The Battle of the Blockade (3/3)

[DAY 16]

Neo, in his disguise, followed the cultist who spoke to him into the conference room which is relatively large and is well lit with torches. In the room was a large circular table with a few chairs. The room otherwise had large windows on one side which were closed by shutters. On the table were some maps and papers on which tactics and maneuvers were written.

The conference seems to be about to begin as Neo and the other cultist enter the room. Almost all the seats in the room were occupied, except for two. The cultists in the room almost all wore black masks and some wore robes, but there were also those wearing military uniforms, instead.

Then there was a man sitting further back in the room with three other people. The man was not wearing a mask, instead his entire face was covered with various symbols and drawings. What was even more special was that the man wore armor that Neo had never seen before. It basically covered his entire body except for his neck and head. The armor doesn't look like one which is meant for fighting, especially as it appears immobile. The man wearing them was about 180 cm tall. (5 feet 9).

Around him stood two women and a man, all about 200 cm (6 feet 5) tall. They all wore combat armor that Neo, once again, doesn't know. Overall, Neo found them strange and was interested on who they were.

There were also a few other guards in the room standing against the walls with weapons in hand.

Everyone in the room watched a 3D projection fly over the table. It showed a map of the Survivor Camp and some maneuvers on it. No one responded to Neo or the other cultist who just walked in and sat down quietly.

Then the picture suddenly changed.

"Praise the advent of the Savior!!!" shouted all the cultists and then came the projection of a person with a mask. The mask was silver and the typical symbol of the cult on it.

"MY BROTHERS. THE TIME HAS COME" said the person in the projection who is probably the preacher.

"We will finally destroy the heretics who are still a thorn in our world, today! The old earth is no more, we will separate ourselves from the burden and the world of the past and look together to a future in which our Savior will exalt us. A time when we are being ushered from this world to the next and even death CANNOT STOP us from the transition" yelled the preacher, his fist in the air.

"We will create our ultimate weapon with our blood and theirs and invoke a new era of destruction."

"But my brothers, enough of the speech, let's now come to the exact procedure. Our bishop, who was sent to us by one of our Supreme Saints, designed the plan together with me and I demand absolute obedience in its implementation." said the preacher.

Afterwards followed some military procedures and tactics on what happens when we meet resistance. To be honest, Neo didn't really care about the speech. Rather, Neo was interested in the four unknown persons in armor who have remained silent until now.

Neo suspects that these must be the contacts from where the cultists got their equipment. He wonders if these are government officials from Mars or the Moon. No matter who they are, they are not of Earth's origin, their armor, weapons, and physical characteristics are not typical of Earth humans.

'Maybe they're not even from the *Sol* system? But what interest do such individuals have in coming to earth? What are their connections to the cult or maybe they are here because of the virus? Is it that special in the Galaxy?' Neo thought to himself as he listened to the preacher's speech.

...

After the conference ended, the four people with the strange armor were nowhere to be seen. All the cultists went to their respective positions, as during the conference the period in which the attack would take place was announced.

In exactly 40 minutes all troops should be ready for action and not a second longer. There would be radio silence for so long. The Preacher's attack will be resolved in exactly 50 minutes.

Our raid should then follow 20 minutes after the attack started.

The person Neo currently embodies has been given control of 6 vehicles, 4 armored personnel carriers and 2 vehicles each with a 50 caliber heavy rifle charged. He has also been warned that the survivors of *Camp Luma*, that is the name of the Survivor Camp, use GB1 combat suits and also have some heavy weapons. The exact number of fighters would be between 10,000 thousand and they could be recognized by a blue ribbon around their arm.

The mission remains the same: destroy or capture the mortars and then we join the main army. The enemy also has armored police vehicles and some surveillance drones.

...

The other masked cultists all got to there post as quick as possible. However Neo didn't go to his position, but went into another room that was near the conference room.

The Armory.

When Neo entered he saw cultists with white masks running around everywhere, when they saaw Neo all stoped doing anything and made room for Neo. One of them came up to Neo and spoke to him.

"Praise the advent of the Savior, senior brother, how can I help you?" he asks.

