Chapter 180: Buying Time

"Fuck." Jaxon immediately pushed himself up from his position. His eyes went straight toward the south, where he had left Natasha, Na-rin, and the others.’Natasha... I need to get them out of here.’

He slung his DMR over his shoulder and sprinted across the rooftop before leaping to the next building. He moved from one rooftop to another, using the height to stay above the chaos spreading through the streets.

As he passed over the battlefield, his eyes briefly caught sight of the Special Units still fighting. They were scattered across the buildings, using their Dual Cable Launchers to move between positions while trying to slow the infected pouring through the streets.

Jaxon barely spared them a glance. He had more important people to worry about.

Farther down the streets, Annie and Lina were still fighting the Crawlers when Annie suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure moving rapidly across the rooftops.

"Jaxon?" she muttered, lowering her weapon slightly. "Where’s he going?"

Lina looked in the same direction and immediately recognized him. "That was Jaxon?"

Annie’s eyes narrowed as she watched him disappear across the rooftops. "What about the breach?"

Before Lina could answer, her expression suddenly changed as she pointed behind Jaxon. "Annie... look."

Annie turned as her eyes widened.

A massive black mass of bodies was surging through the opening and the wall, climbing over itself and spreading across the streets like a living wave. Their numbers had grown so enormous that the ground itself seemed to disappear beneath the mass of writhing bodies.

"We need to get back to the others. Now!"

Annie and Lina immediately fired their Dual Cable Launchers toward the surrounding buildings and pulled themselves away from the battlefield. They swung between the rooftops, quickly making their way back toward the rest of their squad.

"Commander!" Lina landed on a nearby rooftop and immediately shouted toward Reynold. "We can’t stay here!"

Reynold had been reorganizing the Special Units that had arrived from the other sectors. He turned toward Lina as soon as he heard the urgency in her voice. "What happened?"

"The breach," Annie said as she landed beside Lina, still catching her breath. "You need to see it."

Reynold frowned but he pulled out his binoculars and looked toward the breach.

For several seconds, he said nothing. Then his expression darkened. "What the hell...?"

Through the binoculars, he could see the enormous mass of infected pouring through the breach. The horde was overflowing into the safe zone like water bursting through a broken dam, spreading across the streets and swallowing everything in its path.

Reynold slowly lowered the binoculars. "We’re falling back."

Several soldiers looked at him in surprise. "Commander?"

"We can’t hold this position anymore," Reynold said firmly. "Pull everyone back toward the residential sector. We’ll establish a second defensive line there and regroup with the other units."

"Yes, sir!" The order spread through the squad immediately.

"Everyone, fall back!"

"Cover the retreat!"

"Don’t get separated! Move together!"

THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!

Hooks fired toward the surrounding buildings as the Special Units began retreating, swinging from rooftop to rooftop while covering one another’s movement.

Reynold glanced once more toward the approaching horde before turning away.

"Move! We don’t have much time!"

....

Meanwhile, Jaxon tore across the rooftops, barely pausing between jumps as the black tide swallowed the streets behind him.

’I have to slow them down somehow.’

The DMR disappeared from his shoulders as he stored it in the System. A moment later, a frag grenade appeared in each hand.

(700 Coins spent. Frag Grenade x10 purchased.)

Jaxon quickly pulled both pins and tossed the grenades behind him before reaching into his Storage Space for the next two.

BOOM! BOOM!

The explosions tore through the advancing infected, throwing bodies and debris across the street. Jaxon didn’t stop. He kept running, pulling out grenade after grenade and throwing them behind him as he moved.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

More explosions erupted along the streets, shredding infected and briefly disrupting the horde’s advance. System notifications continued ringing in his mind as the kills accumulated, but he ignored them.

Several streets away, the Special Units were still retreating when a series of explosions suddenly erupted behind them.

BOOM!

One of the soldiers glanced back and saw buildings and infected being swallowed by successive blasts.

His brows furrowed. "Who the hell is setting off explosions inside the safe zone?"

Annie and Lina heard him and turned toward the explosions. The moment they saw the direction they were coming from, they exchanged a knowing look.

"Jaxon..." Lina muttered.

Annie didn’t answer. She simply watched another explosion bloom in the distance, a complicated expression appearing on her face.

Reynold also glanced back. He watched the explosions for several seconds before making a decision. "Bring out the M-90 Scythes."

Several soldiers immediately stopped and opened the equipment they were carrying. A few of them pulled out compact backpack-like explosive units and began preparing them.

"Spread them along the retreat route," Reynold ordered. "Keep enough distance between each unit to cover the entire street."

One of the soldiers hesitated. "Sir, if we detonate them here, the blast could damage the surrounding buildings."

Reynold looked toward the approaching horde before answering without hesitation. "I know. Right now, stopping the infected is more important than protecting the buildings."

The soldier immediately nodded. "Understood."

The Special Units quickly spread the explosive packs across the streets while the others continued covering their retreat.

"Everyone else, get your grenades ready," Reynold ordered. "We’ll use them to slow the horde once the Scythes go off."

The soldiers pulled grenades from their equipment and prepared them as they moved.

"Ready!" one of them called.

Reynold looked back toward the approaching mass of infected.

"Detonate."

"Copy!" The soldiers answered as they pressed their controllers.

BOOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOOM!

A chain of massive explosions erupted across the streets. Fire and debris swept through the advancing horde, tearing apart infected and collapsing sections of buildings as the blasts rolled through the western sector.

"Keep moving!" Reynold shouted. "Don’t stop!"

The Special Units continued their retreat, throwing grenades behind them as they moved.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! One explosion followed another, creating a temporary wall of fire and debris between the soldiers and the advancing horde.