Chapter 537

Everyone in the Spartan base was in an elevated mood. Just a couple of minutes earlier, every one of them had received a notification from the System informing them that the Ravage Contamination was no more in Dead City.

None of them had received any reward for that, though. Not that anybody complained. Ridding their city of the bio-plague and the monsters it created was a reward in itself. They all understood what it meant. They no longer had to hide in the underground tunnels. They could finally leave their underground base and return to the surface.

Sure, regular mutants were still out there, but unlike the ravagespawn, they didn’t spawn in droves all around you every single minute the moment you stepped out into the open.

Catalina stood in the center of the cavern, looking around at the Spartans. They laughed and congratulated themselves. The more skeptical ones, however, still didn’t quite believe it and insisted they needed to verify it was now safe to leave their base.

That’s why, shortly after receiving the notification, Silvia had dispatched a small team outside simply to check if the Ravage Contamination was actually gone. It didn’t take the team long to report back.

Silvia, who stood at the makeshift briefing area, touched her earpiece. She listened for a moment to what she was being told, then addressed the entire group.

“It’s true, everyone,” she called out. “David’s team just reported that the Ravage is gone for good. There’s not a trace of it left outside. As far as they could tell, the entire city is now free of the bio-plague.”

“What about the ravagespawn?” somebody asked. “Are they gone too?”

“Yes. The organic matter, the nests, the Titans, and the ravagespawn, it’s all gone.”

For a moment, silence hung in the air. Then the cavern burst into cheering, loud laughter, and gleeful voices. When the noise died down a little, somebody called to Silvia, “So we can leave now, right?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Let’s gather everything we need. We’ll probably never return to this place, so make sure you don’t leave behind anything useful.”

“Hell yeah,” somebody exclaimed. “What are we waiting for? Let’s grab our stuff and finally leave this shithole.”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna miss this place, that’s for damn sure,” somebody else said.

The underground cavern became a hive of activity as the Spartans began gathering their belongings.

As Catalina approached Silvia, somebody called to the leader of the group, “But where are we gonna go? Are we gonna stay in our city?”

“No,” Silvia replied. “David’s team reported there’s nothing outside now, just empty carcasses of buildings. There’s nothing for us to do here anymore. So we’re going to New Hope, the city Catalina came from.”

As she said those words, Silvia looked at Catalina, and Catalina nodded.

“What about those walls surrounding the city? Are they gone too?”

“Probably, yeah. David’s team is currently headed to the edge of the city to check.”

A few more minutes passed before David finally reported back to tell them that the walls no longer surrounded the city, meaning all of them could finally leave Dead City for good.

“So it’s official, right?” Silvia said to Catalina. “We’re coming to New Hope?”

“Yeah. You’re welcome to come to our city. But there’s still Ravage Contamination there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Silvia said. “The Spartans will be more than happy to rid New Hope of the Ravage. Unfortunately, since the Commander is dead, we can’t replicate the weapons we use, so my team will have to use their own weapons to destroy the Ravage.”

“Jake will probably help, too,” Catalina said. “He’s clearly more than capable of destroying the nests on his own now.”

After that, Catalina headed for the comms room, where she contacted Thomas, her second-in-command.

Over the past several days, she had stayed in constant contact with her people, keeping them informed about everything that had taken place in Dead City. She gave Thomas the latest update, telling him that Dead City was now completely rid of the Ravage Contamination and that the Spartans were ready to leave the city. Sure enough, Thomas was excited. Since they had managed to rid Dead City of the Ravage, it stood to reason that the bio-plague smothering New Hope would soon be erased as well.

Catalina then told Thomas to dispatch all the helicopters to Dead City so the Spartans could get to New Hope. Unfortunately, her team had only two choppers at their disposal, which weren’t nearly enough to transport all the Spartans and their equipment in a single trip. So Catalina asked Thomas to contact the leaders of the other two bases, Melissa and Samantha, and ask if they could lend their helicopters. Thomas promised he would, and then Catalina returned to the main cavern.

