Back in area six, in one of the research labs, the two survivors walked as other wounded, at least alive, soldiers were tended to medical attention.
"How is it looking?" Robert asked Hilda, who was counting the casualties after the recent attack from the outsiders. The trainees were mostly in serious condition after taking the annihilator head-on. Robert was not glad that he was alive at the cost of his comrades' lives. He was burning with fury he barely suppressed, but he needed to know how deep the damage was.
"Pretty bad."
Looking at the state of Robert, Hilda wanted to say everything would be okay; however, the report said otherwise. Death was something the soldiers signed up for when they chose to fight for their home, but a meaningless one was not.
"Where is the commander?" She wanted to know everything that went down, so she changed the subject.
"That's what I'd like to know." Robert snapped. "He ghosted us. He was inside the armory, and now he's AWOL." Then he looked at his communicator. "We're not receiving any orders. The system is as dead as its soldiers. At this rate…"
"This place will collapse in minutes." Hilda completed his sentence.
The situation was becoming dire in area six, and with most of its guards dead, the non-combatants, in this case, the researchers, were on their own to find a solution. The whole area was meant to be just a training facility; hence it didn't have a general around. Being placed in the deepest part of the base, and with the security measures of other areas, Area six didn't have a commanding body, other than what was, from time to time, supervised by the high officials.
Unless directly authorized by the commander, the place was as non-existent as Atlantis deep in the ocean.
"Okay. So what do we do now?" Hilda asked. "Without the commander's badge or his authorization, we can't leave this place. We'll be stuck here without someone getting us out."
Robert took a long breath to calm himself down from all the bad ideas he was getting at the time. Sometimes, there are more important things than revenge.
"First, we need to regroup the rest of us remaining here." Robert replied. "Call everyone who's still alive around here. Ask them to assemble in the main hall."
"What are you thinking?" Hilda asked calmly. She was worried Robert would do something reckless again.
"I have a plan."
***
The town square where, by the time the invaders arrived in area four, chaos reigned.
People were running left and right. There was a body of a man sliced like a half apple lying on the streets. Everyone scattered, screaming in a god-only-knows-what language.
Crimson half knew what this place was supposed to be, so he had some idea of what it should look like. But a zombie rush hour was not what he expected.
At least the structure seemed to hold out. It was massive by any human standards. It had orderly buildings. Crimson's team awed at the squared buildings and the huge dome enclosing Area four as tall as the sky.
"Leaving our situation aside," Koul said in his usual irritated tone, "how are we supposed to find one guy among this mass?"
Killing them one by one? Koul wanted to answer his own question, but stopped himself. The look on Crimson's face, even he could tell this was not the time to cross him.
"Oh, hell. This is what we get for following unreasonable orders…" Crimson muttered. "How much easier it would be if Zeff showed himself to us instead of complicating our mission."
'Um, boss?' Kala, one of his followers with telepathic abilities, said in his mind.
'…What is it this time?' Crimson asked in an irritated voice aloud.
As far as he remembered, Kala was a jinx at everything she did. She, if anyone believes or not, was bad luck for anyone she tagged along with, mission or not. Her past teams had a losing streak from the mission they received from the organization. She was a magnet for trouble every time. She was transferred from one team to another until, not believing in superstitions, Crimson took her in.
She has been wise since then, only talking through her telepathy. She always warned her captain before the danger. She appears to have a hunch for it. And although it was nothing more than a faint feeling, a hunch, she was always right. And Crimson trusted her, retreating before he regretted his decisions of, instead, fighting a losing battle.
She always stays at the rear end of his team and always worn a hood over her face, never interfering in fights unless she was ordered to.
'I sense danger. It's coming from a single person.' She replied.
'Just great.' Crimson said. 'Just what I wanted to hear in this chaos.'
'…'
'How bad is it?'
'It's worse than what you're expecting to see.'
'…'
The momentary silence made him stop walking amongst the chaos. His ears only heard silence when he stood in front of the corpse cut in half. Trojan had a horrified face while he died. He certainly saw a quick death, but not a peaceful one, his face showed.
"Worse than our target?" he said, this time louder so Koul could hear.
"I'm afraid so."
***
Zeff recovered most of the deep injuries he suffered from Leo. After completely copying the blueprints inside his head, he was confident he could forge his way out unnoticed and was ready to bounce back to his way outside. However…
"You there…" he said in a rough voice inside the data center, the man hiding behind the safe locker flinched. "Show yourself."
The coward hiding in that place did not amuse him. In fact, he hated those who ran from their struggles as much as he despised picking on weaklings. But what he hated even more was leaving loose ends and a trail that follows his path. When you strike an enemy, crush him completely; that was his motto. Half-assing your way into a base was as ridiculous as leaving with a wounded enemy where there is a chance he could come back.
There was a readon he didn't kill Leo completely. He had future plans for the guy long before he met him here. Leo wasn't much of a dragon, but more like a cockroach he wanted to kill but wasn't able to. Zeff can't afford to make more mistakes like that. Unless, of course, in his terms, someone outlived his usefulness.
The engineer hiding in the safe did not reply. He might've thought it was impenetrable.
'If so, he made a big mistake.'
"Hey, fox. Kill him." He said.
Daksha followed his orders and grew in size with sharpened fangs. His jaws were strong enough to bite off a metallic table, but he held back before his teeth reached the innards of the safe. It bit off the small part of the floor, revealing the man inside.
"Please… spare me." He said, squeaking in a barely audible voice.
When Daksha was about to go for the kill, Zeff stopped him. His expression had changed. Up until now, he was stoic to all those around him. Everyone he met down here did not instill any feeling in him other than boredom and constant fear that someone might kill him.
Strong as he may be, he was not stupid. He was wise to know there was always someone stronger. All the more reason he hated not crushing his enemies completely.
But now…
"Well, well, well…" Zeff was amused for the first time. "Never thought I'd see him here… Unexpectedly, this trip down might be worth the risks after all." He said.
He felt rejuvenated as he felt his barely possible plan to escape was coming together. Now confident of his survival, he walked towards the trembling man before him.
But just then his eyes turned deep blue as electricity coursed through his body. He felt a headache, a pain coming from his brain making its way to the rest of his body. His muscles contracted, his nerves tearing themselves and rejoining, his heartbeat faster. It all happened in lightning speed that made Zeff's brain almost faint.
But Zeff forced himself conscious through brute willpower. Then he saw a message popping up in front of him.
**[Integration: successful]**
***
"Rest in peace, father." A girl muttered as she saw the sliced corpse of her father. She had an emotionless look as she reminisced about the bad moments she had lived so far. Among the chaos, while people scattered left and right, she masked her presence in the shadows of metallic alleyways.
Unbeknownst to all, a new anomaly was in the picture. An enemy? Ally? No one knew. But she was the one who cut down Trojan in cold blood.
A girl no older than eighteen, with short black hair and sharp blue eyes, was walking calmly compared to the people around her. As if she had a grasp on the situation, she was walking in the direction of Grant family quarters.
===
If you find any mistakes in any of the chapters, please comment them below so I can fix them as soon as possible.