Army of the Damned

VOLUME 14 Chapter 8

"Ohhhh, I look forward to that, My Lord." he stands straight up and busts his hips forward. "Gah. I'm really getting too old for all this political crap. Come on, let's head in."

As he was about to step inside, a familiar voice echoed from the sidewalk. "OH! General!" He peeks backward and could see the Scientist who was working on a research paper about the beauty of the Natives of Threa. "Meh."

He heads in, ignoring the man who instantly noticed his cold demeanor. "WHAT! GENERAL! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!" Elizabeth, who had crossed her arms, just lifted a finger and grabbed his collar. "My Lord, manners. Men of intellect must always be listened to."

"The last time we listened to a man of intellect. All I felt was the need to sleep." Finally reaching the steps, he lowers his leather briefcase and bows to the Vampire first and then salutes the General. He just replies with a quick and lazy one while Elizabeth still had her fingers on his collar. "What is it now, Doc?"

"I've been going around Chamilos, the Downtown of Janishaire and I've found this great family who was willing to participate in my experiments!" Without even giving it a thought, Jackson starts walking as Elizabeth lifted her hand, making his shoes no longer have contact with the wooden floor of the entrance and just sighs. "What do you want then?"

"I require you to sign some papers as I need some vehicles to be with me."

"Just have that stupid Maltese bootlickin' Colonel do it."

"Ah, but they'd go through all of the bureaucracy wouldn't they?"

"They'd also do the same with my signature."

"Hah, maybe in Woodstock with all the other Generals. But not in a backwater Outpost that very few people care about."

"Gaaaah... meet me upstairs." As he walks, the Scientist proceeds to take his briefcase. With a wink to Elizabeth, he ran up next to the high ranking officer. "So you know about the Elves, well their epidermis is actually quite different from a Human. Though you can say it's more like an upgrade of a Humans. I have already written a paper, this could be used back on Earth I am sure! It's fascinating how they got their perfect skin while even living in terrible conditions."

As the man mouthed off, Jackson could only scratch the back of his head as Elizabeth looked around and the players at the checkpoint on the road just continued to scan their surroundings. She heads inside, closing the doors behind her.

It's already near the evening when their MRAP arrives in front of the hotel in Cathedral Square and the whizzling of a helicopter could be heard resonating through the sleeping city. The Lamps were trembling as the downwash of the chopper arrived at the intersection near the Outpost in Downtown. Watching the Blackhawk touchdown on the cobblestone road were Knights of the Kingdom and the Holy See and some hooded figures on the rooftops.

Its powerful searchlights and landing lights beaming the shiny wet road as the red and blue navigation lights blinked alternately. Jackson and his party exit the armored vehicle, jogging to the chopper and not letting anyone have a longer look at the two Vampires with him as they hopped into the passenger seats and the helicopter crewman slid it close. The surrounding buildings had to turn on their candles to see what was the commotion about and the Elves just stared at the flying machine take off into the darkness of the night.

With only its lights shining. The skeleton pilots silently flew the General through the night. After an hour and thirty minutes, they had to land at another outpost where external tanks were attached to it, extending the range even more as they were transported to Zavalda's Air Base.

Even though it's been a month already, the Airbase hadn't changed much. In some areas, the garbage and useless scrap had gotten to four storey heights. Even with the help of the more stronger and well equipped guilds with summoned creatures like Giants and Undead, the city was only partially cleared as dim white lights of the former people who used to lived there brushed whatever they could scrounge up and the military, setting up free gas stations that has lines upon lines of cars even at the dead of night.