Z-P: Trials for the Brave. Aftermath 1

At the same time, the Global Government soldiers dispersed around the city of Bungay, having realized they had been infiltrated for unknown purposes. The clues were few, but present enough to justify the mobilization of most vigilance forces through and around the city. Strange footprints and drag marks, like something or someone dragged for a few meters around the site of the burned down church…

“Ma’am, we found it!” She heard through the communications array below her helmet. She sighed, wishing not to be on duty right now to be able to smoke a cigarrete somewhere she didn’t have to be bothered.

“On my way” She answered tiredly. As a matter of fact, she was skeptical; in all the time she had been hunting infected, many had demonstrated the uncanny, even improbable ability to make the Global Government’s armies look like fools. Steadily, they had sent out more prepared and specialized units to combat them, and every time the threat came back stronger.

The worst were the Harmony dissidents… Definitely the toughest to hunt down. She had no doubt that the incident of tonight was caused by them. The woman walked down the alleyways of Bungay in a decisive way, as if nothing in her way could faze her or surprise her. On her way she spat short and quick orders to a few of her underlings, to make sure they covered as much space as possible. She didn’t have any hope for them. Surely the infected were gone now…

A while later, she arrived at the limits of the city, where many troops were already inspecting a huge hole in the ground. Even though they threw lighting into it, they were carefully discussing how to proceed, in case it was a trap of some kind. When she arrived, everyone stopped: Even though the pink glows of her armor weren’t exactly intimidating, her presence alone was enough for everyone to listen and wait.

She circled around the hole in the ground with long, slow steps, while gazing at the environment around her from behind the helmet that obscured her face. Along the way she picked out a couple of broken branches, and observed them with detainment. She dropped them inside the hole and proceeded to walk up to the nearest soldier.

“Evans, report” She ordered to the nearest Soldier. He stood straight, looking forwards, and answered.

“It’s a tunnel, ma’am” He said dryly “Initial estimates calculate a depth of 30 meters. Sonar scans show connections to the area below the city, and it branches out several times, both in and out of the city”

“Care to explain how a tunnel like this escaped our scouting procedures?” She asked, walking away from the Soldier, as she wasn’t really expecting an answer. She looked at the other troops around her, which didn’t seem to have any answers either or were scared to provide the wrong one. She sighed in irritation and stopped by a clearing near the hole.

“The tunnel below the city was already there. They connected them both to confuse us” She mused as if it was obvious. “How did they know it was there? They must be a group of lucky bastards. Pay no mind to the tunnels below the city and search the connections that go towards the forest, now!”

The soldiers nodded in unison, as they began organizing a searching party. The woman stopped the soldier she was talking to early by grabbing him firmly by the shoulder.

“Yes, General King?” He asked with some hesitance. She lit up another cigarrette, and then exhaled a puff of smoke to the soldier’s face.

“I need you to do something, Evans” She retorted “You will organize the corpse picking”
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“H-how’s your arm…?” Sayuri asked Raymond. The stray glanced at her, and continued walking without answering. The girl waited for an answer for a moment, then continued on, her gaze directed at the floor.

“Hey, at least answer her questions, dick!” Anne complained, walking while holding the unconscious Amanda in her arms. “We just saved your life, you know?”

“I am willing to bet my furry tail that won’t last long” He growled with annoyance.

“You think you would have lasted any more than 5 minutes against that ambush?” Anne asked him, following it up with a laughter.

“If my arm was ok I could make a good sweater out of you!” Raymond roared.

“Really now? I will use one arm only for pest control then!” She replied defiantly. “Somebody hold this chick for me!”

“Hey… stop now!” Sayuri yelped in a high pitch, bringing up the courage to make herself heard. Everyone stopped and stared at her; the girl lowered her gaze and brushed her hair aside, embarrassed. Anne sighed, then looked around her.

“She’s right. It doesn’t really matter why, but we’re all in this together” She told Raymond. “Now please, we have to get to the rendezvous point before the GG catch up to us”

Raymond balled his fists, but his gaze remained on Amanda, as he wondered if cooperating with Harmony was indeed the best decision. He stared down at the floor, regretting everything that had happened the last few hours and wishing he had taken better choices. He turned towards Ryan, who stared into the horizon as if what happened around him was so far away he had to focus very hard.

