29 Fire-Breathing Machine

"Boom!"

A snuffed explosion rang in the distance from this place, and soon the stationary sentry droids and drones lit up in the proscription mode as they began to move out towards the area where the explosion just happened. This tumult was enough to attract the attention of these inactive killer machines towards the mark.

This disturbance was so huge that automatic sentries, even two miles away, were drawn to that spot, beginning the most apparent chaos on the island. How, … Why, …where, and who was responsible for that single loud explosion? This was not intriguing to any of the competing students, rather it served as a sort of flare signal for every lurker to begin their operation for infiltration or other things.

"Now, Jump out! "

In the largely bunked crevice of the ground, a figure leaped out like a startled squirrel following the yell of Crey who had barked from inside. Taking advantage of momentary chaos and distraction The person sprinted, without looking backward, straight towards the sentry watchtower right in the front some hundred meters away.

Crey shook his head as he saw the speed of Eyas, although giving his all the boy wasn't much faster than the average civilian Evolved much to his letdown. Crey jumped up from Crevice and dashed behind the Eyas towards the watchtower all the while keeping eye on the surroundings.

Both of them have been eyeing this watchtower from a hidden location for the last half an hour but Crey without hands and mostly non-fighter Eyas were deterred by active sentries and drones. They have been planning extensively on how to achieve infiltration when this sudden explosion in the distance actually gave them a much-needed chance to move into this watchtower without being seen by drones and cameras.

"Huff…huff.."

Eyas had his face red from the strain after sprinting madly towards the watchtower, all the while avoiding cameras. But just as he was about to reach the inner gate, he hurriedly yanked himself to an immediate halt. His heart skipped a beat as he looked ahead to discover a camera right in front of the gate seeing him straight. He literally froze in his tracks in terror just like a deer caught in headlights.

'Sh*t!'

He reckoned as Crey had specifically warned him to not get caught or seen by any camera by any means possible. But here he had straight-up F*cked up.

'It's over!'

Just as when this feeling of a letdown was about to wash over on him, suddenly his hair stood up in goosebumps and eyes opened wide as a fast projectile 'whooshed' past his neck, just from hairbreadth away, towards the camera. The almost graze of death sent a tingle of chill over his spine.

The fast projectile struck the camera like a stray bullet and shattered it. Eyas broke out of his reverie with the sound of the camera breaking down as he looked back to see Crey standing behind with his leg shifting back from kicking that fast stone. He had a frown on his face as he scolded him harshly,

"Don't freeze. Never Freeze, if that was a drone you would have been dead several times over. If caught, drop the stealth and instead focus on speed.

Now move on. We still have time before the mainframe AI reports an anomaly to bring back sentries here. I just hope that whatever that explosion was, it should be a bigger priority than two intruders in the watchtower."

Eyas wiped his face of cold sweat as he quickly nodded and followed behind Crey into the watchtower. The admiration for this senior has reached its peak for him. He watched with regard as the senior strode into the tower bravely. There wasn't a shred of fear in his eyes or hesitation in his steps.

But just a few compartments in,

'Tic..tic…tic…'

Suddenly they could hear a small clicking and rotating sound from deep inside. Crey mouthed a curse as he quickly broke into a mad dash forward through the not-so-wide metal passageway towards the turn in the corridor.

Eyas, who was following behind, didn't seem to see an abrupt shift in expression of Crey as he was startled to see Crey speeding up hastily. He to keep up with him began to run too but suddenly he heard his loud yell,

"Don't…..duck!"

As an instinctive reaction, Eyas fell on the floor with his head covered by his arms but his eyes were on Crey who shot forward like a human bullet towards the bend in the passage. At this exact moment, the earlier weak 'tic-tic' sound transformed into a loud ear-splitting rumbling sound that spooked him.

Eyas realized only after a precious second when Crey has already moved past the corner in the hallway and disappeared from his field of view. His pupils dilated in abject fear, as the loud booming noise made him discern something.

'Oh, Sh*t! That's ….Automatic Turret!'

An automatic spinning Turret gun that spits fire capable of roasting a thick hide military tank completely. This gun is an absolute hellish nightmare, in short, closed areas like these where they are generally not preferred since they could not be managed well to avoid friendly fire. Due to their massive weight, they can't be carried on and thus have to be fixed on the wall, usually on the far topside, giving free aim at incoming enemies.

This heavy Turret spews energy blasts able of scorching Human bodies like dry lint. Moreover, even the Exo-Armor Fighters aren't able to resist the condensed rain fire of a turret in the tight area. The placement of these automatic turrets was a brain move here, due to the absence of any living comrade.

"TIC..TIC…Ding…ding ding ding ding…."

Though out of sight, he could seem to imagine the massive havoc machine awakening while making these outcries. The barrel of the big Torrent would be beginning to rotate rapidly as it proceeds to fire rounds and rounds of energy shots. In a few breaths, the whole metal corridor would be drowned in condensed hell-blue fires, and the helpless Crey being reduced to ashes just from the touch of several energy shots.

"Nooooooo!!!"

Eyas who was lying down with his arms on his head screamed but his voice was soon plunged by the noise and disruption of the massive blaze from the weapon. The metal wall in front of him, facing the bend in the corridor, was soon shredded into pieces by the heated energy shots. The whole metal wall collapsed in just a few seconds of fire, snuffing out any hope of survival of the Young man who had moved out in the line of fire.