In a random alleyway somewhere in Tokonosu City during the chaos of Operation New Dawn, a constant gunshot could be heard coming from the narrow alley as a group of five men were currently running away from a small horde of zombies chasing them while they kept shooting at the zombies that randomly appeared and were blocking their escape path with their guns.
The group of five men had been fighting and running for their lives ever since the Freedom Carrier started their relentless bombardment of the city that had woken them up from their sleep, and unfortunately for their little bandit group that had been holed up in a convenience store as they tried to survive the apocalypse by scavenging, looting, and robbing the other survivors, the great commotion not only made them not being able to get back to sleep but also brought in nasty surprise as a big horde of zombies that was attracted by the loud explosions' noise were moving straight towards their convenience store location, so there's nothing they can do other than run away from their base in panic with very few supplies in their hands.
They felt very regretful that they didn't leave the city right after the sudden arrival of the Freedom Carrier's helicopters that actually gave them a clear warning to leave the city before shit hit the fan, and now they were paying the price for their stupidity and ignorance.
"Ah, son of a—?!"
Then suddenly one of the men with a shotgun in his hand stumbles on a random thick glass bottle on the ground that he didn't see and dramatically falls to the ground on his hands and knees while his four friends don't even try to help or spare him any glance as they leave him there since their comradely bond is simply nonexistent.
"The fuck?! H-hey! Hey, help me, you fuckers!! Oh, fuck…!"
The kneeling man cried out in panic to his bandit friends for help, but the zombies, with their decaying flesh and endless hunger in their soulless eyes, were upon him in an almost instant with their jaws wide open as they tore into his body like starved animals while he cried out in agony and despair, his dying scream echoing in the alleyway behind the group of running men.
"Holy fuck! That dumbass Sanada just became a happy meal!"
A man with tribal tattoos on his face who was running in front of the group, looking back at their "hero" who selflessly sacrificed himself to hold back the zombies for them to escape with a mocking expression while also giving the dying Sanada a middle finger in honor of his sacrifice spirit, now the group can relax a bit since they don't have to be too careful of each other anymore.
Despite the crisis on their hands, the group was quite on edge and wary of each other, as anyone in this group is a potential backstabbing bastard that can turn someone into a sacrificial lamb at the unexpected moment, but with the heroic sacrifice of Sanada, they now can have peace of mind for the time being.
It can be said that Sanada's act of unwilling selflessness is bringing back the group unity in the time of crisis. He truly is a hero.
"Fuck his stupid ass, and fuck you too, you slow piece of shit! You can't run any faster?!"
The boss of the group, a bald, burly man in a black tank top with a police revolver in his hand, shouted from behind the tattoo-faced man with a ragged breath as he was currently sweating like a pig; he wished he did cardio more and not just concentrate on lifting to get muscles at the gym.
"Yeah, sure thing!"
"W-what the…?! Don't run too fast, you bastard!"
"H-hey! Slow down a bit…!"
The tattoo-faced man scoffed at the boss before he suddenly ran faster as the space between him and the group widened. It's he who slows his pace down to match them, not the other way around! He thought while considering ditching the group to escape alone while the others desperately tried to catch up with him but failed miserably.
After a couple of minutes, as the group is about to exit the alleyway, the screaming Sanada abruptly goes silent and alerts the group.
"Great, the fucker just dropped dead..."
"What a useless bastard, can't even last long enough for us to get out of the alley…"
The group grumbled as they sprinted through the alleyway into the streets with the tattoo-faced man leading them out, the smell of burning flesh and smoke filling their nostrils while they stopped to catch their breath in the middle of the road.
In their distracted and tired state, they didn't notice a white van speeding at them with its very quiet engine from the other side of the road, and when they finally noticed it, it was too late.
"Ah…?"
"Holy shit?!"
The van didn't stop; it simply plowed through two of them in the middle and sent the two victims flying while the lucky ones jumped away from their position in flight. The van then screeched to a halt ten meters away from the two standing bandits, with the van's back door immediately sliding open, and a group of ten Freedom Guards armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons and a malevolent grin jumped out. They looked like agents of death in their black suits and sunglasses amidst the city turned war zone as the two bandits watched them with bewildered faces and ominous feelings.
"Yo~! You boys have fun cleaning this area up; I'm going now~!"
In the van's driver's seat, a pretty woman with long white hair and pale blue eyes waved her hand out from the van window at the group of Freedom Guards in a playful goodbye as she immediately drove the van away, leaving them to do what they were meant to do, which is total extermination of all hostility.
The bandits looked at each other in horror as the Freedom Guards approached, their miniguns, shotguns, and flamethrowers held at the ready.
"Fuuuuck—!!"
The remaining bandits decided to do the sensible thing and make a run for it, which was not very helpful as they immediately got ripped apart by the miniguns…
Many similar scenes such as this could be seen throughout Tokonosu City as the Freedom vans and the helicopters transported the Freedom Guard teams all over the city as they began their extermination, but not indiscriminately, as the undesirable survivors are already marked so the unmarked ones are left alone after getting flushed out of their hidden places.
"Well then, where to next?"
