Chapter 23
(Please take it easy on my English. It is my second language.)
"Put your hands above your heads right now!" The cops ordered. They meant business. Every one of them had either handgun or shotgun out, while the SWAT members among them were holding MP5s.
Everyone froze as they saw at THAT many heavily armed cops.
"Who started the fight?" The sheriff asked.
"Him!" All the marines pointed their fingers at Hunk from all directions.
"LIES! It's them!" Hunk pointed his finger back and moved it for a circle at all the marines around him.
"Search him," Two cops immediately moved forward to search Hunk as the sheriff ordered.
"No weapons," The two cops reported as they finished searching.
"Who did this?" A cop asked as he was pointing at the unconscious cop on the ground who was hit by the hanging lamp by his own shot.
"He did," All the marines pointed at Hunk again.
"What the heck are you talking about? I never even saw him!" Hunk protested.
The cops were obviously taking the side of the marines. Since this town was so close to the military zone, the cops probably had similar situations with the military before, and they knew it would be pointless since the marines could always get away with everything once some high rank military officers come to bail them.
"Who else were with him?"
'Him, him, and him, and that big guy over there".
Immediately all Hunk's men were searched by the cops.
"He did not do anything. Leave him out of this," Hunk pointed at T-106 Tyrant. Meanwhile he felt lucky though since they had all left their weapons in the van.
"All 5 of you are coming with us!"
"Why? Why just us? So many others had participated in the fighting".
"Someone had also reported you are carrying illegal firearms, and set fire to a car".
"What?"
The sheriff took out a tiny radio and replayed a part of a 911 call.
"This is 911 emergency service, who am I speaking to?" The operator asked.
"I prefer not to tell my name," It was clearly Nicholai's voice, "But this is emergency!"
"It's ok, sir. We get anonymous calls all the time. Just tell us what you wanted to report".
"There are five terrorists carrying illegal firearms at a local bar on the main street. They had set fire to a car in the parking lot before they entered. Now they have started a fight inside. Who knows what they might do once they start to use their guns? Please hurry arrest them all before someone gets hurt!" Nicholai said.
"Really? The bar owner had already called to report there is a huge bar fight there, but he did not mention anything else. We had already dispatched two officers to check it out. Now it seems the case is much more serious. They might be related to the car bomb from a few days ago".
"I bet!" Nicholai sounded if he was serious. "And the shooting 2 miles away!"
"How do they look like? We have to know who we are going after once we get there".
"One of them is 8-foot-tall, but the one in charge looks like…"
"This is bogus!" Hunk exploded with anger. He had realized that Nicholai was trying to flame him and get him into trouble with the police.
"You are coming with us to the station anyway".
"You are dead, Nicholai!" Hunk thought to himself.
"Stand up, now!" A cop ordered the motionless T-106 who was still sitting on a chair.
There was no reaction from the T-106 Tyrant.
Two cops tried to push the Tyrant away from the chair, but he was too big and heavy. Both cops couldn't even move him for one inch.
"Do as they say!" Hunk shouted right before he was pushed out of the bar by two cops with hands behind his back. He thought it was a better idea just to get this over with peacefully instead of starting a war in the town.
Hunk and his 3 men were all handcuffed, and being pushed into a criminal transport van.
"Sir, this guy's wrists are too big for the handcuffs," A cop beside the Tyrant told the Sheriff.
"Never mind, just push him into the van".
"Slow down. Or the cops will stop us for speedy," Claire told Nicholai. There was not a single other vehicle on the road, nor anyone was walking on the side walks.
"Not to worry. Every cop of this tiny town should be at the bar as we speak. We could go rob the police station without running into much resistance," Nicholai had a weird smile.
"Go robbing the police station by yourself then. I am not interested," replied Claire, "Oh yeah, you said you had a Sports car. What's with this van?"
"Did you see the burning car in the parking lot? That was my sports car".
"What happened?"
"Burned by terrorists. Second time in this week".
"What terrorists?"
"Ah never mind".
"For some reason, I think you seem happy about it".
