In front of the mutant prison, a trail of bodies covered the floor.
The last survivor of the reinforcing guards crawled on the ground with his batter body, painting a trail of blood on the shiny floor.
He knew his chance of surviving was low, but logic wasn’t exactly in his mind right now.
A minutes ago, when all twenty guards, armed and ready, reached the gate of the mutant prison, they were expecting to see some comrades.
And they did. Sure, they only saw one man and there were supposed to be ten men at the door, but likely the rest of the guards retreated into the prison, leaving just the one guard as a sentry. It was the standard protocol.
That was when the lone sentry at the door suddenly knelt down behind a cover and took out his phone.
The guards didn’t know what the sentry did, but they did know half a dozen explosions came off at the gate of the prison. Some of them came from next to the walls and others came down from the ceiling. Immediately, shrapnels started flying. The guard squad was ripped apart. Bodies were tossed into the air, and when they came down they were no longer breathing. Screams covered the field as flesh and bones were ripped apart. Men crawled and died.
After waking up the mutant prisoners, Paul knew, according to standard protocol, the commander would send reinforcements here. He could just leave, but on one hand, if he fled, the mutant prisoners he just freed would be put back into their cells, if they were lucky. If they were unlucky, they might be executed on the spot. Not every mutant could fend for themselves, and most of them couldn’t withstand bullets. They wouldn’t stand a chance against the highly trained guards determined to kill. On the other hand, he would need a source of information to tell him where the mutant lab was.
Whether it was on purpose or not, the memory Jean gave Paul didn’t include the location of the mutant lab. It was as if she knew he would need that information, and she wanted to see how he would find that out.
Shaking the thought aside, Paul did what he had been doing all along. A trail of explosives was set in corners around the exit. When reinforcements arrived, Paul sprung the trap.
Not all of the guards were dead. In fact, only eight were killed on the spot. Seven were heavily wounded and five were lightly wounded. Using the opportunity when the guards that survived were still on the ground, recovering from the shock, Paul acted. He held two SMGs that he took from dead guards. Bullets started flying, and generally speaking they were only going one direction.
When the muffled gunshots stopped, all five lightly wounded guards were executed. Four guards too injured to speak were massacred as well, leaving just three captives wounded enough so they couldn’t resist but could answer Paul’s question.
“Where is the mutant lab?” Reloading his weapons, Paul walked to the first of the three still alive.
The guard looked at him with his teeth locked, not answering.
Paul put a bullet in his head and turned to the second survivor. In the heat of the battle(onslaught), he suddenly realized alive didn’t mean unharmed. Jean promised his sister would be alive, but as far as he knew his sister might be dissected right now, and Jean wouldn’t step in until the last fatal cut. It was unlikely, but nonetheless, he wanted to get to his sister as soon as possible. Some drastic action was necessary.
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Plus, after he saw how the guards were treating captured civilians, including putting them into cells and electrocuting them unconscious when they didn’t need the mutants, was enough to erase his pity on these men.
Now that he thought about it, this decisiveness and recklessness was exactly what Jean wanted to see from him.
The second hesitated for a second, and the next second her head exploded.
Instead of killing the third captive, Paul looked expressionlessly as the man crawled for three meters before walking up to him and putting his gun next to the man’s head.
“Where?”
The wounded man gulped. “Please, I have a daughter…”
“Where?” Paul’s tone was ice cold.
The man told Paul the answer.
“Thank you.” Paul nodded and stood up. Just when the man thought he would be the sole survivor, a silenced gunshot ended his life.
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On the other side, Dr.Hans exchanged a look with the guard within the room, the captain. Before they could say anything, several more guards rushed in.
“Doctor, reinforcement is on the way here. All we need to do is hold our ground for a few minutes.” The captain touched his earpiece and announced.
Hans nodded. “What’s the protocol?”
“Lock the door. You two, get out there and keep your eyes peeled. The rest of you, keep your weapons loaded and be ready to fight.” The captain looked at the restrained Alia. “What should we do with her?”
Hans looked down on the angry eyes of the girl. “Keep her alive for now, but if she tries something, electrocute her.” Mutant lab rats were precious as there wasn’t exactly a stable source of income. He knew it might be risky if someone attacked from the outside, but he also knew the explosion likely came from some random rebels. It was unlikely they have the manpower or the firepower to take spend on the lab.
“Yes sir.” The guard captain tossed a fellow guard the switch. The man sat down beside Alia, scanning her from top to bottom and carefully looking around for any signal of her using her power.
The rest of the guards sat around the lab but had their weapons ready. They didn’t think there would be anyone attacking, but it was always better to be careful.
Alia bit her lips and held her fist tight, but everytime she tried to channel her power her concentration would be shattered by a wave of electricity.
The silence continued for a few minutes.
Suddenly, two gunshots came from outside the lab. The guards immediately stood up and took aim at the door. Two sentries were left outside the room. Their only job was to give a warning to their brothers if they were attacked. It appeared like they accomplished that quite nicely.
“Report.” The guard captain kept his pistol pinned at the door while touching his earpiece.
“Ahhh...please…no!” He recognized the voice to belong to one of the sentries. The voice was ended by a gunshot.
The guard captain’s heart sank. The dying sentry wasn’t speaking to him. He was speaking to the attacker, whoever it was. Immediately every single armed person in the room started sweating.
The guard guarding Alia pulled out his gun as well. Instead of watching the girl on the bed. Whoever was outside the door, they were much more menacing than a young mutant tied to a bed.
He was wrong...
Paul put a bullet into the sentry on the ground before walking to the locked door. The door was sealed and, likely, an army was on the other side, but he wouldn’t let that stop him. Taking out a charger, he was about to put it on the door when he suddenly heard a wave of horrified screams from the other side of the door.
The next thing he knew, the sealed door was pushed outwards and slammed into him. The metal was hot. Really hot. He found that out when his clothes started to catch fire as soon as it made contact with the door. His skin was immediately burnt.
Pushing the door aside and putting out the fire, Paul charged into the room as fast as he could manage.
What he saw was...hell.