Chapter 43 – Disappearance
To the east of the CDC lay a secluded forest clearing.
Merle stood at the edge of the open space with his ten-man squad, looking completely bewildered.
"So the boss just told us to wait here?"
One of the team members asked quietly.
Merle, a cigarette dangling from his lips, narrowed his eyes as he surveyed the clearing. It was nothing more than an ordinary patch of grass surrounded by dense woods beneath a blue sky filled with drifting clouds.
There was nothing special about it.
"Just wait," he said. "The boss has his own plans."
The team members scattered around. Some leaned against trees while others squatted on the ground and chatted idly.
They were all new recruits recently brought in by Merle. They had accompanied him on several raids already. Although their marksmanship was still rough, they had developed courage.
About ten minutes passed.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
Everyone immediately stood up.
"What the hell is happening?"
Before anyone could react further, the lawn in the center of the clearing began to split apart.
It wasn't a natural crack, but a perfectly smooth mechanical opening.
The grassy ground separated like two enormous doors sliding left and right.
Beneath the soil and turf, cold metallic structures were revealed.
Merle's cigarette dropped to the ground.
The team members stared wide-eyed in shock.
The crack widened further and further until it became a massive circular pit.
It seemed bottomless, with only dim lights glowing from deep below.
A mechanical female voice echoed upward:
[System Ready — Lifting Platform Activated]
A metallic clang resounded.
A gigantic circular platform slowly rose from the depths of the pit.
Parked on the platform was a gray helicopter bearing the Umbrella Corporation logo—the Puma.
Its rotors hadn't started spinning yet, but the streamlined body, mounted anti-tank missiles, and the dark machine-gun barrels gleaming beneath the sunlight looked both terrifyingly real and surreal at the same time.
"Holy shit…"
One of the men muttered.
"This helicopter was hidden underground the whole time?"
"We were standing on top of this?"
Merle paused for a few seconds before grinning.
"Damn… the boss really is something else."
Inside the cockpit, Wu Fan waved at them and motioned for them to board.
Merle immediately turned around and shouted, "What are you idiots standing around for? Get on the helicopter!"
The eleven men rushed forward and climbed into the cabin.
The hatch closed.
The rotors began spinning faster and faster.
The Puma slowly ascended before flying out of the underground hangar.
Behind them, the massive platform descended once more, and the split grassland closed back together, once again becoming an ordinary clearing.
The helicopter climbed higher into the sky before changing direction and flying toward Athens City.
Inside the cabin, Merle and his squad huddled together while staring out the windows at the scenery below.
After flying for around twenty minutes, one of the team members suddenly pointed outside.
"Look over there!"
Everyone turned in the direction he indicated.
To the west, across a vast grassy hillside, countless black dots moved slowly across the landscape.
There were so many that, from above, they resembled a flowing black river.
Walkers.
All of them were Walkers.
"Fuck… that's way too many…"
Someone swallowed nervously.
Merle narrowed his eyes as he estimated their numbers.
"There are at least several hundred thousand of them."
Another team member pointed toward the highway below.
"Look down there."
The roads were completely clogged with vehicles.
Overturned trucks.
Wrecked cars.
Private vehicles abandoned chaotically across the lanes.
Some still contained trapped Walkers clawing mindlessly against the windows.
"The Walkers from Athens City have started migrating," Merle said grimly. "There are no living people left in the city, so they're moving out in search of food."
He immediately thought of the University of Georgia.
No wonder Sandra's team had been surrounded.
With so many Walkers pouring out of the city, the university would naturally become one of the first places to be overrun.
The Puma continued flying forward.
Ten minutes later, the University of Georgia came into view.
Everyone inside the helicopter gasped.
The entire campus was packed with Walkers.
The playgrounds.
The courtyards.
The spaces between teaching buildings.
The tree-lined pathways.
They were everywhere.
The undead moved slowly in massive clusters while emitting low growls.
The scale was even larger than the horde they had seen on the hillside earlier.
"Tens of thousands…"
Merle muttered. "At least thirty thousand."
He suddenly realized just how lucky Marcus had been to escape from a place like this alive.
Wu Fan maneuvered the helicopter lower and hovered above one of the teaching buildings.
The entrance on the first floor had already been breached by Walkers. Broken glass littered the ground, and several corpses were piled near the doorway.
