Chapter 528: The Enemy Within

The western gate continued opening.

Metal groaned as the two enormous sections slowly pulled apart, revealing the empty road beyond Qinghe Base.

Commander Han immediately grabbed his radio. "Western control room, close the gate!"

Only static answered him.

He changed the frequency and called the soldiers stationed near the gate, but no one responded.

Lu Zhen looked at Lu Hao. "Stop it."

Lu Hao nodded before disappearing from where he stood.

A second later, electricity flashed near the western gate. Lu Hao appeared beside the control box and thrust his hand into the exposed cables.

Blue sparks spread across the gate’s control system.

The metal doors stopped moving, but they had already opened wide enough for several vehicles to pass through at the same time.

"Can you close them?" Commander Han asked.

Lu Hao studied the damaged control box before shaking his head. "The system is fighting against my ability. Something else is controlling it from inside the base."

"Then destroy the mechanism," Lu Zhen ordered. "We can seal the opening manually."

Lu Hao released a stronger electrical current.

The control box exploded, and several gears inside the wall stopped turning. Smoke rose from the damaged mechanism, but the western gate remained partially open.

Commander Han turned toward the nearby soldiers. "Bring armored vehicles to the gate. Use them to block the opening, then reinforce the space between them with metal barriers."

The soldiers moved immediately.

Leng Pan spread her mist through the street while affected survivors continued attacking the people around them.

There were already more than a hundred.

Some fought weakly and moved like ordinary people, but others had awakened abilities. Flames, wind blades, and pieces of stone shot through the crowd without regard for who they struck.

A fireball flew toward a woman carrying a child.

Leng Pan formed a water wall in front of them. The fire struck it and disappeared in a cloud of steam.

"Move toward the eastern shelter!" she shouted. "Do not enter any underground passage near the western wall!"

The unaffected survivors began running away, but the narrow streets and frightened crowd made it difficult for them to escape.

An affected man with an earth ability slammed both hands against the ground.

The road cracked.

A stone wall rose in front of the fleeing survivors and blocked their path.

Blaze rushed forward and punched through it. His enhanced strength shattered the wall, creating an opening wide enough for people to pass through.

"Keep moving!" he shouted as he pulled an elderly man away from the broken stones. "Do not stop to look behind you!"

Janna and Silk joined him.

Silk spread her threads between the buildings, creating several narrow paths through the chaos. The threads did not harm the survivors, but they separated the affected people from the rest of the crowd.

Janna used her wind ability to push the controlled survivors away whenever they came too close.

However, none of them wanted to use deadly force.

The affected survivors were not zombies. Their eyes remained clear, and fear could be seen on their faces even while their bodies attacked the people around them.

One of them swung a metal pipe toward a young soldier while shouting, "Run! I cannot stop my hands!"

The soldier hesitated.

The pipe struck his shoulder and knocked him to the ground.

Before the controlled man could attack again, Ouyang Jin appeared beside him and struck the back of his neck. The man collapsed, but his fingers continued twitching against the ground.

Ouyang Jin looked toward the alien prisoner. "They are still conscious. How is the network controlling their bodies?"

"The signal could be stimulating their nervous systems," the prisoner explained as Little Vine held him near Leng Pan. "If those people were exposed to the command network for a long time, the amplifiers might have planted control particles inside them."

Commander Han turned toward him sharply. "What kind of particles?"

"Microscopic machines," the prisoner replied. "They can enter the body through the air, water, or food. Once enough of them gather around the nervous system, the main controller can take over physical movement."

Commander Han’s expression became ugly. "Are you saying someone has been poisoning the people inside my base?"

"It would require several weeks," the prisoner admitted. "Perhaps several months."

Colonel Deng had carried an alien communicator and possessed access to important sections of the base. He could have placed the devices beneath the communication tower and spread the microscopic machines without attracting attention.

Leng Pan looked at the affected survivors. "Why are only some of them being controlled?"

"The machines would not accumulate at the same rate in every person," the prisoner explained. "Those who were exposed longer would respond first."

"Could more people be affected?" Lu Zhen asked.

The prisoner glanced at the thousands of survivors still moving through the streets. "Yes."

As if his words had triggered something, another group stopped walking.

This time, nearly two hundred people became still.

A little girl holding her mother’s hand froze in the middle of the road.

Her mother pulled her arm gently. "Yueyue, we have to go."

