31 Helicopter

Aida lagged behind as she thought about what Noah shared. While it seemed very interesting, the amount of information didn't seem compelling enough to warrant the government sending a helicopter and risking infection within the cities. Pondering for a while longer, she shrugged. She didn't really care too much about other people's secrets and she was just going along for fun anyway.

Thinking this, she gave one last look at the infected lying on the ground before following the rest of the group out.

According to Randy, the helicopter should be arriving in less than 3 hours so they had to be prepared. He took them to the armory that they managed to salvage after the War faction's raid. Due to limited resources, each person was only given a bulletproof vest and a simple handgun.

Aida and the others sat in a corner while waiting for the helicopter to arrive. They were not particularly stressed or concerned about the upcoming fight since their goal was not to vie for a spot and Aida's blood allows them to heal from any wound incurred.

Ace was laser focused on typing things into a laptop he took from a random luggage, while Light took care of the twins and had a conversation with Aida.

"When do you think they will wake up?" Light asked.

"Years of damage have accumulated in the twins' bodies so it would still take some time before they would awaken. It's much like what Noah mentioned earlier about the time it takes for a body to adapt to the change. It's a case by case basis. However, based on my experience, it should only take at maximum a day not the decades that she had mentioned," Aida replied.

Before they did, Aida's full time job would simply be to watch over them while Ace and Light participated in the defending the helicopter.

Light nodded with understanding and went back to caring for his two little brothers.

Time quickly passed as they heard the familiar sound of a helicopter approaching. Noah and Randy approach them, "Are you both ready?"

Aida makes a big yawn while making careful eye contact with Noah and Randy as she nods, "Don't worry, we got this."

Randy and Light also attempt to stifle their yawns after seeing her yawn while Noah shook her head at their actions and Ace continued typing on his computer.

Light reassured the two that they were ready and would head out soon. At this point, Ace shut down his laptop at this point and the two followed the scientists out to the tarmac. Many others in the Science noticed the movement and began to follow them out as well.

Aida stayed inside with the twins, with a thoughtful expression on her face. The reason she yawned at such an inopportune time was to test the group. Yawning was a natural reaction by most people and animals, it was a demonstration of empathy. Many psychologists actually use this as a preliminary test to determine if a person has sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies.

While Randy and Light passed the test, Noah had not reacted at all. Although this test is not at all a perfect indicator to one's empathy, there was typically a strong correlation between the two. This means there was a high chance that Noah lacked empathy, and a nonzero chance that she may be a sociopath or a psychopath.

Brushing the thought off, Aida refocused her attention to what was happening out at the tarmac. The helicopter had almost reached them and many people were running towards the helicopter with their arms raised. They were cheering as they thought they were going to be saved.

Meanwhile, the scientists were closer to the front carrying boxes full of blood vials. The approaching helicopter sprayed out a line of bullets, clearly separating the scientists from the rest of the group. No one was injured by these stray bullets, but the people following quickly realized they were not going to be saved by this helicopter.

They halted in their steps, unsure of what to do while the helicopter slowly landed on the tarmac and the scientists began to climb on. Suddenly someone shouted, "To hell with this! I will get on that helicopter or I will die trying!!"

Hearing this, the others in the group were incensed and began charging forward. Randy, Ace, Light and a handful of other guards stood facing the mob running towards them. They were reluctant to hurt these people since they were not doing anything wrong, so they aimed their shots at the people's feet. These people just wanted to survive.

Their role was simply to deter until all the scientists boarded the helicopter. There weren't that many scientists so soon most of them had boarded. The helicopter started taking off while dangling a rope for Randy and his guards to grab onto.

At this point, the mob was within range and some managed to grab onto the rope as the helicopter took off. Ace and Light quietly disappeared back into the airport without attempting to fight the people left on the tarmac.

The fight was surprisingly one-sided and painless for Ace and Light, mainly due to good sound proofing within the airport. If the War faction had reacted in time, it would have been a bloodbath as they held most of the guns.

***

On the helicopter, Randy was calling for Noah to pull them up while attempting to convince her that a few more uninfected people would not hinder them from returning to civilization.

However, Noah was immovable on this. Instead of pulling them up, she did something very unexpected. She opened one of the boxes with infected blood vials and poured it onto the people hanging on the ropes.

With an eerie smile, she said, "This is the little hope that I give to you as a reward for protecting me, my precious experiments."

Then she cut the rope and let Randy, his guards and the others fall back into the city.