"Oh yeah, I am very happy. Because the terrorists are getting arrested as we speak, they'll get what they deserved".
"Do you know that big guy and his friends?"
"Forget about them, they are just a bunch of losers. They should be handcuffed and on their way to jail at this moment".
"?"
"Never mind".
"Hey! Stop the car. I don't see my brother any more," Claire suddenly noticed Chris's car was no longer behind them.
"Just wonderful, isn't it? Now we can make out without interference," Nicholai replied.
Then, both of their cellular phones rang.
"Hello?" Claire answered hers first.
"Claire! Tell him to slow down," Chris's voice.
"I told him already. He wouldn't listen. Would you like to talk to…"
Nicholai suddenly seized the cell phone from Claire's hand and threw it out of the window at his left.
"What did you do that for?" Claire was stunned.
"I will buy you a better one tomorrow. Now let's concentrate on how to make out for tonight," Nicholai increased the speed of the van and he took out his phone.
"Yes?" Nicholai turned on his phone.
"There is a little extra assignment we'd like you to accomplish," A man's voice on the other end.
"What?"
"After the little truce you pulled off with Hunk yesterday, it seems their leadership might want to involve in a further partnership with us".
"Proof?"
"We have our spies in their organization too. Our intelligence information told us their executives had a meeting this morning and they were talking about this matter".
"So?"
"It might bring benefits for both companies".
"And?"
"It might actually turn into a merge of the two organizations".
"Then what?"
"We will be one step closer to reestablish Umbrella".
"…"
"Nicholai? Are you listening?"
"Yes!"
"Why aren't you replying anything longer than two words?" The man was annoyed by Nicholai's seemed careless answers.
"There is a hooker beside me in the car. I can't talk much about the business".
"I am NOT a hooker!" Claire was mad.
"Anyway, we want to you to send out a message to them that we want to work together. In other word, give them a push on the final decision by approaching them first".
"How?"
"According to our spy, they have a supervisor at Zion oversea the operation of retrieving radiation resisting T-virus from Raccoon City. Besides, Agent Hunk should still be there too, you can talk to him first".
"Over his dead body!"
"Nicholai, we Americans usually say 'over my dead body', not "over his dead body"".
"Of course I know. But I'd rather he drop dead instead".
"Listen, Nicholai. I know you and Hunk did not get along. But think about the bigger picture. If this works out, our organization will become a lot more powerful. You will be paid a lot more".
"…"
"Think about all the money flying around you".
"…."
"And the hot chicks".
"…"
"Are you listening?"
"I am trying to imagine the scene here," Replied Nicholai.
"Anyway, it's not up to you. Just do it. You will be rewarded well. Meanwhile I am on the way to Zion as we speak. I will be the one talking with them once you successfully made the contact".
"Alright," Nicholai cut the call.
"I am not a hooker! Why did you say that? Who was on the phone?"" Claire was still mad about what Nicholai said on the phone.
"I know, sweetie. It was just an excuse to end the phone conversation with my boss".
"Whatever. Now stop the van and wait for my brother to catch up".
"No can do," Nicholai increased the speed again.
"Are you trying to kidnap me?"
"Does this handsome face looks like a kidnapper's to you?"
"Yes!"
"…"
"Then pull over and wait for my brother," Claire demanded again.
"You'll have to make me. I like chicks who play rough".
"If you say so," Claire suddenly pulled out a small pistol which was hidden above her ankle, and she pointed it at Nicholai's right cheek. "Pull over, Mr. Russian".
"Or what?" Nicholai did not even turn his sight away from the road ahead of them.
"Someone is going to get hurt".
"You wouldn't, babe," Nicholai's voice did not sound worried at all.
"Just try me".
"Maybe next time," all of the sudden Nicholai seized the pistol from Claire and threw it out of the window at his left just like he did with the cell phone earlier. It happened so fast, and he went back to his driving position again like nothing had happened.
Claire was speechless. Nicholai's move was completely out of surprise. It was so dangerous to drive that fast, let alone to turn the attention away to seize a gun.
