We Need Help

Ava glanced at the holographic display in her cockpit, where a bold red area flashed prominently. "Understood," she replied, pulling the joystick and banking the Avalon toward the rear of the zombie horde. "Prepare to deploy cloud bombs," she said, pressing the release button.

The Avalon's bomb bays, now equipped with under-mounted rocket boosters, launched two magnetic fluid-based cloud bombs. These devices, resembling oversized air-to-ground missiles, streaked toward their designated targets. The bombs detonated mid-air, releasing clouds of light-orange high-energy fuel. The mist expanded with the wind, spreading across the advancing zombies.

BOOM! BOOM!

The mist ignited in a fiery explosion, creating twin mushroom-shaped fireballs on either side of the crater. The resulting infernos incinerated hundreds of thousands of zombies, leaving behind nothing but scorched earth. The heat drained oxygen from the surrounding air, causing the eyes of nearby zombies to burst and their internal organs to rupture violently.

It was a gruesome end, but the horde pressed on undeterred. Mindless and relentless, they charged into the flames, their bones crackling as the fire consumed them. Behind Ava, the five unmanned armors unleashed a storm of micro-missiles. There was no need for precise targeting—there were simply too many zombies.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The explosions blended with the firestorm from the cloud bombs, creating an unbroken sea of flames that halted the tide's advance. Millions of zombies perished in the blazing inferno, but some of the more powerful ones managed to push through. The most striking were the Mutated Lords—towering four to five meters tall, their backs marked by silvery-white lines. Seeing this zombie emerge from the fire, Zack descended swiftly, landing at the forefront of the battlefield between the two Goliath.

The soldiers on the walls, the remaining defenders, and even the Goliath seemed to pause for a moment. "It's him!" someone gasped, their voice trembling with a mix of hope and fear.

The moment Zack landed, Andre, in his towering Siberian tiger form, immediately recognized the armor. His sharp eyes narrowed, but he didn't say much. Whatever mission he once had no longer mattered—he had already chosen righteousness over orders. "My name's Andre, and I was sent to kill you!" His voice boomed, rough and full of unfiltered honesty.

Zack turned to look at Andre, his gaze shifting briefly to the battered group behind him: Heber, the tiger who could barely stand, the three remaining giant bears, and the two gray wolves. A flicker of acknowledgment passed through Zack's eyes. "Andre, right?" Zack said, his voice calm. "Survive this battle. I'll wait for you in NYC."

Without waiting for a reply, Zack turned his focus back to the approaching zombie tide. Despite the raging sea of fire acting as a barrier, the horde pressed forward. Many of them were powerful lord-class zombies, immune to the deterrence of conventional fire. 

"Tactical analysis... Target: Mutated Lord. High defense. Deploy electromagnetic railguns." The Goliath, through their advanced optical sensors, locked onto the Mutated Lord several kilometers away. Their targeting systems calculated the trajectory, and within moments, the Goliath prepared to fire.

Above, at an altitude of 35,000 meters, the next tungsten rod was loaded into its orbital track. The tungsten rod fired, propelled by electromagnetic acceleration at a blistering Mach 6. It descended toward the ground with pinpoint accuracy. Simultaneously, the Goliath began to charge their railguns. The 8.8-meter steel giants shifted into firing position, their massive forms steadying against the ground. The electromagnetic railguns on their backs unfolded, extending into multi-meter-long tracks. A tungsten kinetic energy warhead was locked in place.

"Target locked." With a synthetic, booming voice, the Goliath engaged their weapons. Energy surged along the tracks, creating a visible magnetic field. The interaction of electricity and magnetism generated immense force, launching the warhead at Mach 12. A blinding streak of white light burst forth, slicing through the battlefield. It moved so fast that even Zack couldn't follow its trajectory.

The Mutated Lord had no chance to react. The tungsten warhead pierced its skull in an instant, annihilating it. The devastation didn't stop there. The kinetic energy warhead tore through every zombie in its path, slicing them apart as easily as a bullet through paper. A straight line of obliteration extended to the horizon, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.

"ROAR—!" As the two Mutated Lord fell, a chilling, high-frequency roar echoed through the battlefield. Zack's expression hardened.

"That sound... it's the leader!" he muttered coldly. Unlike the mindless hordes, a zombie tide of this scale couldn't operate without a commander. Zack had suspected there was a leader orchestrating the attack, and now he was certain.

"Sir, I've calculated the general direction," Ego's voice chimed in.

On Zack's holographic display, a red zone appeared, marking a one-kilometer radius. "So close?" Zack frowned. From past experience, Zack knew these leaders were highly intelligent and cautious. 

They typically remained far from the frontlines to avoid danger. For one to appear this close—less than ten kilometers from the base—was highly unusual. "This feels like a trap," Zack said, his voice laced with suspicion.

"Shall I deploy the Goliath for a precision strike?" Ego suggested.

"No." Zack shook his head. "Saturate the target area with missile fire. Leave nothing standing." At Zack's command, the mechanical army sprang into action. On the high wall, fifty mechanical dogs opened their missile pods, while below, a hundred poisonous spiders deployed their launchers. Even the Goliath retracted their railguns, revealing massive 20-unit missile arrays.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Hundreds of micro-missiles filled the sky, their tails streaking like meteors as they descended upon the marked zone.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A series of deafening explosions rocked the battlefield. Fireballs erupted one after another, engulfing everything within the red zone. The ground trembled violently as the saturation strike obliterated all in its path. Even the mighty Mutated Lords could only endure for a few seconds before succumbing, their bodies torn to shreds by the relentless bombardment.

"ROAR—!" Amid the fiery chaos, a figure emerged. Wrapped in a pitch-black, armor-like shell, it let out a defiant roar before darting through the storm of missiles at incredible speed.

"That's not the leader," Zack realized, his eyes narrowing as he observed the zombie's movements. The creature resembled a Mutated lord but was weaker in terms of raw power. Still, its resilience was astounding—it had survived the saturation strike unscathed. While Zack focused on the rogue zombie, the mechanical beasts were fully occupied. Without their concentrated firepower, the city's defenders on the high wall were left exposed.

On the frontline battlefield, the tide of corpses surged forward, overwhelming the previously held buffer zone within moments. The hundreds of meters reclaimed earlier vanished instantly under the unrelenting swarm. Andre and his group, positioned at the vanguard, were quickly engulfed. The shapeshifters fought valiantly, but even Andre, surrounded by four or five super hunters, was being pushed to his limits. Razor-sharp claws raked across his tiger body, tearing deep gashes into his fur and flesh.

"Zack! We need those machines!" Andre roared, his voice thick with urgency. "Without their firepower, we can't hold them off!"