The setting sun shone like blood, and Xiao Yi's calloused fingers caressed the rusted railings of the watchtower. This outpost, converted from an abandoned water tower, emitted a subtle whine in the evening breeze. Dark brown bloodstains remained on the three-story circular platform, the mark left by the zombie tidal wave last week.
He habitually tapped the railing with his prosthetic leg, the metal joints colliding with the iron making a crisp sound. The memory of losing his right hand three years ago still ached on rainy days, just like the leaden clouds rolling across the western sky. Suddenly, a strange vibration came from his fingertips.
"Everyone, alert!" Xiao Yi's roar pierced the dusk. The survivors below, carrying potatoes, paused, and several children's clay pots shattered on the rammed earth. Outside the twenty-meter-high wall, the roaming zombies suddenly turned eastward, a high-pitched hiss emanating from their rotting throats.
The blue curtain of the medical station was flung open, revealing fresh blood stains on the hem of Lin Xue's white coat. "The electromagnetic pulse device is reacting," she said, holding up a sparking iron box. "The radiation levels are rising exponentially!"
Before he could finish his words, the night sky was torn apart.
The meteorite, trailing a purple-red flame, seemed to be hurtling down from hell, the atmosphere burning into a strange, faceted structure on its surface. Xiao Yi's pupils suddenly constricted—he could clearly see those facets spinning at high speed, forming a geometric pattern resembling a honeycomb. The meteorite didn't explode the moment it hit the ground, but sank silently into the earth like a hot knife through butter.
The entire base suddenly fell silent. The hum of the generators died, the rotating searchlights atop the observation towers suddenly dimmed, and even the micro-motors in Xiao Yi's prosthetic limbs ceased to function. An energy field beyond human cognition was awakening. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and the rusty taste of blood rose in his mouth.
"Oh my god..." Lin Xue pointed at the wall with trembling fingers. The zombies, previously mutilated, were undergoing a terrifying transformation: bone spurs sprouted from the spines of hunched old zombies, tearing the rotting flesh into terrifying umbrella-like structures. Spider-like limbs suddenly sprouted from the abdominal cavity of a zombie with only the upper half remaining. Most terrifying of all, the female zombie in a wedding dress, her shattered head reassembling, a metallic neural network emerging from the surface of her grayish-white brain tissue.
Xiao Yi flipped over and leaped from the watchtower, his prosthetic limbs automatically deploying a grappling hook as he fell. The moment he crashed into the armory, the entire concrete wall suddenly shook violently. Through the firing port, he saw three fully mutated zombies slicing at the blast door with bone blades, sparks flying in the night like eerie fireflies.
"Switch to tungsten steel bullets!" he shouted at the guard reloading, his left hand already drawing the high-frequency vibration dagger from his leggings. The weapon, fashioned from a car engine, hummed, its blade slicing a brilliant blue afterimage in the darkness. The first mutant to rush in was bisected, its dark green fluid splattering on the sandbags, corroding them and creating wisps of green smoke.
Lin Xue suddenly rushed out from the side and threw a smoking glass bottle at the zombies. As the flames blazed, Xiao Yi smelled the familiar scent of nitroglycerin—the incendiary bomb she'd made from fertilizer. In the firelight, he could see more evolving monsters: one zombie, surging in size, had bat-like membranous wings sprouting from its back, while another had octopus-like tentacles jutting from its eye sockets.
"Their gene chains are recombining!" Lin Xue's shouts were mixed in with the gunfire. "The alien virus carried by the meteorite is rewriting the biological matrix!"
Xiao Yi suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left arm. A zombie, its nails razor-sharp, had inflicted a deep wound on his arm, leaving a visible bone. Even more terrifying, the blood from the wound was strangely suspended in air, as if drawn by some magnetic field toward the direction of the meteorite's fall. He suddenly realized that this aberration wasn't the end of the catastrophe, but rather the awakening ritual of a larger being.
The mutated zombies' roars suddenly became uniform, and the entire horde, like an army receiving orders, began to advance in an orderly manner. Xiao Yi gazed at the aurora-like energy ring gradually forming in the night sky, knowing that the darkness before dawn would devour all hope of the survivors. He clenched his wound, which was beginning to crystallize, and held the last electromagnetic pulse grenade between his teeth.
Mutated zombies surged towards the base like a tide, their strength and speed increasing dramatically, easily breaking through the base's crumbling defenses. Gunfire, screams, and the roars of the zombies intertwined, and the base was instantly engulfed in a sea of blood.
Xiao Yi led the team, fighting hard in the zombie horde. Although the team members were brave and fearless, they seemed so small in front of such powerful mutant zombies. Team members kept falling, and blood splattered all over Xiao Yi's face.
"We can't go on like this, we must break out!" Xiao Yi shouted loudly, his voice full of determination.
Led by Xiao Yi, the team rushed towards one side of the base. After a desperate fight, they finally tore a gap and fled into the distance. Behind them, the base was gradually reduced to ruins under the raging fire and the ravages of zombies.
Detailed description of the collapse of the base's defenses
The base's fortifications were originally constructed from abandoned vehicles, concrete blocks, and barbed wire. After years of reinforcement, they could barely withstand the impact of ordinary zombies. However, facing the mutated zombies, these fortifications were as fragile as paper.
"Boom!" With a resounding roar, the eastern wall of the base collapsed under the impact of a massive zombie. This zombie's muscles were as hard as rock, its skin covered in metallic scales. It roared as it charged into the base, crumbling buildings and sending dust flying wherever it passed.
"Quick! Block the gap!" Xiao Yi shouted, but it was too late. More zombies poured in from the gap, their speed far exceeding that of ordinary zombies, and they rushed into the base in a few breaths.
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