Clearing the Horde

Back at the command post, Matt was reviewing the information that had been brought to him. There were a total of six standing military settlements and five other settlements that were run by survivors. Three of the survivor settlements were run by criminals and would periodically raid the other settlements. The closest criminal settlement was about two dozen miles away. The military had categorized this settlement as the most dangerous since they would subject people to infected bites with the hopes of making them hybrids. Their numbers were actually fairly low, but the number of successful hybrids should be around seventy. Although this number sounds fairly large, it is actually small considering that just this one military settlement had almost two thousand people with around twelve hybrids.

Seeing this information, Matt looked at the location of the criminal settlement on the map and made a note to go there and find people willing to submit to him before he destroyed that settlement. Noticing highlighted routes on the map, he looked at the aid standing next to him.

"These are routes that we have been clearing to make connections with a few of the survivor settlements. The ones in yellow are the ones that the have cleared, orange are the ones that the other settlements have cleared and the red ones are either too blocked or the number of infected in those parts is too great." the aid said.

Nodding his head, Matt decided that he would clear some routes too as they would allow for more direct access to the other settlements and make it easier to move around. Clearing the red routes would also give him massive amounts of energy from the infected as well as the potential to come across those with abilities. His ideal number followers for the time being would be around twenty or so since that would be the perfect number to deal with settlements as well as to build his own.

With his plans in place, he called his group to meet up near the shore to inform them of the plan. After they made their way there, he explained that he was going to head outside first to clear up this horde. Then he would secure a vehicle and create weapons for the group. He had no need to create some for himself as he had already done that. With everything set, he told Alpha to travel the coast picking up survivors that were judged to be suitable for saving.

Leaving the settlement through the gate, the infected began to swarm him. Before they could get close though, most were disintegrated as they were absorbed. Only the slightly stronger infected were able to touch him, but even those were disintegrated after being exposed to his energy long enough to reach him. The field that he was able to produce made it so that anything within thirty feet of him would be destroyed. This did not apply to structures or vehicles as he had to directly focus on them to be able to deconstruct them.

The longer he made his way through the horde, the less the zombies around him. When he had cleared roughly half the horde, there was movement from his vessel as the gas concentration of energy in it began to solidify. When the process was finished, there were a few drops of energy in his vessel, but the strength of those drops was three times the power instead of doubling like he expected it to. Now that his vessel had adjusted to the new energy, it would automatically condense the energy that enter his body to form these droplets. It would take a long time at his current rate to fill his vessel to the next level. He also wondered if the energy would go back to being gas if he exhausted it all.

With his thoughts out of the way, he noticed that the barrier around him had spread further to reach fifty feet. Its power was nothing like before though, as it would take mutated zombies or animals to withstand the barrier long enough to get close to him.

Now it was time to finish off this horde so he drew his specially crafted swords that would allow him to decimate the hordes numbers. Moving at a very fast speed, he killed off the rest of the horde which was mostly the stronger ones since the weak ones were already gone.

Now that the infected were cleared, he began searching for a vehicle that would suit their purpose. He located a large passenger van that would work after he modified it. He got the soldiers to bring it into the settlement so that he could alter it. Once inside, he was greeted by soldiers and survivors alike. They had formed a semicircle around the gate and were applauding him as he entered. Seeing the reception that he was getting, he wondered if it would be like this in all the settlements that he helped.

The general and ranks of soldiers approached and all did a formal bow to show their appreciation in making their lives better. Now that they didn't have to constantly work on the wall, they had more personnel to do things like build plots for farming and permanent housing for the residents.

Matt waved away the groups so that he could get started on the task at hand. With the groups gone, he began reconstructing the passenger van so that it could accommodate his current group without any issues. Once he was finished, the van could run on the crystals that he could create with his energy. This would allow anyone in his group to drive it with ease.

He gathered his group and got a sense of what they wanted for weapons and began making what they wanted. James now had a full battle armor with a great sword. Even though the sword looked light, it actually weighed half a ton. This was because of the muscle ability that James possessed. Chris wore a light armor that was made to reduce and withstand friction since his ability was speed related. He also had a bow strapped to his back. Morgan, who had decided to join their group, was outfitted with torso armor and short leg armor. As for weapons she had a long bow that had an eye to shoot through to guide the arrows. The eye was made of a circular crystal that he had made. It would use some of his power to give the arrows penetrating power and would allow them to travel much further than most bows would allow.

With their preparations complete, they gathered in the van and made their way out of the settlement. They chose the route that was marked in yellow that was the closest to being finished so that they could assist the military in making routes across Japan and also give them access to other settlements.