Chapter 162 The Bloody Battle (Part 1)
Trevor Wood sat on a dirt embankment, puffing on a crumpled cigarette butt. He'd take a drag, snuff it out, wait a bit, then light it up again, over and over.
Next to him, Dirk Talbot watched, getting more irritated by the second.
"Trevor, can you knock it off? Save some energy, man. What's the point of all this?" Dirk snapped.
Trevor grinned, showing off the food stuck in his teeth from days of not brushing.
"Used to be a heavy smoker, two packs a day. Since the apocalypse, this is my last one. Haven't had the heart to finish it. Is it wrong to savor it?" Trevor said.
"Just finish it already! Why drag it out?" he asked. Dirk's face flushed with frustration.
"Relax," Trevor said, eyeing the shovel Dirk was gripping. "Keep that up, and you'll tense up, lose strength. How will you fight later?"
Dirk loosened his grip, realizing his palms were sweaty. He wiped them on his pants, his expression softening.
"I know you're scared. I'm scared too," Trevor said, lighting the cigarette again and taking a deep drag. "This is my last one. Once it's gone, it's gone. I might die today, and I don't want to leave it unfinished."
Dirk was taken aback. He stuttered, "You... you don't have to come."
Today's mission was voluntary; those afraid could stay at the base.
"Not come?" Trevor laughed. He explained, "If I don't, I might starve tomorrow. Coming here is dangerous, but at least I had two full meals."
He took another puff, the cigarette now burning close to the filter. Trevor added, "Never knew untreated food could taste so good."
Nearby, people listening to their conversation suddenly looked ahead and saw three people running towards them. They were the strongest Evolving persons from the base. Behind them, a dense horde of zombies was closing in.
Trevor took a deep drag, threw the cigarette butt to the ground, and stomped it out. He grabbed a homemade spear stuck in the ground beside him, spat into his palms, and his smile vanished, replaced by a fierce determination.
"Time to fight!" he yelled.
Natalie was on the front line.
According to the layered defense, there were five lines of defense at the trench, and they were mostly placed at the most crucial positions. In front were various trenches and obstacles, making it easier for survivors to kill zombies from behind.
To prevent these defenses from collapsing due to psychological factors, each line had an Evolving person stationed. The Evolving person on the first line was Natalie.
She was placed here for two reasons. Firstly, her pre-apocalypse profession made her somewhat well-known among young people, which made it easier to build unity. Secondly, her professional skill of Windancer was group attack, adept at dealing with large numbers of zombies.
The visual impact of her attacks would greatly boost the survivors' morale.
Seeing William and the other two return, she immediately picked up her whip and began to rally the troops.
"Stay sharp, like warriors. Use the courage you have when you sneak peeks at my face and body, and hack at these filthy things. Hit them hard, or I'll give you a title of feeble man!" Natalie reminded.
Many people laughed. This line of defense had nearly a hundred people, scattered around. The first line faced the most danger, so even though they laughed, it was a forced laugh. If a man had been rallying them, they would probably all have poker faces.
"Let's be real. Get through today, and you might have a different life," Natalie said, swinging her unique whip. "Like me."
Everyone's eyes lit up with courage. Evolution was a word that now held a magnetic allure, especially for these young men, like a stunningly beautiful woman.
William reached the front line, while Michelle and Candice moved past the crowd to their positions in the back.
"Don't get caught up in the fight. Once the front trench is filled and the horde rushes up, retreat to the designated positions in the back area," William instructed.
With that, he summoned Iron Corpse, and both quickly disappeared.
The command here was handed over to Natalie.
The zombie horde moved slowly, so from the time they appeared to when they reached the defense line, it was a significant psychological test for those facing mutated life forms for the first time. Many places showed signs of unrest.
But by this time, Natalie couldn't offer encouragement or anything else as the horde had already stepped into the front trench.
If this were a year after the apocalypse began, the attack would have started by now. Archers, magicians, gunners, and throwers with long-range skills would launch attacks, causing significant damage to the horde hindered by the terrain.
But now, not to mention long-range professionals, firearms were almost unusable due to ammo shortages. So the survivors could only watch as the front zombies stepped onto the trench embankment, stumbling, falling, and trampling...
When zombies stepped on their fallen comrades and reached the embankment protecting the people, the survivors launched their first attack.
It was their most coordinated and fierce attack!
The sound of sharp weapons breaking through skulls, the shouts of humans striking with all their might, echoed throughout the area.
Black blood and brain matter splattered into the air like a light rain, and the sound of bodies hitting the ground played the prelude to death.
Death, not just of the horde, but of humans too.
Even though the first strike took down dozens of zombies and humans unleashed great strength in one go, the scientifically proven trench defense couldn't compensate for the ordinary combat abilities of these people. After the first strike, human deaths began.
Some, inexperienced, used too much force and fell into the horde, getting torn apart instantly. Some got their weapons stuck in zombie skulls and couldn't pull them out, becoming unarmed. Others couldn't muster the strength for the first strike, their limbs going weak in the face of zombies.
The zombies wouldn't miss such opportunities, using their teeth and claws to harvest the lives of their former comrades.
Natalie didn't expect the first line of defense to fall so quickly. She gritted her teeth and launched the Quadrilateral Dance Spinning, her whip slaughtering the surrounding zombies.
The survivors' morale was boosted by her actions, and many who had thoughts of fleeing temporarily stopped and launched a counterattack.
Dozens more zombies fell, but the first line of defense collapsed in an instant!
"Retreat!" Natalie shouted.
She stood at the front, fending off the horde's attacks. She couldn't let too many people die, or the defense in the back area would weaken, which was the final battleground.
In just a short while, the first line of defense had lost twenty to thirty people. Hearing the retreat order, the survivors immediately fell back.
Natalie cracked her whip, smashing the heads of two nearby zombies, and retreated.
But before she could take a few steps, a black shadow suddenly flew out from the horde, pouncing close in the blink of an eye.
