The horn from the gate kept sounding.
Long blasts, spaced out, like someone was trying not to panic the whole base but was failing.
Lan Huan was already moving. He Li went first, scanning corners. He Chenyu stayed close. Qin Yi got up from the tarp with a wince and followed. Luo Yan ran behind them, with Lu Ziming and Mu Yan trying to keep up.
Chen Yao didn't come.
She had med lane.
As they ran, the base lanes tightened with people moving in the same direction. Soldiers shoved civilians back. Civilians shoved soldiers back. Everyone wanted to see what was happening, even if seeing it would only make them afraid.
They reached the gate lane.
It was worse than east fence. Narrower. More people. The main gate was the heart of the base, and right now it was choking.
A truck was stuck half inside the gate. The driver had tried to force in, and the crowd had swarmed the wheels, begging to climb on.
Soldiers were yelling. "Back! Back!"
Someone fired a warning shot.
The crowd screamed and surged.
And through it all, zombies pressed from outside, drawn by noise, piling at the outer barrier.
Zhao Qingshan was there, up on a crate so he could see. His voice was a hard cut through the sound.
"Stop pushing! If you push, the gate jams! If the gate jams, you die!"
Nobody listened.
A civilian man screamed, "My wife is outside!"
Another screamed, "My child is outside!"
Someone tried to climb the gate frame and got pulled down.
Luo Yan's stomach turned. People were going to die here, and they weren't even fighting zombies yet.
Lan Huan pushed forward until he was close enough for Zhao to see him.
Zhao's eyes snapped to him. "General," he barked. "Not now."
Lan Huan's voice stayed calm. "What happened?"
Zhao shouted, "A convoy showed up. Too late. Too loud. They brought half the street with them."
Lan Huan looked past the truck.
Outside the gate, through rain and bodies, he saw headlights. More vehicles. People on foot. A mess.
And then he saw it.
A fast infected clinging to the side of a van like a spider, riding it in, using it as cover.
Luo Yan's blood went cold.
"It's coming in with them," Luo Yan said, low.
He Chenyu heard and went still. He Li's eyes sharpened.
Lan Huan's storm pressure rose. "Zhao," he said, voice tight. "Fast infected outside. On the van."
Zhao's face tightened. "Where?"
He Li pointed. "Left side. Headlights."
Zhao's jaw clenched. He shouted to his soldiers, "Hold the inner line! No one opens the gate wider!"
A soldier shouted back, "Commander, people are getting crushed!"
Zhao snapped, "Then pull them back!"
The crowd surged again. Someone fell under the truck wheel and screamed.
Luo Yan's hands shook. He wanted to help, but he didn't know what to do without making it worse.
Qin Yi lifted his hand slightly. "I can push the crowd back," he said, voice strained. "But my head—"
Lan Huan looked at him. "Do it small," he said.
Qin Yi nodded once, jaw clenched. He lifted his hand and sent a thin illusion through the crowd. Not a fake monster. Not something dramatic.
Just a clear sound of metal snapping.
A gate breaking.
People froze for half a second, fear turning them cold.
It was enough.
Soldiers shoved the front line back and pulled the fallen man out from under the truck.
He was alive, but his leg was twisted wrong.
Medics dragged him away.
Outside the gate, the van with the fast infected hit the barrier and stopped.
The infected dropped off it and moved low, fast, toward the gate gap.
A soldier fired. Missed.
The infected sprang up onto the gate frame, using the truck as a bridge, and then it was inside.
Just like that.
Inside the base.
It landed on the wet ground and looked around.
And its eyes went straight to Luo Yan again, like it had been waiting.
That lip-split smile.
Then it screamed.
A sharp call.
From deeper outside the gate, another scream answered.
More than one.
Lan Huan's jaw tightened. "Close the gate," he snapped.
Zhao shouted, "Close it!"
But the truck was still stuck. The gate couldn't close.
The fast infected lunged into the crowd.
Not biting at random.
Choosing.
It went for the injured, the slow, the fallen.
It slammed into a woman and knocked her down, mouth opening for her neck.
Luo Yan's body moved on instinct.
Void Screen.
A dark pane snapped between teeth and skin.
The bite erased.
The screen cracked.
The woman crawled away screaming.
A soldier got a clean shot and hit the infected in the side.
It didn't drop. It twisted and sprang onto a soldier's back.
Lan Huan moved.
Lightning snapped from his hand and caught the infected mid-jump. The current arced in the wet air. The infected convulsed and dropped.
Zhao's metal blades flew and pinned its limbs to the ground like nails.
"Now!" Zhao shouted.
Soldiers rushed in and emptied bullets into its skull until it stopped moving.
The crowd screamed and surged again.
Outside the gate, the answering screams got closer.
Lan Huan looked at the jammed truck.
Then he looked at the gate frame.
Then at Zhao.
"We need to clear the truck," Lan Huan said.
Zhao's face was hard. "With what?"
Lan Huan's eyes went to Lu Ziming. "Earth," he said.
Lu Ziming blinked. "Me?"
Lan Huan nodded. "Lift the front wheel," he ordered. "Make it roll."
Lu Ziming swallowed hard, then ran to the truck. He shoved his hands into the wet ground and tried to focus.
Earth rose under the front wheel, slow and shaking.
The truck shifted a little.
People screamed and stumbled back.
The driver hit the gas, panicking, and the wheel spun.
The earth support cracked.
Lu Ziming swore. "Stop spinning it!" he shouted.
No one listened.
The truck lurched and the wheel slipped off the earth lift, slamming down again.
Lu Ziming staggered back, breathing hard. "I can't hold it if he's fighting me," he gasped.
Lan Huan's voice cut sharp. "Driver!" he shouted. "Off. Now!"
The driver stared, wild-eyed.
Zhao raised a metal blade, pointed it at the driver's face. "Off," he said, low.
The driver shut the engine off.
Lu Ziming tried again.
Earth rose, thicker this time.
The front of the truck lifted just enough for soldiers to shove the back end.
The truck rolled.
The gate lane cleared by half a meter.
Zhao shouted, "Close the gate!"
The inner gate started to grind shut.
Outside, bodies pressed against it.
Hands pushed through.
And then, right before the gate fully closed, a fast infected slid under the truck like a shadow and sprang up inside the base.
A second one.
Its head snapped up.
Its eyes locked on Luo Yan.
And it screamed.
Right in his face.