Stronghold In The Apocalypse

Chapter 198: KILL!!!

"Hello" Leo stopped in front of them, with a ten meter distance between them.

Leo with superb hearing was able to hear the small discussion about his sword from the survivors watching him from the ramparts of the wall.

"Hello, you said that you came all the way from Baguio? Does that mean that you came from the Military Academy or you're just an ordinary tourist there before all of this shit went down?" Lhea didn't beat around the bush and straightforwardly asked him.

"The latter" Leo picked the second option, as he had the feeling that the former would become complicated, and his guess was right, their faces suddenly expressed disappointment.

'I guess they are either waiting for reinforcement from that place or they are waiting for them to bring them away from here' Leo thought to himself.

And out of curiosity, Leo asked, "I guess you guys are waiting for someone from that place?"

His voice immediately back to reality, and John was the first to recover and answered him, "Yeah, we have been in contact with the military academy a month ago, and they had even told us they would send a group here to rescue us, but since our last contact which was about ago, nothing. It's like they had just disappeared like a bubble from out of nowhere"

John sighed to himself, then he bitterly smiled at him, "Enough about us, so what did you come here for?"

Leo smiled, and his hand slowly reach towards the hilt of his sword, and when he did that, all the people in front of him reached out towards their weapons.

Leo hand stopped just a few inches away, and then he looked at them and said, "Do you mind?"

John, Lhea and Lesley looked at each other, and then Lhea and John nodded as a go signal.

*Swing!* *Bam!*

Leo smiled and grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out, and hastily stuck it on the ground, as at least a fourth of the sword smoothly went through the asphalt ground.

John gulped as he didn't that the sword would be that sharp, that it just went through the hardened ground like it was just some kind of tofu or something.

Even the others were unnerved by the sight of it, but what they didn't know is that the sword would have gone deeper if it wasn't for Leo. 

After all, the thing weighs seven tons, no ordinary man could lift it other than Leo himself, and even then he still had a bit of difficulty swinging the damn thing!

"Here!" Leo through the sling bag in front of John, which he got earlier from those so bandits back at the mall.

John looked at his two lovers, only did he got their confirmation that they're ready for a fight if some shit happens, did he pick up the bag with weapons sticking out from it.

John looked through the contents inside and saw some medicines and pain killers inside and obviously the various weapons.

"I recognize this weapon" John suddenly pulled out the boomstick shotgun from the bag and showed it to the others.

"Hey, isn't that Crash Bandit's shotgun!?" Lhea suddenly exclaimed.

"It is, look" John said as he pointed at the insignia near the barrel and on it were a head with red headband.

Leo knew what John just is pointing at as it was the one he noticed first after picking up the weapon earlier. After all, it was really colorful, and he did remember that the others also had the same insignia in some part of their clothes.

"So you killed Crash Bandit?" John turned back to Leo and asked.

"I don't know who the heck Crash Bandit is, but I did kill six of them and they all had the same insignia in some part of their clothes" Leo shrugged his shoulder.

Leo found out that Crash Bandit is actually another mutant except for the five mutants leading their own camps, but he was an outsider and isn't a native in this city, but most of all, he's a troublemaker for lone or small group of survivors that wanders towards their city.

But they didn't bother each other as long as Crash Bandit didn't start causing trouble to the people of the three survivor camps, so he and his team was left alone, until they unfortunately met Leo.

Leo immediately felt pity for him. After all, the guy is also a mutant and he didn't even had the chance to use it before he died under his hand.

After seeing that he really didn't have any malicious intentions towards them and after some short introductions, John immediately invited him inside.

And once Leo passed through the gate of the camp, what greeted him is almost similar to almost all of his bases and camps.

Everyone, from young to old had their own chores, the only exception would probably the kids who doesn't go to school anymore and they are here helping out the adults, and they don't have training ground for soldiers, as every one here are almost using melee weapons or bows and arrows.

'The only exception is him' Leo thought as he glanced at the pistol tucked in its holster on John's waist. Leo wasn't even listening to what John is saying as he just observed this new surroundings as John and his two lovers or wives started showing him around.

Leo glance at John and suddenly said, "Right, you don't need to push yourself to talk to me in English. I could understand Filipino(Tagalog) you know"

"Seriously!? You should've told me earlier, I'm already running out of words if you didn't tell me!" John laughed, of course he knows how to speak in English but it was just too bothersome to do it, where the only one he could talk to with it is the guy beside him.