“Before we continue, we have to make sure there’s no more of them after us” Raymond declared. “Ryan, I need you and Dhiig to check the surrounding area”

Ryan suddenly transformed into his symbiotic form and approached a nearby tree, his six limbs easily allowed him to climb it rapidly. The rest of them waited for the mosquito infected to finish scanning the area, but something called Sayuri’s attention: Ryan had stopped all of sudden, focusing on a point amongst the trees, some branch far away from a ground-level perspective…

“Dhiig… One…” Ryan buzzed in a tone that resembled alarm. A deep, low growl emerged from the tree branches where Ryan stood nearby; he narrowly avoided being torn to shreds by an agile creature that suddenly leapt out of the tree bushes, and attempted to counter attack. Without being able to fly, and outsped by the enemy, Ryan’s throat was caught in the jaws of a ferocious beast that dragged him down to a nearby cliff…

“Shit, Ryan!” Raymond shouted in worry, as he watched his friend squirm and buzz uselessly to get away from the creature’s jaws. “Let him go this instant, you son of a bitch!”

The enemy spat out Ryan and held him in the ground by stomping on his neck with his foot. It incorporated, and stared at the group; Sayuri felt a shiver run down her spine when she felt those hateful crimson eyes staring directly at her.

“Well, well, well… Harmony doesn’t do a good job at keeping pests out, huh?” He growled, as a soft and cruel laugh escaped his blood-stained muzzle. Before the moonlight, his silhouette revealed a huge lycanthrope of silver fur and glowing red markings on his body. The sight made Sayuri feel sick…

“Leave him alone!” Raymond roared, as he transformed and charged against the Tamed with his eyes filled with fury before anyone could stop him. The werewolf only smirked as he easily dodged Raymond’s first few slashes directed at his throat, before grabbing his left arm on the next blow and delivering a powerful punch to the rat’s stomach, leaving him doubled over in pain. The Tamed grabbed his head and slammed him face first against the ground, with enough strength to break the rocks below him. Raymond was left unconscious and twitching on the floor…

“But you’d be the kind to allow worthless vermin to live, aren’t you… Sayuri?”

“J-Jinn…” She whispered almost inaudibly. Anne looked back at her, then gazed at the newcomer, suddenly feeling the weight of her previous words…

“You know this guy…?” Anne questioned, as she prepared to fight “Is this… that guy…?”

Sayuri nodded, with her eyes filled in fear and worry; she had never seen Jinn like that. Something looked even more threatening in his eyes and his figure, as if some obscure force emanated from him. She had never been sure if he was too far gone to save him from his darkest desires, and tonight it looked like an even more remote possibility. However, what Anne had told her before still gripped some hope into her heart. The chance had presented itself, so it was now or never…

“A-Anne… Please take them somewhere safe…” Sayuri told her, as she walked forwards while transforming. The brunette stared at her in surprise and confusion.

“You don’t mean to fight him alone, right?!” She responded, attempting to approach. “Sayuri, I won’t let you…”

“You don’t think I’m strong enough to take him on?” Sayuri asked back, suddenly staring at Anne directly with fiery blue eyes. “You didn’t mean what you said…?”

“C’mon, that’s not…!”

“I have to do this!” Sayuri hissed, taking Anne aback by such a sudden outburst. “I promised… to Raymond… that we’d take them somewhere safe…”

She glanced back at Jinn, who merely waited with a malicious grin on his face “And to myself… I promised…”

Without a second warning, Sayuri dashed across the clearing towards Jinn, intent on taking him away from the two unconscious strays. Jinn merely waited in place and roared as the cat-infected tackled him with all her strength, and under Anne’s terrified eyes, they both fell down the cliff behind them.

“Wait, no!” Anne shouted, approaching the cliff side with the old man following close behind. Anne could see both Sayuri and Jinn incorporating themselves after the fall, neither incapacitated by the relatively short fall.

“Go now! I’ll take care of it!” Sayuri shouted with a sense of urgency in her voice.

“Hell no! I’m going down there!” Anne shouted. However, she was stopped by the old man in the cloak.

“If you leave them all to die, your mission will be pointless…” He told her, seemingly nervous himself “Her efforts will be in vain… Do you think you can look her in the eyes after that…?”

Anne suddenly felt jumbled, like if she had ran headfirst into a steel wall; the old man spoke with such confidence that she was forced to think he was right. If any of them died, the young girl would probably be disappointed and angry with her, and it was possible that she tried something even more reckless next time… Anne rationalized that if Sayuri could handle a fight with her, she’d be able to fend off a Tamed for a while.

“Damn it…” Anne mumbled, as she turned back to the cliff “C’mon, kick his ass, Sayuri! I’ll be back for you later!”

Those words drew a little smile on Sayuri’s face, and as Anne and the strays retreated, she felt a little pride on herself for taking the initiative. Ahead of her, Jinn waited with his arms crossed over his chest, with an eyebrow arched to express bemusement…

“You don’t think I really give a damn about those strays, right?” Jinn asked with a smirk.

“I know… I wanted to talk to you again…” Sayuri replied, trying not to lose her focus in spite of her heart pounding so hard against her chest she could almost hear its incessant thumping.

