Chapter 30 – The Eastern Base [Part 3]

Watching video feeds play and seeing reports constantly update, “Whose aircraft is that?!” the general shouts as multiple screens display it prevent a proper bombing run from occurring.

Waiting for a couple of seconds, he receives no response from any of the thirty officers in the room, “We have no idea whose aircraft that is?!” he shouts in anger, not quite believing it to be possible.

“We’re in the most well informed room in the country!” he continues his rant, “And no one here knows anything?!”

“Sir,” an officer with an artificial right eye and a fresh scar that’s just had its stitches removed calls out as she approaches, quite casually, with a tablet, “It’s ours.”

Gaining the generals full attention, he snatches the tablet out of her hands, “How is it not registered in our data base?” he demands an answer as he watches a recording of it taking off from hanger 85, “How did we not see it take off?!”

Waiting a second, “Colonel?” he calls her rank.

“It happened during the short technical glitch.” She gives her answer as another officer updates her on another matter.

“Tsk,” he throws the tablet back to her mad but chooses not to blame her, it was a machine malfunction, it was not human error, “Tell the planes to sweep back and resume their bombardment, we need that field cleared before the Bravo units sweep through in 4 hours’ time.”

Seeing her not move to follow his order, he senses that something is not quite right, “What is it now?”

“We’ve lose communications with all aircrafts in that location.” She responds like it is fact and nothing can be done about it, “We’re doing our best to re-establish them.”

Looking back to the monitors he watches the debris of said unknown aircraft, “Do we still have comms with the Eastern Base?

“Yes sir.” turning to watch the monitor’s with him, “They’re still under heavy attack, but apparently they’ve secured the North West corner.”

“Send out another wave of planes, they’ll have just enough time to do their jobs just before Bravo arrives.”

Hearing the sound of a door sliding open, “Who the hell opened that door!?” The general yells without looking towards it, a room in operation should have its doors locked at all times, a standard military op to avoid unwanted eyes gleaning sensitive information.

“That would be me General.” A man seemingly in his middle age and belly hanging a bit loosely enters.

Instantly recognising the voice, “Mr Gervas! Sir!” The general snaps around as he addresses him, “What could we have done to be blessed with your Holy presence?”

“Don’t be clever with me General.” Gervas walks straight up to him, “We’ve come to know of your situation.”

“This is a military operation Mr Gervas, Not a Governmental one.”

“It is General,” Gervas locks his eyes with the Generals, “But I am here and we are waiting.”

Feeling pressure the General clenches his jaw shut tightly. Gervas was not intimidating to the general in the less, with his round belly, loose clothing and tired face, Gervas looked like nothing but a worn out man. The general on the other hand possessed a mechanical arm, had minimum amount of fat and was thus almost nothing but muscle and bone. He had multiple scars, signs of a proud warrior who’s survived many harsh conditions and knows how to handle almost every situation.

The pressure he was feeling was not from Gervas, but the Invisible hand of another, and so, “What do you want?” he ask Gervas what his purpose is.

“Why General,” Gervas smiles, “You should be happy, I’ve come what some vital information.”

Waiting as they both look at each other, he wants me to beg, the general quickly realises the situation but before he can react he is nudged and his attention shifts, “What is it Colonel?”

Being handed her tablet, he examines it to find out that all aircrafts at base were now not operatable, not because the aircrafts malfunctioned, but because the lifts that gave them access to the surface were no longer responding. Inwardly cursing, he assumes incorrectly that this is because The President had arranged it to be so.

“Can you Please tell me the President’s orders?” the General asks politely as he hands the tablet back to the Colonel.

“You need to smile more General,” Gervas takes out a slip of paper from his pocket, “Frowning does no one any good.” He hands it to the General, “All aircraft for this operation are to immediately halt and word of a Zulu being sent to base for re-enforcement is to be sent on an open frequency.”

Unfolding the paper he reads it carefully and his frown intensifies, “It will be done,” scrunching the slip of paper, “Is there anything else…Sir?”

“No,” maintaining his smile, “That will be all,” and he leaves as promptly as he came.

