Day 17, D-Day N-1
Today 10,000 rats will crawl out of that hole. Yesterday I made some preparations to not be overwhelmed by the wave's increasing scale.
Each kill box was dug deeper in a V shape. At its lowest point the kill box was 5 meters deep. The nature of the hole funneled the rats to the deepest part of the killbox and the steep slope combined with the taller barricade made it impossible for the rats to jump out of the killbox.
** Check the image in the comments for clarity **
Well that's in theory anyways, within 5 minutes we will see how the new changes hold up in practise.
The last 5 minutes I went around checking if everything was prepared and working as intended. Once the report of the first rat emerging came, I took a deep breath and yelled.
" FIREEEEEE."
What insued was a 90 minutes struggle, series of gunfire interrupted by explosions every so often and the dying squeals of the rats, they all blended into an unharmonic symphony. I for one, in my frenzy I didn't even realise when the wave ended. Standing by the arson team I fired from above and then some more and then some more.
When it was all over Anna and Marcus came to join us at the defence site. Marcus was sent away to the secondary guest mansion and Anna accompanied him to ensure he wouldn't suddenly blow, the explosions and gunfire were still heard from there but not as prominently so Marcus could safely view the defence site from afar.
While his trauma is deep and we are in no way able to treat him within 2 days, we still need him tommorow so we're hoping the repeated exposure, this time mostly positive, dulls the trauma response, at least enough for him to be present at the defence site tommorow.
The rest of the day was spent shovelling out the mounds of charred rat goo.
Of the 10,000 rats, I estimated 60% of them died inside the hole from the tnt. Yet the remaining 40% filled out the killboxes half way…. Half way!
If this continues the last wave will overflow the killboxes 12 times over. When I first started round two, I didn't realise the scale of magnitude 100,000 held.
When I saw the number 100,000 I first thought of money. I know it's a big number for the average person but it didn't mean much to me. I was used to dealing with money at orders of magnitudes greater than a 100,000.
But today, when I saw ten thousands rats squirming around in a pool of other rats, I couldn't help but fear to imagine what ten times that amount would do.
…
I suppose I have lost the confidence I held that day when I told Anna that we won't be using Marcus's ability for the 8th wave.
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Day 18, D-Day
Much like the past two days, today I was woken up by Anna at 5 in the morning. I freshened up and immediately went for the final inspection of the defence site.
Within the next 15 minutes the other staff came and stood by the their respective positions. They all seemed tense from yesterday, there is nothing much I could do about it now.
Two more rounds of inspections and double checking later, Anna arrives herding the last group of staff and by her side is Marcus.
Marcus huh. Worst comes to worst, today he'll… let's not think too much about it now.
I know I did my best and prepared as much as I could within the few days I was given. If I die now to these rats, even after all the measure I took… Then I'll know I was never meant to survive.
I took a deep breath as the last few seconds counted down.
And when the first rat peeked it's snout out of that filthy hole, my voice rang out, loud and clear across the yard.
"FIREEEEEEEEEEE!!"
At my command, all 4 killboxes drowned in gunfire. After the 9th minute, the first explosion erupted, blasting away with it a mist of rat. I had been sure to save the explosives during the 6th and 7th waves, as such we have 650kg of tnt at our disposal today. Rather than using them all at once, we are dropping them at payloads of 5 kg at regular 9 minute intervals
At the 30th minute, the tides seemed to be in our favour. Killboxes 1 and 2 weren't even 1/10th of the way full. Most of the rats seemed to be dying near or inside the hole. [Monsters Remaining: 95,406]
At the 120th minute, all killboxes were a third of the way full. We lost some ground but we are still mowing down these rats. The firing squads switched shifts as they seemed to be getting tired. [Monsters Remaining: 81,993]
At the 300th minute, the rats are unrelenting. The are being burnt, shot and exploded at the same time yet they crawl forth on the corpses of those that came before them, these rats are not normal… they are driven by the hole's madness. All the killboxes are 70% full. The mound of dead rats have made a straight path for the new ones. Hence forth the explosives payloads will be dropped every 5 minutes instead. [Monsters Remaining: 50,712]
At the 450th minute, we have gained some ground. The shorter intervals for payloads helped a ton but we are running out of it fast, there is only half of the explosives left now. My rough calculations say we should have enough to survive the rest of the wave, [Monsters Remaining: 22,894]
At the 520th minute, all killboxes are full. They have been full for 20 minutes. We are entering overflow mode, the rats can now jump over the barricades. The staff are all exhausted, barely hanging on. There are no shifts anymore, everyone is fighting with all they have got together to defend the property.
I can't say I'm doing any better either, the world seems a few shades too dark, my ears have been ringing painfully for the past two hours, my right shoulder is numb from the recoil.
Supplies are low, we only have 2 crates of ammunition left, the arson team is on their last tanker of gasoline, many weapons jammed, misfired or just broke down so there are very few firearms left to go around too. But there is a silver lining to this, we still have 200 kilos of explosives, 40 payloads. 1 payload will be dropped every minute now, I will end this wave within the hour.
[Monsters Remaining: 5,129]
At the 563rd minute, all gunfire stopped. We stomped the last few rats to death. All weapons, ammunition, explosives, fuel they were all out. 18 people got bit today, including me. 1 maid and 1 gardener were deeply injured, a malfunction in the gun cause the maid to dislocate her shoulder brutally, while the gardener was shot as a result of accidental friendly fire in the chaos of the wave.
While these incidents were unfortunate, they were caused by sources uncontrollable to us.
But… from the things that we could controll, we managed to survive the 8th wave without a single casualty.
Let me say it again.
"WE MANAGED TO SURVIVE WITHOUT A SINGLE CASUALTY!!"
My yell echoed through the yard and as if confirming our victory the system spoke to me.
[Congradulations, You have cleared all 8 waves of the second round]
[Clear time: 11:04:52]
[For the accomplishment of clearing the 8th wave in under 12 hours, You are eligible for facing the 9th wave of Round 2]
[Pepare yourself, Human No: 6,510,880,156 Jean D. Choppafeller.]
[Round 2, Wave 9 Challenger's Wave begins in 1:59:59]
[Monsters Incoming: 1,111,111 ]