Surviving the Apocalypse

Depot Oscar

For two days after they finished at the research lab, Hanna and Squad 1 focused on training, when Hanna finally reached level 5 with her fire, lightning and personal abilities. So far few of the troops knew she had them, everyone thinking they were shared to her from the Squad itself. None of them realized she had taken the powers and absorbed them herself, so they were more powerful than anyone else's, especially as she used her own points to purchase a second dose of Evojuice every day. Not everyone did as they were a major power boost when used right, and she always wanted it when they went scavenging.

She had been neglecting some of the administrative work, forcing herself now to actually do it as she listed the Evojuice capable of giving the person that power. So far they had been lucky and the Zombies were only level 1s, which the Squads were able to easily handle as they had abilities of their own. She however kept a few of them for rewards, as she had to list them individually into the store when she collected the fluid from the Crystals. She herself had added Strength, Speed, Earth and Water to her own list of abilities, her lowest one at the moment level 3 because she was taking the maximum doses every day.

Now however she was going to restrict herself to one dose a day for the next month, the strain on her body evident to herself when they encountered the 3 level 1 zombies in the last building. Fortunately the 2 squads had worked together to bring it down, as she finally put the Hardening Ability Crystal into her machine and began the process. It was one she was keeping for herself, as it would make her own skin almost impenetrable to wounds from the zombies. As soon as it was ready, she donated the proper points to the Camp and downed the dose, her breath being taken away as she felt not just her skin but the muscles hardening as well. As she was at peak fitness, her skin became like steel plates that could bend and flex without any strain whatsoever. It took a moment for her to be able to breathe again, as her organs figured out how to work with the new ability she had that was now listed in her list. It however showed it was already a level 2 ability, her fitness apparently boosting it as soon as she gained it.

After finishing the paperwork that had built up on her, she pulled up the map of the city, zooming into the portion where there Camp was and had cleared and constructed the walls. They had drones flying through the city to scout priority targets for them to liberate, when she saw the feed updating to what was a military depot. From the feed it was apparent the exterior of it was crawling with zombies, but a large building in the central compound had walls sturdy enough to repel them, with heat signatures emanating from the interior to indicate that it was inhabited.

"Lucas, come to my office." she ordered into the radio knowing that it would only take him a few minutes as she transferred it to the holographic projector. As the drone recorded the entire depot, she realized it was fully stocked with equipment and vehicles that would give them another massive edge if anyone ever dated attack them. 5 tanks didn't sound like a lot, but it was more than enough for the apocalypse where almost no other Camp nearby would have them.

When he stepped in after knocking, he saw the depot in clear detail. There were 1,500 zombies contained in the outer perimeter, which would be one hell of a fight for them. Especially once the fighting actually started. They were close enough together that the scream of one would reverberate throughout the entire horde. "That looks like a whole can of worms." he said to her.

"It does indeed, doesn't it. The bunker however shows signs of habitation, other than zombie. Even if it is just a few men, it would be worth the equipment gain, weapons and manpower we would gain. Not to mention those." she signed adjusting the focus to highlight the 5 tanks.

Lucas whistled as he looked at them before he smiled, knowing full well that would drastically increase their ability to defend themselves from any threat they would ever face. "If we gather much more equipment and set it up, we are going to need to expand the Camp." he said making her smile.

She pulled up a second map, that was clear showed what her plans were for the Construction teams and the Expedition teams that built the walls after the Scavengers cleared the zombies. She was planning a massive wall that would be 40 feet tall and 20 feet thick around the farm across the main road, closing in 2 square miles around the base. Dozens of houses and structures would be included in it, as well as several factories on the one edge. "I figure it will take 2 weeks for the Expedition teams to construct the outer walls to the specifications here. It will give us 7 factories, 87 houses and 32 business structures inside of the perimeter, not to mention 75 acres here that we can either make houses or apartments. Total area would be 650 acres of land, including this 100 acre section that could be used for barracks, training facilities and firing ranges for everyone that needs training." she told him as the back end of it terminated against the cliff face that would be an extremely effective bullet stop.

"What will the Scavengers do for those two weeks? Surely we won't stop our advance just to build this." Lucas said as she shook her head.

