toybunovel Chapter 216: Intensification
Chapter 216: Intensification
The infected began reaching the secondary defensive lines.
Not everywhere.
Not yet.
But it was happening.
Despite the artillery.
Despite the fighters.
Despite the helicopters.
Despite the bombers.
The sheer number of infected ensured that some would survive.
And those survivors kept moving.
South of San Fernando.
A company-sized defensive position occupied a stretch of elevated highway overlooking several flooded rice fields.
The position had originally been intended as a fallback line.
A contingency.
Something to hold if the first line collapsed.
Nobody had expected to use it tonight.
Nobody had expected anything like tonight.
Staff Sergeant Javier Cruz crouched behind a concrete barrier while changing magazines.
His rifle was hot.
His gloves smelled of burnt gunpowder.
The men around him looked exhausted.
Yet nobody stopped fighting.
The infected below were too close.
Way too close.
A machine gunner nearby shouted.
"Movement left!"
The entire squad pivoted.
Flashlights and thermal optics immediately locked onto the target.
Then everyone saw it.
Not dozens.
Not hundreds.
Thousands.
The infected were pouring through a drainage canal hidden beneath the highway embankment.
The artillery had missed them.
The bombers had missed them.
The helicopters had missed them.
Now they were almost on top of the defenders.
Javier grabbed his radio.
"Command, this is Bravo Two!"
"Go ahead."
"We’ve got breakthrough movement on the eastern canal!"
"Estimate?"
Javier looked down.
Then cursed.
"A lot."
The radio operator sighed.
"Everybody keeps saying that."
"Because it’s true!"
The defenders immediately opened fire.
Rifles cracked.
Machine guns roared.
Grenade launchers thumped.
The canal transformed into a slaughterhouse.
Bodies piled on top of each other.
Yet the infected kept climbing.
The dead became ladders.
The living used them.
More bodies.
More movement.
More infected.
Always more.
Three kilometers overhead.
Specter One continued circling.
The AC-130 had already expended enormous amounts of ammunition.
Yet the targets never disappeared.
A sensor operator suddenly pointed at his screen.
"Breakthrough sector."
The fire control officer leaned closer.
The thermal image showed a large infected concentration pushing through the eastern drainage network.
Directly toward friendly positions.
The officer immediately keyed his radio.
"Visual confirmed."
"Requesting immediate engagement."
Permission came instantly.
"Approved."
The 105mm howitzer fired.
BOOM.
The shell arced downward.
Then exploded directly inside the canal.
A massive section of the infected disappeared.
Mud.
Water.
Body parts.
Everything launched into the air.
The gun loaded again.
BOOM.
Another shell.
Another explosion.
Another hundred infected erased.
The AC-130 continued orbiting.
The cannon continued firing.
Each round landed with devastating accuracy.
The gunship wasn’t trying to stop the entire horde anymore.
That was impossible.
Instead it was plugging holes.
Sealing leaks.
Destroying concentrations before they reached friendly lines.
For now—
It worked.
Far above the battlefield.
Another formation was arriving.
Not fighters.
Not helicopters.
Transport aircraft.
Inside one C-130 Hercules, paratroopers sat along the cargo compartment walls.
Their equipment rattled with turbulence.
Nobody spoke much.
Most of them watched the red jump lights.
Others checked weapons.
The mission briefing had been simple.
Reinforce defensive sectors.
Hold the line.
Prevent breakthroughs.
The jumpmaster walked down the center aisle.
"Five minutes!"
The soldiers nodded.
No cheers.
No speeches.
They already knew the situation.
Everyone had seen the drone footage.
Everyone knew what waited below.
One trooper looked toward the open cockpit door.
The night horizon glowed orange.
Even from this altitude.
The battlefield looked like an entire province on fire.
Back on the ground.
The battle intensified.
An M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled through an abandoned intersection while infantry advanced behind it.
The vehicle’s thermal systems continuously scanned for fast variants.
The gunner suddenly spotted one.
Then another.
Then ten.
Then dozens.
The creatures emerged from an alleyway.
Moving far faster than normal infected.
The Bradley turret immediately rotated.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP.
The Bushmaster chain gun fired.
Explosive rounds tore through the street.
The first ranks vanished.
Several creatures literally exploded apart.
The survivors kept running.
The gunner fired again.
And again.
And again.
The street became covered with bodies.
The threat disappeared.
Then another group appeared from a different direction.
The gunner stared.
"...You’ve got to be kidding me."
Thirty kilometers north.
The B-1 Lancer returned.
The bomber had rearmed.
Refueled.
And launched again.
The command staff no longer cared about preserving munitions.
The situation had already escalated beyond that.
If a bomb could kill infected—
Use it.
The weapons officer studied the newest reconnaissance data.
The latest drone feed looked even worse than before.
Several previously separate hordes had merged.
The result resembled a moving city.
The concentration stretched across multiple municipalities.
Thousands upon thousands upon thousands.
The officer quietly shook his head.
"I’ve never seen anything like this."
Neither had anyone else.
The pilot received updated coordinates.
Target lock confirmed.
Release authorization granted.
The bomber entered its attack run.
This time the payload was larger.
Much larger.
The bomb bay doors opened.
Dozens of precision-guided bombs dropped simultaneously.
The weapons officer counted them.
Then stopped counting.
There were too many.
The bombs descended through darkness.
Then the world below erupted.
BOOOOOOOOM.
The first explosion lit the province.
Then another.
Then twenty more.
Then fifty.
Entire districts vanished beneath overlapping fireballs.
Roads ceased to exist.
Buildings collapsed.
Forests ignited.
The infected disappeared beneath the destruction.
A drone observing the strike briefly lost visual feed because of the blast cloud.
When the image returned—
A huge section of the horde no longer existed.
Thousands dead.
Maybe tens of thousands.
The bomber crew stared at the damage.
Then the radar updated.
And more infected appeared.
The silence inside the cockpit lasted several seconds.
Finally the co-pilot spoke.
"Tell me that’s old data."
The radar operator answered immediately.
"It isn’t."
Nobody said anything afterward.
Because there was nothing to say.
Near the outskirts of San Fernando.
Javier Cruz looked toward the northern horizon.
The distant explosions illuminated the clouds continuously.
Like lightning.
Except it never stopped.
The battle had been going for hours.
Yet the firing never slowed.
The artillery never stopped.
The aircraft never left.
The infected never quit.
A radio transmission suddenly echoed across the network.
All units.
All frequencies.
Priority traffic.
The voice belonged to Command.
"Reconnaissance assets confirm additional infected concentrations approaching Central Luzon."
Silence.
Then the final update came.
"Estimated arrival time... six hours."
Javier slowly lowered his rifle.
Around him, soldiers exchanged looks.
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone understood exactly what that meant.
Everything they had fought tonight.
Everything they had bombed.
Everything they had destroyed.
Was only the first wave.
And somewhere beyond the burning towns, shattered highways, and smoking battlefields of Pampanga...
Another army of infected was already on the way.