Lori is Pregnant

A dozen minutes later, Rick arrived at Oak Leaf Street with his troops. After discussing tactics with Leon, Rick climbed directly onto a military truck.

Under his orders, three military trucks formed a square formation and began accelerating. The massive rams on their fronts, like the scythes of the Grim Reaper, tore into the heart of the horde with a terrifying roar, scattering the zombies in all directions and crushing any enemy that dared resist, pushing the frontline forward by a hundred meters.

Three Security Department employees climbed onto the beds of the military trucks and began operating the heavy machine guns welded there. No precise aiming was needed; three dense streams of bullets formed a terrifying firing point, and any monster caught in their path was torn into shreds within seconds.

At the entrance to Oak Leaf Street, over twenty soldiers armed with assault rifles slowly entered the street, forming three lines of defense as they advanced, clearing the zombies that had survived the heavy machine guns.

With the Rifle Squad's deeper push and finishing moves, the street was soon cleared of any zombie that could still move.

A faint smile tugged at Leon's lips as he glanced at the professors and students. "Hurry up and get in the vehicles, or the noise will draw every nearby zombie here."

Under Leon's command, the group came and went quickly. By the time the Umbrella Corporation convoy had left the scene, Oak Leaf Street was left with nothing but scattered corpses.

After the trip to the Polytechnic Institute, Umbrella Corporation welcomed over a hundred new members. Leon didn't plan any major moves; instead, he spent half a month focusing on managing the base's internal affairs.

Unsurprisingly, after witnessing the terrifying zombie world outside the base and the miserable lives of the newly recruited survivors, the three professors and over a hundred students all chose to join Umbrella Corporation.

Perhaps it was the boldness of youth, eager to fight and unwilling to take on tedious logistics work, that suddenly gave Umbrella Corporation over forty combat personnel, more than thirty technical staff, and over twenty logistics workers. Counting the scattered survivors recruited over the past two weeks, the company's numbers swelled to over 230.

Leon divided the Security Department's combat personnel into three squads of about twenty each. Since most were students with no combat experience, the Combat Squads were currently tasked with clearing zombies from buildings around the base.

Leon aimed to clear all zombies within a three-kilometer radius over the next month, pushing the base's defensive line to the true outskirts of the CDC to prevent Raiders from attacking the base's glass walls.

The Engineering Department's work wasn't easy either. They were needed for all the soldiers' equipment, vehicle modifications, and production of certain daily necessities. The new members prompted Leon to assign them two more tasks.

One task was to use the zombies' dim-wittedness to create trap-like devices to efficiently reduce their numbers, similar to certain tower defense games.

The other task was growing vegetables. Yes, growing vegetables. After two months of eating canned food, Leon was sick of it. Luckily, a few of the Polytechnic Institute students came from farming backgrounds. Leon gave them the authority to consult the base's elderly residents, aiming to build a vegetable plot capable of feeding several hundred people within a few months.

The Logistics Department's primary task was also nearing completion. The apartments on the second floor of the Underground Parking Lot were 70% finished, with an estimated week left until full completion.

As the base's population grew, Leon assigned two assistants each to Amy, Quinn, and Andrea—all Polytechnic Institute students—to help them manage the increasing workload.

These administrative tasks seemed simple but were quite troublesome in practice. Leon spent most of his energy on them every day.

Fortunately, after half a month of diligent governance, Umbrella Corporation's operations gradually fell into place, and Leon no longer had to handle every matter personally.

One day, Leon went to the Medical Room for Ms. Lori's final checkup. After a month of treatment, her body had recovered and she was ready to be discharged.

Shane, Carl, and Rick were all by Lori's side, speaking to her gently. Perhaps due to the physical and psychological trauma, she had become somewhat withdrawn. She knew in her heart that losing her eyes made her a burden to her family.

Watching their quiet devotion, Leon felt moved, but he had to tell them something. Even if he didn't say it now, they would discover it on their own soon enough.

Leon cleared his throat and lightly gestured for Shane and Rick to follow him into a separate room. Without much small talk, he got straight to the point.

"I need to tell you something about Ms. Lori. I hope you can prepare yourselves mentally."

Shane and Rick's hearts tightened. "Dr. Castor, what's wrong with Lori?"

Leon looked them in the eyes, his expression serious. "Ms. Lori is pregnant. Her current psychological state is problematic—too negative. That could affect the baby's health."

Seeing the two men stunned as if struck by lightning, Leon continued. "I can roughly imagine the issues between you, but fate never gives you a choice. Everyone just goes with the flow."

"I hope you can handle this calmly. Don't let a moment of impulse destroy the genuine feelings between you. Ms. Lori couldn't handle that blow either. Think about Carl. Don't let tragedy happen to this child again."

With that, he nodded to the two still standing there in shock and left the room.

On his way back, Leon spotted Peggy struggling to carry a box of supplies. The girl had a stubborn look on her face, one arm in a sling and the other wrapped around the box, refusing the help of her taller younger brother behind her as she slowly moved toward her apartment.

Her self-reliance made Leon take a second look. He returned to his office, where Amy was sitting at a small desk handling her own work.

Seeing him return, her pretty face broke into a sweet smile. She set aside her work and brought him a glass of iced cola.

"Boss, you're back."

Leon took the cola, sat down in his boss chair, and turned on his computer. Seeing nothing urgent, he started playing a game called "Red Alert."

He took a sip of cola and said to his little secretary, "When you go downstairs, remember to post a task in the Engineering Department."

"What kind of task, Boss?" Amy blinked curiously.

"Custom-make a prosthetic limb for that girl named Peggy."

He looked at Amy's smiling face and added, "That girl was a big help when I was rescuing the survivors from the Polytechnic Institute."

"She deserves a reward."