"Pretty chicks like you shouldn't play with a firearm".
Suddenly, the van increased the speed again by a significant amount.
"Slow down! Before you kill both of us!" Claire was really worried.
"Umm, I think the brake is broken!"
"Stop kidding around. You start to annoy me!"
"Does this innocent face look like I am making a terrible joke?"
"Yes!"
"…"
"Slow down right now, you are crazy!"
"I am totally serious. The brake isn't working! See it for yourself," Nicholai leaned back to let Clare take a look. His foot was stepping on the brake while not even touching the accelerator, but the vehicle was not slowing down at all.
"Oh my god! What is happening?" Claire realized Nicholai wasn't lying.
"It looks like it can only accelerate after it reached 60 mile per hour," Nicholai replied.
"But now it's 70 mile per hour on a local street!"
"I hit the accelerator again after the brake did not work…" Nicholai said.
"Why did you do that?"
"I don't know…I was trying to see if accelerator was out of order too…"
"Now do something!" Claire was really worried.
"Like what?"
"Change the transmission to parking?"
Nicholai quickly grabbed the transmission and tried to pull it back. It was stuck at first. He failed to move it for the first three tries. Then he used much more force on the fourth pull. A weird noise was heard, the transmission finally moved. Nicholai pulled it to "parking", but once he let go of it, it fell further back to "reverse". He grabbed it again and moved it forward to "parking", but only he found it could no longer be fixed any more.
"You broke it!"
"You told me to do it…Now what?"
"The key…the key! Take off the key!"
Nicholai quickly grabbed the key with a three fingers and rolled it before pulling it out. Perhaps he was a little too "excited" under the stress. The key was broken in two. Nicholai was holding half of the key while the head of the key was still inside the keyhole with nothing to get a hold of for pulling out.
"You broke it too!"
"Not to worry. If we can get onto 95 highway, we'll be safe when we run out of gas. If nothing happens, we'll be at 3 states away by morning," Nicholai pretended to be calm.
"Really? What road is this?" Claire asked as the vehicle was approaching another crossroad.
"Laker Ave. The one we are approaching should be Random Street".
"What random street?"
"The name of the road ahead of us is Random Street," Nicholai repeated. "Here," Nicholai took out his cell phone and pressed a few buttons then handed it to Claire just as they passed Random Street.
Claire took it into her hands. There was a local map displayed on the cell phone screen. After maximized it, Claire look a good look at it as they were once again approaching another crossroad.
"Random Street…" Claire said to herself while still checking the map.
"I told you," Nicholai pretended to be knowing this area really well.
"Turn to left! Turn to left! If we want to get onto 95 highway. This is our last chance! Turn to left now!"
Nicholai was not prepared for it. He really did not memorize every road in the area that well. As Claire was reminding him to turn to left, they were already at the crossroad. Nicholai wildly turned the steering wheel to the left with both hands as fast as he could.
A moment later, he was holding the steering wheel a foot away of its original position with both hands. While at the same time the van was still driving straight. The van had passed the crossroad and drove further.
"YOU…Dumb ass overgrown bear! Why did you have to break everything?" Claire was desperate. It was their last hope.
"I didn't do it on purpose! Bail out?" Nicholai suggested.
"With this speed? We'll get killed the moment we hit the ground!"
Suddenly, they noticed about 350 meters ahead of them there was a big long truck parked across the middle of the road. It was so long and completely blocked the road with no way to get around it. It did not matter anyway, since they no longer had a steering wheel. With the van's speed, they would have hit the truck's left side in less than 15 seconds.
"Ahhhh, we are dead! Give me a hug!" Nicholai threw the broken steering wheel to the backseat and extended both hands toward Claire.
"No!" Claire slapped away Nicholai's hands. The latter grabbed his own head and closed eyes.
Claire leaned back against her seat, and she extended her hands and feet against the front to ready for the impact.
Without anyone's noticing, behind a tree on the sidewalk, a hand was holding a remote control aiming at the passing van. In a moment, one of the buttons was pushed.
