Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 148: Running Man

"Let's camp out here for the night!" Leo ordered through the intercom as all the vehicles immediately came into a halt as the two helicopters also went to look for place to land.

They had set out camp at a clearing a few meters away from the road. There were soldiers preparing camp, cooking for dinner, a team of soldiers patrolling the places near their camp with torchlight in their hands and soldiers encircling the camp within two hundred meters and putting strings with bells on trees, plants or post. This is prevent monsters or zombies sneak attacking them and also a good way to alarm them if an enemy or enemies bumped passed it.

"Wrap it around on trees or other things and make sure it encircles the entire camp and make sure it doesn't go past two feet from the ground and make sure its loose okay? So that it won't snap immediately if something got caught on it" Josh said to his men who are all youngsters around early twenties who were one of the recent graduates of the training ground.

"Yes sir" the young soldiers immediately went to work and there movements were so precise and fast that they had probably did this kind of work multiple times by now.

A few minutes later.

"Sir, we're finally done here" one of the soldiers said to Josh.

"Uhmm. Let's go back then" Josh nodded.

"Kyaa~! Kwang Soo! Jong Kook!"

But when the group just turned around was about to head back. They suddenly heard a scream of a woman. They looked at each other a bit bewildered as they didn't expect that there would be people here other than them.

"Come on, follow the direction where the voice came from!" Josh said as he immediately darted towards where the direction of the scream came from.

The people back at the camp also heard the scream and was just about to ask for permission to check out what happened but Leo immediately told them to stand down and said that to them that there are already people heading towards it.

*****

A group of three people are currently desperately running for their lives as they headed towards the direction where Leo and his army camped out while there are numerous zombies chasing behind them and even though the zombies could only move faster than a regular walk, they could still able to keep up with their preys, mostly because of the terrain that was a bit rough and probably also because the three people are already tired especially that they haven't eaten any satisfying and energetic meal for a few months now as all of them are only running through sheer will and desperation to live.

"Run! Just run and don't look back!" Jong-kook said to the two people running beside him as they ran through the forest as their visions is also starting to get limited due to the encroaching darkness of the night.

"I can't. I can already feel my legs starting to go numb" Ji-hyo with a face full of despair.

"You can do it! Endure it! We are already near the place where I saw the helicopter landed. Just a bit more and we'll finally be safe!" said Kwang Soo as he urged Ji-hyo by saying something hopeful for their current situation.

*Thud*

"Kyaa~! Kwang Soo! Jong Kook!" while running Ji-hyo suddenly stumbled on a small rock and fell down.

""Ji-hyo!"" both Kwang Soo and Jong Kook shouted at the same time as they immediately turned around and went back to help her up.

"Get up, quick!" Jong Kook said as he tried to assist her to get up.

"I can't! I think I twisted my ankle!" Ji-hyo cried out as she already started crying in despair.

"Kwang Soo! What are you doing? Get over here and help me with her!" Jong Kook yelled angrily.

"Ahh! Sorry! Sorry!" Kwang Soo was immediately jolted awake from his daze when he was staring at the zombies that are getting nearer as he immediately dashed towards Ji-hyo's other side and both Jong Kook and him immediately helped her on her two feet as Jong Kook put her left arm over his neck and assisted her in getting away from there except Kwang Soo as he was too tall for both of them and he just helped them by throwing rocks at the zombies even though it was somewhat futile at this point as the group of zombies are only over ten meters from behind them and with Ji-hyo's injury weighing them down, their movements slowed down as the zombies slowly but surely coming up behind them.

"Ahh~!" Ji-hyo fell down again because she was having a hard time keeping up with Jong Kook's pace of running especially when her other foot is injured and she can't put too much force over it.

"Go! You guys go! Just leave me! At least you guys would be able to escape further when they start eating me!" Ji-hyo didn't cry this time but just smiled at them but it was a helpless smile but at the same time it was also reassuring them that it's fine for them to leave her here and escape by themselves.

"No! If you're not coming with us then..then..I'll also just stay here with you as it seems that our luck has already ran out, what about you Kwang Soo!?" Jong Kook said with a bit of fear in his voice as he turned towards Kwang Soo.

Kwang Soo who was beside them just leaned on the tree with his back and slid downwards and said with a weary voice, "Heh~ If you guys already decided then I'm in. I'm already too tired from always running away as we slowly dwindled in numbers as our friends sacrificed themselves just like now just so that we could have that a little bit of chance to survive longer. I'm...already tired"

*Slap!*

"You guys-!" Ji-hyo was about to reason up more with them but Jong Kook suddenly slapped her on the face.

"I'm sure the others would forgive us for our decisions to stay with you tonight" Jong Kook said as he pulled her towards him and hugged her as Ji-hyo was bawling in tears on his chest as she kept apologizing to them.

"Shh~ It's not your fault. Just remember, we're a family" Jong Kook closed his eyes as his body continuously trembled from fear when he saw that the zombies was just a few meters away from them.

"Wahh" "Wahh" "Wahh" "Wahh" "Wahh" "Wahh"

The moaning of the zombies slowly got nearer and nearer towards them as the three of them just stayed there as they trembled as they waited for the inevitable to happen.

"I just want to say before we become a meal for this ugly bastards. I'm glad that I met you guys. I really do. I love every single one of you" Kwang Soo with his eyes close while smiling.

Jong Kook hugged Ji-hyo tighter and whispered to her, "Ji-hyo..I love you"

Ji-hyo widened her eyes in disbelief and she started crying more again as she hugged Jong Kook more tighter this time.

Jong Kook just smiled as he could already feel death looming over them.

"Ahhh!" *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

One of the zombies was about to pounce at both of them when a sudden gunshot sounded as the head of that zombie blew up at the same time and then another then another, followed by another.

*****

Josh and his team dashed through the dark forest like children of the forest. Well, not really.

They are actually using night vision goggles that Leo handed over to them earlier because of their task earlier and didn't actually expect that they would be using it into an action which made them feel really excited as they felt like elite soldiers in some kind of a rescue mission.

Josh and the others could already see the three people just three hundred meters away from them.

"Halt" Josh said in a soft voice that only his men could hear and so they halted and positioned themselves on their blind spots of where they are standing right now.

Josh pulled out his M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System from his back as he executed a kneeling position with his right knee placed on the rear on the ground and his other leg supporting the elbow of his forward arm.

Josh touched pressed the intercom attached to his ear and said, "Target sighted, three survivors. One female and two males. Situation, Dire, They are slowly being surrounded by multiple zombies. Permission to rescue them"

There was a moment of silence from the other end for a bit before a voice replied back.

"Permission Granted"

Josh immediately opened fire and killed the zombies nearest to three survivors.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

"Reloading!" Josh said as he reloaded, he was the only person who could shoot from their distance because he was the only person equipped with Semi-Automatic Sniper Rifle while the others are using AK-47's.

He opened fire then reloaded then started shooting again then reloading.

This cycle lasted three times before he stopped when he saw that there were no more hostiles around the three survivors.

"Three of you go and bring them back" Josh ordered as three soldiers immediately stepped out and headed towards where the three people are at.