Camp Luma vs Cult of the One Savior (3/4)
[DAY 16]
The words the demon spoke to John sounded exactly as one would expect. Cold, indifferent and rough.
John started sweating uncontrollably from nervousness and a little anxiety. But after a few seconds, he answered the demon's question.
"First of all, on behalf of my soldiers, their families and myself, I would like to thank your. You saved the lives of many and I owe you a debt of gratitude." John said as he held out his hand towards Neo.
Neo shook his hand but said nothing in return.
John then took off his helmet.
John's armor was also GB1 armor but with an individual design. The normal militar GB1 armor is gray and has some black spots on the helmet. The special forces of the police have, instead of black spots on their helmets, dark blue ones with the police symbol on both sides. However, the police chief of a district wears GB1 armor which has a gold pattern on the chest and helmet. The armor of all types is skin-tight to guarantee high mobility and protection. The design of the helmets is reminiscent of knights The armor has an internal communication system and a night vision function, but nothing else. Only the GB2 have a built-in AI that works similar to Emily. However, the main function of the AI in this case is to help with aiming.
...
When Neo saw John remove his helmet, Neo's head also changed and his demonic helmet shaped into his face. Neo smiled slightly and his eyes glowed with a red/purple light. His face was pale and looked kind of unhealthy, but had is own appeal.
As the soldiers and civilians saw the demonic helmet transform into a human one, their mouths hung wide open. Some with weak stomachs vomited at this gory and eerie scene. Neo's armor was not something he just wore, it was his skin which changed its physical properties to suit the armor. Each time Neo crafts his armor, his entire body is reshaped into the demonic dark armor.
Neo didn't pay any attention to the people around him and just looked at John standing in front of him.
John is a male in his 60's but still looks to be in his mid 40's. He was approximately 186 cm (6 ft 1) tall with black/grey hair and has a short beard on his face. He has blue eyes which looked directly at Neo without batting an eyelid.
He was still the leader of the camp and to all of their survivors he must not appear weak even in front of a demon.
...
"My name is John Raita. I am pleased to make your acquaintance Mr?" greeted John in a normal tone.
"Just call me Neo. I'm not here to chat with you. I'm here to destroy the cultists here and now. I'll offer you an strategy for that. An strategy that will bring you victory if you're ready to make a deal with me. So what do you say? Are you interested?" asked Neo with a smile.
John thought about Neo's words for a moment.
"First I would need to know why you want to destroy the cult and what you want in return. If it is in my power, I will agree." said John after a few seconds.
Everyone who heard what John said was a bit shocked. Everyone except the soldiers. The soldiers saw with their own eyes how the demon called Neo runed back and forth from every part of the battlefield, performing miracle after miracle. The cultist tank floating behind Neo is the perfect example of this.
Although they were afraid of Neo, they were primarily grateful that Neo would fight with them. Who wouldn't be happy to have a demon so incredibly powerful fight on their side?
John, watching the faces of his soldiers, felt a little worried in his heart.
'My own men are starting to see the demon in a better light... I need to get rid of that demon after the whole cult thing is done.' thought John in his heart. When Neo was still thinking about his answer.
"I'll tell you what I want and also why I'm fighting against them. Privately," Neo said as he looked at the building in front of him.
John just nodded and they both disappeared into the building with a couple of police officers in GB1 battle armor.
...
***POV: Meram, Ninette, Donatien and Elly
After Neo jumped into the battlefield, the group froze at the sight.
Meram was the first to come out of the rigid state.
"Guys, we have to hurry. Our people need help. We'll do it like Neo said, we'll help our troops and attack that buildings over there." Meram said as he drew the other pistol and checked his gear.
Suddenly Elly fell to the ground and started crying.
"No... how should I... why? why? why?..." Elly said quietly while crying and looking at the floor.
"Elly what happened to you?" asked the pregnant woman when she saw Elly.
The pregnant woman has gotten to know Elly very well in the past few days. While she doesn't know about Elly's background, she does know that without Elly's help, she would have been dead long ago. They became friends in the apocalypse and she has never seen Elly like this. She tried to talk to Elly, but when Elly didn't answer, she decided to shake Elly a little.
Elly didn't like that at all and slapped the pregnant woman away and crawled on the floor to a corner on the roof.
"What's wrong with her? Has she lost her mind?" asked Ninette.
"I think the last few minutes have been hard for everyone, so don't say that about Elly. I suggest we leave her with the kids." Donatien said as he looked at Elly and then at Ninette.
