Huff, huff, huff.... huff, puff, puff..... puff...
Albur and Mysty sprinted across the car park, panting heavily. They kept looking behind them, ensuring Siwel did not chase them. They ran for another minute, then finally came to a stop.
Their shoes screeched against the floor as they came to a stop. Albur managed to maintain balance and not fall. They panted heavily, Albur coughed again, this time, even more intense. He tried his best to keep it down, but it just made him want to vomit. Mysty began to cough as well, she grabbed onto her chest, struggling to catch her breath.
After a while of cooling down, they used what little piece of clear mind they have to survey their surroundings. Fortunately, there are no dangerous lifeforms around here. They are now at the other side of the car park, which is a kilometer away from their previous spot.
Albur's coughing got more intense, he looked around, and noticed a pillar made out of concrete and covered by virus substances. He slowly limped towards it, and pressed his body against it, using it to support him. Mysty slumped to the ground, she slowly wiped off the sweat on her face.
Then, Albur froze, he felt something in his stomach running up to his throat. He dropped his rifle, and pressed his fist against the pillar, trying to hold that thing back. Havoc stared at him from the third slot of the rifle, he made tongue clicking sounds.
"Just let it out, a few seconds won't do anything fatal." he said as he looked towards the hazmat barrier device.
"Deactivate hazmat barrier."
"Order received. Hazmat barrier deactivating."
The hazmat barrier deformed, Albur couldn't hold it anymore, he limped aside, and puked on the floor, followed by a series of coughing. Mysty turned her head towards Albur, Havoc sighed.
"Reactivate hazmat barrier."
The device glowed, then formed the hazmat barrier layer on Albur's body. Havoc scanned the vomit on the ground, then scanned Albur's body.
"Vomit consist of 80% water, 14% nutrient capsule fragments, 5% body cell protein and 1% blood. Diagnosis, stomach irritation caused by mental stress and prolonged running with no break. Not a sign of AC-23 virus infection." Havoc listed out the facts like a wikipedia.
Albur stared at Havoc, and panted slowly. Mysty looked at Albur's silhouette, she pushed herself up with the remaining strength she had. She took a bottle of water from the telescopic bag and slowly walked to him. She then handed the water to Albur.
"Here, this should let you feel better....."
Albur blinked, then took the bottle of water.
"Thanks..." his voice was dry, weak and hoarse.
He took a huge sip, his exhaustion and irritation is hardly replenished, but its enough for him. He then opened his eyes after a while.
"Oh yeah...the core....."
"Get some rest, we've just got away from Siwel."
"No...we rested.....too many times...."
Albur coughed, he took out the energy detector he kept in his pocket earlier.
"Make it snappy.....Siwel...will kill us....its here...."
"You look terrible right now, and, when did I say we are resting?"
Albur rose his head and stared at Mysty, she sighed in exhaustion.
"You're exhausted, you're down to one arm, you're sick, it is time you take some sleep now."
Mysty took the energy detector from Albur's hands. She looked at the location of the core, 713 meters away from their current location. Albur reached out to take it back, but Mysty pulled the energy detector to her chest.
"You'll stay here while I get that done."
Albur opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"Havoc, for god's sake, help Albur when he needs. Make sure he stays here until I come back."
"What is this goofy ahh stuff."
"I know my way back, don't worry about me."
"How?"
Mysty pointed the energy detector at Havoc, it classifies Havoc as a high energy radiator as he has very dense and power full virus powers of the Havoc Strain.
"I can see you on this thing, as long as you are with Albur, I will find my way back."
"Fair enough."
"No....you can't.....go alone..." Albur's voice remains weak and dry, he wan to reach out to Mysty, but Havoc emitted virus particles that formed an arm and pulled his collar from behind.
"Then look at me then at yourself, who is in better shape?"
Albur froze, Mysty stared at him.
"I know you don't want me to risk my life and get killed like Johnson. But just look at yourself, you CANNOT continue."
Mysty pulled out one of her twin pistols and looked at the energy detector.
"If you care about mission progression, then fine, I will help you with that. You, are staying here. Havoc, don't let him leave this place at all cost, except for killing him. And help him when there are any virus lifeforms here."
"You got it, madam I guess."
Albur looked down, he shook his head and still stepped forward, wanting follow her, but Havoc pulled him back with his virus powers.
"Sorry Albur, I'm using that 10% of disobedience here."
Mysty sighed, then stared at the energy detector's hologram. She cocked the pistol, then headed forwards.
This was the first time Albur had ever felt 'useless' in a situation like this.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mysty stepped on the drain grates on the ground, scraping the below of her shoe, making squeaking sounds. She gripped hard on the energy detector, following the direction it leads her to. The flashlight became the only guidance of Mysty in this quiet, dark place.
On the way, she had her guard up to the highest point. Anything would be her next target as she would point her pistol at anything that make even the slightest sound. Like a cat with its survival instinct pulled high to the point it jumps at every small foreign movement.
Despite being extremely far from the previous spot, she can still hear Siwel's dreadful roar. She also noticed that nearly all virus lifeforms in this area were all drawn to Siwel's location, thinking it is an easy prey that could be outnumbered. 'That'll be the biggest mistake they have ever made.' Mysty thought to herself.
Along the way, she noticed even more ruins of metro stations, and even one whole railway carriage just lying in piles of debris and rocks. She bust open the door and had a look inside, nothing useful or worthful to use in there.
She also noticed something rather bizarre, she saw a couple of consumer lifeforms taking the form of potato chips that comes from the metro station vending machine, which she nearly blown up with her pistol. They screeched at each other, one consumer lifeform that took the form of a metal spring simply came by and munched the potato chip consumer lifeform, Mysty could even hear the crunchy chewing sound.
