Apocalypse: King of Zombies

With a couple soldiers leading the way, the two of them went straight to the Military Command Center.

”Haha, you two are here early,” General Cross said.

The moment he heard Ethan had arrived, Cross and a few others set their work aside and came out to meet them right away.

”Not that early.” Ethan smiled. ”It’s already past eight.”

”For you young people, isn’t eight o’clock the best time to be dead asleep?”

”That was before,” Ethan said. ”It’s the apocalypse. Who’s still sleeping in?”

General Cross laughed. ”Fair point. You came this early because of the satellite phone, right?”

”Yeah.” Ethan nodded. ”Having no comms is a huge pain.”

”Understood.” General Cross’s expression turned a little awkward. ”I managed to fight for one satellite phone for you. But Atlas City’s area is under pretty tight control right now—each compound is only authorized one. This is the absolute limit of what I can get you.”

”One?” Ethan frowned, helpless. ”Alright. One it is.”

Better than nothing.

”Okay. Director Michael—go get Ethan his satellite phone.”

”Got it.”

Michael hurried out. A moment later he came back with a satellite phone and handed it to Ethan.

Really, a ”satellite phone” was just a special kind of smartphone. It connected to satellite signal instead of relying on local infrastructure, so it could still communicate even when everything else was down.

In a doomsday where normal networks had collapsed, it was incredibly valuable.

”Oh—right.” Ethan looked up. ”General Cross, is the national satellite network operational now?”

”More or less.” General Cross nodded. ”Most government-built compounds are already connected to satellite communications.”

”Then do you know how many large compounds there are nationwide right now?”

”We don’t have an exact number,” General Cross said, his tone turning heavy. ”A lot of non-government compounds don’t have contact with us at all. And even some government compounds haven’t established communications with us for various reasons.”

He paused. ”Right now, the large compounds we’ve confirmed and kept in contact with… a bit over fifty.”

”Fifty-plus…” Ethan nodded.

That was low.

The Atlas Federation alone had close to three hundred major cities. If they’d only linked up with fifty-some compounds, not even half of the big cities were accounted for. It wasn’t hard to guess what that meant—plenty of places had probably fallen completely.

And that was just the ones they’d managed to connect with. There were definitely more out there with no contact.

Across all the small and mid-sized cities, there were bound to be a lot of non-government compounds too.

The Atlas Federation didn’t lack ambitious people. It also didn’t lack capable ones.

”General Cross,” Ethan asked, ”among the compounds you can reach—do you have Ironhaven City, Whitefall City, and Goldcrest City?”

”Ironhaven City and Goldcrest City, yes. Whitefall City, no.”

”Got it.” Ethan nodded.

Then he got to the point. ”There’s something I’d like to ask you to help with.”

General Cross’s eyes sharpened. ”It’s what you mentioned last time—helping your team find their parents, right?”

”Yeah.”

”That’s easy.” General Cross thumped his chest. ”Give me the info. I’ll personally call them.”

”Alright. Thanks, General Cross.”

Ethan was pretty comfortable trusting him.

And honestly, this really did need to be Cross. If Ethan’s team called directly, odds were the other side wouldn’t even bother responding.

But General Cross was the Joint Base Commander—government and military people basically all knew his name. When he spoke, doors opened.

After that, Ethan gave General Cross the information for Sean’s and Skinny Pete’s parents. Cross immediately called the people in charge of the compounds in those two cities—right in front of Ethan.

The compounds in Ironhaven City and Goldcrest City had both been built by the military.

In the apocalypse, the only ones who could really establish a foothold in a major city were the armed forces. Early on, modern weapons had way too many advantages.

As for everyone else… no matter how strong you were, trying to hold a big city was almost impossible. Even Ethan’s group had been forced to build their compound out in a county instead.

The person running Ironhaven City seemed to be on good terms with General Cross. They chatted for a bit, and when Cross asked him to help locate someone, the guy agreed without hesitation.

But when it came time to call Goldcrest City, the vibe clearly shifted.

