"Try me!"
Rebecca, full of defiance, quickly puffed out her cheeks under Javier's provocation and twisted the handle of the Zodiac Train's carriage door.
"Clang—!"
With a crisp sound of mechanical gears, the heavy train carriage door opened.
"Thud..."
"Ah!!!"
The moment the door opened, just as Javier had predicted, a bloody, tattered, and terrifyingly grotesque corpse immediately tumbled down, falling directly into Rebecca's arms, a 'door kill' in every sense.
Seeing such a terrifying scene, the young Rebecca was startled, screaming and dodging away. Without support, the corpse that had fallen into her arms quickly dropped from the carriage steps to the ground.
Yes, this corpse was not a Mutated Leech zombie; it was just a regular corpse.
Its body was covered in blood holes and bite marks, as if long, sharp teeth had pierced it. Its clothes were completely corroded, and what was even more horrifying was the corpse's appearance: its entire body was pale and shriveled, like a mummified corpse from which all blood had been drained.
Undoubtedly, this was the work of a Mutated Leech.
As blood-sucking creatures, their favorite food was blood; they had little interest in flesh and blood!
"#%$^`&*"
"What... what... what in the world is this?!"
Rebecca, startled and incoherent, stared at the corpse that had fallen into her arms and then onto the ground, her face pale as she cried out, her slender legs trembling uncontrollably.
She couldn't fathom why a corpse would specifically block the carriage door to scare people; it was clearly a prank 'door kill.'
But in reality, it wasn't.
Javier scanned the blood splattered on the carriage door and the struggle marks on the corpse's arm on the ground.
He guessed that this person, after seeing the Mutated Leech kill, had desperately tried to escape, rushing to the carriage door to jump off and leave.
Unfortunately, he struggled at the door for a long time without opening it, and instead, his blood was drained by the Mutated Leech, causing him to die kneeling at the carriage door.
Then, when Rebecca opened it, it created the'surprise door kill' just now!
However, compared to this corpse, Javier was more concerned about the situation inside the carriage.
After kicking the corpse on the ground aside, Javier prepared to enter the carriage.
Rebecca, who had just been badly frightened, could only cling to Javier's backpack, timidly and stealthily stepping into the carriage, her pistol clutched so tightly that her palms were sweaty.
This was a reaction she had never shown during her previous training.
"Thump-thump-thump..."
"Thump-thump-thump..."
As they stepped into the carriage, what awaited the two was a horrifying, hellish scene.
Several rows of carriage seats were covered in splattered blood, and several corpses lay sprawled on the ground.
Their bodies, like the corpse at the door, were covered in bite marks from mouthparts, and all their blood had been drained.
Their eyes were wide open in a horrifying stare.
Such a gruesome sight made Rebecca cover her mouth, letting out involuntary whimpers and sobs.
Now, she truly couldn't imagine whose methods were so cruel.
Even Javier, beside her, fell silent.
Although he was mentally prepared, actually seeing such a terrifying scene still caused some fluctuations in his mind.
After all, in one day... no, in one night, he had encountered corpses in various horrific states; anyone's psyche would be unable to bear it.
"Who... who did all this?"
"Living people? Or beasts? Or something else? What terrible thing happened here?"
After silently praying for the corpses inside the carriage, Rebecca quickly composed herself, straightened her body, re-gripped her pistol, and earnestly asked Javier.
Whether it was her imagination or not, Rebecca noticed that Javier was much calmer than her; he seemed to know everything about the corpses and the mission, as if he had anticipated it all.
So Rebecca thought Javier must know some inside information about the situation...
"This..."
Just as Javier was about to tell Rebecca some truth about the zombie virus, a sudden sound interrupted their conversation, immediately tensing them to the extreme.
Because it seemed they discovered... the source of the sound came from the corpses that had already died on the carriage seats!
"Click... click..."
"Hoo... uh... hoo-hoo..."
The sound of bone joints moving slowly began to rise, as if an old diesel engine was slowly starting up.
The corpses lying on the ground suddenly propped themselves up with their arms, swaying unsteadily as they stood.
They opened their mouths... and a low snarl continuously emanated from their throats.
From their not-yet-fully-rotted throats, a warm breath and slimy saliva slowly emerged.
Their eyes were vacant... no, they had no pupils at all, only the whites of their eyes rolled up in their sockets.
Their bodies trembled, and they began to hobble towards Javier and Rebecca.
"..."
"What the hell is this now!"
Witnessing the unscientific revival of the corpses before her shattered the young Rebecca's worldview.
As a materialist, she believed that the dead could not revive, but the current situation... undoubtedly overloaded her brain's CPU.
Her emotional state, which she had just managed to stabilize, completely collapsed in that instant.
Rebecca's legs trembled slightly, and then she couldn't help but fall backward, landing heavily on the floor of the train carriage.
The pistol she had tightly gripped clattered to the ground, and she looked with some horror at the corpse transformation before her.
This was not a comical action Rebecca intended to make, but rather a person's brain instantly crashing when faced with extreme fear, making the body unable to react quickly, thus becoming overly frightened and losing control, collapsing onto the ground.
The fact that Rebecca didn't lose control of her bladder was enough to show how capable this young girl was.
However, the next second,
"Click..."
"Uh... hoo-hoo... uh...!"
