The field was nothing but shattered corpses and sunlit red mist. Raven sat in the Ironhowl X4, engine idling as guts and organs dripped from her fender. The SUV's reinforced weight—six, maybe seven tons now—had done more damage than any mounted weapon could the best part its free.
Dozens of donuts, hundreds of kills. Crushed skulls popped like overripe fruit. Rotting torsos liquefied under her tires. A good hard turn, and it was like hitting wet pumpkins with a sledgehammer.
"Zombies," Raven muttered, glancing in the rearview, "Are just mulch with bad posture. All they need is some plants, and they make great fertilizer. A secret that none of the bases ever thought to use to grow crops in the contaminated soil the irony."
No more movement. No new moans in the distance as her engine ran to lure zombies out of hideing. No silhouettes shuffling through the depot's fog. She shifted into neutral, pulled forward into a clean patch of cracked asphalt, and killed the engine.
Outside, the wind was still. But she wasn't alone.
The soft slap of feet on pavement caught her attention.
Raven stepped out of the vehicle just in time to meet a lone female zombie. It lunged—no screech, no hesitation. Its teeth clamped down hard on her left forearm.
The pressure hurt. She winced in pain.
Then she smiled.
"Thanks."
With her free hand, she summoned her Beretta from the System Space. The barrel reflected the sun, already fitted with an Omni Silencer. One shot.
'Pew'
'Splat'
The zombie head exploded in a backward spray of rotten brain matter and bone. As her body crumbled to the ground.
Raven stood over the body, watching the bite mark on her arm. There was no fire or pain spreading in her veins. No panic was setting in.
One minute passed. The swelling faded. Two more minutes passed, and the teeth marks were already scabbing over.
"It's real," she said softly. "I'm immune thanks to the healing powers of my plant control.
"Now I'm unstoppable!"
Never again would she be dragged into a cage, bound to a table, experimented on for answers. Never again would she wake up to metal holding her head in place and her body in restraints.
She turned, walked to the Ironhowl, and pulled the drone backpack from the passenger seat. Then, with a silent command, the SUV vanished into her system space.
The backpack stayed still as she locked it in place across her shoulders. Two soft clicks were then heard. As two drones rose upward, one on each side of her as their fans spinned in perfect silence.
They hovered above her in a perfect circular flight pattern.
Raven looked up.
"Eyes open."
Both drones adjusted formation, scanning in different directions in real time. As their camera feeds were fed back into her mind live.
The depot was large, but it wasn't hard to spot the target.
Toward the far end of the field stood a big, boxy building. Painted green. No signs. No labels. No flags. Just flat steel and ugly design. Bland. Forgettable.
And utterly obvious.
"Classic government logic," Raven said. "If it's ugly enough, nobody will think it's important."
She raised a hand, signaling the drones forward.
"Let's go find you both some food."
Join my patreon today to read up to chapter 114 in advance your support is my inspiration join for only to 3 to 5$
patreon.com/everstone