Chapter 40 - 39

POV: Asher Murray

They were not there, neither of them, and this is as worrying as it is relieving, for it allows us to rescue Takamori safely at least. 

He is in a disheveled state, the black hair glued on his forehead as he sweated because of the tremendous effort it is to keep using his powers this much, parts of his clothing is burned too because of the lightning and other parts are torn with claw marks on them.

As I grab Takamori by the arm and start dragging him away, however, I have to think of a safe place to put him in, and if the city is under a strange coordinated attack like we suspect and these strange flying ghouls have come into town, is hard to say predict where he would be safe and could get into; perhaps the military barricades? I'm able to keep him hidden there for a few days if needed.

"Asher, take me back to the Phoenix Nest, I need to take care of my girls. Asher!" 

"No, the probability of another wave of attacks is still high, and there is no sufficient security there."

"I don't care, plus we have a safe room there, underground, without me the door won't open, is safer to stay there. Asher, I'm not up to discussion! Take me there or I'll go back myself!" I look at him and know very well that stubborn look in his eyes, and consideration that we have no time to lose in convincing him nor forcing him on the bike I quickly come to the conclusion that is best to avoid an argument right now so we can help the outer zone quicker and avoid a bigger disaster.

Plus there is still an unknown factor inside the city… someone who could very well make it all better, or even worse from what we have now…

Indeed, the most logical decision here is to keep Takamori away from trouble as fast as possible to go and end the outer attack quickly for anything the ghouls may be planning at ends faster than what they may expect from it.

"Very well." I say, not waiting around anymore to hear his reply as I hop on the motorcycle, one of the others giving Takamori a ride and dropping him off as we pass over the Red Circle towards the outer walls, having me at least satisfied that, surprisingly, that area had not been affected, especially the fancy part with the Golden Wall guards staying put, the mechas pointing their guns to the sky.

Strange that, even though this area is closer to the walls being attacked, that there are no intruders in here…

With no time to waste we drive fast towards the walls, conveying to our own soldiers at the walls that we intend to pass through the gates, so when we reach it at an already high speed we do not slow down and lose momentum, but instead accelerate even more as Team B has already cleaned the area of ghouls from up above and lowered the bridge down, waiting for us to be in sight to open up the gates barely enough for us to pass, closing it quickly behind us with the clacker of chains and raising the bridge the moment our wheels leave the wood and hit the paved floor.

And inside the city is nothing compared to the outside, especially the building area.

With the number of people growing by the day, not only from inside but from the many survivors that appear asking for aid, the city is always expanding, evergrowing, however as it walls suffer from attacks every night building new structures, especially outside to expand, is hard as it is, so the Colonel responsible for this area had an idea to not only build outside but make use of the waves of people trying to get in every day.

Build your own house, build your own roads, build your own walls, and make it fast for every day without a closed wall surrounding them is one more day of free meals for the ghouls to have at night.

Building for their lives… is a great incentive for sure as they have never been built this fast before, is a very smart strategy, though many are lost along the way, even if the city provides a bit of food and the material necessary to build the walls.

It wouldn't waste precious resources with disposable survivors, even more for they are from the other nation… but of course, there were those who disagree in leaving them at destiny's mercy, so some soldiers, most with family outside or same kin, take nocturnal turns to keep them safe, protecting the openings from the so to be walls.

And they are the ones we are going to help out, for they will not receive back up from the Colonel.

Seeing the situation on the walls as we drive by does not allow me to take more soldiers with us, and as we advance I have to think of ways to make up for that.

Because of all that constant building, however, as we drive by we not only dodge incoming attacks and ghouls but bricks, hills of dirt, makeshift barricades, bodies and all kinds of destruction these waves of ghouls managed to leave behind.

Is easy to find the survivors however, for we only have to follow the sound of gunshots and screams, flames burning up high in the air and making orange clouds shine bright against the dark night sky.

However, even though we are able to see them at the distance we are unable to get closer nor inform them of our presence since the group is surrounded by ghouls, a line of soldiers holding off the closing in horde as the few civil survivors coil in fear at the center, some even helping them by taking up guns and fighting back.

I call out to Hacker so she can pass on the information as I convey my plan over the cutting wind and the motorcycle's engine.

"There are too many ghouls between them and the city, tell them we are going to flank from north east so we can pinch their weakest front and open up a path for them to flee, we will then head towards the forest." They only need to survive until the sun rises, which shouldn't be far from now.

However the fact that the ghouls have thickened their line of attack between the humans and the city only proves two things; that they are getting smarter and united indeed, however that they do not know about military tactics. 

Because you never close up your enemies from all sides as in a cage like that, surrounded by death, they all turn into blood lustful beasts and kill as many as they can before dying, no, you always leave a glim of hope that can bring them to despair and make they run with their tails between their legs.

One turns them into a savage beast, the other into a coward running for their lives, and in war there is always far more beyond what the eyes can see, and the morale of your soldiers plays a big role in that.

We circulate around them, at first not bringing the attention to us among the chaos, but as soon as we reach the thinner part of the increment we start attacking, Reaper and I silently taking aim and shooting with precision while Hunter opens up a path at the front with two big flamethrowers, a glass cover circling on top of him and his motorcycle to avoid the fire from reaching him as we do not stop moving to avoid the same cage trap from happening with us but having to slow down to aim and for the lower visibility the flames gave us.

And as our objective turns towards killing as many ghouls as possible, as predicted, I know once more to have brought the right ones for the job when I hear someone screaming at the top of his lungs behind us.

"Ta~~ratatatatata!" That is, of course, the last member of our team, Hound, that, with a smile on his face, takes the machine gun attached to his motorcycle and starts aiming at ghouls in between the groups to avoid hitting any human in the process, having way too much fun with it.

Gunner won't be happy when he notices that Hound, or rather, Crazy Hound stole his bike again, plus is using his toys without permission; and from the looks of it this one hasn't even be used by Gunner himself, or tested for that matter since aiming the gun while driving didn't give him a really precise shot, though that isn't really necessary when you have a machine gun that can make bullets rain, I still rather not have him hitting us because he drove over a rock or something.

Gunner may not admit it, but he knows only Hound is crazy enough to steal his things and uses him as a guinea-pig for his creations, like now, but always pretend to be annoyed by it only to make Hound steal them again.

But not my place to say anything otherwise, after all as long as they are doing their jobs…All is fine by me, just don't kill themselves, too much trouble, time and resources wasted if they do so.

And I'll make sure to beat them up even after death if they give me so much trouble as dying under my watch like that. Too much paperwork.