Chapter 29: Conspiracies

"Guys, I got some hot news straight from the soldiers. Do you know who that zombie girl actually is?"

A group of survivors gathered around a crackling bonfire near the center of the civilian camp.

A young man with a nasty grin spoke in a low voice, though his words were loud enough to be heard easily by people sitting two blocks away.

A full day had passed since General Vincious Jerald personally escorted a pale zombie girl past the outer gates into the Northern Settlement.

The people had rioted at first, shouting curses and demanding her execution. But the authority of the General was absolute.

No one dared to mess with him, thoroughly fearing the consequences of offending the highest military officer in the camp.

If this were before the apocalypse, people would have openly opposed him. The country had been democratic, and the citizens held ultimate power.

But now, after the world shattered, no one believed democracy still existed. If a survivor was kicked out of the settlement for causing trouble, death out in the ruined city was guaranteed.

So, although no one openly voiced their dissatisfaction toward the General, that same restraint was certainly not applied to the zombie girl.

They feared the monster would suddenly go berserk and bite them in their sleep.

Luckily, that disgusting creature was stationed far away from the common populace, isolated inside an abandoned aquarium and heavily guarded by military men armed with automatic rifles.

Because of that distance, the people had calmed down just a bit, though they still hoped she would die somehow.

"Why should I care about what she was before?" another man spat into the dirt in disgust. "She is a zombie now. That’s it. A single bullet to her skull is all it takes to end her. Why the hell are we even risking having it inside our camp?"

"I heard my nephew say it’s because that zombie is intelligent," an avid supporter of the General’s political party interjected, crossing his arms. "The Mayor might be keeping it for research purposes. Don’t you see it in the movies? That’s usually how scientists find a cure for this shit."

"Bah! Cure my ass!" another survivor scoffed loudly from across the fire. "If this were during the first couple of days, I might have held out hope. But now? You must be joking. Do you see the supernatural talents awakened by those men? I believe that talent awakening is also a type of infection, except you keep control over your own brain. So what if the cure erased our talents too? Who wants to give up that kind of power?"

All the survivors in this section of the settlement had been forced to kill a restrained zombie by the Rogues to test if any of them could awaken a useful talent.

But most failed to awaken anything useful at all. Those who did awaken abilities with combat capabilities either joined the military forces or enlisted with the Rogues.

However, there were still many people who preferred not to awaken a talent at all.

Awakening a useful talent meant the military would immediately draft them to participate in dangerous zombie-clearing operations.

A talent might give humanity a fighting chance, but against high-tier mutated zombies, it was far from a guarantee of survival.

After all, the zombies were also continuously evolving, and their growth rate was far faster than human progression.

"Trust me, if you knew her background, you would understand exactly how she became an intelligent zombie," the young man with the nasty grin said once again, leaning closer to the flames.

That statement instantly caught the full attention of the surrounding crowd.

"What is it?" one survivor asked, leaning in.

"Do you remember that massive scandal involving the Supreme Commander three years ago?" The young man paused, dropping his voice into a dark, conspiratorial tone. "That fake sexual assault case..."

"Oh!" A woman gasped slightly. "That orphan girl who was paid a fortune by foreign intelligence agencies to stain the Commander’s image? Don’t tell me..."

"Yes! That’s her!" The young man dropped his bombshell, slapping his knee.

"Now, why do you think that rather than becoming a mindless monster, she became an intelligent zombie? That’s because she’s actually the reason the infection spread in the first place! The soldiers are saying this outbreak is completely man-made. Foreign enemies did it to destroy our country! Or why else do you think—"

PA!

An old man sitting nearby reached out and delivered a sharp, heavy slap to the back of the young man’s head. "Shut up, you idiot."

"Ow! You..." The young man rubbed his head in grievance, glaring at the old man.

Seeing that no one was buying his absurd bioweapon conspiracy theory, he kept his mouth shut about the infection’s origins.

However, he was inwardly happy because even though his wild theory failed, a heated debate about that three-year-old scandal broke out among the survivors around the bonfire.

"She was so young back then," a woman muttered, shaking her head. "Sixteen? Or was she seventeen? And yet she was so deeply scheming. A girl like that, even the zombie virus probably couldn’t survive her wickedness."

"She was completely disgusting back then, and she’s disgusting now," another man scoffed bitterly. "Disgusting people always continue being disgusting, whether they are dead or alive."

"Do you guys think the Supreme Commander will allow her to stay here if he finds out?" a younger survivor asked, looking toward the command district. "What if we snitch about her presence directly to his aides?"

"The Supreme Commander is a righteous, honorable man," an older veteran survivor chimed in firmly. "He would never kick her out unjustly or allow a mob to butcher her. In fact, he might even step in to stop the Mayor from conducting experiments on her, zombie or not."

"That’s true..." several people murmured, agreeing with the assessment.

The people continued talking, pouring out all sorts of bad things, curses, and rumors about the pale girl.

Engaged deeply in their conversation, none of the survivors around the bonfire noticed a strange woman standing just a few feet away in the shadows of a supply truck.

She wore a dark leather tactical vest over a faded grey shirt and fitted combat pants, with two long, lethal daggers strapped to her belt.

Her dark red hair fell over her shoulders, framing a sharp face marked by a distinct scar running through her left eyebrow.

Her striking green eyes were fixed entirely on the gossiping crowd.

Her current expression was one of complete, frozen shock. Her lips trembled slightly, and her breath hitched in her throat.

Behind her stood a massive, intimidating man standing well over seven feet tall. He wore heavy reinforced armor and carried a giant warhammer slung across his back.

"Salma..." The giant man asked in complete confusion, scratching his heavy jaw as he watched her. "Are you okay? Why are you making that face?"

He had never seen his fearless leader look so pale and shaken, not even when facing a horde of mutated Ferals.

"Dereck..." Salma spoke, her voice barely above a whisper as she stared blankly in the direction of the abandoned aquarium. "I think... I found my baby."

"Huh?" Dereck blinked his large eyes, utterly lost. "Your what?"

"My daughter..." Salma whispered, her hand tightening around the hilt of her dagger until her knuckles turned white.

"...I found her."