"I never wanted to use this curse ever again, but i suppose i must survive this.", he thought to himself, while the team saw Jonathan manipulating his muscular mass like the infected did, All the while Gabriel was still holding tommy and watching the whole situation go down, "he never wanted to use that form again, it reminded him of his past and made him think how different he is from the normal humans, at least he is facing his fears..." Gabriel thought to himself while he was appearing increasingly frustrated and just clenched his fist, the feeling of helplessness displeased him. Cassius had seen it and said "It is okay to feel helpless, but do not stay like that, young man, i can tell u are doing everything you can, you truly are a great man to protect the life of that child over yours, it is truly commendable", hearing this from the man who rarely spoke moved Gabriel and he was a bit at ease.
The other revenant who he had introduced himself as "Leon" and said, "So you ARE indeed one of us.", while Jonathan was about to charge at him, "I am nothing like you, you disgusting piece of trash, All you see other humans and revenants is as playthings and i can tell that from your expression, You truly disgust me." Jonathan said becoming increasingly agitated. Both of them got ready to battle and charged head straight into each other with their otherworldly speed and strength which broke even the firm reinforced steel walls of the bunker. The soldiers whose arms were torn off and who were heavily injured backed away along with the team and tried to stop the bleeding.
Cassius handed them some medical equipment and clothes who block off the blood outflow, while also keeping an eye on the battle. It was like he was a heavily experienced military officer but he didn't look of that age. But there wasn't anytime for all of that, the soldiers had to treated ASAP. Gabriel got up and carried tommy on his back, who had fainted because of those horrifying scream and whines, while trying to help the soldiers address their condition, "The child is of the highest priority, he has no responsibility being dragged into this mess, take care of him first, Gabriel", said Cassius with that usual firm look on his face.
They both were having a long drawn out battle which heavily injured Jonathan and Leon was suffering quite the damage too, with their primitive moves and attacks toward each other, one fueled by pure disgust and rage, while other with a superiority complex. Jonathan was filled with wrath, the worst kind. His attacks were unintelligible, and he attacked with only pure strength and let his body take control of his actions. His arms would just try to get an hang onto Leon and he'd try to rip his skin out, he'd try to push his fingers into his flesh and deliver the highest amount of pain, for such was his hatred towards revenants, and towards himself, the Jonathan everyone saw now was different from the calm and collected person who is kind and gentle with everyone. He was about to cry due to the overwhelming emotions he was feeling. The amount of accusations he had faced due to his nature weighed his compassionate soul down, deep down, he was just an emotionally sensitive guy who had wished for peace.
Gabriel had put down tommy on a clean part of the floor and told the soldiers and Cassius to watch him while he was trying to gain a clear sight to shoot the cocky guy and put him down once and for all, he tried for a while and once he had his sight clear he shot Leon, an accompanying shot was fired too, by one of the soldiers with the purest emotions of rage and timidness looming on his face. This had slowed and weakened Leon and Jonathan took his chance and leaped right at the bastard pierced through his chested and pull out his heart and squash it before his eyes, without any hesitation and crushed his skull simultaneously to take no chances and completely kill him.
Jonathan just fell down beside his enemy's corpse and just lay there while his wounds started to heal at inhuman speeds, there he thought to himself "What the hell did even happen right now? Did i really need to kill like that guy or was there a way i could talk him out of it? I didn't even ask why he was here. Am i really becoming inhuman like all people told me? Am i just a killing machine?", Gabriel rushed to John and lifted him up, who was still in a trance, Gabriel didn't try to wake him up, he knew what it felt like. For he is far from human himself.
Cassius, who was still vigilant and stood guard near tommy, searched for additional threats. The squad soon recovered and swept all of the bunker and took care of some more remaining infected and they thanked goodness, there weren't anymore revenants. They got out of the bunker and reported to the ship and briefed C.O. Luca about what had happened and were told to evacuate and return to the ship. The soldiers had stopped bleeding for the most part and were still in shock about losing their limbs, for it was their first time to experience real serious combat, and they were the affected ones too, which further worsened their experiences. Gabriel took care of Jonathan and Cassius took tommy into his lap, it was quite weird to see a man known for his combat experience and ruthless methods to get the job done, hold a child so dearly, who didn't even care what the crew thought of him and just held tommy close. Jonathan and Gabriel smiled and just thought what a crazy day it has been.
They got here at evening time but now they're leaving under the graceful light of the rising sun. One of the soldiers asked his experienced counterparts: "So what exactly are these "revenants" we had just learnt they're some enhanced humans and we could deduce that much from the fight."
Jonathan asked Gabriel to explain since Cassius didn't talk much anyway and he was too tired. Gabriel started by saying: "They are the gateway between the infected and human. When humans are infected by the virus they turn into the vile mindless monsters who only wish to kill, their consciousness is completely dissolved and they become no better than a primitive animal. But revenants on the hand, are a special subset of people who've been infected but didn't turn into the "Shadows" completely."
He stopped for a brief moment giving the young lads time to process the information that've been dumped into their brains, he continued by saying" the reason why they haven't been completely turned is because of extreme emotions of man- anger, love, pity towards being reduced to such stupid levels of intelligence. Their deepest desperation kept their sentience alive, but a cost of increased sensitivity to emotions and an ever present danger of them being turned. We wouldn't know how scared they must be feeling because of the feeling which looms over their heart and suffocates them internally, the evil ones didn't care about this and found liberation in giving into their primal instincts. What they is indeed true, "only those who tread the difficult path are the strong."