Seeing the door close, “We’ve sent out the broad cast sir.” The Colonel informs the General, “The base ask if there is anything they need to do when he arrives.”

“Inform them that the Base is subject to his control upon arrival and that all located there are to follow his commands without question.”

The Colonel looks towards another officer and nods towards him before turning back to the General, “Didn’t the Council state that the Zulu was Deceased sir?” she ask

“They did.” Looking back to the monitors

“An open frequency is a bit too suspicious though,” watching the monitors with him, “Won’t the other nation’s spies think it weird?”

“What’s suspicious is that those creatures are attacking us Colonel.” The general squints at a particular monitor, “They are attacking us with only four different species…not counting the worm”

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Lucy

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On her knee and with her rifle lying down next to herself, Lucy examines the person she is hovering over.

“Will he make it?” A squad member asks

Grabbing hold of a 20cm needle whose width was that of an average male’s little finger, “Give me time,” she replies as she holds it firmly to suddenly yank it out from the man’s chest, causing him to convulse and making blood splatter all over herself.

Moving quickly, she places both her hands over the gaping wound, seemingly trying to block the flow of blood and actually succeeds. Not because her hands could stop the pouring blood, but because at the same time as she covered the gaping would with her hands transparent liquid gathered there, aiding her in containing it.

Shutting her eyes she concentrates immensely, forgetting about her location, she pushes the unwanted noise of gun fire, grenade explosions and screams away from her mind and imagines how the veins were meant to connect, how the muscles attached themselves to the skin and in turn she accelerates the bodies healing capabilities of the one she is trying to save.

Prioritizing the closing and fixing of veins instead of durability a solid ten minutes slowly passes before she takes her hands away and open her eyes, “Take him to the back lines,” she tells three people in his squad, “The bleeding has stopped but he won’t be any use to us out here.”

“He’ll be fine?” The same person asks

“MEDIC!” another call for first aid is heard nearby.

“Get him to the med Bay” Lucy picks up her rifle, “He needs better attention.” She tells the one that asked before getting up and heading down to the location she had heard the call for aid come from.

Staying low and passing by person after person firing behind improvised shelter, some alive and active, some wounded but still fighting and many just lying there dead, a highly unsafe line of defence had somehow been established after some form of order had been created. The north-west corner was now somewhat secure.

With the capture of the worm located just a bit inside the northwest corner the others had disappeared, probably due to some fear of being captured as well, but the inability they had of finishing it off complicated matters as they couldn’t just let it go, thus a large portion of available troops were stuck there keeping the captured worm from causing any trouble.

At the point of capture Lucy was meant to rendezvous with Samuel and Matthew however the forces baring down intensified at that moment and stopped the rendezvous from happening, thus Lucy went from unit to unit, attached at times and not at others. Acting as part of the wondering re-enforcement units that came and went where they were needed.

However not wearing a helmet and also not wearing any form of communication gadget, Lucy was forced to move without proper instruction, listening in on orders when she could, following those that moved and piecing together what others that held rank shouted, she understood their situation was better than when the surprised attack had begun, but still in dire need of help.

“MEDIC!” the same shout is heard again but above, making Lucy realize that the call for help came from a rooftop.

A bit lost at this point, Lucy stops and drops down behind cover with a group of other soldiers. She knows the base layout quite well, but the path she would normally take to get to the rooftop was destroyed, rubble that had formerly been the staircase up there no longer existed and the ladder was past the safety line.

Shouting over the gunfire, “How do I get up there?!” she asks a helmeted individual who is currently reloading.

Gaining her attention the person looks at her then up at the rooftop just in front of him, “You can’t.” he replies after a very quick analysis.

“I need to get up there.” Lucy tells him.

Passing the loaded rifle over to another person and getting an empty one back, “The Stairs are destroyed and the ladder is past them,” he nods his head at the place they’re firing at, “Unless you want to fly up there.”

“MEDIC!” the shout for help is heard, sounding more frantic then last time.

“I need to get up there!” Lucy states again, coming off as desperate even though she did not mean to.

