12 Who did you say is stronger than me, darling?!

Painful screaming was heard in the darkness. Sounds of gunshot and screeching sounds from the mutated rats were heard from every direction.

Zhiqiang ran with his hand was pulled by Dominick. He did not know to where the blond man was pulling him to run. All he could see was shadows of figures in the darkness that were moving everywhere.

He slammed mutated rats that were trying to climb his body. There were so many of them that he could not count how many times he already kicked away the mutated rats. They really had to find a way to get rid of them.

"Dom!!" He called out the blond man under his panting breath. He did not know if the man heard him amid the people screaming but he called out the man again loudly. "Dom!! It is fire!! We have to create fire!!"

The blond man paused in his run before pulling him to take sharp turn and run somewhere.

Zhiqiang did not know how the man could see in the darkness, but before he knew it, they were already in front of a warehouse. Dominick crushed the padlock without hesitation with his hands before he kicked open the warehouse door with a loud bang.

The blond man pulled him inside, kicking away any mutated rats in the way. Zhiqiang tried to see inside the warehouse clearly, but could only vaguely see the shadow of the blond man was picking something from inside warehouse. A strong smell of hydrocarbons quickly told him what this warehouse contained.

It was gasoline!!

As Zhiqiang also moved to pick a can of fuel, Dominick already was bringing them outside. The blond man ran toward the herd of mutated rats not far from the warehouse and threw away an opened can of gasoline in his arms to them, followed by a flash of fire from a lighter.

BLAZZEEE!

A big flame immediately exploded in bang. Painful screeching was heard instantly from the mutated rats as they were burned. All mutated rats immediately ran away from the fire, reducing the attack burden that the pair kept receiving.

Zhiqiang broke legs of a chair he found in the warehouse then tore apart his white coat with his knife without hesitation. He tied the white cloth on the logs to make some torches. He threw one to Dominick and plunged his into gasoline. With a flick of lighter, the made up torch was lit. He picked a small can of fuel and ran outside.

"Let's go!!" He called out to the man after seeing him lit up his own torch. "We have to find where the rats came from and burned them—"

"Why?" Dominick cut his words all out of sudden.

"What?!" He glanced at the man instantly. "Of course we have to eliminate them! The base is in danger—"

"Why should we do that?" Dominick cut his words again, causing the black haired man to shut his mouth and stared at him in taken back.

Dominick stared at the black eyes as he said without any expression. "What for? I don't care if the base is destroyed. We should just run from here and find a safer place."

Zhiqiang held his breath under the stare of cold blue eyes. A shudder spread over his heart and his expression immediately blanked out without any emotions.

How could he forget it? This man was psychopath. He did not care for anything.

Zhiqiang opened his lips in hesitance before he closed them again without any sound.

A silence soon fell upon them as both of them did not speak.

Zhiqiang stared at those blue eyes for a while before he finally said. "There are still many things about this disaster that we don't understand so staying in the military base that has some authorities is better."

"So? We can find other authorities. In fact, we can find better information from government instead." Dominick replied back without any hesitation in his voice. He stared at the younger man for a moment before turning away, deeming their conversation was done. He picked a can of gasoline and walked ahead, presumably to exit the base.

Zhiqiang stared at the man's back for a moment in hesitation. Then his face lowered, staring at the dark ground in silence. Behind his dark bang, those dark eyes were glistened in indescribable emotion.

After for a moment, he gritted his teeth in resolution before finally raising his head to shout at the man, "Then you go ahead, Dom. I will stay here. Goodbye." with those words, he quickly turned around and ran without a glance to the man.

Dominick paused his walking and gazed at the black haired man who was quickly vanished in the darkness. An almost imperceptible emotion then flashed inside his blue eyes.

..

Zhiqiang rushed toward the military main post as fast as he could. Without glancing back, he knew the blond man did not follow him. Somehow that knowledge made his heart felt an indescribable sense of loss. He gritted his teeth and shook his head firmly, feeling stupid for his sentiment.

Because of fire torch in his hand, almost all mutated rats were avoiding him in fear as if they could sense the danger of fire. If even there were any mutated rats that persisted to attack him, he would quickly burn them with fire.

In a few minutes, he finally saw the main post building. In fact, he did not need to search it hard, as blaze of fires were radiated strikingly in front of the building. After looking carefully, he realized the soldiers was using flamethrower to burn the mutated rats.

