Chapter 40 Let Me Take a Quick Look

"Awesome!"

Just as Eugene's voice trailed off, Madison shouted "awesome!" while slamming his massive frame against the side of the Ford Raptor, making the pickup truck rock.

Making sure the pickup truck completely shielded him, Madison crouched down against the vehicle and said to Eugene.

"I'll be damned if you can actually identify what kind of gun that is just by the sound!"

"That's nothing. After you've been playing with guns for a decade or so, you'll be able to tell too!"

Eugene shot back, casually flipping Madison the middle finger as he spoke.

Nearby, Gavin leaned against a wheel hub, continuing to listen to the relentless gunfire echoing in the distance.

*Rat-tat-tat...*

After listening for a moment, Gavin stretched out his leg and gave Eugene a kick, roaring.

"Bullshit, that gunfire is coming from far away!"

"Huh?"

Eugene paused, cocking his head to listen for a second before hurriedly replying to Gavin.

"Oh right, right, right! The gunfire is miles away, at least five or six hundred meters. Fuck! It gave me a scare!"

With that, Eugene raised his lever-action shotgun toward the sky and pulled the trigger.

*Bang!*

After firing a shot to vent his frustration, Eugene stood up, cursing, and looked past the pickup toward the direction of the gunfire.

At the same time, Gavin poked his head out from the side of the truck and took a look through his binoculars.

Not far away, by the side of the RV, William kept making downward-pressing hand gestures toward Doris and Winnie while leaning against the vehicle to ask the three of them.

"How's the situation?"

"Glad you finally decided to speak, little William!"

Eugene shouted excitedly at William, then gazed into the distance through an eight-times scope, continuing.

"Motherfucker, all the zombies have been lured back to the affluent district by that string of gunfire. Whoever's shooting is probably about to be surrounded!"

Finishing his sentence, Eugene fired another shot into the air.

Just as Eugene fired, Gavin stared at the movement of the zombies and cursed aloud.

"Shit, our gunshots aren't as effective as the ones in the rich neighborhood. Zombies must be a lot more sensitive to continuous noise!"

"Ever since that shooting started over there, the zombies can't even be bothered with us, even though our gunshots were much closer to them!"

With that, Gavin raised his Python revolver and began firing.

*Bang, bang, bang!*

*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat...*

Right as he emptied his last three rounds, the gunfire was completely drowned out by the distant rattling noise.

Lowering his gun, Gavin reloaded while rolling his eyes and cursing.

"Dammit, that accursed gunfire is still going. It's safe to say zombies definitely prefer sounds with a higher firing frequency!"

"Is that so?" Madison couldn't help asking Gavin.

"Is that good news or bad news?"

"Of course it's good news. No matter what kind of information it is, the more we learn about the zombies, the higher our chances of survival!"

Just as Gavin reached this point, Eugene suddenly interrupted him, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Hold on! Ten o'clock direction, about six hundred and thirty meters out—that mansion with the two rows of oak trees in the yard!"

"Got it!"

Gavin responded swiftly, immediately turning his gaze toward the direction Eugene indicated.

After a brief sweep, Gavin finally focused his sights on that particular mansion.

However, he didn't see the person doing the shooting. All he saw was the two closest zombies charging fiercely toward the second window on the left side of the mansion's first floor.

"Phew, we can relax. There's only one shooter, and they're not coming after us!"

Gavin shouted, then stepped out from the shelter of the Raptor to continue observing by the highway guardrail.

Behind him, Eugene stood up swaggering, hoisted his shotgun, and strolled over to Gavin's side, propping up his eight-times scope to watch and curse at the same time.

"Talk about lucky. He might get chewed to death by zombies the next second. Otherwise, the moment I charge up to him, I'm going to turn his nuts into honeycomb, motherfucker!"

With that, Eugene crouched down beside Gavin, resting his scope-holding hand on the guardrail, and asked.

"What's our next move, Boss? Should we try to rescue him? He's still a living human being after all, hehe~"

When Eugene said this, Madison and William's ears instantly perked up.

Even Doris and her daughter, huddled inside the RV, raised their heads to listen in.

Hearing this, Gavin curled his lip with an amused smirk.

"Rescue? How? His gunfire hasn't stopped once, and the zombies from the nearest mansions have already swarmed straight into his house!"

"Unless he runs out of bullets right now and gives us a chance to draw the zombies away, every single second that gun keeps firing brings him one step closer to death!"

