The sound of running tyres on rocky surfaces could be heard from a distance away. To the team, it would be no surprise if a hoard of monsters made a move on them. The team of twelve were divided into each car, six in each with a person poking out the roof top, on the look out for any incoming trouble.
It had been about twenty five minutes since the vehicle departed from the safe haven, though it was obvious that it was still a long way to go before they reached the end of the green zones.
Pa! Pa! Pa!
Three gun shots were unleashed by one of the two on the lookout, killing an Abstract on the approach.
"Negative!" The soldier on the lookout announced
This was the signal they had developed to make them aware of if a hoard of monsters were approaching or not. It turned out to work for the best as the two on the look out were gaining experience points for growth with ease.
Connecting his comms to the other car, Reeves proceeded to explain the details of the mission.
"Okay, everyone listen up! We will soon be emerging out of the green zone as planned. The details of the mission is clear, we want to go to spots that we know we can get food. Upon getting there we only want to clear the area and gather as much food as possible with Luke's skill, Warehouse. But for now we will be stopping at the last food spot in the green zone."
"Roger that sir!" A soldier from the other car replied.
Reeves did not have to go through the same speech all over again as the people in his car heard him clearly.
Few minutes passed by before the team had finally come to the last food spot in the green zone. Four soldiers came out of each car, leaving the other two behind incase of any problems. These soldiers gathered ammo and grenades just in case of any issues that could arise.
Looking around the area, no sign of monsters could be found, bringing to an end to the first phase of the plan. The soldiers approached the building as slow and quiet as they could, before locking into their different positions.
Giving the signal to go in on three, Reeves counted down before sending the metal door flying with a kick. Something that was impossible before the change to the planet. The team observed in awe, however they quickly rushed in as they had their jobs to do.
Rushing in the building, the team members Pointed their guns left and right as they scouted the building for any signs of Abstracts. This took up to about ten minutes before they concluded that no monsters were present, which was a strange thing to be honest.
"Signs of Abstracts in the building is a negative. Commencing to next phase of plan, food extraction," a soldier informed before others did the same.
"Those ugly monsters are lucky I won't have to shoot their brains out," a soldier named Brent stated.
This made some soldiers in the team laugh as they considered this to be funny. Splitting up and looking inside the building for food resources, the soldiers gradually came to the conclusion that the warehouse was very much empty. Nothing but terrible news for them.
The team came together to announce their findings only to realize it was the same everywhere.
"Damn it! There is no food here!" Luke reacted as he kicked a rock.
"That is very strange. Based on the information we gathered some days ago, there was food supplies in this warehouse. What happened?" Henry scratched his head all confused.
"Well there is nothing we can do about it now. We will just have to head to the yellow zone and gather food," Reeves stated.
The soldiers sighed before nodding their heads in understanding. Besides they knew that this was what they signed up for.
Walking towards the exit, the team noticed that Henry stood still with a weird look on his face. Few seconds later, he grabbed his head as if he was in pain. The soldiers who had seen this before knew what this met all to well.
"Abstracts... they're here!" Henry notified them still in pain.
The few days that had past in this new world, the soldiers had discovered that Henry was in possession of some of the most unique skills that no one had. One of these skills was 'Detection' which the ability to feel killing intent from his environment. Because of this he was carried on every mission as his skill was just too important. The only problem with this though was the fact that he was a rookie to the whole soldier thing. This only meant he was likely to have a hard time fending for himself.
"But how!" The soldiers asked surprised. "We already checked everywhere!"
Just then the ground began to vibrate, answering the questions that they asked earlier. Multiple bug like creatures dug their way up to the surface before attaching themselves to the ground. These Abstracts looked similar to the combination of Earth's cockroaches and ants. The only problem was that they weren't quite the same.
Swollen tiny plants with spores could be seen growing on their backs, ultimately releasing some kind of terrible smelling gas.
"What the heck is with that smell!?"
[Signs of poisoning detected]
[10% of stats deducted as a result of Abstract's skill]
[Body activity is being hindered]
These notificationa appeared on the screen of everyone present, before a wave of sickness feel over them. The symptoms were weakness of the body, nausea and dizzy. Something that was terrible to have at a place like this. While all of these were happening, the bugs which were not attached to the ground came forward to finish the job with their abnormally sharp mandibles.
"Open fire! Our weapons can kill these things!" Reeves gave them the order.
The team unleashed a barrage of bullets on their enemies killing majority of them in an instant. Even with this though, there would turn out to be trouble as more of these creatures dug out of the ground. They didn't need to be geniuses at this point to know that they were very much out numbered.
"Fall back!" Another order came from there leader.
Upon hearing this, the team happily retreated from a massacre. The Abstract bugs gladly followed as well as shedded their spored surrounded skin for easy movement. Reeves carried all of his explosives and threw it within their midst during his fall backwards to keep to slow them down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rocked the building, ultimately buying the team the time they needed to escape. Getting back to the armored cars in a haste, the ones left behind in the cars could not help but wonder what was going on.
The team entered the cars within few seconds before driving away from the area. Giving a sigh of relief, they couldn't help but feel like they escaped a close one. That would soon change however, when the person on the lookout alerted them of what he saw.
"Multiple Abstracts in approach!"
Reeves checking for himself discovered that it was the creatures from earlier that were in pursuit.
"Damn it!" He exclaimed.
Skillfully coming out the car, Reeves came to the cars top, observing the threat approaching them. The creatures seemed to have grown wings in order to chase after them. At this point he could not help but believe they were the ones that ate the food supplies in the building.
"Let's end this!"
Taking focus, Reeves body began to emit some kind of red glow before it shot out over a large area in the environment. This red glow would eventually spread to these Abstracts, causing them to stop their chase and retreat in fear.
"Guess they were lower in level after all."
This was Reeves skill Intimidate, a skill that was capable of causing Abstracts with lower levels or stats to run away in fear. It was one of his important skills for troublesome situations like this.
The team sighed in relief once again but this time, sure that they were safe. During this period, Luke activated a skill of his named Allies blessing, to cure the team from the poison of before.
"Hey guys, I just reached level 6," Brent announced with a chuckle.
"Not the right time bro," Luke shook his head as he tried to recover from his near death experience.
"It seems we will be heading to the yellow zone to gather our food supplies then. Get yourselves prepared mentally, we will need it," Reeves notified with an indifferent expression.
The team upon hearing this could not help but wonder how he was able to keep cool after what had just happened. They eventually concluded the reason for this was because he was not human but a super soldier.