Chapter 56: Escape & Rescue Operation IV

Tessa turned back in a panic to see Kyle rise from the sofa, muttering incoherently, before falling back and continuing to snore.

’Phew. he was talking in his sleep.’

Tessa felt a wave of relief wash through her; wasting no time, she exited through the door, seeing Harvey and Mildred at the elevator; a pang of joy ran through her as she smiled, with tears forming in her eyes, walking carefully until she reached them.

"We aren’t free clear yet; let’s go."

Harvey implored as they all quickly got back into the elevator as the door closed, quickly descending to the twentieth floor where the rest of the group were waiting.

Tessa jumped into Hazel’s arms, hugging her tightly as they both cried and smiled. It was a beautiful scene. Knowing the urgent situation, after a quick greeting and exchange, everyone got inside the elevator, with Damon just noticing that Leo seemed to have added more weight.

He wondered what his cat must have been eating, as well as where it went after disappearing for long stretches of time. But other than the added weight, Leo wasn’t acting any differently.

The elevator rode down to the ground floor, and the group of eight went into formation, killing their way through several mutants that had trickled in through the busted passage of the parking lot after those previous groups had made their escape.

Nick stuck closely to Damon, Tessa, and Kora, erecting earth walls around them as well as around those fighting in front; raising earth walls and bringing them down as needed as they advanced further in the direction of the parking lot.

Harvey wasn’t using his rifle this time and was instead using his hammer, smashing through skulls alongside Mildred as they paved the path; stranglers were quickly dealt with by Hazel and Sage as they came into the parking where even more mutants pounced.

"Damn it. They are endless." Sage remarked in annoyance as he hacked away at one mutant after removing their ability to walk. For weaker, normal people who don’t have the unnatural prowess like Mildred and Harvy, the best strategy in dealing with mutants was to first go for the legs.

The advance worked and finally reached the larger car of the only two cars left in the lot that could contain them. It was a large SUV, and as soon as Mildred confirmed there was no mutant inside, she quickly let Damon, Kora, and Tessa inside the back seat; Sage climbed into the driver’s seat as planned, attempting to start the car but found that there was no gas.

"Shit!"

Hazel sprang into motion; reaching the other car with Harvey provided cover; she found a can in the boot and siphoned the fuel, quickly transporting it to the other vehicle. It took a few minutes to complete this, and everyone was tense as the mutants kept coming in.

There were no guerrilla tactics this time by using the elevators; so everyone had sustained lots of hits, but when that happened, the surface of their bodies would simply shimmer, and it was like the damage was diffused, causing it to have low to zero damage.

"This armor is awesome!" Hazel exclaimed excitedly as Sage started the vehicle; the sound of the starting engines instantly drew the attention of all the other mutants nearby.

"Everyone get in!"

Sage called in a hurry, with Harvey jumping into the front and pulling out his rifle, starting to take only precision shots that were so powerful they surprised him and everyone else. The rifle was so powerful, and combined with Harvey’s incredible expertise, he was able to hit a combination of at least two dead per shot through skulls.

Hazel and Mildred entered from either side of the vehicle, hacking away at mutants straggling around, as Sage, who had experience as a race car driver, sped through the parking lot, doing his best to avoid colliding with mutants and ruining the vehicle as he maneuvered through the bodies that were dropping dead like flies with every shot from Harvey.

Carrying out their strategy, the SUV burst out of the parking lot into the street, its appearance drawing even more swarms of mutants from the front and back; but the might of the group was immense, like a blade through grass and master driving skills; in less than ten minutes of fighting, shooting, hacking, and driving, they had managed to break through the center of the city where most of the mutants were concentrated, passing by several vehicles that had failed in a similar attempt, and finally coming into a less infested road that led straight to the college.

There were still several mutants along the way, and more were drawn to the sounds of the speeding vehicle, but they were ultimately either brought down by Harvey’s rifle or simply couldn’t catch up. There were several roads reported to have been blocked by a collection of vehicles that had failed to leave the city; luckily, such roads that lead to certain death have been broadcast to the regional and national chat channels.

’Weeeeoooooow!!! Hazel screamed in excitement, the rest in the vehicle sharing in her exuberant, excited state. Their hearts were beating fast; even with all the plans they had strategically come up with, a thousand and more things could have gone wrong. Yet, they had succeeded in doing the hardest part. Now they just had to avoid the heavily infested hot zones, rescue Hazel’s brother, who is in the college nearby, and journey to a relatively safer zone to set up a base.

"How much ammo do you have left, Harvey?"

"There are three hundred and fifty left, master Damon."

Reloading Harvey’s gun was almost as expensive as buying it. A reload would reset it back to one thousand rounds, whether it was half empty or completely empty, at the same cost. So it was best to empty it first.

A rough estimate would put the combined sum of all the mutants taken down at over a thousand. Which was a lot considering they tried to avoid most of them. The turnover was satisfying, the team earning a combined total of six hundred and eighty crystals— almost enough to do a full refill, which was at an outrageous sum of one thousand crystals. The durability has also dropped to ten, and that also requires a thousand crystals to fix. For someone normal, it would be a net positive, and a weapon that most certainly couldn’t be maintained unless the crystal turnover bumped up even more; but Damon wasn’t normal.

Damon turns to Hazel, looking her in the eyes, and said—

"Lets go get your brother."

Hazel’s eyes watered, brimming with excited tears as she responded, smiling—

"Yes... Let’s."