The gate was embedded into the wall, Xiao took a look around and discovered the electrical panel above. Even if Surge had reinforced the building they couldn't change the pre-existing wiring. Xiao took out his tool kit and began his work on the wiring. He cut open the wire insulation and attempting the short circuit the current. He never imagined that he would have the opportunity to put into action things he had only seen in obscure documentaries that were more than 200y old.
Xiao was glad that he had such an interest in antique technology. He returned to the gate and told Mark. "It's okay. The panel is burnt out, you should be able to just pry the door open. "
"Eh?" Mark looked over at Heine, "That's all?"
Heine nodded, they were worried that opening the door would trip an alarm inside the building. If the alarm was burnt out, then they didn't have to worry about opening the gate.
Mark walked to the gate, red faced he unloaded nearly all his strength into opening the heavy material.
Liv went in first, and Xiao feared she would walk into an ambush.
The others followed, and Maya paused at Xiao's side. Whether he was attempting to protect or harass him was unclear since under Heine's oppressive glare he hurried away to join the others.
Heine looked over at Xiao who nervously gathered himself and entered as well.
The building was so dusty it looked abandoned. Xiao was trying to suppress a cough when Heine pressed a respirator to his face with an expression that said, 'if you cough I will kill you'.
Everyone moved quickly and quietly. Floor by floor they finally made it down into the basement.
Their previous scans showed where the hostages were being kept. Xiao swallowed hard, the next panel was connected to an electronic door that required a key code to enter.
Very old and very troublesome. Heine tilted his chin at Xiao, "Open it."
Xiao took out his portable terminal and used it to calculate the password. After a few tries, the door slowly opened. In that moment Heine grabbed Xiao, pulling him behind to enter first. Countless zombies poured out of the door, the task force went to work dispatching them.
Clearly the Surge organization had long guessed that they would come and prepared this obstacle ahead of time. At the end of the basement was an iron cage. A middle aged man was strapped to a chair and zombies were lumbering in front of the cage, attempting to squeeze inside. They stretched their arms through the bars, trying to catch a bit of flesh. Xiao peered over Heine shoulder to see him round house kick a zombie with such force that it fell into no more than a sticky mess.
Seeing his strength, Xiao shuddered a bit remembering his shattered shoulder. He didn't want to ever personally feel the level of strength Heine possessed again. He unconsciously moved his own shoulders checking the integrity of the healed area. Heine caught his movement and shot him a look that dropped the temperature of the room and sliced into him. Xiao felt that he had been physically cut by that sharp glance.
Whenever one of the corpses came close to touching Xiao, the edge of Heine's blade flashed and the air erupted in a splash of pus and body fluids. The angle of attack was so precise that not a drop of it landed on Xiao Yan's body. He felt like an outsider watching a master at work.
Countless zombies lunged at Xiao and countless zombies fell to Heine blade, turning decay into death.
His eyes were focused and a hellish sheen of blood concentrated in his pupils, every movement was a combination of cruelty and beauty.
The palm of Heine's hand pushed Xiao's head into his chest, the force so extreme he felt that his skull would crack open. At his ear the sound of blade and bone erupted and only then did Xiao realize his body was almost entirely embraced by Heine.
Any zombie who approached him was split open by Heine's sharpened edge.
Just as the respirator on Xiao's face was about to crack from Heine's hold on him, he released him.
Xiao lowered his head and looked down at the zombie remains littering the floor, if not for the respirator he would probably have vomited from the stench.
The team had taken out hundreds of zombies in less than 5 minutes.
As they approached the cage where the hostage was tied, the man in the chair trembled and sobbed. Xiao recognized him as Professor Manson.
He was the academy's most famous virologist and held a rank as General, but why was he here? "You have to release him from the cage, right?"
Mark looked at him pointedly, Xiao held his hands up helplessly, "hey... This is not my area of expertise."
While they were looking doubtfully at the cage, contemplating the best way to approach opening it, Heine took matters into his own hand.
Heine silently walked up to the cage and pulled his blade out ready to chop. A loud crash reverberated through the room. The metal of the cage was cut neatly open. Xiao stood stunned and Mark was the first to speak.
"I guess the Boss has a most direct approach."
The ordinary steel of the cage was no match for Heine's special force's blade.
Xiao hurried into the cage to untie the Professor, his lips were very pale.
"Professor are you alight?"
In a flash, Professor Manson brutally yanked Xiao into him and wrapped his hand around his neck.
Xiao Yan didn't even have a chance to react, Heine went to grab him, his fingers only grazing his wrist as the professor pulled him away.
Such a rapid and unexpected move that even Heine Burton didn't respond in time.
All the special forces went into an alert state, Xiao looked into the eyes of Heine, as the events realization slowly dawned on him.
Professor Manson ...
His hands went to his waist but before he could even touch the gun, Manson twisted his fingers and the gun clattered to the ground.
"So you have joined with the Surge, General Manson." As the Heine's cold voice filled the room, Mark's grip on his weapon tightened and Maya slowly pulled the silver wire filaments from his wrist.
