Chapter 4 - Flashes during the Veil

Vincent stood frozen like a statue, his ears ringing from Zack's relentless begging.

'I guess my neck mate isn't so bad, after all?'

A dull ache suddenly spread across his nape. His eyes twitched as the pain crept up to his temples.

Knock-knock!

The pain, the twitching, and the brief flicker of brightness in the shadows vanished at the sound. The knock anchored him back to the present, and he turned toward the visitor.

It was Dan.

"Hey, you're in luck! Kazuki's team is coming back tomorrow, and Aisha said they should have a cleaner with them."

Rationality settled in too quickly.

Vincent suppressed the sigh threatening to escape and placed a hand on Zack's head, stopping the boy from bouncing in place.

"Alright, thanks. Where are we sleeping?"

"Don't worry, I'll pick you up later!"

With that, Dan left.

"Cleaner? Brother Cents, you had a parasite?!"

Zack's previously dulling eyes lit up again, shining with excitement. The look he gave Vincent made him feel like he was standing on a pedestal.

A weight settled on his shoulders, his throat tightening.

"It's temporary," he said curtly, sharply turning back to the monitor and tapping at the worn-out desk.

"Come here. I'll start teaching you 3D movement."

Zack's confusion disappeared in an instant. He skipped over, eyes glued to the screen, ears twitching in anticipation.

The guilt tasted bitter on Vincent's tongue. But a quick reminder of how his parents died steeled him. He pressed on.

...

Twenty minutes before eight, Dan returned to call him out. It was time to move before true night arrived.

Vincent bid Zack farewell, promising to teach him how to make a character jump tomorrow.

When he stepped outside, R463 had already claimed three quarters of the sky.

"How long is the Veil gonna last tonight?"

They walked past the settlement's perimeter. The faint pathway beneath their feet, worn from repeated use, told Vincent that the siblings weren't done surprising him with the things they'd done during his three months of hibernation.

"Man, when are you going to connect to the system? At least do it so you can track your vitality."

Dan shifted to Vincent's other side, using him as a shield against his sister's incoming slap.

"Veil's lasting for four hours tonight."

"Hey! Don't run away from me! I said give me another eye upgrade!"

"Why do you even need it? That SD eye seems to be working just fine to me."

Angel rolled her eyes, arms crossing as she snorted.

"Not my display. The other good eye. And I want the Apex Scan. I want that sweet 5-kilometer view distance."

Daniel's shoulders sagged. He shook his head.

"And what exactly are you planning to use it for?"

"Spying, of course."

Vincent snickered before his poker face returned.

In the end, Angel couldn't get her brother to budge, no matter how much she threatened to add insane amounts of caffeine to his coffee.

Their destination this time was only a few minutes' walk from the refuge point.

Dan dug his fingers into the ground until he felt the soft dirt next to a hidden hatch. With a grunt, he lifted it, clicking his tongue twice as he proudly revealed a ladder leading into a bunker.

"Check this out. Had an excavator for a month, so I just HAD to make one of these."

He dropped down, ignoring the ladder.

"Come on! We each get a room!"

The entire bunker was bigger than Vincent's apartment.

Though the separate rooms were only a quarter of the size of his, there was a storage room stocked with crates of dried food and some gunpowder-based weapons.

Then, there was his exact PC setup—five monitors showing four different angles of the settlement while the fifth was used for miscellaneous tasks.

Vincent's head ached. He knew just how much blood and sweat he'd poured into his build.

His dulled gaze bore a hole into Dan.

"Don't look at me like that... I asked you last time if I could copy it, so here it is."

"I thought it was for personal use. Had I known it was for surveillance, I could have cut the budget by four times!"

"It's fine! You'll be using it from now on anyway. Maybe I can bait you into coming out of your cave from time to time!"

Dan patted him on the shoulder twice before turning and shutting himself into his room.

He wasn't about to argue with a computer junkie.

The door was nothing but thin plywood. Vincent's intrusive thoughts spiked again, tempting him to just kick it down.

He slumped into his chair.

He didn't need another injury.

The siblings slept like normal humans, but Vincent opened a blue energy drink and mixed it with two shots of espresso. When he didn't feel any change, he added another shot a few minutes later.

