Chương 160: The Will to Kill

"Zoe, do you dare to kill a person?" Vince had told Cody and Seth to stay by the RV and keep their distance. Then, he had Zoe fly him and Claire straight from the balcony of Unit 301 to the rooftop of the building across the street. Looking down at the crowd and the standoff below, Vince stared seriously into Zoe's eyes and asked the question.

"Kill a person?" Zoe paused, looking down at the spear in her hand. She had killed at least a hundred zombies by now. Some of those 'people' were mangled beyond recognition, while others—if you didn't look too closely—just looked like crazed, living humans. They looked like people, or rather, they used to be people. And the only reason she fought them, pierced their skulls with her spear and flying sword, was because of their naked, raw killing intent. She could feel it—they wanted to kill her, and then eat her.

Fighting back and slaughtering them was pure instinct. So, she had never really thought about the question before.

"You mean... like when we first got back? When you went bam! One punch. Like that?" Zoe asked, throwing a mock punch. She remembered the man who had clung to their car door, trying to steal their vehicle, all while eyeing her with that disgusting, lecherous gaze.

"Yeah, pretty much... Do you think you can?" Vince nodded, only now remembering that Zoe had been sitting right next to him when that happened.

"Yeah, I think so! The only reason I didn't beat him up back then was because I wasn't strong enough. That guy was so gross. If it happened now, I'd slice the top of his head clean off!" Zoe answered confidently, waving her small hand with a look of pure disgust.

"Doesn't it make you sick?" Vince and the other two made their way across the rooftops, heading steadily east toward the sunrise. The tangerine morning light washed over them, radiating a profound warmth.

"It does... but I can stomach it. Killing zombies makes me sick, killing people makes me sick. It's all sickening anyway..." Zoe gave her spear a few idle swings, a deeply thoughtful look in her eyes.

"But the sick feeling you get from killing zombies and people is basically the same. You do it enough, and you probably just get numb to it. What you can never get used to is people making you sick... because human beings will always invent new, creative ways to disgust you."

"Hmm... that makes a lot of sense..." Vince nodded in praise, looking at the unexpected wisdom in her eyes. Beside them, Claire remained completely silent. It wasn't that she disagreed; she was simply thinking deeper, and further ahead. Where you go, I go... When she first said it, it might have been literal. But now, that sentence clearly carried an entirely new, heavier meaning. When their morning conversations shifted from "What's for breakfast?" to "Do you dare to kill a person?"

, the destination Vince was leading them toward became nothing more than a hazy, terrifying concept in Claire's mind. The morning sun hit Vince's back, casting a long shadow. And nearly thirty years of Claire's personal beliefs and worldview quietly dissolved into that shadow. She didn't entirely know what to think. But she did know one thing: if Vince asked her the same question, her final answer would be exactly the same as Zoe's...... Bang!

Under the control of Zoe's ability, the triggers were pulled almost simultaneously, merging into a single, deafening gunshot that echoed through the alley. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Thump, thump, thump. Seven bodies hit the pavement, twitching violently. The high-caliber rifle rounds had completely blown their skull caps off.

A sickening mixture of red and white sprayed across the concrete behind them, painting the doors of the assault vehicles in a macabre Jackson Pollock. At the exact moment the shot rang out, the remaining five surviving soldiers squeezed their eyes shut and collapsed to the ground in terror. A warm, yellow liquid slowly seeped through the fabric of their pants... Clatter, clatter, clack... As the echo of the gunshot faded, a series of metallic clatters followed.

The rifles that had been hovering in mid-air suddenly lost their support, dropping to the pavement like puppets with their strings cut. And the mastermind behind it all was currently bent over at the waist in front of everyone, dry-heaving violently... Although Claire didn't have to actively participate in the process, she knew what was coming, so she had stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Zoe the entire time.

Now, she was gently rubbing Zoe's back, trying to comfort her, even though she herself was dry-heaving just as hard. But from beginning to end, neither she nor Zoe had ever closed their eyes. Because they understood now: this was the new reality they had to adapt to. This was the true weight of their promise, Where you go, I go. Just like Zoe said... you just get used to the grossness eventually. The sounds of gagging also rippled through the crowd behind Vince.

