System Of The Undead

Chapter 282: The Link

Bella had secured the area with the mercenaries under her control, they ventured into the cave and despite Bella being indispensable, she was the one who led the line.

She walked right into the cave with a torch in hand and the others stayed right behind her to cover her blind spot.

Bella understood the danger that could potentially be here seeing as the virus didn’t just affect humans but all living things.

The cave was strange, it didn’t look natural but man-made, however, such a feat should be impossible.

She raised her hand, prompting everyone to stop in their travels as there was a distinctive smell in the air.

"Rotting flesh?" Bella thought to herself, like a trained hound, she could smell the undead from afar.

She knew that there were zombies here but couldn’t tell their exact location.

"We need to split up," Bella suggested, a smart life as this would allow them to cover more ground.

This was a recipe for disaster as anyone who has watched a movie knew that things usually went south the moment they split up but this was no movie.

This was the real world and Bella knew that these men were capable of taking care of themselves.

But she was also aware that whatever waited for them here could very well be the thing that killed them.

She pushed that thought out of her head, there was no room for doubt and she ventured deeper into the cave with the others splitting off into other paths.

Bella noticed that the smell got worse the deeper she went and that confirmed that they weren’t the only ones here as her hand rested gently on her pistol.

She had to be quiet because any noise, they would charge right her with the intent of harming but she was capable of escaping whatever this cave threw at her. l

She realized that the cave was glowing further back, she had walked right towards it but her footsteps slowed down.

She didn’t know what awaited her but her heart was thumping, there was something familiar about this situation yet so unfamiliar.

Bella took off her coat and tossed it into the compartment of the cave she was about to enter.

This was her way of checking if there were any zombies as they would rush to the cloth that had dropped to the ground the moment it did but there was nothing.

Bella sighed, looking over her shoulder as she noticed that everywhere was dead silent but this was a good thing.

It meant that there were no incidents currently occurring and thus, she chose to enter this compartment.

Bella entered and the thing responsible for the glow came into view, it was a large piece of fragment, almost crystallized.

Bella’s jaw dropped as she took a couple of steps back to process what she was witnessing.

She couldn’t believe her eyes but also understood that this didn’t explain the trail that led up to here.

But before she could do anything else, gunshots echoed right behind her.

Bella knew that the only time that they were allowed to shoot their guns was if there wasn’t any other choice because this would only draw out more of the very thing they were trying to kill.

"Fuck!" Bella cussed under her breath as screams soon echoed from afar.

This was a discovery no doubt but there was no way that something as big as this would go undetected by the undead.

They were drawn to fragments so it only made sense that they would be the ones to find it.

Bella looked over her shoulder and realized that the threat existing was far greater than she had imagined.

She ran towards the path where the road forked into multiple directions but from a distance, she saw only one person standing there.

The closer she got, the clearer the view and she couldn’t believe her eyes the moment it caught a glimpse of the state of the soldier.

His entire left side was missing and his entrails were being dragged along the ground, he looked at Bella and tried to speak but no words came out.

How he was standing was a miracle, to begin with, but Bella didn’t question it, all she saw was him taking a grenade out of his pouch and throwing it in her direction right before losing his head.

She didn’t see how he lost it but something moved so fast that even her eyes couldn’t perceive and then she heard a growl right before the grenade detonated and brought down a part of the cave.

This, fortunately for her, didn’t bring down the entire cave but simply blocked the exit.

Preventing whatever was out there from getting in but also trapping Bella in the cave, even though this move might have potentially saved her life, it might have also condemned her as she wasn’t sure if there was any other exit.

"What the hell was that?" Bella thought to herself, she was no stranger to evolved zombies but this was on a different scale.

She couldn’t believe what she had seen but she knew that she stood no chance against it.

Trapped in a room with the very thing responsible for this situation, Bella found herself in a dire situation.

-

Clementine had trouble locating Sam, it was almost impossible but Sam had underestimated.

She might not know where he was going but she had been tracking him for more than a year, she had learned his patterns.

He also looked to be traveling in a linear path so Clementine needed to track back to his original travel path before she intercepted him.

Sam never planned to take her along, it was just like when he left her in the community.

This told Clementine that he was about to embark on something dangerous, making her more desperate to find him.

The key was in the fragment and she couldn’t explain it but something was drawing her.

It was like instincts but this was due to the residue she had touched earlier, it had somehow synchronized with her even though it wasn’t as strong as the original and the side effects weren’t as severe.

The fragment was a parasite that was linked, they could perceive and see things that they each came into contact with so it was no surprise that these people were drawn to each other.

That was the explanation as to why this was possible so Sam’s rambling about hearing Jason’s voice was plausible but the question was, would Clementine as well?