Stronghold In The Apocalypse

"Right? I almost shat my pants when I first how huge the number of that zombie horde"     

Looking through the telescope in his hands, Darius couldn't help but let out a comment when he saw something, while the other survivor beside him, called Harry and who's also looking at the zombie horde through a mounted telescope, agreed with him.     

"Y-yeah"     

Embarrassed, Darius quickly moved his sight away from the zombie with a pair of huge twin peaks..     

Harry then moved his head away from the telescope and opened the backpack leaning on the wall, and took out folded paper, a notebook, a permanent marker and lastly, a pen.     

"I've counted, there's a hundred or so Striker Zombies sunbathing on top of the zombie nest. What about your end, Darius?" asked Harry while he unfolded the paper and laid it out on the ground, revealing a photo of the mall.     

Then he drew a line starting from the top of the building and wrote the words "Striker Zombies", before separately writing "Seventy or so Striker Zombies stationed around the upper section of the mall" on the notebook.     

"I'm not sure about the other sides, but i've counted fifty three Hunters on the ground" replied Darius as he turned his head to look at Harry who's busy jotting down notes on the notebook.     

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!     

"Damn, that thing's still not leaving"     

Darius's expression darkened when he turned his sights towards the Tanker Zombie causing a ruckus below them, and even going as far as killing several ordinary zombies.     

"Ignore that thing and focused at the task at hand"     

Bella's voice drifted over as she walked towards them with a spiked bat in her hands.     

Darius just shrugged his shoulders and went back to the task at hand, while Bella on the other hand is standing beside Harry and watching his work.     

"Are we only looking at this side of the nest?"     

"I'm not sure, the team leader didn't mention anything about scouting the areas"     

"Then wouldn't we have insufficient information on them?"     

"Don't ask me, I'm just doing what I'm ask to do ma'am"     

Harry helplessly shrugged his shoulders when Bella continuously questioned him.     

Meanwhile, in the building across from the apartment building.     

There is a man sneakily watching them, and like Leo, he also has a holographic mini map that only he could see, but that it only covers a few hundred meters from his position, and he's constantly looking at it to monitor his surroundings.     

"Not bad, they are constantly on guard. Especially those two, it seems the resources provided to them weren't wasted in vain. I actually expected that they would have become more arrogant and complacent because of their equipment and abilities, especially with the Commander's long absence in Manchester during this time"     

"It seems Caleb is doing his job properly while we're away, but still, I guess I should have left a few zombies in that building. They must be feeling uncomfortable right now"     

Yes, Alex was the one who had actually cleared out the entire building across from him, and he did so during the time Bella and the others were busy dealing with the mutated animals and the zombies.     

"But the appearance of that hulking zombie was a surprise. I didn't expect that such a powerful zombie wasn't part of the horde. It must have just mutated recently and the Z didn't dare to go out and control it when the Commander is stalking it like a prey"     

While watching them, Alex looked at his hands while fiddling with his fingers and mumbled, "Humans, are truly such fragile creatures"     

Words that would leave anyone guessing if he was talking about the entirety of the humans on Earth or himself.     

Moving his eyes away from his hand, he turned his head towards the direction of the ocean and said, "And I'm pretty sure those soldiers stuck on that ship are getting restless by now. After all, there had been delays regarding their rescue"     

"That mutated fruit is also pretty interesting"     

After that, he shut his mouth, and silence descended with the only sound around him being the wind continuously blowing and the constant roars of mutated animals and zombies in the distance.     

Back to the scouting team.     

"Are we all done?"     

"We're just about to sir"     

"Hurry up, we don't got all day"     

The Lieutenant slowly came walking over towards Darius and Harry when he saw that their planned allotted time to stay here was drawing near, and urged them to finish it up as he knows that they can't afford to stay at one place for a long time, as survivors needs to be constantly moving when they're outside secured human territories.     

"How are we going to deal with that? The bus won't be able to outrun it. Should we try to take it down?"     

"We can't. We'd need at least six or seven mutated humans to deal with it. If we count the Lieutenant and Sarge, then we need at least two more soldiers like them or two more mutants"     

Austin knew that the team's current firepower is lacking, so he quickly shut down Peter's idea of taking down the Tanker Zombie.     

"What's the plan sir?"     

Bella turned towards the team leader and asked, and the others followed suit by turning their attention to him.     

The man just smiled and turned to his fellow soldier and said, "You still raring to go?"     

"Of course! Even though the situation of this building is a little scary, but a Tanker isn't!"     

When the soldier who's codename is Sarge heard his CO's question, his eyes quickly brightened up and immediately gave a positive answer!     

"Wait, wait up. Don't tell me you two are planning to engage in that monstrosity with only those weapons?!"     

Hearing the words coming out of their mouths, Bella quickly intervened in panic while pointing at the hulking monster lurking in the streets outside!     

Even the others couldn't believe what they're hearing!     

"Yeah, and relax, this isn't our first rodeo"     

"Your words…does it mean you guys have taken down a Tanker by yourselves before?"     

"Only with a blade and machine gun?"     

Seeing the doubtful looks on their faces, the two soldiers could only chuckle, and it made them remember that they're not Europe and the people here had truly not seen their Force in action or even heard of their tales.     

"The machine gun? No, the blade? Yes"     

"Wait. I thought those were fixed?"     

When Bell and Darius saw the mini gun attached to their exo-suit being taken off, they were clearly startled because they heard and personally saw that those mini guns were clearly not separable from the suit.     

"Lin must have lied to you, he always does that"     

"What? That as*hole!"     

Meanwhile, in another part of the city.     

"Sir, I don't mean to pry, but will they be okay heading there with such a small group?"     

One of the leaders of the survivors groups came to Leo and expressed his concerns for the small team that was tasked to collect information on the zombie nest.     

"They're going to be fine. My soldiers aren't weak, as they are  not only equipped with an exo suit that enhances their physical capabilities…they're also…"     

"HOLY SH*T! They…they're also f*cking mutants!"     

Darius could not help but let out an exclamation of shock when he saw the scene happening before their very eyes!     

"Does that mean that Lin and the others are also mutants?! Damn!"