How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse-Chapter 246

One week later.

The full-scale war between LA and EL began.

[San Fernando Road defense line reporting! Zombies! Zombies are swarming in!]

[Woodland Hills defense line reporting! Engaged in combat with fanatics!]

[Santa Monica defense line reporting! Still in a standoff with 30 mutants!]

The fanatics’ invasion routes were determined to be three.

The most optimal route to move south from Bakersfield to LA.

Ava, who had built defense lines in advance thanks to the help of junk dealers in predicting EL’s invasion routes, was now in confusion.

Although she knew from Aiden and Arian’s reports that EL could control zombies, she hadn’t expected it to be on this scale.

The number of zombies pouring in at the San Fernando defense line was even greater than the number during the previous Ross Preston incident.

Ava’s assumption that deploying 100 soldiers and commanders at each defense line would be sufficient was shattered.

[San Fernando! Requesting support! Requesting support!]

Among the various radio calls coming in, the most urgent was from San Fernando.

Although most soldiers had already been vaccinated and wouldn’t turn into zombies, it was becoming difficult to maintain the defense line against the numerical attack of zombies stronger than humans.

Ava picked up the radio.

[Retreat the frontline! It’s okay if the line is pushed back! San Fernando, maintain troops and retreat to the second defense line!]

[Confirmed! Retreating the frontline!]

[Good luck!]

Ava’s judgment was good.

For ordinary zombies, it’s better to push the line back and join with the rear units to increase firepower.

If they stubbornly try to hold the frontline, it will only sacrifice the lives of soldiers defending the line.

Zombies are no longer a major threat now that the risk of infection is gone.

However, if the consumption of supplies becomes significant, the fight with the EL believers waiting outside the defense line would be a problem.

Ava clutched her head.

"Damn fanatic bastards!! How the hell are they controlling zombies!"

As Ava gritted her teeth and moved the defense line on the tactical map she had spread out, a radio message came in.

[Commander, this is Arian. Can you hear me?]

"!!"

Ava immediately changed the radio channel.

[Is that Arian?]

[Yeah, it’s me. Anyway, my current position is Hixson. I’ve been dealing with zombies slipping through gaps in the defense line. Is there anywhere that needs support?]

[Glad to hear from you! Right now, the San Fernando defense line troops are retreating and planning to move to San Fernando. Please take care of the zombies following behind!]

[How many?]

[Number unknown! Just a hell of a lot!]

Ava honestly doesn’t know.

According to reports via radio, it looks like the number a herd of three Fears would drag along.

How could that be quantified?

It must be a number exceeding tens of thousands at least.

[Mutants? Are there any?]

[The mutant bastards have appeared elsewhere, they say. But don’t worry about that side!]

[Is that so? Well, alright. Radio San Fernando, tell them to prepare lots of blood.]

Feeling reassured by Arian’s nonchalant voice, Ava sighed.

As with the Ross Preston incident, Arian’s help was desperately needed this time too.

If an era of peace comes, what will become of Arian?

Ava shook her head. Now was not the time for useless thoughts.

[San Fernando! Right now, mobilize personnel who can donate blood and prepare blood packs! The Queen is coming!]

[Understood! Commander!]

Queen. That was the codename given only to Arian.

During the fierce battles with zombies for LA’s recovery, soldiers had started calling her that.

After that, somehow, the codename for calling Arian became unified as Queen.

All soldiers who know her will cheer at Arian’s appearance.

Thinking that the situation in San Fernando was now reassuring, Ava started checking other frontlines.

* * *

Whoosh! Swoosh!

Arian is running with all her might.

It takes less than 5 minutes at full speed from Hixson to San Fernando.

She maintained an insane speed and arrived at San Fernando.

"Ms. Arian!"

"Oh, Queen!"

Soldiers cheered at the sudden appearance of Arian.

"Ah, I told you not to call me Queen..."

Arian scratched her head.

The unit commander who confirmed her appearance appeared with several blood packs that had just finished donation in both hands.

"Please."

"Don’t worry."

Arian received three of the blood packs the unit commander brought, immediately drank two, and put one inside her clothes.

"I’ll come back and drink the rest if I run short, please keep them for me."

"Understood! Good luck!"

"Yeah."

Arian kicked off the ground, cut through the air, and instantly ran off towards San Fernando.

As the soldiers stared blankly in the direction Arian disappeared, the unit commander shouted.

"What are you doing! Hurry with the trench construction! Move!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers, startled, hurried to construct the trenches.

Arian, while running, began converting the replenished blood into power.

When she encounters zombies, she planned to start with one big hit first.

She couldn’t use the blood sphere she had used a year ago.

That technique required the blood of hundreds or thousands of people, but the situation now was different from then.

LA’s forces possessed sufficiently strong armaments, and they no longer turned into zombies.

And most importantly, there were no mutants, they said.

