It took us a couple of days to make the journey to Bai Zeng research facility on foot. As usual, the fortress city was stingy with the use of transports. While we could use them to move within the districts or from district to district, they refused to let us ride a vehicle out into the wastelands where the chance of losing them was pretty high.
"Can't they let us use an aircraft at least?!" Pang Fei complained, wiping the perspiration from his brow. He panted from exhaustion and slumped against a wall of a broken block.
"Apparently aircrafts attract flying mutants, and there are plenty of high-ranking winged mutants in a wasteland." Lou Qian shook her head. "Airplanes are too expensive to lose in a wasteland. Each one costs millions of credits to build and maintain."
"Yet they have no qualms having aircraft flying from district to district," I muttered under my breath.
"They use air routes that don't pass through the wastelands," Lou Qian explained. I knew that, but that didn't stop me from whining about how stupid this was.
"We should be close to Bai Zeng research facility now," Nian Qing spoke up, changing the topic. We glanced in the direction where the map postulated its coordinates to be, but didn't see anything. Nian Qing sighed. "The mission packet says it's underground, right?"
"Yeah," I confirmed, having read the damned thing at least three times. Lifting up my pistol, I fired and took out a zombie straggler from range, blowing a hole in its head. My Kill Count went up to 12. Not a good number after about three days of moving through the wasteland, but at least we didn't have to expend too much evolution energy before we actually carried out the actual mission itself.
It also helped that we moved as much as possible during the daytime while setting up camp and staying away from zombies at night. As much as I wanted to raise my Kill Count as high as possible, I had to take my friends into consideration. Not only that, this wasn't a game. Given the number of zombies and how active and aggressive they were at night, it would be suicide to fight them. There were hundreds of them moving around, and though each individual zombie could be killed easily, getting swarmed by them all at once was not an experience I wanted to go through. Cheat Death had a cooldown of 24 hours, so it wouldn't work when I was being repeatedly attacked by hundreds of zombies.
No matter how high my stats were, that didn't mean I was immortal. As Josef Stalin once said, quantity was a quality of its own. Minion-ranked zombies were fodder, yeah, but gather enough of them in one spot and they could eventually overwhelm even a god. I didn't have unlimited evolution energy and stamina, whereas their numbers ran into the infinite. And fighting would draw more of them, especially at night when their senses were sharper and their movements faster.
It would never end, which was why I avoided fighting them at night, even with my so-called cheat.
We crept over the rubble, taking out stray zombies who were wandering about listlessly in the heat of daytime. Less than an hour later, we reached the coordinates where Bai Zeng research facility was supposed to be, but saw nothing but debris.
"Did it already get blown up?" Lei Shu asked, looking around in dismay. "There's nothing here except wreckage."
"I don't think so. This doesn't look like wreckage from a research facility." Lou Qian knelt down to study the debris. "And I don't think it's supposed to be such a small place. It should be a lot larger than all the buildings around here. It should be an entire compound on its own."
"An underground facility, like we said earlier," Pang Fei said, staring at the ground. "Um, do we start digging?"
"Not practical," Nian Qing said with a sigh. "We don't have the tools or relevant abilities, and if it's really underground, then there should be meters of rock we have to dig through to reach it. Not to mention the reinforced structure and stuff. If someone among us can control the earth element, then maybe we can tunnel through it, but…"
"But we won't make it past the metal walls designed to contain the mutants they are researching on during an, uh, accident." Lou Qian finished it for him.
"What should we do?" Lisa asked, studying the floor. "Do you think there's a hidden entrance somewhere? The staff need some way of entering and leaving the facility."
"You would think the mission packet would include some way of letting us in, or tell us where the entrance is," I muttered darkly under my breath. Unfortunately, it was a lot like Google Maps. It pointed out the location through satellite images and coordinates, but didn't tell us how to enter exactly.
"I found something," Pang Fei called out, hurrying over to what looked like an aperture. He grinned when we stared at him in awe. "I used my wind abilities and detected some air flowing through a passage from here."
"It's the entrance!" Lei Shu exclaimed, staring at the tunnel past the opening that Pang Fei discovered. The doors were slightly ajar, huge metallic panels that hung loosely from their hinges. Despite their posture, they didn't look damaged. There were no dents or marks on their surface, which make them look more like they were suffering from wear and tear than being forced open. Pang Fei took a deep breath and conjured a gust of wind to blow them open so that we could step inside.
"Stay frosty, everyone," I warned as I stepped inside, drawing my pistols and aiming inward. My glasses switched to night vision, bathing the area in a green tinge and allowing me to see my way through the darkness.
"Dude…" Lei Shu sighed and stepped forward. He raised a hand and summoned a ball of lightning that crackled and floated like…an unidentified flying object. It buzzed and streaked forward, illuminating the dark corridor. I winced when my night vision blinded me momentarily and switched my glasses back to normal view. "Stay back. I'll take point."
