Chapter 5 - Reclaiming City Hall

Garrett and his squad proceed to the City Hall. It was about 3 miles or so through the city but with vehicles they were making good time.

They just had to deal with a zombie or 10. But Garrett took care of them quickly. And it only took a bolt each time. With his agility and senses where they were he was aiming and popping them as fast as a professional archer at a tournament. He really felt like he was better than his prime now. But he wasn't getting arrogant.

He knew many soldiers who trained for over a decade and felt like they were invincible on the field. Only for a stray sniper round or a well hidden mine trap to end their career.

Until his stats were at least 50 or higher on average. He wasn't going to pretend he was captain America or something. Though once he was there... He would probably be captain America. Physically anyway.

They make it closer to City Hall and the sound of gunfire starts up again as they hear a lot of moaning and groaning coming from the building.

They pick up the pace and reach there in the next 3 minutes. Only to turn the corner to see a group of about 15 people with pistols, shot guns, some basic sub-machine guns, and the odd assault rifle or two shooting into a crowd of at least 300 zombies. Maybe more as they were flooding out of the nearby buildings and streets that Garrett and his troops didn't take. He noticed the shot gun users were cops and the sub-machine gun users were swat. The Assault rifles were used by soldiers, though he didn't recognize these ones. But they were obviously struggling and doing what they could to fight back despite what looks like diminishing ammo reserves.

He slams the trucks main carriage and motions for Mboto to stop. They halt as the nearest zombies notice them and begin to shamble towards them.

Garrett grits his teeth as he begins to take arrow shots at the approaching zombies killing them one bolt at a time.

He yells out, "Marines! Reinforce and rescue tactic B47! Now!"

Mboto, Tomoe, Hicks, and Marina all nod and rush out of the vehicles, Marina takes her rifle and goes manual mode and begins to pop heads from the top of the Uhaul truck, Tomoe reinforces by being on the Ford truck and shooting with her crossbow bolts alongside Mboto who is helping with well placed short bursts from his assault rifle to conserve ammo.

Hicks was up close and personal with the zombie enemies as he used the riot batton and a riot shotgun to beat back and shoot up to 3 zombies at once. Garrett was going old school with his pistol but also adding in a machete he grabbed from the survival store. All together he and his squad was making good progress being a diversion to ease the hordes pressure on City halls defenders.

The Defense line noticed their reinforcements and cheered loudly and began to fight more aggressively against the oncoming horde. The zombies began to fall one by one faster and faster.

Garrett was a storm in the zombie horde. He definitely noticed his growth as he was feeling much more energetic and feeling the rush of having such power over such weak opponents.

Until he stabbed into the chest of a huge and ripped zombie. He noticed where his knife landed, the heart of some huge pecs. And looked up to see a solid 7ft tall ripped body builder who obviously used steroids. But his zombie form had way more muscle and bulk to it than the average person. Garrett looked between his knife and the zombie a few times before going, "Well shit."

The zombie immediately tries to bear hug him and crush him. But Garrett manages to pull his knife out and retreat from the hug. Rolling backwards he brings his pistol up to bear and unloads the next 8 rounds into the zombies neck and skull. It stumbles back as its head is half gone and the neck is shredded. Garrett remains in his ready position and his knife at the ready as he reloads his now empty clip.

The zombie looks back down at him and its remaining left eye seems to get a sickly green glow. Garrett goes pale as that was the same glow that he and his troops took in the form of those pills. He brings his pistol up and fires at the eye. It goes dark but a new eye appears in the abs of this thing!

Garrett yelps and lets loose another 5 rounds at that new eye before leaping up and driving his knife into the remaining gray matter of the bulk zombie.

It gurgles as the ab eye and remaining brain are shredded. Making it fall to its knees and die in a final death spasm.

Garrett huffs as he had to use way more stamina than he thought to pierce its skin and muscles for that last attack. It was way more dangerous than the average zombie. He turns as the horde is down to stragglers and goes to help finish them off.

In the next few minutes they have cleaned up the remaining zombies and have begun to pile them up with the help of the defenders and some volunteers from the inside of city hall to burn the bodies to avoid disease.

Garrett takes off his helmet and approaches the trio of soldiers who are watching the burning to ensure no one gets bitten by a zombie playing dead. Garrett asks, "Colonel Garrett Grimsborne of the marines. Who is in charge here?"

The trio of soldiers look to each other then to a man walking out of the city hall. He is in fatigues with a knife and a pistol on his hip. But nothing much else. He has a general patch on his uniform and Garrett comes to attention. The general eyes Garrett up and down before grinning in a smug way, "Thanks for the assist there Colonel, my men had it handled but the reinforcements are very much welcomed. Thanks."

Garrett nods and asks, "We also brought supplies, ammo, and weapons. Where should we put them?"

The General thinks before going, "Put them in the City hall locker rooms, its where we put all that gear and the supplies to ensure no one can access them so easily and without permission since only the soldiers know the combination."

Garrett nods and drives the truck while Mboto drives the Uhaul to the directed door way closest to the lockers. With the help of about 5 other civilians they manage to get the supplies unloaded and prepped while hiding the working trucks in the garage behind city hall in the underground parking area. They manage to secure them and head up to meet the others.

They see the survivor area with about 20 kids, 50 adults who are civilians, and about 10 elderly folks.

He hums as he sees the General approaching them, "Sorry for the late introduction Colonel I am General Byers, I worked hard to make sure we had this many survivors from around the city. Anyway come with me."

Garrett follows the general into the city hall main meeting room where a man with graying hair in a suit is there, alongside a police chief. The general sits at the head while he invites Garrett to sit on the other end of the table. He goes, "Now Colonel, to bring you up to speed about our situation and to make sure we have an understanding about what your squad will do for us here. Are you ready?"

Garrett nods and settles in for a no doubt long discussion. While he settles down he notices two messages from the system.

Congratulations on defeating a full horde! +1 to every stat!

Good job on taking your first mutant down! Strength mutant ability is absorbed into strength! +3 to strength!

Base gained! +1 to Int and Sense stats!

Garrett sighed quietly to himself in satisfaction at this. At least while it was a stressful situation and he was no doubt going to be exploited for having a fresh squad and working vehicles, he at least got something good out of this whole event.

Current stats of Garret Grimsborne:

Str- 30 +4 = 34

Agi- 25 +1 =26

Sta- 31 +1= 32

Int- 23 +2 = 25

Sense- 25 +2= 27

Store points - 975