Immediately, the van's engine was shut and its speed was reduced quickly since it suddenly lost power completely.
Claire immediately noticed the change since her eyes were still open. She looked around and saw five SUVs came off the sidewalks from both sides and quickly gained on the van.
Nicholai too felt the reducing speed. Once he opened the eyes, the first thing he saw was the big truck ahead was only 30 meters away. He quickly closed eyes again.
After a small bang, the van hit the left side of the truck with speed lower than 20 mile per hour. With safety belts and airbags, both Nicholai and Claire were unharmed.
Three of the five SUVs quickly arrived and surrounded the van from three sides only inches away, with the fourth side was blocked by the truck.
Nicholai had opened his eyes and saw everything. He quickly pulled out of his pistol but a split second later someone had fired a shot which blew away the pistol out of Nicholai's hand. Over 20 red laser beams came from all directions and went right into the van.
"Do not attempt to resist!" 20 plus masked men with silenced automatic weapons had them completely surrounded. "Come out with both hands put where we can see!"
Realized it would be suicide to fight back, Nicholai complied. He tried to open the door on his side, but it hit the SUV at the left side just a few inches away.
"Get out the vehicle right now, you have 5 seconds to comply!" One of the masked man who had a silenced pistol ordered.
"I am trying, it's stuck!" Nicholai shouted. "Back away your vehicle a little, so I can open the door".
Both Nicholai and Claire were able to get out after the SUVs on both sides had moved away.
"Who is this girl?" The leader of the masked men asked Nicholai.
"Who the heck are you?" Nicholai questioned him back. His reply got himself a fist in the gut.
"You are in no position to ask questions. Now tell me again, who is this girl?"
"A random hooker," Nicholai replied.
"Is that so? Then she has no use to us. Kill her," The leader of the masked men ordered in a cold voice.
"Wait, wait!" Nicholai shouted. "I lied".
"Oh? Who is she then?"
Nicholai turned his head to look at Claire for a second, then he turned his sight back at the masked man.
"Come here," He bent his forefinger a few times to signal the masked man move closer.
The leader of the masked man moved forward a few steps. Nicholai put up his left palm beside his mouth, and it looked like he was going to whisper "a secret".
Without thinking, the masked man moved his head closer. Just as his head was only half a foot away, Nicholai suddenly moved his own head back and quickly hit it forward.
BANG! Two heads hit together really hard. The masked man was immediately knocked half unconscious and he was about to collapse. Before he could even collapse, Nicholai took a grab of his shoulder, and seized his silenced UPS pistol at the same time.
"Drop your weapons! All of you!" Nicholai ordered as he was holding the unconscious masked man in a standing position with one hand, while pointing the pistol against the man's head with the other hand.
Immediately, one masked man dropped his gun. Then all the sudden he realized nobody else did, and everyone was looking at him without weird eyes. He quickly picked his gun back up.
"I said drop your weapons! Or I will blow his head off!" Nicholai ordered again.
Nobody listened. As they were stand facing each other for some time, except three masked men were pointing their guns at Claire, all the others had their red laser beams pointed on Nicholai.
Suddenly without warning, Nicholai shook. A hiding sniper from off the road shot him with a tranquilizer gun from behind.
"You…" Nicholai tried to pull the trigger and take at least one guy with him, but he found his finger had already no longer listen to him. A second later, he fell.
On another road at Zion,
Chris was wearing a pair of infrared goggles while driving. He could see two orange tracks on the road left behind by Nicholai's van which had just passed. The friction between the wheels and the road created heat, and it looked like two orange colored lines through the infrared glasses. And they last just long enough for Chris to follow.
"You'll have to do better than that to lose me, Nicholai!" Chris said. "Claire, you'd better not to let him get into your pants!"
Suddenly, the orange tracks on the road disappeared.
"What the heck…" Chris took off his infrared goggles.
There was a track of water on the ground in the middle of the road. The little heat created by the wheels of Nicholai's van was absorbed by the water.
Chris did not stop the car. He followed the water track. A minute later, he arrived at another crossroad. There, he saw a road cleaning truck which just made a turn was spraying water onto the road.