Zhiqiang fastened his run toward the building. Just he was about to call out one of soldier, something big suddenly shot out to attack him from side. He flinched back, his hand reflexively moved his torch to defend, but a tall figure had already moved before him and kicked the thing in loud bang.

Painful screeching sound was heard from the thing. But it did not give up as it quickly jumped out again, but kicked repeatedly by the tall figure again and stepped on with strong force without mercy. With a tiny squeak, the thing finally was dead.

Zhiqiang blinked and moved his torch to see the thing. It was a mutated rat, but the size was twice bigger than other rats. Were there different mutations between them? He thought in shock.

"Are you okay?" a deep and gentle voice was heard beside him.

Zhiqiang looked up to see the tall soldier. A brief glance to insignia on his clothes showed his rank as colonel. As he was about to open his lips to answer, a voice suddenly was heard from side, cutting off his words.

"Brother!!"

Zhiqiang looked to the side, moving up his torch to give him a wider sight. What he saw was making him surprise. It was a red haired girl with cold eyes, the younger sister of Colonel Williams. Did that means—

He glanced up quickly to the tall soldier with a colonel insignia again. The man was little taller than him, but still a bit shorter by a few inches than Dominick. He had a handsome face, red brown hair and green eyes. If he looked carefully, he could see the striking resemblance between the colonel and his sister. Different with his sister, he had strong and confidence gazes in his green eyes, with a little gentleness hidden inside.

So this was the strongest soldier in the base.

The Colonel approached his sister quickly and brought her toward the main post with a concerned rambling. Zhiqiang followed them immediately. On the way, he could see a lot of dead mutated rats with a bigger size. Their mutation was really different than small ones.

He approached the Colonel quickly. "Colonel, do you already find where the rats came from?"

The Colonel paused his talking with his subordinate soldier to glance at him. Then before he could open his mouth, the soldier beside him already let out words first.

"Are you civilian? Please come inside, the situation is dangerous outside here!" The soldier ordered him in firm tone as he pushed him to enter the main post building.

However Zhiqiang firmly held his ground and ignored him. He gazed steadily at the Colonel. "You have to quickly find their nest! The rats lived in packs, but they are seldom to hunt together. For them to hunt in mass with a certain timing like this, that's mean they have an intelligence leader!!"

"Hey—!" The soldier called out to him in annoyance, but Colonel Williams raised his hand to stop him. "What do you know? Please tell us more," the Colonel said to the black haired man.

Zhiqiang immediately took the chance to explain, "You have to check the base wall if it was breeched by them. Rats like to live in dark place and burrow. If our wall was really breeched, then we have to search their nest outside. Even though rats lived in packs, they prefer to hunt alone. For them to attack us in mass like this, they must be planning it for a while. Their attack would not be stopped unless we eliminated their leader!"

Colonel Williams widened his green eyes. He quickly glanced at his subordinate. "How is our wall?!" he asked hurriedly in angry gaze.

The soldier flinched back in fear. "T-that—t-the wall is fine! The last time I checked is right before the attack! I am sure the base wall is fine!"

Zhiqiang quickly said, "Then they must be from inside! The only way for them to enter the base without breeching the wall is—

"The sewer." A cold voice cut in from his side. He glanced up to see the red haired girl was glaring at him as if he just stole something from her. He shot her a strange look.

"Scarlett! I told you to stay inside!" Colonel Williams scolded his sister with a worried expression. He quickly pulled her to his side, and then ordered his subordinate. "Bring me a complete map of our base! We have to check where the most possible place in the sewer that could be the rat's nest!" he then pulled another soldier and ordered.

"You bring some people to take out a lot of our fuel from the warehouse!! We have a nest to burn!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Roger, Sir!"

A soldier then rushed forward to them bringing a large paper. "Sir, I found the map, we—"

"Check the largest sewer!" Zhiqiang quickly said. "The bigger rats have stronger strengths. Their leader must be a lot bigger!"

Colonel nodded quickly to his subordinate who shot a confused look for receiving order from a civilian.