Hearing the sound for first aid he understands the situation, “I’ll see what can be done,” the soldier passes the now loaded weapon to another and begins talking over comms to said individual, reducing his need to shout.

To not sit and dawdle her thumbs, Lucy takes over the man’s former role of reloading weapons for a time. Each reload taking ten seconds to complete and five seconds to receive and pass off, thus she reloads a total of fifteen rifles in a span of roughly four minutes.

“We can get you up there,” a woman shouts from within her helmet as she approaches low with another two, “But its been over ten minutes since that medic call first came,” she looks up at the destination 30metre high , “Do you still want to go up?”

Seeing the man from earlier resume his former post of reloading alongside others, “Yes,” Lucy answers without hesitation grabbing hold of her own rifle.

“Very well then,” the woman replies, “Don’t move.”

Staying absolutely still wind slowly begins together, with three mini tornadoes forming around Lucy, each tornado being controlled by one of the three. In seconds the mini tornadoes spins faster and shrink instead of grow, in a few more seconds the three start circling around Lucy and collude together with her at the centre.

Making her loose her balance, the three tornadoes become one medium sized tornado that spins her in full circle once before disappearing, sending her diagonally upwards into the air.

Losing her sense of direction due to the one incredibly fast spin Lucy tucks herself into that of a ball and spins forward and upwards, soon reaching her peak height she experiences weightlessness and in that split second of weighing nothing she reacquires her sense of direction; making her realise that she had just barely cleared the 30metre high roof.

Dropping only 2 metres she lands with an unceremonious thud upon her knees and draws the surprised attention of those that were about to open fire on her.

“You called for a medic?” She shouts a bit dazed from her extremely dangerous lift.

“That we did,” a pained but familiar voice replies, “But that was over ten minutes ago.”

Blinking a few times to rend her dizziness away, “Sam?!” she shouts as she sees him slumped against the parapet, away from the fighting, whilst the others ignore her and go back to shooting.

“Hey Luce,” he smiles a bloody smile, “been a while.”

Forgetting their current location Lucy drops her rifle and runs the 10metre distance between herself and Samuel. Completely upright in her approach she grits her teeth as she feels something hit her, causing her to fall face first next to Samuel as she arrives.

“Damn it Luce,” Samuel comments seeing her hit the ground hard, “Whose going to heal the medic?”

With the help of her left hand, Lucy gets onto her knees whilst blood comes out of her nose and scrapped cheek, shutting her eyes she grits her teeth in pain. A needle like the one she had first pulled out from a person she had healed was now lodged in her back right next her right shoulder blade, stopping her ability to move her right arm and causing tears of pain to slide down her face.

“It hurts that much?” Samuel asks concerned despite the fact that three of the very same needles were in his chest, but not actually as deadly as the single needle in her, due to his vest reducing the distance it penetrated him.

Lifting his left hand, as Lucy was on his left side, he rubs his hand against her check that isn’t scrapped, “Stop trying to move,” He tells her, “I’m fine,” he lies ,”I wasn’t the one in need of dire help,” he sees her relax and slump.

Relieved to see her do that Samuel lets his hand drop and looks to the man on his right. Lying there in a pile of blood that also soaked him, the man had eight needles embedded in his chest and arms, he was the man in dire need of help, and he was the man that required a medic’s immediate attention.

“thisshig rrerrk” the sound of static sound through the P.A systems set systematically around the base rings out, just barely audible above the sound of fighting, “Zulu Re-enforcement imminent, All Forces subject to his control upon arrival.” A short break follows from the announcement then its states again, “I Repeat Zulu Re-enforcement Imminent, All Forces subject to his control upon arrival.”

With wonder and confusion surrounding majority of those at base gun fire cease for three whole seconds at the repeat of that statement, then with a scream of pain sound out and the fighting resumes, most if not all simply ignoring the announcement.

“The Zulu is on his way here,” Samuel restrains his sudden urge to laugh “Do you think we should be worried?”

