James, Karlson, Michael, and Tali, all huddled together for their gameplan.

"Karl, analysis," said James.

"There's an unknown, heavily-armed, heavily-armored force lined up approximately 30 meters from our current position, standing by outside the alley."

He licked his thumb and stuck it up in the air.

"Wind speed: None. Relative humidity: around 50%. Relevance of humidity: None. Possible sniping positions with a view of the alley exit: two, both around 100 meters away. Risk of snipers: none."

The girl in the group, Tali, squinted at Karlson --- How does this guy even know these things? Did he really need to lick his thumb to tell that there's no wind?

She, a 17-year-old, had joined the Scout Group several months ago. Most people in Diliman were against it, held back by the idea that 18 was the magic number for maturity.

"Excluding the crew of those two armored vans, each equipped with a completely-enclosed machine gun turret, I estimate an infantry force size of 13 members," Karlson continued, "Taking into account equipment, each opponent is equivalent to 3 of us. I don't know what kind of training they have, but even if they were noobs in hardsuits, this'll be a hard fight."

"Uh, excuse me~"

All eyes were on Tali. She was crouching by the corner, sticking a mirror around the corner.

"Can't we like, just talk to them?" she proposed.

As if the universe had granted him an epiphany, with Tali as its prophet, James' eyes widened. Karlson was also forced to acknowledge her quick wits.

"Tactically-speaking, diplomacy might be the better route here..." he admitted.

"What makes you think they'll listen to us?" James asked.

Tali looked at the mirror again.

"Well, it looks like they sent out someone?" she said.

Bewildered, James looked over Tali's shoulder and shared the mirror.

"It's a negotiator," he said.

"Oh shit," Karlson blurted.

For Tali, this was her first encounter with the Bio-Police. For Michael, this was the second time. For James and Karlson, this was the third.

The first time the pair had encountered them was sometime before James killed Aurelia. The soldiers that accommodated the negotiator of that time were just as heavily armed and armored as the ones on the road at the moment, but the negotiator himself --- the man had worn only a black suit with a characteristic white tie, and yet bullets bounced off of him like he was some sort of terminator.

It was such a bad joke that they called themselves negotiators. Someone in the Bio-Police must've decided that the first piece to move on the board should always be a living tank with a frozen smile on its face.

"So," Karlson started.

"I know."

"I can't help."

"I know."

James grimaced. Karlson was their best fighter, but even he was useless in front of a negotiator. He had no choice but to confront the negotiator with the one thing that worked: words.

"Hello, there!" the negotiator called from the middle of the alley, "I'd just like to talk! Can you let me approach you?"

Shivers went down James' spine.

"First, drop your weapons!" James shouted in reply. Not like they need any.

From the mirror, James and Tali saw that the negotiator had, indeed, laid a sidearm on the ground.

"I said drop your weapons! All of them!" James shouted once more. The last one they fought materialized weapons from compartments that popped out of his own skin.

The negotiator sighed and created a small pile of weapons by his feet.

"And the cute knife, too!" James added. He did not want to see Hello Kitty flash before his eyes again.

"But it's cute!"

"Do it!"

Like that, the negotiator begrudingly left his Rainbow knife as well.

Lieutenant by rank, and negotiator by profession, Lt. Coronel was astounded by the fact that he had been seen through --- and forced to leave his Rainbow knife. It was a cute knife that his daughter had gifted him on her 6th birthday.

Well, at least they didn't demand for it. He would've killed them on the spot.

As he approached the corner with his hands raised, two human males came into his view, pointing a handgun and a shotgun at him.

This was to be expected, and was part of the job. Disarming them would have been easy --- however, for their operation today, they had no need to confront and disarm human survivors. Instead, they actually preferred it if they were armed.

He proceeded, and a human female came into view. This one looked younger compared to the typical female scavengers who prowled the cities. She shot a look at him, with an expression that a stranger gives a stranger --- with wariness and apathy. He knew, however, that her age betrayed her skill. His superhuman vision allowed him to see which muscles were tensed and ready to strike --- and those closest to the gun on her hip were the most primed.

"Huh?"

"..."

It was the human male behind her that stopped Lt. Coronel in his tracks --- What was his name?

"Mr. Castellano?" he asked.

At this, the other scouts looked at James, and then at the negotiator. Karlson, though, was just plain shocked, as he also recognized the guy.

"Ah! Lieutenant... Kernel?"

"Coronel."

"My bad."

James gestured for the others to stay their weapons. At the same time, Lt. Coronel put his hands down and unclipped a radio from his belt. He radioed in the codewords "White Fox, White Fox". The moment he did, the soldiers who had formed a cordon in front of the alley relaxed.

Not all negotiators were terminators with frozen smiles. A few weeks ago, and thus many months after that incident with Aurelia, James and Karlson raided some small shops on the road for motorcycle batteries and laundry detergent.

Karlson scrounged around the backroom of the laundry shop while James guarded the front. It was a safe road, so James waited in front of the shop, kicking rocks around. It was a good time of day, since the condominium across the street cast a shadow over him, so he didn't have to suffer the sun's rays.

It was then that he was showered by glass fragments, and then a certain Lieutenant Coronel crash-landed on the asphalt. James immediately recognized him as a negotiator --- because what else can leave a person-shaped impression on the ground, then stand up and brush it off?

He had completely expected to be fighting for his life right then and there, but the lieutenant complained of back pain, and was himself surprised that James was just standing there. A few awkward hi's and hello's were exchanged. It was then that Karlson came out of the building at just the same time as one of the lieutenant's subordinates peeked out a window.

