A man in his mid-thirties stood silently at the gates of Zone 42.
He had a broad, muscular frame, a scar running along the side of his neck, and eyes hardened by years of battle.
Facing him in the distance was a massive stampede—around 1,100 creatures in total.
Among them, 800 were ferals, 250 to 290 were mutants, and 10 were something far worse: aberrants.
Behind Cassian stood an army of 1,500 soldiers. About 1,000 of them were Awakened, the rest were Ascended.
Soldiers from Zone 41 had joined the defense after fending off a weaker stampede in their own zone. With such numbers and power, this should have been a routine battle.
But the problem wasn't numbers. It was the aberrants.
Unlike the beasts, these aberrants were zombie-type monsters.
They stood on two legs, had two arms, and moved with a frightening intelligence. That was what made them dangerous.
