Theron's muscles tensed, absorbing the force of impact. The ground beneath him remained unshaken. He stood firm like a monolith, becoming a living weapon. Heat-Weapon Boost! he activated, unleashing his power to its fullest. His mutant metal-based ability enhanced weapons, particularly those fueled by heat. Bang! The supercharged weapon exploded like a miniature missile, detonating before everyone's eyes. Normally, such a barrage would have shredded ordinary zombies into pieces. But not this time. "Awooo!" Five or six zombies barreled through the storm of bullets. The projectiles only left tiny marks on their bodies. These were physically enhanced zombies. … In the next moment, the high-level zombies lunged forward, their decaying jaws gaping, aiming straight for Theron. At that instant, an Aeroshield snapped into place. Theresa grabbed Theron with a single hand and flung him toward the waiting helicopter. "Fall back!" she shouted. "Everyone, fall back!" The soldiers stationed on the elevated platforms hesitated for a heartbeat before retreating to the rear. Rat-tat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat! Alliance helicopters thundered in from above, providing cover. Lucas' squad fired relentlessly from the air while evacuating the troops. Over five hundred soldiers retreated under the heavy barrage. Once everyone was aboard, the rear defensive gate finally succumbed to the relentless zombie tide. Like a tidal wave, millions of zombies poured forward, relentless and unyielding. Theresa was the last to climb, gripping the rope ladder as the helicopter ascended. Beneath her, zombies bounded like carp leaping a raging cascade, each jump higher than the last. One especially strong zombie used its fallen comrades' skulls as stepping stones, propelling itself skyward like an arrow. Screee! Its long claws scraped the metal ladder, shrieking piercingly. "Awooo!" The creature swung midair, its eyes fixed on Theresa above, snapping its bloodied jaws as it tried to climb. Theresa reacted instantly. One precise slash severed the ladder. The zombie lost its footing and plummeted, still clinging briefly to the metal rail before dropping. "Theresa!" "Theresa!" Hands reached down and hauled her into the helicopter. Once safely aboard, she looked down at the canyon below. It had been completely overrun. The flood of zombies spilled from the gorge into the buffer zone she had fought so hard to secure. "Awooo!" "Arghhh!" A dark, writhing mass poured into the city she had painstakingly cleared. Boom! Boom! Artillery shells lit up Branford and Crestmont layer after layer. Every trap she had prepared—bombs, barbed wire, deep pits—activated. One by one, they detonated, taking out vast numbers of zombies, yet the buffer zone fell piece by piece. From above, Theresa watched the blood-red wave of the horde reclaim her territory. The zombies hit the first line of the Blazing Sun Alliance, triggering the anti-missile defenses. Soldiers held their ground, and guns thundered relentlessly through the night. … Only by the following day did the horde finally begin to recede.The buffer zone had borne the brunt of the attack. Without it, the camp would have faced the full force of a million zombies head-on. With a million zombies, any regular camp would have fallen instantly. Tens of thousands alone could annihilate the East Sea Camp, and even the three Ark Camps were no match for a swarm of that magnitude. "Theresa, the other three Ark Camps were hit last night too. Fortunately, not to our scale. They had roughly a hundred thousand zombies. They barely managed to hold on." Outside her main camp, the remaining Ark Camps had also been assaulted. Thanks to their advantageous positions, the hordes they faced numbered only in the low hundreds of thousands. Ark Camps One and Three had strong defenses and held firm. Ark Camp Two, however, had weaker fortifications and was barely maintaining its position.