***
In the morning, back in Oești, in the hotel, the group of soldiers and the family of three have taken their things, prepared their gear and wait for the command the squad of the two soldiers will come to pick them up. Last conversation the group had was one hour ago. The drivers of that truck are on their way to Oești, taking the Cicănești route which turns out to be a safe bet. As they said on the radio, the road was all clean and safe from the zombies.
"How many are there?" asks a soldier to Petre.
Petre, the leader of the squad of this mission, is peeking through a window blockage, he observes there are countless zombies outside. The man turns around to his squad, he tells them how many are there, and how many different variants are outside on the streets. The soldiers are looking at each other, seeing that everyone is prepared for the upcoming fight.
Petre goes to the door, together with Gancea and Daniel, moving the furniture that was in front of the door used as a blockage, then a soldier kicks the door and runs through the door. He aims his assault rifle to a zombie who turned around to him, and he kills the creature by firing three shots. Other soldiers and survivors are leaving the building, and start to kill the upcoming zombies. Only the frail women and the daughter are staying behind.
The soldiers are shooting the zombies far away, and when they see zombies that are close to them, they quickly stab them with their knives, or push them.
Petre kills three zombies who were on a top of the building rooftop and prepared to jump on them. He successfully kills the three zombies with a dangerous variant to humans. These variant zombies are called "Jumpers", very common, and very dangerous for humans… and for themselves. Petre turns around, sees a horde of zombies coming from the right, he and three other soldiers are shooting that horde.
Gancea and Daniel are using their weapons to kill the zombies that are coming from behind the building. The two are not having assault rifles like the soldiers, they are having their handguns. An efficient type of weapons for two people who never handed gun before this apocalypse hit.
The fight was fierce, but the squad managed to kill most of the zombies, but with a cost. Even if they still killed the zombies Petre saw when he peeked on the window, there are still many creatures like this who are still walking and running. So, the squad, are starting to switch to their melee weapons and prepare to attack. But they've stopped the moment they have heard the sound of a motored vehicle coming from somewhere.
A soldier is looking through the direction of where that noise comes from, and he sees a car approaching them. The soldier is looking at that car, feeling happy that they have found safety. He yells to his people about the car, but when he turned around, he sees the car approaching faster, a thing that make the soldier feel confused.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"What?"
The car is speeding faster, getting closer to that soldier
And the driver didn't care that he ran over a soldier with his Toyota pickup truck.
The group saw this accident, and they quickly change back to their fire weapons and shoot the remain bullets to that car.
A bullet manages to hit the wheels of the car, making the said pickup truck lose control and crash into a concrete fence.
The soldiers are walking toward the car, aiming their weapons to that thing, while the family of three and Gancea are checking on the victim of this accident. Daniel is looking through the direction of where that car came from and sees another car coming to them.
"Here's another one!"
But that said car stops, turns around and goes back on the way it came. The driver probably saw this attempt on killing the soldier failed and he would rather try in another time than to risk his life right now.
Petre is opening the door of that pickup truck, and sees there are two people in that car. Both are looking injured and knocked out from this crash and some bullets who have hit them. Upon a close inspection, he notices the bullets haven't hit their vital organs, only their arms and the board control of the car.
"Who the fuck are those people?" asks a soldier to Petre.
"They are the ones like that night." says another soldier to his comrade.
"They are the terrorists?" asks Petre.
"I am certain, sir!"
Petre observes these two people are having tattoos on their right wrist, that is having a skull with a bullet wound on the base of where the rain is supposed to be. It has written on these tattoos in Romanian language the word "Liberatori", translated in English means "Liberators". He looks at this car, sees there is a dead human in that car, but that said death human was probably dead a long time ago because it had his entire stomach ripped apart.
"These sickos." says a soldier noticing the body on the backseat.
"Execute them." says Petre to his soldiers.
"But sir." says a soldier. "They can be used in interrogation."
"They will not give anything to us." responds another soldier. "Last time we tried to interrogate one of them, and he tried to jump on us, yelling to kill him and transform into a zombie."
"He really did that?" asks Petre surprised by this.
"Yes." says that soldier. "It was a scary experience because I've never encountered humans ho would willingly give their lives to become a walking dead corpse."
Before the soldier say something, another vehicle is approaching, this time, it was the military vehicle from yesterday. It came back to pick them up and deliver them back to safety.
When the vehicle came back, the soldiers have decided to kill the drivers rather than to spare their lives. And killing… They stabbed their heads with their knives, and leave the bodies in there to be eaten by the zombies from the other side of the river who are approaching this zone slowly.
The soldier that has been ran over is injured on his torso and his arms. His injures are looking serious but he isn't on a critical situation of life and death.
The squad of soldiers, the small family and the two survivors are getting inside the military truck to be transported back to the community and to rest for real after of this entire event they have encountered. The vehicle takes the Cicănești route, the one it has taken to come here.