Andre grinned fidently. "We brought two EMP bombs. Once we take out their maes, the city is ours."

  Unbeknownst to Andre, Zack had already addressed the weakhey’d identified. Just as Andre was feeling sure of their success, Vish’s sharp voiterrupted. "Sir! You o see this!"

  Andre growled, walking toward the cockpit. "What’s wrong? I told you to stay on course!"

  "You’ll want to see this for yourself," Vish said, l their altitude and breaking through the cloud cover.

  As the ground came into view, Andre’s eyes widened, and a string of curses spilled from his mouth. "What the hell…" he muttered, his voice a mix of disbelief and horror.

  Spread across the ndscape below them was an unimaginable sea of zombies, a legion of horde stretg as far as the eye could see. "This… this… this…" Andre’s voice drew the attention of everyone else oransport phrough the small windows, the team saw the vast, unending bck torrent below—a tide of zombies stretg endlessly across the ground.

  Gasps and murmurs of disbelief filled the . "At least the horde is heading south," someone said after a moment of stunned silehe group collectively exhaled in relief.

  "Those poor people ," another muttered.

  Despite any hostilities that may have existed between their try in the past, the sight of fellow humans fag certain annihition sparked a deep, instinctive sadness in the group. Andre, however, remained quiet. He was lost in thought, staring at the endless bck wave. Memories of his past came rushing back. He had once been the leader of a small survivor base, but a zombie horde had torn through it, killing everyone he cared about. "Vish, we still tact the base?" Andre asked, his voice heavy.

  "No, sir. unications were cut off long ago," Vish replied holy. Without satellites, radio signals couldn’t reach such distances.

  Andre frowned, his jaw tightening. His gaze remained fixed on the se below as he muttered, "Sometimes, you’ve got to do what’s right, not what’s written." It hrase he’d picked up from an old Ameri friend, a firefighter who believed in putting people above protocol.

  "Sir, our mission is to attaew York City!" one of his men reminded him. "And… there are way too many zombies down there."

  Andre didn’t respond immediately. His face betrayed the internal struggle he was grappling with. Should he fulfill his orders or follow his sce? Seeing his hesitation, the others began whispering among themselves. Finally, one of them stepped forward. "Sir, whatever decision you make, we’re with you."

  The rest nodded in agreement. Andre’s leadership had earheir unwavering loyalty. Looking at their resolute faces, Andre’s uainty began to fade. It was time to make a decision.

  Meanwhile, in stark trast to Andre’s group, Kahe leader of the Washington DC base, had no such moral dilemmas. When his reaissance drones captured footage of the approag zombie horde, Kane wasted no time pnning his escape. He gathered a group of loyal followers and hastily packed his belongings before heading to the airport. But when he arrived, he found the runacked with thousands of desperate survivors. "Damn it! How did these peasants get in here?!" he shouted furiously. "Why didn’t aop them?!"

  The sight of Kane, surrounded by armed guards and carrying bags stuffed with valuables, only fueled the crowd’s anger. "There he is! That bastard is really trying to run!" someone yelled, pointing at him.

  The survivors surged forward, shouting in unison."Kane, you ’t leave!""You’re abandoning us to die!""What about the 600,000 people in the base?!"The mob’s shouts grew louder as they pressed against the soldiers f a barricade around Kane.

  "Stop them!" Kane barked, panic creeping into his voice. His guards swung the butts of their rifles, beating back the crowd. Cries of pain and fury echoed across the airfield.

  "Fight back!" someone in the crowd shouted. But the survivors, weakened by hunger and exhaustion, were no match for Kane’s well-fed and well-armed soldiers. Many fell uhe assault, their blood staining the tarmac.

  "These lowlifes are revolting!" Kane screamed, his face red with rage and fear. "If anyone else moves, shoot them! Leave no one alive!"

  His guards didn’t hesitate. One of them fired three shots into the air.Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The gunfire silehe crowd, leaving only the sound htened whispers. An elderly woman stepped forward, her frail body trembling. She k before the soldiers, g her hands in desperation. "Chief Kane," she pleaded, her voice crag. "If you leave, what will happen to us? To the 600,000 people in the base?"

  At the same time, when three gunshots echoed from the Washington DC base, a thin young man niamed Fang heard the noise and sprinted back to their makeshift headquarters—a cluster of prefab huts. "Sister Scarlett, your timing erfect! Just as Kane was about to make his escape, our people stopped him!" Fang burst into the room, breathless but grinning as he spoke to the quiet girl with gsses seated at a desk.

  Scarlett, calm as ever, adjusted her gsses and replied, "I expected as much. That fat coward ’t run now."

  Fang ughed. "Serves him right!"

  But Scarlett’s voice cut through his excitement. "Don’t celebrate just yet," she said. "If he feels ered, he might order his men to open fire. We’re not here to stop him entirely, just to dey him long enough fwen aeam to finish their part."

  "Gwen aeam? I don’t get it," Fang muttered, scratg his head. "Why not just let him leave? Wouldn’t it be easier for us to rally everyoo fight the zombie horde without him?"

  Scarlett g him and answered in a cold tone, "Nuclear bomb."

  Those two words sent a chill down Fang’s spine. She expined, "If Kane u after takeoff, there’s no point fighting the zombie tide. We’ll all die either way."

  Before Fang could respond, the door burst open. Gwen Lynn, a fiery young woman with a anding presence, walked in alongside a brawny man built like an ox. "We’re back, Sacarlett!" Gwen announced, her face glowing with excitement. "No one refused us!"

  Scarlett raised an eyebrow. "Evey defense army and the security team?"

  "Yup!" Gwen said proudly.

  "The security team?" Fang asked, wide-eyed. "The same bunch who look down on us? Gwen, did you hypnotize them?"

  Gwen rolled her eyes. "I didn’t o. I just told them the truth—Kane pns to ditch them and run. They jumped to join us after that!"

  Scarlett nodded. "Fear is a powerful motivator," she murmured. "Good wwen. Notify the city defense army and have them shut down the missile unch process immediately—" She stopped mid-sentence as a faint tremor rippled through the grouh their feet.

  The water in a gss oable quivered, the ripples being more pronounced with each passing sed. The tremrew stronger. "The Legion is ing…" Scarlett whispered, her voice barely audible.

  From outside, panicked screams grew louder, carrying a chilling message: "The zombies are here!"