CHAPTER 87: Humanity

“Release!” Elias ordered as dozens of spells were fired.

The windowed outer walls of the nearby buildings were shattered, cut, and melted from the second through fifth floors. Shouts and yells were heard even through the sounds of the glass breaking as the men behind those walls dropped or ran while being showered with the glass.

Sentinels carrying shields forced their way into doors. It took no more than a shoulder impact or kick to force any locked door open for those strength classes that had hit Tier 2. Some gunfire sounded out, and a few of the malcontents even fired from their elevated positions at Adam’s forces. It did them no good as the Sentinel Army showed overwhelming force in dragging the men to the street with almost no injuries.

The metal armor and shields that some wore couldn’t be penetrated by bullets. Even the leather armor that they had made from higher level beasts in their raids could resist the gun fire. When the leather did get penetrated, it was a minor wound that their healers could fix in an instant.

Colonel Davian had repeatedly lectured Adam and the unit leaders about the difficulties of urban warfare. How it allowed the enemies to hide, creating so many obstacles that it was never safe to enter streets or buildings, while leaving enemies with so many ways to retreat that it was challenging to block them all. Weapons strong enough to quickly eliminate the threats would cause so much structural damage to the buildings that it led to more danger to those assaulting if they didn’t want to just bring all the buildings down.

The fifteen minutes that it took to subdue every enemy in the buildings showed a stark difference between pre and post [System] combat. All the guns had been taken. The only damage that had been done was to locked doors and the outer windows. The malcontents were surrounded on the street, all 232 of them. Those stupid enough to force the issue or who had tried to run often ended up with broken bones, some accidental and some intentional.

Even pre-[System] these men wouldn’t have been much of a physical threat. Adam could only see them as the lazy and dregs, or those who paid others to do things for them. They were mostly weak, out of shape, or downright fat. Post-[System] every single one was a level zero. Not a single one of them had bothered to strengthen themselves, which more than disgusted Adam.

Police Captain Sanchez had recommended that they wait to heal any enemies until the entire situation was resolved. That had significantly cowed most of the men. Those who continued to rant and shout, trying to rouse the others to violence, were separated with their arms and legs zip tied. Fortunately, the police cruisers did have a large supply of zip ties. Adam wasn’t even sure at what level of strength those became useless too.

“Is it clear?” asked Lucas as the leaders gathered around Adam.

“These four buildings are. I’m not seeing as many people further down, though there are still a few here and there. That medical center is where we need to go,” explained Adam as he pointed to a building about four streets down.

He checked his soul map, and there were enough people with hostility towards him that they might need to go building by building to make it safe, especially if bringing people out of that medical clinic was required. Adam knew there wasn’t really a rush. A thorough action would be better. He didn’t have a plan on what to do with all these people, but the state of the other souls he was sensing was concerning him too much.

Checking his soul map repeatedly he saw dozens of souls that were distorted. They looked washed out, as if there wasn’t enough essence to them. Some of the souls were compressed, pushed into a tighter space than they should have occupied, trying to escape from the world around them. Still others were diffused and spreading, almost leaking into the space outside of their souls, unable to keep themselves together.

Adam didn’t know if this was caused by invaders, but he had to find out. He wouldn’t put it past that mind controller to take advantage of these idiots who felt entitled to more than they had earned.

“Captain Sanchez,” Adam got the man’s attention. “Can you organize your police to search and clear the buildings on the right?”

“We can do that,” Sanchez said with a serious look on his face. He had interacted with Adam enough times by now to know that if he wasn’t acting casual then there were more serious matters afoot than others would realize.

“If you need any of the Sentinels to reinforce or for a specific role then pull them for it. Lucas and Mr. Fenton, coordinate the soldiers to sweep the left buildings. Elias, hold this main street with the mages. Tom, bring the Guard and follow me. Shields up for snipers. We’re heading right for that building. The rest of the Sentinels are to guard any prisoners that are brought here, including this group.”

Adam gave out his assignments. While it wasn’t the safest plan for him to go straight through, he needed to. There was something horribly wrong here, even if he wasn’t sure what it was.

Moving his foot to walk forward, a hand grabbed his arm to stop him. Abbey looked up at him and once she was sure he was waiting for her, she ran to the motorcycle and brought out a ridiculous looking helmet to match his armor. It covered the sides of his head, the back and top, and his forehead, leaving the face open. The cheek parts of the helm were winged so that they would cover his neck. Like all the armor that people made for him it was very ornate and regal, with even a circlet of spikes in it to look like a crown. He hated the thing, not just for its looks but the movement difficulties as well.

“I don’t want to see you shot there again,” Abbey said as she plopped the helmet on his head.

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Then he strode forward. Tom and Nick were at his sides, though not quite able to keep up with his determined strides. Abbey and Elouise scrambled to keep up, and about fifty of the General’s Guards formed around the two women, shields up and covering all possible sight lines to protect them.

With each building they passed, Adam could feel more people watching him. He could hear the sounds of the buildings being searched by the police and soldiers, dragging out the malcontents. There were only a few gunshot sounds, and he was glad none came at his group.

Two men who looked out of place holding their AR-15s were guarding the front entrance of the medical clinic. They were both so busy watching his group approach that they failed to see Nick and one of the Guard stealthing behind them until knives were at their necks. Their guns were taken and then they were moved away from the door.

The inside of the medical clinic was a very nice reception area. Or at least it had been. Without water and power for cleaning, it was obvious that many people had trampled the floor and mistreated the walls without bothering to clean up. There was dirt and grime and a musty smell that made Adam wince.