Chris put the infrared goggles back on. To his surprise, he saw a bunch of orange trucks from several directions.
"Damn!" Chris pulled the car over beside the road. He took out cell phone again.
"Jill?" Chris whispered.
"What's up, Chris? Did you two find out something important?" Jill said on the other end.
"Not yet. There is something worse…I lost Claire!"
"What?"
"She got into Nicholai's car, and he lost me on the road!"
"Why did you let Claire get onto Nicholai's car?"
"I don't know what I was thinking…call me dumb? Claire was probably desperate not to let him get away on his own…my bad anyway. By the way, there is definitely something going on here. There was a freaking Tyrant walking around in the bar…I think I will need reinforcement sooner than I expected…"
At that moment, a SUV came from the opposite direction, and it was pulling a van. The van was Nicholai's.
"Chris?"
"Wait. I saw their van again. I'll call you later," Chris put down the phone.
The SUV with the van behind it turned to the left when it arrived at the crossroad. Chris waited for 30 seconds and he started the car again to follow. He was confident that he could follow the heat tracks this time.
After another turn, the tracks disappeared into an alley between two abandoned shop buildings. Chris followed it. It was long, dark, and quiet. Not a single person, nor any light. Aside the car's headlights, there was only moonlight.
Soon, the tracks of SUV and Nicholai's van had turned into another sub alley inside the long alleyway. Without thinking, Chris made the turn again. He found the sub alley was only less than 30 meters long, and it was a dead end.
Chris exited the car after turned off the engine. He looked around. He was surrounded by buildings from three sides except the way he came in. All the buildings around him seemed to be connected together. He quickly found a large door on the wall at the left of the car which was big enough for a van to enter. It was the only door inside the sub alley. The tracks on the ground indicated the van did indeed enter this door. The building right in front of him had three floors. The windows on the first and the second floors were all sealed by steel fences. An emergency exit stairs were hanging outside the building and it led right onto the third floor's windows.
Took off and put away the thermal goggles, Chris tried to get a better look at the surroundings.
Inside a small control room with several monitors, Chris was clearly displayed on one of the monitors which had a full view of the sub alley.
A man sat in chair in front of the monitors said on his microphone,
"We have an uninvited guest outside the back door".
"Ok, Nicholai, open the door right now. I am going to kick your ass if you lay a finger on my sister," Chris finally knocked on the door.
While waiting for the door to open, Chris was still looking around. Suddenly he noticed there was a slight flash coming from the third floor. The moment he turned his face to look at it, there was a red laser came down from that window.
A single gunshot was fired just as Chris made a dodge toward the car. A blast fire took place just as he was jumping over the engine cover of his car. Chris quickly sat down onto the ground to take cover behind the car. A row of bullet holes was left on the cover of the car engine.
Chris was sitting on the ground with his back against the car. He had taken out his pistol. At his right, it was the exit of the sub alley which was only 20 meters away to the long alley.
Looked at his left, there was only 10 meters until the wall of the dead end. Chris suddenly noticed there was a camera on that wall looking right at him.
"No more peeking," Chris took a very careful aim at the camera, before he fired a well placed shot. The camera was taken out instantly.
Chris carefully tried to take a peek at the window where the sniper was. As soon as some hair of his extended out, it was responded by a blast shot from an automatic sniper rifle. He had to lower himself again to completely hide behind the car, since the sniper had the height advantage and a perfect view of the entire sub alley except what's behind the car.
Chris was almost prone on the ground, and he moved to the other end of the car. There, he suddenly stood up and fired 10 shots in a row with his pistol at the window where the sniper was. The half opened window was shot repeatedly, with broken glasses everywhere.
The sniper had fell back into the room after the first two shots. He must be an experienced gunman, and he did not return to the same window. After moved 10 meters to his right, the sniper quickly took a peek outside from a different window. He saw only the car. Chris was no longer exposing himself. After took a quick scan at the sub alley, Chris was nowhere to be seen.
