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🕑 Added 2025-07-05 06:37:12 +0000 UTCA New Beginning From the End of the World
Chapter 214 – In the Darkness (2)
Rghhh!!!
"Help!"
The screams alerted the walkers who had been heading toward where Jason and Alicia were, causing them to quickly change direction.
“Dad, dad, run…”
The sound of soft footsteps echoed through the deep tunnel, and in the completely dark environment, two blinding lights flickered. The mutated walker figures came to a halt in silence, and after hearing gunshots in the distance, the entire situation spiraled out of control.
Jason was moving forward, into the unknown darkness ahead. It always made him feel uneasy. A moment ago, he had cursed the idiots who had disrupted the peace inside the tunnel. That’s why, after half an hour, he and Alicia had walked in silence.
They hurried to get out of the train entrance to distance themselves as much as possible from those walkers when suddenly they spotted a black shadow lying on the tracks right in front of them. As they got closer, they realized it was an abandoned backpack.
"Looks like we weren’t the only ones who thought of escaping this way. At least we chose the right path."
After checking the backpack for a while and finding nothing useful, Jason stood up and said, “Seems like they didn’t encounter any danger. The tunnel on this side is in better shape than expected.”
“It’s better not to make noise. Those walkers could start moving at any moment.”
Looking at some rags scattered beside the backpack on the ground, Alicia noticed some wooden sticks fallen at the side of the tracks. If they didn’t have night vision goggles, those could serve as makeshift torches using the gasoline from the bottles they carried.
They kept walking into the depths of the tunnel, but before they got much farther, they stopped again.
In front of them, some kind of gas was spreading through the tunnel. Even in the darkness, floating particles could be seen in the air. After a moment, Jason turned on the flashlight mounted on his weapon, took off his night vision goggles, and saw that the particles had a light yellow hue.
“This isn’t good…”
Seeing the scene, Jason let out a soft sigh, knowing that what awaited them was highly uncertain. “What lies ahead? Are these particles harmful?”
Since this fog was unfamiliar and appeared in the lower tunnel, it could be due to decomposing corpses or some other anomaly caused by a new variant. Jason didn’t know exactly what to think.
Realizing it wasn’t just dust, Jason turned to Alicia. Without saying a word, both of them pulled out their gas masks. Ever since Jason had fought that walker at the military camp, he understood how essential those masks were. That’s why, at the very least, his main group always carried one.
Jason checked the ammo in his rifles. In recent months, he had taken down an impressive number of walkers, and the ammo usage after the fight with the Vultures had increased as well. There was still a long way to go according to the map, so they couldn’t afford to waste resources.
After confirming the weapons were ready, they walked side by side and slowly entered the spore-filled fog.
The complete darkness and thick mist in the air made visibility extremely difficult, even with flashlights on, whose illumination range was limited.
Moving in an environment like that tested anyone’s mental strength.
It forced Jason to rely on his perception to detect what was ahead.
Otherwise, with such a poor field of view, if a group of walkers was waiting ahead, they could strike at any moment and it would be too late to react.
As he extended his perception, Jason could also make out movement ahead, as well as the growing concentration of yellowish particles on both sides of the tunnel.
“Jason, it’s not safe to keep going. We can’t see anything clearly.”
Noticing that the particles were increasing around them, Alicia stopped, grabbed Jason’s arm, and whispered in concern.
Jason stayed thoughtful for a moment, then smiled. He patted her shoulder to reassure her and said, “Don’t worry. I can see the way. Just follow me.”
Hearing this, Alicia looked at him in surprise. Though hesitant, she began walking behind him.
“Trust me. Everything will be fine.”
Jason didn’t want to give further explanation. After saying that, he simply continued forward.
Seeing his confidence, Alicia, though still worried, decided to believe in him and followed without hesitation.
“Stop!”
Not long after they resumed walking, Jason came to an abrupt halt as if he had sensed something. He stopped Alicia with his arm and said seriously, “I think there are figures ahead.”
“Walkers?”
Alicia, who didn’t fully understand the situation yet, quickly realized what Jason meant. She turned off her flashlight and raised her weapon.
“Yes, but they don’t seem to be attacking us, even if they saw the light from our flashlights,” Jason said, frowning in doubt.
With his perception, he could make out a subway car stopped on the tracks about fifty meters ahead. Around it—both inside and outside the car—was a large number of standing figures.
There were constant murmurs. They were deformed walkers. Nearly a hundred of them, all with some kind of wrapping or crust on their heads that prevented them from seeing. And that was only what Jason could perceive—farther ahead, inside the train, there could be even more.
The scene was terrifying. Jason’s expression hardened. A crowd like that could devour them in seconds.
If they ran into them unprepared, they wouldn’t even know how they died.
He quickly pulled out a morphine injection and administered it. With the pain he still felt, it was likely he wouldn’t be able to react in time if things got out of control. He didn’t hesitate to give himself a dose.
Then he explained to Alicia what he had perceived. Jason looked back toward the path they had come from and said, “The way ahead isn’t safe. We have to go back right now.”
“Alright.”
Even though she was still wondering how Jason knew what was happening ahead, Alicia decided to trust him. She frowned and said, “But we’ll lose a lot of time if we go back the way we came…”
“There’s no other choice.”
Even though it hurt to retreat, for Jason, getting out of there alive was the top priority. He took Alicia’s hand and they began to head back.
Boom! Boom!
At that moment, a sudden and violent tremor shook the ground above their heads. Two explosions echoed in the distance, and a large amount of gravel and dust fell from the ceiling of the trembling tunnel.
Jason looked up immediately, trying to understand what had just happened.
As if it were an earthquake, he saw that the ceiling of the tunnel was starting to crack. Though the cracks were small, they could widen with more explosions. The affected area was extensive. Perhaps the earlier vibration had triggered them, and now they were spreading.
Roarrr!
“Jason, there’s movement!”
Just as Jason looked up, a low growl was heard coming from behind them. Alicia, always alert, detected the sound immediately. Her pupils narrowed, and she whispered a warning to Jason.
The alert snapped him out of his focus in an instant. He looked back and saw the walkers they had previously avoided. Now they were emerging from the rear part of the tunnel.
It seemed the recent commotion had not only worsened the cracks in the ceiling but also awakened the hidden walkers.
They appeared from both the front and the rear. The two of them were trapped in the middle. If it weren’t for the distance, the spores, and the darkness, they would’ve already been discovered.
“Damn it!”
Seeing so many walkers appear in the secondary tunnel, Jason realized the situation was critical. It didn’t matter why the fissure had formed—what mattered now was figuring out how to escape.
There are ways to move among walkers without being detected, but now there were too many. If they didn’t eliminate them immediately, the screams would attract the infected from the front.
But that was impossible. There were over a dozen walkers, and they were very spread out. Not even with firearms could they control the situation, especially under those conditions—with limited visibility and wearing gas masks.
Thinking fast, Jason’s eyes lit up with determination. He looked back toward the group of walkers…
He knew he had to gamble on his next move.
