The roar of the zombified stampede was a primal, horrifying wall of sound that completely shattered the icy stillness of the morning.

From the passenger seat of the armored SUV, Lin Qing watched through the glass as the tree line continuously dissolved into a chaotic mass of rotting fur, exposed muscle, and flashing, yellowed fangs.

These were not the slow, predictable low level human infected they had mostly encountered over the past several weeks; these were nature’s predators, accelerated by a terrifying viral mutation and entirely stripped of all baseline survival instincts.

The highway had turned into a slaughterhouse of motion, the air filling with the foul, sulfurous stench of decaying flesh and black, coagulated blood kicking up from the asphalt. Heavy paws and mutated talons tore through the frozen topsoil, creating a deafening rhythm that vibrated directly through the chassis of the vehicles.

"Hold the line!" Han Zheng’s voice boomed over, his large hands gripping the steering wheel of the heavy SUV with white-knuckled intensity. "Da Yong, force the lead truck through that gap! Do not step on the brakes!"

Up ahead, the massive, steel-reinforced transport truck slammed violently into the chassis of a flipped civilian bus, sending a blinding shower of orange sparks and rusted metal fragments across the frost-covered road. The screech of grinding metal was deafening, a harsh screech that echoed off the surrounding concrete embankments. But the narrow lane through the barricade wasn’t clear yet.

The heavy vehicle was forcing its way through by inches, its tires smoking against the debris, and the resulting bottleneck left the middle SUV dangerously exposed to the oncoming swarm descending from the embankment. The rear truck had already formed a defensive wall, but the flanks were completely open to the incoming tide of mutated muscle.

Suddenly, a terrifyingly agile shadow detached itself from the upper ridge of the highway. It was a mutated leopard—its skin entirely sloughed off on its left flank to reveal twitching, gray muscle fibers and exposed ribs, its jaw distended into a grotesque, wider maw that dripped with a viscous, dark fluid.

With a powerful leap, the infected big cat bypassed the lead truck’s perimeter entirely, sailing through the crisp air straight toward the roof of the middle SUV, aiming directly for the section of reinforced plating where the three children were seated. The sheer speed of its trajectory left no room for standard evasive maneuvers on the choked road.

Inside the cabin, the atmosphere shifted instantly. Han Zheng’s dark eyes flashed with an intense light as his activated senses warned him of the downward trajectory. He prepared to channel a massive kinetic shockwave directly through the ceiling panels, but doing so from inside the driver’s seat carried a massive risk—it could blow out the vehicle’s structural pillars, shattering the windows and exposing the fragile cabin to the cold air and the flying glass. The pressure alone could deafen the children trapped in the back.

He didn’t need to take that risk.

From the back seat, Han Ye’s eyes narrowed into slits of pure, calculated malice. Since the Vanguard squad was already fully aware of his unique abilities, the five-year-old regressor harbored no intentions of holding back when his own physical survival was on the line. He knew exactly what this mutated beast was capable of if it breached the roof plating. Utilizing his control over dark matter, he raised a small hand with absolute composure, his breathing remaining slow and steady.

Beneath the chassis of the SUV, the fluid, liquid shadows cast by the vehicle’s massive frame violently warped and extended, defying the natural laws of light. Two thick, obsidian tendrils of dense shadow shot upward through the rear wheel wells, wrapping around the mutated leopard’s hind legs the exact millisecond its heavy claws made physical contact with the metal roof racks.

The dark tendrils constricted with immense pressure, completely snagging the beast’s forward momentum and throwing off its center of gravity before it could dig its claws into the armored roof plating. The creature let out a choked, strangled gurgle as the shadow energy bound it tight. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Sensing the sudden shift on the roof and recognizing the perfect window of opportunity his son had just created, Han Zheng punched his right fist upward against the reinforced ceiling. He unleashed a highly localized, incredibly precise ’Kinetic Force’ ripple.

BOOM!

The concussive blast traveled cleanly through the dense metal framework, hitting the destabilized leopard dead-center and sending it flying off the vehicle. The creature crashed violently into the highway dividers several yards away, its rotting spine snapping instantly under the sheer impact before it rolled idly into the drainage ditch, completely motionless.

Beside Han Ye, Gu An was watching the unfolding chaos with wide, hyper-alert eyes. She wasn’t crying or cowering beneath the heavy wool blankets anymore; the fear that had once paralyzed her had hardened into a quiet, stubborn resolve. Instead, her small hands were clenched into tight fists, her breathing shallow but remarkably disciplined.

Her gaze darted constantly between the cracked side windows and the chaotic perimeter outside, her internal energy humming gently as she looked for any immediate opportunity where her specialized ’Shield Protection’ would be needed to absorb a fatal blow for the squad.

She kept her energy pooled at her fingertips, ready to deploy her barrier at a moment’s notice, her brave little posture perfectly mirroring the seasoned soldiers fighting outside on the asphalt. She watched everyone’s movements, determined to be their ultimate line of defense if anything breached their outer perimeter.