"Did you get him yet?" A voice on the radio.
"Not yet. He is still behind the car. It's hard to place a shot from this angle. How about give me a hand here and just go out and put a bullet in his face? I got you covered from here".
The door in the alley immediately opened. Two men carrying silenced machine pistols carefully exited. The door was closed and locked right behind them. They moved slowly around the car with caution. To their surprise, there was nobody behind the car.
"What the heck? He is not here," Both gunmen raised this heads tried to look at the sniper who was on the third floor.
"Where is he?" The sniper was surprised too, and he extended out his body further from the window for a better look.
"I don't know. He shot the camera," The guy in the control room replied on the radio.
"He must have run off while I took cover after he returned fire," The sniper said. "Quickly, you two go check outside! We can't let him get away!"
The two gunmen rushed out of the sub alley.
As the sniper watched the two gunmen disappeared at the sub alley entrance, suddenly a gun was against the back of his head.
"Don't move. Be quiet or I'll shut you up for good," Chris's voice came from behind him.
Before the sniper was able to react, his headphone was pulled off his head and it was tossed out of the window.
"Drop your gun, and back away from the window slowly".
The sniper had no choice but to comply.
"But how did you…?" He was confused how Chris got to behind him.
"Someone forgot to dismantle the fire emergency stairs outside the window," Chris replied with sarcasm.
"What if there is a fire?"
"I wouldn't be worrying about a fire right now if I were you!" Chris poked the back of the sniper's head with his pistol. He knew perhaps the sniper was just playing dumb to buy time. "Now tell me, how many of you are there in this building?"
"No idea," replied the sniper.
"Wrong answer!" It was immediately responded by a blow on the head from the back of Chris' pistol. The sniper dropped onto the floor and lost consciousness. "I don't have the patient for this. Guess I will have to find it out myself," Chris left the unconscious sniper and carefully opened the door which led to a hall.
Inside the Zion Township police station,
Each of Hunk's men was being questioned in a separated room.
Inside Hunk's interrogation room,
"Name?" A cop asked Hunk.
"Nicholai," Hunk replied without thinking.
"Full name?"
"Nicholai Ginovaef," Hunk answered.
"Weird name. How do you spell it?"
"N, I, C, H, O, L, A, I, Nicholai. G, I, N, O, V, A, E, F, Ginovaef".
"It sounds like a Russian name," The cop said as he was input the name into a computer database to check the background.
"Yes, I am from Russia," Hunk tried his best to speak like if he had a Russian accent.
"Where is your ID?"
"I lost it in the bar. If you can find it for me".
"Nice try. This is not you," The cop said as he turned the monitor at Hunk. "Look, your hair color is all wrong".
"I dyed my hair to silver white when I took that picture," Hunk argued. "And I had spruced up a few years ago. I don't look that ugly any more."
"That's weird. I thought the picture is slightly better looking…" The cop said.
"What? Are you kidding me?"
"Nope. The face on the picture does look better".
"What the heck!" Hunk couldn't believe someone said Nicholai was better looking than him.
The cop took a good look at the picture on the computer screen, then he looked at Hunk again.
"Whatever," The cop said. It was already midnight. He was really tried. "Ok, Nicholai Ginovaef, it looks like you never had any criminal record".
"Of course I did not. If you want to make a record this time, go ahead. But as all I involved was a bar fight, so hurry release me already".
In the next room,
"Name?"
"L-a-s P-l-a-g-a-s…"
"What?"
"L-a-s P-l-a-g-a-s…"
"How do you spell it?"
"L-a-s P-l-a-g-a-s..."
"...Are you retarded?"
"L-a-s P-l-a-g-a-s..."
At Ada's home at Sand City,
In the basement,
"Why do we have to hide like thieves? Can't we just call your dad?" Leon asked.
"I thought I had explained already," Ada replied. "We are lucky those commandos did not come in. But they aren't leaving this neighborhood either. Who knows what they are up to…"
"That sucks".
"I will give my dad a call anyway," Ada took out her communicator.
After dialed the number a few times, the call failed to connect.
