May Peace Grace Us

Chapter 75: Geographical Dangers

“Get Bella over here!” Shouted a girl at the gate as she flung a bird that decided to annoy the heck of her. Upon her hand materialized a flame which later on used to scorch the avian to death. “They came back on this side!”

“That won’t do!” Shouted a teammate of hers as she aimed at the upcoming birds in their direction. “There are too many zombies on her side at the moment, she can’t be pulled over here.”

“Damned it!” Said the fire supernaturalist. “These bastards are getting too much. Was there anyone else we could get over on this side?”

Aila, who was also doing her best to wrestle with the mutant birds that kept coming to their base for the past three days now, called for backup inside the base. The ones in the garden responded and told them to hold out for a few more minutes before they could get to the gates.

“Fifteen minutes!” Aila shouted from where she was. “Reinforcement will arrive in fifteen minutes. Liza and her cohort will be here in a short while.”

“Roger that!” Replied the rest of the team as they did their best to hold the fort.

Aila did not have any supernatural abilities like she had in her past life. Due to this, she was the most overlooked among the hyenas. But everyone recognized that as long as she was around, one of the most powerful people among them would definitely at least come and do any rescuing if needed. Everyone with eyes could see how cherished she was to know that she was most likely an existence similar to a dragon's treasure in their base.

“Sir!” Billy called Aila, in accordance with the militaristic honorific that Felix had drilled them all.

“Speak!” Aila said back as she slashed an incoming bird with her trusty knife. She really hates birds as an opponent because she cannot use her preferred way of dealing with her enemies, which is close combat, due to the fact she is greatly disadvantaged if she uses them in this kind of welfare.

“There is a group of zombies incoming at our side,” Billy reported.”For now we can ignore them, but if there are higher level zombies among them, we cannot deal with them all by ourselves.”

“How long will the zombies be arriving?” Aila curses under her breath. One after another, when will this tide end?

Summers were the period of zombie tides and beasts’ tides in her writings and also a reality of this world. It was quite an illogical and inconsistent plot point she made back then to make things a little harder for her protagonist. For zombie tides, they are frequent in summers due to the fact they are newly freedfrom being frozen in the winter months.

Zombie tides also occur in winters after three years, as after they somehow gain immunity to the frost. But not too frequently, as zombies generally move slower during this period, even if they do gain some immunity during the cold season. It was by the spring that they got more mobile and in summer they became a real menace to the remaining human population.

As for beast tides, there were more in winter than in summer. The lack of food was generally the reason for them harassing human bases. If it was under the leadership of a much stronger mutated animal, it would attack the dwelling human space. They generally do not happen much unless one i***t provoked the beasts or nature was being cruel enough to force them to target humans for survival.

Most bases do not experience animal tides due to their geographical location. Cities with much more developed urbanizations do not face these beasts’ tides due to the fact that there is no settlement there to band the mutated animals into attacking the bases established in or near there. But they face more zombie tides in exchange for the lack of beast tides there.

Beast tides only happen when there is sufficient space for the animals to flourish, like mountains and forests that rarely have people to begin with. In their domain, they increase in number and therefore, in the years to come, the ecosystem can no longer support their consumption, therefore making them search for alternatives. Which, in most cases, is the worst thing for the struggling human bases. This could be a yearly thing if, by some luck, the community of animals in the location has more predators than prey to give them no choice but to wander from place to place to find more food.

Zombie tides and beasts’ tides can happen at the same time if the place they are in meets the requirements for them to happen.

And by some luck that Aila had not accounted for when she decided the place for their base, their location was perfect for both zombie tides and beast tides to arise. There is a road that literally connects cities and provinces just nearby, despite the fact it was an old road that no normal driver uses normally. Although their base location was more secluded from this road, it does not stop the wandering zombies from getting lost in their base.

Currently, they are experiencing a trial of how hard things will be when two tides occur together. And most of their people were now like headless chickens that did not know what to do with the sudden influx of enemies coming into their base. This made Aila both thankful and annoyed that they got to have some experience before the real tides would come. Thinking that at least they would be able to let their muscles get used to the hard work before the actual hell coming to their way.

“Those in the tower said it would take five minutes before they reached the foot of the gate walls.” Billy replied as the base public speaker made a loud noise to announce everyone to enter a state of emergency. Alexa’s voice rang out from the speakers to give instructions to everyone in accordance with what she saw on the monitors.