"My brother, why else would I come here if not to get my gear and something for my men." Neo replied with a slight smile.

"Oh ... but of course brother ... usually ... eh well what does senior brother need?" asked the cultist.

"mmmh... how about some explosives, ammo and some guns." said Neo.

"Explosives? ... eh yes but of course, I just need confirmation from first senior brother, I will send someone to ask him" said the man.

"HAHAH... you're kidding, aren't you, I have to go to my position and in order to fulfill my duties I need what I requested! NOW!" screamed Neo.

"AHH...Senior brother we...we can't do that. We need confirmation from first senior brother before we can give anything from the Armory directly." said the man

Neo didn't say anything more and just smiled.

There were about 6 cultists in the armory at the time and they all stood in front of Neo and didn't dare to make a noise. Neo then focused on the air around him and attempted something he had never attempted before. He pushed the air out of the entire room so there was no oxygen in the room.

It was relatively easy at first and the first cultists began to have trouble breathing, but over time it became more and more difficult for Neo to concentrate.

But after 2 minutes, most of the cultists fainted, they tried to get out of the room at the end, but the lack of air restricted their bodily functions.

Neo, who lost concentration at the end, looked down at the unconscious cultists for a moment.

'I still have a hard time concentrating on so many atoms for a long time, it's like trying to see the entire sky at the same time, Sigh ... Emily we need to work on multitasking and imagination in the future, otherwise I just can't use my potential to the full .' Neo said to Emily.

Emily can't talk to Neo in every situation, but Neo hasn't forgotten that now Emily possesses a consciousness, so in his mind he often addresses Emily, although Emily can't answer him verbally, she can send him messages via a projection in front of his eyes, which Emily doesn't really like, because she finds it too impersonal than actually talking.

...

After the cultists lay unconscious on the ground, he decided to kill them all. That should buy him sometime before he gets exposed. And in the best case, it's already too late than.

Neo then made his way to some crates, in them he found explosives, enough to blow up the bridge twice. He packed the explosives in a duffel bag and looked for ammunition. He found various types of ammunition and took incendiary ammunition for his gun with about 200 rounds and 400 normal ammunition. There was more in the Armory, but Neo decided to go for it, especially as time is running out. But when Neo found a small device on one of the bags, he couldn't control himself and took the device with him.

However, he didn't leave without leaving a gift for the cultists who would come in later.

Neo, who was running around with a dufle bag over his shoulders, made his way to the buses and planted explosive devices in various places, then he made his way to some vehicles and stabbed the tires of them.

He also killed two mechanics there who spotted him, but no major problems arose. He left a small gift there as well and made his way to the first building he was in.

In the building was the communications center, there he placed the small device that Neo had previously found in the armory and went to the last place.

Neo then headed to the bridge and began his preparations after quietly killing 5 cultists under the bridge. It turned out that the five had found two young children here and during the time they were in the blockade they both had completely blank eyes and looked malnourished.

Neo decided to kill the two with a headshot and then went to work.

...

A question, how easy do you think it is to destroy a bridge with explosives. The answer is, very difficult.

If you don't place the explosive device in the right places, the explosion could damage the bridge, but the bridge would still be intact.

Properly demolishing a bridge requires knowledge of the bridge, its stable and unstable areas, and consideration of which areas are most likely to trigger a chain reaction that will result in the bridge's destruction.

The only problem is that Neo has no idea about such things. So he came up with another idea that might be crazy enough to work.

He placed the explosives in places where he thinks if he destroys those areas of the bridge it will become unbalanced and the bridge will collapse. Neo memorized the locations in his head and then snuck out of the blockade.

Afterwards, Neo walked to a familiar building. On the 3rd floor of the building were two members of Neo's group, along with his sword.

At first the others didn't recognize Neo as he slowly walked towards them from afar, but after he removed his mask, everyone put down their weapons and sighed.

"Sigh...Mr Neo, did everything go well? Did you get everything done?" Meram asked when he saw Neo.

Neo just nodded with a smile and threw his robe away. After that he took his sword and put it on his back.

"I took care of everything Emily how many minutes do we have?" said Neo

"Exactly 3 minutes, host," Emily replies in her robotic voice.

