บท 96: Battle of Beetham Tower (1)

The next day.

"Is everyone ready!?"Leo said while standing at the hood of a school bus.

""Yes, sir!""

The recruits bellowed at the same time with their high morale.

"As you guys already know. This mission would be very dangerous, some of might die and some of you might survive so I hope that you already had said your proper goodbyes or least 'played' one last time with your lovers or wives...because just consider yourselves as dead from the moment you stepped inside the city!"

Everything around them was tense and filled with nervousness but the moment he said a joke with his speech made the atmosphere lighten up a bit as the recruits and spectators watching him who got the meaning behind his words chuckled to themselves.

"So without further ado, move out!" Leo yelled as he jumped off from the hood of the bus.

"Move out!" Isaac immediately seconded Leo as he immediately boarded the same vehicle as Leo and occupied the driver seat.

"Yes, sir!" the troops immediately gave a salute and started boarding their respective vehicles.

"Be safe!" the people and their families who saw them off are standing at the gates as they waved worriedly towards the direction of the fleet that are already moving away from the Stronghold while at the roadside, there are also those survivors staying outside the walls looking curiously at the leaving armed fleet and with at least over thirty armed men had left the camp to conquer the City of Manchester but their number is truly small if they want to take down Beetham Tower to conquer the city but Leo had other plans of his own, that's why he only brought a small group but the good thing for this new troops of the camp is that they have brought a lot of ammo and grenades with them which really assures their worried minds.

"Is it really fine to only bring this few number of troops si- I mean boss?" Isaac said with a worried and he even doubted if Leo has a few screws loose in his head. After all, even when he knew that how powerful Leo is. He still has doubts if they could truly take on hundreds or even thousands of zombies with their few numbers.

"It's fine, Alex is already waiting for us at the outskirts of the city" Leo said with a closed eyes, clearly not worried at all.

"Sir Alex? But he just got back last night with the other recruits" Isaac was startled as he wasn't expecting that as he just thought that Alex was doing something else when he saw that he didn't came with them.

"Yep, so stop whining and just drive" Leo said as he closed his eyes and took a short nap.

Isaac then sighed in relief knowing that two of the most powerful warriors from the camp is going with them but it can't be said the same at the people riding the other vehicles as this recruits even when they left with high morale earlier seemed to have deflated already as all of them can't help fidgeting around their seats as they cautiously looked at passing surroundings while gripping their firearms, ready to fire anytime if any threats appears.

*****

At the other side, just at the outskirts of the city.

Alex was sitting in front of a small campfire while waiting for Leo and the rest to arrive and beside was a huge black cat or more of a panther sleeping peacefully at the cold hard ground.

Suddenly, loud footsteps echoed in front of him, coming from the lush but dark and gloomy forest full of tall trees even when the sun is shining brightly from above.

The place where Alex was camping at was just an ordinary forest before where it can even be considered a leisure park for outdoor picnics before the Apocalypse.

A moment later, a weird looking zombie appeared a few meters away from Alex, it had the body of an ordinary zombie at one side but the other half of his body was bulging in muscles like the Big One.

Kitty was already on high alert when he detected this weird zombie but Alex was just sitting there nonchalantly as if he didn't see that zombie at all!

Surprisingly, seeing that a human was ignoring him. The zombie actually or just maybe became angry as it started to release gurgling sound from its mouth like the sound of someone's stomach growling when they are hungry.

"*Growling*!" the weird then dashed at them angrily, his movements were the same as the Big One when charging like a gorilla.

"Roar~!" Kitty roared and pounced towards the zombie.

Kitty swiped towards the zombie sending it flying for twenty meters. Fortunately for this Panther, the strength behind his paws are powerful but sadly for it the freaking zombie didn't sustain any wounds clearly showing how powerful its defence and the difference between their levels.

If Leo was here then he would see this…

[Mutated Zombie Lvl. 17]

The zombie was clearly Level 17 while Kitty was only around Level 14 and that three level gap was already considered as a huge gap between their strengths or maybe stats too?

The zombie slowly stood up from the ground and charge towards the panther like a mini tank.

But before it could move forward for five meters, it suddenly got slammed on the ground like a meat paste.

"You're disrupting the silence, you vile beast" Alex coolly said as he wiped off the disgusting rotting meat and blood from his palms.

"As for you, you could've just rip its head off. Arrogant prick" Alex clicked his tongue at the fidgeting panther before he walked towards his original place earlier and just sat down like nothing was wrong and continued staring at the little campfire in front of him, just what you would expect from a typical android that no matter how advance the technology that created him. It still wouldn't cast off its typical responses and movements as an android.

"Wow, you really wreck that 'dude'!" Leo suddenly walked over from a nearby thicket and said laughingly at Alex.

"Commander" Alex stood up and face him and immediately gave a respectful greeting.

Leo then asked Alex once more about what he found out within Beetham Tower and he was shocked to find out that instead of there being only one Big One from the previous report but there's now another one amongst the group of zombies. It means their little would face against ordinary, mutated zombies and two Big One's. While Leo and Alex were conversing with each other, the rest of the troops already caught up to Leo and was standing there a few meters away from them quietly, not daring to make any noises while also cautiously watching their surroundings and some of them were even curious at the bloodied ground with pieces of rotten flesh around it. They wasn't even surprised about the huge panther sleeping soundly again as they were already used to seeing almost every single day back at the camp.

"Alright! There's been a change of plans!" Leo yelled at the troops and gestured towards them to come over.