One of the things they found out the past few months was how super zombies were formed.
There would be individual zombies that would seem better at movement than others, and they would get the instinct to consume brethren—or more specifically, their crystals.
This process would take a while, and they would need to eat hundreds and hundreds before eventually evolving into a special type of zombie. Further, they would be taken in succession, otherwise the energy would dissipate.
This meant that the longer a mob stayed and existed, the more super zombies would be born. Even if the Ports and the Island were very powerful right now, being mobbed by hundreds or maybe thousands of super zombies was a terrible thought.
Hence, after discussion of various bases, the main goal in the battle against zombies was to break off mobs as much as possible.
The group studied the map closely, with Cauis pointing at a small blackish lake near a town. There were small dense housing areas around it. "What is that?"
"That is the Inko Lake which used to supply the nearby towns. However, it was not maintained well and polluted, leaving the area occupied by informal settlers instead."
"It looks quite big," Khalifa said, comparing its size to a few small communities. "I wonder how deep it is…"
"It’s about six to eight meters deep," someone said and they turned to see it was Sigmund who answered.
"It’s been polluted for decades," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"I remembered zombies can’t swim," she said.
Jacob nodded, knowing that some of the evolved DNA removed his ability in swimming as well. Speaking of that, he should try testing in the pool if the effect was permanent.
"Really?"
Sigmund looked at Jacob, who shrugged.
Sigmund found this very interesting, his mind already thinking of explanations why.
After some thought, considering what he knew so far, it probably had to do with water interfering with the transfer of energy from crystals to the limbs.
"By the way, why do you know so much about that place?" Kaize asked Sigmund, whose face didn’t change much as he answered.
"I grew up there as a child."
They blinked, looking at the graceful scientist with new eyes.
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The image of a young albino in dirty clothes running around the messy narrow streets of the squatters area passed by everyone’s head.
Of course, this wasn’t the time to discuss Sigmund’s childhood, so they put this topic aside (for now).
Kylo turned his attention back to the map, thinking of how they could use the large lake to their advantage.
The body of water was located just outside the current delineation of the safe zone, and it was not far from the mob’s path of travel.
"Judging from the projections of the mob’s movements, there’s probably a 50% chance for them to reach this area, but it is also fully possible they won’t."
Hugo crossed his arms. "Then we have to attract them there."
"I wonder how many zombies can fit?" Khalifa mumbled, looking at the blot on the screen.
Sigmund’s red eyes shifted and made rough calculations. "That lake is a few hectares large and considering its depth, it should be able to take in a few hundred thousand zombies, maybe a million or two if densely packed, but that is the ideal and not possible in an emergency scenario."
"..."
"..."
While the zombies were in a few millions, taking down a small fraction was already a step in the right direction.
"Now for the question of how do we get them there…" Kaize muttered. "If we can maybe make a massive sound…"
This made Khalifa look at him, before her eyes sparkled in inspiration.
"We have fireworks," she said. They could make some, but they also managed to recover a lot from the clearing missions.
The men were immediately enlightened.
Even if the polluted lake wouldn’t be able to accommodate most of the zombies, the others would still be attracted to where such loud noise would come from.
The teams could then make use of the distraction to handle the outlying zombies, slowly picking the zombies group by group.
However, they were not ready at this time. There were still a lot to do, and the various bases and weapon factories would need a week or more to be completely prepared.
By that time, a portion of the mob may have gone past the lake.
Of course they had to be there first, which still meant they would have to go through a mob to get there.
Further, handling them earlier would also keep the safe zone from getting breached.
Hugo and Kylo nodded as certain plans were immediately concretized. They would recover tanks and outfit several cars, and they would increase weapon productions including plasma guns and bombs.
Cauis was in-charge with the supplies to increase the fighter’s rations while maintaining the ones left behind.
They would also need to keep watch of other equipment, distribute leather clothing to the guards while selling them at low prices to the others who would be participating in the ’war’.
They had managed to gather a lot of items during the clearing. Taking over clothing warehouses was one of them.
Fortunately, they had taken in and rescued a lot of refugees from the bases that fell so they had more than enough manpower to handle the increase in demand.
Kaize and Jacob would be training the former civilians more closely, while Sigmund was asked to expedite his research.
Khalifa also volunteered to help, but she was pregnant and was immediately shut down.
"Go rest, love, we can handle this," they told her, with a tone not up for discussion.
She pursed her lips but sighed, knowing the men didn’t need another stressor right now.
Anyway, the next few days were very busy and everyone was scarce, doing their own tasks. They were so busy that they would only eat wherever they were at the moment. Khalifa made sure to send them proper meals, knowing they needed as much energy as they could get.
Then…, one night before d-day, Sigmund suddenly called them.
Their nerves were already tense with what was about to happen, and they weren’t sure what to expect with this meeting.
Sigmund—in his usual straight-to-the-point fashion—didn’t bother with the details ad his opening statement made everyone gape at him.
"I found it," he said with that monotonous tone of his. "I discovered the vaccine for the virus."