"We have 4 Squads in the Expedition Forces that construct these walls, I am only planning on putting two of them on this duty as Expedition Squads 1 and 2 have all reached level 4 now. Squads 3 and 4 will accompany the scavenger squads as we begin clearing this section here in preparation to clear Depot Oscar." she told him of her plan as she had seen the new abilities from Squads 1 and 2.

"How do we clear that though?" he asked as Nicholas knocked on the door.

"With bomblets that we use the drones to deliver. We can drop them from a few thousand feet, and by the time they deploy fully, it should be spread far enough to eliminate most of them with 5 bombs." he said showing her the design they had come up with.

"We will need to clear the block surrounding it as well as construct walls. I assume these bomblets are going to make a lot of noise?" she asked him as he nodded before pulling up the specs on her projector.

"Each bomblet carries an explosive charge of C4, with 50 copper pellets in a steel tube. Each bomb carries 200 bomblets, capable of disbursing over a 300 square foot area if dropped from 2,500 feet. The charge super heats the copper pellets, turning them into plasma charges that will be focused towards the ground like being blasted from a shotgun at a height of 50 feet. In theory, it is enough ordinance to leave a plasma bolt impacting every square inch within the blast radius." Nathaniel told them as the simulation showed what should happen.

"Wow, coming from above it will also blast the zombies right in the head." Lucas said with a grin.

"Actually we believe the plasma blasts will penetrate most of the way through the corpses. We will need a month to construct the first prototypes to test it."

Hanna smiled as she looked at him. "I want 10 of them made, ready to deploy in one month." she said as she did her own calculations and knew 5 wouldn't be enough to cover the entire area.

"Yes ma'am, we will be ready." Nathaniel answered before running back to his lab to make them.

"You seriously want to try it?" Lucas asked as she nodded.

"If it works, we will be able to clear large swarms and hordes with little or no risk to ground personnel. Considering we have cleared only 10 blocks of roughly 25,000, we still have millions of zombies to deal with before we secure the valley. This system could prove invaluable towards that end." she told him.

"So we are back to work tomorrow?" he asked as she nodded affirmatively.

"We are, we have a month to clear another four blocks of zombies." she said highlighting the area as they began planning how they would do it.

It was barely a week into their new operation when the radio came to life one night, Camp Epsilon hailing them on the frequency she had given them on the Ham radio that they used to broadcast to other camps via an automated broadcast.

"This is Hanna of Camp Hope, over." she said when she had been informed they wanted to speak with her.

"This is Crystal of Camp Epsilon, we have an opportunity we believe you would be interested in, over." she answered almost immediately.

"We are listening." Hanna answered.

"We have located a survival cache created by the military 5 years ago. According to reports, there is 10,000 tons of non perishable good stored inside of a secured warehouse. 4 other Camps of survivors have agreed to join us to secure the goods, working together to clear the zombies surrounding it in the heart of the industrial sector." Crystal told her.

"When will the operation begin?" she asked.

"The strike team will be gathering in 3 days time at the research lab." Crystal answered as that lab was on the very edge of the industrial sector.

Hanna looked at the map of that zone carefully, finding where it was most likely located and just how many zombies were there. It was apparent the entire sector had been operational when the outbreak began, as 4 city blocks apparently houses 25,000+ zombies. The drone team was still rigging a delivery system for the bomb deployments, and the assembly team had only managed to make 3 of them so far. So it wouldn't be an effective method of clearing the area. "We will see you in three days." she said before ending the transmission.

She called Lucas and the other leaders into her office, as she had a plan that would be far more effective than claiming any portion of the food loot. One of the factories they would have to clear was an ammunition manufacturing plant, one she knew had military contracts before the apocalypse had happened. Once she pointed this out to the others, they knew it would be a massive benefit if they could relocate the equipment to one of the factories that would be within their new outer walls. Even though they only had 1,500 people, having the equipment and materials to make actual ammunition would out them even further ahead of the game as they would be able to replenish their supplies without having to get lucky.

"How many teams should we send?" Peter asked nervously.

"I suggest Team 1 only. Team 2 and 3 can continue on our current mission." Hanna said as they had other ways they could deal with large numbers of zombies.