He normally stayed awake for at least 28 hours, so he settled in front of the surveillance, keeping watch.

Right as eight o'clock struck, all light from the cameras disappeared. He quickly switched on the night vision, watching as the guards crouched, carefully making their way back to their shacks, guns still in hand.

They didn't use their flashlights, and Vincent didn't blame them. A beam of light in a blanket of pitch darkness was a beacon for any terrors lurking nearby.

He settled into his job. Being a watcher was easy, especially for Vincent, who was content as long as he had a PC for entertainment.

Then the clock hit 11.

The briefest flicker of movement caught his trained eyes.

The third camera had picked up a group of four, moving stealthily from tree to tree.

At first, his brain told him it was Kazuki's team returning.

But recognition drained the blood from his face.

He was a beat late. The other cameras flickered, picking up multiple groups at once.

"Fuck!"

His cursor flew—spotlights on, sirens next.

The alarm blared, shattering the silence, loud enough to reach their bunkers and rouse the two light sleepers.

Both doors burst open.

Daniel's door snapped vertically in his panic.

"Shit, what happened??"

"Enforcers! Five squads, 23 total. Last spotlight just got shot down—Tsk, they have night vision."

"So do we. I'll bring the bag. Wear the headphones—I'll hear you through my goggles."

The siblings moved with practiced efficiency, strapping on bulletproof vests before grabbing their guns and ammo.

Vincent's knuckles turned white as he locked himself in place. The caffeine in his veins lost to the sheer adrenaline surging through him.

'I can't be in their way. I have to be their eyes.'

He shoved the headphones over his ears and leaned in, fingers flying across the controls.

Connections flickered on-screen. He activated the comms.

"Can anyone hear me? Louis, four o'clock, behind the house. Three guys—plasma rifles, standard armor."

Louis froze mid-step, recognizing the voice in the earpiece Dan had given them. The enemies were right around the corner.

Wordlessly, he pulled the pin on a flashbang and let it roll forward before pivoting and sprinting to another angle.

Bang!

The flash ignited across all four cameras.

Louis's ears rang, but he pushed forward, shaking his head clear. He fired two clean shots straight through the enemy's visors, the bullets nearly piercing through the back of their helmets. Then, they dropped dead.

"Missing a guy," he reported.

"Don't bother. ZK, incoming left. Fire the window in five seconds."

ZK crouched inside his shack, heart pounding. The order made his gut lurch, but his body moved before fear could root him in place.

'3... 2... 1—'

He sprayed and prayed.

Muzzle flashes ripped through the room, cutting into the pitch-black night. The echoes drowned him.

On the other side, bullets rained down on an enforcer. His standard gear held for a moment before giving way, the metal bending under the relentless barrage until the bullets tore through, riddling him with holes.

Blood poured out as his body fell.

Four seconds of fire.

Zk's pulse thundered in his ears.

"Good job. One second less next time."

Vincent's static voice crackled in the earpiece, neutral but firm.

Old habits were hard to suppress under pressure. His usual nitpicking had slipped out.

"Cents! Need eyes here!"

Dan half-yelled, his back pressed against two other refugees. His goggles were equipped with night vision, and he had given the spare pairs to them, but the enforcers had smoked them out.

They were only a few meters from the settlement's fences. The closest cover was five steps west.

But that's where the enforcers waited. Holding fire. Waiting for movement.

"Enforcers to your west. Louis' group to your north."

Louis spotted the smoke and gestured to his team.

"We'll cover fire."

There was no hesitation.

Before the smoke could clear, Dan's group had darted toward Louis's team, taking cover behind trees and a damaged shack.

The situation stabilized. Vincent did a quick count.

'Fifteen enforcers left.'

This was a big purge unit. Too big.

Vincent clenched his jaw. The last refugee outpost for the Sanctuary had only faced three squads—enough to cull everyone in the grove.

He only knew from Lola Ester's account, but the memory still twisted his gut.

'They aren't aggressive enough. We're picking them off one by one…'

His breath hitched. His eyes widened.

On the screens, more enforcers emerged, shadows bleeding into the night.

They weren't advancing toward the fighters.

They were circling the injured and children.

Even with night vision, their figures were barely visible.

Then Vincent saw the difference in the shadows.

There were twenty more.