The green jump light illuminated the cargo bay instantly.
"GO! GO! GO!"
The loadmaster’s voice roared through the aircraft while freezing wind scread through the open cargo ramp.
The first operator jumped imdiately into the darkness below.
Then another.
Then another.
One by one, the special operations team disappeared into the night sky above Beijing.
Ryan moved toward the edge afterward before briefly looking downward.
The ruined city stretched endlessly beneath them.
Collapsed skyscrapers.
Burned districts.
Darkened highways clogged with abandoned vehicles.
And movent.
So much movent.
Entire streets below crawled with infected even from this altitude.
"Still think this is insane!" Ryan shouted over the wind.
Then he jumped.
The violent rush of air imdiately swallowed him.
Darkness exploded around his vision while freezing wind hamred against his body during freefall.
Below him, Beijing rapidly expanded larger and larger beneath the night sky.
Ryan stabilized his body position imdiately while checking altitude through the glowing display mounted near his wrist.
The city looked horrifying from above.
Massive blast craters scarred entire districts while sections of the capital still burned beneath drifting smoke clouds. Several skyscrapers leaned dangerously against neighboring buildings while others had collapsed entirely into gigantic debris fields.
And everywhere—
The infected moved.
Thousands of them.
Even from the air, Ryan could see huge clusters wandering through ruined intersections and collapsed streets like living rivers of flesh.
Then his altiter alarm flashed.
DEPLOY.
Ryan pulled imdiately.
WHUMP.
The parachute snapped open violently above him.
Several other canopies appeared nearby across the night sky as the team descended toward the western outskirts of Beijing.
Far above them, the C-17 Globemaster banked away sharply before disappearing back into the darkness.
Now they were alone.
Ryan adjusted his descent slightly while scanning the city beneath him through night vision optics mounted onto his helt.
The insertion zone sat near a partially collapsed industrial district west of central Beijing. Most buildings there remained damaged but still standing unlike the completely annihilated central sectors deeper inside the city.
Even so, the destruction remained overwhelming.
Entire roads had cracked open.
Sections of elevated highways hung collapsed sideways into ruined buildings.
Burned-out military vehicles remained scattered everywhere across the streets below.
And the radiation warning indicators mounted onto Ryan’s gear had already begun clicking softly.
Not dangerous yet.
But present.
The city itself felt poisoned.
Ryan looked toward another descending canopy nearby.
Adrian.
The commander remained completely calm even during descent while adjusting course toward the designated rooftop landing zone.
One operator’s voice crackled through the encrypted radio afterward.
"Movent below. Multiple infected."
Another operator answered.
"Confird. Large concentration near eastern roadway."
Adrian’s calm voice finally entered comms.
"Stay focused on landing first. Noise discipline once we hit ground."
"Copy."
The team continued descending lower through drifting smoke clouds hanging above portions of the ruined city.
The sll eventually reached them too.
Burned concrete.
Rotting flesh.
Ash.
And sothing chemical lingering faintly in the air.
Radiation contamination.
Ryan quietly muttered—
"God this place slls dead."
Nobody answered him.
Because there really was nothing else to say.
Then the rooftop rapidly approached beneath him.
A partially intact office building roughly twelve stories high.
Most of the surrounding structures nearby had already collapsed or burned out months ago.
Ryan angled carefully before impact.
THUD.
His boots slamd onto the rooftop hard while the parachute dragged briefly behind him across the concrete surface.
"Clear!"
One by one, the operators landed nearby afterward.
Adrian touched down last before imdiately cutting free from the parachute harness.
"Move!"
The team reacted instantly.
Several operators pulled the parachutes toward rooftop cover while others secured periter positions near the roof edges overlooking nearby streets.
The atmosphere imdiately changed the mont they landed.
Because the city felt wrong.
Too quiet.
Not peaceful quiet.
Dead quiet.
The distant wind echoed faintly through hollow buildings while fires crackled sowhere far across the ruined skyline.
But otherwise—
Nothing.
No human sounds.
No vehicles.
No life.
Ryan slowly moved toward the rooftop edge afterward before looking downward through his optic.
"...Jesus."
The streets below looked horrific.
Hundreds of abandoned vehicles remained frozen across intersections beneath layers of ash and debris. Human remains littered portions of the roadway while sections of buildings had collapsed directly onto surrounding streets during the nuclear blasts.
And among all of it, the infected wandered endlessly.
So moved slowly between wreckage.
Others stood motionless near burned vehicles.
A few fed on old corpses scattered across the roads despite the bodies already looking half-decayed themselves.
One operator quietly spoke through comms.
"Radiation readings elevated but acceptable."
Another answered.
"Thermal scans detecting movent in multiple nearby structures."
Ryan looked toward one nearby apartnt building through his scope.
Several silhouettes moved behind shattered windows inside the dark structure.
Infected.
Watching.
Adrian stepped beside him afterward.
"How bad?"
Ryan slowly lowered the rifle slightly.
"This entire city’s a graveyard."
Adrian already knew that.
The commander looked toward the distant skyline afterward.
Even from here, central Beijing remained partially visible through drifting smoke and ruined skyscrapers.
The nuclear craters there looked massive.
Entire districts simply no longer existed.
One operator approached afterward while checking a digital tablet linked to their navigation systems.
"Insertion successful. Underground access tunnel approximately one-point-eight kiloters east."
Adrian nodded once.
"Then we move now."
Nobody argued.
Because standing exposed on a rooftop in Beijing felt like a terrible idea.
The operators imdiately began moving toward the rooftop access door leading downstairs.
Ryan stopped briefly before glancing one last ti across the ruined city.
Sowhere beneath all of this destruction sat Doctor Lin.
And possibly answers regarding the apocalypse itself.
Then suddenly—
One of the operators near the western edge froze slightly.
"Movent."
Everybody imdiately raised weapons.
Ryan turned instantly.
Below the building—
The infected had noticed them.
At first only a few.
Then more.
Dozens of pale figures slowly erged from nearby streets while staring upward toward the rooftop.
So looked horribly burned from radiation exposure while others had visible tumors and growths spreading across their bodies unnaturally.
One tilted its head sharply upward.
Then scread.
The sound echoed violently across the dead city.
And suddenly—
Every nearby infected began moving.
Fast.
Ryan imdiately swore.
"Oh that’s not good."
More infected started appearing from alleyways.
Buildings.
Subway entrances.
Collapsed streets.
Their numbers multiplied rapidly beneath the rooftop while feral screams echoed across the ruined district.
One operator checked thermal optics quickly.
"Contacts increasing!"
Another voice shouted through comms.
"They’re converging on our position!"
Adrian imdiately stepped toward the rooftop door.
"Move inside now!"
The team rushed toward the access stairwell imdiately while infected flooded into the surrounding streets below.
Then Ryan looked farther down the road through his optic.
And his expression changed instantly.
"Uh... Adrian?"
"What?"
Ryan slowly lowered the scope.
"There’s a Hunter down there."
The rooftop beca silent for half a second.
Then sowhere below—
Sothing massive roared.
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