Behind the reception desk was a wall of plexiglass protecting a single man and a large safe, about 5 feet tall and wide with at least a 10-foot depth. A small opening in the front was just big enough for a tray to be handed through. At their entrance, the man didn’t even look up. He stared at the book in his lap while sliding a tray through the plexiglass opening.

“Payment first,” the man said in a droll tone, rattling the tray.

Adam stood in front of the desk as more of his Guards entered. Realizing something was wrong, the man behind the clear wall looked up. Before he could even register surprise, Tom’s sword had created a clean line in the plexiglass and its tip was against the man’s throat. Adam gave the man a minute to realize he should be terrified before speaking.

“What do you do here?” asked Adam.

The man showed on his face that he was trying to decide what answer to use. Tom didn’t wait for a lie. The sword tip pushed a quarter of an inch into his neck without damaging anything, mostly piercing fat but causing the man pain. Fortunately, he didn’t scream or move forward since that would have caused himself damage.

“No lies,” Tom insisted, twitching the sword just a hair.

“W-we don’t do anything here,” the man stammered in a whisper, face red and sweating while blood was dripping from the neck wound.

“Uh-huh. And that isn’t a safe behind you. And you didn’t just ask us for money to enter. I’m pretty sure I told you not to lie.”

Before the man could even breath, the sword pulled out of his neck and then pushed into the other side. Adam stared at the man with his arms crossed, feeling like he was in a haze. He was scared of what he was going to find in this building, but knew he needed to move forward.

“What do you do here?” Adam repeated.

“I-it’s a medical clinic,” the man barely got out. “We help sick people.”

“You see, that was a lie. I’m certain I told you not to lie,” Tom sighed dramatically. Then he nodded. Men on either side of the plexiglass pulled swords and in swift swings cut right through the wall without disturbing Tom’s sword, still in the man’s neck. One of the guards stepped over the remains of the wall and then cut the entire safe in half, to the shock of the impaled man.

Inside the safe was money, jewelry, electronics, and many things that were considered valuable before the [System]. It also had things that were much more important now, like bottled water, preserved food, snacks and candy.

“Sorry, boss. I guess this guy is suffering from memory issues. We’re going to need to check directly.”

Adam nodded to Tom and then strode into a hallway. There was a sickly feel in the air. His soul map was fuzzy, reminding him of when he got dust in his eyes and everything was blurry through the tears. Adam’s breathing became labored. He really didn’t want to enter this place, but he couldn’t let the others do what he didn’t want to. With forced strides he outpaced everyone behind him.

Then he got to the first room. The door was locked from the outside and had a thin viewing window at head height. It was like a hospital room but without outside windows. The room was small, about 8 by 10 feet in size, made smaller by the twin sized bed with metal railing.

Laying on the bed, barely breathing was a woman. She only had a dirty hospital gown on. There were sores, bruises, and cuts in different places on her body, with very little covered by the gown. She wasn’t asleep but didn’t respond to him blocking the little light that entered from the hallway.

Adam didn’t just see with his eyes though. He also saw through the soul map. The hazy, fuzzy view on it gave Adam the impression that the soul in front of him was fading.

Not bothering to get the key, or caring that the door was meant to open inward, Adam activated [Body and Soul Shaping] to feed himself more strength. The door and frame were ripped from the wall. A noxious smell came out of the room of blood, sweat, and bodily fluids.

When Abbey, Elouise, and Tom had reached the hole in the wall that Adam had created, he was already moving to the next door.

“Oh no!” gasped Abbey and she rushed in to heal the woman. Tom gagged to the side, just inside the room. Elouise stood rigidly in the doorway before hurrying after Adam.

Door after door were ripped from the walls by Adam. He didn’t enter the rooms himself though. The Guard was rushing to bring the women out of the rooms, to the healers that were now waiting in the reception area. A water mage from Elias’s group had been fetched to make clean water for them to wipe the women off with.

Adam had missed it in the first room, but there were needles and other signs of drugs scattered around. Some of the rooms even had men in them, still mistreating the women in various ways. Those men were also dragged out, mercilessly, in whatever state they had been in. Any that had been acting violently were treated with added viciousness as they were hauled out.

Breathing was difficult for Adam. He was choking on the smells, choking on his bile, and barely able to see through his fury. This wasn’t a fury built from soul corruption or embedded messages, or skills to empower him. This was a rage at humanity, at the people who could do this. Whether an invader had been the trigger or not, this had all the signs of humans.

Adam wanted to flare up and burn it to the ground. To burn everything to the ground. He couldn’t understand how people could be this way. It had only been two months and humans were already destroying their own.

There were dozens of rooms, dozens of doors ripped out of walls. Every room had a barely alive seeming women, or in a few young men. Adam just kept going.

Elouise had yelled for him to slow down or stop at the beginning, but like in a battle, Adam couldn’t be stopped. Instead, she ran after him, barely able to keep up, even though she was now at level 12.

Eventually Adam did stop, though not for an expected reason. He arrived at the double doors to a cafeteria. When he pulled them open, he found over 100 children, filthy, malnourished, and terrified at the sound of the door opening.

They were all ages. From babies to early teenagers. It looked like girls in their early teens were trying to care for them, distracting them with play, or cuddling the weak children.

Adam might have been able to get angrier. He might have been able to rage or submerge his mind within his river of power. Instead, his insides froze. Emotions fell out of him and he became ice.