After a few minutes, they quickly found the largest sewer they could find in the base. The soldiers who were ordered to pick fuels also already came back with panting breaths. Colonel Williams quickly divided his subordinates to two groups, one to handle situation here, while the rest to follow him to take care of the rat's nest. After a complete preparation, they quickly ran forward to the suspected nest.

Zhiqiang looked at them for a moment, before running to follow them with a determined gaze. He had to see if his suspicious was correct.

Fort Hamilton was located near coast in southwest side. They had large sewers that were connected the city to end canal in the sea. Their destination right now was the main hub of sewer in the south side of base. It was the largest and most possible place as the rat's nest.

Because of the soldiers who eliminated the mutated rats in their journey, Zhiqiang who was following from behind did not feel any threatening situation. After a few minutes, they finally arrived in the sewer location.

Zhiqiang held his breath sharply as he saw hundreds of the mutated rats were coming out from the sewer. There was too many of them that even he who did not feel any disgust or fear from rats felt his heart waver at the disgusting sight.

Because of risk the sewer crashing and losing the leader of rats, they could not just bomb the nest. Colonel Williams ordered his subordinate to use flamethrower to burn the rats at the mouth of sewer. After a few minutes, there was not any rat that came out of the sewer anymore. A strong smell of burned meat was filling the sewer as they were entering the sewer.

The sewer was placed below the surface ground, but the diameter was tall enough for an adult male walking inside them. Zhiqiang covered his nose with his left hand while his right hand held a fire torch as he walked alongside the troops. Splashing sounds were heard in the entire journey as their feet were walking in the muddy water. Thankfully, the water only reached their ankles, so they did not have difficulty in walking.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the Colonel glanced at him in surprise for seeing him following them. But he did not say anything to reprimand him, just walking a few steps behind nearing him, presumably to make sure his safety.

They followed the trace of rats to the deep of sewer. All mutated rats they found on the way were burned cleanly by the troops. After a few minutes walking, they finally came to the dead end, with herd of rats were gathering inside.

"It's here!!" One of soldier shouted out in excited voice. He quickly use the flamethrower in his hand to burn the herds, following by other soldiers.

A screeching howl was heard from back of herds. Under the dim light, a huge figure, almost two meters in height was glaring at them in anger.

"It's the boss!!" The soldiers shouted out in fear seeing the giant rat showed itself from darkness.

"Fire!!" A strong order quickly woke the soldiers up from the fear before sounds of gunshot were banging loudly in the sewer.

The giant rat roared in anger and pain. He rushed forward to attack them in berserk. The soldier formation instantly was broken to mess as they ran to avoid the attack in panic. Some who did not lose their footing was still shooting the giant rat nonstop. But after a few moments, they finally realized something terrible.

"The bullets aren't working!!" The soldier shouted in panic as he also ran to avoid berserk attack from the giant rat.

Zhiqiang quickly ran a few meters behind the fight as soon as he saw the giant rat attacked. Seeing the bullet could not pierce the giant rat's body, its skin must be really thick. His dark eyes were sweeping the place and the giant rat quickly to find a possible weakness.

"Don't lose!! Kept attract the rat's attention!!" Colonel Williams shouted out to his subordinate as he ran around the giant rat, apparently also searching its weakness.

The Colonel attacked the back of giant rat with his punch. It roared in pain and turned around to retaliate, but the soldiers around it quickly shot bullets to distract it. They did this for a few times, the Colonel would attack the giant rats sneakily and his subordinates would distract it. The giant rat roared aloud in anger and pain.

Zhiqiang widened his eyes a bit once he saw the force of the Colonel's attack. Compare to the bullet that could not pierce the giant rat's skin, the colonel's strength was a lot stronger.

He suddenly remembered what the old doctor said about the Colonel's strength, a strong body like a stone and a fast speed like panther. The Colonel indeed moved a lot faster than normal human. It was not wrong to call him fast like a panther.

He suddenly became curious who was stronger between the colonel and Dominick. Dominick's speed was slower than the Colonel. But he did not know if the Colonel's body was harder than Dominick. A sad sigh was let out by him subconsciously when he thought about the blond man who already left.

An angry screeching howl was let out by the giant rat as it stood up in its hind legs in anger. Its body was trembling as if holding a berserk power to retaliate.

However, Zhiqiang widened his eyes in realization as soon as he saw the giant rat's action. "The belly!! Attack the belly!!" He shouted out to the Colonel, surprising a lot of soldiers.