"Well, I hope you got what I wanted Meram?" Neo asked skeptically.

"Hmph... We've got the car, you think we're such idiots that we can't even find a car?" said Ninette suddenly.

Neo asked the others not to do nothing when they parted. He wanted three things from them. An emergency car big enough for everyone. Gas and they should fetch the children and the pregnant woman from the apartment, as they would not be able to come back once they are over the bridge.

"And gasoline, how about that?" asked Neo.

"We got everything done, Donatien and Elly are downstairs with the others at the car, it's a jeep with just enough room for everyone." replied Meram, Neo.

"Well then let's go down to the jeep...we don't want to miss the fireworks, or?...haahahahahha" Neo said with a malicious laugh.

...

*** POV: Meram, Elly, Ninette, Donatien

After Neo set out to infiltrate the cultists' blockade, the others went about their business.

They would all go back together and get the children and the pregnant woman. On there way they had to fight a couple of undead and even an stage 1, bur it wasen't that difficult. Soon they reached the building where they left the others.

At first, The children and the pregnant woman were all confused when the group came back so soon. But when they didn't see Neo with them, they thought the worst and that they had to flee from the cult.

But when the others told him about Neo's new plan, they were a little calmer. But Meram interrupted that feeling with a question.

"Do you think we can trust Neo?" asked Meram to the others.

The first to answer was Ninette.

"Pah...trust, I've never had a stronger feeling from anyone that I can't trust them like Neo. I mean his origins are just too mysterious and too suspicious. I mean a human fighting this monster from last time ? (Stage 2). Someone who just pulls so many supplies out of the air or someone who just carries a backpack full of guns. No, I clearly don't trust him!

Also, you didn't notice that the undead didn't attack us when we were out with him. How can such a thing be? No human can create such a thing... so..."

"So how can Neo?" Donatien asked for her.

"I don't know either, Neo is just too mysterious at first I thought he was lying to us and just wanted to sell us to the cult. Later I assumed that he wanted to go to the survivor camp and needed us because we know the leader there. But now I can't see through him anymore." said Meram.

Suddenly someone spoke that nobody expected. The little girl Pem suddenly said something in a low voice.

"Um...I have something to say too. As we were all getting ready in the café upstairs, I was briefly on the stairs and saw Neo downstairs. If you remember Neo at the beginning when he came into the café he had two bags with him. One filled with guns which he gave us all but he never showed us the second one... but I saw what was in the second one the moment he opened it briefly and then closed it again... there were Brains... and Neo... he looked at them like... like he wanted to eat them. Like I look at chocolate candy!" said Pem.

Silence.

...

Nobody knew how to react to that. Neo a cannibal? What? How can that be? Is he also a cultist and was he tricking them all along?

All of a sudden their faces were very pale.

"Maybe... Maybe he's not human?... Maybe he's one... one of them, that's why they didn't attack him, then he wants to tell us..." Meram said with sweat on his forehead. but before he could finish his sentence, Elly suddenly cried out.

"NO! THAT CANNOT BE TRUE! Neo, Neo can't, he can't be one of them! Then why should he be able to talk and speak? He's clearly human! Why else would he have helped us? There has to be an explanation for that Maybe Pem made a mistake and there's a logical reason for all of this. If we ask Neo then..."

"No way we're not going back, he's a monster just like the one in the apartment! Even if he saved us from it, he'll only eat us in the end! We have to get out of here and..." Ninette said she was interrupted by Meram.

"And what? Where should we go, Ninette, the world isn't the same anymore. We want to go home, but who tells us that our village still exists? The Survivor Camp is our best opportunity for this city and all the people, we can only survive and help our village with the help of the camp. And to get there we need Neo! I'm sure he wants to go there for whatever reason and only with his power can we go back to the camp." said Meram to everyone.

"But we... we could still try it on our own, we could do it without the monster" Ninette tried to contradict.

"Alone? Ninette I think if we try to get to camp alone the only thing we can expect is a quick death out there." said Meram.

