"Escaped?"
Reap's temples bulged up and twitched dangerously. His lips were pursed with anger, and a murderous glint flashed in his eyes.
The skinny tattooed mercenary beside him took a step back in fear.
"WARNING! WARNING! The laboratory has been breached! Safety protocols are down! Please secure the test subject. Data destruction will commence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."
Red light flooded the lab. As the mechanical voice resounded, the computers suddenly burst into flames.
Reap raised the gun and pointed it skywards.
"Bang!" Iris was blasted apart and its remains scattered across the ground. The red light disappeared, and the lab fell silent again.
"Find the rat and bring it to me. Also, do you need me to look for their exit path myself?" Reap growled as he turned around.
"No, boss!" The tough mercenaries shouted in unison and scrambled off to comb through every nook and cranny of the lab.
"Boss, the cage is empty. They must have taken the rat with them." A tall and muscly man reported.
Reap nodded expressionlessly. He had expected this.
"How troublesome," he spat in annoyance.
This mission was proving to be far more complicated than he had initially thought. But then again, the client's generous payment had hinted at as much.
"There's a passageway here!" A shrill voice suddenly called out excitedly.
"Let's go." Reap took the lead and strode forward with wide steps.
----------
Zed sat leisurely atop Alan's shoulder, munching on a seed. His small form was outlined against the vast expanse of the desert sky.
The wind whistled past them, ruffling his fur and carrying with it the distant sounds of battle. Dr. Daniel Peterson controlled the electric hover bike at the front.
"The outside world is so amazing!" Zed let out a contented sigh as he flipped over to expose his belly to the sky.
He enjoyed the feeling of the wind blowing against his streamlined body, and the warmth of the bright sun on his fur.
"They must have broken into the lab by now," Alan said, his voice tinged with worry.
"We have a 10 minute lead on them." Dr. Daniel Peterson replied calmly, his voice cutting through the rush of wind around them as he continued speeding forward. "As long as we make it to the forested area, it'll be much harder for them to track us."
As he spoke, he glanced to the rear and frowned.
The cloud of sand behind them that was kicked up by the bike was problematic. Even though he'd turned on the bike's camouflage function, in this flat and barren desert landscape, the huge sand cloud was a direct beacon to their location.
However, they couldn't just stop the bike and escape on foot. Even if they could avoid the eyes of the mercenaries, this place was right in the middle of the desert. They didn't bring any food or water with them since they'd escaped in a hurry. There was no way they could walk out of the desert alive.
He could only continue rushing forward and hope that the mercenaries will not catch up so quickly.
Unfortunately, lady luck was not on their side.
Less than 15 minutes later, he saw a faint dust cloud appearing on his radar.
In a few seconds, more red dots appeared. It seemed as if an entire horde of red ants were chasing after them.
"F*ck! Whose lousy bike is this?! Why is the top speed only 330 km/h!" Dr. Daniel Peterson cursed in frustration.
They were already traveling at their fastest speed and even had a decent head start. But, the enemy was already on their tail.
"It's mine!" Alan snapped unhappily. "I only bought this bike because I was assigned to this stupid lab that's situated in the middle of nowhere!
I used all my savings, plus the money that my dad gave me to barely afford it. Are you going to give me the money to buy a high-end bike? If I knew that this would happen, I wouldn't come here even if I was beaten to death!"
He was just a newly graduated researcher. It was already very good that he could own a vehicle of his own. He couldn't tolerate hearing others talk badly about his precious bike.
Zed flipped over and put away his snack. He extended a tiny paw and patted Alan gently on his head to comfort him.
The little mouse looked completely nonchalant and carefree, as if the entire situation had nothing to do with it at all.
Dr. Daniel Peterson looked into the rearview mirror, and his eyes widened at the shenanigans of his two passengers. He immediately became furious. His beard bristled with anger, and he had half a mind to kick the idiot fatty off the bike. Perhaps this useless bike would go faster without the extra weight.
Alan gulped visibly when he noticed the senior researcher's sinister gaze.
