113 Josephs Awakening (1/2)

Day 3 – 6:21 AM – E3, Cavite Expressway, Kawit, Cavite

While the rear troops of the military convoy was entangled with the grey humanoid, the rest of the convoy brought the rest of the vehicles transporting the survivors quite a distance away before stopping. Since the front troops needed to aid the rear troops, they could not get the survivors in the fight with creature that was too dangerous.

”Angeline, you all stay here. Archie! Drive off and leave us if the situation becomes too dangerous.”

1st Lieutenant Rafael spoke to Angeline and the driver of their vehicle.

”But Sir!”

”This is an order.”

Hearing that, Archie who was in the driver's seat could only nod reluctantly.

”Bro, you can't leave without me.”

Angeline sternly spoke.

”This is a duty for us soldiers. You can't participate in it.”

”No matter what, I'm coming with you. Even if by force, I'll follow you. Even if we can't fight, we can at least retrieve the people in that truck. There are people we knew in there.”

Angeline pointed at the overturned truck a distance away.

Rafael knew that his sister would not relent on this. Furthermore, he was aware that his fighting capability was way lower compared to his sister. He knew that it was actually better if he had to send his sister to fight than he participating in it himself but he could not put his sister in danger because of that.

”Alright. I'll let you get the survivors on the truck while we fight that thing behind. Once the survivors are retrieved we'll all retreat and escape if we can't kill that guy.”

”Okay!”

As her brother agreed, Angeline was in glee. It was the same for Paula who also wanted to check on the people inside the overturned truck praying that the people there they knew would survive.

With that exchange, with the exception of three Humvees that was left to guard the remaining trucks, all of the other military vehicles went back to assist the rear while several vehicles would check on the overturned truck.

At the rear, the soldiers were in a dilemma. It was because they were being picked off one by one. Not because they were lacking in experience nor they were lacking in fire power but because the creature they were fighting was too fast and cunning. It could even be said that it was toying with them.

The grey humanoid would sometimes move erratically giving the soldiers a hard time to accurately aim and shoot it while just blindly shooting it did not help either as its speed was enough to avoid the bullets and even grenade explosions was evaded. It would retreat and attack without pattern and sometimes would use a comrade of theirs as a shield before killing the caught soldier. Furthermore, there were a lot of times that it could actually kill several soldiers in one go, but for some reason, it was killing them one by one.

The rear soldiers felt elated when they saw the other vehicles going back to aid them. Even if they could not manage to kill this creature, it would give everyone a better chance for escaping.

They were not wrong in that. It was because when the reinforcements joined the fight, the situation became better. The soldiers were still not able to kill the grey humanoid but at least, it could not kill anyone from their ranks anymore. The only thing they needed to do was to delay this creature while the retrieval of the survivors was going on.

At the overturned truck, the retrieval team was stunned at the bloody scene inside. Due to the truck suddenly overturning, most of the living survivors fell unconscious while being placed in a scramble of decapitated bodies, human organs and blood. Everyone was covered in blood making the retrieval even more time consuming.

Angeline and Paula who went out of their vehicle gasped and became teary eyed after they saw the dead bodies of Bernard and Calvin among the dead people. They could not believe that the two people they mingled and fought along with were now dead in a brutal and gruesome way. They then remembered Joseph who they had to see yet.

The two girls were about to search for him when…

They heard a shout.

”Sh*t! Angeline! Paula! Run!”

It was the voice of Angeline's brother who should be fighting along with his soldiers.

When the two turned around, they saw a grey figure approaching towards Paula's direction with a very fast speed ignoring all the other people around them.

Paula could see the figure coming closer towards her. She could not think of anything as her mind went blank with fear. She saw the figure raise its right arm overhead. It was going to slice her from head to toe.

When she felt that death was coming closer, she saw a face block her sight. It was her precious friend, Angeline. Paula then felt a force push her body away.

Angeline did not shout nor had the time to do anything but push her friend out of the grey figure's reach. It was not because she lost her way to think but it was because there was no time to think of anything anymore. The enemy was approaching fast and they were caught off guard. Who would think that it would suddenly attack them who were further away when it was entangled with more than two dozens of soldiers.

SWIIIRKK!

She felt a stinging pain on her back for a little less than a second. It was very short because she immediately fell unconscious due to the sudden extreme pain. Her body fell unto the concrete bleeding from a huge slash wound on her back from her shoulder to her waist. The wound was too deep that her bones could be seen.

Noticing that it was not his target that he managed to slay, the grey humanoid tried to press on attacking Paula. Noticing its intention, one of the soldiers immediately pulled away the frozen Paula while the other soldiers in the retrieval team pressed on counter attacking.

Due to its focus on Paula, the grey humanoid finally received damage. Its left arm and face were drilled with holes from assault rifle bullets.

Feeling the pain from the injuries it received made the grey humanoid retreat back in its fours while howling.

”Ange!”

Paula finally snapped from her daze and shouted. She tried to approach Angeline but she was held back by the soldier who pulled her away because she was obviously the target of the grey humanoid.

***

'Where is this place…'

Joseph who unconscious and was buried under the dead bodies inside the truck finally woke up. Unfortunately, what he could all see were red. The dead bodies above his body, the human organs scattered around him and the pool of blood he was lying on. Everything was red.

As if he was just dreaming…

'This is just a nightmare right?'

But when he was about to conclude that, the last memories he had before falling unconscious came into place. Tears flowed from his eyes as he remembered the last words of his Dad. He was feeling tired, sluggish, sleepy and feverish. Yet, he moved his body and removed the obstacles around him preventing him from standing up.