“Attention to all.” Alexa started. “There is a large group of zombies heading to our base on the north-west side of our base. Advising half of the population to join the defense as we speak. Go to the nearest gate nearby to help. Other than the zombies, we are also facing the assaults of mutated birds for three days now. If possible to relieve the already exhausted patrol team to take a rest, the leaders of each team will make appropriate arrangements for them in a while after this announcement is made. And finally, those who are not on the frontlines, refer to the set of text I will be sending to your departments to maintain order. “

After that, Alexa cut the communication as the phones of each leader rang in sync. Aila skimmed through them to find out the general instructions. It was just a brief and concise message that contains the basic information that needs to be known.

Eyes sinking, Aila made a change in command and made the ones on the edges of the walls retreat. From the info sent by Alexa, her people cannot stay there as there are some high-level zombies over there. One mistake and they are gone. She does not want that to happen at all.

“Diana returned to her initial position. There is a high-level zombie below you!” Aila shouted as she saw a shadow of something, not a bird nearby, when she scanned her team members.

The girl was not able to execute the command directly and, as Aila feared, got into the range of a high-level zombie. Billy, who was nearby, acted fast enough to rescue his team members and create a safer distance away from the enemy of theirs. Wariness was painted so vividly in his eyes.

Aila can’t help cursing at the rotten flesh of a former human that now stands in front of them. It has lost all its features now that the sun has accelerated the festering of its flesh, adding to that frozen state it was in winter. Perhaps the only thing that has made it stand out other than its ability was that it has a huge hole in its head where its crystal was located. It was a third level wind zombie, from what it seems.

Aila did not give the zombie a chance to attack any of them again and shot it as fast as she could. But zombies of this attribute and level are very sensitive, so they dodge her attacks nimbly. Clicking her tongue, Aila used her quick thinking and coordinated body to rapidly hit the zombie like she had some sort of superhuman. And by the blink of an eye, the zombie was neutralized by her and her teammates took advantage of that moment in making sure it made forever be unable to trouble them.

Done with that, Aila returned to taking care of the flocks of birds returning in vengeance. Reloading her guns, Aila took down as many as she could. Slicing those that come near her at the minute, she changes her bullets.

The birds then flew into the sky again, temporarily giving them some reprieve. But zombies of decent levels have somehow reached the walls they are standing on. This made them not have a rest and used everything to eliminate the threats to their lives before them.

Aila threw her guns away and just took her trusty knife to take care of them. With the swiftness of a cheetah and the ferocity of a hyena on a hunt, Aila directly killed a few zombies nearest to her. She aimed for the head with no misses, targeting weaknesses to maximize her damage, and most importantly not wasting a breath on useless movements that would further make her already tired body exhausted.

Thankfully, there were no other level three zombies nearby to use this opportunity to attack them. Else she and her team will have to squeeze the last of their strength to fend them off. They had been here for hours now with nonstop actions, their bodies and mentality had already taken a hit staying here.

Aila noticed that her team looked at her with subtle emotions. This might be the first time they had seen her doing rapid fire and high-intensity combat without pause. She often holds back whenever in the past to make her team build some confidence. After all, Aila has no supernatural ability to truly make them respect her post as the captain and leader of their team. If she shows off too much, they might get too disappointed and discouraged before they can exhibit their potential. Human mentality is complex and Aila does not want to break something she should not or let others make her something of a weakling she is not.

“...you—'' One of them voiced out, but his words died down as zombies below were making a commotion below.

“Fall back!” Aila sternly commanded as the zombies collectively roared. Their roars were loud enough that they felt their ears were ringing. If the walls were not fortified early on, Aila was sure that they might have sustained some cracks by now.

“Shut up!” Liza shouted in annoyance as she and her team arrived at the walls. She threw some seeds in the direction of the zombies in anger.

The moment it fell on the ground or on the zombies’ bodies, the seeds rapidly spouted and grew. In just seconds, the noise died down and the zombies were restrained.

“Who has fire ability here?” Liza said with a dark face.

Diana, who was the only supernaturalist in the team, unwittingly raised her hand in response. Liza gave her a look that said ‘why are you only standing there?’, making the girl feel like crying at the accusation she was facing.

“Throw some fire at the plants Liza has grown.” Aila saved the poor girl from the moody Liza. Rarely does her friend get into this ‘unpleasant’, but during this time she really cannot stand people slowing her down and making her more irritated.

Following Aila’s instructions, the zombies below were burned directly under the restraint of Liza’s plants.