All the windows from the second floor upward were tightly shut.
No signs of survivors could be seen.
Wu Fan circled the building repeatedly.
Nothing.
No movement.
No survivors visible on the second floor.
None on the third floor either.
No one called for help from the fourth or fifth floors.
But if Sandra and the others were truly trapped here, they should still be alive.
Otherwise, Marcus wouldn't have waited outside for three days without seeing anyone emerge.
Unless they had already…
Wu Fan shook his head and dismissed the thought.
He pulled the control stick, and the helicopter hovered above the rooftop.
"Merle!"
He shouted toward the rear cabin.
"Take your men down with ropes! Search the building!"
The hatch opened.
A rope ladder was thrown downward.
Merle slid down first, followed by the rest of the squad.
The eleven men landed on the rooftop and quickly spread out into tactical formation.
Merle walked toward the rooftop entrance and kicked the iron door open.
Pitch-black darkness greeted them, along with the stench of rot.
He raised his MP5 and led the way inside.
The squad followed closely behind him with weapons aimed in every direction.
The stairwell was dark, illuminated only by the faint green glow of emergency lights.
Blood stained the walls.
Debris littered the floor.
When they reached the fifth floor, the hallway appeared deserted.
Only a few scattered Walkers wandered around aimlessly.
Merle raised his suppressed MP5.
Pop. Pop.
The silenced shots echoed softly.
The two Walkers collapsed to the floor with shattered skulls.
The squad continued downward.
Fourth floor.
Third floor.
Each floor contained a handful of Walkers, but the squad cooperated efficiently and cleared them quickly.
When they arrived on the second floor, one of the team members suddenly froze.
"Captain…"
Merle walked over.
Then he saw the body.
Black combat uniform.
Bulletproof vest.
An MP5 lying discarded nearby.
The man was lying face down with a bullet hole through his head.
A clean execution shot.
Merle crouched and turned the corpse over.
Brock.
One of Wu Fan's earliest followers.
A core member of Sandra's squad.
Merle remained silent for several seconds.
Then he lit a cigarette and placed it gently between Brock's lips before standing up again.
"Continue searching," he ordered hoarsely.
The team spread out and searched every room on the second floor.
Classrooms.
Offices.
Bathrooms.
Storage rooms.
Everything.
Nothing.
No survivors.
No corpses either—aside from Brock.
"Captain," one of the men reported while running over. "We've searched everywhere. There's no one here."
Merle frowned deeply.
They searched the third, fourth, and fifth floors again.
Still nothing.
"That doesn't make sense," another team member muttered. "If Sandra and the others weren't here, why would Marcus stay outside for three days?"
Merle stood silently in the hallway while his thoughts raced.
Marcus had personally witnessed Sandra's group being trapped inside this building.
But what happened during those three days afterward?
If the Walkers broke in, Sandra's team would naturally retreat upward.
The rooftop should've been their final destination.
But the rooftop door had been closed from the outside with no signs of recent use.
Which meant…
They never made it to the roof.
Then where did they go?
Merle walked toward the window and looked outside.
Massive numbers of Walkers still wandered below.
Then his gaze froze.
About fifty meters away stood another teaching building.
Between the two buildings was a glass skybridge connecting their second floors.
Merle's eyes lit up instantly.
He hurried back to the second floor and located the entrance to the bridge.
The door was slightly open.
He pushed it wider and stepped inside.
The glass corridor was dark, but the hallway of the opposite building could still be seen faintly ahead.
Blood stained the floor.
Several footprints were visible as well.
Merle turned toward the squad behind him.
"They might've escaped into the building next door."
"Should we continue searching?"
Merle thought for a moment before shaking his head.
"Report to the boss first."
There was nobody left in this building.
If Sandra's team was still alive, they were probably somewhere in the adjacent structure.
Merle led the squad back to the rooftop and activated the walkie-talkie.
Wu Fan listened quietly to Merle's report from a nearby rooftop helipad.
After several seconds of silence, he finally spoke.
"Brock is dead."
It wasn't a question.
Merle nodded grimly.
"Yeah. Headshot. He was probably bitten during the fight, and one of his teammates put him down before he turned."
Wu Fan took a deep breath and stared toward the distant teaching building.
Sandra.
Abraham's daughter.
And the rest of the squad.
Were they all still alive?