Nian Qing also readied his spear while Lou Qian placed a hand on her scythe. The three of them formed the vanguard and moved ahead. Pang Fei, Lisa and I made up the rear and trailed behind them, scanning the place for any sign of activity.
"Where's everyone?" Lisa asked nervously, clinging to my arm. Even with Lei Shu's ball of light lighting the way for us, she didn't like the darkness. She was jumping at every moving shadow, barely able to suppress a cry.
"The power's out," Nian Qing noted and glanced at the rest of us. "Not a good sign. I guess an accident really happened."
"There's no blood or any sign of violence so far," Lei Shu reported, staring at the walls and floor. He looked up at the ceiling, shining his ball of light across its surface. "No signs of struggle. Nobody made it this far."
"Yet the door was half open," Pang Fei murmured. "I wonder why."
"Did anyone make it out?" Nian Qing asked. He frowned. "But we didn't see anybody outside."
"Do you think any of the researchers will be able to survive on their own out there?" Lei Shu asked dryly. "I doubt they have any evolvers among them. They'll probably get slaughtered by the zombies if they tried to leave this place."
"If the zombies and mutants in here really broke free, then they would die if they stay in here as well," Lou Qian pointed out somewhat neutrally. We exchanged glances, feeling a dreadful weight sinking on our chests.
Either way, the outlook of finding any survivors was becoming bleaker and bleaker.
We hadn't gotten very far when Lei Shu held up a hand and dismissed his ball of lightning. I frowned and was about to ask him what the matter was when I caught sight of lights at the back of the tunnel.
"There's electricity running deeper inside," Lei Shu said somewhat unnecessarily. Being a lightning type evolver, he could detect the electric currents from this distance, way before any of us did.
"Be careful," Lou Qian warned. She hefted her scythe to hold it in a defensive posture, watching the end of the tunnel warily. "Something's not right."
"Even so, we have no choice but to proceed," I said and took a step forward.
"Hold it!"
The unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed throughout the tunnel, causing us to freeze. Then I caught sight of the red lights dancing all over our bodies, recognizing them as targeting optics mounted atop weapons.
"Nobody move a muscle," I instructed, my voice tense. My squad mates glanced at me, but nobody objected. They knew what this meant. With so many rifles trained on us, even if we were evolvers with superhuman abilities, we wouldn't be able to survive being riddled by so many bullets or firepower. Like with Mu Rong Shao, evolvers didn't mean we were gods. Normal humans could still kill us with the right weapons.
Even if Lou Qian conjured an ice wall or Pang Fei blew the bullets away, the sheer amount of firepower they could unleash upon us would blast through the barrier or enough ammunition would make it through the gusts of wind to hit us. We would suffer casualties no matter what.
Besides, they weren't the enemy. At least I doubted they were.
"We are an evolver squad from the Fourth Evolver Academy," I spoke up clearly and loudly. "We were sent here to investigate what happened to Bai Zeng research facility after the authorities lost contact with you a few days ago."
The targeting lasers didn't stray from our bodies, but the voice that followed allowed me to relax a little.
"Took you long enough. Hayden, let them in."
The laser lights vanished and a rumbling sound at the far end indicated doors opening to let us in. A group of security guards hurried out, dressed in heavy armor and armed with rifles. They ringed us, but at least they weren't pointing their weapons at us this time.
"You the commander of the group?" A guard with sergeant chevrons asked, stepping forward to speak to me. I nodded and also moved to the front, saluting crisply.
"Yes, sir. Feng Zhi Ming at your service." I hesitated for a moment, then decided to go straight to the point. "What happened here, sir?"
"Lots of things," the sergeant grumbled. "It's a long story. Follow us and we'll bring you up to speed. But man, are we glad to see you."
"I assume an accident happened?" Pang Fei said, cocking his head and studying all the armed security guards. The sergeant's face was hidden behind combat goggles and a rebreather, so I couldn't see his expression, but I could hear the wry smile in his tone.
"'Accident' is a very big understatement."
"I bet," Lei Shu said bluntly. "Did the zombies and mutants you were experimenting on break out or something?"
"Something like that," the sergeant admitted. "Fortunately, we managed to lock down the cell areas, but entire segments of the facility have been compromised. What remained of the engineering team is trying to repair communication lines and bring the security turrets back online, but the majority of them have been killed during the first few hours and turned into zombies…" He then stopped and shook his head. "Like I said, it's a long story. Follow us."
"Long story short, we're going to need you to clean up our mess for us," one of the other guards joked gruffly. "You're evolvers, right? We'll need you to help us wipe out the specimens."
"Them?" Another guard scoffed. "They're just kids. What can they do? They should have sent the professional evolvers…not a bunch of academy cadets."
"I wouldn't underestimate us if I were you," Lou Qian said coldly, her fingers brushing along the haft of her scythe. I gave her a look and shook my head.
"We'll see what we can do," I said. "But if we lack the strength to help you, then I'll see if we can contact the fortress-city for reinforcements."