Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Chapter 35

"W... what?!" Ingrid’s face fell as she stared at the man in disbelief. "What did you just say? Flattened to the ground?" Her voice rose as the meaning of his words finally sank in, and she quickly leaned forward with wide eyes. "Why? How can this whole village be destroyed when you have a wall this huge protecting everyone? That thing is so tall that I could probably stare at it for an entire day and still not understand how anyone would even climb over it."

The man did not laugh at her reaction this time. He simply turned toward the window and stared at the enormous wall surrounding the village, his expression becoming much more serious than before.

"The wall might seem big and steady, but isn’t going to hold for much longer," he said quietly. "It has protected this place for months, but the situation outside has changed, and the wall was never built to deal with what is happening now. If things continue the way they are, we won’t have much time left before it becomes useless."

Ingrid frowned and looked outside again, trying to understand what he meant. "Why?" she asked, turning back to him. "How exactly is it suddenly going to stop holding? I don’t understand how a bunch of walking corpses are supposed to destroy something this massive."

The man gave her a strange look before answering, and Ingrid could tell from his face that he was taking her question more seriously than her joke deserved. "When you were coming here, did you encounter any zombies, maybe even inside the Whispering Ravine?"

Ingrid nodded immediately. "Yes, we did, and it wasn’t just one or two either. But isn’t that normal? I mean, the Whispering Ravine is a place that hasn’t been looked into, of course there’s going to be some rogue zombies in there."

"Then why don’t you ask yourselves why those zombies haven’t atracked the village yet?"

The moment he asked the question, Ingrid froze. That’s right. Zombies are attracted to blood, flesh and warmth, it’s not hard for them to find their way out of the Whispering Ravines where there’s no food for them at all. Why didn’t they come out to the village?

The man’s expression darkened as he listened. "Then you must have already seen part of the problem," he said. "Our scouts have been finding more Beast Zombies outside the wall recently, especially flying Beastmen who have already turned. At first, we thought they were simply wandering around like every other zombie, but that changed when our scouts noticed something strange about their movements. They weren’t just flying around randomly or attacking whatever happened to cross their path. They were moving around the wall, watching the area, and gathering information."

Lysander’s eyes widened slightly, and even Ingrid could see the disbelief on his face. "The zombies are scouting?" he asked, his voice much sharper than before. "That makes no sense. Zombies are supposed to lose their minds after they turn. They attack anything living because they’re driven by instinct, so how are they suddenly moving with a purpose and watching their surroundings?"

The man nodded slowly. "That was exactly what we thought at first, which is why our scouts kept observing them instead of attacking immediately. We needed to be sure we weren’t misunderstanding what we were seeing, but unfortunately, we weren’t. Those zombies were scouting the wall, and they weren’t doing it alone. They were also somehow coordinating with other zombies, which means someone or something is directing their movements."

Ingrid felt a chill run down her spine as she stared at him. "Someonenis controlling them?" She murmured under her breath. ’Could it be an Evolved One?’ She wondered inwardly, ’If it’s an Evolved Zombie then that explains it. However, from his words, I don’t think they’ve seen an Evolved Zombie before. If I say something about it now, then wouldn’t it seem too farfetched?’

The man looked at her for several seconds before continuing, breaking her train of thoughts. "That isn’t even the worst part," he said. "Our scouts discovered that some of these zombies have already found a way insidee the wall without being noticed. They somehow managed to hide among the people living here, and they stayed hidden long enough to avoid suspicion. We only discovered them after several incidents made us realize that something was wrong."

Lysander’s expression changed completely. "They entered the village?" he asked, his voice low and tense. "

"Yes," the man replied, and the seriousness in his voice made the room feel much colder. "We don’t know how many there are, and that’s what makes the situation so dangerous. We’ve been checking everyone we can, but if the zombies have learned how to hide themselves, then we can’t simply assume that everyone walking through these streets is still alive. Some of the people leaving this place may not even realize what they’re carrying with them."

Ingrid slowly looked toward the window again, staring at the peaceful streets below. A few Beastmen were walking around, merchants were moving goods, and people were talking as if the world outside was not filled with zombies. For the first time since she arrived, the village no longer looked safe to her.

"So they’re getting smarter," Ingrid said quietly, before looking back at the man.

"Exactly. And we can’t evacuate the people out of this village because we don’t know who are Zombies and who aren’t. A few days ago, we conducted a search in the other town near the market. We searched the whole village and even gathered the people in one place to see if we would be able to identify the Zombie. Since everyone was clear, we thought they weren’t any zombie amongst them, but that day, more than thirty people died and turned into Zombies."

"What?!" Ingrid muttered, her voice filled with horror.

The man’s voice hardened, "Yes. Three of the people we had checked had turned out to be zombies but they didn’t have the characteristics of the normal zombies we know! These ones were stronger, smarter and more agile! They were even more powerful than beast zombies! We couldn’t fight them off and they turned more than thirty people and the worst part, we have no idea where those people went. If things continue to go on like this, almost everyone in this village will turn. That’s why..."

"You want to nip the problem in the bud and make sure that everyone dies here. Innocent or not, this place will be wiped off from the map." Ingrid finished for him and for the first time since she saw the man, she saw pain and guilt in his eyes. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Yes. That’s the only solution."