a beat, didn't look back, kept running. "Heh. You worried about me, little brother?"

Daryl said nothing. Just quietly swung the muzzle around.

Abraham grabbed a Molotov off the ground, lit it, and hurled it into the walker horde outside.

No weeds to cushion the impact this time. The glass bottle cracked straight against a walker's skull and burst open, burning fuel splashed and ran downward, catching several walkers at once. The whole area brightened.

Abraham let out a booming laugh. "Hahaha! Keep 'em coming, you sons of bitches! Have another taste!"

Between dropping regular walkers, Crane and Orion put down anything that moved wrong with a single shot each.

A Volatile hit the line like a charging bull. It bowled through several walkers in a row, cleared the trench in one terrifying bound, and launched itself into the air.

Last time, Lin Feng had been able to track its silhouette, but his body couldn't keep up. All he could do was watch as it pounced on Neil.

This time was different. Lin Feng didn't just track the trajectory. He could see inside the glowing red eyes, the raw physiological frenzy burning there.

He flicked the M4's selector to three-round burst, raised the rifle, lined up the shot, and pulled the trigger.

Die, you bastard.

Thwip-thwip-thwip, thwip-thwip-thwip, thwip-thwip-thwip,

The Volatile caught every single round like it had eyes. Torso and skull detonated under the hits, shredding tissue in all directions, a small chunk landed right beside Merle's boot.

"Fuck! Lin! Can you aim any better?!"

Rifle still raised, Merle spat the curse out, but seeing the Volatile was already thoroughly dead, Merle didn't waste a follow-up round. The muzzle swung straight toward the dark sector.

"Shut up. Keep whining and you're not seeing a drop of booze tomorrow."

"Fuck! That's extortion!" Merle gave a mocking laugh, and then the thwip-thwip-thwip of M4 bursts sounded again behind. Without hesitation, Merle squeezed the trigger and added to the fire.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The barrage slammed into the next Volatile's massive frame. Not lethal on its own, but it stopped the creature dead in its tracks. Lin Feng finished it clean.

"Haha! That one's mine!"

Lin Feng didn't bother engaging this increasingly unhinged lunatic. The more you talked back at Merle, the more wound up Merle got.

He filtered out the noise, eyes and ears locking onto the breach ahead.

Steady. Still.

In the dark, sounds kept rising and falling, nothing like the sluggish, hollow groans of regular walkers. These were forceful, sharp, trailing the whistle of displaced air.

"Waaa-uuurgh—"

A shrill, tearing scream ripped through the horde. Air forced violently up through the throat from deep in the lungs, ragged and desperate.

The rallying mutant variant. The one that pulled walkers in.

The sound wave hit. Lin Feng shook his head against it and barked, "Fuck! Marcus, take it out!"

Marcus pressed cheek to the MK12's stock, tracked silently for a fraction of a second, and fired.

A round punched into the Screamer's open mouth and blew straight through, bursting into a spray of blood.

The scream cut off. Gone.

Before Lin Feng could draw a breath, another Volatile lunged through the gap.

Daryl had been waiting. The trigger locked down, and the fully automatic M4 poured a stream of fire straight into the beast.

Thwip,

Rounds tore through it one after another, punching craters into flesh, shredding meat through the air.

Lin Feng and Merle raised their weapons at the same moment and delivered the final verdict.

Thwip, BOOM,

The skull burst apart like a watermelon.

Up on the watchtower, Rick looked out at the horde still massing in the distance and started swearing. "Holy shit! Lin! They're still gathering! Still pouring this way! The ones up front are already getting shoved into the trench, and the lane, they're slamming the barricades!"

Lin Feng didn't answer. Between the roaring diesel engines from earlier and the non-stop gunfire, they were anything but quiet. In the pitch dark, they'd lit the only candle for miles.

Of course the walkers were coming. It would've been strange if they weren't.

"Switch to shotguns and clear the lane! Don't let them push through!"

Shane bellowed the order and reached for the Remington, then looked down beside the sandbags and stopped cold.

Where the hell is my Remington?!

"Fuck! Who?! Who took my gun?! FUCK!"

Leon saw the squad leader going red in the face and heading toward full meltdown, and immediately held out a spare Remington. "Captain, take this one!"

Shane didn't stand on ceremony. The shotgun was snatched away, swung toward the lane, and the trigger pulled in one motion. A single blast exploded a cluster of walker heads.

Leon let out a quiet breath, raised the AR-15 again, and very deliberately did not look at Claire, who was already burning a hole straight through Leon with a death stare.

The battle kept going. Nobody dared stop.

With around twenty Remington 870s concentrated on the lane, the walker pack choking the approach was hammered back and held.

Rick broke into a wide grin. "Good work, Shane!"

Shane smirked and spat on the ground. If it weren't for the Volatiles still out there, Shane would've led a charge to the gate long ago and turned that lane into a slaughterhouse.

The meat grinder ran for over twenty minutes straight. By the time the horde finally broke, more than half the camp's stockpiled ammunition was gone, and only scattered stragglers were still shuffling in from the dark.

➤ Next: Bonus Chapter for 100 Reminders!

Chapter 124 - Bonus Chapter for 100 Reminders!

Rick rolled out a sore shoulder and surveyed the carnage by the dim UV light and the lingering bonfires still burning from unextinguished Molotovs. Mountains of corpses. A sea of blood. A long exhale.

Under a horde numbering somewhere between one and two thousand, the camp had held.

What needed dealing with now was the Volatile that might still be lurking somewhere in the dark.

That was the problem with these things. They had enough brain to avoid throwing themselves into a meatgrinder, so even with the horde smashed apart, nobody was letting their guard down.

Lin Feng was stubborn that way. If the thing wasn't dead, Lin Feng wasn't sleeping.