As he spoke, Gavin clearly saw that the cluster of zombies—which had previously formed a tight pack attracted by his own gunfire—was now only three hundred meters away from the mansion where the SCAR was firing.

The SCAR was still rattling away; it sounded like over forty rounds had already been fired. Heaven knows how many magazines he had left.

Hearing this, William bit his lip regretfully, then lowered his head to look at the police badge pinned to his chest.

After a single glance, he hurriedly looked away, as if afraid of being burned by the badge's reflection.

As for Eugene, the old buddy slapped his thigh and grinned broadly.

"Consider yourself lucky, quarterback. If you wanted to drag me into that mansion to do God's work, I'd punch you straight in the jaw, and even if you were the Virgin Mary, I'd knock you into a miscarriage!"

"With what strength, haha? Just wait until we reach the farm; I'll give you a proper workout!"

Gavin gave Eugene a nudge with his elbow while keeping his eyes fixed on the distant mansion.

The gunfire continued. After another twenty-odd rounds, it finally paused.

"Tsk tsk, that must be a reload. Guess how many zombies he took down? I bet five!"

Eugene teased. Gavin shook his head and replied.

"I bet eight. The wager is that carton of cigarettes I promised you. Once the shooting stops, I'll personally send you over to the mansion to check the results!"

"Fuck, if you want me dead, just say so. How could I possibly—wait!"

Eugene cursed irritably, then suddenly cut himself off and slammed his hand heavily against the guardrail.

"Look at that! That son of a bitch is an absolute war god. He's charging right out, and he's even got a chick with him!"

"I see it!"

In Gavin's view, inside the mansion over six hundred meters away:

A short-haired man in a black suit, holding a rifle in one hand, leaped straight out of a mansion window and dragged a woman in a red dress toward the yellow McLaren parked in the courtyard.

Meanwhile, Madison charged toward Eugene with large strides, asking him anxiously,

"A woman? Fuck! Let me see!"

"Ha! Here you go, you big brute, take it, take it all!"

Eugene laughed heartily as he handed the eight-times scope to Madison, who hurriedly peered through it.

At the same time, Gavin saw two more zombies lunging toward the man.

The man in the suit abruptly shoved the woman aside, swung his rifle around, and smashed the butt into the first zombie's face. Then he raised the barrel and fired, seven consecutive rounds blowing away the heads of both zombies.

By the time he finished them off, the woman had yet to scramble to her feet. Without hesitation, the man grabbed her by the hair and dragged her across the ground toward the McLaren.

The woman shrieked, a sound even more piercing than the gunfire.

Yet the short-haired man showed not a shred of hesitation, hauling the woman to the car entirely by her hair, pulling open the door, and tossing her straight into the passenger seat.

"Whoa."

Gavin's jaw dropped. He clearly saw the woman's head slam heavily against the roof of the car the first time she was thrown in.

After wasting half a second, the man pulled and shoved the woman the rest of the way inside, rushed to the driver's seat, rapidly started the engine, rammed aside the approaching zombies, and hurtled toward the mansion gates.

While driving, he braced the rifle against his chest, blasted through the car window, and fired at the zombies blocking the path as well as those lunging at the McLaren.

Seeing this, Gavin felt the situation had just turned rather grim.

The zombies in the residential area where the man and woman were located had originally been drawn away and gathered by his own gunfire, creating an opening for the pair to escape.

And now, the massive horde of zombies had abandoned Gavin's position and turned back, closing to within two hundred and forty meters of the mansion where the McLaren was parked.

Even if there were still a few stray zombies left in the neighborhood, scattered groups unable to form a tight pack stood almost zero chance of stopping the McLaren in its tracks.

Therefore...

Watching the McLaren burst out of the mansion and barrel toward Route 283,

Gavin dealt a heavy slap to Eugene's shoulder.

"Get in the vehicle, right now! We have to charge over there immediately!"

With that, Gavin sprinted toward the Raptor, kicking old Mac along the way.

"Stop staring for fuck's sake, go get the RV moving!"

"The zombies in the rich neighborhood were originally lured toward the left mansion by the SCAR's gunfire. That's still a distance away from the main road and wouldn't have hindered us from passing through."

"But now, that driving asshole was shooting while driving and drew every single zombie straight toward the highway!"

"We have to drive right through this damn affluent district before the zombies rush onto the road and form a single-minded torrent like the one in Ennis!"

"Otherwise, we'll end up trailing right behind the horde chasing the McLaren all the way back to my house, and heaven knows how much more trouble that will bring!"