General Cross went back and forth for a long while before finally hanging up.

”What?” Ethan asked. ”He wouldn’t do it?”

”It’s not that,” General Cross said, rubbing his forehead. ”I just didn’t expect Goldcrest City’s head to be Leonard Hale. That man’s… difficult.”

He sighed. ”But it’s fine. He’s profit-driven. I promised him a Tier 8 crystal core, and he agreed to help look.”

”Alright. Sorry for the trouble,” Ethan said. ”We’ll provide that crystal core afterward.”

As long as they could bring everyone’s families back to Fallen Star City and let the team settle down, Ethan didn’t care about a small price like that.

”Oh, right—General Cross.” Ethan leaned back a little. ”Those two idiots from last time… they leave already?”

”Two idiots?” Cross blinked, then clicked. ”You mean the two from Atlas City? Yeah. They went back two days ago.”

Ethan nodded. ”About what they said—low-tier crystal cores can be merged into higher-tier ones. Is that real?”

”It’s real,” General Cross said. ”The tech isn’t mature yet, but Atlas City is taking it extremely seriously. They’ve poured manpower and resources into research on crystal core fusion. I’d say it won’t be long before they make a major breakthrough.”

He added, ”Mainly because Atlas City is… ruthless. They wiped out a huge portion of the zombies before the zombies even had a chance to grow. So now they have mountains of low-tier crystal cores, but not many high-tier ones. They have to solve it from this angle.”

Ethan’s expression went a bit blank. ”So killing too fast isn’t always a good thing. Didn’t think I’d ever hear that sentence.”

General Cross nodded. ”Exactly. So with the remaining zombies, they haven’t been in a rush to clean them up. They’re letting them grow first—then killing them.”

”…That’s insane,” Ethan muttered. ”Atlas City really is Atlas City.”

”Did they share the fusion technique with you?” Ethan asked.

”No,” General Cross said. ”It’s not mature yet, so there’s not much point. But Atlas City might have each compound send people there next month. When that happens, compounds can trade their low-tier crystal cores for high-tier ones.”

”So they’re concentrating resources,” Ethan said.

”More or less.” General Cross didn’t deny it. ”But honestly, if people can trade useless low-tier cores for high-tier cores, plenty will jump at the chance.”

”Fair.”

Ethan paused, then asked the question he actually cared about. ”Atlas City’s leadership—still the same top guy as before?”

General Cross shook his head. ”Atlas City is complicated now. There isn’t one clear supreme commander. It’s being run by a joint command system made up of five major factions.”

He hesitated, then continued. ”Most of those factions are backed by old military or political families with deep roots, so people have gotten used to calling them the ’Five Great Families.’”

”Five Great Families?” Ethan frowned. He didn’t really know that level of inside baseball.

Mia spoke up from the side, clearly more familiar with the landscape. ”They’re the Kane family, Hale family, Mercer family, Whitaker family, and Caldwell family. Those five have been entrenched in Atlas City for a long time.”

”Right.” General Cross spread his hands helplessly. ”They’re mostly aligned on the big picture, but each has its own agenda. So the situation’s messy.”

Ethan looked at him. ”So what does Atlas City want to do with all the other compounds?”

General Cross glanced between Ethan and Mia, hesitation flickering in his eyes.

”If it’s not convenient to say, forget it,” Ethan said casually.

”Since you asked, I won’t hide it.” General Cross exhaled. ”That gathering next month is probably a way to take everyone’s measure. After that… Atlas City will likely have compounds like ours—military and government-controlled—merge the non-government compounds into us, so everything is unified under government dispatch.”

”And if they don’t cooperate?” Ethan asked.

”Then…” General Cross’s voice tightened. ”They’ll probably be merged by force.”

”Got it.”

Ethan nodded. The answer didn’t surprise him. He’d figured this day would come sooner or later.

But with Fallen Star Squad’s current strength, who forced who wasn’t exactly a sure thing.

He didn’t want conflict with the government…

But he wasn’t afraid of it either. In the apocalypse, who the hell still wanted to be controlled?