"Adam, you crazy fuck!" Kave cried as the team frantically ran to the other side of the building, helping each other up, and fixing their gear for a hasty escape.
"Why? You're the one who convinced me to do something!" Offended by the sudden insult, but still grinning ear to ear, Adam replied, his heart beating vigorously against his ribs.
"Not that something. What if it had... Ah! Never mind!"
Frustrated yet still smiling, Kave followed Adam and Elena to the fire escape that opened to an alleyway behind the building they were in.
Adam had never known his physical ability was this good when pushed to its limit, but seeing the malnourished Kave keep up like some sort of monkey, he knew that their general condition was now being influenced by the System.
The main worry had been Kave being the weakest link of the team, but Adam was now more worried about himself... as well as Megan, who seemed to have fled the scene.
As soon as they scaled down the six floors, Hammerhead rammed the doorway of the fire escape room, before turning towards the opposite direction, and running to the back door of the building.
"CLEAR!"
He called, and the whole team followed: Elena, Sharp, and Hammerhead first; followed by Adam and Kave; with Buzz and Biscuits securing the rear.
"Commander!" Sergeant Elena called to Adam as they were moving in haste.
"We're going west, head north." Adam replied.
"That's not what I meant," she said as she halted the group at the end of the alleyway before leaving her post to Sharp. "Sir, listen. You are the most valuable person in this mission. No more daring actions, no suicidal jumps, are we clear?"
"I understand, let's…"
Adam tried to urge her to continue the operation, but she held him firmly, with physical strength much superior to his.
"Sir, this is vital. All Solarium operations depend on you. Without you, all hope is lost for the future and for the survivors of this world."
Her words bothered him a bit, but he still complied.
"I get it." He replied.
"Good. Next time you try to risk yourself, I will have to relieve you from command and put you under house arrest." She added with an air of seriousness that completely toppled Adam's understanding of his role.
"What?"
Adam wanted to retort, but the Sergeant let him go and returned to leading the troops. Such a threat was not mild, and Adam was somewhat stunned by her words. His power still influences her, but if it poses a threat, he could be relieved from command so easily? It gave him something to think about, but not for the time being.
As for her, she was already with Sharp:
"Report."
"Clear, sir," Sharp replied.
"Moving out. All troops on me, cover 6 to 9 o'clock." She gave another command before springing into action rapidly and methodically.
Adam and Kave found themselves being shoved in the middle of the group and guarded from all directions as Adam's team became relentless in defending him.
Around them, the scene was erupting into pure chaos; Gobzkin and Hosts clashed without the slightest organization, and two intersections away, the Purple Menace emerged with its abnormally long legs, wreaking havoc among the Gobzkin and Hosts.
SCREEEECH!
A loud screech was heard as the Hosts started to move erratically and retreat towards the same place, trying to strategically move according to some plan. However, the source of the screech, the Face Fiend, started climbing a nearby building with unimaginable speed, using its limbs and tentacles to propel itself up before jumping in a terrifying arc and landing on top of the giant spider.
"GRAAAH!"
From the western street leading to this scene, Adam saw a group of burly, green-skinned brutes charging with crude weapons and loud bellows, like some sort of barbarian band.
"Brutes! Hide!"
Hearing him, the team slid behind some ruined cars, as they were almost spotted by the warmongering Gobzkin Brutes—the true fighting force of the Gobzkins.
By some lucky chance, the group avoided a lethal encounter with enemies that could literally shrug off bullets, and as they passed, the Brutes headed towards the Purple Menace and the Face Fiend without even thinking, cutting down any Host along the way as if they were nothing.
"Sharp, clear?"
Elena asked for a signal to move out, but as Sharp was about to confirm, he raised his fist, making those who stood duck down again.
"I'm hearing something." He said, aiming his rifle north. "Something is coming fast."
The seven focused on one direction, and as a couple of seconds passed, they all could hear what Sharp was hearing.
"What is that growl…" Biscuits asked nervously.
"Engine!" Adam, Kave, and Elena all replied, recognizing the unique and now rare sound of an internal combustion engine.
A vehicle was coming their way from the north… No, more than a vehicle, a whole bunch of them.
"They are coming here." Sharp reported.
"We gotta warn them." Kave said, but the next second, he swallowed his words.
The vehicles approached, loud and proud; their green-skinned passengers could be seen acting rowdy all over them. It wasn't just one vehicle, though; it was four of them: a box truck, two pickup trucks, and a van.
Each of the vehicles was driven by a Hobgob whose size was appropriate for drivers, not too short like the smaller Gobs or too big like the Brutes. However, these vehicles were madly tinkered by the Gobzkin, modified with spears, spikes, chains, and hooks like barbarian war wagons.
"What in 'Mad Max' is this nonsense? You didn't tell us those things could drive." Kave looked at Adam with wide eyes as the latter stared in disbelief.
"Fuck! I'm sure they were still hunter-gatherers last time I met them." Adam retorted in frustration before turning to Elena, "Sergeant, those vehicles, they're our ticket out."
"On it!"
Elena immediately sprang into action, tapping Sharp on his shoulder and aiming her gun with her other hand as she gave the command:
"Intercept and Commandeer Enemy Crafts. Sharp, disable them. The rest: weapons hot. Mind the tires."
In perfect coordination, the Sergeant, the Corporal, and the three Privates moved from hiding, aiming their Blazer guns and waiting for Sharp to take the first shot.
CRACK! SZZZAP!
Two red energy beams hit their targets with absolute accuracy. The first bolt hit the Gobzkin driving the large box truck leading the other cars; the second hit its tire.