The girl did not respond.

A second later, she turned and bit her mother’s wrist.

The woman screamed but did not release her child.

Leng Pan’s mist reached them before the girl could attack again. Water wrapped around the child’s arms and legs, holding her in place without hurting her.

Similar restraints formed around the other affected survivors.

Controlling so many people at once placed a heavy burden on Leng Pan, but she could not allow them to continue attacking the crowd.

Lu Zhen noticed her pale face. "Do not restrain them individually. Move the unaffected survivors away and isolate the entire street."

Leng Pan understood his intention.

Her mist became thicker and formed two broad water barriers across the road. The affected survivors were trapped between them while soldiers guided everyone else toward the eastern side of the base.

The controlled people threw themselves against the water.

Some used their abilities, but Leng Pan continued reinforcing the barriers.

"We cannot keep them there forever," Commander Han said.

"We do not need forever," Lu Zhen replied. "We only need to find the main controller."

He turned to the alien prisoner. "Could the controller be detected?"

The prisoner hesitated. "The aircraft might be able to locate the command frequency, but its scanning system was damaged during the landing."

Lu Tao frowned. "You told us most of the internal systems were still working."

"I said most. The outer sensors were connected to the damaged engine."

"Could you repair them?"

"Not in a few minutes."

Little Vine lifted the alien slightly by the neck.

The prisoner grabbed the tendril and quickly continued, "However, one of the smaller aircraft might still have a functioning scanner."

Assistant Yao’s aircraft had landed several kilometres away with the rest of their team. It had remained outside Qinghe Base’s attack range and had not been damaged.

Lu Zhen touched his communicator. "Assistant Yao, bring the second aircraft to the western side of the base. Stay above the missile range until Commander Han disables the defensive weapons."

Assistant Yao’s voice came through immediately. "We have been following the zombie army from a distance. The first group has increased its speed."

"How much time?"

"Less than four hours."

Commander Han heard the response and looked toward his soldiers. "Contact the defense towers. Tell them not to fire at the second aircraft."

A nearby officer tried using his radio, but his expression soon changed. "Commander, the central communication network is down. Only short-range channels are functioning."

"The internal controller must have disabled it," Ouyang Jin said. "Someone might be trying to isolate every section of the base."

Commander Han called over three soldiers. "Go to the defense towers in person. Make sure they receive the order. If anyone refuses to cooperate, remove them from their post."

The soldiers ran toward the nearest vehicles.

Lu Zhen looked toward the western wall. Several armored trucks had already arrived and were moving into the opening.

The first vehicle stopped between the partially opened gates.

The second parked behind it.

Before the third could move into place, the ground beneath the first vehicle exploded.

The armored truck was thrown onto its side.

Several soldiers near the gate fell.

A dark figure appeared on top of the western wall.

He wore a Qinghe Base uniform, but black veins covered the visible skin around his neck and face.

Commander Han recognized him. "Captain Wei?"

The man looked down at them without answering.

A strange metal device had been attached to the back of his head. Several thin wires disappeared beneath his collar.

The alien prisoner stared at him in horror. "He is a command carrier."

Leng Pan tightened the mist around the prisoner. "What does that mean?"

"He is carrying a part of the main controller," the alien replied. "The network is moving through him."

Captain Wei raised his hand.

The ground beneath the western gate shook again.

He had an earth ability, but it was much stronger than it should have been.

The road split apart as stone spikes shot toward the soldiers.

Lu Zhen released a wall of fire.

The flames struck the stone spikes and heated them until they cracked. Blaze moved through the broken pieces and caught the overturned armored vehicle before it could crush two soldiers beneath it.

Commander Han stared at Captain Wei. "He was only a level-four ability user."

"The controller can force an ability core beyond its safe limit," the alien explained. "It does not care whether the carrier survives."

Captain Wei jumped from the wall.

His body should not have survived the fall, but the ground rose to meet him before lowering him safely into the street.

Several affected survivors turned toward him.

The metal devices beneath the western communication tower released a low sound.

The controlled survivors stopped attacking randomly and began moving together.

"They are following him," Ouyang Jin said.

Captain Wei pointed toward the western gate.

The affected survivors charged.

Leng Pan’s water barrier shook when hundreds of bodies struck it at once.

"They want to clear the entrance," Commander Han realized.

Lu Zhen looked beyond the partially open gate.