The meeting lasted over an hour and the paper in Rick's hand was already full of writing and points for further consideration. He nodded as he looked at the paper in his hand, tapped his fingers on the table sparingly and was about to say something when the noises coming from the door sounded very loud.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
The hurried banging on the door was continuous, and Tyler's panicked voice sounded from outside.
"Rick! Come out, it's an emergency!"
For some reason, Rick felt that the scene in front of him seemed familiar, and his heart gradually quickened.
He opened the door and Tyler who was standing in the doorway next to Carol who had an expression full of anxiety. He looked around the room and panicked and finally noticed Rick. So he quickly reported, "Sir, the ST-1 squad outside led by Erick encountered a large horde of walkers. Although contact with the group was lost, the number cannot be determined but there are tens of thousands among them."
"Rick, considering we have removed the wire fence outside the crops will be exposed to those walkers, if we don't manage to do something we will lose tons of food."
Rick couldn't help but curse and stay silent, there is a horde of undead heading towards the prison, is it another horde bigger than the one that passed them a few days ago?
One thing is for sure, this time they can't hide from the walkers as that would mean losing the crops on the outside. At this point, Rick knows he can't panic and now what he must do is act fast. He was now the leader of this shelter, his orders are important and no one would dare contradict him.
Now that the second wall was being built outside the prison hundreds of meters away from the first wall, the wire fences were not necessary so they started to be removed as some were severely damaged in the previous horde of walkers that had passed through the prison.
Considering this, even if everyone now goes back to the prison and puts up the wire fences, it doesn't matter as the result would be the same. The most important thing about that is the crops, the food which was very important so as not to deplete the military reserves inside the warehouses.
Looking at Tyler, Rick immediately noticed Hershel who possibly wanted to mention this. He was aware that this year's crop was very important. Something that would help the bases to be maintained and the food stocks to be kept safe.
In fact, there are military bases and ports that are planned to be visited later, in those places there would not only be helicopters, but also cargo planes and most importantly, resources of all kinds.
But now planning to go to those places is a very hasty decision of which Airon was aware, so they first focused on solidifying the bases and the survival of thousands of people before thinking of going out and collecting those kinds of materials.
It is precisely because of the importance of this food lot that the second base wall is being built. Now, everyone had thought that because a horde passed through less than a week ago, there would not be another one followed days after that one, so it can be said that they have had bad luck and wrong data.
"Sir, with all due respect, following protocol I have issued the maximum order and right now all personnel are moving into combat positions. Soldiers right now are mobilizing resources and the vast majority of trained civilians are about to join."
Tyler respected Rick as the leader of the base, but there was an important protocol that completely ignored the decision of the senior prison leadership.
When Rick heard this, he nodded and said as he turned to the leaders participating in the meeting, "You heard him, it appears this horde of walkers cannot be ignored. Be ready with your squads to eliminate this horde of walkers."
Morgan stood up, thought for a moment and then said, "Rick, can't we divert the walker horde? There was information like that in the reports Airon provided us with, dealing with that many walkers will expend a great deal of resources."
Rick was also against the wall, he shook his head and said, "There is no time! This battle is inevitable and for now we must consider crop preservation!"
Hearing this, many wasted no time and began to prepare to eliminate the walkers with all the power that was in the base. They knew of methods to divert the horde of walkers but right now they can't risk considering such plans.
Spreading the map around the prison, Rick quickly arranged it, and a group of people talked to each other. Soon, a preliminary plan was formed and barricade points were set up where the mortars and turrets would be placed.
In just ten minutes, all specially trained base soldiers began to lead civilians to help load ammunition and drive Humvees with heavy machine guns.
Except for the elderly and children, those who could participate in the battle, regardless of men and women, were mobilized. At the base there are currently more than 800 people because the expansion and protection plan was being considered. So now, about 600 personnel were deployed and most of them belonged to the army and more recently came out of their military training.
But considering the battle, it was impossible to send all these people to the wall and watchtowers, so Rick sent 300 people to the watchtowers and walls.
Among them, there are captains and leaders in groups, as in the usual training, two of the three are responsible for killing walkers and the rest will load ammunition boxes and help refill gun magazines.
Because not everyone was prepared, the civilians with gun skills carried three magazines and the military carried six. Even now, because of the chaos they could not equip themselves properly even if resources were more than sufficient.
Now, there were three hundred people in front of a general square, all of them ignored what was happening around and stood in front of their captain Marco. All of them wore military uniforms and were fully equipped, behind them were tanks and armored vehicles.
As Marco explained the plan, one hundred soldiers will be driving the armored vehicles, another one hundred in the tanks and the rest will be at forward barricades. These soldiers can go anywhere, as long as they deem it necessary.
"Gentlemen, you have trained for this and right now you are authorized to use all kinds of force to eliminate the horde of walkers heading towards this base!"
"Understood sir!"
In a matter of minutes, everyone was in place and the tanks along with the armored cars rolled out of the prison and lined up a few meters in front of the crops. The mortars were positioned hundreds of meters away and awaited orders to attack.
For now, the function of the tanks is not to shoot and expend their special ammunition, but to crush all the walkers to the sides, leaving a space in the center for the people and mortars to take out those walkers.
Rick was standing in the center of the wall, his eyes fixed on the soldiers manning the mortars and setting up barricades where machine guns were placed.
This scene was magnificent, these were all military men ready to go into direct contact against the walkers and there was nothing but seriousness on their faces. They all stare at the trees in the distance, as the forest had been expanding right now there was a long distance between the trees and the prison.
A kilometer away, the mortars were set up and the most important thing now is not to eliminate walkers, but that they do not reach the crops behind the tanks.
Like Rick, everyone on the wall of the base secretly clenched the weapons in their hands, their hearts were beating fast involuntarily, and the effect of adrenaline made these people feel their bodies shaking uncontrollably, but they did not feel it at all. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the edge of the forest in the distance.
"Captain Rick! There's still a thousand meters to go!"
"Eight hundred meters!"
"Have the mortars fix the point of attack!"
"Five hundred meters!"
...
The first walker staggered out to the edge of the forest, and then, in full view of everyone, a dense number of undead came out along the forest in an instant.
The width in front of the group of walkers was about 30 to 40 meters, and it got wider as they advanced, so they went straight into the open space to the base.
Rick did not give the order to fire immediately. The bikers although they could take out the walkers, it was not yet time and he waited for more to gather. They all swallowed saliva and watched those figures coming closer and closer in their direction and the armored vehicles were silent waiting for the moment.
Two hundred meters!
One hundred and fifty meters!
One hundred meters!
"Fire!"
On Rick's command, dozens of mortars opened fire, fired shot after shot without considering time and in just a few seconds, a series of chained explosions were seen in the distance and consequently hundreds of walkers were eliminated.
"Boom Boom Boom Boom!"
"Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!"
The people in the armored vehicles fired first alongside the people on the barricades, at this time, just a hundred and fifty meters away, thousands of walkers were torn to pieces by the hail of bullets.
Large explosions and flashes of blood mists could be seen from the large horde of walkers.
"Boom boom boom!"
In a short time the group of walkers stopped advancing under the intense attack of the prison, but shortly after while the machine guns were cut off they continued advancing.
Finally, when there were more than 40 meters between the barricades, Rick fired the first shot from the base wall!
"Now, everyone will be on fire!"
"Bang bang bang bang!"
Under Rick's roar and gunfire, there were a series of bursts from the watchtowers and walls directed towards the walker horde.