The mission was supposed to be easy – 15 people in groups of three. The promised pay was decent.

  Yet what amount of money could compensate me for dying in here?

  “For what would a corpse need money?”

  That bastard sure said something smart.

  The walking corpses moving to attack me probably think so too.

  I needed a second to recover – I was still dizzy from the fall.

  The flickering flashlight on the ground allowed me to see the bare minimum, but it was more than enough.

  After a quick look around, I understood that my only way was through the five Walkers in front of me.

  They were wearing military clothing, had armored vests and two of them also wore helmets. I had to be precise despite the state I was in; it felt like I had a hangover.

  ‘Click’.

  As luck would have it, my main gun was jammed.

  I threw it on the ground and got my secondary firearm from my waist pistol holder with my right arm while I used my other arm to get my combat knife from my waist knife holder and held it in a reverse grip.

  The rascals were slowly coming towards me, their only desire to rip me to shreds and to have a feast with my flesh and organs. They had nothing else to focus on. I was their prime target.

  Even if I was certain there were no prying eyes, I still decided to go “easy”.

  Sure, I was mad and the hit on my head had made me unsteady, but would mutilating them calm me down? No, it would not.

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  There were no benefits to doing so and I also feared that more might come the longer I wasted time.

  I aimed at the closest one’s head and pulled the trigger.

  ‘Bang’.

  Although my hands were shaky, I hit the left side of its forehead. It had no helmet and the shot immediately dropped it dead on the ground.

  The other four disregarded what happened and continued approaching me.

  Nothing unusual. These ones had no self-preservation.

  I realised that my aim was worse than usual, so I decided to get closer to them.

  When we were at a distance of around 10 metres, I resumed my shooting.

  Their stretched arms, inflicted with wounds and bitten off fingers, and the annoying gibberish, they were roaring with their ugly faces, did nothing for them.

  ‘Bang’, ‘Bang’, ‘Bang’.

  Three of the zombies have died with one shot to the head.

  My aim was better this time, hitting their foreheads with no problems. If I did miss any of them, I might as well only use my fists.

  The only problem was the ones with the helmets. My pistol might be unable to kill them with one shot.

  The last one left standing had a helmet.

  Was there a reason to waste bullets on the last one? Sure, it was attacking me, but it was only one of the weakest zombies.

  I holstered my pistol and prepared to deal with the last threat.

  At around a meter, I moved fast and managed to behead it before it even realised what happened.

  My aim with guns was slightly off, but my close-quarters was normal. Still, it was good to take a small break.

  After the targets were down, I looked at my surroundings again.

  No more threats for now.

  I hastily retrieved the flashlight and my automatic gun, an Avtomat Kalashnikov with a few modifications, from the wet and muddy ground, hid behind some rubble before other zombies came from the noise of the skirmish and started to clean my weapon after I changed the flashlight’s batteries.

  It takes seconds to disassemble and assemble an AK-47, given that one knows what they are doing. It was bound to be more reliable for the stronger threats I would encounter soon.

  I decided to unjam and clean it up while taking a break. My gun was of higher priority than the minor injuries I sustained from the fall.

  My magazines were half used – from the eight magazines with 30 bullets initially, only four were left.

  After about five minutes of rest, along with some basic first aid for my wounds from the fall and a check on the condition of my ammunition, I began to make my way towards the path from which the zombies had come.

  Not because I wanted to, but because there was no other way.

  But what had happened for me to be isolated from my team and in danger in this mission?