Before anyone could continue the conversation further, one of the nearby soldiers suddenly grabbed his radio.
"Contact report from southern patrol sector."
The mood around the road changed imdiately.
Several soldiers nearby stopped what they were doing.
Adrian turned toward the operator.
"What kind of contact?"
"Scattered infected, sir. Around two kiloters south of the periter. Multiple pockets still active near the destroyed highway sectors."
Marco’s face tightened again instantly.
"I thought you said the horde was gone."
"It is," Adrian replied calmly. "But cleanup operations are still ongoing."
Then he looked toward the soldier.
"How many?"
"Current estimate is maybe several hundred spread across different pockets. So are trapped inside ruined structures and tree lines."
Adrian nodded once.
"Mobilize nearby response teams. I’ll head there myself."
The nearby soldiers imdiately straightened.
"Yes, sir."
Liza’s expression changed imdiately.
"You’re going out there again?"
Adrian looked toward her briefly.
"We can’t leave infected this close to the base."
That answer alone already settled the matter.
The civilians fell quiet again while Adrian began moving toward the nearby vehicle staging area.
Behind him, Chandrika suddenly spoke.
"Be careful."
Adrian glanced back slightly before continuing forward.
The base imdiately beca more active again.
Even though the main battle had ended, everyone understood the danger of allowing even small infected groups to survive near the periter.
Especially after what happened with the Hunters.
Several Humvee M1151 vehicles roared to life while infantry squads rapidly loaded fresh magazines and equipnt into their kits.
Further nearby, a pair of M2 Bradley IFVs rotated their turrets while preparing to move out.
Adrian climbed into the lead Humvee as radio chatter filled the vehicle interior.
"Recon drone confirms movent near southern highway ruins."
"Possible Hunter signatures?"
"Negative for now."
"Keep thermal scans active."
The convoy rolled out minutes later.
Floodlights from Basa Air Base slowly disappeared behind them as the vehicles moved south through dark ruined roads illuminated only by headlights and burning wreckage scattered across the landscape.
The battlefield looked even worse up close.
Entire sections of highway had collapsed into massive craters from repeated bombardnts. Burned-out civilian vehicles littered the roads while infected corpses remained piled against destroyed barricades.
The sll outside was unbearable.
Rotting flesh mixed with smoke and burned tal.
Inside the Humvee, one infantryman looked outside quietly.
"Feels like we’re driving through hell."
Nobody disagreed.
The convoy continued moving until the lead Bradley suddenly slowed.
"Movent front," the gunner reported imdiately.
Everyone inside the vehicles beca alert instantly.
Adrian grabbed binoculars while observing the ruined highway ahead.
At first, he only saw wreckage.
Then movent.
Dozens of infected slowly erged from overturned buses and collapsed concrete barriers, drawn toward the sound of the approaching convoy.
So limped.
So crawled.
Others sprinted the mont they detected movent.
Even after everything, seeing them still charging forward felt disturbing.
"Contact confird," one soldier muttered.
The Bradley turret rotated imdiately.
THUMP THUMP THUMP.
The 25mm Bushmaster cannon fired first.
Explosive rounds ripped straight through the leading infected, tearing bodies apart across the ruined highway. Limbs and blood sprayed across nearby wreckage as the remaining infected continued charging mindlessly through the smoke.
"Dismount!" a squad leader shouted.
Infantry squads rapidly exited the vehicles and ford firing positions behind debris and armored hulls.
Rifle fire erupted imdiately.
M4 carbines cracked nonstop while machine guns opened up beside the road.
The infected dropped rapidly.
But more erged from the darkness.
"They’re coming from the buildings too!"
Adrian turned toward the nearby ruined comrcial structures lining the highway.
Thermal optics imdiately revealed movent inside.
A lot of movent.
Not massive horde numbers.
But enough.
"Clear the structures," Adrian ordered.
Two infantry squads imdiately pushed forward while the Bradley provided overwatch.
The fighting quickly beca close-range.
Inside the ruined buildings, infected burst from stairwells, collapsed rooms, and dark hallways. Soldiers fired rapidly while moving room by room through debris-filled interiors illuminated only by weapon lights and occasional fire outside.
One infected lunged from behind a collapsed counter only to get shot point blank by an infantryman.
Another burst through shattered glass before getting cut down by automatic fire.
The cleanup operation beca brutal.
Not large-scale warfare anymore.
Just systematic extermination.
Further south, another patrol reported additional contacts hiding inside drainage tunnels beneath the highway.
Artillery no longer dominated the battlefield now.
Infantry did.
This was personal fighting again.
Dirty.
Close.
Exhausting.
Hours passed as Basa Air Base patrols continued sweeping through ruined terrain surrounding the periter.
Every building.
Every wrecked vehicle cluster.
Every collapsed trench line.
Nothing could be ignored anymore.
Because everyone now understood how dangerous even small infected pockets could beco if left alive.
Near dawn, Adrian stood beside one of the destroyed highways while watching soldiers finish clearing another infected cluster trapped beneath collapsed concrete.
The sky above southern Luzon slowly brightened faintly with morning light.
For the first ti in days, there was no massive horde visible on the horizon.
Only smoke.
Ruins.
And scattered survivors of a dead army being hunted down piece by piece.
One of the soldiers approached Adrian after finishing another sweep.
"Sector nearly clear, sir."
Adrian nodded while looking across the destroyed battlefield stretching toward the horizon.
The war around Basa Air Base was ending.
Far in the distance, another burst of gunfire echoed across the ruined highway network as one of the patrol squads encountered another isolated infected cluster hiding beneath collapsed overpasses.
The sound carried strangely through the early morning air.
Not like the overwhelming chaos from before.
Now it sounded smaller.
Controlled.
Precise.
The difference alone felt surreal after days of nonstop warfare.
Adrian watched as several infantryn moved carefully across the cratered road ahead, weapon lights cutting through the smoke drifting between destroyed vehicles. Nearby, engineers had already begun attaching cables onto overturned buses blocking the highway while recovery vehicles slowly dragged the wreckage aside.
The cleanup operation was transforming the battlefield one section at a ti.
Behind Adrian, one of the Bradley IFVs rolled forward slowly, its tracks crushing scattered infected corpses beneath heavy tal treads. The turret rotated constantly while the gunner scanned nearby rooftops and broken windows through thermal optics.
Nobody relaxed yet.
Not completely.
Because after everything they had seen, every shadow still felt dangerous.
A soldier nearby removed his helt briefly and wiped sweat and gri from his exhausted face.
"Feels weird," he muttered quietly.
Another infantryman beside him nodded.
"No artillery. No bombers. No endless screaming outside the wire."
The first soldier looked toward the smoke-covered horizon.
"Almost feels empty now."
Adrian understood exactly what he ant.
Three days ago, that sa horizon looked like the end of humanity itself.
Now?
Now it looked like the aftermath.
And sohow, Basa Air Base was still standing in the middle of it.
A radio transmission suddenly crackled again.
"Southern sweep team to command elent. Last confird infected pocket in Sector Charlie neutralized. Area appears clear."
Adrian grabbed the radio imdiately.
"Copy. Continue thermal verification before marking the zone secure."
"Yes, sir."
The transmission ended.
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