It had been nearly a week since they had brought the Carsen brothers into their group and for the moment nothing major had occurred. Throughout that time they had filled the three brothers in on what they had been doing to this point and how they were trying their hardest to level up the girls before things took a turn for the worst. After hearing about this Dave and his brothers decided to help out by finding nice sized hordes of zombies for them to grind against whenever they went out scouting for supplies. The help ended up saving Joshua and the others a lot of time sense they no longer had to search for or gather hordes on their own. Even with all of this help they still had yet to reach level seven and that fact was starting to dampen the mood on the girls.
During this time Joshua was also able to have conversations with Adrian and Henry at night after his patrol shifts. He was able to learn a lot from the two about how things were going on in city like areas. Although they were on the outskirts of the city sometimes they would move out in groups to look for supplies in the area. Most of the scouting groups were composed of the women that were trying to grind their levels, but Adrian and Henry would tag along most of the time because they both could handle themselves well. Adrian was a prodigy in swordsmanship which gained the approval of just about everyone in his group while Henry's planning and tactics in survival were well respected as well.
Their group was also more of a democratic group seeing as there were multiple women with powers with them and none of them wanted to make a big deal over fighting for leadership. Though Henry did tell him that for the most part the women were making the decisions while taking some advice from Adrian and Henry sense they were able to fight alongside them. Even though Henry wasn't as much of a fighter as Joshua and Adrian he was still taught by Joshua's father like all of their friends, so he knew how to protect himself well. The other men in their group on the other hand were just tagalongs that were relegated to holding defensive lines in their camp. They were treated well, but sense they were too reliant on others to survive they didn't get much say in how things were handled.
Henry had also told him about how in the cities the biggest problem weren't the regular zombies, but were instead the female zombies that were sporadic compared to the others. All female zombies were only there because a woman with super powers had died and tuned into one. These zombies did not only retain their powers, but also kept their strength gains from their leveling. They were also a bit smarter than the other zombies, but not to the level that they made smart decision, but instead it was more towards the point where they knew how to effectively use their strengths. A female zombie with telekinetic powers wouldn't just blatantly charge at you, but instead would levitate large amounts of ruble and hurl it towards you.
All of these things made Joshua happy that he wasn't stuck in a city environment. Although he would be able to defend his self to a certain extent, he knew he would have no chance at ending the first phase. Even with all the women in Adrian's group they had been avoiding any boss like monsters. Apparently in the cities even the sub boss level creatures were so strong that they would easily kill large groups of attackers. All though they couldn't leave the haze of the city they had no problem surprising scouting parties and picking them apart for fun.
These talks had enlightened Joshua on two facts. The first being that the boss class creatures were far more intelligent than the other creatures if they were able to sneak up and surprise scouting parties. From what Henry said they even seemed to enjoy toying with their prey instead of simply biting them and moving on. The other thing he learned was that there was no chance in hell that a city class boss would be defeated. Even the sub class bosses in the cities were stronger than the bosses in small towns. Imagining how much of a problem city size bosses will be was a terrifying thought.
Putting all of that information to the back of his mind Joshua walked on over to the latest project that he and the town's people had been working on during the mornings this past week. Along the fence line where the wooden towers had been spread out before hand was a new structure that stood proudly. It was a long open standing segment that acted as a walk way off the ground where people could stand on and shoot arrows from above the fence down onto any invading zombies easily.
Although the strategy of bombardment that they had used before was effective, the only reason it held up was because there were not too many zombies that could force their way through the ditches and the raining arrows. Now they would be far more efficient sense they could see their targets and aim down on to them instead of just shooting into the air at specific places. This also allowed people with spears to poke any zombies that tried to make their way over the fence. In the best case scenario they would have one row of people with spears at the front of the stand crouched down and piercing any zombies that got to close, and a second row with bowman firing at which ever zombies they felt were the greatest threat.
They had built the stands all along the fence line next to the wooden towers. This project had also made night patrols easier sense now you wouldn't have to leave the safety of the inside of the fence line and could simply walk along it looking from above at the surroundings. It was a great idea that Nathan had come up with and he had even looked up how to build them online for everyone to learn. They still hadn't quite finished the project, but within another week or so with so many people working on it they would have them all done.
While Joshua helped direct people on what to do and was just finishing up on the work for the day something they had been anticipating for a while finally happened. "ROOOOAAAAARRRR!!!" A loud shout could be heard coming from the direction of the factory. The sound rolled through the forest and only seemed to amplify itself as everyone in camp could hear the animalistic roar. Many people froze up at the sound and dropped what they were doing to look in the direction of it. Even Joshua froze for a moment as he could feel the killing intent fill the air from just that roar. It wasn't nearly as bad as the time in the cave, but he could still feel a bit of suppression from the roar.