Colonel Williams glanced at him before following his suggestion in a flash without any hesitation. Did not know from where, but in his hand was a large sharp blade which the Colonel used to slash the giant's rat belly.

A surprise look flashed his face a moment when his blade could cut the skin easily, before changed by a determination as the Colonel pushed his blade with stronger force. The giant rat howled in painful screeching. Its claws moved to retaliate, but the Colonel already moved a step faster than him to avoid them and attack its belly again.

Blood spurted out everywhere as a deep cut opened the giant rat's belly. It howled before turning around in difficulty to run away in fear. However the Colonel did not give it a chance as he kept attacking. After a few more attacks, the giant rat finally let out a last squeak and died.

The soldiers cheered loudly once they saw their leader finally killed the monster.

Colonel Williams sent a tired but relief smile to his subordinates.

Zhiqiang quickly walked forward to check the giant rat's body. He moved his torch to lighten the area on giant rat's belly. A surprise look flashed his dark eyes for a moment as he murmured softly. "I knew it…"

"What is it?!" the Colonel looked over with a concerned face.

Zhiqiang pointed the monster's belly with his torch. "It's the mother."

Under the dim light of torch, the giant rat's tore belly was shown. Inside it there were small fragile things that resembled rat babies. Vomiting voices immediately were heard inside the sewer from the soldiers who also saw them. Although it was monster, anyone would fell a queasiness feeling from killing a pregnant mother.

Colonel looked away with a hard face and called out his subordinate to line up. "Let's leave this place and clean up the rats in surface ground," he ordered with a firm tone.

"Yes, sir!" the soldiers immediately saluted. They brought their equipment again to walk outside.

"Wait!!" Zhiqiang quickly called out.

"What is it? Did the boss already dead? We have to clean up the rest of monsters in the base." One of soldier asked impatiently. He felt a bit annoyed for a civilian following them.

"No! You are wrong! The leader isn't—Watch out!!" Zhiqiang shouted out in shock as he saw something moving fast from behind them.

The Colonel who saw his shock quickly turned around instinctively and pushed his subordinate from an attack range which immediately placed him as prey. Something that was slimmer but a lot faster than the previous giant rat slammed against him with a strong force. He cursed out in pain as he felt claws scratched his chest deeply.

"Colonel!!"

"Boss!!"

The soldiers called out in panic and fear.

With a loud bang, the Colonel was thrown far and slammed to wall. An angry screeching was then heard from the monster that just attacked as it showed its appearance. It was also a giant rat but with a body slimmer and smaller than the previous giant rat. However, they could see from its strength it was a lot stronger than the previous giant rat.

"No way!!"

"Another?!"

"It's the real leader!!" Zhiqiang quickly explained. "The previous female giant rat is just its mate. The dominant leader of rats is always a male!"

A lot of soldiers immediately cursed as they looked cautiously at the monster. Zhiqiang also cursed aloud internally. Initially he was situated behind the group, but because of sudden attack, he was now situated beside the monster. He stared at the giant rats cautiously, trying to not move too much in fear for the monster noticing him.

"Attack!!" an order was shouted out by the Colonel who was now trying to stand up. It seemed his chest was wounded as he grabbed it with his hand.

"Boss!!" His subordinates called out in relief, and immediately pulled out their gun in renewed vigor to attack the monster as their leader was alright now.

As soon as the soldiers were attacking the monster with their bullet, Zhiqiang immediately ran to avoid the fight. However who knew if it was because he was holding a fire torch. The giant rat was chasing him instead.

"Shit!" Zhiqiang cursed aloud as he jumped to side to avoid its claw attack. His feet unfortunately slipped in the muddy water and his body fell sideway to the sewer's ground. He quickly rolled his body to the side to avoid the monster's attack again. But after a few times running around, he was cornered to the dead end. The soldiers behind the monster were chasing in panic with their gun.

Zhiqiang placed his back to the wall to face the monster who was about to attack him again. He decisively threw away his torch and pulled out two sharp knifes he always brought from his pocket.

As the monster rushed toward him, he also rushed forward. Seeing the human attacked it forwardly, the monster also raised its claws to attack him forwardly. But when they were about to clash, Zhiqiang without hesitation ran to the side to circle around the monster body, making it missed its attack by a sharp breath.