“Are you going to preach that bullshit to me again?” Jinn spat while showing his bloody fangs “We have nothing talk about, Sayuri. If you want to stop me, come and kill me. Just know I won’t go down easily…”

“Jinn, I… I don’t believe so… There’s got to be another way…” She responded in a way that resembled a plead “You were good once… And you’re good now, I know… Just let me… take your hand and guide you…”

“There you go again… Why do you keep thinking I’m the villain here, huh?” He answered with an audible growl “Grow up. I can’t let him go unpunished… Don’t I deserve some retribution for his crimes?”

“What crimes have you committed to get your revenge, Jinn?” Sayuri asked, and in her tone of voice he could detect she was already fed up. He frowned and growled in a threatening way. “Will you even stop?!”

“I will stop… When I see the pathetic son of a bitch in a puddle of his own blood, I will stop… Until then… If my goal drives you away from me, so be it” He declared with decision, as he adopted a fight stance “And if it leads me to killing you too… So be it.”

Sayuri merely stared at him, her heart pounding and her eyes fixed in Jinn’s figure, so different from what she once knew. She remained completely silent, as if expecting that he would change his mind. He looked hesitant to her for the briefest of moments, before he started talking…

“So what will it be?!” Jinn roared, expecting an answer “If you insist on getting in my way, you will die tonight… This is your last chance, Sayuri! Get out of here!”

Sayuri lowered her gaze for a moment; her eyes felt a little stingy at the moment. She took a couple steps forwards, and adopted her fight stance herself.

“Then it’s settled” Sayuri answered with determination “If you want to stop me… Come and kill me… But I won’t go down easy!”

Jinn’s eyes stared at Sayuri, between surprised and confused… She wasn’t the same fragile, quiet girl he knew anymore either. She was changed by this all, and grown stronger. Jinn smirked again; now she had become a true obstacle in his path. He realized that he’d have to snuff out her light before it grew too intense…

“So be it…” Jinn repeated, as he charged at Sayuri with a roar.

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“Hurry, old man! Don’t try anything strange!” Anne commanded, already in a bad mood. A few minutes since she had left she was already regretting leaving Sayuri alone; That Tamed was not the only threat out there, after all. Anne wanted to drop the strays at the meeting point and hurry up back to Sayuri… Her companion didn’t say anything, just carried Ryan using his tentacles while running behind Anne, following her pace in spite of his age. Anne carried with both Raymond and Amanda on her shoulders while approaching the point between two mountains that then branched out into a canyon system where it’d be much harder to track them.

“That girl…” The old man suddenly commented “She is quite brave, huh?”

“Yes, I’m thinking that she’s too brave” Anne replied, not really in the mood to do some chit chat.

“How long has she been with you all?” The old man inquired. Anne wanted him to shut up, but on the other hand, humoring him might make the journey a little shorter…

“I don’t know, I just met her” Anne replied “I don’t think she’s new at this… she’ll be fine…”

“You plan on getting back regardless, isn’t that right?” The old man wondered. Anne growled; she was stressed out enough as it was, and his incessant questioning wasn’t helping.

“So what if I do?” Anne asked aggressively. “If you’re waiting for me to get distracted, I warn you that I can carry all four of you back to the base, understood?!”

The old man remained silent for a moment, running behind Anne. The fact she couldn’t see his face and his parasite being some kind of cephalopod unnerved her a little. Still, Anne pressed on; she wasn’t gravely injured, and if she dropped the strays at the rendezvous, she could rush back to get Sayuri. She couldn’t conceive abandoning that forest until she made sure everyone would be fine.

A while after, Anne saw in the distance a familiar figure. A young, slender woman of smooth chocolate skin and vibrant golden eyes scouted the surroundings of the canyon, in search for any activity. When she spotted Anne, she ran nimbly in her direction to help her out.

“Ana! Are you ok?” The girl asked her, seeing the patches of crimson dyeing Anne’s wool all over her body. Meglin realized that both of the infected she was carrying were too badly wounded “Hector told us not to hurt them this much, remember?”

“It wasn’t me!” Anne exclaimed “A Tamed showed out of nowhere and did this! You have to take them somewhere safe!”

“Hey, hey, calm down, hun!” Another voice spoke up, appearing from behind a few rocks nearby. An impossibly muscular woman advanced towards the group, as the nocturnal air brushed her long black hair. Even though she was imposing, her eyes reflected kindness and amicability “You seem agitated. Is everything ok?”