They were used to hauling zombie corpses by now, and those bodies came in all shapes and sizes of mangled. But witnessing several living humans have their brains blown out in an instant, seeing that fresh spray of red and white splatter across the ground—it was still too sickening for many of them to stomach. Even Ben, Zack, and the other frontliners were frozen in shock. The concrete block in Bruno's hands finally slipped, crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.

None of them had expected the enemy to actually order a massacre, and they certainly hadn't expected Vince's retaliation to be so ruthless and instantaneous. It wasn't even a battle. It felt more like... divine punishment. No warning, no struggle. Just the immediate, brutal result. One second, the enemy was arrogant and domineering. The next, they were corpses, executed by their own weapons. It was entirely different from anything they had imagined.

They might have hoped Vince would suddenly charge in with a spear and slaughter the enemy; they might have envisioned the little girl's flying sword descending from the heavens to wipe them out. But they had never anticipated a scene this eerie and surreal. It left them completely bewildered, staring blankly at Vince's back, unsure of what to do next.

"Ben, have the guys with military experience pick up the guns and strip their gear... Toss the bodies in that building over there." No item drops, no boost to his Health Bar. These guys were truly... completely useless. Vince had anticipated this exact scenario, so he felt no psychological burden whatsoever. He looked at the two women dry-heaving on the side and suddenly smiled, feeling a bit grateful. Good thing we rushed out without eating breakfast, otherwise it would've been a waste.

To him, the arrogant leader and the unlucky bastards who actually tried to open fire didn't even qualify as enemies. And what he just did wasn't a battle. It was just a necessary cleanup. A bit messy, sure, but he got what he wanted in the end. One of the surviving soldiers finally opened his eyes. He looked left, then right, absolutely terrified out of his mind. He frantically patted his own head to make sure it was still intact.

"Th-thank you, B-Bro, for sparing my life! We're just grunts, we just follow orders! Thank you! Thank you for sparing me!" Looking up and seeing the man standing at the front, he scrambled to his knees and began kowtowing repeatedly. Hearing him, the other surviving soldiers opened their eyes. Realizing they were still alive, they immediately joined in, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

"Four of them raised their muzzles... How come there's one extra? Let me see what happened here..." Vince muttered, looking at the survivors. A quick headcount showed the numbers didn't match what he and Zoe had calculated. He walked over to the man in question, picked up his dropped rifle, and inspected it. He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Ah, one of you forgot to take the safety off...

"You don't need to thank me. I'm not the one who saved your lives. What saved you was the tiny shred of humanity you showed toward ordinary people, and... dumb luck." He nodded, then glanced back at Zoe and Claire, who were still squatting by the roadside, gagging.

"Get up and strip off your gear. Have you eaten breakfast yet? If not, grab a bite with us..." He then turned his attention to the dozen or so civilian survivors who were currently trying to inch their way out of the alley unnoticed.

"You guys stop trying to sneak away too. We're all just ordinary people here, this has nothing to do with you..." Not caring about the reactions of either group, Vince turned back to Ben and the others, who had finally snapped out of their daze and were returning to operational mode.

"Ben, get some people cooking. Get these guys some food too, some of them look like they're about to pass out from hunger... Clean this mess up. We're getting ready to head to the gas station." With that, he walked over to Zoe and Claire, squatted down beside them, and gently patted their backs. The surviving soldiers and the terrified civilians in the distance couldn't believe their ears. One second ago, they were trembling in fear of imminent death.

The next second, this man—the absolute master of life and death—was casually asking them... if they had eaten yet? They all stood rooted to the spot, utterly dumbfounded, until the people from the community finally re-adjusted their mindset and started cooking again. As the smoke rose from the stoves, the warm, comforting scent of baking flatbread finally overpowered the cloying stench of blood.

Watching this survivor community—whose rhythm they had just violently disrupted—slowly piece their daily routine back together... One of the soldiers finally couldn't take it anymore. He collapsed to the ground and burst into loud, sobbing tears.