"Crap!"
"Jammed?"
"Doesn't sound like it. Jammed would have noises. There is no sound at all…"
"What about the wired phone?"
"There is none in the basement. Let's hope my mom will make the call".
"General! We need reinforcement! We can't hold much longer!" a soldier's voice on the radio. There were intense gunshots in the background, including assault rifles, and machineguns, with a few explosions once in a while.
"Hold your position. Deserters will be shot!" General Zhao made a final order before he turned this communication off.
Another incoming transmission,
"General. Over 1/3 of the check points had lost contact in the past 4 hours. Remaining ones are falling fast one by one. We should pull the troops out now," Another officer's voice.
"How did this happen? It was not nearly this bad just a few hours ago".
"We don't know. Out of the sudden, there were hordes of zombies came out of every alley and building. They might have been infected days ago, but just started to turn into zombies in the last few hours which was why we did not notice that earlier. More and more of them were joining forces and storming the streets! And the zombies are not the only thing! We have encountered unidentified monsters not fitting the descriptions of the B.O.W. you told us about. We have to pull out the troops at the check points quickly or give them more support now. Or they will be overrun one by one".
"No".
"General!"
"Tell them combine forces of every 3 check points. This way, each check point will be boosted from 1 squad to 1 platoon. And tell them to take the buildings, roofs, anywhere they see fit for better defensive positions instead of holding in the middle of the crossroads. No pulling out. They must hold until the reinforcement I was promised to arrive".
"Yes, General. I will give the order right now," Transmission ended.
"General," An officer walked in. "The first wave of 81st tank division had just arrived at Sand City train station".
"How many tanks?"
"160 Type 96 Main Battle Tanks. More are coming soon, a lot more. But Type 96…we were not told they were using a cheaper version of Type 99…"
"It does not matter. Type 96 or Type 99, they aren't going to make a difference when slaughtering the dumb unarmed undead".
"Shall we send them in right now?"
"No. Tell them pull back and settle in the Sand City military base, and get some good rest. Once all of their forces arrived, we will give them instructions. The day after tomorrow, they should move in with the air support of the Z-10 attack chopper battle group".
"The day after tomorrow? We already have more zombies than humans in several parts of the city. If we wait another day, there won't be many humans left in the city".
"It's my call. Go back to whatever you were doing," General Zhao ordered.
"Tell Colonel Huang come to see me in the ready room," General Zhao made another order.
A few minutes later, a commando walked in. He was Colonel Huang, the second in command of the special force. His assault rifle was carried on his back.
"General".
"I want to show you something," General Zhao clapped his own hands twice.
Suddenly, the cover of the ceiling behind Colonel Huang fell off. Two B.O.W.s jumped down with super speed side by side.
In a flash, Colonel Huang turned around and pulled out two machine pistols.
"Wait!" General Zhao shouted. "Don't shoot!"
Colonel Huang stopped. Each of his machine pistol was against the nose of a B.O.W.
"Sit!" General Zhao ordered.
The two B.O.W.s immediately prone down onto the floor as ordered.
"Oh, so these are the half-finished ones we captured in the tubes. I thought they could not be completed and were sent to disposal".
"I made the captured researchers to complete them in 72 hours or they will be given a slow death. Everyone needs some motivation. Amazing, isn't it?"
"I didn't expect it".
"Now we have six of our own B.O.W.s to play with. And we can program them to do anything we want. These two were programmed to follow my orders. Now I want to see how they do against other undead in the city. Take them to the Sand City right way".
"General. Instead of watching these ugly, stinky, useless, grey…"
At that moment, the B.O.W.'s skin color changed to brown.
"Brown…"
Once again, B.O.W.'s color changed to black,
"Black…"
B.O.W.'s skin color changed to blue,
"Blue…"
B.O.W.'s skin color changed to red,
"Red…"
B.O.W.s skin color changed to multiple colors on different body parts,
"…stupid idiot dumb shit chameleons in action, you really should watch how I kick asses against the other undead".