"Hmph, hard? What's so hard about it, Neo is a monster. A monster we must kill, no matter how nice he seems. Monsters are monsters," Ninette said as she shouldered her sniper rifle and then walked towards the stairs.
"Alright, we'll talk about all this later, now we have a job to do. Get ready our enemies will not only be the cultists but also the undead and probably some mutated ones will be among them." said Meram as he also headed down the stairs.
"Don't worry, when we've cleaned the building we'll come back and take you to the camp." said Donatien as he looked at the children.
"Uncle Donatien take care and come back quickly." said Mera.
"And if Uncle finds something sweet, bring us something too." said Mara.
Donatien just nodded with a smile on his lips and finally went to the stairs.
...
The group slowly crossed the street and crept towards a building. They killed some Undead on the way but nothing too difficult. As they got closer to the building they could hear some gunshots coming from it.
When they looked through the window on the first floor. They then found two mutant undead dodging bullets fired by eight cultists at high speed.
If Neo were here he would know that they are stage 1 undead of type: *Agility*. The same one that bit him and made him undead.
The cultists shot at the undead with rifles, while the Undead on the onther hand hung and dodged the bullets by climbing the walls and ceiling and getting faster and faster in the direction of the cultists.
The three decided to wait for the undead to kill the cultists, then take the chance when the undead eat the cultist and then kill them.
After a couple of minutes the expected happened. The undead overran the cultists and all were killed by the undead's claws.
The group then decided to climb into the building through an open window. Once inside, they sneaked over to the undead who were eating their prey.
"bang"
"bang"
The mutated undead then died with two shots in the head.
The group then decided to go further up. They spotted some normal undead there and quietly killed them.
Not that it really matters. The sound of explosions and gunfire was everywhere anyway. Nevertheless, the three decided to go ahead quietly, especially since they don't know what the situation inside the building looks like.
They found a few small groups of cultists here and there and killed them without much trouble.
However that cahnged, when Meram opened the door to a room on the last floor, there were about 20 cultists behind and 8 soldiers with blue ribbons on their knees, with shackles on their arms and legs.
A naked woman was lying on the floor, her right arm missing. She appears to be unconscious and is bleeding from her severed arm.
She looked very peaceful even though she was slowly bleeding to death, as if she knew that when she died her torment and pain would end.
Standing over her was a cultist covered in blood, holding a saw in one hand and the woman's arm in the other.
The cultist then took the arm to one of the male soldiers and presented it to him and then bit off a large chunk of the arm. Blood spattered everywhere as he bit his arm and even landed on the soldier's pale face.
A few of the cultists started laughing while most were at the windows firing at the enemies on the battlefield.
...
The group of three couldn't watch any longer. Donatien walked into the room with his shield in one hand and Heavy machine gun with the other and shot with it at the cultists by the windows.
Immediately 6 cultists died. However 5 were able to react to the shots in time and dodged.
Ninette, who was further at back, then shot three of the cultists standing behind the camp's soldiers.
The cultists couldn't dodge fast enough and all died from a bullet through the head.
At that time Meram suddenly leaped into the air over Donatien and shot four of the cultists who fell to the ground one after the other, all with bullet holes in their chests and heads. Including the man holding the woman's arm.
The cultists then responded to the attack. Two of the cultists fired at Donatien's shield. The shots ricocheted off but left dents and Donatien was shoved slightly backwards. But he could still hold the shield up.
Three of the cultists decided to shoot Ninette. But Ninette hid behind Donatien's shield in time and was able to avoid certain death.
The remaining two cultis tried to shot at Meram. However Meram shot both of them in the head before they could react and then threw away his two pistols and put his hand on his katana that hung around his waist.
"Slah"
"Slah"
"Slah"
With three well-aimed slashes, he slit the throats of three cultists, then leapt backwards.
Ninette then shot the other two with her gun.
Now, all the cultists in the room were dead. The captured soldiers of the camp could not believe their eyes at first, and after a few secounds light returned to their eyes. Well, all of them except one who was looking at the woman on the floor.
...
"Thank you. Thank you, I can't thank you enough for saving us. You guys are heroes! and how quickly you killed those scum is just terrific," said one of the camp's freed soldiers.
"If only we had been a little earlier then..." Meram said as he looked at the corpse of the woman on the floor.
A man sat by the corpse with a blank stare. He placed the arm that the cultist severed on the woman's stub and held her hand. He looked at the woman's face and smiled slightly when he saw the woman's smile. Otherwise he was just silent.
"That was his wife," said one of the soldiers who was freed as he was reloading his gun.
