DEAD CITY: A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

CHAPTER 6 ~ BASE OF OPERATIONS

The penthouse elevator opened into an entirely different world.

Whoever had previously lived in unit 3201 had either been incredibly wealthy or exceptionally good at pretending to be rich. 

Massive floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped completely around three sides of the expansive space to offer an unobstructed panoramic view of Makati City, actively in the horrific process of destroying itself. 

The luxurious apartment featured pristine marble floors, a gourmet kitchen, the exact size of Riccardo's entire apartment downstairs, a sunken living area filled with designer furniture that probably cost more than his parents' family house, and a ceiling high enough that nineteen heavily armed soldiers could comfortably spread out without anyone's elbow accidentally touching anyone else's face.

The massive unit was empty. There were absolutely no terrified civilians, no roaming infected monsters, and no obvious signs of recent occupation beyond a single half-finished glass of orange juice sitting on the kitchen island that someone had clearly abandoned in a frantic hurry earlier that morning.

Riccardo walked slowly over to the expansive window to look outside.

The devastated streets far below were a slow and agonizing catastrophe. Terrified civilians moved in tight clusters between abandoned vehicles as they desperately sprinted for open doorways and frantically ducked into dark alleys for shelter. 

Countless infected walkers actively pursued them with that terrifyingly wrong-speed efficiency that Riccardo was already rapidly learning to calculate. 

The creatures moved significantly faster than a casual jog but slightly slower than a full sprint, and they were utterly relentless in the highly specific way that unnatural things lacking any basic self-preservation instincts are always relentless. 

Approximately three city blocks to the east, a large commercial department store had essentially become a makeshift fortress where desperate civilians were clearly visible on the second-floor balcony, frantically throwing heavy furniture down at the swarming infected below.

What he crucially did not see anywhere on the streets below were the large mutated monsters, including the massive sprinting thing he had witnessed earlier on Ayala Avenue or the terrifying winged shape that had violently crossed his window on the fourteenth floor.

"They have moved on," he observed quietly.

Hayes instantly appeared right beside him. "What has moved on, sir?"

"The highly mutated ones and the massive variants are completely gone," Riccardo clarified as he vaguely gestured at the chaotic street grid far below their vantage point. "They were actively hunting down there earlier this morning, but they are absolutely not down there right now." He quickly pulled up the Zombie Encounters tab on his digital interface and intently scanned the locked variant entries for any clues. "They most likely went directly toward areas with much higher population density in search of more food." He finally closed the digital tab. "That fortunate migration means we currently have a viable window of opportunity before they inevitably come back here."

"Exactly how wide is that tactical window, sir?"

"I have absolutely no idea, so let us make sure we do not waste it." He turned away from the depressing view outside the window to survey the luxurious room. "This specific space works perfectly for our needs because it sits on a very high floor, features single elevator access alongside a defensible stairwell, provides excellent chokepoints, and is certainly large enough to comfortably accommodate expanded military operations." He looked directly at his sergeant for confirmation. "Are we agreed on that assessment?"

"We are completely agreed, sir, but we will definitely need to heavily barricade the stairwell door located down on floor thirty-one and carefully rig a reliable noise alert at the absolute minimum."

"Get your men started on that immediately." Riccardo was already frantically patting down his heavy tactical vest and checking his numerous pockets before he suddenly stopped in a panic. "Where exactly is my cell phone?"

A soldier standing near the very back of the tight formation immediately stepped forward and respectfully produced his personal smartphone from a secure chest pocket. The soldier was designated as Alpha 8, and she was a highly quiet and incredibly efficient woman named Chen who had spoken approximately twelve words in total since her initial deployment. "You accidentally set the device down on the floor during your frantic reload on level twenty-nine, sir, so I made sure to pick it up for you."

Riccardo gratefully took the phone from her hand. "Thank you very much, Chen, and I genuinely mean that."

"You are very welcome, sir," she replied simply as she smartly stepped back into formation.

He quickly looked down at the glowing screen.

There were four missed calls displayed on the screen, and they were all from the exact same contact.

LUCIA 🌙

His anxious chest did something incredibly complicated and painful at the sight of her name. He was already actively calling her back before he had even fully registered making the decision, and he immediately stepped away from the crowded group toward the far window to put some necessary distance between himself and nineteen sets of listening ears out of some deep instinct toward family privacy that the bloody apocalypse had not quite managed to kill just yet.

The phone rang exactly twice before it was answered.

"Rico," she whispered.

Her voice was incredibly quiet. It was the specific kind of terrified quiet that clearly meant she was actively trying not to be heard by something dangerous lurking directly outside her door.

"Lu, it's me," he exhaled slowly in profound relief. "Hey, I am right here on the line, so please tell me if you are okay and if you are hurt anywhere."

"I am okay, Rico, I promise that I am completely okay and I am not hurt at all." A heavy pause followed his question, and he could clearly hear her breathing through the speaker. Her breathing was far too controlled for a normal fifteen-year-old girl, and it sounded exactly like the desperate breathing of someone who had been forcefully holding themselves together through sheer willpower alone for several agonizing hours. "I have been actively calling you since eight o'clock this morning."

