251 The base in Atlanta

Work in Atlanta had never stopped, not a single day had the workers at this site paused their work because they had little time to take in, clean and seal new areas.

They had spent a lot of time at this location and now the time had come for them to slowly take Atlanta. The easiest way without requiring much construction and safe for a good while was to bring containers from the port to the base and slowly fill them with sacks of earth once they were placed around the outskirts of the city. 

With eight high containers carefully placed to make a very strong wall, behind these containers to reinforce the walls so that very few things could get through, containers were placed vertically in the cracks.

When the containers were placed, a path would be built so that the watchmen could see what was happening outside the wall without any problem. But that wasn't all the Airon community had done; several security perimeters were created before anyone dreamed of reaching the container wall.

Cleared the city of cars, most of which were dismantled and others were used to seal off specific areas, leaving only special routes that the S.C.T. knew to move from one side to the other, this not only gave the community security for vehicles to enter the city, but also time to see who was approaching the checkpoints. 

The roads were sealed and several gates were created where soldiers maintained checkpoints and prevented walkers from passing into the city. It was a challenge to take the city bit by bit, most of the buildings have not even been used, and thousands if not hundreds of walkers were incinerated to avoid infections.

Today, the most important half of Atlanta belonged to the S.C.T. and Georgia where Shane led had taken a lot of ground where he prioritized the creation of weapons, vehicle modification and food production.

The food that was shipped from the prison is not enough to satisfy thousands of people, so specific greenhouses were created to survive even in winter. Unused fruits were processed to make them last longer so that not an ounce of food was wasted.

There were amazing people everywhere, who served the community well to sophisticate some things where they would later cause problems. After some hesitation, the scouting groups left signs in some cities around Atlanta, helicopters dropped notices informing that there was a safe place in Atlanta.

During all this time, the inhabitants in the S.C.T. in general amounted to more than sixteen thousand people between the outposts and all the bases where Airon people predominate. At that time, of course, many people had to be killed, others arrested and punished in public.

The strict system exists for second rank officers, who very rarely violate their authority over ranks one and are condemned accordingly if they do. There is no prison for prisoners, they are forced into hard labor or sent directly to laboratories to serve as experimental subjects.

Vaccines have been sent to all bases and it could be said that everyone now will not become walkers once they die, and this is all because Candace was able to create a predominant pathogen that can encapsulate the virus in the body at the time of death and have it spread turning people into walkers once the human's motor functions are completely shut down.

At that time, Candace and the leading scientists who had joined her group to find a cure discovered that those infected with the red eyes and practically running are humans with a virus called Rage which is a mutant Ebola virus, created by a primate research center in New York, the real purpose was to create an antidote that would cure human rabies.

From the words of the scientists in the community, it was speculated that at first the virus was just simple rabies and consequently they worked with ebola viruses to develop a cure that would eliminate the rage in the human body, but when this virus was introduced to a test subject with the Wildfire virus it mutated unexpectedly turning the walkers into a much more aggressive variant than any other virus.

Days after the virus was modified and introduced into the test subjects, no changes were seen and these same subjects were kept in isolation until the Wildfire virus altered the Ebola virus by mutating it, having a completely reversed effect, and instead of nullifying the violence, it increased it to excessively high levels.

This could explain why these walkers practically run and are much more aggressive than a normal walker, so the Airon community classified these walkers as runners, creating levels of danger in the alert protocols. 

But here is where it gets interesting, the intelligent walker that Airon killed with great difficulty, was something completely different born from the mutation of the Wildfire virus where it turned it into an intelligent walker that was known and together with the Ebola virus that turns walkers into runners resulted in the creation of an intelligent walker, strong, fast and can be maintained with non-living organisms. 

This does not mean that it is not decomposing, of course its body rots since it is dead, but it slows down to such an extent that they can last for years without their abilities and motor functions being used at the same level without any problem. 

But there was one discovery that alerted everyone and that is that saliva, a small scratch, swallowing their blood or bite turns humans into infected in a matter of seconds. This could be seen in the transfer of civilians in the military base in Texas, where a person was infected and ended up killing Carlos. 

Having this knowledge, the Arm-3J combat suits had been remodeled and were now predominantly Arm-4J which increased in defense, camouflage and mobility in addition to helping the wearer in many factors when fighting on the battlefield. 

This new Arm-4J is much more compressed to the body, its fit facilitates the user's mobility and protects the entire body from external injuries. The gas mask is now integrated into the suit, joining the whole system into one and even decreasing its weight. Gunpowder weapons can be attached to the body in an optimal way, making them more comfortable to use. 

In turn, Richard developed a weapon, two to be exact that were ideal to face the walkers in melee. The first was a compressed spear, which could be carried on the back of the Arm-4J suit and once in the user's hands it increased in size, proceeding to display a spear at the tips by means of a button that activated the entire mechanism. 

From this point on, the Arm-4Js were created to adapt the user to a totally new mechanism on the battlefield. The second weapon is a sword, not just any sword, it could even be considered a long knife that is carried at the waist of the wearers. 

With these two weapons, a very interesting fighting style was developed that many were learning. Coast in a double line formation, where long knife users go in front and spear users behind, these groups of warriors are employed only to eliminate hordes of walkers, where such a perfect formation can kill thousands of walkers without suffering many parries. 

Of course, this does not apply to close combat. Just now, Shane was in an open field where children aged 5 to 15 were training with the spear or knife, all were in front of dummies made of cardboard or recycled materials where they were aiming for the head or vulnerable areas like the knees. 

"It changed!" 

"Fua!" 

"It changed!" 

"Fua!" 

The children, who were sweating under the training, listened to their instructor's words and changed movements every time he was mentioned. 

"We must guard these children with our lives..." Shane said with an indifferent look, the people behind him listened to him silently and said nothing. 

"In one of my conversations with Airon he said something very true, let's take care of the children now with all our strength, they will be the ones to take care of us when we can't do it anymore." 

Shane turned to his men and said, "They will enjoy the future we are building, don't hesitate or do something stupid I will personally kill them!" 

"Captain Shane, some pirates have attacked the hunting party, your judgment is awaited before proceeding." Said a soldier who had arrived a moment ago. 

"You heard him, get to work!" 

"Yes, sir!" 

Shane headed to the area outside Atlanta to take care of these people, since Airon told him that there was no need to kill if there was salvation, he gradually understood it when his group's force became one of the most powerful in the new world. 

"You are always right, Airon..."

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