"Right, are you really giving us these?" Lhea said as she showed Leo the sling bag full of items.

"Uhmm...I don't really need them" Leo nodded.

"Sure~" Lhea smiled at him, then glanced at the sword on his back.

'It's really huge up close. I wonder if he'd allow me to use if ask him' Lhea thought, as she made sure to remember to ask him later.

"That's it" John said after showing him around.

"Hmm...if you don't mind, can I ask you something?" Leo said as he looked at John.

"Sure, what is it?" John replied, looking like it wasn't a bother.

"How come the number of survivors living here is too small. I heard that this city at least had forty thousand in population and I counted that there is only a little over a hundred people living here" Leo asked, as he's been meaning to ask this question to someone, because this situation was the first thing he noticed even before he landed in the city.

John sighed to himself, then he pointed towards a nearby bench and said, "Well, why don't I tell you about it over there?"

'Wow, this person is really so easy going to someone he just met today' Leo thought as he followed him, and they both sat down opposite of each other.

"Open the gates!""Open the gates!""Hurry up!"

John was just about to open his mouth and start talking when a frantic yell coming from beyond the wall interrupted him.

"Hmm?" Leo noticed a swarm of hostiles encroaching the edge of the city, though the [Map]

'Could it be that there's a zombie siege when I just got here? Damn, this zombies doesn't really want me to rest, huh!?' he was cursing in his mind, but he was actually smiling. He already knew that the zombies are building a dam up northwest of the city, and they were led by a Darkseeker.

"I just didn't expect that they would immediately attack, how impatient" Leo muttered to himself.

The gates opened, and two bikers immediately passed through and when they caught sight of John, they hurried drove towards him.

The two of them hurriedly got off from their bikes and arrived in front of John, panting.

"Boss...bad news! A horde..a horde of zombies are heading towards here!" one of them said between breaths.

"The others from the other camps are already dead, both of us just manage to escape in the nick of time" the other guy said.

"Impossible! They couldn't have crossed the river!" John yelled in shock, the commotion caused by this news immediately attracted Lhea and Lesley as they came over and left what they were doing before.

"What happened?' Lhea asked just as she arrived.

"T-the water slowly receded from out of nowhere, and when we finally noticed what was going on, it was already too late for us to do anything to stop it," one of them said helplessly.

"Damn! Send someone at the other two camps to get ready for war! I'm sure Kurt had already noticed this as his camp is the nearest from the river" John ordered as four people immediately boarded their own bikes and split into two groups and headed into opposite directions.

"Lesley, take the kids and elderly inside the church" Leo said to Lesley.

"Yes babe" Lesley as she immediately started gathering the kids and elderly towards the church.

*Pssh!* *Pssh!*

Leo and the rest saw two flares shooting up in the skies, both from opposite directions.

"All who can fight, take out your weapons and prepare for war! We have at least ten minutes to twenty minutes tops before they can cross the river! Immediately head towards the defensive zone, the other camps would also gather there!" John barked the moment he saw the two flares in the skies, it was a message from the messengers he sent that the other two camps would join the battle.

Suddenly realizing that he seems to have forgotten someone, John immediately turned around and saw Leo looking at them.

John smiled embarrassingly as he walked over to him, and said, "Sorry about this Leo, but it seems we're gonna need to postpone our talk for now, as you might have already heard, we have a huge problem in our hands"

"A zombie horde huh, need my help?" Leo offered his services.

John didn't immediately answer him, but instead look at him with a startled look as he didn't expect for Leo to offer his help. After all, he was just an outsider and he doesn't have any attachment to this city.

"Sure then but I wouldn't be able to offer you anything in exchange" John replied, after all, one more mutant, and possibly a skilled one to join their defensive would be a great help.

"It's fine, we humans should always help each other out, especially this dire times" Leo smiled at him.

"Sure~" John just smiled and didn't comment on it, after all, he had already witnessed how cruel humans could be without something like rules binding them.

"Please follow us later then" John said, which Leo just nodded at him.

During their preparations, Leo saw that they are bringing out loads and loads of wooden spears and bows, along with crates of arrows.