"She was raped by the bastards in front of us and then they did that to her. Apparently, she has been a kindergarten teacher before all of this madness." said the man whispering towards Meram.
Meanwhile the shots outside stopped and when they looked out the windows they saw that the cult was retreating. Camp Luma probably won the first fight.
The group decided to pick up the children and then go to the camp. All but one. The freed soldier stayed with his wife, holding his wife in one hand and a pistol in the other.
Nobody said anything, although all of them knew what the man would do if they left. It wasn't that they didn't want to help the man. They just didn't know how.
How do you help someone like him who has lost everthing in life? The worst thing you can lose as a human being is not your own arm or leg, but the will to live on.
As the group left the room and went through the door, only a noise could be heard.
"BANG!"
...
Afterwards the group returned as promised and picked up the children and Elly on the roof and headed to Camp Luma.
When they first entered the camp, they saw a lot of injured people. Many teenagers, who most should even be call children, were badly injured and would not survive much longer without medication. But in the apocalypse, when even food and drink are in short supply, medicines are luxuries that cannot be spared. Therefore, the injured were only bandaged and given something more to eat.
Of course, that didn't help and in the end most of the wounded died from their injuries. Everywhere weeping and sobbing could be heard from the families who will never see their children again.
Morale in general was miserable. People were desperate and incredibly scared. Most hadn't had water for a day and their bellies are growling every day because the rations are simply not enough.
They were dissatisfied with the management of the camp. Yes, they were safe from the undead here in the camp, but what's the point if they end up dying of thirst and hunger anyway?
Seeing the condition of the people here, Neo's group couldn't help but wonder if Neo's leadership was really that bad. He protected them, gave them enough to eat and drink, and even gave them weapons to defend themselves. What did they give Neo in return? They gave him ingratitude, criticism, and called him a monster.
He even went on missions alone so as not to harm anyone else. Yes, ok he was always a bit strange and they also didn't really know why Neo had the brains in his pocket. They began to think that they might have misjudged Neo.
Humans are not just evil or kind, just like there are no heroes and devils. In the end there are only people who have dreams and people who care about them. All with their own backgrounds and circumstances that influence their thinking and actions.
Neo's group didn't know if it wasn't too late to apologize. They have already blamed him for all this and cannot undo their actions anymore.
...
While the group was in their own thoughts, contemplating all of this, a soldier wearing GB1 armor approached the group.
"Hello, are you the group that accompanied the demon Neo towards our camp?" asked the soldier.
The group hesitated briefly and Meram then spoke.
"Yes we are the group you are looking for. How can we help you." asked Meram.
"The commander asked me to look for you, he and the demon Neo are currently at headquarters waiting for you." says the soldier as he turned and walked in the direction of a large school that was in front of him.
"This way. The building is the headquarters." said the soldier while walking on.
The groups decided to follow the soldier and in the end they entered the school.
...
There were soldiers everywhere in the school, some in GB1 armor and some in police gear.
The group ended up entering a large conference room. Inside Neo sat opposite the commander who is none other than John. Between them was a table which separated them from each other.
In the room were four other soldiers at John's side.
When John saw Meram, Ninette and Donatien his eyes widened.
"What a small town it is that we meet again, my saviours." John said looking at the three with a smile.
The other group members also looked at the three and wondered about their relationship with the commander.
...
***Back to Neo
Neo who walked into the school with John and some others and then into the conference room sat across from each other.
Neo talked about what the cultists were up to at the bridge and he told them about the blockade and that every survivor who wanted to go there towards Camp Luma died in the end. He told John how he destroyed the blockade and the bridge, essentially saving Camp Luma from destruction.
To witness his story, he asked John to find his group. If they survived, they should have arrived at the camp by now.
And indeed, after about 30 minutes of silence, the door opened and the group came into the room.
Neo knew that Meram and the others already knew John. But, little did he know that The Group had saved him.
After John tells the group why they were called. They confirmed Neo's story and also explained to John how they were saved by him.
When they then talked about what had happened to them for about 20 minutes, Neo spoke again and everyone in the room was silent.
"So? Do we have a deal now?" asked Neo.
"If I understood you correctly, we should look for a woman named Annika and a man named Etienne Trop. You also want some supplies and some ammunition. That's all?" asked John.
"Yes. That's all I want, after that I'll get out of here with both of them and will not return." said Neo coldly.
"Well then you have your deal, you will get everything if you tell us your plan and defeat the cultists in the coming battle." said John.
"Yes, I agree" Neo said.
...
"So now to my strategy... First a question. How much are you willing to sacrifice to defeat the cultists?" asked Neo with a malicious smile on his face.