Step 9

-နိုးထ

°•○● - Step 9 /T

Morning hours were the hardest. Eren woke up with a bad migraine headache. He drank a sip of water from his bottle and swallowed a pain reliever pill. When he took out his cigarette and got up, even walking felt disgusting.

Eren was sure that even if he was having sex at that moment, he wouldn't enjoy it. He didn't know what he had done to deserve such pain. But Eren had to forget his troubles because the war was beginning. When he got to the wall, he saw a few of the zombies start to move.

Electronic weapons were turned on at the same time. All ready-to-use weapons were unlocked and zombies were waited to become to the range.

Morsh was sitting atop a high watchtower, peering into the distance. In the radio mode of his comm, he was saying encouraging things to all groups of soldiers. His wife Lara, who was next to him, took command when the zombies approached. From then on, Morsh would only provide information, while Lara would lead the soldiers.

Eren was in constant communication with the sleek and waterproof ear-bud he wore in his left ear. This was given by the town and it was even better than the best ones on the Earth. The quality of sound and talking modes were superb. Also, Eren could use it to hear distant voices. It was a real next-generation product.

Eren prepared his rifle and activated the aim-assist mode while listening to the commands of Lara from his ear-bud. His heart rate was too fast.

The first shot was ordered when the zombies were hundreds of meters away. All bomb-throwing guns started firing at the same time.

Fvuuuuh ..... boom!

As soon as the first bomb fell among the zombies, a noise that wouldn't end for hours, began. Among the sounds like thunder, Eren and soldiers using all medium-range weapons aimed at hundreds of incoming zombies. Shredded pieces of bloody meat were thrown into the air. Screaming and roaring sounds were heard.

Eren smiled when she saw Sophie sitting next to her being taken away by an old man coming from behind. His family wouldn't let him get into this kind of danger.

After a while, the man who took Sophie came back and took Sophie's place. He glanced at Eren once and started to watch the zombies approach.

[Is he her father or brother?] Eren didn't know. Moreover, he did not have enough time to care!

Eren thought he would use his gun seconds later, but seconds turned to minutes. As the wait continued, he had time to calm down a bit. He changed to a more relaxed position and stopped holding his body in a tense position. He realized again how nervous he was.

At that time, he noticed that the grenade-launcher-type weapons, which continued to fire at the zombies, were firing more and more slowly.

"Hey, they said the bullet capacity has increased."

"How much can it be? Everyone is ignoring us! The highest rank in town is a knight."

"I wish there was someone with higher rank in our town."

"Me too, fuck this shit!"

With the speech of the two soldiers, Eren realized that this comfort was about to end. A minute later, Lara's voice echoed in his ear.

"Fire at will!"

It is natural to lose yourself with the tension of war. They are moments when everyone acts as a single body and serves a common purpose.

Eren too lost himself with this firing order. All he saw was the zombies coming closer and the instinct to stop them. All his concentration was on the zombies approaching at that moment. He aimed and fired. Then he aimed at another group and fired again.

Knowing that there was no shortage of bullets for the gun in his hand, he fired continuously until his fingers ached and his shoulder starts to hurt.

He was sweating with the warmth of the gun and the tension he is feeling. Small bugs came to his forehead or arms and disturbed him. Yet, Eren continued the fire as if he was hypnotized. At one point he heard a little ringing in his head, but he didn't even mind this strange thing.

Eren felt the tension and energy around him increased as the zombie groups approached. He, too, was excited by this feeling and tried to move even faster. Eren wasn't faster but more practical at that time, and the number of zombies he could kill didn't change. But firing at more difficult targets was important for now.

As Eren aimed at nearby zombies, he hit less often and missed more often. Even the automatic aim assist on his gun was an old model and was useless in long wars as it consumed a lot of the electronic battery of the gun. Eren realized this situation very late and turned off the aim-aid angrily.

Even if it was technically high, what he had was basically a rifle. Moreover, this planet has experienced great turmoil and a big apocalypse. So finding and using technology in its most optimal and perfect form only depended on luck. Eren was sure that much stronger technologies were produced for wars on this planet. The only bad thing, this town did not have those technologies.