After seeing countless of dead virus lifeforms that were crushed to death, she is starting to fall sick. Her stomach is about to flip over due to the horrible odor emitted by the corpses. However she cannot give up, if she fell here, it'll not only be the end of her life, instead, be the end of Albur's, Rhea's, Covie's and the entire life of humanity.
However, carrying that kind of responsibility is no easy job to even a planet ruler, let alone an ordinary young woman and her teammates.
Mysty held her breath while crossing the place filled with dead bodies. She nearly suffocated for how long she had held the breath.
But just as she walked out of the place filled with dead bodies, she bumped into a pack of virus lifeforms consisting 4 members. The pack just survived the collapse and were drawn to the smell of the corpse because it means food to them. Despite each of them were injured, they still post a huge threat due to Mysty being alone.
The alpha of the pack snarled and ran straight to Mysty. But was greeted with a kick of Mysty's. The dagger at the back of Mysty's shoes shattered the alphas face, fatally injuring it.
The other pack members all swarmed in on her. They all pounced and pushed Mysty onto the floor, she let go of the energy detector which slid away. Their claws teared her vest and shorts as they were about to bite down at her. She quickly used her taser and tased one of them before throwing it at the others.
She backed away by pushing her body backwards with her hands. She pulled out the twin pistols and fired 2 fully charged orbs at them. It hit one of them and killed it. She repeatedly fired orbs at every single one of them. But some of them managed to tank them.
Mysty pulled the fire trigger again, but realized the pistol has overheated. One of the virus lifeform stared at her, it roared and slowly approached to Mysty as saliva sprayed out of its mouth. However, the other one bit the leg of the approaching virus lifeform, then screeched at it loudly.
Mysty took out her taser, and had it fully charged, but the other virus lifeform doesn't seem to want to fight her. It used its head and pushed the approaching virus lifeform away. It then stared at the taser and the dead alpha, then signaled its companion to scram.
Mysty panted heavily as she lowered her pistols that are glowing bright red. She don't know why they stopped attacking her, but was grateful they did not.
'Dang it. Why am I struggling against... them?'
She slowly stood up, she ensured the energy detector isn't damaged. She checked her clothing, thank goodness they only ripped the vest apart. She left it there, in case the virus liquid might mutate her under whatever circumstances. It seems that Independence not only challe.ge courage and determination.
It is not easy, but after a while, Mysty finally reached the core. The energy detector's antenna pointed at a certain direction whilst the device itself beeped rapidly. Mysty quickly turned the alarm off, she would not want it to attract more virus lifeforms.
She looked towards the direction the antenna is pointing at. She noticed a very long yet thin and veiny root like part which has a glowing purple light flowing through it. Mysty tried to find out what is the origin of the root, but it stretched all the way up to the surface.
'The root of the core? Wh- why have I never notice this?'
She thought about following the direction where the light flow towards that might lead to the core, and she did. She longer she walked, the more frequent the energy detector antenna glowed. At last, she found the core after walking for another couple of minutes.
A round, slimy, glowing, squirming virus substance that would pump like a heart beating is just in front of her. She sighed, in both exhaustion and relief. She dropped the energy detector on the floor, then took out her other pistol. She charged up two orbs, and aimed at the core. Blue white light produced by the orb painted Mysty's dusty face white.
"Concentration Blast..."
She pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"KAPLOW!!"
The core was constantly hit by the charged orbs, breaking apart slowly. Mysty lowered the pistols, and stared at the fragile core, for some reason, she felt frustrated, her fist gripped hard, she rose her feet.
"Splat!"
She squashed the core using her feet. Purple liquid squirted out in different directions. The hazmat barrier protected her from the virus liquid. Her heavy breath was extraordinarily loud in the quiet surrounding. She slowly lifted her foot, the virus substances near the core squirmed, and quickly dried out. For once, destroying the core doesn't make her feel happy or relief at all.
She backed away, and sighed heavily. She suddenly felt her legs are weak, nearly struggled to stand up. She pulled herself up with all her strength. She clicked the energy detector again and pointed it around. It detected a high-energy source 721 meters away from her, which she ensured it is Havoc.
She limped her way back, her legs are giving out. It seems that sporadic rests don't help much. Mysty glanced at her watch, and realized it's already 7 p.m. She thought that now it is better to have a full night sleep, rather than continuing their journey.
After 10 minutes, she finally returned to the place Albur and Havoc is staying. She looked around, and see the concrete pillar and the vomit next to it. Then, a rainbow-colored glowing hand stuck out from behind a collapsed concrete wall, and waved at Mysty. She immediately recognized that is a hand made out of Havoc's virus particles.
She dragged her body towards the hand, she walked to behind the wall, as she expected, Havoc is there, he retracted the virus particles as soon as he saw Mysty next to him.
"The core is destroyed?" Havoc asked, as he used his virus particles and grabbed a bottle of water and a bag of nutrient capsules.
Mysty took them, her legs finally gave out, making her drop onto the floor.
"I won't come back if I haven't destroy it." Mysty smirked and said.
"Congrats."
Mysty looked behind Havoc, and noticed Albur lying on the floor there, inside a sleep bag.
"Took me a long time to persuade him to stay here."
Mysty smiled faintly,
"Thanks."
She then turned to Albur again.
"Is his throat alright?"
"Was irritated by the vomit and coughing, a good night's sleep and good hydration shall fix it."
Mysty gently nodded.
"So.....we're sleeping now?"
"I.....don't know.....Like, what if we were ambushed by those virus lifeforms or, Siwel..."
"I can keep an eye out here. I'm an AI, I could stay up for 100 days without needing to enter sleep mode."
Mysty thought for a second.
She decide to trust him.
"I'm counting on you, no.....we're counting on you."
"Say less, chief."
Mysty smiled,