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Delia

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Eyes closed and consciousness barely present, the feeling of exhaustion and confusion surrounds Delia’s hazy mind. Her arms hang loose, her legs do too, the sensation of being carried is what she is feeling. Slowly forcing her eyes open, her hair drapes down to the ground, and moving foliage of undergrowth is all she can see besides it.

Prisoner? is the first thoughts that come to mind, but she clenches her hands, and finds that her wrists are unbound. No Tilting her head left, she sees Ex in the same position as herself. Slumped over a shoulder, but knocked out cold.

Raising her hand to reach out to Ex, the one holding them stops and instantly drops them both. Making a loud thud, as they both hit the ground softly, Delia coughs out blood as the sound of twigs and branches snap. Rolling onto her back she finds the one that was carrying them dashing off into the distance, with an orange glow trailing the person’s movement.

Shutting her eyes tightly this time, she feels dull sensations of pain, along her legs, up her back and all over her arms. Pushing herself to understand her situation, she thinks back to the last thing that she remembers.

Slugs, explosions, dirt, hole opening her eyes, she brings herself to the present, instantly alert and thinking of the next step. She is alive, she has survived and some person is carrying both her and Ex. Her thoughts, jumbled but somehow making some sense, she makes herself sit and figures out that a multitude amount of bones are broken.

Gritting her teeth and she maintains her sitting position, she needs to be able to see around herself. With the surroundings seemingly clear she assesses what she has upon her. Clothing, an empty utility belt and nothing else. Weapon-less and not knowing her current position, she knows that the only thing that she can do is wait, wait for the one that carried them to come back.

For a while nothing but the dominate sound of trees falling and quick movement of things can be heard. The sound of fighting, but no gun shots, no human gun shots but plenty of monster fire. Just listening to these sounds with her eyes staring at where it came from it all comes to a sudden halt. As quickly as these sounds had filled her ears, it left as if it were never there.

In the few seconds of silence “Notify me earlier next time Ten!” a man voice sounds out, breaking it, angered and causing her to scrunch her eyebrows in hearing it.

“No,” the voice sounds closer, full of self-righteousness and somehow making her agitated at its approach, “I did not notice that she had woken up.”

Focusing her attention to the sounds location, she sees a man seemingly appear out of thin air, breaking his own camouflage. Approaching with his orange coloured blade slowly evaporating into the air he halts for a second before rushing forward to kneel right next to her.

Grabbing a hold of her forehead and chin “Can you hear me?” He asks, and she slowly nods with confusion as his hands feel hot, not quite burning but just below that degree and his red eyes seemed to see all.

Light suddenly shines into her own eyes, making her shut them but his fingers force them to open. “Stop talking!” he mutters agitated.

“I wasn’t” she starts to speak.

‘’I wasn’t talking to you.’’ He interrupts her, “You’ve been out for at least an hour or two,” gently letting her go, “You have multiple fractures upon your right leg and left arm, your helmet kept you alive in that pile of dirt” moving over to Ex, “you’re lucky that you’re alive.” He states with full confidence in his diagnosis.

Shaking herself out of her perplexed state, “You’re Zulu.” She says sceptically.

“I am.” He replies, not turning to see her, only focusing on the current condition of Ex.

“You’re a Zulu?” she corrects herself, thinking that that could be the only logical choice.

“I am.” He states again, neither correcting nor helping Delia’s confused state of mind.

The irritation she felt from first hearing his voice suddenly increases at that reply, “You’re That Zulu” she confirms, absolutely certain of it.

Lifting Ex up and draping her over his right shoulder, as if carrying a rug, “Who else could I be?” he questions, as if it was stupid to consider anything else.

With Ex in that position “Stop!” Delia quickly raises her hand and gets up onto her left leg, “I can walk!”

Awkwardly maintaining balance, she looks squarely at him in his eyes and feels a shiver run down her spine. Trying to look away she can’t, not because they were pretty but because they seemed provoking and it felt to her that they thirsted for blood. He felt dangerous, he felt like the reputation his unit had.

“Then stay near me,” he finally says after more than a minute of deep analysis, “If you’re not keeping up I will carry you.” He takes Ex off his shoulder and holds her in his arms, as if he were carrying a princess.