Hearing curses from somewhere, he noticed a paramedic carrying a soldier who had been poisoned by insect bites. Eren stopped paying attention to his surroundings because he was very nervous after he was ordered to fire. Now he started to watch his surroundings for the first time.

And he realized what he had never thought of until then.

"Insects!"

Eren looked in the direction of Morsh and was relieved to see something. A soldier was roaming among the defenders and giving a couple of drugs to them. When everyone started to take their pill form of antidotes, insect problems were reduced.

[So that's the animalistic feeling I feel. Scavengers. They can even poison people with genetic upgrades]

After this 15-second break, Eren saw that middle-aged man was taking a break. He was connected with Sophie and Eren knew their family was used to guns and wars. He had taken a break even before Eren, and during this time he was examining the zombies while increasing his energy.

Eren didn't immediately go on fire with the excitement of the incident. He copied this calm-looking man decided to wait a few more seconds. His whole body was aching, including his shoulders. His camouflage and contents were drenched with sweat.

[I'm sure I smell worse than a garbage can right now]

..

When minutes and then hours passed, Eren realized why people preferred zombies to mutants.

Regardless, as long as you have enough firepower and you are organized enough, it was easy to kill zombies.

At first, he thought that the events would worsen within minutes. Whenever he thought that they were doomed, the incident was saved with the continuous shooting of the tired soldiers and the bombs thrown. It all depended on a highly fragile balance.

..

In this way, time passed. Just as a pure sense of victory surrounded his body, Eren heard a message that made him drop the cigarette in his mouth. Lara's voice rang in her ear.

"The main group of zombies is approaching. They are coming from the north and east. According to the latest information, we have half an hour. Everyone should have a rest!"

Eren felt happy when the zombie groups decreased for the last hour. For the last few minutes, he even thought the conflict was about to end. Just before Lara's massage, he said himself this experience was a little fun.

[Wtf? Was it only the front group we fought all this time!]

He shook his head and sighed.

Eren swallowed a little food packet in one go with a disgusted face. He threw its garbage down the wall. Everywhere was already mountained with filth and zombie bodies.

[I guess, environmental and positive thoughts can screw themselves!]

Eren lighted another cigarette and saw the anticipated look of the old soldier next to him.

"Don't hesitate and take it, bro..."

Eren and this man had been in silent communication with each other in the last hours. The two took breaks or drank water at the same times. The amount of time they watched each other as if they were some sort of partner wasn't short. Once or twice they pointed to flying insects on top of each other and changed positions, and even shared a few magazines.

"It tastes very bad."

Eren smiled. "I don't have a lot of money, so I always buy the cheapest packages. It can't be that bad. I think they're okay."

"Hah! Let me show you what real tobacco tastes like. Once you have smoked from my own cigarettes, you won't even look at these."

"I will try yours then. Do you buy them or grow them yourself."

Old mas was pissed for some reason. "I tried to grow mine many times but the soil won't let me. This area's soil gives %0 chance of cultivating."

Eren was glad that he had good communication with the warm man. He already knew he got along well with older people, but after Nihan, he felt like he had no male friends. Morsh was a commander and they didn't have enough time to relax like bros.

"What kind of relationship do you have with Sophie? She is my friend. She even helped me a lot in learning your language."

"My niece. She is a good girl."

"Yeah."

..

After twenty minutes Eren remembered an important thing.

"Oh, how big is the approaching herd than we just fought?"

This time, it was Eren who looked at the other man with anticipation. He waited for the answer in fear.

"It was just a pre-dinner snack. Now, a huge baked dinosaur comes to the table for us to eat."

It wasn't a good answer for already tired Eren.

Eren changed the magazines of his guns one by one.

He leaned against the trench at the edge of the wall. Then he put his gun down in a proper position and fired at the giant zombie horde in the distance. He didn't want to take a tiring position for the distant zombies yet. At that moment, all he wanted was to end this war and go to sleep.

Eren suddenly dropped the cigarette in his mouth, but he didn't have time to take a new one. Meanwhile, he heard another ringing in his head. But he thought it was just a problem in his ears.

Eren never thought that anything was happening in his body.

...