Chapter 74: The Rotten Strategy

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: The Rotten Strategy The unawakened individuals wore grave expressions, knowing what fate had in store for them. To survive, they had to act as cannon fodder for the chosen. However, it wasn’t all bad. Michael had hinted that if they won, the brave individuals would be given better lives. One that even the regular chosen individuals would envy. It wasn’t enough to fuel them, but their numbers did the rest. Compared to the undead and mutants, the humans outnumbered them by three to one. Many humans would die. It was inevitable. However, if they worked together, defeating the zombies was possible. Unfortunately, they had a misconception. The outnumbering tactics would work against the walkers, not the others. One human charged at a mauler. At a glance, the mauler didn’t seem as bulky as the man. People knew the man as a professional linebacker. If any human could tackle a mauler, it was him. People cheered him on as he charged towards the zombie, thinking he would send the zombie flying like countless people before. However, all of it came to a halt when the man hit the zombie. A sickening crack echoed in the night as the man’s body bounced off after hitting the Mauler’s chest. He fell to the ground, groaning as if he had just hit a solid metal wall. "Argh..." The man tried to get up, but with multiple fractures, it was impossible to move. His vision blurred as the mauler’s shadow loomed over him. The zombie stood there, staring at the human as if trying to contemplate his foolishness. Then, it raised its massive arms over its head and brought them down on the man. The Mauler’s fists came down like sledgehammers, crushing the man’s midsection. Blood splattered everywhere as the man’s fingers twitched for a second before going limp. Right in front of the others, it grabbed a fistful of flesh off the ground and consumed it. After consuming nothing but synthetic flesh chunks for days, the taste of human flesh threw it into a frenzy. The mauler wasn’t alone. All undead there behaved as if they had been starved. It wasn’t far from the truth. Blaze didn’t waste resources on these auto-assembled undead. Most of them were fed flesh chunks once every three days. Sometimes, even that was a luxury. The move was deliberate to throw them into reverse frenzy when the time came. From his own experience, Blaze knew what a taste of human flesh could do. Now that the zombies had entered a free buffet, no one could stop them. "Concentrate fire on the gates!" Michael yelled at the top of his lungs. "We can’t afford to let them in." The orders were conveyed, but even with all their ammunition, holding the undead back became an increasingly difficult task. However, snipers could do it. A soldier squinted, taking aim at a zombie when he saw something strange. A sprinter was carrying something. A bloated sack dangled from its arms, a sack made of rotten skin. The soldier didn’t wait and hit the zombie in the head. Its brain matter was thrown everywhere, and the soldier was about to change its target when something happened. "What the hell?" As the sack slipped from the zombie’s hand, it exploded. Nothing seemed out of place, and nothing came out of the sack. The soldier chalked it up to a useless mutation and targeted another zombie. Suddenly, the foul smell of rotting fish wafted to his nose. The next thing he knew, his eyes went blurry. Not only him, but the soldier too suffered from tears and violent coughing as if their lungs were on fire. Through his tear-filled eyes, he saw the zombies fling more sacks towards the watchtowers. Only then did the soldiers realize those sacks weren’t empty. They had some sort of gas in it. Some snipers shot those bags mid-air, thinking they had evaded whatever the zombies had planned. Instead, they helped the gas spread further. For a short while. The gas isn’t very effective. Blaze thought, staring at the rainy sky above. The sacks were filled with ammonia gas generated from the corpse pit. Under normal circumstances, just a few sacks of the colorless gas should have incapacitated the humans. However, the rain made it difficult. Being a highly soluble gas, ammonia dissolves quickly in water. It made it so that only the soldiers in the immediate vicinity were affected by it. But it isn’t all bad. Suddenly, screams erupted around the area where the ammonia-filled sacks were dropped. People were scratching their skin as it burned. The rain was burning them. Well, technically it wasn’t the rain, but ammonium hydroxide. As the gas was exposed to rain, it formed a corrosive liquid, causing burns to humans. Not just humans, it happened to the zombies as well. It was just that the zombies couldn’t feel any pain. They were more inclined to feast on the uncoordinated humans. Thanks to the drama associated with his father, he was late for the show. However, Marrow executed the plan flawlessly even in his absence. Even the huge number of zombies in the makeshift army was her doing. She was the one who recognized that low-tier zombies tend to follow the evolved ones. Marrow used that information to her advantage and gathered stray zombies. The zombies on the outside were mostly them. While the ones inside the base were auto-assembled by Blaze. A smile formed on Blaze’s lips. The humans expected a swarm of rabid creatures. Instead, they met with a highly coordinated force that threw them off guard. "Shall we move out?" Marrow asked, standing behind Blaze in reverence. It wasn’t just her. Saturn, Raven, Breaker, Fester, and Crawler were all there, waiting for Blaze’s command. As for Myrme, she was deep under the naval base, controlling the ants. Yes, but Saturn and Breaker, you two stay back. The two undead tilted their heads before nodding. Blaze wasn’t like the humans. He didn’t leave any loose ends. Saturn and Breaker were to ensure the naval base was destroyed once and for all. With that, Blaze turned back. Despite how fun it was to see the humans panic, this wasn’t his battlefield.