The bus jolted as the convoy bulldozed its way through the streets of Apex City; the streets were now totally unrecognizable.
Inside the buses, the survivors sat in deep silence. The atmosphere was tense; their faces were completely set and their eyes were full of fear and terror.
Their eyes kept constantly shifting between the soldiers and Cyrus at the front.
Cyrus was casually leaning against the window, his sharp eyes looking at the skyline, completely deep in thought.
At the front now, Leothor sat there; his golden eyes looked intensely at Cyrus, full of curiosity and intrigue.
After a while, Cyrus came back to his senses. Breaking the silence, he called Noah.
"Noah, what are the battle statistics?"
Noah immediately replied; its cold voice sounded.
"Administrator, a total of 550 Combat Soldiers were dispatched, and casualties are currently 0."
"Ammunition consumption is now at 50%, enough for all units until they return to the Ark."
"All units have successfully rescued and completed their assigned missions and are en route back to the Ark."
As Noah was giving the report, a gigantic holographic map of Apex City appeared in the air, rotating slowly.
Instantly, the bus was filled with gasps of shock and disbelief as some of the survivors shrank back in fear while others craned their necks to look at the holographic screen. They had never seen something like this in their entire existence.
The map was filled with a dense cluster of red dots; each red dot represented that someone had been turned into a zombie.
The sheer volume of the red dots immediately gave everyone on the bus goosebumps as they felt their throats grow dry.
One woman covered her mouth to stifle her scream; others huddled together, hugging tightly with tears in their eyes.
Professor Albert adjusted his cracked glasses, his hands trembling slightly.
Cyrus nodded as he looked deeply at the projection, rubbing his chin with a thoughtful look. "What about the Ark? Is everything okay there?" he asked quietly.
Noah responded without hesitation.
"Administrator, the systems are stable across all zones. However, the primary road to the Ark has been blocked."
"It has been occupied by a large horde of zombies, with destroyed vehicles and ruins blocking the way. Please proceed with caution."
Another projection appeared, split into thirty separate screens displaying live footage of the route back to the Ark.
Each frame revealed a different kind of hell.
Overturned burning cars littered the road; wreckage and blood splattered across the asphalt road, with thousands of zombies roaming around like a tide.
Gasps filled the buses once again as Professor Albert leaned in closer with disbelief. "I... I'm... impossible!"
Cyrus remained calm; his calm voice rang out. "Noah, order the other units to clear the road ahead. Tell them to accelerate at full speed and bulldoze their way through."
"Yes, Administrator; three units are already near the Ark. Estimated time to secure the road: three minutes."
"Good," Cyrus nodded with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.
"...Is this an artificial intelligence?" Professor Albert's sharp voice rang behind him, filled with disbelief and shock.
Cyrus chuckled softly, glancing at Professor Albert. "AI?" he said, his voice filled with a hint of teasing. "Please, Professor, don't compare Noah to those scrap glitches you call artificial intelligence. Noah is much more... far beyond that."
He spiraled at the holographic screen and said, "What you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. When you get to the Ark, you'll experience something much more."
Professor Albert frowned as the wrinkles on his face drew deep lines. Selene, sitting next to him, also had the same frown on her face, her blue eyes filled with suspicion.
Albert leaned back in silence; he decided not to ask any more questions, but he was half convinced about this.
Cyrus noticed the doubt in his eyes, but he didn't care. This is the end of the world; the one with the power runs things, and to him, Professor Albert is the goose that lays the golden eggs.
After ten minutes, they finally drove out of the urban area, and before them was a scene of utter chaos.
The wide road ahead was filled with burned cars littering the asphalt alongside shattered and collapsed storefronts, and blood was splattered everywhere.
'ROAAARRR....!!'
The survivors inside the bus were shocked by the roar of sound as a dense wave of zombies surged toward them from all sides of the highway like a tsunami, filling the air with the scent of death and decay.
'Why... why are there so many of them?' someone whispered fearfully.
The answer he got was the rattling sound of gunfire.
'Form up. Tighten the formation.'
'Annihilate all of them!'
Cyrus barked orders into the intercom, his voice full of coldness.
'Yes, Commander!' the soldiers immediately responded.
Gunfire lit up as the five armored trucks flanking the convoy unleashed hell upon those zombies.
Heavy machine guns mowed down the zombies in waves with brutal efficiency. Limbs exploded like dolls, bodies were sent into the air and exploded at the same time; it was simply raining blood, limbs, and rotten flesh.
Inside the buses, the survivors were practically lying on the floor with hands pressed against their ears, ringing from the relentless gunfire echoing around them.
Cyrus's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked outside. He opened the bus door as a gasp sounded behind him.
'What's he doing?!'
Cyrus seized the overhead bar with one hand, propelling himself into the air with fluid movement. His silver-white hair whipped wildly in the wind as his body twisted in mid-air, defying gravity for just a heartbeat.
He landed squarely atop the bus, his feet planted firmly, the electromagnetic cannon resting on his shoulder.
The survivors in the bus were quite shocked, their eyeballs almost popping out of their eye sockets when they saw this.
BOOOOM!
A brilliant arc of blue light sliced through the horde of zombies ahead.
Any zombies infront of the convoy was turned into meat paste.