Crucist was out at the helipad, alone. He was a rather less talkative one, comparing to Night Cat and Kheez. I knew him even before we were in the military, dating back to the school days when we were 10. My father was on assignment for an oil rig company in Southern Arabia, and I was sent there a month later to join him. He had to have me migrated there, because the job was going to take years to complete. Working with oil rigs were a well paying job, because the demand for petroleum energy was off the scale as compared to the supplies the world could muster. Petroleum was fast running out, yet the world was not fast enough in adapting to other means of energy consumption. Synthetic white gasoline has been introduced at that time, but the price was still too high for more than half the world to afford.
I signed up in a school near where we stayed, and the first person I met sitting next to me, was a dark-haired kid who introduced himself as Mikel Raikov. We went on to be the best of friends, and we hung out alot after school where he'd show me around the city I was relatively new to. He was a bubbly fellow, with endless jokes to entertain and we could talk about anything or nothing at all. That was before the little political 'glitch' happened. War broke out between two giant oil rig companies, which ended up with high unemployment and low salaries as the new way to operate. Monopoly was never the way to go, as proven by Adam Smith. But because the political power of these multi-millionaires, the government couldn't contain their desires for wealth.
There were fights and demonstrations within the city areas which led to many innocent deaths. Mikel's family were razed in a terrorism attack in the city, killed in front of his eyes. They were going for his father, at that time a very hated person for his position in the oil company. A man held his crying head up as the rest of them sank multiple bullets into his parents and his 5 year old brother. That was the last I heard of him, until the day when I enlisted into the UWA's Ghost Team.
" Hey," I signalled my presence from behind him. He let out a slight nod without turning back.
I went on and sat beside him. The asphalt ground was still cold and clammy. I stared into the dark horizon, purple linings were already visible. Around the linings were still dark bluish textured lanscape.
" Do you think we could've done things differently when we were in the mission?" Crucist whispered.
" You mean saving the all the people we were supposed to save?" There was no answer, but of course. It sounded a little rhetorical.
I adjusted myself into a comfortable ball, wrapping my hands around my legs. " Maybe."
The sun was already creeping up from behind a row of hills and mountains, casting more and more purple and lighter blue shades to the lovely portrait we were both admiring. Being the team leader, I was more concerned about the mission failure than Crucist was. Not that my position was in jepordy, but the fact that I could not do anything to save the people we were supposed to save.
The explosion was followed by a stream of machinegun shots, both coming from the northern end of the junction. We started concentrating our firepower towards the northern side whenever possible, knowing already that it was not time to die yet. From behind the stack of falling monsters, was a familiar face. Standing to about 5'8 at height, the gun he was holding overwhelmed him in size.
" Pyut!" Night Cat immediately recognised him. I sighed a deep relief inside me, knowing already that I had accomplished two things at one time now: to find and save Major Pyut, and to get out of this place alive. Although I thought that the former was a little different situationally, now that he saved us instead.
The Major swung his hand thru and fro while having his gun slung by his side. Kheez made his way ahead of us, and lit his flame thrower again. Waving a massive stream of fire across the road, spreading to every approaching entity catching them on fire. A path was then opened.
" Go!!" Kheez moved aside for the rest of us to barge through. The mutated human-like monsters that were attacking us was already burning on the ground around us, while we tried to run pass them towards Pyut.
" Don't worry about them, just keep coming up. I'm gonna blow them," the Major commanded as he pulled out a string of explosives that seemed like cluster munitions. We increased our speed, and paced pass Pyut as he launched the chain of small explosives with a special weapon. He aimed high up in the air, facing the crowd currently coming toward us. Pyut pulled the trigger that ejected the explosives into the air, while the gun recoiled backwards. The chain of grenades flung into the air, entangling each other while landing down again within the crowd, exactly where Pyut intended them to land.
" Go go go!!!" Pyut did not even stay long enough to see where the explosions would land, he was already picking up his stuff and taking off northbound. Kheez blasted the Arclite at oncoming creeps, buying us more time to grab distance. I was already making a sprint forward, trying to catch up with the rest of them ahead. Crucist and Night Cat was currently clearing the monsters for the rest of us as we gained speed northwards. I turned around to find Kheez behind me. He was already packing the flame thrower over his shoulders and coming to me, when behind him I saw the chain of explosives landed and ignited. One by one, the grenades blew themselves up, lighting the sombre night with fireworks. Flying along the explosions were bits of scattering body parts and blood. I was taking my time, waiting for Kheez to catch up to me before I continue my run. The sound of tapping claws were heard suddenly, this time from an unexpected direction. It was close by. I threw my eyes at my left, swearing that the sound was coming from that direction, and saw a brown animal staring dead at me. It was pacing slowly towards me, its razor sharp teeth glowing from the darkness. At a distance of less than 2 feet away, the monster was already preparing to pounce on me. I desperately swung my gun over as I was looking at it taking the leap. It was taking too long, my gun. I couldn't make it in time to plant the end of my barrel into the animal. I forced a fall backwards to buy myself more distance, and before the animal reached me, a bullet slammed into it from my left. It fell lifeless next to me, and behind him was Night Cat pulling the lever of his gun to eject an empty shell.
From my right, Kheez held out his hand for me to pull myself up, while keeping his attention at the oncoming crowd. I took it and we ran up north to meet up with the rest of the team.
" We'll find the Communication tower to patch radio to base so that we can call for transport. Crucist.." I looked over to Crucist for his directions, when Pyut interrupted. " No. I can't go now."
Eyes were fixed at him now.
" Sir. My orders are to.." " To rescue 3 marines and 3 scientists, correct?"
I nodded in silence.
" They sent you guys here for information. I won't leave this place without that."
We were on the northeast corner of Boston City, already pacing at a more relaxed speed, trying to keep away from the monsters on the lookout for us. Rain was still pouring all over the city, but it was quiet now. Still, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were echoing in my head, confirming to myself that having Kheez around was nothing less than the most helpful.
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