Turning around he start jogging in the location he had just come from, staying as low as possible he moves with consistent haste, jumping and ducking all in one fluid motion even though he was carrying another person.

Doing her best to keep up, Delia does surprisingly well considering the fact that she had multiple fractures along one of her legs. However she was making a lot of noise as she moved, something she was not proud of but nothing she could do about it as just trying to keep up took all her concentration, even with this though she was steadily falling behind.

Soon arriving at an aftermath of a battlefield, Delia slows down involuntary to see decapitated heads, limbs and sliced weapons lying all around in a hectic measure. The monsters that she and her units had to run from were sliced up so very meticulously, every limb of the six-arms were separated from their bodies, and every head was sliced off. It screamed of efficiency.

“What are you doing?” Zulu stops and looks at Delia, “Do you want me to carry you?”

“No,” Delia crouches with difficulty and picks up an adequately medium sized stick, “I just need this.” She says leaning upon it to get up and see that his eyes were no longer red, but simply maroon in colour, less threatening than it had previously appeared, but still quite discomforting to look at.

He looks at Ex in his arms and frowns, “Then keep up.” He states with annoyance before turning and leaving instantly.

Keeping up with a little more ease than last, they move through the forest quickly until Zulu halts a good 20metres ahead of Delia.

“How many?” Zulu puts down Ex

“How many what?” Delia asks stopping next to him

“Tsk,” he hands his pistol over to Delia with a few clips, “Stay here, out of sight and keep quiet.” He tells her as his eyes revert back to blood red. “And don’t shoot me.”

Grabbing the pistol and leaning on her stick to get onto the ground with ease, “Did anyone else make it?” she asks looking down.

After a moment “They didn’t.” Zulu responds without hesitation or remorse, simply stating a fact as if without thought and leaves them both.

Shutting her eyes. I am sorry. She apologizes to her dead unit. Another unit with me as the only survivor. She spits blood to her side and then looks up ahead in the direction he ran off to.

Spotting him in the distance Delia sees that he is in the mist of preparing to fight. Hiding behind trees, he moves at odd intervals to stay out of the monsters enemy line of sight. Seemingly satisfied with his position he draws out his sword and waits for a full minute before jumping in and instantly diving onto the six-arms whilst ignoring the tri-legs.

The bats in the area release a soundless scream and proceed to grab the slug that was being heavily protected and try to fly away.

The Zulu however prevents it from happening, using the Six-arms as stepping stones he leaps up and slices a few holding the slug, forcing them to drop it.

Watching the fight from out of the enemy’s sight, Delia is both impressed and worried at how proficient he is. One man, he was a man, with a sword taking on over two dozen monsters.

Monsters that even with a full unit that held many sergeants were unable to do anything against. Monsters that required the sacrifice of two to suicide whilst the rest pulled the weaker ones away.

After five whole minutes of watching, the Zulu brings out throwing knives, an unlimited amount by the looks of it, but what Delia realizes is that the way he fought these many things seemingly made the creatures expose their venerable side to all other except him. Probably due to the fact that they were now in a position in which they could not afford to be distracted by anything else and thus almost seemed certain that the Zulu was the only threat present.

Paying attention to the monster’s movements, whether consciously or not Zulu had created a position for her to open fire with relative safety. It was as if he were creating a situation where the enemies cared about nothing else except him.

Raising the pistol she takes aim at the closest but the sound of air comes from Ex stops her from firing. Turning to looks at Ex, she sees her taking air in like a person taking a breath of oxygen for the first time.

“Ex” Delia calls out to her, watching her release that one large breath before continuously inhaling and exhaling small amounts.

“Ex” she calls out again and awkwardly makes her way towards her with the help of the stick.

Getting close enough she leans in over her and tries to see what she can do however her breathing quickly becomes that of quick successive coughs. First coughing out saliva, which soon turns murky and ultimately becomes blood.

Forgetting that one of her leg and arm is broken she lets go of her stick, leaning in on both her knees and putting pressure upon her left arm. Something she quickly regrets as it makes a loud snap and she falls upon Ex.

