The Battle of the Blockade (2/3)
[DAY 16]
On a certain bridge on a slightly foggy night. There are two men, both wearing black masks that has a circle on it, one of them also weared black rope. Both of them are in a building right next to a bridge. They are in a dark room where the only light source are the flames of the candles on the table in front of them. They are both looking at a large map of the city.
"It should be here." said one of the men whose voice sounds young while pointing at a certain area on then map.
"This is where there supplies should be located. It's the perfect place to hide them, the police would never leave their supplies where the civilians would be! Otherwise, they would be more than scared that the survivors would just use up all the supplies." said the masked man with the young voice.
"My brother, I suggest that we move our troops tonight under ther cover of darkness and attack this location. I had enough I can't stand to wait any time longer." said the masked man with the young voice firmly.
"We will takeover the location around this house and position ourselves on the road, very close to the supplies. Then, when the main attack led by our supreme brother begins, we will hit them twice. We will take advantage of the attack and destroy their food supplies and we takeover their mortars which have cost us so many dead brothers against them, at the battle a couple of days ago. They will die by their own weapons." said the man with the young voice and then added.
"It's like, attacking the bear's cubs while it fights our supreme tiger. Then we raise the bear cubs to our weapons and let it kill the bear with it!" said the man with the young voice firmly.
"Mhm... brother, that is not our mission. What if they strengthened their positions there, then we would walk right into a trap and not be able to successfully complete our real mission that was given to us from the supreme brother. Tell me little brother, what is our real mission again? " said the othe man who also wears the ropes, wiht an old voice.
"Brother please don't test me anymore. I earned my rank as I increase it in battle. 100 sacrifices were made as it's written. I'm a black blood and rightly so, you just don't accept me because I only experienced enlightenment after the big Eruption took place and not like you who were in the cult before." said the man in his defense.
"Just tell me our mission again my brother, or have you forgotten it?" repeated the man with the old voice.
"Sigh ... Brother our mission is to set a ambush for the heretics of the camp while our brothers led by the Supreme will attack the heretics frontal. We will stab them in the back and destroy their best weapon, the mortars," the man replied in a young voice reluctantly.
While both men were talking to each other, another man with a black mask entered the room. He wears a dark robe, the same as Neo has seen before. He also carries a rifle with his two arms and the weapon is equuiped with ... a silencer on it's muzzle.
"Praise the advent of the Savior! How is the effort going, my brothers?" asked the man who has just entered.
"Praise the advent of the Savior, my brother, our preparations are almost complete, our youngest brother here just had a few miscalculations that needed correcting." said the man in a slightly old voice.
The man with the young voice looked down and said nothing more.
"That sounds good my brothers. When do we leave then?" the man that has entered for a couple of minutes asked.
"My brother, we are just awaiting the latest information from the supreme brother as to when the attack will begin, the information should be transmitted to our communications post anytime soon." said the man with the old voice.
"Ah ... well then that should be all, thanks" said the man with the rifle and suddenly aimed at the man who he was talking toward before.
"bang"
"bang"
"bang"
"bang"
The man in the robe with the rifle shot both men and then removed his mask. Below it was none other than Neo's face with a smile.
...
*** What happened a few minutes ago
In the end, Neo decided to change the plan. Killing all the cultists, some of whom are heavily armed, with the few people they have would be suicidal.
In the end he decided to go through with the infiltration plan, he left his sword by the group and only took his new rifle with him. He asid to them, if they doesn't here from him after the sunrise, then they should go back to the children and stay there.
Afterwards Neo made his way towards the blockade. Under the cover of night, Neo was able to sneak past the guards on the buses with his fast speed and after sneaking inside the blockade and acoiding a couple of guards he saw one man with a black mask and robe. He decided to pursue him since the man would be the perfect candidate to disguise himself.
Neo pursue the man as he entered one of the buildings next t othe bridge. He was lucky the security in the building inside was very low, they probably assume that the guards outside are sufficient and therefore this misassumption gave Neo a opportunity to sneak inside the building.
Neo followed the man until he went into a toilet. Neo went into the bathroom with him and killed the man there without soiling his clothes. After that he changed his clothes and observed the actions of the cultists.
...
After sometime oberserving, Neo was sure that his assumption that there are more cultists in the building next to the bridge are correct. The building appears to have been a bank and in the reception hall about 1000 cultists slept peacefully on the floor. Everyone probably tries to sleep as much as possible in a safe environment.
Who knows if they'll ever get a chance like that to sleep well again?
Neo was also right with his theory that the colors of the masks symbolize different ranks, because nobody dared to speak to him and if they did, they would only say one sentence.
"Praise the advent of the Savior," seems to be their usual "Hello" among them. In addition, the cultists call each other "brothers" and those with black masks "senior brothers", they embody a higher rank and every cultist who has performed 100 sacrifices is made a senior brother. Neo also found out why they sacrifice people the way they cut off their arms and legs and why they torture them until they finally die.
They want to demonstrate their own powerlessness, like the victims, they have no arms and no legs, they are powerless in this world of the apocalypse. In order for their message to be heard by their Savior, he has to hear the suffering and misery on earth from the heavens, which is why they torture people until they die.
'Incredible, I can't believe that such an ideology could emerge from our more developed society. Well, I've never understood why people are so interested in a religion at the beginning, of course it can serve as a means of conception, a conception that gives comfort and peace.
But humans are complex beings with complex feelings. In times when everything seems to have gone mad, it is the perfect breeding ground for chaotic and destructive ideologies, such as that of the cult. I mean most of the people who belong to the cult were normal people who come from the slums south of the city, their life was never really good. They had to endure hunger and bad hygiene and then the apocalypse with the undead came.' thought Neo.