"I have seen enough actions from you. You definitely can kick these animals' asses no problem. But since we got them for almost free, why don't we just play around with them? We can sit back and enjoy the show".
"Alright. Sounds like a plan".
"Do not attract unwanted attentions. I did not report this to higher ranks".
"Understand".
"Follow the order of Colonel Huang, unless I tell you not to!" General Zhao made his new command to the two B.O.W.s
"They can understand everything we say?"
"Not exactly everything. The Nemesis Parasites controlling their minds have the IQ of 70. Still very dumb to our standards, but smart enough to do the dirty works as ordered, while capable of a few simple tactics from their basic programming".
The sniper who was knocked out unconscious earlier by Chris woke up. He was facing the ground with both hands tied behind his back.
"You are awake…" A familiar voice. It was the voice of his buddy.
"Yeah, did you get him?" The sniper asked. "What the heck…" He suddenly realized all his buddies were sitting in front of him and had their hands tied behind their backs.
"Which one of you is the boss?" Chris asked. He was holding a pistol in one hand.
"Our boss is not here at this moment, please come back tomorrow," One of tied up man replied.
Chris looked at another one,
"What he said," the man agreed.
Three more men were nodding.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Chris punched 5 heads in a row really hard. 5 big lumps quickly appeared.
"Tell me again! Who is the boss?" Chris asked again in a more threatening voice.
"He is…" One man used his lips to point at another unconscious man on the ground.
"Yeah, it's him," All the others followed.
Chris moved closer to the unconscious man.
"You hit him too hard. Now he won't wake up until tomorrow…"
Bang! The man who talked was interrupted by a punch in the head.
"Who asked you to talk?" Chris was holding his fist.
After checked the unconscious man on the ground for a few more seconds, Chris took out his knife.
"OUCH!" The "unconscious" man screamed as Chris made a small cut on his finger.
"You faker!" Chris punched him in the head. "You were awake all along!"
"Please don't kill me!"
"I won't if you tell me where did the people who drove that van here go?" Chris asked. After he knocked out everyone in this building, he had searched every corner. He found the van in the basement, but there was no sign of Claire nor Nicholai. Nor anything indicating who these people were.
"We don't know. It was him who drove the van here," The man pointed at the sniper.
"Me? It was you!" The sniper argued.
"It was you".
"No, you!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Chris shouted. "I am going to show no mercy if you waste any more of my time! Start with you!" Chris pointed his pistol at the man who was pointed as the 'boss".
"Wait! Wait! Wait! It was me who pulled the van here. But it was given to me on the road after they took the guy and the girl".
"Where did they take them?"
"That I really don't know. Please don't kill me! I was only a captain of this check point. I was only told to get the van," The man answered desperately. "Ok, I also knew they were going to capture this guy name Nicholai, but that's all I know".
It did not look like the man was lying.
"Who are you working for? And how do you contact them?" Chris asked again.
"I don't know…" Bang! His head was hit by Chris really hard.
"I wasn't lying…" Bang! Another hit.
"They call me when they need me…" Bang! Another punch on the head.
"Hello?" Billy walked into the hospital lobby. He had finally decided to go there because Rebecca did not return home. It was already 1am. Rebecca always called if she had to work late. This time, she did not call at all while she should have been back over 8 hours ago. Billy had tried to call her on the cell phone, there was no answer. He called the hospital, nobody answered either.
"Anybody there?" Billy asked again.
There was nobody in the lobby. Everything was awfully quiet. The hospital was located in a remote area for the purpose of being quiet. It usually closed at 5pm, after that it only opened for emergency. Since it was such a small town, they did not usually get many patients.
"Where is everyone? Went to the bar?" Billy thought to himself.
He looked around for a while. Although all the lights in the hallway were on, all the rooms were dark.
"I hope she is not making out with another man in one of those rooms…haha," Billy laughed to himself. In fact, he was really trying not to worry.
Billy saw a hospital map on the wall near the help desk. He moved closer for a look since he had never been there before. As he was checking out the map of the building, there were footsteps coming from far end of the hall…
To be continued…
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