Dr. Daniel Peterson snorted and turned his attention back to his front.
The red dots were inching closer and closer to them by the minute, and he had no time to deal with petty quarrels.
The trio rode in tense silence for a further 10 minutes, their hearts pounding in their chests as the sound of the pursuing group grew louder and louder with each passing second.
At this point, the vague outline of greenery could already be seen in the distance.
Suddenly, a loud bang rang out, and a tuft of sand blew up beside the bike, sending a shower of sand all over them.
Then, more blasts of sand flew up into the sky.
The red dots were already within striking distance!
"Careful you idiots! Don't hurt the rat!" Reap shouted, his voice booming loudly even in the chaos of the roaring engines.
"The client paid a lot of money to capture that rat and they want it alive! I'll skin all of you when we return if I find even a single strand of fur missing on that rat!" He hollered angrily.
"Just slow them down! Aim for the ground in front of them!"
"Boom!" As his words landed, another burst of sand flew high into the sky. A giant hole appeared right in front of the bike.
Dr. Daniel Peterson pulled wildly to the side and avoided flying straight into the pillar of sand.
"What kind of cheap a*s bike is this?! It doesn't even have a barrier function!"
Alan did not respond to the offensive remark. He was too busy alternating between spitting sand out of his mouth and screaming in fear.
He was in an extremely miserable state. His ears were ringing from the loud explosions all around him, and he felt completely disoriented. His body was covered entirely in sand from head to toe like a sandman.
It couldn't be helped. His frame was just too wide and he couldn't avoid the sand at all.
Oddly enough, the white lab mouse sitting on his shoulder was actually completely unmolested by the rain of sand. Its white fur was pristine, and not even a single grain of sand could be seen marring its glossy surface.
The sand seemed to bend and veer away from the little mouse, as if it was afraid to touch it.
Zed was still chewing on a snack with a carefree expression. It was as if the chaos around him did not exist at all, and he was out on an excursion.
A few minutes later, the voices of the pursuing group finally reached the trio.
"Stop right there!"
"Stop running! You can't escape!"
"HEY! STOP! WE JUST WANT TO TALK!!!"
"Look at that bawling fatty. AHAHAHAHA!!!"
A gigantic sand cloud surged behind them, accompanied by loud laughter and jeering voices. The cacophony of voices was overwhelming, like the sound of a thousand drums beating out a funeral dirge.
At this point, Alan was already crying hysterically. He regretted having accepted this job. No, he shouldn't even have studied this subject in the first place! Now, he was going to die on his first day at work.
How pathetic!
"Tsk, so noisy." A light mousy voice sounded from his shoulder, though he was too preoccupied to hear it. He was screaming too loudly.
Zed looked up and spat out the seed in his mouth as his long whiskers twitched with annoyance.
"Boom!" A hover bike in the middle of the pursuing cluster blew up abruptly, frightening the group so much that they scrambled in all directions.
Dr. Daniel Peterson's eyes narrowed as he looked suspiciously at Zed. At the same time, he took the opportunity to widen the distance between their pursuers.
"What the f*ck was that?!" Someone shouted.
"Did they have a weapon installed on that bike?"
"They don't even have a f*cking barrier on that thing! How can there be a weapon!"
"Is that some kind of high velocity bullet?"
"Deploy your energy shields and spread out! Surround them first!" Reap hollered with a fierce scowl.
"Yes, boss!"
The group quickly fanned out and closed in on the fleeing lone bike.
Translucent energy barriers rose up around the pursuers' bikes.
In a swift instance, the gap shortened again.
A trickle of sweat rolled down the side of Dr. Daniel Peterson's face when he saw this scene. They were not going to make it to the forest line at this rate.
Sure enough, three bikes soon caught up to them from the flanks and sped over to block their advance.
Dr. Daniel Peterson tried to steer the bike to break out of the encirclement.
He managed to outmaneuver them at first, but the trio was eventually forced to come to a screeching halt as more bikes caught up and formed a tight circle around them.
They were completely trapped.