Where Rebecca had collapsed, she completely failed to notice that behind her, another mutated corpse was lying, slowly and unsteadily rising.
A low snarl was already emanating from its mouth, and an arm covered in bite marks was reaching towards Rebecca's back!
"..."
"Ah—!!!"
Rebecca, sitting paralyzed on the ground, suddenly heard a sound behind her, and when a cold sensation touched her exposed neck, her hairs immediately stood on end.
A jolt shot from her spine straight to the top of her head.
She abruptly turned her head and clearly saw a zombie train conductor in uniform, bringing its ugly face and arm closer.
This scared Rebecca into another ear-piercing, high-pitched scream!
"Go... go to hell! Get away from me!"
Perhaps it was an instinctive reaction, but Rebecca, looking at the ugly zombie before her, immediately raised her foot and kicked it hard!
This young girl's personality was much like a wild mare, so with that kick, she powerfully sent the approaching train conductor zombie flying back onto the carriage seat.
Rebecca then frantically fumbled for the gun that had just fallen to the ground, aimed it at the train conductor zombie's body, closed her eyes, and quickly pulled the trigger!
"Bang—!!!"
"Bang—bang—!!!"
With each gunshot, muzzle flashes erupted, and orange 9mm bullets flew out, rapidly hitting the train conductor zombie's body, instantly creating numerous gaping holes.
One bullet coincidentally struck the zombie's head, killing it instantly.
The entire pistol magazine was emptied, and only when the trigger could no longer fire bullets did Rebecca slowly open her eyes.
"Hoo..."
She was breathing heavily, her legs slightly weak.
Although she had coincidentally dealt with the zombie, Rebecca's current state was not optimistic; she clearly hadn't fully recovered.
"Ha... Javier?! Where are you?!"
After a few seconds, Rebecca finally remembered she had a partner and quickly stood up, turning her head and shouting loudly.
However, what greeted Rebecca was Javier's raised thumb:
"Well done, girl, very courageous!"
"Although you happened to take down a zombie, those things only die when you hit their heads.
Remember that next time, Rebecca!"
Undoubtedly, although Rebecca was still a young girl who had just come of age and had only recently joined S.T.A.R.S, her adaptability was quite strong.
She was scared when she saw the zombies, but she was able to pick up a weapon and protect herself, which is why Javier couldn't help but encourage and praise her.
"Wait..."
"Javier, behind you—!!!"
However, Rebecca was in no mood to listen to Javier's encouragement.
She only saw that three or four of the corpses in the carriage had come back to life, their foul mouths agape, preparing to pounce towards Javier.
Although their movements were unsteady, their grotesque appearance launched a powerful psychological terror attack!
However, Javier indicated that he would handle the rest!
"Click—!"
With a crisp sound, Javier quickly turned around and unhesitatingly raised the pump-action shotgun M1899 in his hand.
He pumped the action to chamber a round, aimed at the head, tensed his body, and immediately pulled the trigger!
"Bang..."
"Boom—!!!"
With a loud bang, the massive muzzle was almost shoved into the mouths of the several zombies before him.
Accompanied by a burst of flame, the shotgun pellets erupted, and the powerful close-range spray of steel shot directly blew off one zombie's head.
Innumerable flesh and brains splattered like minced meat onto the carriage seats.
And the zombie's body, having lost its head, fell backward without any movement, immediately losing its activity.
[Ding—!]
[Eliminated one ordinary zombie, cumulative reward: 1 point]
At the same time, Javier's head received the familiar mechanical electronic female voice.
This seemed no different from playing a game.
Thinking of this, Javier's spirits quickly lifted.
He swiftly continued to pull the shotgun's trigger.
With the added bonus of his shooting genius talent, he quickly emptied his ammunition.
The entire carriage was filled with blasted flesh and blood.
For points, Javier didn't even spare the unmutated corpses on the ground, blasting them all to smithereens.
After clearing this section of the carriage, Javier sat on a carriage seat and slowly reloaded his shotgun.
His helmet and gas mask were covered in dried blood, making him look like the deranged killer to anyone who didn't know better.
And witnessing the scene just now, Rebecca beside him was too astonished to speak.
It wasn't until she saw Javier slowly reloading on the seat that Rebecca immediately reacted and earnestly asked:
"Javier!"
"What exactly is going on? You must know the inside story, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have brought so many firearms.
Did you anticipate something happening!"
By now, Rebecca finally understood the real reason why Javier carried so many firearms and ammunition.
It was highly likely that he had already anticipated the events about to unfold in the Akeley Mountains, as well as the current phenomenon of corpses reviving, which couldn't be explained by science.
"..."
Looking at the intelligent Rebecca before him, Javier sighed helplessly.
This young girl was good in every way, except she was a bit too smart, making it hard to casually brush her off.
At this point, Javier could only slightly fabricate a lie.
"This is a virus leak incident..." Javier replied faintly.
"What do you mean?"
Clearly, Rebecca didn't quite understand this answer.
What did 'virus leak' mean? What kind of virus leaked?
"As you can see, Rebecca, these things before us—corpses reviving and attempting to attack living people—are not ghosts or magic, but simply an event caused by a virus leak.
Also, the frequent murder cases recently reported in Raccoon City news are caused by these things, not by serial killers, cult organizations, terrorists, large beasts, or even resurrected dinosaurs."