Chapter 290: Chapter 278: Recruitment Plan
After the three of them and the tiger dealt with the Level 3 zombie locked in the hotel room, they returned to the base together. Flora Bloom went back to her room and tried to call Lex Cross on his communicator, but the call wouldn’t go through. After a few more failed attempts, she dove under the covers and slept until dawn.
According to Sherman Lynch’s plan, while they were clearing out the residential districts, they also needed someone to start recruiting new team members. This task was given to Ethan Monroe, with Sherman Lynch handling the final vetting.
Sherman Lynch had a sharp eye and was deeply experienced; it was difficult for anyone with ulterior motives to escape his shrewd gaze. Ethan Monroe, for his part, was street-smart and had his own code for dealing with people. With the two of them in charge, assisted by Irvin Holden and Joel Bloom, Flora Bloom felt completely at ease.
However, Flora Bloom had also made one thing clear: loyalty was the one quality that all new team members absolutely had to possess.
Meanwhile, Flora Bloom had joined Caleb Bloom’s hunting party and arrived at the area formerly known as Zone 009.
The zombies scattered throughout the streets and alleys from Zone 005 to Zone 009 were few and far between. It took the group just one morning to clear all five zones.
The stench of zombie brains on the streets was overpowering. Without a scorching sun for several days, and with the city’s coastal humidity, the smell had only grown thicker. This area wasn’t like the residential districts. On the day of the outbreak, the main streets had been a veritable slaughterhouse, with splattered gore and severed limbs everywhere. But in the residential areas, the houses were spaced far apart, and the villa district had few residents to begin with, so the scene there wasn’t nearly as gruesome.
"Dad, Mr. Wallace, there are too many zombies in the mall. If we go inside, the tight space will restrict our movements. I think we should lure them out. It’s safer to fight them in the open!"
Caleb Bloom nodded, then frowned immediately. "Flora, didn’t you say before that there were two Middle Level zombies in Zone 007? Shouldn’t we find them first? Isn’t it too risky to just lure out the zombies from the mall like this?"
"Yeah, Flora, Middle Level zombies are too strong. Why don’t we head back first, take stock of the Crystal Cores we’ve gathered, and upgrade to Middle Level superpowers? Then we can come back and deal with those two," Neal Wallace added, his expression grim as he stared toward Zone 007, his entire being on high alert.
Flora Bloom paused for a moment. "I forgot to tell you," she said. "Lex Cross has killed all the Level 3 and higher zombies in Morhaven. Even if the rest are numerous, they won’t be difficult to handle."
After Flora Bloom spoke, Caleb Bloom stared at her, dumbfounded. "Is that true?" he asked. "Morhaven is a big city. Did he really wipe out every single zombie Level 3 and higher in such a short amount of time?"
Flora Bloom just shrugged. "I guess so. That’s what The Crown Prince and Raccoon Cat told me. Besides, I scouted Zone 007 last night, and those two Middle Level zombies were definitely gone."
The moment the words left Flora’s mouth, Caleb Bloom’s expression darkened. "What did you just say? You scouted Zone 007? At night? By yourself?"
"I wasn’t alone! The Crown Prince and Raccoon Cat were with me! Oh, Dad, that’s not the point. The point is, I think we can pick up the pace and clear out the surrounding zones. Also, I think we’re going to need quite a few people to clean up all the streets and alleys around here."
"Isn’t Old Lynch already recruiting people?" Neal Wallace said.
"Old Lynch is mainly recruiting people who haven’t joined a faction or team yet." Flora Bloom said thoughtfully. Suddenly, an idea struck her, and she turned to the others.
"I think maybe we could... put up a notice. To recruit... people to join our team, including ordinary people."
"We’re clearing more and more zones. The streets in places like Zone 007 and Zone 009... they’re absolutely covered, and the stench of zombie brains is everywhere.
"Most of these ordinary people haven’t joined any teams or factions yet. They struggle just to get enough food to eat and clean water to drink. What if we brought them in to handle support tasks, like cleanup? We could pay them in food and clean water. What do you all think?"
Flora Bloom asked for their opinions.
"I think that’s workable," Caleb Bloom said after some serious thought. "After all... most people in the base are ordinary people without superpowers. If we can... bring some of them in... and just provide food and water... in exchange for them handling things like cleanup... it would free us up. We could focus on clearing the zones."
"I have no objections," came Neal Wallace’s quiet reply. He never opposed anything Flora wanted to do.
"I think it’s a good idea, too," Shauna Wallace said, worried. "Both Flora and Jackson Miller are pregnant, and they’re very sensitive to this... stench of zombie brains. It would be nice to have someone clean it up. But there are so many streets and alleys. How many people would we even need to clean it all?"
Flora Bloom smiled breezily. "Don’t worry about that. We have plenty of food and water. We can just recruit more people if we need to. Tomorrow, I’ll have Selina and Maeve Preston make a notice and post it on the main street of the base."
"So what about now? This mall is crawling with zombies. Why don’t we clear it out today? That way, we can free up tomorrow to focus on recruiting people. We can have them start by cleaning the zones we’ve already secured."
Flora Bloom laughed.
"The mall definitely needs clearing, and there are a ton of zombies in there," she said. "But we don’t have to exhaust ourselves. Let’s leave this next part to Vert and the others."
And so, Vert, Monkey Two, Monkey Three, Big Kong, Little Kong, Shelly, plus two giant grasshoppers and a venomous snake, all appeared before them at once.
The team was already used to the sudden appearance of these enormous creatures, so they were unfazed. They just spared a couple of extra glances for the two giant grasshoppers and the venomous snake.
A loud CRASH! TINKLE! SHATTER! suddenly echoed through the street. The main doors and windows of a mall in Zone 009 were breaking one after another. Exposed to the sunlight, the zombies inside all turned around, their movements wooden.
They quickly detected the delectable scent of human flesh wafting from Flora Bloom’s group. With a powerful kick of their hind legs, the two grasshoppers shot forward. They landed in front of the zombie horde and hopped around a few times. Just as the front-row zombies reached out to grab them, they nimbly sprang back with another kick of their legs.
This back-and-forth infuriated the horde of zombies pouring out of the mall. Vert danced through the air, its enormous mantis-scythes flicking out and back in a flash. In an instant, a dozen zombie heads tumbled to the ground, rolling away with dull thuds.
Flora Bloom and the others stood a short distance from the mall, watching the scene unfold. The zombies were charging relentlessly in their direction. Soon, a horde of over a thousand zombies had poured out of the mall.
Just then, a behemoth charged into the horde. With its hind legs extended and front paws raised, it pounced, instantly carving a huge gap in the sea of zombies. The zombies crushed beneath its massive body were turned to pulp. Severed limbs and brains splattered across the ground. The foul stench made Flora Bloom’s stomach churn again.
Snowy hadn’t even made an appearance yet, but the zombie horde that had rushed out of the mall was already seventy or eighty percent gone. When the others saw Flora Bloom start to suffer from morning sickness again, they all grew worried.
Caleb Bloom, ever the concerned father, was especially worried. "Flora, why don’t you head back first? Your little pets will finish off these zombies in no time. We’ll dig out the Crystal Cores and be right behind you."
