NOVEL NEXT Chapter 889: Harper's Emergency Traps
The looters were still sweeping the battlefield, triggering loot prompts one corpse at a time.
But behind them was another kind of work that had started…
Harper and his team moved swiftly as they fixed or replaced trap after trap.
They weren't fighters, not in the traditional sense. But they were also survivors and they knew how to keep the Eclipse Domain standing.
"This is a lot of work…" Harper muttered as the outer perimeter traps had taken a beating.
The Lickers hadn't just overwhelmed the defenses, they'd torn through the ground itself…
Still, the Earth Zombies were more terrifying, so they should be able to fix most of it.
Pressure plates used for spike traps, snare traps, and others were shattered. Wire triggers snapped. Spike pits had collapsed under the weight of brute charges. Even the foot-snare traps hidden beneath the grass had all been trampled and most of them were already unusable.
Harper crouched beside a half-buried trigger plate, brushing aside loose gravel and scorched grass. The metal was bent, the spring mechanism jammed with debris…
"This is goner…" he muttered. "Swap it."
One of his teammates knelt beside him, already pulling a fresh plate from his pack. No one spoke unless necessary. They'd done this before… too many times.
Another survivor was working on a spike pit nearby. The trap had been designed to collapse under weight, dropping zombies into a narrow hole lined with sharpened spikes…
But the Lickers had leapt straight over it, and one of the Brutes had crushed the edge, caving in the wall.
As expected, most of the Zombies inside the pit traps weren't looted yet, so they have to call someone to loot them.
After that, they had to redo the traps…
"Reinforce the cover…" Harper called out. "Use the angled stakes. We don't need depth… we need sharper spikes…"
The team nodded and began hammering the spikes of different sizes into place, spacing them just wide enough to catch a foot or a leg. The spikes gleamed faintly in the red light, half-hidden beneath a layer of loose stone.
Farther down the line, two others were rewiring a tripline snare. The original wire had been torn clean, and the anchor had been snapped in half. They worked quickly, threading a new line between two buried anchors, then testing the tension with a few torches…"
"Too loose," one said.
"Add a second wire…" the other replied.
Harper moved between teams, checking progress, offering quick adjustments to the traps that were places…
He wasn't barking orders to them; he didn't need to. These were his people. They knew the terrain. They knew the traps, and they just needed some advice from time to time.
The grass around the shelter had been scorched and trampled, but they still used it. Several traps were designed to blend into the environment—foot snares hidden beneath tufts of green, spike boards buried under thin layers of soil, even pressure mines disguised as flat stones.
One survivor was resetting a snare trap near the eastern ridge. He used a hooked tool to pull the tension cable through a buried guide, then locked it into place with a click…
"This one's ready," he said.
Harper nodded. "Mark it. Don't want our own stepping into it."
A small flag was placed nearby, visible only to those who knew what to look for.
The work was physical, dirty, and slow, but that was their task. It was necessary. After all, these traps would lessen the pressure on their walls and filter those Zombies that didn't require energy bullets to be eliminated.
"Let's move faster…" Harper reminded. Every trap reset was another chance to slow the next wave.
Soon, Harper paused near the central trench, wiping sweat from his brow. Only 20 minutes had passed, but they had already fixed more than half of the traps…
Of course, they weren't really aiming to redo all of them since they had limited time.
As Harper felt that they had done enough, he looked at the traps they had placed.
"I hope we won't be using the emergency trap I created…" Harper muttered to himself as he looked at the red sky.
Apparently, he had obtained a special mining ability that allowed him to dig through the ground more easily and quickly. Because of that, he had placed a special emergency trap that should only be used in case of emergency…
Soon, as Harper was inspecting the spike alignment near the trench, the alarm blared.
A sharp, pulsing tone echoed across the Eclipse Domain.
[ Alert: Incoming Zombie Wave. Estimated arrival in 2 minutes. All non-combat personnel must return to shelter. ]
Harper didn't hesitate.
"Pack up!" he called. "Leave the flagged traps. Grab the broken gear… we'll sort it inside."
His team moved fast. Tools were stowed, and loose wires were bundled. Damaged plates and snapped stakes were collected and loaded into reinforced crates.
They then swiftly run with practiced urgency...
By the time the first turret activated and the outer wall lit up with defensive fire, Harper's team was already inside.
The shelter doors sealed behind them with a heavy clang.
***
Inside, the medics were waiting for Harper's team…
"Line up," one said. "Quick scan. No exceptions."
Harper nodded and stepped forward. A handheld scanner passed over his body, checking for viral traces, skin discoloration, and abnormal vitals. One by one, his team followed.
[ Status: Clear. No infection detected. ]
Once cleared, they moved to the back of the logistics hall, where a long metal table had already been set up. The crates of broken traps were stacked nearby, ready for sorting and repair.
But for now, they had a brief window.
Breakfast.
It wasn't much, ration packs, boiled grain, and a few slices of dried meat… However, it was warm, and it was quiet.
Outside, the defenders were already engaging the new wave. The sound of rifles, turret bursts, and distant shrieks echoed through the reinforced walls.
Harper didn't flinch. He chewed slowly, glancing at the nearby Warden Unit that would give them orders as soon as they were needed.