“The girl I brought with me decided that today was a good time to deal with her love life issues when the forest is swarmed by the GG. ‘Agitated’ seems appropriate” Anne replied sarcastically, while carefully laying down Raymond and Amanda on the floor. “No time to explain, I need you to take these four back to base”

“Wait… 4?” Sharon repeated, as she looked around. Anne frowned and let a growl out, as she turned around, already knowing what had happened: Ryan was left lying in the floor behind her, and the old man was nowhere to be seen.

“Fuck!” Anne cursed “This mission is a mess!”

“We can find him, don’t worry!” Meglin proposed.

“No! I don’t want anybody else running off” Anne insisted “Please, take these guys with you. I have to go back”

Sharon began picking up Amanda and Raymond with ease, but Meglin seemed reluctant “You said it was dangerous back there! Let me go with you!”

“Meg, it’s better you go with Sharon” Anne replied “If she goes alone carrying these strays, she will be vulnerable”

“Are you sure you don’t need any help?” Sharon asked in worry. Anne answered with a confident smirk.

“It’s just one Tamed. I think we can handle it”

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A search party was sent into the tunnels, mostly comprised of common foot Soldiers, as they’d be more agile than most specialized units if they were to face the infected in a close space like that. The soldiers had formed into small squads of 5 to cover as much from the tunnels as possible: Many of them became dead ends rapidly, which forced them to go back and take another route entirely.

“All clear so far, General King” The woman received a transmission. She had taken off her helmet, revealing a woman in her mid to late twenties. Her young and beautiful features did little to hide the tiredness and downright boredom from her ebony gaze. Her long golden hair fell in a neatly arranged braid over her back, as she sat by the shadow of a tree, waiting for updates from her soldiers.

She sighed, her expression inscrutable as she listened to her headpiece, and then answered “Tell me when it’s not”

The soldier shrugged and pressed on; the darkness of the tunnels made the less experienced Soldiers uneasy. That, and the impression that General King threw them in as bait for the infected. In Evans’ experience, that wasn’t that far away from reality.

“Keep your eyes open” He told his team, as they advanced. The glowing lights of their armors lit the cavernous walls around them, while the silence was only broken off by their footsteps.

“What’s that…?” One of the Soldiers muttered, as he looked to the side. Evans pointed his rifle in the direction, instinctively expecting some retorted creature to jump out of the shadows and rip somebody apart. The lights in their guns revealed nothing but a branch of the tunnel going upwards. Evans pondered the possibility of it being a trap…

He made a gesture with his hand, to indicate the rest of the squad to follow him closely. They approached the path cautiously, still expecting some sort of attack. Evans knew something was wrong… This path, unlike most others, looked recently dug up. If the infected had escaped somewhere, this surely was the way.

“We’re approaching, General…” Evans muttered into his comms device. Just as he said this, they could hear some rumbling at the exit of the tunnel. The feeling of something being wrong intensified. Evans advanced first, ready to take on anything that could come from the exit up there.

“Shit… Back off, everyone!” He suddenly exclaimed, as he jumped back. His squad followed suit as a large black mass rushed towards them from the exit of the tunnel, engulfing what little light came from it. A loud rumble could be heard, followed by silence.

“What happened and who died?” The blonde woman said with tranquility. A few moments later, Evans could be heard on her side of the radio.

“Some sort of landslide, General” Evans panted, as he took a long glance around him “Everyone is okay…”

“Good. Do me a favor and save me the hassle of finding replacements” She answered. After a moment, she asked “Where are you all right now?”

“I’ll relay the coordinates. Are you sending a rescue squad?” Evans asked, skeptical.

“Nah, the workout will do the newbies good” She answered, as her face drew a malicious smile “But they went that way for sure… I have something else in mind.”

Evans shrugged. Being stuck inside those tunnels without backup would look like an emergency for most people, but to him it was more like taking the day off, after all he had gone through in King’s squad.

The infected would be unlucky enough to see her bad side.

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“Good thing those tunnels were there” Nitzah commented cheerfully, as they walked through the forest “Otherwise they could have caught us”

“Yeah… And Derek here would be a pelt rug by now” Magnus continued, trying to disguise his sickness. Derek remained in silence, apparently absorbed in thought. The silence made the both of them quiet. Something seemed to be disturbing the General, usually stoic and collected in the most stressful situations. But tonight he was not like that. He was like the ruins of a mighty fortress…

“You’ll cheer up when you take a bath and eat something” Nitzah commented with a grin. Magnus glanced at her and smiled back. Her optimism was contagious, even if Derek didn’t feel it right now.

However, before they started going on a tangent about hiring a vet to check for rabies, a noise in the trees alerted them, followed by a discharge of electricity dashing at the three of them. All of them managed to jump aside, as the blast cracked a hole into the ground they were standing just a moment ago.

“Will you look at this, people?” Said the familiar voice of the hunter leader, behind his mask. “This must be the first time we get paid twice for the same filthy animal”