"I know that you have, and I am so incredibly sorry that I missed your calls, but it has been absolutely insane over here because there has been a lot happening on my end." That vague statement was undoubtedly the absolute understatement of the entire century. "I need to know exactly where you are right now."

"I am currently hiding inside Classroom 2-C on the second floor of the main building, and there are exactly eleven of us trapped in here right now, which includes me and ten of my classmates. Mrs. Patterson securely locked us inside when the screaming first started, but then she left to go find the principal and she never came back." Another tense pause stretched over the line. "Rico, we clearly heard her walking in the hallway about an hour ago, but she absolutely did not sound like herself anymore."

Riccardo painfully closed his eyes for exactly two seconds to process that horrifying information. "Okay, I need you to listen to me very carefully right now, Lu. You absolutely must not open that classroom door for Mrs. Patterson or for absolutely anyone else who does not sound completely and entirely normal. Do you fully understand me?"

"I know not to open the door, and we already pushed all of the heavy desks directly against it to block it." She hesitated for a single beat before adding more bad news. "There are currently six of us in here who have not eaten anything since yesterday afternoon, and we unfortunately only have three small water bottles to share between all eleven people."

"You need to strictly ration that water by taking very small sips instead of large gulps, and regarding the food situation, does anyone happen to have absolutely anything edible stashed in their school bags, like small snacks or candy?"

"We already pooled everything we had together, and it only amounted to two stale granola bars, a single small bag of chips, and Kevin's emergency stash of peanut butter crackers that he is currently being incredibly weird and selfish about sharing with the rest of us."

"You tell Kevin right now that I will personally deal with him the exact moment I get there if he does not immediately share those peanut butter crackers with the group."

A very small and muffled sound came through the phone speaker that might have actually been a genuine laugh in a much different and better world. "When exactly are you coming to get us?"

"I will be there very soon." He briefly looked over at the glowing interface floating nearby, where the active mission timer for locating Lucia currently read exactly 44:52:17. "I am absolutely coming for you, Lu, because I have recently acquired some very serious resources and I have highly trained people with me right now, so we are actively planning the safest rescue route as we speak."

"What exactly do you mean by resources?" she asked in confusion.

"That is a very long and complicated story that I will explain later, but for now, you just need to keep that door heavily blocked, keep everyone in the room as calm as possible, strictly ration the remaining water, and make sure to keep your phone fully charged because I am going to call you every single hour until I arrive."

"Rico," her voice suddenly dropped much lower in volume, "terrible things are wandering around outside that are absolutely not just infected people anymore, because I saw one of them from the classroom window and it was completely terrifying."

"I already know about them," he replied while desperately fighting to keep his voice perfectly steady and reassuring. "I know exactly what is out there right now, and that is exactly why you must stay safely inside that locked room and let me handle the dangerous outside part of this situation. Are we clear?"

A heavy silence lingered on the line before she finally answered. "Okay, we are clear, but please be incredibly careful out there."

"I will always be careful for you," he promised before finally hanging up the call. He stood perfectly still at the massive window for exactly three seconds with his jaw set firmly and his dark eyes fixed intensely on the burning middle distance of the ruined city. He finally turned decisively back to face the crowded room. "She is currently alive and trapped inside Classroom 2-C on the second floor of a school in Quezon City with ten other students and minimal survival supplies." He confidently pulled up the glowing mission interface. "We are going to go get her out of there."

"That is completely understood, sir," Hayes confirmed instantly, and the entire room's energy immediately shifted in response to the order. The shift was not entirely dramatic, but it was highly perceptible in the same way a massive industrial machine subtly shifts its gears when it finally finds its intended purpose.

"Sir," Hayes said as he magically appeared right beside Riccardo once again and spoke in a very quiet and serious tone. "Before we actively move on to absolutely anything external to this location, we unfortunately have a highly pressing internal problem to solve. We have been actively operating inside this specific building for well over an hour now, which means the building's automated security system will definitely have recorded camera footage of nineteen heavily armed soldiers conducting illegal combat operations through thirty entire floors of private residential space. If any local building security personnel or law enforcement officers are still actively functional and somehow connected to the broader city monitoring systems, we are going to be in massive trouble."

"Someone could easily flag our exact position," Riccardo finished the grim thought. "The local police, the remaining military forces, or absolutely anyone with access to a working security monitor could find us." He thought rapidly for a single tactical beat. "Can the System interface actually provide me with a dedicated cyber specialist?"

He aggressively pulled up the troops tab on the digital interface before Hayes could even answer the question and quickly scrolled completely past all of the standard combat categories. He finally found exactly what he was looking for under a newly highlighted section labeled Special Units, which had previously been greyed out but had apparently unlocked sometime during the chaotic lobby engagement downstairs.

CYBER SPECIALIST: This unit costs exactly two hundred gold coins and provides advanced capabilities, including complex network intrusion, comprehensive surveillance system manipulation, secure communications intercept, and dedicated electronic warfare support.

