N-M Chapter 310 The Chase
Chapter 310 The Chase
"Boss."
Ten minutes later, Zhao Lei found Lin Fan in the command center.
"You're back? How's the situation?" Lin Fan looked up at him.
"Those people came from New York; it's a miracle they even made it here."
"From New York?"
Lin Fan was slightly surprised, knowing that New York City was not exactly close to Raccoon City.
Of course, this is not a safe time at all, and it is truly a stroke of luck that these people were able to get here, just as Zhao Lei said.
"Yes. The leader is a retired army sergeant named Victor. Most of the team members are elderly, weak, women, and children, with virtually no combat capability, but Victor himself is alright and experienced."
Lin Fan nodded: "Heavy weapons?"
"No, there are only three pistols and one shotgun, and not many bullets, which is why I said it's not easy."
"That was certainly not easy. Have everyone been settled in?"
"They've been placed in the reception center; we're waiting for logistics to assign them." Zhao
Lei paused for a moment, then said, "By the way, when I went out just now, there were two disobedient rednecks who pulled out guns at our people at the entrance."
"And the result?"
"Killed."
Lin Fan glanced at him but didn't say anything more.
"Where's the body?"
"The vines outside the mycelial wall have been dragged away."
Lin Fan hummed in agreement.
Just as Zhao Lei was about to continue reporting the details—
"Sizzle—sizzle—"
The communications console in the command center suddenly rang.
After a burst of piercing electrical noise, a hurried voice popped out from the channel.
"Command center! Command center! This is Watchtower Seven!"
Lin Fan and Zhao Lei both looked at the communication station.
The on-duty communications officer immediately answered: "Sentry tower number seven, command center received, please proceed."
"We...we've detected something unusual in the drone footage! It's about thirty kilometers from the base..."
The reporter's voice trembled as he spoke, as if he had seen something terrifying.
"Yes, a huge group of things is coming! And... and they're moving very fast! It looks like they're heading this way..."
A group of things?
Upon hearing this report, all the staff in the communications room were stunned.
Lin Fan walked to the communications station without hesitation.
"Pull up the image showing the location he mentioned."
Upon hearing his words, the communications officer instantly snapped back to reality and quickly began operating the system.
Soon, footage from a drone surveillance system was projected onto the adjacent monitoring screen.
The moment the image appeared, everyone in the room's pupils constricted sharply.
On the screen, a gray-green mutated jungle was slowly receding from a high-altitude perspective.
There is something moving in the lower center of the shot.
That wasn't just a group, it was a whole swarm.
A dense mass of gray-brown figures moved through the woods, kicking up clouds of dust and debris as they crashed into trees.
From the air, the large gray-brown mass looked like a mudslide, rapidly surging towards Raccoon City.
"Hold."
Zhao Lei cursed under his breath.
"What are these things? How come there are so many?"
Lin Fan didn't speak. He stared at the screen, his gaze sharp.
"Lower the drone's altitude."
Upon hearing his words, the communications officer frantically tried to lower the drone.
As the drone descended, the view below gradually became clearer.
Only at this point did everyone finally see clearly what was moving below.
It turned out to be a group of mutated animals, and they were all wild animals.
There were mutated wolf packs with exoskeletons covering their entire bodies, mutated wild boars whose bodies had swelled two or three times their original size, and some four-legged monsters whose original forms were completely unrecognizable.
But none of these are the most terrifying things. The most terrifying thing is that there is an even more terrifying creature ahead of this group.
That must be a deer, a huge deer.
The giant deer is nearly ten meters tall.
Its four legs were incredibly thick, and each step it took left a half-meter-deep crater in the ground.
The antlers on its head branch into more than a dozen branches, each as thick as an adult's arm.
The antlers were covered with twigs and dirt, clearly indicating that they had been bumped along the way.
But what's most striking is its eyes.
Two eyes.
No.
One.
Its right eye socket was empty, just a dark, sunken hole. Dried bloodstains stretched from the eye socket all the way down its neck.
One-eyed.
Julu.
Lin Fan looked at the screen and said, "This deer is blind in its right eye."
"Okay, it seems so." Zhao Lei noticed it too. "It looks like he was blinded; the wound looks like a shrapnel wound."
"Interesting," Lin Fan said in a low voice.
He turned to look at Zhao Lei.