Damn it she curses getting off Ex and seeing bone now protruding out of her left arm.

The sound of battle halts and Ex’s cough worsen. She is awake now, but tears of blood seeps out of her eyelids and a stream flows down her nostril.

Holding Ex’s head in such a position as to prevent her from choking on her own blood, “Can you hear me?” she questions her not quite knowing what to do.

“Shit,” The Zulu mumbles under his breath reappearing with his dispersing sword.

Moving up to Ex he pushes Delia out of the way making her hit the ground hard. About to speak up Zulu takes the pistol out of her hands and immediately opens fire into the trees, making one lone bat fall out.

Seeing the bat hit the ground, she keeps silent and watches him examine Ex. Sighing whilst examining her, he looks as if he is too tired to care anymore. Bringing her head close to his face, the two of them stare into each other’s eyes.

Fear, what she felt when looking into his eyes was not present on Ex’s face staring into them. Instead the coughing decreases and stops. Her breathing steadies itself and the blood flowing from her nostrils slows.

An orange blade appears in his left hand, out of sight of Ex’s vision. He whispers something to her, quiet enough that Delia can’t hear it and the moment just seems to freeze, they both seem calm, peaceful but the blade in his left hand is suddenly pushed in from the back of her skull.

Stunned and speechless at such an action that held no hesitation, They kill all that get in their way, Something she was told a long time ago springs into mind.

“She didn’t make it,” Zulu says closing Ex’s now dead eyes.

“You killed the others?” Delia asks, “Didn’t you?”

Moving over to Delia Zulu grabs her right arm, “They didn’t make it.” he answers and performs a sudden yank, pushing and pulling the protruding bone back into place, causing Delia to flinch, but not scream, as it was pain but dull.

“You guys use to be stronger,” Zulu comments mainly to himself but loud enough for Delia to hear and takes out three vials from nowhere, “Well in my memory you guys were harder to kill,” he injects himself with the three vials at the same time and sighs, seemingly refreshed.

“What are you talking about?” Delia ask using her stick to slowly create gap between them.

Looking at her and realizing something, “Forget it.” he sighs again.

After a moment of quiet, Zulu gets back up on his feet, “We need to get going.” He states, “We’re pretty much at the walls already.”

Slowly getting to her feet “Why are you helping us.” Delia finally asks the question that’s been bothering her since she woke up, “I am…Grateful.” She speaks through her teeth, finding it difficult to say, “But why are you here?”

Eyeing him as he stands there thinking, his evaluating gaze does nothing to settle her uneasiness and thus her agitation intensifies, but for the first time, she sees that he is actually injured. No deep cuts or gashes, no heavy injuries but his skin all over seemed to be burnt. “I guess,” he finally says after a time, “It’s simply because I can.”

“thisshig rrerrk” the sound of static sound through a P.A systems rings out, just barely audible at their distance, “Zulu Re-enforcement imminent, All Forces subject to his control upon arrival.” A short break follows from the announcement then its states again, “I Repeat Zulu Re-enforcement Imminent, All Forces subject to his control upon arrival.”

He looks at Ex’s now dead body and turns around, “Come on,” he says, “they’re expecting us.”

Seeing him move off ahead of her, What kind of answer is that?!

A/N

Sorry about the long gap in update time, but well...Can't say much since i don't quite know if it increase or decrease.

Now as always, Thank you for reading guys! Thanks for waiting and i hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

@RusticSoldier

Zag = Brain dead. Brain death via defnition (Grabbed from wikipedia) is the complete and irreversible loss of brain function (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life).Brain death is one of the two ways of determination of death, according to the Uniform Determination of Death Act of the United States

It is not a coma ~

@IronOrc,

@Mr.mas :3

I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully this chapter wasn't as confusing as the other two. I have a plan to do a recap chapter soon, where there will be spoiler tags for each chapter pretty much outlining in dot points about what has happened. Hopefully that will clear things up?

You'll probably dislike how Zulu treats Ten for a while...He needs time to get use to her ;P