After Aida left the base, another familiar face showed up with a bright expression. "Where are my cute samples? Bring me to them now!" she demanded. She was followed by five people who had their entire face obscured with white masks and wore a standard white research lab coat.
General Mills stood at attention as he reported, "Due to a series of mistakes from our side, there were no fatalities or specimens to provide you."
"What." Her tone of voice turned very flat as she stared at General Mills. Her demeanor did a 180 from when she entered. If Aida and Lucifer were here, they would immediately recognize her as none other than Noah, the presentative from the CDC and WHO. Typically, the CDC and WHO were two different representatives. However, due to the dire situation, they decided to make that person one and the same. This would allow for faster and more decisive response to the changing landscape. This was also the very person who pushed Lucifer and his crew off the helicopter and the very same person he wanted revenge on.
In a clipping tone, she repeated, "What? How could this be? They are disorganized, starved and probably travel worn. How is it possible that your soldiers with all the guns and resources can't even capture a few Variants?"
Instead of responding verbally, General Mills simply turned to the commander on the side who was trying to minimize his presence. The commander was shivering in fear, he had never interacted but recognized Noah. At the wall, she was notoriously known as a mad scientist.
Everyone who entered her lab would never return the same. They would end up following behind Noah much like the people following behind her now. After exiting her lab, they would all become obedient lambs who would even forsake their own familiars. It was rumored that Noah kept live samples of the infected in her lab and screams could be heard from there 24-7.
Observing the commander, Noah's eyes narrowed and reached out, "Come here."
"No… no!!" The commander screamed as he tried to make a break for it. Unfortunately, his soldiers had turned on him and immediately caught him, throwing him back onto the floor. They had long wanted to get revenge on this irrational bully who had cost the lives of their friends due to his arrogance. He deserved every bit of what was to come.
Unaffected by the commander's attempt to run away, Noah walked up to him and gave him a smile. The commander continued to shuffle backwards in a crawl, attempting to get away from her to no avail. She squatted down and took out a vial, forcing it into his mouth. The commander immediately froze before falling into a dead faint.
Standing back up, she casually wiped her hands with a handkerchief and ordered the men behind her. "Take him back to my lab. We'll get to the bottom of this yet." Everyone, even General Mills, shivered as they saw this scene but maintained their silence.
"Have you investigated what they were after?"
General Mills looked thoughtful at this question. "We are still investigating. The surveillance is currently being reviewed and our men are scouring just outside the wall for any kind of evidence they left. It will take some time before we get the results. It's odd… they were so close to breaching the wall but then suddenly chose to retreat. In summary, it's still unclear what their objective was."
Noah's eyes sharpened when she heard this, "Interesting… I will do some investigating of my own." With that, she waved her hand and two of her men disappeared into the distance.
Despite his discontent for allowing non-military people roaming the walls, General Mills made sure not to show a single amount of discontent on his face.
Despite his efforts, Noah's sharp eyes still detected the change in emotions in General Mills. "General, I would like to remind you that any and all infected activity must go through me. It's for the safety of the wall and for this country. Please cooperate."
General Mills felt beads of sweat dripping down his back as he faced her extra scrutiny. Maintaining his neutral and serious expression, he nodded. "Our troops will assist you in any way we can. We are all chasing after the same goal."
Hearing this confirmation, Noah nodded to General Mills before walking leisurely back towards her lab. She was eager to begin experimenting on this new sample of hers, it's too bad she would still have to wait the incubation period before getting started.
***
Not far away, Lucifer and Ace were slowly making their way out of the wall base as well. Ace had successfully turned off all the additional surveillance and missile defense systems, but forgot to message Aida in his haste to meet up with her.
After he finished modifying the system, the backup for fixing the network had arrived. They wouldn't let him leave until he fixed the issue which is why they didn't manage to leave at the same time as Aida.
Ace and Lucifer could only laugh wryly at the odds. Who knew they would be put to work to fix a problem that they caused. Although Lucifer didn't know how to operate a computer, he had Ace's help in acting like he was doing something. A lot of civilian engineers and others had been brought in, so no one found it odd that there was a new face.
After a few hours of patch work, their "shift" was finally over and they were allowed to leave. Lucifer and Ace lowered the hats on their faces to conceal their faces as they walked at a swift but measured pace towards the exit. Lucifer knew that time was of the essence, the moment they found the knocked out guards, their cover would be blown. Honestly, he was surprised they hadn't been caught yet.
The exit was soon in sight and Ace quickened his pace towards it, he was excited to get back to Aida. Before he could take a step out, Lucifer quickly grabbed him and dragged him behind a tent. Ace was about to open his mouth to protest but Lucifer had quickly covered his mouth.
When he finally stopped flailing, Lucifer removed his grip and ignored him. It was at that time that Ace noticed Lucifer's hands remained in tight fists, he was clearly agitated by something he saw.
Curious, he peered out from behind the wall. To his surprise, they saw Noah and a group of people wearing white walking through the base. "Oh!!" Ace called out in surprise before quickly covering his mouth and hiding again.