"Zhao Lei, do you think he came here specifically for us?"
Zhao Lei was taken aback, somewhat confused:
"Isn't that right?"
"I didn't say no, I was just curious why they were coming towards us..."
Lin Fan pondered, "Could something be attracting them? Otherwise, given the habits of wild animals, they wouldn't easily venture into human cities..."
Hearing Lin Fan's mutterings, Zhao Lei's expression changed.
"If these animals were just passing by, but they really came for us... then... could they have evolved something else?"
Lin Fan didn't answer the question because he couldn't figure it out either.
After a long pause, he turned to the messenger and said:
"Announce this via full-frequency broadcast: all combat personnel are to enter combat readiness."
Then he looked at Zhao Lei: "You called that retired sergeant you just picked up—Victor, right?"
"right."
"Bring him here."
"Take him with you?"
"He ran all the way from the direction of New York. He encountered mutated animals along the way."
Lin Fan pointed to the one-eyed giant deer on the screen, "I think he should recognize this thing."
……
Fifteen minutes later.
Victor was taken from the reception center to the command center by Zhao Lei's men.
Before he could figure out what was going on, he saw Zhao Lei push open the door and walk in.
"Come with me."
Victor followed Zhao Lei through the corridor and into a room filled with communication equipment and monitoring screens.
A young man with a Chinese face stood in the center of the room.
He looks to be in his early twenties.
But standing there, everyone around consciously kept a certain distance.
"Victor?" the young man asked.
"Yes."
"My name is Lin Fan. This is my area of responsibility."
Victor nodded slightly.
Although he didn't know the man's exact identity, judging from Zhao Lei's attitude just now and the scale of this command center, this young man was clearly the highest-ranking official in Raccoon City.
"I called you here because I have something to ask you." Lin Fan skipped the pleasantries and pointed directly to the screen next to him. "Take a look at this."
Victor turned to look at the screen.
The image shown is a real-time video from an overhead perspective.
A large herd of grayish-brown mutated animals moved rapidly through the jungle, kicking up clouds of dust. The image quality wasn't very high, but the general outlines were still discernible.
Victor frowned.
"This is--"
"It's thirty kilometers away from us. It's approaching us," Lin Fan said.
Victor's frown deepened.
He stared at the screen for a few seconds, his gaze sweeping over the mutated beasts running around.
Then his gaze settled on the enormous figure in the center of the herd.
That giant deer.
Victor's face drained of all color in an instant.
"No……"
His voice came out from deep in his throat, dry and low.
"impossible."
Lin Fan noticed his reaction.
"know?"
Victor did not answer immediately.
His body froze, his eyes fixed on the one-eyed giant deer on the screen.
His hands unconsciously clenched into fists, his knuckles cracking.
"Victor," Zhao Lei called out to him.
Victor snapped out of his daze. His throat bobbed several times before he could utter a complete sentence.
"That thing...I've seen it before."
"Speak," Lin Fan uttered a single word.
Victor took a deep breath.
"We... encountered it on Highway 81. It was this deer."
His voice was hoarse.
"It was chasing our convoy with a large horde of mutated animals. Half of our men... died in that attack."
He pointed to the right eye of the giant deer on the screen.
"We blinded its right eye with concentrated gunfire. It only retreated temporarily after we blinded one of its eyes. Later, I blew up a bridge to finally shake it off completely."
The room was silent for two seconds.
Zhao Lei spoke first: "You came from Highway 81? That's between New York and us. You headed northwest and came to Raccoon City."
"right."
"Where did you blow up the bridge to get rid of it?"
"About... about 500 kilometers southeast of here."
Zhao Lei and Lin Fan exchanged a glance.
Lin Fan's expression didn't change much, but his eyes did.
"More than 500 kilometers." Lin Fan repeated the number.
Victor nodded.
"You blew up the bridge more than 500 kilometers away to get rid of it. Then you drove all the way here."
Lin Fan said slowly, "Now, this deer has appeared 30 kilometers away from our base, and its target is very clear..."
He pointed to the route the giant deer was taking on the screen.
Victor looked at the route, his face turning even paler.
He understood what Lin Fan wanted to say.
"You mean...it's been chasing us?"
"That's not what I meant," Lin Fan corrected. "It's the truth. Otherwise, I can't imagine what could make something like this travel hundreds of kilometers..."