The driver of the van earlier, or Zeshibana, Zeno's shadow clone, hummed to herself as she steered the van through the ruined streets while shooting the grenade launcher in front of the road to clear the way from time to time. She then picked up a visor and equipped it on her face, the visor's HUD flickering to life as she scanned the display map of the city and the text box of the incoming orders to pick another team of Freedom Guards at the east base.
"Oh~? What's this? Some rat is heading towards me, how unfortunate~!"
Zeshibana said as she saw the visor display a red dot of a marked survivor on the map that was moving towards her direction, probably one of the bandits or lunatics, and Zeshibana couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement at the prospect of a live target.
"Looks like another vermin in need of freedom~!"
She giggled to herself with an innocent smile as she turned on the music to hype up the mood.
[ Pain—!! You make me a, you make me a Believer! Believer~! ]
Later on, a bandit-looking guy could be seen spinning up high in the air after the Freedom van crashed into him while the Believer song is playing from the van.
"I'm Drivin' here~!"
÷×÷×÷
As the day went on past noon, the commotions in Tokonosu City began to calm down, but the sounds of gunfire and explosions still could be heard from time to time, but with less frequency than before, as the Freedom Guards encountered less and less opposition in their paths. The leftover survivors of Tokonosu City were either smart enough to realize the futility of resisting against such an overwhelming force and just begrudgingly went to the shelter camp to be under Zeno's rule, or some decided to just risk it all and escape the city to the wilderness, hoping for the best.
As for the zombie population in the city right now, half of them are successfully exterminated as their bodies are piling up in the center of the city. The other half are either rendered immobile with their bodies barely functional or still stuck in some places throughout the city, awaiting their inevitable fate of extermination.
The Freedom Carrier's force now had set up roadblocks and patrols in the outskirts of Tokonosu City, ensuring that no one could get in and out of the city without the Freedom Guards' permission. The few that had tried to force their way through were swiftly dealt with, serving as a gruesome example to the others.
Tokonosu City is almost in Freedom Carrier's total control, as Zeno estimated that the operation New Dawn will be completed in the late evening, as Tokonosu City will be the first infection-free zone in the world.
÷×÷×÷
At the highway five kilometers away from the city, the escaping Takagi family and their people looked back as they observed the silhouette of Tokonosu City with trails of black smoke rising high on the horizon. Their expressions were quite grim with a mix of determination and resentment since they lost some people when they were escaping through the city from the undead and some armed group of lunatics because of the ultimatum from the Freedom Carrier that drove them to leave the city prematurely.
They can't really do anything to the source of their misfortune, though, since they had witnessed the sheer scale of the company's military might compared to them, who are just a group of civilians with some training. If they decide to fight with the Freedom Carrier, they won't last even half an hour before the company curb-stomps them.
"They're tearing the city apart…"
Said Souichiro as he looked back at the city from the car window with his hand tightly gripping the binoculars as he watched the destruction in the city while some of the skyscrapers crumbled down from the mortar bombardment.
"They're going all out, aren't they?"
Hiroshi, who was the one driving the car, said dispassionately next to Souichiro, his eyes kept on the road as he led the convoy of their group along the highway.
Souichiro grunted in response as his gaze was harsher than usual. He is very displeased with everything that has been going on since the outbreak began and that he couldn't do anything significant to help any citizens of Tokonosu City while the foreign company is more active and helpful than his group in taking care of the problems.
"Unfortunately, there's nothing more we can do. Let's speed up and put some distance between the city and us as much as possible. Who knows if the Freedom Carrier will suddenly change their mind and come to force us to comply with them or something?"
"Alright."
Having seen enough of the city, Souichiro eventually came back inside the car and told Hiroshi to speed up before he pulled out the walkie-talkie to give out his order.
"This is Souichiro speaking. Scout team, go scout ahead and report back the situation around our destination."
"Yes, sir!"
After hearing the affirmative response back, Souichiro put down the walkie-talkie, his eyes reflecting the unbreakable resolve that was carved within his soul. He had seen the way Freedom Carrier operated, the way they had turned everyone and everything into their little obedient subjects with absolute power. Souichiro could not be under such a tyrant's rule, not when their true motivation was still unclear to him.
"Should we stop by and gather the supplies along the way if we can?"
Hiroshi asked as he wanted to fill up their low supplies with how unprepared they are when they leave the estate.
"We should do that, but we must be self-sufficient soon when we find a new base. We cannot rely on scavenging for supplies forever."
Souichiro's voice was firm as he thought about their future. He knew that they couldn't just find a place to stay and hope for the zombies to die out; they would need to fortify and strengthen themselves too after they managed to build a sustainable community. The world had already changed, and it was now survival of the fittest, so their enemy will not be only just a mindless undead but other humans as well.
"We must stand strong for what is to come…"
Souichiro mumbles as his grip on the katana sheath tightens as he looks at the road ahead with determination, while unbeknownst to him, their struggles could be over very quickly depending entirely on Zeno's whim, as the Supreme Leader of the Liberty can literally end everything in a week with just one interdimensional phone call.
Well, what could the humans in this world actually do when the huge black sci-fi spaceships blot out the sky with their main cannons that can tear through any modern-era warship's hull in seconds other than surrender outright?
It is what it is...