Chapter 601 Midnight Visitor

“Okay.” Holden Shaw put away his dual blades. He then activated his Speed Element Superpower, sprinting wildly in the direction Nina Jacobs had pointed.

On either side of the ruined highway, low-level zombies that had wandered over from nearby stopped in their tracks. They stared at their surroundings with pale, grayish eyes. Even though there was absolutely nothing there, the zombies lingered, reluctant to disperse. It wasn’t until the sound of an explosion echoed in the distance that they were finally drawn away by the louder noise.

Right at that moment, another group of zombies raised their heads, letting out low, guttural roars. There was fresh flesh and blood nearby. But in the next second, they were pierced and set ablaze by Flaming Arrows raining down from the sky.

Nina landed steadily, her gaze fixed on a specific patch of ground. In just a few moments, more zombies began to converge on the area. Acting as though they didn’t even exist, she crouched down and began investigating the earth using her Earth Element Superpower.

Holden appeared behind her right on cue. With swift, decisive strikes of his blades, he freely reaped the incoming horde to cover her back.

Beneath the permafrost, Nina unearthed a silver device about the size of a radio.

“Found it.” She examined the object in her hands, noting that a faint vibrating sound was emitting from it.

“What is that?” Holden asked upon seeing it.

“A low-frequency vibration device,” Nina explained. “It mimics the sound of human footsteps. The subtle tremors it produces trick the zombies into thinking there’s human activity nearby.

“It’s very difficult for humans to hear this sound, so it essentially acts as a silent bait.”

Nina had found more than ten of these devices buried along both sides of the road.

“Someone buried them here on purpose,” Holden said.

“Yeah, and they’ve been here for a while,” Nina concluded.

“No wonder it’s so easy for zombies to show up on this road. It turns out these things were behind it all along,” Holden said. He thought of the mutated moles that had suddenly appeared earlier. “Could it be people from the South Riven Base?”

Could someone in the South Riven Base be trying to set them up?

“I don’t know. Let’s head back first.”

The two stood there and observed for a while longer. Sure enough, once they removed the batteries from all the devices, no more zombies gathered from afar.

Once the road was cleared of zombies, Adrian Paige’s expression grew serious as he examined the devices Nina brought back.

“Have you guys ever seen this before?” Adrian asked.

“No, first time,” Aaron Lynch replied, his expression shifting from disbelief to pure anger. “This… this is used to attract zombies? Then doesn’t that mean everything we faced earlier was…”

Were all the disasters they encountered previously caused by human sabotage?!

“Who exactly would do such a thing!” Ivan Young clenched his fists.

“Human hearts really are more terrifying than zombies!” Sylvia Shawn shook her head.

“I absolutely won’t let those people off the hook,” Aaron said, his eyes red.

That night, Ivan led the group to rest in an underground warehouse. It was a place they had previously stopped at on their way here.

After reporting that she was safe to Vera Coleman, Nina also prepared to turn in early.

Several Fire Element Superpower Users stoked the flames in the Superpower Furnace until they burned intensely, slowly warming the otherwise freezing underground warehouse.

However, in the middle of the night, people arrived outside the warehouse. Nina opened her eyes and sat up. She could hear that Adrian had already taken some men to handle the situation.

“Is it people?” Holly Morgan also sat up. After listening for a moment, she spoke to Nina across from her.

“Keep resting.” Nina checked the time and lay back down.

“Coming here at this hour—something is definitely off.” Holly slipped back into her sleeping bag, shivering slightly from the chill outside the fabric.

“Mhm, we’ll find out tomorrow,” Nina said.

The following morning, Ivan and his group excitedly informed Nina that General Nash, who had gone out previously to exterminate zombies for the base, was not dead. The people pleading for help outside the warehouse last night were him and his fellow survivors.

“Hello, my name is Kevin Nash,” a tall, heavily built man walked over and introduced himself. The man had a broad, square face and a jaw covered in thick, unkempt stubble. His gaze toward Nina was mostly calculating, yet held a subtle, nearly imperceptible trace of ruthlessness.

“So this is the South Riven Base’s General Nash,” Nina replied with a half-smile.

“I’m truly ashamed,” Kevin explained. “Lately, I’ve been leading my men to kill zombies. A few days ago, we were chased by a horde to the bottom of a cliff at the South Riven Border. I barely managed to get everyone out of there alive.”

“It’s good that you escaped. Our original plan was to return to the base by today. If everyone knows that you’re still alive, General Nash, they’ll be absolutely thrilled!” Jude Stone’s face beamed with the joy of an unexpected reunion.

Only then did Nina realize that both Jude and Ivan used to be Kevin’s subordinates.

“Can we really get there by today? From what we know, the road ahead isn’t easy to navigate,” Kevin sighed. “Alas, there are just too many zombies in South Riven. This journey must have been tough on you all.”

“You probably don’t know this yet, General Nash, but the backup sent by the City D Base this time are all elites. Especially Mr. Paige and Miss Jacobs here… Miss Jacobs was the one who found the traps we discovered on the Twin City Corridor yesterday,” Jude rambled, eager to explain.

Kevin gave Nina a somewhat surprised look. “Are there really such traps? Could it be that Miss Jacobs made a mistake?”

“She doesn’t make mistakes,” Adrian said, walking over to them.

Behind him, Heath Chandler nodded as well. “Once we reach the South Riven Base, we’ll definitely have Commander Gallagher investigate this matter until the truth is uncovered. Even if we have to turn all of South Riven upside down, we must root out the people harboring these malicious intentions.”

“Let’s head out early once everyone finishes packing up!” Heath called out to Shirley Lucas.

The previous night, Shirley had stored all the vehicles directly into his spatial storage. The advantage of doing this was that the cars were ready for immediate use once taken out, eliminating any worries about them failing to start due to the freezing outdoor temperatures.

Nina walked outside as well. A few unfamiliar vehicles were parked on the ground outside. They presumably belonged to Kevin and his men. The cars were covered in varying degrees of grime, looking as if they had weathered many storms.

Nina approached one of the vehicles. She reached out to wipe the edge of the car window, then brought her fingers to her nose and sniffed.

“What is that?” Holly, who had been following closely behind Nina, asked.

“It’s coal ash,” Nina replied. All these vehicles seemed to be coated in it.

“This General Nash is pretty impressive to have survived outside the base for so long. I heard a portion of his people are temporarily settled elsewhere. They just don’t have enough working vehicles, so they need us to make a detour and pick them up,” Shirley said after taking all the cars out of his storage.

He had plenty of spare vehicles in his spatial storage and didn’t mind lending out a few.

“How many people does he have left?” Nina asked.

“He says there are over six hundred survivors left. That’s a considerable amount,” Shirley replied.

Kevin had also brought several dozen people with him last night.

“I’ve already discussed this matter with them. Our primary destination today is still the South Riven Base,” Adrian said, walking over to Nina. “As for his people, the base can arrange for their retrieval once we get there.”

Nina nodded. “That’s for the best.”

It would certainly be ideal if they could safely reach the South Riven Base. But would everything really go smoothly today?

After getting into the car, Nina gave Shirley a few instructions.

“Did you discover something?” Shirley asked, as Nina had told him not to leave her side today no matter what happened.

“Not yet,” Nina answered truthfully.