Chapter 1055: Something Was Watching

Capítulo 1055: Something Was Watching

Once the FMTV military truck was fully refueled, Ethan and the team hit the road again.

There was nothing left worth taking at the service plaza.

As for the people they left behind? Ethan didn’t bother with them. Whether they lived or died was their own problem now.

The truck rolled steadily down the highway. Still no sign of zombies, but the road was littered with wrecked and abandoned vehicles. Ethan resumed his telekinetic cleanup, flinging cars off the road like toys.

Two hours later, they reached a tunnel.

It stretched nearly six miles long.

Just as the FMTV was about to enter, Ethan instinctively activated his True Sight and glanced inside.

His expression darkened.

“Stop.”

The truck screeched to a halt.

“Everyone out. Get ready for a fight. Mia, back the truck up—keep it out of the blast zone.”

“Got it.”

The team jumped out and gathered around Ethan. Just as someone opened their mouth to ask what was going on, a thunderous roar echoed from the tunnel.

A massive wave of zombies came charging out of the darkness.

“Holy shit, that many?!” Chris’s eyes widened. “No wonder we haven’t seen any on the road—looks like they’ve all been holed up in here.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said, eyes sharp. “Fall back a bit. We’ll fight outside the tunnel. This is the only way through—we’re not getting past unless we clear it.”

“Understood.”

They retreated a few dozen meters.

Moments later, the first wave of zombies burst out of the tunnel, snarling and sprinting straight at them.

The battle kicked off instantly.

Most of the zombies were Tier 3 and Tier 4, with a few Tier 5s mixed in. There were a lot of them, but nothing the team couldn’t handle.

They’d been through this kind of fight too many times to count.

With everyone at Stage D and backed by powerful abilities, the zombies couldn’t even get close.

Ethan, Garrick, Sean, and Chris held the front line.

Big Mike, Henry, Skinny Pete, and Miles handled ranged support from the rear, calmly picking off targets.

Pumpkin, the orange cat, darted through the horde like a streak of flame, ambushing lower-tier zombies with surgical precision. One swipe of its claws was enough to snap a neck clean.

Mia, after backing the truck up a thousand feet, rejoined the group.

At this point, the Fallen Star Squad’s formation was airtight.

They had tanks, DPS, crowd control, healing, and cleanup.

Even against a horde of ten thousand, they could hold their ground.

The zombies surged like a tidal wave, but the team stood firm, back to back, their formation unshaken.

Ten minutes passed in a blur of blood and fire.

Then, suddenly, Pumpkin darted back to Ethan’s side, fur bristling, body low, tail puffed up like a bottlebrush.

Ethan’s brows drew together.

He’d never seen Pumpkin like this before.

And if Pumpkin was scared—truly scared—then something was seriously wrong.

He activated True Sight again, scanning the tunnel interior.

Nothing.

No high-tier zombies, no hidden threats.

Then he shifted his gaze upward—toward the mountain above the tunnel.

He scanned the slope carefully.

And then he saw them.

A pair of blood-red eyes, gleaming from within a patch of tall grass.

The moment Ethan locked eyes with them, a chill ran down his spine.

He pushed his vision deeper, piercing the brush—and what he saw made his heart sink.

No wonder Pumpkin was terrified.

It was a tiger.

A massive Bengal tiger, mutated beyond belief. Even from a distance, its sheer size radiated pressure like a living mountain.

And more than that—

“Tier 7,” Ethan muttered.

A tiger was already a terrifying apex predator before the apocalypse. Mutated? That was bad enough.

But a Tier 7 mutated tiger?

That was a whole different nightmare.

“Ethan, what did you see?”

Chris noticed Ethan’s expression shift and immediately asked, voice tense.

“We’ve got a problem,” Ethan said grimly. “Everyone stay sharp. There’s a Tier 7 mutated tiger on the mountain.”

“A Tier 7 mutated tiger?!”

The whole team froze.

“A mutated tiger… and Tier 7? How strong is that even supposed to be?” Big Mike swallowed hard.

“I don’t know,” Ethan said, voice low. “But if I had to fight it one-on-one, I’d probably get torn to pieces.”

“…”

Silence fell over the group.

If even Ethan said that, then there was no doubt—that thing was a monster.

“Meow…”

Pumpkin let out a soft, trembling cry, clearly warning them. It was scared. Really scared.

Its body was still arched, fur standing on end.

Ethan reached down and gently patted its head. “Go back to the truck.”

Pumpkin wasn’t going to be any help in this fight—not like this.

“Meow…”

With a final whimper, Pumpkin turned and bolted, disappearing into the truck in seconds.

“What now, Ethan? Should we fall back?” Sean asked quietly.

“We can’t,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “That tiger’s way faster than us. If we try to run, it’ll catch us before we get far.”

“Our only shot is to stick together. With all nine of us, we might be able to take it down.”

“But first, we need to clear these zombies.”

“Luckily, it’s not working with them. From the way it’s watching, it’s probably waiting for us to wear ourselves out before it makes a move.”

“Holy shit, that’s cold,” Chris muttered.

“Expected,” Miles said. “A Tier 7 mutated tiger? Its intelligence is probably on par with a human by now.”

“Exactly,” Ethan nodded. “So don’t panic. Keep killing zombies, but conserve your energy. Use abilities only when necessary.”

“Got it.”

The fight continued.

With their combined strength, the team was mowing down the zombies fast—but the pace was taking a toll. High-intensity combat like this burned through stamina fast.

Ethan frowned.

If it were just the zombies, they could push through. It’d be exhausting, but doable.

But with that tiger lurking nearby? Burning too much energy now was suicide.

And the worst part—zombies just kept pouring out of the tunnel. There was no telling how many were still inside.

If they were just Tier 1 or Tier 2, they could’ve blocked the tunnel with corpses and been done with it.

But these were all Tier 3 and up. Plenty of Tier 5s too. Smart enough to clear the path when it got clogged. The old tricks wouldn’t work here.

“This isn’t sustainable,” Chris said, panting. “What if we just make a break for it? These zombies probably can’t keep up. If that tiger comes after us, we all gang up and take it down first.”

Ethan shook his head.

“No good. That tiger’s fast—crazy fast. We won’t get far before it cuts us off. And if we can’t kill it quickly, we’ll be stuck between it and a wave of zombies. That’s a death trap.”

“Right now, it’s just watching. As long as it stays out of the fight, we only have to deal with the zombies. That’s manageable.”

“But isn’t this just boiling ourselves alive?” Chris argued. “We keep fighting like this, we’ll be too drained to do anything when it finally jumps in.”

“Exactly,” Ethan said. “That’s why we need to rotate. A few of us stay fresh—rest up, recover. Their only job is to take down the tiger when it finally makes its move.”