'It is not at all incomprehensible that despite all the desperation people want to believe in a higher power that can save them. In my view, however, religion is only good for two things, as a distraction and as a control measure.' Neo explained in his mind.
'A government whose people think and act with religious zeal is usually a sacrificial civilization, the people are ready to die because they imagine that after their existence continue to exist. They are willing to suffer in life because they believe they will exist in a better world after death.' Neo added to his thoughts.
'For me, that's just madness. Suppressing the here and now for an fantasy. Sacrificing for others just so you can feed your imagination. The notion that one can justify all one's actions by doing them in the name of religion, mass murder, sacrifice and cannibalism...
Disgusting.' thought Neo
'Well, it's ironic when it comes from me. I mean I kill, torture and eat people myself, but I and these cultists couldn't be more different. They fight for a vision, a hope and a fantasy. They create the world that they dream about. But I, on the other hand, kill so that I can survive, anyone who attacks me or who stands in my way, no matter who, will be fought by me. I eat just like other humans because I want to survive, even though undead don't die if they don't eat, they still get weaker over time and my strength is what keeps me alive. Therefore I live in the reality.' Neo explained in his mind.
...
While Neo is thinking about all this, after a while he reaches a certain room in which he sees two men. He overheard a conversation from outside where two senior brothers were talking to each other about plans to raid Survivor camp.
Neo, needing more information, decided to enter the room and talk to the two. They don't seem to have suspected him after speaking a few words. But Neo can't be sure enough, so he decided to just kill them both.
After that was done, he hid the bodies around the room in a closet that was there. Afterwards he put the mask on again and kept walking around again.
...
Neo now has the following plan. The cultist want to cross the bridge over the lake to invade the Survivor Camp from behind and destroy the camp's mortars in particular.
The question is, how can Neo prevent this?
Simple, he's going to blow up the bridge. The supreme brother or preacher ... doesn't matter what his name is. He will attack in any case and he will expect that his secret ambush on the camp will succeed. if he hears no report about problems occurring.
He will go into battle with about 2/3 of his men. Although he expects the other 1/3 who are here to successfully complete the secret ambush and join the attack afterwards. But that won't happen. Especially since his troops won't be able to get across the lake if the bridge is blown up, at all.
Then the troops of the cultists should be weakened for now. The camp then only has to win the actual attack against the cult and that would be the end of the conflict. The Preacher will certainly have a few aces up his sleeve when it comes to fighting, but with the superiority in numbers, the camp should likely win.
If Neo can, he would avoid the fight between the two sides from the beginning. But he has to look for his mother, she might be there and to be sure he just has to check it. He really doesn't care what else happens to the survivor.
Whether they live or die is not in his power, everyone must use their own strength to survive in this world. Neo is convinced of that. Including his mother, so if she's still alive, Neo has to teach her to survive in this world on her own.
After pondering, Neo brought his thoughts back to the current tasks and goals that are ahead of him.
The cult seems to have a way of communicating with each other, Neo has to disable the communication in the blockade so the cultists here can't warn the preacher.
Otherwise what would be the point of Neo blowing up the bridge?
Neo would then not be able to lure the preacher into a trap of his own and the cult would likely become even more annoying for Neo in the future.
After destroying the communications center in the blockade, he has to go to the armory and get some explosives there. Neo observed while walking, that the cultists have some heavy weapons. Rocket launchers, grenade launchers, military equipment and explosives. They also carry an incredible amount of ammo.
'Where did the cult get all their gear from? This is military gear, how did the cult get it in the apocalypse? Did they attack the northern outpost? ... No that shouldn't be the case, the outpost should be equipped with mechs and tanks and have more than enough soldiers, weapons and ammunition to disperse. The cultists shouldn't stand a chance against such power.' thought Neo.
'Well, there's still time to think later, now is the time to act...' Neo thought to himself as he was disguised as a cultist and walked in the direction of the other building. 'The communications center and armory should be there.' thought Neo.
But suddenly he was approached by another cultist with a black mask.
"Praise the advent of the Savior, my second brother. Is everything all right? Where have you been? The bishop has been looking for you the whole time." said the cultist to Neo.
"Praise the advent of the Savior, my brother, I just had to do something, come take me to the bishop." replied Neo.
'Bishop?, what bishop?, why haven't I heard from him before?' thought Neo as he accompanied the cultists into the building with the communications center.
...
Neo followed the cultist inside the building upstairs towards a dark room, probably what used to be an office building or something. Candles stood on the tables and cultists with white masks stood at the doors, each holding a torch in their hands.
"My brother, there you are at last. Come in quickly, the conference is being held in which the supreme will explain the his attack plan. Waiting should finally be over and we can eat something again, my brother." said a cultist who talked witgh Neo suddelny. He weares a black robe and mask with the cult symbol on it. But one thing was different. He also wore a GB1 combat armor over his dark cultist robe. It completely covered his chest, arms and neck, only leaving his legs and head exposed.
It should be noted that a GB1 combat armor is normally only worn by police task forces. Usually covering the entire body, the one worn by the cultist is an incomplete one, missing the helmet and leg/foot sections.
A GB1 combat armor can survive from bullets up to 50 caliber and only higher caliber and laser weapons can penetrate it. The armor even survives an entire grenade attack with only a few scratches in its complete condition.
'How much stronger is my armor when compared with the GB series' Neo thought to himself as he only briefly looked at the armor and then entered the conference room together with the cultist.
What will await him inside the conference room?