Chapter 259 Beatrice's Operation
"Let's finish this as quickly as we can!" Beatrice shouted, calling everyone to action.
"To positions!" Mathew called, using his own authority amongst the survivors to make everyone follow the order.
'Even if they know it's all Beatrice's plan... she is still someone that they don't know about. And her being a police officer will only make things harder for her,' Mathew thought, rushing to the front of the entire group.
The young man then climbed up the fence on a small plank before turning around and getting hold of another long piece of wood.
As there was no gate anywhere near their target, scaling the barrier was the best option if they wanted to conclude the whole operation post haste. But while climbing it from the inside was easy as no zombies could threaten them...
The same couldn't be said about their return trip in the future.
"On my mark!" Mathew called in a moderately loud voice while he watched the zombies move away, following the ruckus non-combatants raised with all the equipment their group could spare.
He waited for only about a minute. And then...
"Begin," he said in a casual tone, jumping down the edge of the fence, leaving the job of securing the return foothold for the hunters behind him.
The task of pulling the zombies away brought most of them out of the area. Yet, there were still some specimens that they had to deal with.
'Let's see how the improvement to my stats works in the battle,' Mathew thought, brandishing his saber and rushing ahead.
He didn't stop by the few random zombies that stood in his path. He used the momentum of his dash to slice their necks open, leaving the task of finishing them to the hunters that soon followed closely behind.
Then, Mathew dug his feet into the asphalt of the road, stopping himself right beside the back door to the car Norbert designated.
'Now, let's hope my muscles will be enough,' Mathew thought, raising his fists and slamming them into the doors of the police van.
"Get away from the back door!" he shouted with his lips nearly pressed against the metal of the entrance. Mathew then took a step back and took aim while raising his saber before striking down right along the tiny crack where the two wings of the door met.
'Fuck,' he thought when his blade stopped at the first set of bolts that held the doors closed. 'It's quickly deteriorating,' he thought, taking a quick glance at his blade.
After everything he did with it, it was no wonder the blade not only dulled but also started to already chip away. Were it not for Mathew's strength, the origin of the blade, and its ability to absorb a tiny bit of power from every victim of its, it would long become nothing more but a useless piece of scrap.
'Well, I will have to look into replacing it soon,' Mathew thought, raising his hand before repeating the slash four times more.
"Pull them out and drag them to the safety," Mathew ordered as soon as the doors started to swing open, moving over to the next of the designated cars.
The process of opening them up was far easier than it would be without a system owner. Obviously, it would be far easier if they had keys to the said cars, but according to Beatrice, they were all lost in the chaos during the opening hours of the apocalypse.
"One last car," Mathew muttered once two out of a total of three cars has been opened. Yet, as soon as he directed his steps to the final piece of the first phase of the operation, Leila appeared behind him and tapped his shoulder.
"The signal is up, they are coming around the corner," she quickly reported, acting for Mathew's eyes while he was focusing on his task.
The young man turned his head around, just in time to see a huge number of zombies moving around the corner of the street and rushing onto the street they were all in.
'Fuck,' Mathew cursed under his breath. Then, he finally dropped the flare that was supposed to attract all the zombies away.
'Rise and shine!' he then thought, creating another barrier of light. This time, however, it took a form of a thin yet long and high layer that completely cut off their part of the street from the approaching zombies.
"It's not going to hold them at all," he then said, raising his hand and tensing all his muscles. Then, by putting all the strength he had in his arms, Mathew brought his saber down, cutting the doors open with a single move.
Teng!
The blade in Mathew's hand shattered, breaking into several pieces and leaving only about a third of the saber's original length still attached to its handle.
"Everyone, retreat, now!" Mathew shouted, only to reach and then force the doors of the car open. "Leila, stay on my back," he then gave another order for the nearest of his wives as he jumped into the back of the car.
'Where are you,' he then thought, looking across the filthy insides of the van's back. There was no blood, just the stench one would expect from someone living in this kind of a small space for several days straight.
And tucked right in the corner of the car's back, there was a petite figure of a young, roughly fifteen years old kid.
'He's unconscious,' Mathew quickly realized. He then bit his lips before dropping his saber and grabbing the kid before tucking him under his arm.
"We are running!" he called as soon as he jumped out of the car.
Mathew wasn't really worried about the zombies. Even without his weapon, he could easily run away from them. Yet, the same couldn't be said about the starving kid he was carrying.
"They are past the barrier," Leila reported, swinging her machete to switch her hold over it. "I will cut a path for you," she then announced, rushing ahead at an angle to where the retreat path was established.
"Retreat as soon as it will be too much!" Mathew called back, rushing towards the operational exit from the street.
He ran the short stretch of the road away from the car blockade before scaling the plank with just three steps.
"We are safe!" Mathew then called out, only to turn his head and see Leila... singlehandedly cutting down all the zombies that emerged from his barrier of light. "Retreat!" he then shouted, ignoring the ease at which the girl held back all the zombies.
"Pass him over," one of the non-combatants proved his courage by climbing up the inside plank and reaching out with his hands for the kid underneath Mathew's arm.
"Here," Mathew didn't hesitate to get rid of the kid.
"Drop the light!" Leila called out, forcing Mathew to turn his head before the kid was safely over in the other person's hands.
She wasn't in a tough spot. Instead, she was done clearing all the zombies that moved past the barrier of light and were now eager to go and get some more of them down!
'This girl...' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth while he took the barrier down.
Yet, rather than seeing a massive horde of zombies all rushing to partake in the slaughter... Mathew saw that their numbers were pathetically low!