"Then it’s easy."

Arian continued running and began creating blood spheres about the size of soccer balls around her.

The floating blood spheres increased one by one until there were six, and they began rotating around Arian.

Soon, she could see about 100 troops retreating in the distance.

Zombies were fiercely pursuing behind them, and the rear soldiers were firing their rifles madly while retreating.

The moment Arian approached the troops, she shouted loudly.

"Cease fire!" freeweɓnovel.cøm

The rear soldiers who heard Arian’s loud voice hurriedly stopped firing.

Passing by them, Arian shouted again.

"Retreat quickly! Leave this to me!"

At Arian’s shout, the soldiers ran madly to join the retreating middle ranks.

"Phew..."

Arian took a deep breath and accelerated the blood spheres rotating around her even more.

In front of her, a wave of zombies was surging in.

Woong! Woong! Woong!

As the spheres accelerated further, they began to make a sound like resonance.

"Alright, here we go!"

Arian rushed into the very center of the surging wave of zombies.

Weeeeeeee!!

With a strange roar as if tearing the sound, the rotating blood spheres burst out and poured out in a circular shape.

Swoosh!

The movement of the madly rushing zombies stopped for a moment.

Crackle, crackle

Crackle crackle crackle!

Aaaargh!!!

The zombies began to writhe in agony.

Then soon, blood-colored rocks shaped like stalactites began to burst out from inside their bodies, tearing through their skin.

All the zombies rushing towards Arian were meeting their death by the rocks, screaming in agony.

"Phew... I’m dizzy."

Arian took out a blood pack from her clothes and drank it.

Arian, slightly recovered, dyed her machete red and prepared to face the zombies that would swarm again.

However, the zombies no longer rushed in and just stood blankly.

"Oh? Look at this?"

Arian raised her senses to the maximum and tried to detect beyond the horde of zombies.

At the very back of the visible horde of zombies, Arian felt the presence of several human-like beings and became irritated.

"Damn rotten fanatics, how on earth are you controlling the zombies at will? I’ll definitely kill you bastards later."

Arian firmly remembered the presence of the fanatics and chased after the retreating forces.

* * *

At that time, Aiden was watching thirty mutants slowly moving towards the Santa Monica defense line.

"Rhinos, Brutals, Skulls, and even Big Foot. A comprehensive gift set of mutants, huh."

How on earth could EL control both zombies and mutants?

Is there someone like Ross Preston among the fanatics? Aiden pondered.

But no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find an answer.

He could feel that if he didn’t clear the mutants in front of him right now, his own life would end here too.

"The fact that they’re not charging means we can assume they don’t intend to clash right now?"

All the troops guarding the defense line held their breath and watched the mutants.

Aiden checked the armament status of the defense line troops.

Ten M2 Browning heavy machine guns set in trenches, three 60mm mortars, four RPG anti-tank weapons.

LA had worked to strengthen the military’s combat power after the incident a year ago and was able to possess this level of weapons.

’That should be enough to fight even against mutants, the problem is... they don’t seem to intend to rush in.’

The group of mutants that appeared first two days before the start of the war had been standing still as if nailed in place.

’Then, as expected, it must be that.’

Aiden immediately went to find the unit commander.

"You’ve probably noticed already, but it looks like a ploy to tie down our forces."

Aiden said bluntly to the unit commander.

"We’ve analyzed it that way too. We brought the weapons with the best firepower because of the number of mutants, but this seems to have been the fanatics’ aim."

Ava, the unit commander, everyone knew.

But they couldn’t easily withdraw weapons and troops.

Because although the mutants are holding out like that, you never know when they might rush in.

"Do you know the situation on other sides?"

"According to the latest report, the battle in Woodland Hills is repeating small-scale attrition warfare, they say they’re avoiding direct combat. And according to the report that just came in, the San Fernando defense line has retreated to San Fernando due to hundreds of thousands of zombies pouring in."

"The fanatics probably don’t intend to drag this war out for long, there might be some other aim."

The unit commander sympathized with Aiden’s words.

After pondering for a moment, Aiden requested the unit commander to allow him to radio Ava, and he gladly connected the radio to Ava.

[What is it, Aiden.]

Ava’s voice, sounding drained, came through.

[If it’s alright, may I take a few soldiers recruited from junk dealers and do some reconnaissance?]

[Hmm... The reason?]

[Their movement is too slow. There’s clearly something, and I need to find out what it is.]

Ava was silent for a moment.

She seemed to be considering.

[Alright, I approve.]

[Thanks, can I take a spare radio if there is one?]

[Do that.]

As soon as Aiden finished the radio call, the unit commander who had been listening to the content immediately called his aide and assigned three soldiers of junk dealer origin to Aiden.

The three soldiers received a brief explanation from Aiden and immediately began preparing for reconnaissance.

Aiden searched for the places to scout on the map while waiting for the soldiers.