The Licker

The jewelry store was now in sight, and there were almost no zombies on the street, but Xiao Fan still felt something was wrong.

He looked left and right at the street corner, and his gaze fell on an overturned Hummer.

"Let's go take a look," said Xiao Fan, leading his squad of guards towards the Hummer.

When they reached the vehicle, Xue Ninger raised her hand and wiped the body, then turned to Xiao Fan and said: "Commander, there is very little dust on this vehicle, it couldn't have been here for more than five days."

Xiao Fan thought for a moment: "It took us four days to get here from the base, so this vehicle must have flipped over shortly before we arrived."

"That's right."

"Then this is very likely the tire tracks we saw outside the city."

Glancing at the dark red blood stains inside the car, Xiao Fan determined that the occupants had already perished.

No matter why they had come, they would not be going back now.

The jewelry store was just ahead. Although the street was eerily quiet, Xiao Fan still felt they should keep moving forward.

The troops slowly advanced, gradually approaching the jewelry store.

Everyone was fully alert, weapons ready. The buildings lining both sides of the street were dilapidated, with debris everywhere. Many of the windows in the high-rises were also shattered, perhaps from people jumping or zombies crashing through.

As they drew nearer to the jewelry store, Xiao Fan could also see the river in the distance.

There was a bridge over the river, but it had been blown up. On the opposite bank, a sea of zombies wandered endlessly, the sheer number of them making one's scalp tingle.

Xiao Fan roughly estimated there were at least 200,000 zombies on the other shore, and this was just one area.

He looked away, not wanting to take in the sight any longer, lest it overwhelm him. Thank goodness for this river, otherwise they would not have had a chance to make it here for months.

The group arrived at the entrance to the jewelry store. The signage was damaged here too, with only the characters for “Golden” on the sign indicating it had been a jewelry shop.

The storefront was not very big, just a county-level jewelry store, nothing large.

Xiao Fan did not rush inside, instead first pulling up the radar map. When he did, his eyes widened in surprise.

There was a zombie inside the jewelry store!

Ordinarily a single zombie would not have attracted Xiao Fan's notice, but this one was a deep red color!

Common zombies were only a pale red, with variant zombies being a darker red.

Agile zombies and armored zombies were a bright crimson.

And this zombie before them was an even deeper red!

Xiao Fan knew the higher the red level, the more dangerous the zombie.

Without a doubt, there was a zombie inside more highly evolved than both agile and armored variants.

No wonder there were so few zombies on the street, likely scared off by this dangerous creature within.

"Everyone be careful and fall back a bit. There is a dangerous zombie inside," Xiao Fan warned.

The Red Guards retreated, forming a semicircular cordon around the jewelry store entrance.

Observing again, Xiao Fan determined the mutated zombie was on the jewelry store's second floor.

He immediately ordered: "Xue Ninger, toss a grenade through one of the second floor windows. Let's flush out whatever is hiding in there."

"Yes sir!"

Xue Ninger nodded, firing her pistol to shatter the glass upstairs, then lobbing a grenade inside.

Boom!

An explosion rocked the building, the shockwave bursting back out the windows along with shards of glass.

ARooo!

Accompanying the blast was an angry howl as a crimson figure came hurtling out from the second floor!

Ratatat!

Reacting swiftly to contain the threat, Xiao Fan's squad opened fire.

Their dense volley created an impenetrable wall of lead barring the red figure's approach. Dripping with blood, it continued to take bullets as it skittered swiftly along the building exterior, managing to dodge most shots.

Seizing the opportunity, Xiao Fan examined the creature.

It was over three meters long, entirely scarlet, ran on four limbs, and even had a long tail.

Though ferocious, its head still bore traces that it had once been human.

ARooo!

Hiss hiss!

The monster paused, stretching out a red tongue over a meter long, flicking it rapidly in and out.

Xiao Fan was astonished. Was this not one of those Lickers from zombie films?

Their feet were webbed, allowing them to crawl along walls like suckers. Their movements were extremely agile, effortlessly avoiding the barrage of nearly a dozen soldiers.

Beside Xiao Fan, Xue Ninger said: "Commander, that is an agile-type zombie, more advanced than a level three agile zombie. Yet oddly, it seems as if it only recently evolved."

Eyeing tattered remnants of clothing on the Licker, Xiao Fan solemnly replied: "Not recently - just days ago."

As he spoke, something suddenly fell from the wall creature.

Glancing down, Xiao Fan saw it was a set of car keys.

Turning to the Red Guard officers behind him, he deduced: "Unless I'm mistaken, those belong to that Hummer we passed. Which means this Licker...is that Hummer's former driver, mutated after death."

Shen Ruihui exclaimed in surprise: "But the driver only died days ago! How could it evolve so quickly?"

Xiao Fan was silent a moment. "Excellent question. But let our engineers worry about solving that mystery later. Right now - kill this thing!"

"Open fire! Get it off that wall!"

"Xiao Tian - stop playing with mommy dearest over there and sic my K9 unit on that monster! Let's see how many three-star military dogs this Licker can handle solo!"

On Xiao Fan's command, the squad fired again.

This time dozens of rifles unleashed a torrential downpour of bullets engulfing the Licker.

Though its fine scales provided some protection, they were no match for a couple dozen assault rifles and submachine guns.

Riddled through with over a dozen shots, it lost its grip and tumbled from the wall.

The moment the Licker hit the ground, the soldiers ceased firing.

Then Xiao Tian - a hulking three-star military mastiff - was the first to bound toward the wounded creature!

Already gravely injured from the grenade and barrage of gunfire, the Licker was in bad shape.

Yet at the sight of this drinking fountain on legs daring to attack, it still roared defiantly and leaped up to grapple the charging canine.

Even while clearly losing, the wounded Licker could still somewhat fend off a three-star combat dog!

Seeing Xiao Tian at a disadvantage, his mate Zhen Tian immediately pounced with bared fangs, biting down hard on the Licker's neck!

One zombie versus two dogs - a vicious melee exploded outside the jewelry shop entrance!