Chapter 150 Lightning Raid


    The streets were utterly deserted. Not a single soul walked the crumbling sidewalks, and every visible vehicle had either crashed or been abandoned. Dust nketed them like a burial shroud, their exteriors. corroded and decaying under months of wind and rain.


    Severalrge dumpsters had been overturned in the chaos-hit by vehicles or toppled by something worse. Their contents had festered into a reeking stew, alive with maggots and buzzing with flies.


    Death. Decay. Destruction. Chaos. And zombies-everywhere.


    The entire city was devoid of life. Nothing moved except the wandering dead.


    It had only been six months since the world ended, but the city looked like it had rotted for a century.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Theresa’s armored car tore through the deste cityscape like a bolt of lightning. Sparks flew, steel screamed, and her wheels crushed everything in their path. Any zombies that couldn’t keep up were left behind, scattering into the ruins. The ones who stayed too close got a taste of fire and reinforced steel.


    Bang! Bang!


    She didn’t slow for a second.


    Full speed ahead-straight through hordes of undead-toward her destination: the tech park.


    Most of the buildings in the tech park were rtively clear. The apocalypse had broken out just before dawn, right before work hours, so officeplexes like this had been sparsely popted. A grim silver lining.


    But the surrounding area? Packed with residential neighborhoods.


    That meant trouble. Lots of it.


    If they were exposed out here, they’d risk being swarmed from all directions.


    Theresa’s n? A blitz.


    Get in. Get out. Fast.


    “Kyle,” she barked over her shoulder, “I’ll open the gate. Park the truck inside the courtyard. Hold the line. Don’t let anything through!”


    “Got it!”


    They found Hugo’s research building without much trouble. It stood alone, a blocky modern structure with its own yard, guard booth, and heavy iron gates. Perfect.


    Theresa mmed on the brakes just outside and leapt from the vehicle, wasting no time. The undead


    weren’t far behind.


    “Raaargh!” A zombified security guard, still wearing his uniform, lunged at her from inside the guard


    booth.


    Shing!


    One swift stab through the booth’s grimy window. The zombie copsed in a twitching heap.


    She kicked the door open and rushed to the gate controls.


    The undead pack thundered closer as the iron gate groaned and rolled open.


    “Get in!” she shouted.


    Kyle hit the gas and roared through the entrance. As soon as he cleared the opening, Theresa summoned a spinning sphere of water in her palm and hurled it at the closest pursuers, sttering them across the


    pavement.


    Not a single corpse made it through.


    She mmed the gate shut behind Kyle.


    ng!


    Two or three dozen zombies wed at the other side of the gate, their moans rising into a chorus of hunger and rage. Skeletal hands reached between the bars, their pale, cracked faces twisted in ravenous fury.


    “Raaahh!”


    “Grraaa!”


    The gate rattled on its hinges under the relentless assault.


    “Kyle,” Theresa said, already moving toward the research building, “we hit fast and get out faster!”


    There was no point wasting time killing the horde-they’d never be able to clear them all, and more would


    They just needed to grab what they came for and get the hell out before the gate gave way.


    Theresa sprinted to the entrance. A card reader and keypad blocked their path. She punched in a string of numbers without hesitation.


    Beep. The door clicked open.


    She and Kyle rushed inside.


    Hugo had been true to his word. Every detail he’d given her was urate.


    The building had six floors. The first four wereboratories filled with equipment; the fifth and sixth held offices and archives. She’d been given the security codes for every room.


    ording to Hugo, besides a lone security guard, there had only been threete-shift researchers in the building when the outbreak hit. All three had been working in Room 103 on the first floor. He swore no one else would be inside.


    Sure enough, as they burst into the hallway, they saw three zombies wandering aimlessly in Room 103- and nowhere else.


    The rest of the building was a ghost town.


    This wasn’t like the disaster with Monica, where every step had been a trap. No surprises. No lies. Just solid intel.


    This was how operations should be run-every step mapped out, every second ounted for.


    Theresa’s n allowed for thirty minutes. That was the maximum time the front gate would hold.


    If everything went smoothly, they could finish in ten.


    “Kyle, take out the ones in Room 103,” she ordered. “Then start unlocking every door with the codes I gave you.”


    While he handled that, she raced from room to room, collecting the critical materials they’de for.