Chapter 91: Special Infected

The salt well was a few miles further out than the oil well. With zombies gathering around, the pickup truck tore across the wasteland without running into a single one of those undead freaks.

Gunfire was still popping off. Right after Wellington took off, most of the troops at the oil well got sent over to back up the salt well. That place was super important for the settlement's survival, so they couldn't afford to mess it up. Just like before, Wellington had Oliver find a slightly raised spot about a mile from the action to keep an eye on things.

The salt well was huge, with a salt field as big as a football field, split into smaller sections, each smaller than a basketball court. Normally, the salt field would be covered in white salt crystals, but now it was crawling with zombies, messing up the thin layer of salt.

The administration had a few cannons, but they couldn't use them on the salt field. Sure, they could take out a bunch of zombies, but they'd also wreck the salt field's setup.

The walls around the salt field were a bit higher than those around the oil well. On those thick walls, a swarm of zombies kept climbing up. Zombie bodies were piling up like mountains on the walls; for every one that got taken out, another one took its place. The zombies' attack was different from humans fighting zombies. When zombies attacked, humans could fall back while fighting, using hit-and-run tactics to take them out. But now, the zombies were just holding their ground in the salt field, using their sheer numbers to hold the walls and keep humans from moving forward.

Building the salt well had been a massive effort, finally drilling down over 300 feet into the rock layers. Various rock-moving machines and other gear had taken up the administration's biggest efforts. Even putting together the salt field had needed the military to launch a tough assault on Greenfield City, taking heavy losses to grab the cement used here.

In the current mess, every extra minute meant the gear inside was more likely to get trashed by the zombies. If the zombies filled up the salt well, it would be a huge hit to the settlement.

Several columns of troops spread out, forming a semicircle around the salt field, standing and desperately shooting at the zombies on the walls. Layers of zombies were getting mowed down, falling on the walls and piling up at the base, quickly forming a big heap of zombie corpses. When Wellington saw it, the pile of zombie bodies was at least 10 feet high, with tens of thousands of zombies taken out on the walls.

Beyond the walls, the salt field was still packed with zombies, their numbers probably several times more than those at the oil well.

"Where the hell did these zombies come from?"

Of course, no one had an answer. Greenfield City had millions of people, but it was crazy to think hundreds of thousands would attack these two spots, right? If they weren't from Greenfield City, where did this massive horde of zombies come from? It was a head-scratcher.

The setup of the salt well was kinda like the oil well, but Wellington saw that the entrance to the salt well was already jammed with zombies. Even if they could take back the salt well, it would take at least a month or two to fix it up after the zombies' destruction. Plus, who could guarantee that the salt produced wouldn't be contaminated with the virus?

The backup troops rolled in fast, just a few minutes after Wellington's crew. As soon as they got there, they followed the commander's orders, forming columns to circle the other half of the salt well, locking it down tight. With almost double the firepower, any zombie that popped up on the walls got taken out instantly.

It was clear the officer in charge planned to slowly wear down the zombies this way.

If everything went smoothly, they could take back the salt well in about half an hour. But through his binoculars, Wellington spotted something weird in the thick crowd of zombies. In the salt field, there were a few shadows, way bigger than the regular zombies, slowly crawling around.

Wellington couldn't figure out what these things were, but seeing those crawling zombies gave him a bad feeling.

These seemed like some new type of special infected zombies. They were three to four times bigger than the usual ones and didn't walk upright but crawled on all fours. A thick tube ran along their backs, kinda like a soldier carrying a cannon.

"A cannon?"

Honestly, the thought of that word shocked Wellington, making him wonder why he had such a crazy idea.

But the next moment, his eyes went wide in disbelief, like he was seeing something out of a nightmare. The special infected zombies he was watching started crawling on the concrete surface of the salt field. The thick tubes on their backs slowly adjusted their angles. Soon, a glob of green liquid shot out from the tubes, landing among the soldiers outside and exploding a second later.

Green goo splattered everywhere, and the packed group of soldiers had no way to dodge it. The liquid hit them like some kind of chemical agent. As soon as it touched them, it caused horrific burns, and within seconds, the affected flesh was eaten away, exposing the bones.

"Ah... Ah..."

"Help, help!"

Screams filled the air as the splashed soldiers rolled frantically on the ground, the intense pain causing some to pass out, only to be jolted awake by the continuous burning. Some soldiers, hit on their limbs, couldn't shake off the liquid no matter how hard they tried. Within moments, their limbs were corroded and useless.

Some were even more unlucky, getting hit in vital areas. Their thin clothing couldn't hold up against the liquid for even a second, and it burned through to the flesh. Some soldiers, hit on their stomachs, had their entire abdomen corroded away, exposing their internal organs, and died on the spot.

There were about a dozen of these special infected zombies capable of shooting liquid, firing at a rate of about once every half minute.

But each time, the dozen or so globs of liquid would land right among the soldiers, causing dozens of casualties. The once orderly columns were thrown into chaos by a single volley. Not expecting the zombies to have long-range attack capabilities, the soldiers were stunned, watching their comrades' agony. It wasn't until the second wave of liquid hit the stunned soldiers that they reacted, scattering in all directions.

No one could have seen this coming—the once fierce soldiers were thrown into complete disarray by the zombies' long-range liquid attacks, unable to mount an effective counterattack.

Facing the relentless variety of zombies, everyone was filled with an unknown fear, not knowing what kind of special zombies would show up next.