Once there, she saw Jake had made it back and was talking to Silvia. Catalina quickly approached them. As she got within earshot, she heard Silvia say, “I appreciate what you did for us, Jake. We all do.”

Then one of the Spartans called to Silvia, asking her to come over and help decide whether they should take some equipment with them or leave it behind.

After Silvia headed over, Catalina said to Jake, “So you helped another human group, Jake. First you helped us by dealing with Los Demonios, and now you helped the Spartans deal with the Ravage.” She smiled. “For a monster, you aren’t that bad, y’know?”

“So what now?” Jake asked. “Where are the Spartans going?”

“New Hope. I promised them I’d lead them there.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Why not? New Hope is a huge city. There’s plenty of room for lots of people.”

“But do you really trust the Spartans? What if they try to stir up trouble like Los Demonios did? Just like those bandits were, the Spartans are way more powerful than your people.”

“The Spartans are nothing like Los Demonios, Jake. I can tell you that for sure.”

She was about to add something else when two Spartans suddenly approached them. She remembered their names were Rachel and Fernand.

“Jake, can you come with us for a moment, please?” Rachel said.

Jake just stared at them, saying nothing. Catalina looked between him and the two Spartans. Something felt off about the situation. Since Jake still hadn’t said a word, she asked, “What do you want from him?”

“It doesn’t concern you,” Fernand began, but Rachel immediately lifted a hand to silence him.

“We’re grateful for what Jake has done for us,” Rachel said to Catalina, then shifted her gaze to the morphus. “Jake, we didn’t trust you at first, and we might not even have treated you very well. We were wrong about that. As a way of showing our gratitude for freeing our city, we want to give you something.”

When Rachel finished, Catalina glanced at Jake. To her surprise, he still hadn’t uttered a word. He just kept staring at the two humans before him. Catalina couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his head.

When it became obvious he wasn’t going to say anything, Catalina asked, “What do you want to give him?”

Rachel hesitated. Her gaze lingered on Jake for a moment longer, as if she was wondering why he refused to speak for himself.

Then she looked at Catalina and replied, “It’s something Mad Mick started making for D. He never actually finished it because, as you know, the two of them escaped. But we kept working on it and eventually completed it. It’s no use to us, since it was originally intended for mutants like D and Jake. So we want to give it to Jake as a sign of our gratitude.”

Rachel sounded genuine. Still, Catalina couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about this situation. But what? Could Rachel and Fernand be planning something against Jake? It seemed highly doubtful. Nobody in their right mind would try to make a move against him.

“Why didn’t you bring it here?” Catalina asked.

“Well, before using the device, it first has to be calibrated to its user,” Rachel replied. “That can only be done in the tech lab below, where Mad Mick used to work.”

“Alright. Lead the way.”

The mechanical voice coming from Jake’s device cut through the air so suddenly that Catalina winced. She looked at her friend and asked, “Are you sure about this? I’m not sure…”

“It’s fine,” he interrupted. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Then he shifted his gaze to Rachel and Fernand. “Lead the way.”

Rachel smiled and nodded. She and her companion turned around and strode across the cavern, weaving between the other Spartans as they gathered their belongings. Without another glance at Catalina, Jake followed the two humans.

Silvia came over and asked, “Cat, can you put me through to your people?”

“What? Why?”

“I just want to ask what kind of helicopters they’re planning to send for us,” Silvia explained. “Some of my people want to bring some heavy equipment, so I want to check whether it’ll be possible to transport it, and if so, how.”

“Alright.” Catalina glanced toward the passage where Rachel, Fernand, and Jake had disappeared. “By the way, Rachel and Fernand just asked Jake to come with them. They said they wanted to give him something. Do you know what that’s about?”

Silvia just shrugged. “No idea. Come on. Let’s go to the comms room.”

She started walking toward it. It was clear she didn’t think much of whatever Rachel and Fernand had planned. The leader of the Spartans obviously had more important things to worry about at that moment.

“You coming or not?” Silvia called after noticing Catalina wasn’t following.

“Yeah.”

Catalina glanced one last time toward the passage Jake had disappeared into before hurrying after Silvia.