"Damn it, we have been betrayed."
The corner of Manson's mouth lifted in a smirk as he stepped toward the door, still firmly holding onto Xiao Yan.
"Colonel Burton, I am aware of your skills. Do not follow me, or I will break his neck"
"You bastard!"
Mark took a step forward, only to hear a crack as Manson dislocated Xiao Yan's wrist. Xiao clenched his teeth as the blood drained from his face.
Heine Burton quickly held Mark back.
"Don't come any closer, or I will tear the whole thing off. Not even the X-virus can heal a severed limb."
"Professor ... Why......Do this?"
Xiao had not even considered that Manson would join forces with the Surge. All of this was a trap that Manson had set? Why? Just to attract the elite forces of the Special Task Force? Why was he alone? How did he expect to deal with the whole team?
Not to mention Heine Burton?
"Do you mean , why did I join the Surge? Or why did I lead you here? Is the answer really important?"
As he spoke, he patted Xiao Yan's face. "We always pursue something to make sense of life. The Shire has been unable to satisfy my pursuit."
As soon as the last sentence was out of his mouth, he threw Xiao away and the door slammed down. Several of the forces rushed, but they were too late. Xiao roughly fell to the ground, the left side of his face sliding against floor. The pain jarred his body, the worst of it was concentrated on his dislocated wrist. Henie rushed up and helped pull him off the floor.
As Xiao was contemplating Manson's actions, Heine lifted his palm and intertwined his fingers with Xiao's. He looked at Heine, the blue of his eyes seemed to swallow the world.
Xiao felt like it was some sort of illusion, Heine's warm fingers gently rubbed his, as though he were caressing him. "What are you thinking?"
Xiao Yan raised his head, but before Xiao could reply, a loud crack sounded as his wrist was savagely pulled back. Xiao didn't even have a moment to yell out.
Xiao really didn't think that Heine would personally realign his wrist.
"Are you injured elsewhere?"
Heine's palm clasped Xiao Yan's shoulders his gaze piercing, and Xiao found himself lost in the depths of his gaze.
"No." Xiao was certain there was something wrong with his senses, he seemed to feel Heine's finger brush the side of his face and lightly caress his brow. Before he could absorb the action, Heine was gone.
Mark rushed to the door.
"Damn it! Its locked. Xiao, is there no way to open it?"
Xiao shook his head, "Manson took my equipment." All the soldiers sighed collectively.
Xiao knew that if Manson had grabbed anyone other than him, they could have easily taken on Manson. As a technical soldier he felt burdensome.
"Why did Manson lock us in here? To suffocate us? To poison us?" Mark slammed his fist on the door.
Apart from the door, Manson had left from there were no other exits. The space was entirely confined.
"Shh." Live brought her fingers to her lips, "sounds like water."
In the next moment, water flowed in from all four corners of the room.
"Damn! Drowning. So vicious."
Mark punched the door again.
"I have to say, it is creative." Maya fiddled with his hair. "Ah, if I had known that today was my last I would have ignored that damn action report and forced Xiao Yan into my bed... Mercilessly fuck him... I'm not going to die, today---" No one saw the action, it was so rapid, but suddenly Maya's nose was gushing with blood. It dripped from his face to his hands as he tried to stop the flow, his expression twisted with pain.
"Boss!? Why did you do that? That's my nose!"
"Too noisy."
Heine didn't even turn to look at him, just raised his chin slightly, revealing a cruel look.
Xiao Yan looked over at Heine, the water had already spread over their feet. All he could think about was how disdainful Heine would feel about Xiao's incompetence. Glancing over at him, it is clear that is not what was in Heine's heart. Even in the face of death, his expression held nothing but indifference.
"Boss, what are we going to do?"
Liv looked expectantly at Heine who flips a lens device over eye to scan the walls. "This basement is made of high density titanium, we can't cut through."
"That bastard! He deliberately built this basement as a trap to lure us in." Mark spit the words through clenched teeth.
Liv looked around for a moment, "Xiao, how long will it take or the water to completely fill the room?"
"One hour."
"Only one hour?!" Mayas nasal bone has now healed, he is self aware enough to stay far away from Heine. "We need to think quickly on how to get out."
No one seems to blame Xiao Yan, but he understands that if they had disregarded his life, it would have been easy to capture Manson and get out.
Now is not the time for guilt, he thought to himself, you are a technical soldier...A technical soldier with no equipment and a special forces team with useless blades.
Wait a minute......
Xiao suddenly remembers that he hasn't lost all of his equipment.
***I noticed that a few of you took the time to vote on some of the chapters, I really do appreciate it. It helps a lot. Especially after changing writing programs (I didn't realize it was so difficult to adjust to a new program). I meant to mention it earlier but when I went through the reads on the chapters, I noticed that there were the most of the 1st and then they bottomed out after that. Since that is the only chapter in which I addressed the readers directly, I simply thought...yikes.. maybe my personality is too off putting and I should just back up and let everyone read.***