The battle outside raged on with terrifying intensity as the zombified animals swarmed the defensive formation.

The soldiers were executing a flawless, synchronized defense. From the roof of the rear transport truck, Old Wang was firing steady shots from his sniper rifle, each heavy round turning an infected wolf into a spray of dark mist before it could reach the tires. Nearby, Sun Hao tracked the movements of the faster predators, shouting coordinates over the radio to guide the squad’s blind spots.

Lin Qing rolled her armored passenger window down, the freezing, bitter wind whipping her dark hair across her face as she smoothly hoisted her high-caliber rifle. Operating entirely on the cold, clinical efficiency, she began establishing a clear sniper’s lane alongside Lieutenant Chen, who was currently on foot nearby, utilizing his thermal manipulation to superheat the air around a pack of skeletal, infected wolves attempting to puncture the SUV’s heavy tires.

Lieutenant Chen’s face was pale with exertion, waves of visible heat distortion shimmering off his outstretched hands as he forced the moisture in the air to boil around the beasts.

Thwack! Thwack!

Lin Qing fired with mechanical precision, the loud cracks of her weapon echoing sharply inside the cabin. Her armor-piercing rounds cleanly vaporized the skulls of two approaching infected wolves in rapid succession, easing the immense pressure on Lieutenant Chen’s immediate flank.

She smoothly cycled the bolt, the hot brass casing bouncing off the passenger door with a metallic ping as her eyes locked onto a third target through the iron sights. Her pulse remained incredibly low, her breathing synchronized perfectly with the recoil of the heavy weapon.

But before her finger could squeeze the trigger, a sudden, massive shadow fell over the windshield, blocking out the pale morning light.

From the upper gray fog, a slightly mutated eagle—its wingspan nearly doubling its natural size, its feathers matted with black, coagulated blood and its beak twisted into a jagged, razor-sharp hook—swooped down at a terrifying, vertical trajectory. It wasn’t a high-level variant, but its sheer aerial velocity was far too fast to naturally dodge or track within the tight space of the SUV. The wind shrieked against its tattered wings as it aimed directly for the narrow opening in Lin Qing’s window.

Lin Qing saw the avian predator incoming, its milky-white, dead eyes locked directly onto her exposed window gap. It was already too close for her to pivot the long barrel of her rifle.

She hurriedly attempted to realign the heavy, cumbersome frame of her weapon in the cramped interior of the cabin. She braced herself to drop the rifle and draw her sidearm in a single, fluid motion.

Suddenly, a deafening, piercing screech echoed from the high pine canopy just above the highway.

Before the zombified eagle could breach the window line, another massive, imposing wild bird—a giant alpine hawk fleeing the chaos of the stampede—plunged blindly out of the fog, entirely focused on escaping the noise below.

It wasn’t looking for a fight, and it wasn’t aiming for the SUV; it was simply panicking. Thanks to a sheer, statistically impossible stroke of pure coincidence, the fleeing wild bird crashed directly into the descending trajectory of the zombified eagle.

The two creatures collided mid-air with a violent, accidental thud of bone and feathers. The impact completely broke the zombie eagle’s tracking vector, sending both birds spiraling chaotically away from the SUV’s side panel and crashing heavily into the frozen dirt of the ditch below, entirely neutralizing the threat to the window before it could ever make contact with the vehicle.

Lin Qing sat entirely frozen in the passenger seat, her rifle still half-raised against the door frame. She stared out at the dark feathers drifting past the frosted windshield, her mind processing the sudden, baffling intervention. It wasn’t a calculated save, and it wasn’t an intentional act of nature—it was just another ridiculous, blind piece of luck.

Up ahead, a triumphant shout echoed over the radio. Da Yong had finally forced the lead transport truck completely through the shattered remnants of the civilian bus, clearing a narrow but entirely viable path through the center of the massive barricade.

"The path is open!" Han Zheng shouted, his voice cutting through the ringing in their ears as he slammed the SUV into gear, the tires smoking as they gripped the asphalt. "All units, move out! Gun the engines and close the formation!"

The heavy tires spun against the frost before gaining solid traction, and the SUV surged forward into the newly cleared gap, the rear transport truck following instantly behind them to seal their exit and prevent any stragglers from pursuing. The convoy accelerated rapidly down the clearing highway, the engines roaring in unison as they left the chaotic stampede of the zombified zoo predators eating their dust in the distance.

But inside the cabin, Lin Qing was barely listening to the roar of the engine. She slowly lowered her rifle, her eyes still locked on the empty stretch of road where the birds had collided. She was utterly flabbergasted, a profound sense of sheer surprise washing over her.

Even without any fictional plot armor or novel mechanics, the sheer absurdity of her survival odds in this moment left her entirely speechless. Her mind reeled as they pressed onward toward the final stretch of the empty road leading directly to the research center.