"We'll look for a car with gas and go back to Neo, but we won't tell him anything about our suspicions for now, in the meantime we'll try to get to the camp and after that we can always question him, but not alone, but with the help of all the survivors there and their weapons that will be aimed at the monster if he turns out to be one." said Meram

"We have to agree to the pact with the devil for now" Meram said at the end and they decided to look for a car and they found a fully fueled jeep on the street across the road which is not broken yet.

Only the glass is gone on the driver's side and some undead have been around the jeep.

After getting rid of all the undead, everyone got into the jeep with the remaining supplies and they then headed towards the meeting point with Neo.

When they got to the meeting point, they decided to leave Donatien, who is making a long face, in the car along with Elly, who is looking down with her head on the ground.

Only Ninette and Meram went into the house and waited for Neo's return.

*** Back to Neo

Neo, who just got his broadsword back, realized something was wrong with it, it feeled agitated.

"Did you miss me my little one?" Neo said as he took in the seeming emotion of the sword as he held it in his hand. Then he grabbed it on his back and went with the others to the car.

For some reason Elly seemed to be asleep and not responding to anyone but everyone else seems fine, well all except the kids who seem somehow even more scared. Well, what kid wouldn't be scared about what we are going about to do.

Neo got in the car with everyone else and drove towards the blockade.

"Elly how long do we have?" asked Neo

"1 minute" Elly replied.

...

The cultists are getting ready to leave, the attack of the main army has already begun and they have to leave in five minutes.

But when 20 cultists wanted to load everything in the armory into a truck, as they opened the door...

"BOOOOOOM!!!!!"

The entire armory with all supplies and the 20 cultists went up in flames in a few seconds. However, more than 20 died in the explosion because the explosion was so strong that the rooms below and to the right were also softened. In the end, the explosion resulted in a total of 82 deaths.

All the cultists saw the explosion in the building and then it started to burn. Everyone immediately thought they were being attacked, they have felt the mortars from *Camp Luma* before and know how cruel the attacks can be. Some even panic and shot around, injuring some of their own people. Three cultists died because of that.

The senior brothers prepared for the worst, they wanted to get the vehicles ready to use in a fight. But when they got to the vehicles, they noticed that they all had punctured tires. In addition, the tanks were all open and petrol was all over the floor.

Before the cultists could react, it was too late.

"BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM

"BOOM"

"BOOOOOOM"

"BOOM

"BOOM"

"BOOOOOOM"

several explosions blew up everyone in the workshop. More than 124 cultists died and 23 vehicles burned.

The cultists then decided to send out a signal via the communications center, but then things turned out differently.

They couldn't establish a signal with the others, no matter what they tried, nothing worked. The head of communications then explained that an interfering transmitter must be responsible for this, in the vicinity of about 300 meters.

When they tried to find the jammer. Something happened outside again.

...

On the horizon, the cultists on the buses and everyone outside suddenly saw a jeep driving towards them. The jeep just drove towards them at full speed. To the cultists it looked as if the driver wanted to commit suicide.

But they lost that thought when suddenly a third explosion happened.

"boom"

"boom"

"boom"

"boom"

Before they could realize it, the cultists were suddenly high in air, and the next instant they were being roasted by the fire.

One of the buses blew up and opened the blockade. Another bus fell on the burning house and crushed many cultists. A total of 226 cultists died in both explosions and more than 300 were injured.

But it didn't stop there, the jeep drove straight through the now open blockade. Some cultists shot at the jeep, but when they did, they first realized what came behind the jeep.

A horde of undead ran into the destroyed blockade and after a while undead were everywhere on the scene. The cultists had no chance to counterattack. They were disorganized, panicked and now the undead were there too. Over time, no one shot at the jeep anymore, which meanwhile stood briefly on the bridge and then slowly drove toward the other side...

"BOOOOM"

"BOOOOM"

"BOOOOM"

"BOOOOM"

The bridge the jeep was driving over suddenly exploded behind them and the bridge collapsed. Another 65 cultists died. But the jeep made it to the other side and then drove on

"Mhm... How many cultists do you think I killed today? Another high score? HAHAHAAHAHHAHA" Neo laughed loudly as he drove the jeep towards Camp Luma.