'Geez, this feels like I'm in the middle age but surrounded with modern things' Leo smiled bitterly, as he finally realized how weak humans are without their weapons of war they are so proud of, which is firearms.

Roughly ten minutes later, Leo followed them as they rode on their vehicles, and when they just exited the camp, another convoy of vehicles slowly appeared behind them, and when they arrived at their so called defensive zone, which is a wall made from cement and it was constructed in the middle of the city that stretches over at both ends.

The other camp from Riverside are already there waiting for them, all armed to the teeth.

"Welp, they would surely lose with how small their number is, and on top of that, their best weapons are only those throwing spears and their bows and arrows" Leo muttered to himself while shaking his head, and then he snuck out of there without anyone noticing and went to look for a working vehicle.

After finding one a minute later, he opened the back of the car and stuffed weapons inside, Five AK-47, Three M16, Three Uzi's, Ten Frag Grenades, Boxes of ammunitions and Two Rocket Launchers!

"I guess that's enough" Leo smiled as he slammed it closed.

Leo immediately rode back as he only had a couple of minutes left by observing the horde movements through [Map].

*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*

"Get out of the way!" Leo stuck his body out of the window and yelling at the people in front.

At the ramparts.

"Leo?" John suddenly said in shock.

"You know that westerner?" Kurt, a bald headed man and leader of the Riverside camp looked at John and asked.

"Yes, we met just today and he offered his help" John smiled wide as he nodded, it was because he thought the guy left as he couldn't find him earlier.

John immediately headed down, followed by the other four mutants.

*Screech!*

The car drifted and stopped in front of John and the other leaders.

"Sup!" Leo smiled as he got down from the car, and he moved towards the back of the car.

John walked over to him and said, "I thought you left!" with the others following him as they were curious about this guy.

"Sorry, I just went to get something for you guys!" Leo laughed as he opened the trunk of the car, and when they saw what's inside, they were freaking stunned as they stood rooted on the spot!

"Guns!" Lhea yelled first, and others also followed.

But no one moved to pick one up, Leo smiled at them satisfied before saying, "Pick what you want, you're gonna need it"

Only then did they started picking the guns they wanted.

John chose an M6 carbine, while Lhea and a woman called Martha picked the Uzi's, and Kurt chose the AK47 while Lesley chose the Uzi and a rocket launcher, and after that they took a grenade each while the others were distributed to their most trusted subordinates.

*Rumble!*

"ETA! One minute!" one of the lookouts shouted on top of a building.

"On the wall! Hurry up!" Kurt yelled as he immediately ran towards the walls, while the rest followed behind, except for Leo who just jumped over while carrying a machine gun with him, which he took from the backseat of the car.

John looked at Leo a bit shock, then he ask something that concerned him, "Leo, do these things fire at all? You know, we had also found guns before but they wouldn't work at all except for my baby right here which I found inside an old chest" he said while patting the Colt pistol on his waist.

"Of course" Leo smiled as he looked at the incoming horde with glinting cold eyes.

"Wait, where the heck is your sword?" John turned towards him as he finally noticed that the huge ass sword is missing.

"Eh..I hid somewhere for now" Leo made up a lie on the spot as he didn't expect that John would notice it even with the chaos going on! After all, he can't just tell them that he stored it inside his [Inventory] because it was just too heavy and the car wouldn't have been able to carry it with its weight.

"Spears!""Spears!""Spears!"

The leaders started giving their orders, and it seems that they have prepared for this for a long time now with how swift their orders are carried, but the thing that truly amazed Leo is how compose they are even in the face of this monstrous horde that outnumbered them a hundred to one!

One hundred thousand zombies, a lot of them mutated vs a little over a thousand humans, with only mutants in their side, and anyone who had a bit of brain would already knew the outcome of this battle, and even when they knew that, they are still willing to stand before this surging wave of monster...even though some of them are shaking in fear.

'I wonder where they are getting their courage from?' Leo wondered.

'Must be why they were able to persist in their three hundred year long war against the Spaniards as they fought for their independence' Leo thought, somewhat feeling proud at them, even though he's now a westerner.

Leo felt his blood boiling in excitement for the first time in a long while as he looked at them, he grinned widely.

He closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and then he opened his mouth and yelled with an overbearing voice and raised his weapon towards the skies, like the commander he is!

"KILL!!!"