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The zombie horde was unable to hurt the police for now, but that did not mean everything was smooth sailing for them either. On the contrary, the situation was a right mess.

They had an equally massive number of civilians that needed protecting from the zombies. In this city alone, there were four million helpless civilians, a number which the police force could not even compare to.

During the initial phases in particular, the administration did not consider the possibility of the virus being so widespread amongst the asymptomatic civilians. By the time the civilians had evacuated into the underground shelters, it was too late.

Often, it only took one zombie to appear amongst the civilians and it was certain doom for that entire shelter.

As a shelter, it was naturally well-defended from the outside world. On the flip side, that also meant that trying to get out of such a fortified position wasn’t easy. A weakness that was further compounded by the panic amongst the fleeing masses. Even if the outside world had no way of hearing the horrific screams echoing within the chambers of the shelter, the surveillance cameras captured every gruesome second of human flesh being torn asunder, or simply stampeded by a frantic mob.

“The 14th Shelter of the 12th District has an infected, please dispatch aid immediately… The 11th Shelter of the 5th District has…”

Calls for help flooded in one by one to the police headquarters, headed by the Chief of Police, Shentu Congyang. Around him were his trustworthy subordinates, all retired veterans from the military. Every one a fierce warrior ready for combat. Unfortunately, this was no riot they were dealing with, neither was it a dangerous criminal. Instead, they were dealing with the helpless masses.

If there was one sliver of light in this darkness, it was that while Karlston might have disabled the communications going in and out of Southern Plains, the military and police weren’t affected at all – they had their own specialised channels and equipment.

“We don’t have enough police to save all the shelters at once… contact the military at once. Get Colonel Nalan to send his troops to the 6th District, 7th District, 8th District and the 11th District…”

Every city on Gaia had such a standardised grid system. From the 1st to 12th District, the city would be sectioned up to allow for easy disaster response. Each district would at least hold a hundred shelters of varying sizes. These shelters would be situated between every two streets.

However, the sheer scale and chaos of the outbreak had engulfed all twelve districts at once.

Faced with such odds, even the police, with their invincible exosuits, found themselves lacking…

Yet the threat of zombies paled in comparison to the true terror of this outbreak: no one knew if the person standing next to them would suddenly turn out to be infected.

The suddenness of the outbreak meant that any equipment that could possibly detect the serum hadn’t been dispatched over yet. A number of the infected, despite knowing that they were most likely infected, refused to admit that they had taken the serum. Perhaps it was just defective versions of the serum that caused the zombification? With that faint but misplaced hope in their hearts, they ducked into the fleeing crowd, a ticking time bomb whose detonation wasn’t far off.

That was the true reason for the police force’s inability to respond.

Despite doing their utmost to evacuate the civilians, they were only rewarded with graphic images of zombies tearing into the civilians in the very same shelter they had just evacuated them to. Even a seasoned veteran would be demoralised by such a failure… the whole outbreak was like a curse no one could escape from… one that was only going to get even darker.

It didn’t take long before the first zombie suddenly appeared amongst the ranks of the police. Still clad in his exosuit, the zombie indiscriminately attacked their former comrades.

Thankfully, the zombie wasn’t able to accomplish much. While everyone was still shocked by their new enemy, the system within the zombified exosuit had determined that its pilot was exhibiting an unusual behavior, thus it forcefully shut down the exosuit.

Even so, it had appeared -the first policeman zombie who had taken the serum!

At this point, everyone was at their wits’ end. The police had suffered their first casualty, and this wasn’t going to be their last either.

“Who else has taken that damned serum? I want you all to stand out and allow the Special Forces to escort you to the nearest medical post!”

The so-called Special Forces was a unit that was newly formed to tackle this zombie serum.

For the Chief of Police, the appearance of the first zombified police was like a death grip on his already flagging psyche. Had it not been for his mental fortitude and sense of duty, he would have already given into the despair…

It was at that point that a red-uniformed, middle-aged military man suddenly appeared on his holographic screen.

“Chief Shentu, my troops are ready and can be deployed right away.”

“Colonel Nalan, just in time as well. The city is overrun by these monsters. My men are skilled, but their numbers aren’t enough to cope with the sheer scale…”

To the police chief, this man was like a ray of hope. Seeing the haggard look on his colleague’s face, Nalan couldn’t help but sigh lightly. “I know you’ve done your best…”

“Colonel, we need to gather up the survivors quickly. I need your troops to bring those survivors out of the city.” Shentu Congyang started laying out his plan…

“Shentu… I’m sorry but… I can’t do that.” Nalan averted his gaze at that point. “The brass has already given the command. Until the testing kits arrive, no one is leaving Southern Plains, including us…”

“As proud servicemembers of the Federation, it is our duty to hold the line no matter the cost. But those refugees…”

“There’s no way we can guarantee that the infected aren’t amongst them.”

“Then what about our families? Even if it’s just them…” Shentu tried one last time.

“I’m sorry…” Nalan lowered his head and said no more.

Based on his expression, it was obvious the colonel did not approve of this command either. But as a military man, it was his duty to follow orders.

“Who gave the order?”

“General Rodenas.”

“The Raging Bear… that brutish *******… ”

Shentu’s exasperation, his gritted teeth and clenched fists, all of that could be felt through the screen. For the colonel, his family members weren’t in Southern Plains, so that was one less thing he needed to worry about. However, his own situation was truly dire.

“Chief! We’ve spotted a strange monster on the battlefield.” One of the men monitoring the 2nd District forwarded a video feed to Shentu. “We’ve never seen this strain of monster before…”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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