Chapter 217 - 140: Shelter

Some twenty minutes later, Sheldon Reid followed Paige Summers toward the cave they had discovered yesterday.

He had already changed into a fresh set of combat fatigues.

The wound on his arm was healing quite well after Paige Summers had treated it. Milton Faraday had only used a regular gun, intending merely to keep him from using his superpower. Still, he couldn’t make any large movements.

He only had a gun and a dagger tucked into his waistband for emergencies.

He had taken these items from his spatial pendant.

Paige Summers, of course, noticed.

She wasn’t particularly surprised.

Given Sheldon Reid’s status, it only made sense that he could get his hands on spatial storage gear.

Sheldon Reid looked grim.

That was also understandable.

No one would feel good after being stabbed in the back, especially not at such a critical moment in the operation against Norgate. With this, the plan had undoubtedly failed...

But Paige Summers felt no obligation to wait for his mood to settle, so she bluntly explained her discovery and proposed they go explore the cave.

Faced with this, Sheldon Reid had no choice but to nod silently.

The cave was much more spacious inside than it appeared from the outside, but it wasn’t completely empty. The front section was relatively flat, but farther in, the cave was partitioned by stone and earth walls, creating what looked like a series of small rooms.

Paige Summers approached cautiously.

’If the fissure outside was a natural formation, then this is definitely artificial.’

’But whose territory is this? And why was it made to look this way?’

Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks.

A strange sound emanated from the depths of the cave. The rock walls blocked her view, but the faint, scraping CRUNCH... CRUNCH... was like a tiny snake slithering into her ear, making her skin crawl.

She turned to give Sheldon Reid a hand signal to halt, then crept forward alone.

As she slipped past the rock partition, the source of the sound came into view.

Paige Summers’s pupils contracted violently!

A corpse lay on the ground, a Zombie hunched over it... As the creature slowly lifted its ashen face, she saw its bulging eyes. Its mouth was still open and chewing, a viscous white paste dripping from its lips. The head of the corpse beneath it was cracked open like a smashed watermelon, blood, brain matter, and other unidentifiable red-and-white substances spilling everywhere...

The sudden realization of what the Zombie was eating sent a wave of nausea through Paige Summers!

But before she could suppress the urge to vomit, the Zombie froze. The next moment, it shot toward her like a pouncing rabbit, its sharp, black claws aimed straight for her face!

Paige Summers dodged in a flash, her long knife immediately swinging at the Zombie.

An unexpected miss!

’This is definitely not one of the ordinary Zombies I ran into yesterday!’ she realized.

Taking it seriously now, she did her best to ignore the brain matter clinging to its face as she brandished her long knife, repeatedly aiming for the Zombie’s neck.

She missed several times, the blade only striking its body.

The Zombie felt nothing.

The one exception was when she hacked off its arm. The creature hesitated as if to retreat, but Paige Summers immediately pressed her attack.

After about two or three minutes of back and forth, she finally landed a solid blow on the Zombie’s neck.

The strength in her right arm, combined with the incredibly sharp blade.

With a soft THUD followed by a heavy THUMP, the Zombie’s head fell off, and its body swayed before collapsing to the ground.

Once she confirmed it was truly dead, Paige Summers split open its head and found a Third-stage Crystal Core.

’To be honest, even an Evolved Zombie of this Level isn’t as deadly as many Mutant Beasts. Not in terms of speed or killing power, anyway. It’s more of a test of one’s mental fortitude!’

Before she could call out, Sheldon Reid had already come over.

The two of them looked to the far end of the cavern and, just as they’d expected, found a medium-sized opening.

Even though she knew the opening wouldn’t lead them out of the fissure, Paige Summers still breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t stand to wait any longer; the stench of the Zombie and the horrific state of the corpse were making her ill. She was the first to walk toward the new opening.

Sheldon Reid, however, wasn’t in a hurry. He circled the corpse, then bent down to examine it for a moment before following her.

The opening led to another cave. After passing through two more small, earthen caverns, they came to a fairly long tunnel.

Even smaller earthen caves branched off from both sides of the tunnel.

The caves weren’t empty. Although there were no Zombies, they were littered with discarded items—everyday human belongings like broken bowls and tattered clothing... Most importantly, there were also numerous skeletons.

After a look, Sheldon Reid said softly, "Human bones. They’ve been dead for a long time."

Paige Summers nodded.

’I think I know what this place was for,’ she thought.

"A shelter, I guess..."

"Yes. This must be a shelter belonging to Norgate."

Paige Summers paused for a moment. "It was your subordinate’s idea to camp here, wasn’t it? He’s... from Norgate?"

Sheldon Reid let out a heavy breath. "Apparently... so."

Paige Summers wanted to mock him, but as the words formed on her lips, she suddenly thought of something.

’Did he deliberately force us in here?’

’He definitely wouldn’t have done this to let us off the hook. The only other possibility is that he was certain we would die in here!’

’That means this place must be extremely dangerous, or there’s something extremely dangerous in it!’

’Zombies?’

’Or something even more terrifying than Zombies?’

The more she thought about it, the worse her luck seemed, and she couldn’t help but glare fiercely at Sheldon Reid.

He clearly understood the reason for her glare but had no intention of apologizing. He simply kept his mouth shut.

’Well, it’s too late to say anything now,’ she thought. ’We just have to rely on ourselves.’

Paige Summers kicked a rock out of her path and continued forward.

The farther they walked, the more they realized this underground cave system was no simple place. It was a subterranean maze.

Countless tunnels, and even more caves of various sizes.

Discarded belongings, human skeletons, and... Zombies.

Along the way, they occasionally encountered Zombies.

Most were low-Level and relatively easy to deal with.

But the easier they were, the more confused Paige Summers became.

’The roar I heard last night couldn’t have come from these things.’

’For a roar to travel from the depths, through all these layers of caves, and reach my ears... After seeing all these side caverns, I’m even more certain that whatever made that sound is incredibly powerful!’

’It must have sensed our presence by now. The scent of humans is a powerful lure for Zombies.’

’So why hasn’t it shown itself?’

Unlike her, Sheldon Reid wasn’t driven by curiosity. All he wanted to do was get out of this place as quickly as possible.

Being completely in the dark about the situation on the surface made him anxious and irritable.

’The traitor, the people from Norgate... what if they use The Power Corps’s name to sneak back into Central City...’

He rubbed his forehead, not wanting to think about it any further.

’Must... get to the surface... fast!’