Assault

Liushi was in his Doomsday Ride, thinking about the new mutant beast he encountered, and what it meant for the future. Dealing with isolated mutant beasts was one thing. Dealing with packs, nests or hives of dangerous and hostiles beasts would be another.

Zombies alone were already a big problem. Beasts were worse because they usually had better attributes than humans aside from intelligence: stronger, faster, tougher, able to poison or schock, blend in the surroundings. Now, he was in a town with a mutated bee hive within or nearby, and a bee hive could have at the very least thousands of bees. The group they had just encountered was a small scouting party, and they would meet more of them while searching for Xiaotian's family. If they came across the nest, or somehow alerted the nest of the threat he and his truck presented to them, they would have to fight a swarm.

He turned to his guest with a grim expression on his face.

"Xiaotian, we can't stay here for long. I don't want to stay in the town for more than a day, it's too dangerous."

Xiaotian's face lost all color, and she started to lightly shake. She bit her lips and looked at the ground. After a few seconds, she brough her eyes back to him, her face looking miserable.

"What about my family?"

"I too, do have a family, Xiaotian. I've been taking care of my little sister since the death of ur parents. I told her to wait for me. She is in Nanjing city, with limited supplies and no secure way to leave. I can't risk getting stuck here."

"I... You're right" she said in a low voice, eyes shinning with unshed tears. "I'm sorry. I forgot you had your own obligations."

"I said I would help you look for your family, and I will. It's just that the time to do so is limited. Come on. Get back behind the wheel. You know the town, so take us to the places where we can drive the truck, and where some people could take refuge."

"Yes. Thank you."

For the next few minutes, the mood in the Doomsday Ride was gloomy, and it got worse when the caution alarm pinged again. Checking the video feed, he realised that 2 new groups of mutant bees were approaching from their 4 and 7 o'clock.

"Tch, more of them. And they look much more agressive than the first group..."

"What should I do?"

Xiaotian, beside slight trembling and a pale face, was still driving properly. She was learning to keep her calm under pressure, and trust in the defensive capabilities of the vehicle.

"Keep driving in circles in this area."

Rather than be worried, Liushi was annoyed. He expected to deal only with zombies and possibly hostiles humans while in settlements, and mutant beasts between settlements. He didn't expect to meet mutant beasts in settlements, having gotten rid of most of the zombie population. He had though that flashbang and smoke grenades would be effective against beasts and zombies, and a day later he found himself in a situation where he needed them.

The needle rifles could fire 5 rounds per seconds, with 120 rounds magazines, and each of them had a total of 5 magazines. Most of the 1st magazine was used in the initial assault, and the seconds and thirds magazines would likely be used in the current one. The groups were larger and more mobile, slightly better prepared to deal with them. It meant that they were smarter than normal bees, as they likely learned something from the remain of the first group.

'And how did they now about the first group in the first place? Each scouting group should have its own zone to operate. They shouldn't have been aware of their disparition before returning back to the hive... Unless they have a long distance way of communication.' "Mother fuckers!!"

Xiaotian almost made a driving mistake when she heard the sudden curse coming out of Liushi's mouth. She spared him a perplexed glance and asked him what was going on.

"Once we're done dealing with this group, retrace our steps back to where we found the first group."

"Ok..."

Jiang Liushi though that, either the bees shared some kind of telepatic link from which they could get a certain amount of information, or they used some kind of pheromones to communicate. Once they were done with this group, they would return back to where it started to confuse their sense of smell and make it harder to track them. He had prepared a lot of things when he made his Doomsday Ride, but he hadn't prepared anything to give it an emergency cleaning to get rid of any unwanted scent. It was even possible for the mutant boar meat in the trailer to have attracted the bees in the first place.

'I'll need to expand the windshield washing system to the whole vehicle and trailer, with a tank for cleaning liquid and one for scent masking. I should also add a smoke screen system. And some flame throwers.'

BAM!! BAM BAM!! BAM!!

His thoughs were interrupted by the sounds of impacts on the truck. Refocusing on what was happening, he saw that the mutant bees were having less trouble reaching truck, and were ramming themselves against it. It wasn't much of a problem, except for the ones reaching the windows of the driving cockpit, and those striking the solar panels on the roof, probably thinking they would lead inside the truck.

Xiaotian continued to drive, though she flinched with each impact. Even when one of them crashed on her window, she did nothing more than flinch. Liushi was impressed, and proud, but he had to fcus on something else than his pretty driver. The mutant beasts noticed that there were limits to how high the turrets could aim, and that right above the truck was a blind spot. And they concentrated more and more on the driver cockpit. The turrets could protect its sides, but not the front, and the Starseed warned him that the glasses from the windows were close to their limits.

"Accelerate" he ordered Xiaotian.

"What!!?"

"Go faster. We need to shake them off."

Xiaotian glanced at him with worry. While she had been driving faster than normal, it wasn't to the point of recklessness. She didn't want to risk losing control of the vehicle and overturn it. That would be catastrophic. Liushi guessed what she was thinking about.

"Don't worry about the speed, the co-pilot programm will help you keep control of the truck even with tight turns. It would even help you drift. Swerve, forget about staying on the road, drive on the sidewalk and destroy whatever stand in the way if you need to. This truck is made to drive through obstacles that are not meant to stop it. Go!!"

After a second of hesitation, she firmly nodded her head and stepped on the throttle.

VVRROOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

With a mighty roar, the heavy truck surged forward, dragging its trailer with it. The mutant beasts that were on the roof lost their balance and fell to the sides, or between the truck and the trailer, sometimes being crushed by it. The ones that were diving for the damaged windows and the windshield missed their targets and painfully smashed themselves against the mettalic body of the truck. A few of them were knocked out or killed.

Xiaotian was now driving like a madwoman, blasting the occasional abandonned car out of her way, destroying poles and street lamps. The constant swerving made it quite hard for the mutant bees to attack, and it gave a few openings for the turrets to injure or kill them. The tires regulary screeched, making enough noise to tell anyone nearby that there was some action. Liushi was secretly happy that the bees focused more on avoiding attacks and trying to get inside. They didn't think of destroying the parts that were attacking them, the turrets.

The chase lasted until they reached the point of first contact. The size of the attack group didn't decrease much because another smaller group had joined them on the way. One their, Liushi detached the trailer and ordered Xiaotian to run wild in the area until all bees were down. It was then that Xiaotian truly appreciated the capabilities of both the truck and the co-pilot program. She was drifting with an armored truck, with the speed and agility of a racing car. The co-pilot programm was just that good a making up for the mistakes of a beginner drifter. The near constant screeching of the tires had become background noise for Xiaotian, so concentrated she was in her driving.

Because of all the crazy movements of the truck, the bees found themselves in the sight of the turrets more often than not. And because they focused on the driving cockpit, whenever the truck passed behind the trailer, its turret could fire on the flying beasts without troubles. After a few minutes, there no more moving beasts in sight.