Once the outer horde was cleared, something shifted in Lin Feng's eyes. An eager edge crept in, unmistakable.

Crane caught it first and grabbed Lin Feng's arm. "Lin, what are you doing? Don't tell me you're thinking of going one-on-one with that thing."

Lin Feng turned, broke free without effort, and shrugged. "Yeah. If it doesn't die, I can't sleep."

Shane's eyes lit up. A grin, one step forward. "Count me in this time."

Crane stared. Another one?!

Before Crane could say anything else, a sequence of sounds cut through the air, one after another:

Clack,

Clack,

Ch-chk,

Ch-chk,

Everyone turned. Merle, Daryl, Marcus, and Andrew had already finished reloading in silence, weapons chambered and ready. The four of them walked over and took up positions beside Lin Feng without a word.

Merle smirked. "Well then. Let's move, Captain Butcher. And speak up when you're screaming for help later — I'd hate to miss it."

Daryl said nothing. Marcus said nothing. Andrew just smiled, that same simple, guileless smile.

Lin Feng said nothing either, just looked at Crane with a relaxed expression and the faintest smirk.

"This is how we do things. Either we don't do it, or we see it through. That's all there is to it."

Then Lin Feng led them out of the fortified line and pushed closer to the dark.

Lin Feng could feel it. The thing was still out there.

Watching. Reading. Waiting.

Shane asked, "So how are we doing this?"

Lin Feng was still thinking when Andrew provided the answer.

A hunting knife dragged across skin. Blood welled up, streamed down past the elbow, and dripped onto the ground.

Everyone's head snapped around. A full second of blank silence.

Then the cursing erupted.

"What the fuck—"

"You've got to be kidding me—"

"Jesus Christ!"

Andrew, completely unbothered, sheathed the knife and smiled. "Works great."

Lin Feng stared at that honest, untroubled smile.

The Volatile caught the blood on the air. Instinct clawed through whatever intelligence remained. It started to move.

Lin Feng heard it and snapped, "Stop standing there. It's coming."

The words weren't even finished before the Volatile was already sprinting, launching into a leap, driving straight toward Andrew.

A manic, bloodshot light surged up behind Andrew's eyes. The pain had spiked the adrenaline to the limit. The moment Lin Feng fired the first shot, Andrew pulled the trigger too.

Thud-thud-thud,

BOOM!

The shotgun bellowed. None of the pellets caught the Volatile's skull, but the blast tore a mangled crater into its body. At that range, the sheer stopping power killed its forward momentum cold, swatting it out of the air mid-lunge.

Several more shots rang out immediately after, and the Volatile's head came apart in pieces.

The recoil had opened Andrew's wound wider. Blood poured freely. Andrew didn't seem to notice, and turned toward Lin Feng instead. "Lin, any more?"

Lin Feng's brow was tight. "No more. And don't ever put a knife to yourself again. If something happens to you, I'll never be able to look Nancy in the face when the meal plate gets handed over."

Andrew's smile didn't waver. Honest. Simple. "It worked, so it worked. I'll be more careful next time."

Lin Feng opened his mouth, found nothing to say, and let it go. "Get some sleep tonight. Marcus, take care of Andrew. Shane, double up every sentry post for night watch until further notice. Oh, and go tell Rick to get today's new arrivals settled."

The three nodded and split off.

Merle clicked his tongue, dug a cigarette pack out of a pocket, and lit one up. "That guy's got crazy in his bones too."

Lin Feng didn't argue. Just reached over and swiped the pack, took one for himself, and passed another to Daryl.

"Tomorrow morning, after the bodies are cleared, mind making a run out there? See if you can bag a deer. Get some real food into Andrew."

Daryl caught the cigarette and grunted.

No hesitation. Just done.

Lin Feng watched Andrew and Marcus disappear into the dark and blew out a slow breath of smoke.

Before today, Lin Feng had figured there were exactly two crazies in the group. Merle. Shane. That was the full list.

Wrong.

In the lunatic rankings, Andrew didn't just take first place, Andrew lapped the field. By a mile.

Because at least the other two had never once, knowing full well there was a Volatile outside, picked up a knife and carved into themselves to use their own blood as bait.

Crane watched the whole thing, then looked at Jade. Jade looked back. Neither of them had a single thing to say.

Andrew wanted to live? Andrew spent the night acting as a human blood bag to draw out a Volatile.

Andrew wanted to die? Andrew blasted that Volatile out of the air with one shot.

What was this, dancing back and forth in front of hell's front gate?

Shane walked over to Rick and laid out Lin Feng's thinking. The two talked through the guard rotations, then Rick broke off alone toward the wooden cabin.

The rest of the camp filtered away in ones and twos, each with their own thoughts. But every set of eyes that followed Andrew's retreating back held the same thing: respect, and something else, a quiet, unanimous note that said do not start anything with that one.

If someone could treat their own life as just another expendable resource, what made you think they'd go easy on yours?

With that, the battle was done. A few scattered walkers showed up in the small hours, and they were put down before they made it anywhere close.

The rest of the night passed without a word.

By morning, most of the camp hadn't slept properly, and nobody had slept soundly. Dark circles all around.

After breakfast, everyone pulled on gloves and long sleeves and got to work hauling the walker corpses out to a harvested wheat field to burn. The work lasted until afternoon before it was finished. The camp's fuel reserves were tapped out, they'd need another run to the gas station.

Shane took a group and headed out. Lin Feng went to find Rick to talk through what to do with Ethan and the others.

Lin Feng already had an idea. The question was whether T-Dog would be willing to take it on.

But before Lin Feng made it halfway, Orion stepped into the path.

➤ Next: Extra Update for Review Gifts!