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The newbies' minds were blown by the amount of information dropped on them. They took a while to process the information and then one of them asked Gabriel a question "Jonathan is a revenant right? Then why isn't he hostile towards normal humans?" Gabriel replied to this by saying "He sees no reason to do so. He was infected while trying to protect his girlfriend from the shadows and kept on fighting despite knowing he was bitten. After a while he couldn't fight the seemingly endless crowd of the undead, and was paralyzed, he could feel his brain being turned, he could feel his soul withering away. His girlfriend was bitten too and was consumed by the horde. Seeing this, his heart was broken into million pieces and he was filled with a mix of the strongest wrath and guilt. This. This prevented his brain from being infected and his body was jump started by the neural signal sent by the brain, his body immediately went into flight mode and he fled the scene while still crying and wanting to go back there, but his body didn't respond to his consciousness, he was in a sort of paralyzed state."
"Damn." was the only thing the fellow crew could say. Even Cassius, the big apathetic guy had tears which were ready to flow out any moment. Tommy woke up at this moment, due to all of the commotion and asked Gabriel what had happened after he had fallen asleep when he entered the bunker, "Uncle John took care of the bad guys, and he is resting now, as u can see", said Gabriel pointing towards Jonathan who was in deep sleep, tommy cheered John and thanked him, and john could feel too, since his nature prevents him from falling into deep sleep unlike humans, this made john happy a bit, from inside, and comforted his soul a bit.
The squad got back to the docks and the ship was already preparing to leave the dock, Luca met them on the docks and asked the medical staff to take care of John. He asked Cassius to come with them, to which he asked "What about the bunker?", "I've already sent my men to take care, and another division of the coalition will be coming to take over the bunker and make it a useful base of operations.", Luca replied. Cassius agreed to come with them and the ship has undocked to go to it's next location and meet up with the continental headquarters of the American continent.
Humans' technology improved very drastically after the doomsday which had happened 27 years ago from now, the ship was fitted with the most efficient nuclear powered engines and was also harvest a great deal of energy from the sun, using the improved solar panels, which further cut down the power required from the ship's fission reactor and it could be at sail for more then 40 years
It was nearing nightfall and the ship had undocked and left for Brazil.
A day passed since the ship left the town of Puerto Rico and set it's course to Brazil's port town of Rio De Janeiro. Johnathan was feeling better and the ship's functioning was normal as usual, the crew were all busy carrying out their routine duties, Gabriel and Cassius were eating some snacks together in the cafeteria room while adoring the beautifully serene ocean. The entire crew had some sound sleep which they needd after the strenuous and stressful day they had gone through, yesterday.
It was high noon and the Navigation department of the ship has called for CO Luca immediately, they had reported that there is an unidentified object flying towards them from about 500 km away, with it's speed increasing by the moment, the object hasn't been identified to be a flying missile neither a plane, it was too tiny to be either of those. CO Luca pondered on the course of action for a few minutes, and the navigation officer, the head of the navigation department urged him that there wasn't much time and they needed to do something immediately since the object has already covered 70 km in the span of 2 mins, and now was just 430 km away. CO Luca commanded the weapons department to lock onto the target and launch a short range ballistic missile and fire the railguns towards it. The target stopped moving for 1 minute and 37 seconds and started moving again, a bit slowed from the impact, and was now travelling with 70% of it's initial speed , it was now 310 km away after a span of 4 minutes after being hit by the weaponry. An alert was sent to the whole ship and defensive measures of the ship were activated and the ship was getting ready to dive.
The ship itself was a submersible vessel which was both capable of moving efficiently on land with all it's aircrafts ready to take off or become a submarine and dive into the ocean. When entering defense mode, a protocol is followed and the aircraft are pulled in because the platforms which they are placed on, are mechanically retractable pieces of machinery.
The target was 100 km away when the ship completed it's defense protocol and began diving, Cassius and Gabriel were watching the whole situation from the highest point of the ship, the Watchtower, which submerges at the very end of the submerging protocol, they could barely see the object but could make it out to be a humanoid entity. They both were absolutely horrified by what they had seen and, yet again their worst nightmares had come to visit them. Gabriel asked Cassius where tommy was and Cassius replied he is asleep in a secluded room on the ship with Johnathan there, "I'm sure Johnathan has made out the situation and is making sure tommy is alright." Cassius said.
The ship was about 70% submerged, and the target was now 40km away. "So this is it. The time where I truly face what I am, use the accursed boon I've been given. Every time i used it, it was like it ate away a part of me away, it came with the worst feelings of guilt, self hatred and desperation, I believe we have both understood what that thing is? He's like me."
Cassius was deeply moved by this and thought of how strong humans truly are, facing their fears and being ready to accept an early, undeserving disastrous catastrophe. "I know what that is and I've heard what you are, You truly are mighty not because of your boon but your mind, your spirit, to sacrifice yourself truly and knowing it might be a painful death for the sake of others life is commendable, Mein signore. I hope you win and save your life over ours, but that just isn't you is it?" Cassius said to Gabriel, "Oh come on man, you make it feel like I'm gonna die an agonizing death, I'm still facing my god damn fears, and i do not even know why i wish to do this, Honestly i don't even know what i wanna do in general, but right now? I know that guy might be a threat and i must save the civilians and innocents on this crew, especially the ones I hold dear." Gabriel replied to Cassius's over-the-top motivating speech. Gabriel picked up his radio and told Luca that he was going out, he could hear Luca say "WAIT GABRIEL WE HAVENT ASSESSED THE SITUATION YET,I'LL COME T-" but Gabriel turned off the radio and handed it over to Cassius and advised he get going now since the ship has already dived for about 95% now and the target was just over 7 km away. Gabriel took a deep, flimsy breath in and opened the hatch to the outside, and locked it.