The truck swerved off track, crashed into the van beside it, and pushed it by its sheer weight to crash into a light post, only to get tackled off the street. As for the box truck, the smaller Gobs crammed into the passenger seat tried to get control of the wheel but only ended up swerving it very sharply in the other direction, toppling it onto its right side.
With the road blocked, the Hobgobs driving the pickup trucks behind the large box truck and the van could no longer proceed and were forced to brake, barely avoiding the crash.
None of them could let out a relieved sigh since in the seconds their vehicles came to a halt, a barrage of red beams penetrated through the hull and riddled them, ensuring their doom.
The Gobs desperately jumped off their trucks as the Men-at-Arms spread into a five-man formation, covering every possible escape the green-skins could take. Blazer beams fired at both the well and the injured, snuffing out every life they hit with absolute prejudice.
Adam and Kave joined the fray, aiming their primitive firearms at the Gobzkins, blasting lead and gunpowder. Adam, accustomed to firing such guns, managed to take a far edge in the formation, jumping a few gobs, and blasting one head after the other.
On the other hand, Kave was new to firing and had only one training session, and as he fired the first two bursts, his M16 jammed immediately.
Panicked, Kave saw the Gobs rushing him the moment he stopped firing. Their mean eyes, yellow teeth, savage screams, and repulsive stench irritated his unhinged psyche, forcing a crazed guttural scream out of his lungs as he jumped the first Gob that came at him, wielding a machete.
Proving that size matters, Kave hit the machete with the jammed M16, sending the Gob off-balance, and seizing the chance to ram him with his knee. He then used the rifle as a bat and struck the Gob's head into oblivion with a single wide motion.
PEW! PEW! PEW!
BANG! BANG!
The rest of the group took care of the Gobzkin coming from the other pickup truck, and without leaving anything to chance, they shot every Gob that was lying on the ground, as Adam had always warned about Gobs playing dead.
Kave, who lagged behind, watched the others take care of things, but he soon found that a Gob was getting up and readying his axe to strike Biscuits from behind. Without thinking, Kave rushed and picked up the machete, screaming like a crazed warrior, clashing with the surprised Gob in an epic melee.
One slash, he spilled the Gob's guts on the ground; with the second, he severed the Gob's right arm; then kicked its chest with a straight kick.
The Gob screamed its lungs out, but with a maniacal laugh, Kave picked up the Gob's axe and started hacking and slashing.
The group stared at him blankly as he butchered the poor Gob with the same level of insanity as a Fanatical Man-at-Arms. He straightened up with glee and bliss after relieving some of his pent-up emotions and joined the group with a confident smile.
"What?" He asked as their eyes still hung on him.
"Honestly, that was gross!" Biscuits replied, walking away. "I'm not treating you if you get infected with some Xeno disease."
Hammerhead gave Kave a thumbs-up, and the rest of the team started to regroup around the second pickup truck, clearing it of the Gobzkin corpses still inside.
"Let's depart! Commander, I don't seem familiar with this vehicle's mechanics." Sergeant Elena said as she looked at the pedals and the gearshift.
"Leave it to me." Adam replied before getting into the driver's seat. He then turned to Kave, "Can you drive the other truck?"
To that, Kave shook his head, explaining that his late father wouldn't even let him drive the family car.
"Three in the cabin, three in the trunk, then."
With Elena giving the final command and everyone jumping on board, Adam shifted the gears into reverse and moved the badly imbalanced and damaged truck backward.
THUD!
Just then, a loud thud was heard from nearby, and a guttural roar of anger came from the large box truck as it moved, agitated by something trapped inside.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Adam knew that whatever was inside this box would be bad news for them, in addition to the fact that other Gobzkin were converging from the nearby battle with the Hosts after hearing gunfire.
REVVVVEVEVEV!
Adam tried his best, but the gearshift got stuck in reverse, and the truck wouldn't move forward now that he had turned it halfway while reversing. The Gobzkin tinkering must have seriously caused some damage to the gears under the shifter, causing this messy situation.
CRANK! CRASH!
The door to the box truck was blown open by a strong blow from within, and a terribly large Gobzkin Brute emerged with its hideous face, snarling at whatever had caused its fancy new ride to crash.
"GRAAAH!"
The Brute shouted a war cry as it walked out. In its hands was a large mace made of twisted makeshift materials.
"BLAZERS AT THE READY!"
Sharp cried, aiming his rifle along with the rest of the team and shooting red beams that barely scratched the skin of the goliath.
"DAMN IT! MOVE YOU STUPID GEAR!" Adam shouted at the top of his lungs as he tried to move the shifter.
Seeing that, Sergeant Elena immediately slapped the shifter with her bionic arm, aiming to help him move it, but her arm's force was so strong, the shifter came out in his hand.
"Fuck!"
With a grim expression of realization in this impending crisis as the Gobzkin Brute marched against them, Adam and the group all realized that they were utterly fucked.
"NOT YET!"
As for Elena, she didn't stop her violent streak of vehicle demolition; rather, she punched at the area where the shifter had been, reaching the gears with her mechanical hand, and shifted them manually.
"NOW!"
VRRRRRRROOM!
She cried to him as his foot floored the accelerator to full throttle.
STOMP! STOMP!
Seeing the truck pull away, the Brute gave chase, but even with its insane power, two legs weren't as fast as four cylinders burning to their full capacity.
With one maneuver after another, Adam and his Exploration team were out of the monsters' battleground.
✧ ✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
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