As if sensing Nina Jacobs’s urgency, Wayne Warner followed close behind.

"It was my mistake. She might not be the real Sheila Rhodes," Nina Jacobs said as she drove.

It seemed that saying it aloud was the only way to ease her growing anxiety.

Back then, Zoe Morgan had introduced them all as students from J High School, so they’d jumped to the conclusion that the Sheila Rhodes with them was a student, too.

Plus, with Chase Gallagher’s attention on her due to her connection to Warren Rhodes, and her own confirmation of her identity, they had become completely convinced.

’Now that I think about it, maybe ’Sheila Rhodes’ has been lying to us from the start.’

’But then what did that note mean?’

After setting the destination on her system’s map, Nina Jacobs floored it.

It was a small landing pad in the suburbs.

It wasn’t too far from the base.

When Nina Jacobs arrived, her heart sank.

Several vehicles had been destroyed. The scene was littered with bloodstains and clear signs of a struggle.

The helicopter’s tail had been blown off.

But there wasn’t a single person in sight on the entire landing pad.

"No people, no bodies. They should still be alive."

Nina Jacobs activated her Five Senses Enhancement, closing her eyes to scan her surroundings.

At the same time, the pungent stench of blood filled her nostrils.

When Nina Jacobs took off in one direction, Wayne Warner was right behind her.

Inside a bungalow surrounded by zombies.

Chase Gallagher and the others were about to fight their way out when they heard the crackling of flames and felt waves of intense heat from outside.

Chase Gallagher peered through a crack in the window, a jolt of joyful surprise running through him when he saw the two figures outside.

"Another powerful Mutated Zombie?"

Samson Thorne had only sustained minor injuries.

If Chase Gallagher hadn’t used his Speed Element Superpower to carry him out, he would have been eaten by a powerful Mutated Zombie.

But he also knew there were too many zombies outside. The door wouldn’t hold for much longer.

Charging out might give them a sliver of a chance, but casualties would be inevitable.

If another Mutated Zombie showed up, their chances of survival would be slim.

"Don’t worry, everyone. It’s reinforcements,"

Chase Gallagher said.

"Reinforcements already?"

A few members of the rescue team were in disbelief.

It had been less than twenty minutes since they were first ambushed and forced to hide in here.

’Reinforcements from the base are this fast?’

However, when they looked out the window, they saw only two people.

One was a Fire Element Superpower User.

A young woman, and a tall man.

They stood back-to-back, not looking the least bit nervous.

The horde of zombies outside the bungalow had completely swamped them, their numbers so dense that the two figures vanished from sight.

But just two seconds later, an incredibly powerful wave of heat blasted all the surrounding zombies away!

BOOM!

The shockwave even made the dilapidated bungalow tremble.

The horde of zombies was now writhing in a sea of flames.

A zombie, completely engulfed in flames, tried to lunge at the pair, but the tall man smashed its head in with a single punch.

Chase Gallagher threw open the door, ready to charge out with the others who could still fight and clear out the remaining zombies.

But Nina Jacobs had already summoned a Fire Serpent. The massive, dragon-like serpent roared as it lunged at the remaining zombies!

The shrieking instantly ceased.

Chase Gallagher could tell Nina Jacobs was in a hurry.

"They weren’t targeting us. No one’s dead,

Mr. Thorne and a few others are lightly injured, but...

Holden went after them alone,"

Chase Gallagher said.

Their target was Sheila Rhodes. He had wanted to go after them, but protecting Samson Thorne was also part of the mission Nina Jacobs had given him.

Plus, Holden Shaw had insisted on protecting Sheila Rhodes, so the two of them had no choice but to split up.

Nina Jacobs’s heart sank.

"Which way did they go?"

"Northwest. But what in the world is going on?

Why were we ambushed?"

Chase Gallagher was completely bewildered.

They were ambushed the moment they arrived at the landing pad.

There were fewer than ten of them, but every single one was a powerful Superpower User. They had also planted explosives in advance, which was why their side had been caught at a disadvantage.

"I’m still not sure why, but that might not have been the real Sheila Rhodes," 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Nina Jacobs replied, frowning.

’Why would someone impersonate Sheila Rhodes?’

’What’s their endgame?’

"A fake?"

Samson Thorne said, stepping out of the bungalow.

Chase Gallagher’s face was a mask of disbelief.

It was true; they hadn’t used a photo to verify her identity when they confirmed the details with ’Sheila Rhodes’.

"If she’s a fake, then there would be no reason for them to go to all this trouble to kidnap her."

Samson Thorne had assumed their goal was to kidnap Sheila Rhodes to gain leverage over Commander Rhodes at headquarters.

But Nina Jacobs believed she was an impostor.

’What is Nina’s reasoning?’

"They might want to interrogate her for information,"

Nina Jacobs reasoned.

’A fake Sheila Rhodes is useless. Once they get the information they want, they’ll most likely kill her.’

"Then Holden Shaw is in danger, too."

Nina Jacobs made her decision on the spot: she would find Holden Shaw.

She told Chase Gallagher to take Samson Thorne back to the base first.

"Young lady, it’s too dangerous for the two of you to go alone,"

Samson Thorne said.

Although he’d had little contact with Nina Jacobs, he knew everything she had done for the City D Base.

Justin Lawson held her in very high regard.

He didn’t want anything to happen to her, either.

"I know what I’m doing."

Nina Jacobs just wanted to get Holden Shaw back.

She had no intention of getting tangled up with some unknown faction.

"Understood. We’ll get Mr. Thorne back to the base safely."

Chase Gallagher hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

He knew this was just how Nina Jacobs was. No matter how unclear the situation, she would never stand by and watch one of her own in peril.

Following the direction Chase Gallagher had indicated, Nina Jacobs drove with Wayne Warner until they stopped beside a desolate-looking forest.

A forest of dead trees blocked their path.

Nina Jacobs got out of the car.

They had stopped because a commercial van was parked there.

Its doors were open, and there were signs of a struggle.

The zombie corpses on the ground looked like they had been killed very recently.

The cuts suggested a sharp weapon, one that looked like Holden Shaw’s Ring-Headed Knife.

The two headed into the dead forest.

As the signs of a battle grew more distinct, Nina Jacobs’s heart began to pound with tension.

There were bloodstains on the ground and on the trunks of the dead trees.

A little farther in, they found two bodies on the ground.

Nina Jacobs breathed a sigh of relief when she got a clear look at them.

It wasn’t Holden Shaw or Sheila Rhodes.

"This Sword Technique... it’s Holden Shaw’s."

Nina Jacobs searched the bodies and found a walkie-talkie on one of their waists.

The walkie-talkie was off. Nina Jacobs turned it on. There was only a crackle of static, no voices.

After following the blood trail a little farther, they came upon a large, scorched-black crater.

Just then, the walkie-talkie in Nina Jacobs’s hand crackled to life with a broken transmission:

"...Mission... complete. Proceeding to... rendezvous point."

’Mission complete?’

A bad feeling washed over Nina Jacobs.

"What about the Speed Element Superpower User?" a man’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie.

"He got away, but he’s been poisoned. No way he’s surviving this,"

another voice replied.

"As long as he’s dead, that’s all that matters. Son of a bitch... he killed three of our guys..."

’Poison?’

Nina Jacobs knew she had to find Holden Shaw, and fast.

’As long as it isn’t the zombie virus, the system’s Healing Potion can cure any poison.’

One by one, she released her Little Zombie Rats.

’If the walkie-talkie is picking up a signal, it means those people are still nearby.’

’And that includes Holden Shaw.’