"What the hell was that?!" Dave voice shouted from atop one of the wooden towers. He quickly came down and rushed over towards Joshua.
"It seems the egg at the factory has hatched. Even from here I can fill its bloodlust. We're going to have to deal with it now before we end up getting sandwiched in between it and the thing causing the haze back at town." Joshua replied after he calmed his heart.
"How are we supposed to kill something that sounds like a damn T-Rex?" Dave said still staring in the direction of the roar. "I mean zombies we can handle, but last time I checked humans have a hard enough time taking down bears. Now that we don't even have weapons to fight the only ones here who can probably hurt it are the girls and maybe you if you get in a lucky shot."
"Well for now we all need to gather up and calm everyone down. Then my small group will head on over and deal with it." Joshua explained. Before waiving the people who had been working on the stands over to follow him back to the mansion. The only people left were the two farmers standing watch on the wooden towers. By the time Joshua had made it back to the mansion, most of the people who had been either eating breakfast or getting ready for their work shift were all in the main entrance hall waiting on him. Laura and the others were also there looking slightly calmer than the others.
"Do you have any idea what that was?" Thomas asked as everyone else looked toward Joshua for answers.
"As some of you might have suspected that was whatever was creating the purple haze at the factory. It's most likely similar to the things that they were talking about on the broadcast last week. Now the one nearby has hatched." Joshua said causing people to grow anxious as they started making erratic conversation with each other. It took a moment for it all to die down before someone else asked a question.
"If that's the case then what are we supposed to do? "The mayor asked as he looked towards Joshua. "That woman on the broadcast said to get away from those creatures if they are nearby and the factory is far closer to us than the town is."
"There is no way we're leaving this position. We've spent too much time building it up and it is the best spot around for us to defend ourselves." Joshua started to explain. "Not only would we be leaving behind a ton of supplies if we did move, we would also have to try to avoid several roaming hordes of zombies that are becoming more frequent of late. When behind the fence all of you have a safe vantage to defend yourselves, but the second we leave we will lose all of that and I'm not sure how long will last that way."
"Then what do you plan to do? Are you planning to kill it?" Devin asked causing others to look surprised at the question.
"Yes, yes I am." Joshua said causing many in the room to erupt in shock and surprise as they started to make a lot of noise.
"I'm not sure that's a wise decision Joshua. All though you guys have been clearing out the zombies in the area when scouting this past week, this seems like a whole new deal." Thomas said after people started quieting down.
"I know it will be tough, but it is something we must do for our safety. Luckily when we scouted out the area beforehand the factories main entrance was locked up, and from the size of that roar there's no way that thing could fit through the back door like the other zombies." Joshua scrunched his brows as he started to put together a plan on how kill the thing with as little risk as possible.
"So you think it's trapped right now? If that's the case then why don't we leave it alone and avoid it for now?" Dave said. He was thinking it was a similar situation to back at town where they could avoid the problem sense the creatures weren't able to leave the haze.
"Well as some of you have known I've recently got in contact with some of my friends that are trapped near a city in Japan. From what they've seen and told me these things that hatch from eggs can create their own haze on the move. That being the case it could eventually break through one of the windows at the top of the factory and slowly make its way here in order to attack its nearest prey." Joshua explained causing everyone else to grow worried at the information. "If this thing breaks out of the factory and starts making its way here then we will have something none of us have ever dealt with on our doorstep. Personally I'd rather deal with it at the factory that way there are more option to use to kill it without having to worry about damaging our base."
"If that's the case then I agree, but whose going to go deal with it?" Thomas asked after Joshua had finished.
"Bringing to many people would just be likely to cause more people to get killed if things go bad. Personally I think we should just stick to my usual scouting group heading out to handle it while everyone else stays behind to protect the base." Joshua said while looking over to the members of his group who nodded in response.
"Why do you think we need more people to protect the base?" The mayor asked sense he believed killing the creature was of more importance in the current situation.
"Well that roar from earlier has probably attracted a lot of zombies and unluckily for us we just happen to be right in the path to get to the factory from the direction of the main roads." Joshua explained causing a lot of people to cringe at the information. "I don't think there will be too big of a hoard coming through here at once, but overtime several zombies will try to pass through. Will need people on constant watch to kill them before they build up in mass and are able to break through our fence line."
"Alright, will head the defense while you guys try to kill that monster. I hope we both succeed." Thomas said nodding grimly towards Joshua. The Carsen brothers also started heading out to get people ready for defending the base. Now that everyone had their objective it was time for Joshua to try his hand at killing a beast.