Chapter 271: 271
The six soldiers with us can’t seem to find the correct reaction to put on their faces though it’s also the same thing with Nikolas. Tatiana was the only one to quickly adapt to my quirks and we drove away from the blaring alarms. Most cars from the cities are following an ordinance that requires their vehicle’s alarm to go around 5-10 minutes before it automatically shuts off. I wanted to take care of the ones incoming but I still haven’t made a mental character sheet of each of the soldiers in my head. I’d attempt bold moves when I’m with the people I’m familiar with.
“Why did you bring us to that place man!” one of the soldiers yelled.
“It was one of the closest open areas here! That was close! My bad!” he replied.
“We’d still need to kill them though. Maybe if we still have time when we come back. It’d be several hours by then and the alarm would definitely be off. I’d hate a small gathering of them and I would’ve given the command to kill them all for real if we’re already familiar with each other’s movements.” I reminded them as we drove closer to our destination.
“But sir, we’ve also been killing them ever since it started and I think we don’t need much coordination.” the soldier replied.
“You might be right but I don’t want any accidents when I’m in charge. Not to downplay your mayor, I’ve never had a casualty when we go outside. Knowing the people you’re working with could also dictate how your runs turn out.” I said looking at the distance.
They were suprised though now they seem to be in deep thought.
We would have reached the place in 10 minutes if we’re driving straight towards it but there’s a lot of cars along the road. Going around them would take longer and it would take the same time going back so I decided to move all of the vehicles obstrucing the path to the sidewalk. Doing that would make the time to reach our destination longer but going back would be easier, not to mention in the future when we drive to the same place. While we’re moving some of them, I ordered one of the soldiers to siphon the gas on the vehicles that still have some inside their tanks.
Doing this would make some noise that attracts the bloody figures so I partnered up with one of the soldiers with dark skin and a crew cut. We’re watching the other end while Tatiana is at the other side with another soldier. Nikolas is on top of the truck and he assumed Jared’s role. It seems that he’s excited to try out the gun I’ve lent him but he never had the chance to fire several rounds from it because we would quickly take care of the ones in front of us.
I’ve begun to work with the soldier next to me. The vehicles we moved to the side has their trunks and their inside searched for any valuables and we successfully found a few baubles figuratively. We found a small snub-nosed revolver in one of the glove compartments and the most we got are bottled water and packs of cigarettes. There’s also a few useful things like jacks, jumper cables, toolboxes, and etc. that we loaded into our truck. We saw a few figures coming towards us and we got ready.
“Private Cruz, you don’t have anything longer than that knife?” I asked.
“No, sir.” he replied.
“Okay, you deliver the finishing touches while I prep them for you.” I said
His approach is to trip the ones in front of him or dodge before sinking his knife towards the figure’s eye socket or earlobe. He’s carefully judging the correct distance before he attacks and one mishap could get him scratched because of the length of his weapon. I could end them in one stroke if I wished with my katana but I want to establish a small connection with the soldier I’m working with hence the preparation.
I made surgical slices towards the dozen or so figures approaching us to dismember certain parts that would make his job a little bit easier. Think of it as power-leveling someone or carrying someone in a dungeon. Taking away a few parts of it that makes it dangerous is my job for now. It could be part of its toes, its knees, its shoulder, its head.
I was humming that song and he turned towards me.
“Is that the children song?” he asked, amused.
“Maybe.” I smiled.
I began by cutting upwards a bloody figure’s right thigh, then immediately following it by cutting sideways to remove its right arm along with its elbow. It hopped twice before it lost balance and Cruz quickly took care of it. Its slow flail with its left hand stopped after the knife Cruz was holding came out of its earlobe. One bloody figure came from Cruz’s side missing both its arms and its nose needed only a slight tug before it completely fell off. He tripped it so it crashed to a waiting shed while I removed another one’s torso from the rest of its body. I killed a few myself when it is getting dicey since waiting for him to get into position takes a bit of time since we haven’t synched our movements yet.
“Quickly take care of the ones incapacitated. I’ll move a bit forward.” I instructed him.
*SLASH*
I made someone’s scalp plop to the side of the road. It slid a few centimeters before stopping entirely but there’s a trail it left like a snail’s slimes when traversing a path. There’s three in front of me so I made quick work of the two so I could let Cruz take care of the last one. We’re trying to make less noise as possible since we’ve never fired our guns, yet. Checking the bodies of the figures we’ve killed, I saw a handheld weapon that looks like a machete but it has a false edge only located near the tip and I gave it to Cruz. He promptly accepted it and we rode on the back of the truck once more.
We’re slowly making our way and we crossed a small bridge and we’re seeing factories on the left side while a couple of car dealing companies are on the right side. Some cars are still on display though you couldn’t see them clearly due to blood stains. We saw a cop car that has crashed into a donut shop but when we checked it, it was already looted, both the donut shop and the cop car. The only thing we found useful inside the shop are a few ingredients that wasn’t taken like flour and sugar.
There’s a huge cargo truck that is blocking the road and we’re planning to start it so we could move it aside. There’s a lone figure trapped under its wheels and when the truck moved forward, it revealed an interesting sight. It has been run over diagonally because part of its shoulder is flattened but bones are jutting out from the inside tearing through the flesh. It could only move its right arm and tilt its head which were the only ones that weren’t run over. I sunk my katana to its head to end it so we could drive away since we’re close.
“The tap guys are here.” Tatiana remarked after looking at the distance.
“Tap guys?” Nikolas asked.
I was thinking of what she meant first but I understood it as I shook my head in amus.e.m.e.nt.
*tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap* *tap*
We drove back a few meters to receive them since several sprinters are in the mix. It was a kind of a surprise to see them again since it has been too long seeing them not inside the Valenzuela City Hall. We finally used our guns when they appeared though I found out that Iskoh’s soldiers have a certain fear of them. They fired more shots than what was needed and their aiming became shit when they tried to shoot them. The distance we drove back helped since a few of their shots missed when they aimed for them.
“All you need is one shot to the head, same as everything here roaming around. No need to panic like that.” I told the two.
“U-understood sir.” they both replied.
“Avoid shooting them until it’s needed since your guns are not suppressed. Also, leave them to us for now and focus on the other normal ones. There’s more of them traveling in a clump here compared to our place so small swarms are always seen. It would be bad if they all joined together and made a bigger swarm.” I added.
We continued our way and we finally reached our destination. However, since we’re simply checking the whole place out, I told the person driving the truck to drive around the walls of this place to see if they’re still intact. We soon discovered that this side of the wall is still in good condition because the people who built their own homes just to the side of it informally were the ones that got destroyed first.
“Those materials jutting out could make vaulting over to this side difficult.” I thought to myself.
We continued to drive around to survey it’s walls and we reached the only entrance of the Malacañang Park and Hospital which is unfortunately open wide. The only other way to enter this place is by boat and making use of the river or using a ladder to climb over the high walls. Instead of going inside as soon as we saw the entrance, we drove to the other side of the wall to check its condition as well.
“This could be a great base if we managed to reclaim it. We could also drop by this place not just with my helicopters but with my boats back home.” I thought to myself.
I was scanning the surroundings when I saw several armed figures in the distance. Judging by the getup, it’s fairly obvious that they’re gang members and one is already raising his hand carrying a pistol.
“Nikolas. Leave one alive.” I muttered.