General Howe was sitting in his office. It was one of the most comfortable, and one of the most secure, places in the fortress. As the practical dictator of the several thousand people, he had quite the resources to spare.

At this point, he was listening to the report of a certain lieutenant.

“We were attacked by a group of survivors. I think they knew what we did, because they attacked without even attempting to communicate with us. Normal civilians would at least try to talk with us. The guard on the perimeter was sniped before he could give a warning. I sent a squad out to investigate. When they reported of being ambushed, I ordered the rest of my men to get on the vehicles and start heading back to the base with whatever gas we got. We were ambushed on the way. Dave and I were the only survivors.” Jean carefully played the part of a loyal lieutenant. It wasn’t a difficult thing with Courtney’s memory. She knew what Courtney did hundreds of times. It wasn’t tough to mimic her.

What she said was mainly true, not that Howe would send a team to investigate. As Jean was speaking, she already put the entire compound under surveillance. She saw everything Paul did, and she had to admit, while it wasn’t the cleanest infiltration, it was not bad considering the number of resources Paul had in his disposal.

Howe nodded and was about to say something when an explosion came off. He was on his chair, but Jean fell on the ground as if she was completely unprepared with what just happened.

Having things much more important to do than dealing with a convoy being attacked, Howe ignored Jean and turned to the two guards that rushed into the office.

“Order all military personnel to return to the dining hall. Send reinforcements to the armory and the mutant prison. Secure the exits. Order the remaining guards to do a complete sweep of the compound.” The man was slightly shocked at the sudden turn of event, but he nonetheless acted calmly and expertly.

The first order was because there was a great possibility the explosion was done by someone within the army. After all, everyone in the compound, except the prisoners, was a military personnel. Plus, with his semi-dictatorship and orders to hold back and defend instead of go out and save the civilians, Howe wasn’t exactly the most favored person in the base. A significant portion of the men, possibly with connections in the ordinary world, maybe families or friends but couldn’t save them due to Howe’s orders, would be more than happy to set off a bomb to show their anger. Thus, all soldiers, except the guards, were told to go to the dining hall and away from the heat of the event. If the attackers weren’t found on the spot, he might be forced to do an internal inspection.

Reinforcements were sent to key positions because rebels might attack those positions. The armory held most of the weapons the rebels may need to stage a coup d'etat. Mutant prisoners were a force the rebels could get. Taken under Howe’s orders, they had both the incentive and the power to fight back. The exits were secured to keep the rebels from fleeing.

When all of the potential targets were secured, the guards, the men that Howe trusted with his life, would sweep the compound and find out the rebels. Lured to serve him by promises of power and wealth in the new world, and a status above the ordinary foot soldiers, these men and women wouldn’t hesitate to execute their own brethren.

“I will retreat to the dining hall, general.” Jean said. She was technically a soldier as well, but Howe stopped her.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I know I can trust you, lieutenant.” Jean took half a second to search her memory and realized Riley was one of the officers Howe trusted. This was also why she was made lieutenant and sent out as the captain of the convoy. The woman had sworn her loyalty to Howe a while ago.

Jean nodded and remained. She honestly didn’t care where she was or whether the general trusted her. The only reason the general was still alive was because she didn’t want an assassination to help Paul and make it easier on him. Only a tough fight could unveil his true potentials.

----------------------------------------

In the mutant prison, Paul entered the door and met four guards head on. Both sides of the previous engagement had silencers on their weapons. Paul did because he was on an infiltration mission. The guards did this because there were cases when they needed to fire their weapons and didn’t want the entire base to know they did so. For example, if they wanted to gun down a mutant child that wanted to escape, they didn’t want all several thousand men and women to know that. It was the explosion that caught the attention of the guards.

“What happened?” One of the guards asked. Paul was still in a guard uniform, which made the guards subconsciously trust him.

“A group of soldiers attacked us. We need help now!”

The guards didn’t have time to wonder why the guards didn’t call for help via the radio but instead sent a man to deliver the news. They readied their weapons and moved past Paul, ready for action.

They never saw it.

Four short shots ended four lives. In a distance this close and without the people shot at realizing they were in danger, there was very little possibility Paul would miss.

Ignoring the dead bodies, Paul walked further into the prison. As he walked around a corner, he found himself in an aisle. Cells, separated by metal bars, lined along the hall. Each cell held a man or woman who wore a collar on his or her neck. Almost all of the prisoners were unconscious.

A guard was walking along the aisle. A bloodthirsty smile was on his face. He held a phone in his hand as he walked around and scanned the mutants from top to bottom.

Paul saw a female mutant waking up, only to get tased unconscious as the guard clicked a single button on his phone. Paul could see the satisfied look on the guard’s face. It was as if he was enjoying the process.

Paul shot him in the chest, knocked him over, and walked over to him put two more bullets into his brain without uttering a single word. A bastard like him wasn’t worth his precious time.

“Alia! Alia!” After taking out the cameras, the man went through the cells one by one, looking for her sister, but the familiar figure didn’t appear in his sight.

“Are you looking for someone?” A male voice came from beside. Paul turned and found a mutant who just woke up.

“Yes. I’m looking for my sister. Her name’s Alia. Five foot three. Dark hair. Have you seen her?”

“I haven’t, but some of us have been taken to experiments.” He paused. “As far as I know four of us have been taken in the past hours. None of those taken ever came back. If your sister is not here...” What’s left didn’t need to be said.

Paul slammed his fist into the wall and didn’t falter when he heard the sound of bones cracking. That was when he realized something. Jean promised him she would keep his sister alive. Likely she would keep her promise, and since she didn’t intervene, her sister was likely still alive. All he need to do was get her. “Where is the lab?”

The mutant didn’t have the same knowledge Paul did. He merely thought Paul was merely rejecting reality. “I don’t know. No one knows. Maybe the guards know, but...”

Paul nodded. He was about to turn around and leave when he suddenly remembered something. Returning to the cell, he took the time to kneel down beside the dead guard and pick up his phone. WIth a few clicks, the metal doors of the cells snapped open. A second series of clicks woke the unconscious mutants up with some electrical method.

When the mutants got out of their cells, their savior was nowhere to be seen.