“Do you really think that’s all of them?” Scarlett adjusted her gsses, her tone sharp. “If the tide was this small, Kane wouldn’t have run in the first pce.” Scarlett’s rational dedu was chilling. From the start of the battle, only three to four million zombies had been eliminated—a fra of the estimated 20 million she had predicted. What she didn’t know was that the true scale of the tide far exceeded her estimate. “And don’t fet,” she added, “the maes don’t have unlimited ammunition.”

  Her ability wasn’t bat-oriented or directly supportive. Instead, she possessed a unique gift for hyper-rational analysis, gai the cost of her emotions. Her mae-like mi allowed her to foresee problems others couldn’t. “What do we do if they run out of ammo?” Gwen asked, her voice trembling.

  “Pray,” Scarlett said coldly, her gaze fixed on Za the distance.

  “Scarlett, I heard he’s the leader of NYC,” Fang said, reloading his on. “His name’s Zack, right?”

  “Oh my god, he’s so handsome!” Gwen squealed, stars in her eyes. “I’m calling it now—that’s the father of my child!”

  “When did you have a child?” a burly soldier asked, fused.

  “I’ll figure it out after I catch him!” Gwen shot back, uerred.

  While others admired Zack, Scarlett’s gaze remained analytical, her lips pressed into a thin line. Her was simple: Zack’s deight not align with the survival of the Base. As a leader, his priority would be to proteYC, even if it meant sacrifig the 600,000 people here. Self-sacrifice was a soldier’s duty, not a leader’s. And Zack, she suspected, was a man who would make the pragmatic choice every time. “What’s going to happe?” she muttered, her heart heavy with the possiblity.

  In the trol room, a panicked sh out. “Everyone in the trol room is dead!? Someone has taken trol of the nuclear missiles!” Scott’s excmatio a wave of dread through the room, firming Scarlett’s worst fears.

  Given the circumstahe culprit was obvious. Now, the fate of 600,000 lives in Washington DC rested entirely in the hands of one man. The trol room was a blood-soaked mess. Corpses with severed heads y sprawled on the ground, their blood pooling across the floor, filling the air with a siiallic stench. “Master, the system has been fully infiltrated. The nuclear warheads are now online,” Lilliaed calmly, retrieving the st of her nanobots.

  Her annou caused a series of glowing radiation symbols to appear on the holographic dispy inside Zack’s armor. “Well done,” Zack replied coldly. Uhers, Zack wasn’t ed about immediate survival—his focus was on halting the zombie tide from moving south and spreading further.

  To achieve that goal, he was willing to use any on at his disposal, even if it meant sacrifig the 600,000 lives in Washington DC. “Ego, take trol of the missiles. Loto the space-based strike zone and stand by,” Zaanded.

  Instantly, Ego took over the missile systems, activating the unch sequences. Missile silos and vehicles within Washington DC’s base rotated into position, their warheads aimed skyward. On the frontlihe meical army’s firepan to wane as their ammunition supplies dwindled. Meical dogs leapt from the high walls, joining the Spiders in melee bat alongside the Fearless Warriors. “What kind of ammo do those maes use? Do we have a?” Scott shouted from the wall, desperation creeping into his voice.

  “ander, we’re out!” a soldier replied grimly. Scott’s heart sank. After Kaook power, his focus had been on solidating authority and suppressing rivals, ing essential infrastructure like an ammunition supply . The stockpiles they’d been using were remnants from the previous administration, and now they were gone.

  Otlefield, Zack activated his thrusters, h mid-air as he unleashed dozens of micro-trag missiles. The sky lit up with explosions, temporarily bridging the gap left by the meical army’s depleted firepower. “Ego, how long until the Avalon arrives?” Zack asked as he dropped a final barrage of spiral missiles, igniting another sea of fire in the horde.

  “Approximately ten minutes, sir,” Ego replied.

  Before Zack could respond, a blinding white light streaked down from the heavens. It was the tungsten rod, fired ten minutes earlier. Traveling 35,000 kilometers at Mach 61, it struck the zombie horde’s de cluster with uing force.

  BOOM! The impact shook the earth. A massive crater, several kilometers in diameter, gouged into the ground. The shockwave hurled tens of thousands of tons of soil into the air, obliterating everything in its path. Zombies caught i were disied in an instant, their remains scattered like ash on the wind. “No wonder…” muttered Ava, piloting the sed-geion Avalon. She g the massive crater, noing wound in the earth. It recisely the red zone Zack had warned her not to approach.

  The devastating power of the space-based strike drew the attention of the zombies. “ROAR—!” High-frequency sound waves echoed across the battlefield. The bck tide shifted, dividing into two streams that bypassed the pin and began encirg Washington DC. “Sir, the horde is ging dire,” Ego reported. “Based oected sound waves, the leader is issuing ands. Satellite imaging also shows a rge cluster of specialized zombies, likely the leader’s escorts.”

  Zack’s eyes narrowed. “Good. It’s time to act.” his voice cold as he g the h Aegis. Instead of deploying anti-lord units immediately, he turned on his unicator and issued new orders. “Ava, the Avalon will arrive soon. Have it cut off the zombie tide. You and the unmanned armors will cover our operation.”

  “Uood,” came Ava’s calm reply. She redirected her Avalon, flying back toward the battlefield with five unmanned armors in tow.

  “Ego, drop the nuke,” Zack ordered.

  Missiles carrying nuclear warheads shot into the sky from Washington DC’s base, their fiery tails bzing trails against the dark horizon. Unlike Kane’s crude targeting system, which relied on drone approximations aed in imprecise strikes dangerously close to Washington DC, Zack’s approach was surgical. With satellite support, he targeted the de part of the horde hundreds of kilometers away, minimizing colteral radiation damage to the base.

  The missiles arced gracefully before desding into the heart of the horde. Zack’s calcuted strike would buy precious time, not just for the defenders of Washington DC but for the survival of humanity itself.

  “No…” To Scarlett, the sight of ballistic missiles streaking into the sky wasn’t a symbol of hope—it was the prelude to disaster. What she had feared most had finally e to pass.“Look! It’s our base’s missiles!”“Haha! Blow those moo bits!”“It’s about time we turhe tide!”