The Endgame Chronicles (by Hugh White) novel Chapter 174

Chapter 174

Bang, bang, bang!

With Hayley and Leonard working their gifts together at full power, they wiped out most of the zombies in the blink of an eye.

Only when two or three zombies were left did Liam’s group snap out of it and hurry to help. Some fired their guns, while others used their gifts.

Within minutes, all ten of the granary staff zombies were taken down.

For the people who had fallen into the rice pit, everyone rushed to activate the granary’s machinery to pull them out.

By the time everything wrapped up, it was already past 9 p.m.

Over a dozen people had fallen in, but only four were pulled out alive. The rest had been bitten the moment they went under, turning into zombies almost instantly.

The worst was Paul, the first one dragged in. When they finally retrieved him, he was nothing but a skeleton. Everything else had been eaten clean by the starving zombies.

Malcolm looked at the remains of his teammate with a dark, heavy expression.

Paul had been from his hometown and his former classmate. He dropped out before finishing middle school, often getting into fights. He was always the troublemaker that teachers hated.

When he quit school, he had bragged loudly that he would make it big one day and prove everyone wrong.

But reality had been cruel.

Paul drifted between odd jobs in the city for years, never getting anywhere. Eventually, he went home and lived like a small- time slacker with no girlfriend or prospects.

Last year, Malcom went back to his hometown during the holidays and ran into Paul.

Paul joked that if he still couldn’t find a wife by the next year, Malcolm should hand over his tomboy sister, Scarlett, and he would reluctantly accept her.

Malcolm beat Paul up for that.

Paul had always been a disappointment in everyone’s eyes, but Malcolm could still remember that 15-year-old kid declaring with fire in his eyes that he would make something of himself someday, that he would prove everyone wrong.

Scarlett walked up quietly. “Malcolm, it’s my fault. If I had reacted faster back then, maybe…”

She had tried to fight back, but it had all happened too fast.

“Stop thinking about it.” Malcolm patted her shoulder.

Together, they stabbed Paul’s corpse one last time and buried him on the spot.

This was the apocalypse. A real apocalypse.

Danger and death came from every direction, without warning. No one knew when their time would come. No one could always protect you or was obligated to save your life.

Even Hayley couldn’t save everyone. She could only protect her own people. In this world where most lives meant nothing, she

was not a savior.

At most, she would step in if her own safety or her family was threatened. If she happened to save a few extra people along the way, then fine. They were just lucky.

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Anything more than that, stre couldn’t and wouldn’t try to save them.

She had to put her own interests first. She had to protect herself, her people, and her base.

Her strength had limits. She wasn’t someone who could carry the whole world on her shoulders.

Hayley couldn’t take on the big burdens, but the ones she could handle, she would handle them with all her might.

Once the aftermath was finally handled, she cracked her knuckles. It was time to settle accounts.

“Everyone, get over here. I’m reorganizing the food distribution. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

Hayley stood outside the granary and ordered all teams to gather.

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