"Lt. Coronel!" "James!"

They exchanged a bit of four-way eye contact. The soldier sticking out the window was a bit surprised, but human survivors weren't uncommon. On the other hand, Karlson had to process the fact that there was a person-shaped hole in the ground, and there was someone standing in it, and there was a soldier casually calling out to the person in the hole as if he's just half-worried. So far, even if James was the one showered in glass, it seemed that Karlson was the one who lost the most here.

Before the situation developed any further, James and Lt. Coronel eyed each other with tacit agreement. They turned around. They walked off. None of that happened.

But now, they were face to face once again. The lieutenant's eyes narrowed.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"... What do you mean?"

Both sides raced to think. James figured that they might have picked up on Aurelia's trail, but there was something in the negotiator's eyes --- Doubt? Confusion? Coronel couldn't fathom how the humans were still alive. Perhaps their detectors had gone awry and confused Alpha for Gamma signatures.

"Have you been in contact with an Alpha host lately?" the lieutenant continued.

"A-alpha?"

James had many problems with the terminology, chief among them the fact that an "Alpha" host implied the existence of at least one other Greek letter.

There was also the fact that now that they were having a straight conversation, his initial impressions were shaken. Coronel seemed friendlier than that terminator guy James had fought, but his eye contact was excessive. Unblinking.

"Z-zombies? Y-yeah, on our way here."

"I see..."

Though human survivors coming into contact with Alpha hosts was considered normal, the Bio-Police had detected a strong Gamma signature in the vicinity, and tracked it to this location.

If such a thing were allowed to rampage, the local population of humans could be easily annihilated.

"Perimeter alert! Alpha swarm, incoming!"

Not even a moment had passed before Lt. Coronel's radio blared with that alert. He looked up to assure the scouts of their safety, but they had disappeared. Five padlocks and five chains clanged against the nearby door.

Ah, of course, this was the normal reaction for smarter humans.

Inside the store, the scouts kept as silent as possible.

"Hey," Karlson called.

"Yeah?"

James turned to look at Karlson, who had a grin on his face. He could guess what he was thinking.

"...You wanna watch them, huh..." James said with a sigh, "Fine, fine--- I guess it counts as gathering intelligence, too."

The two of them left the employees' lounge.

"Wait, where are you going? Wait!" Tali hollered, following after the two.

Michael just shook his head and followed after the three.

Just like that, the scouts were watching the scene outside through the holes in the store's metal shutters. Karlson smiled.

Quadcopter drones flew out of the armored vans, and not 30 seconds later, the police platoon began reforming their formation.

"Cain!" Lt. Coronel called as he returned from the alley.

"Ah, Carrey! Don't worry, it's just 300 in front, 200 behind, probably around 50 or so from the top."

Lt. Cain, a platoon leader in the Bio-Police, and the area commander for Quezon City, continued shouting orders.

"Vans, direct all fire to the front and back! Fire teams 1 and 4, support and direct the vans' fire! Fire teams 2, 3, and 5, cover the top!"

"'Cover the top' he said," remarked James.

"Pretty basic thing to do, I think. Military forgot to do that early on, and they got wiped out," Karlson added.

"Yeah, but don't you think it's weird? I saw an army platoon cover the top --- for once --- but they couldn't hit a damn and they still got overrun," James rebutted.

It was then that the Bio-Police did something unreasonable.

In the blink of an eye, they erected safety nets over the convoy, supported by deceptively-thin scaffolding. The nets were slanted and covered with some sort of clear flexible sheet.

"Wow, I wish we had something like th-- mmpPHH?!" Tali remarked.

Michael quickly covered her mouth.

"If you say that, he'll start getting ideas!" he panickedly explained.

He and Tali turned to look at James. He was smiling at them. Tali quietly slipped Michael's hand away from her face.

"Ehe, too late?" she said.

A second later, the Bio-Police opened fire.

"Ohmygod" "Holy shit, that's expensive" "Why is that a reaction?!" "aAH!"

Instead of a volley of automatic fire that they had expected, what they instead got was something akin to an industrial machine being operated right next to their ear. Karlson was fanboying over the warcry of military hardware, but James was gripped by the virtual expense counters ticking up. The two's contrasting reactions had Michael shaking his head. Tali just plain squealed.

As they watched on, it was as if the air was splitting open like a zipper. A small volcano spewed from the mouth of the turret, and a laser-like hot-something beamed down into the horde which they couldn't see.

Miniguns. They were miniguns.

If James remembered correctly, a rifle round cost around Php 40, which meant that, at a rate of fire of 50 rounds per second, they were spending Php 2000 per second --- and they had been firing for about 10 seconds by now. He shed a tear to think that they were shooting off enough money to pay off his college tuition fees once every 10 seconds.

Ah, there were two miniguns, so it's every 5 seconds.

It had been 13 seconds. The Bio-Police's firepower was so overwhelming that they still hadn't seen any zombies from their lofty position inside the hardware store. Not too soon, however, and they saw their first zombie emerging from the roof directly above the Bio-Police. It jumped right in and---

"That's... that's dumb," Karlson remarked.

The zombie would get stopped by the net, but then bounce off with violent speed against the wall of the building. Half of the topside attackers were killed or disabled just from bouncing onto a wall --- granted, they were falling at a ridiculous speed.

Those that managed to survive stood up, only to get gunned down by the Bio-Police who were guarding their flanks.

After a minute had passed, so too had the threat after it.