It turned around to retaliate but Zhiqiang moved a step faster as he jumped onto the monster's back to ride its body and stabbed his knifes to the monster's eyes. It howled aloud in pain and shook his body to throw the burden on its back in anger.

Zhiqiang was thrown hard to the ground by the monster's force, but he quickly stabilized himself. He quickly pulled out another knifes from his boots. He knew he could not win against the monster in strength, so he decisively chose a sneak attack. A rat's eyes were placed sideway so it had a difficulty to see forward or backward. If it focused its eyes hard to see the front, it would need a time to stabilize its sight again to see sideway. That's why he baited the monster to attack him forwardly.

The giant rat screeched out in anger. Blood was spurting out from its eyes. It moved his body in berserk, quickly found his position with a smell. With anger howl, it attacked again.

Zhiqiang quickly ran to avoid. His knifes was just kitchen knife, so he knew without testing that his knifes could not cut the monster's skin that even bullet could not pierced. So he needed a chance to attack the monster in vulnerable spot like eyes, belly or inside neck.

Just as he was searching a chance to attack, screeching sounds were heard from afar followed by a rumbling sound of rat footsteps.

"Fuck! It's mutated rats!!" The soldiers shouted out in panic.

"They must have come from surface!!"

"Hold them!! I will take care of the leader!" Colonel Williams shouted out to his subordinates as he chased the giant rat that was still attacking the black haired civilian.

"No!! They are too much!! It seemed they came to help their boss!!" One of soldiers shouted out in panic as the herds of mutated rats that were rushing toward them were too many. Furthermore, no matter the soldiers attacked them with flames or bullet, they persisted to rush toward the boss.

Zhiqiang cursed as he avoided another attack. Colonel tried to help by attacking it, but as if all of its angers were placed on him, it kept cashing him. Seeing the herd mutated rats were coming toward them, Zhiqiang gritted his teeth in annoyance and said to the Colonel without hesitation. "I will bait the monster! You attack it!" before he ran toward a turned tunnel at his right side.

The giant rat immediately chased him with its attack. Zhiqiang rolled to the side to avoid it. He stood up quickly to run again, but as if terrible fate was chasing him, his feet slipped in the muddy water. He cursed as his body fell hard to muddy water. He tried to stabilize himself, but the monster already caught up to him. Its long claw was stretching sharply toward him, not giving him a chance to avoid.

"Fuck!" Zhiqiang braced himself to the attack, his hands extended in front of him, hoping to defense himself with his knifes. But as the claw was about to touch him, something splashed from the muddy water like a sharp blade and slashed the monster's eyes.

The giant rat immediately screeched out in pain and flinched back its body. Bloody was spurting out a lot from its eyes. If before, its eyes was only stabbed by the knife making small but deep cut, right now the monster's eye balls were crushed horrifyingly as if it was just being grinded.

Zhiqiang inhaled his breath sharply as he stared at the monster in great shock and confusion. "Just know…" he whispered in confusion. A vague feeling flashed in his mind before vanishing.

He shook his head, deciding to think it later. He quickly stood up as the monster was preparing to attack him again. The colonel also attacked it with his blade, but his attacks were brushed off by the monster's anger. His attacks would not be useful unless he could pierce its belly like the previous giant rat.

He tightened his grips on the knife and braced himself to the monster's attack again. As the monster was rushing toward him, he moved his body to rush forward. However something suddenly rushed from his side and kicked the monster to the wall with a long bang.

The monster groaned in pain as its body was sliding from the wall.

Zhiqiang blinked in shock when that something was finally showed itself. No, it was someone, a man with a familiar blond hair.

Zhiqiang widened his dark eyes. His heartbeat suddenly became a lot faster and louder.

No way…

His mind whispered in disbelief.

The blond man turned his body toward him. A familiar handsome face immediately was shown with his silvery blue eyes were gazing at him.

Zhiqiang took a few steps back subconsciously with his hands that were griping knifes lowered. The blond man walked toward him without any expression. His fingers were raised to pinch the black haired man's chin and pulled it closer. His blue eyes were staring at the black eyes in cold anger. His deep and magnetic voice then was heard coldly in the dark sewer.

"What did I say about taking care of your body, doll?"