Chapter 53 Scavenging the Gas Station


    <b>The </b>small, run–down gas station stood quietly, its wide lot and shattered minimart crawling with scattered zombies. They wandered in twos and threes, aimless and twitchy, like broken puppets,


    The minimant inside the station was a total wreck–shelves overturned, ss shattered, everything looted or ruined. It wasn’t hard to piece together what had happened. Back when the highways were choked with Stranded cars, a desperate crowd had bolted from the traffic jam and made a mad dash for this gas station, hoping to find supplies or shelter.


    But the station turned out to be a dead end–literally. None of them made it out. The ones who fled here had all been turned, and since this spot had be the biggest congregation <b>point </b>for miles, a whole swarm of rombies had trailed the fleeing people right to this ce. Many had wandered off <b>again </b>after the chase ended, but plenty still lingered.


    Now, the moment Theresa came running in–alive, breathing, full of life–their dull senses red back to


    life.


    The change was instant. They went from sluggish and clumsy to frenzied and rabid in a heartbeat.


    “Graaaah-


    “Graaaah-


    “Woof Woof Woof!”


    “Woof!”


    Ash bolted ahead,unching itself at the nearest zombie with a flying tackle.


    “<b>Woo</b>/T


    Its paw came down like a hammer, smashing through the zombie’s skull and sending the head flying.


    The next instant, the rest of Theresa’s dogs stormed in


    Summer had stayed behind at the camp to hold the fort, but the pack she brought today was just as herce.


    mined to handle warzones. Now they These weren’t ordinary dogs–they were elite military K9s, once handled zombies with terrifying precision.


    Theresa hadn’t needed to teach them much. They had learned the drill fast. She had outfitted each dog with armor reinforced around their bellies–the most vulnerable spot. It wasn’t just for show; the extra protection gave them the edge they needed to tear through the undead without hesitation.


    The moment the dogs made contact, chaos erupted. Barking, growling, snarling–and the wet crunch of bone. In a matter of moments, the front line of zombies was reduced to mangled corpses.


    Theresa didn’t slow down either/She sliced her way through the rest. Her strikes were ruthless, efficient- nothing fancy, just fast and fatal.


    Where she passed, only scattered body parts remained.


    Each zombie’s skull <b>was </b><b>split </b>clean open–some revealing gleamstones nestled inside, others hollow. Most


    Chapter 58 Scavenging the Gas Station


    were thetter, The good ones were few and far between.


    By the time she reached the gas station, she had taken down nearly everyst one of them and pockered a dozen or so gleamstones.


    She didn’t even bother checking out the ransacked minimart. Her priority was the fuel.


    ncing over at Kyle, who was busy driving a spare vehicle off the lot, Theresa made her move. While he was distracted, she quickly stored two fully loaded fuel trucks into her domain. She left behind a half–full one for Kyle to driveter<b>. </b>


    As for the fuel still in the station’s pumps…


    Theresa paused, thinking fast. She didn’t have proper containers–just a few empty drums she had scavenged nearby. So, she tried something new dividing her domain into sections, isting the fuel from everything else. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do for now.


    She had only just thought of it–splitting her domain into sections–when it actually started happening. Her mind power took hold, and the space inside her domain began to <b>divide</b>, just like that.


    Her eyes lit up. Jackpot.


    She remembered clearly–the domain she had earned came in 35–cubic–foot increments. If it came in chunks, it had to be splittable. And she had been right on the money.


    With just a thought, she


    ved it up into smaller cubes. Once the partitions were in ce. Theresa grabbed the fuel nozzle and went full throttle, draining the underground tanks like her life depended on


    it


    By the time Kyle arrived, crashing through the blocked roadway in an armored car, forcing abandoned vehicles aside with sheer force, Theresa had already sucked the gas station’s fuel supply nearly dry.


    All told, she had collected nearly 1,500 gallons of fuel. That was enough to top off nearly 1,000 cars. In other words? She was set for the long <b>haul</b>.


    <i>“</i>Theresa! Let me help you out!” Kyle yelled as he jumped down from the vehicle.


    However, just as his boots hit the pavement, the ground <i>be </i>


    to tremble beneath them.


    Theresa nced down. The few decoy barrels by her feet shook violently, oil rippling inside like water in at


    storm


    The shaking wasn’t random–it was rhythmic. Heavy. Like something <b>massive </b>was stomping its way toward them, one earth–shaking step at a time.


    Kyle frowned, ncing around. <i>Is </i>that… an earthquake?


    “Run!” Theresa’s tone snapped to steel. “Everyone in the car<b>, </b>


    now!”


    She grabbed two drums of fuel, sprinted for the armored car, and leapt <b>inside</b>. Her dogs, trained to respond instantly, dashed alongside her, falling into formation.


    Just as thest paw hit the truck bed, they peeled <b>away </b>from the station….


    Chapter 53 Scavenging the Gas Station


    Boom!


    A thunderous crash split the air.


    The exact spot where Theresa had been standing moments ago exploded into rubble. Asphalt cracked like eggshells. Debris flew.


    From the ruined lot, a monster charged out of the shadows.


    It looked vaguely human–if a human had been bloated to nearly 400 pounds of raw, mutated muscle and flesh. It dropped to all fours, snarling, jaws snapping at the empty air where Theresa had just been.


    It missed.


    Rage twisted its oversized body as it reared back, revealing a grotesquely small head perched awkwardly on <b>a </b>mountain of flesh. Unlike normal zombies, which were often stripped down to bone and rot, <b>this </b>one was all meat–too much meat.


    Its face sagged with folds of skin that hung inyers like wetundry. One beady eye was barely visible under a curtain of flesh, while the other bulged grotesquely outward, like a giant chocte gumball wedged in a mound of fat. It looked like it could fall out any second.


    Triple chins rolled right into its thick, stubby neck. The whole creature resembled a pyramid of putrid blubber–eachyer stacked on top of the next. But the worst part wasn’t even the fat.


    It was what lived in it.


    Maggots writhed in the folds. Bulging, tumor–like growths, some of them pulsing, clung to the seams between itsyers. It wasn’t just disgusting–it was unnatural.