He spent the required gold to purchase the unit without a single second of deliberation.

The newly purchased specialist smoothly materialized right near the marble kitchen island. This new soldier possessed a noticeably smaller physical frame than the heavy combat troops, lacked the bulky ceramic plate carrier they all wore, and was currently carrying a heavily ruggedized black laptop case instead of a standard-issue rifle. He appeared to be in his early thirties with incredibly focused eyes, and his freshly printed uniform name tape simply read Vasquez.

"Vasquez," Riccardo addressed him immediately. "I need you to hack into the building's central security network right now and access all the cameras, entry access logs, and any live monitoring feeds that might be active, and then I need you to permanently freeze them all."

Vasquez was already efficiently opening the heavy laptop before Riccardo even finished speaking. "I am already actively pulling down the entire network architecture as we speak, sir, and a massive building of this specific size typically utilizes a highly standard residential security setup." His nimble fingers rapidly moved across the illuminated keyboard with the highly specific and rapid confidence of a professional who had successfully executed this exact type of illegal intrusion in vastly less comfortable circumstances. "I have located exactly fourteen active cameras spread across thirty-two residential floors, plus the main lobby, the underground parking garage, and the exterior perimeter. The requested feed freeze will cleverly look exactly like a standard system error to any external monitoring station trying to access it." He paused for a fraction of a second to hit the enter key. "The job is completely done."

Riccardo blinked in total surprise. "That entire process literally took you exactly forty seconds to complete."

"The system's encryption protocol was incredibly weak and dated back to a 2019 vintage, sir," Vasquez explained casually as he calmly closed the rugged laptop. "It honestly was not a complicated firewall to breach."

"He is incredibly humble, too," Ortiz noted approvingly from completely across the large room.

"That is quite enough, Ortiz," Hayes snapped at him.

"I am just actively appreciating his impressive technical competence, Sergeant," Ortiz defended himself lightly.

Riccardo subsequently opened the digital shop interface and spent the entire next ten minutes engaged in what felt, in the abstract, like the absolutely most surreal and bizarre shopping experience of his entire life.

He purchased brand-new woodland-pattern combat uniforms for the entire military unit. This massive bulk purchase instantly materialized as a neat stack of perfectly folded clothing resting near the main hallway, and the disciplined troops immediately moved to quietly collect their new gear and change into it with highly practiced efficiency. He also purchased countless additional tactical vests, reinforced helmets, and durable knee pads for everyone. When it came to weapon assignments, the standard riflemen drew newly purchased M4 carbines, the heavy machine gunners kept their current weapon loadouts but received significantly upgraded ammunition types, and Sergeant Hayes finally received a specialized designated marksman rifle that he accepted with the deep and quiet satisfaction of a dangerous man happily reunited with a highly familiar friend.

"There is just one more thing I need to do," Riccardo announced as he looked intently at the troops tab on his glowing interface. His digital gold counter currently reads exactly 4,997,340 coins even after hitting the massive jackpot and completing his subsequent shopping spree. He purposefully pulled up the specific purchase option labeled Combat Infantry Bulk Deployment.

He confidently purchased exactly one hundred brand-new combat soldiers all at once.

The massive penthouse rapidly filled with armed men in the exact same way that rushing water fills a container. They materialized steadily and completely until absolutely every single available surface had a heavily armed soldier standing at perfect attention on it. They automatically formed into ten perfect rows containing ten men each, and they stood alongside the original nineteen soldiers securely arranged in careful military ranks entirely across the marble living room floor, the massive kitchen area, and the long entry hallway. There were exactly one hundred and nineteen highly trained people currently packed into a single penthouse apartment, and all of them were fully armed and silently looking directly at Riccardo for their next orders.

The immense psychological weight of commanding that many lethal men absolutely should have been entirely crushing to a normal college student, but somehow it was not. Somehow, it actually felt exactly like the complete opposite of a burden.

"Alpha team will remain designated as our original nineteen-man unit," he stated loudly while projecting his confident voice clearly across the massive space. "Teams Bravo through Foxtrot will be comprised of all our brand new additions to the squad." He looked back down at the glowing digital interface where two brand new mission notifications were currently blinking simultaneously on the screen.

[ NEW MISSION: ESTABLISH PERMANENT BASE OF OPERATIONS ] REWARD: +1,000 Gold | +500 XP | Advanced Troop Shop UNLOCKED

[ NEW MISSION: RESCUE LUCIA GONZALES — PRIORITY ONE ] REWARD: +2,000 Gold | +1,000 XP | Vehicle Shop Tier 2 UNLOCKED TIME REMAINING: 44:52:17

He proudly looked out at his massive assembly of troops. There was exactly one hundred and nineteen highly trained faces staring back at him, entirely ready and patiently waiting for his absolute command.

"Alright," Riccardo Gonzales declared firmly while standing proudly inside a stolen luxury penthouse high above a violently burning city with an entire private army standing solidly at his back and his terrified sister's desperate voice still echoing fresh in his ears. "Here is exactly what we are going to do next."