Three birds were Blaze’s immediate goals.
First was to make space for more zombies in his lair.
Second was to farm nuclei for his evolution.
And third was to make spawners.
All three objectives required him to kill mutants.
But why would he want a spawner now that he had the spire?
The answer was simple. The same reason he wanted to create sporeforms.
The sporeforms were made to counter the Collective’s influence over the undead, if they had any. Similarly, he wanted a spawner in case he lost control over the spire.
At least then, he would have some undead under his control. For that plan to work, he’d need to establish another lair, away from the spire’s control range.
"I wouldn’t have even thought about it before, but with this many zombies, creating the third lair is just a matter of time."
Blaze nodded as a plan formed in his mind. However, there was something he needed to do before that.
He went through the list of zombies before and separated them into three groups. It didn’t include any grade-3s as Blaze wanted to have them under his direct command.
One-third, primarily consisting of the grade-1s, were sent to the research facility. They’d join Raven in protecting the facility as its prized researchers.
The second group comprised grade-0s and was sent to patrol the city to look for survivors. Now that they were all connected through the spire, Blaze would know immediately if they died.
The last group had the strongest zombies, consisting only of Grade-2s and Grade-3s.
They would join Blaze’s true horde and help in cleaning out the zoo of its few remaining inhabitants.
With the roles assigned, the group went their separate ways. Meanwhile, Blaze, along with the new horde members, entered the zoo. The sporeforms followed Marrow to put the humans in their cells.
However, Blaze didn’t accompany them. Instead of going right towards the lair, he went left with the new members.
While the right remained openly accessible to everyone, the left side was an area no other zombie could roam without Blaze’s explicit permission.
Marrow and Fester were the only exceptions to this rule. That too had its reason.
It was also why Blaze panicked after seeing such a horde. He didn’t want anything to ruin his grand plans.
As the group went ahead, they saw towering structures of thick corpse walls covering the enclosures.
Some creatures heard approaching footsteps and began yelling and smashing against the walls. All because Blaze had trapped some creatures within.
The chosen thought Blaze had released the zoo’s animals in desperation. They couldn’t have been more wrong.
At first, Blaze released them as a safety measure against overpopulation. However, it wasn’t his ultimate goal.
Instead, he did it to create a buffer zone between his lair and the chosen. Also, releasing them was yet another experiment of his.
An experiment to explore whether external factors would lead the animals to take different mutations or evolution paths when compared to those kept in captivity.
He wanted to use those principles to evolve himself and the elites forcefully, in case the collective tried to stop him from evolving again.
Although it was a long-term experiment, he decided to cut it short.
These two months have been busy.
Blaze smiled, stopping before an enclosure.
He looked down and read the words written on the faded carving.
"King Cheetah," Blaze scoffed. "Funny, you call someone a king just because it has unique patterns on its fur. Ain’t that right, Saturn?"
The king of frogs was the most interested in facing another king. It had been like that ever since Blaze had tamed Myrme, a queen of her own species.
"Open it up," Blaze said, tapping Saturn’s hand.
The Frog King didn’t wait. Its tongue lashed out, sticking to the corpse wall before pulling it apart.
The wall cracked open, but unlike other enclosures, there was no movement inside. One would think the cheetah had died, but every zombie there would know if that were the case.
"Most probably its not reacting because it hasn’t seen us yet."
Cheetahs hunt by sight. Which meant they don’t attack unless they can see their prey.
Blaze expected the beast to charge at them any second. Instead, a thunderous sound greeted them.
Before Blaze could realize what was happening, a bolt of electricity burst through the corpse wall. The bolt struck a nearby grade-2 zombie straight in the chest, flinging it backwards.
It convulsed on the ground as its limbs twisted at weird angles. Its eyes popped from the sockets as it was burned to a crisp. The smell of burning flesh wasn’t very attractive to the zombies, nor was what happened to it.
"So it doesn’t need to see us after all," Blaze said, pushing the zombies in front of him, in case another bolt followed.
Meanwhile, Saturn yanked away the entire corpse wall. Even through the darkness, Blaze could see the creature staring at him.
The cheetah had grown a lot. It looked more like a rhino, no, a Centrosaurus with slender legs evolved to boost the cheetah’s speed despite its bigger form.
Black streaks ran along its golden fur, but they were far from ordinary. Sparks flew from them as they stood on their edge as if the big cat was getting goosebumps.
As for why Blaze thought of a Centrosaurus after seeing the cheetah, that would be because of the single horn sticking out of its forehead. Electricity snapped between the horn and the rest of the cheetah’s body.
"A cheetah capable of conducting electricity... who would have thought such a thing would ever walk the earth?"
Blaze tried to mask his worries with humor, but even that was of no help. Not after he saw what the bolt had done to the grade-2 zombie.
He assumed the cheetah would be afraid of the zombies. But that didn’t seem to be the case. If anything, it was staring at them like a predator who had finally found its prey.