PART:1

The vehicles were armed with heavy machine guns and well-trained men, and women. 4 squads left the bunker, 5 survivors in each carrier, all of them were ready for their deaths to arrive, but there's him, a 15-year-old boy, looking outside the windshield plated with a thick metal shield, the screen behind the armor showed the surrounding which used to be crowded and lifeful city. only ruins of buildings and war vestigial against the Coral remaining.

Jake let out a worried sigh, even tho he was listed as a priority survivor, whose mission was to return with the goods, providing the bunker and the humans inside.

"Why do I feel shivering this time... I had done this before..."

he reached his hand to the pistol in the holster, "12 rounds, I practiced..." he then took out his water bottle, took a sip, kept his cool, and took off his helmet, letting his brown hair out, scratching.

Jake: "I wonder what John and Cornie are doing now..."

reaching the mark of 4 km away from the bunker, the squads of armored carriers split up, two vehicles on each path, then two got separate again, the carrier Jake was on, carried everyone to the planned location, an abounded mall away from the base 34km, this place can hold about 1000 people and 500 worker core, supplies is plenty and ready to be discovered, that includes a high level of threat inside and outside. luckily for the squad, no H.rC has been encountered on the way here. 

the vehicle went into stealth mode, and the whole armor plates then blended with the surroundings. with the door opened from behind, drivers and the captain of the quad got out first, after that 3 people including Jake was inside. compared to them he was less armed, but he got the stealth device attached to his left arm and on his backpack.

"Alright, we have 20 hours to stay alive, as soon we get what we need" The captain turned on the hologram to show everyone why they were here, 

"A healer core has been spotted by scout drones sent from yesterday, the core which was known to be deep inside the storage section of the mall, this thing could be useful for our medical technology" he switched off the hologram and continued, "also get whatever you see useful on the way, this mission required you to go as a group, so stick close and don't separate each other" his face show a serious expression, the battle marks on his face was the prove that he has survived many trip outside, most of the people at the base knows him when he carried a dead HC back at the base, all of his teammates are gone. on it were many wounds caused by hand-to-hand combat. by his actions and from the HC's corpse, the scientist can find out their weaknesses, and how to counter them.

"hey kid, make sure you return to the carrier, it will automatically bring you home if you get a hold of the objective, or anything went wrong..." The captain gave Jake a clap on his shoulder, it was true the chances were high, Jake thought to himself.

Jake: "It's always be them..."

the squad of 5 makes their way to the side of the mall, the captain takes the lead, Jake in the middle with the driver and 3 others at the back, inside the mall is dark, and messy with black trails of black liquid on the floor and walls, it looks like something has been dragged around or moving around. the group avoided touching those trails as much as possible, they knew what would happen if they made contact even the smallest. lights from the flashlight shine their way inside this nightmare of a place, Jake gets an unsettling feeling, he holds his pistol tightly like the other times he went out, even tho those things need to be shot at a specific part, his gun will hardly kill the H.rC, mostly used to stun them.

the mall was silent with only the sounds of something dripping on the floor, the sounds of everyone's breath, and their metal shoes on the broken floor. Jake and everyone move to the elevator that will take them down to the storage section, the elevator has been torn apart by s strong force, causing the ground to be broken wide, the crack leading down, deep below.

"All alright... make way," the driver said, he took out the grappling hook, and a girl handled the other part of the device, they aimed at the top of the ceiling, while down so, the rest covered them in case there was any Human re-con around, 

*THANG* the spike drilled into the ceiling, and a rope deployed down to the hole.

"go now"

by the captain's order, everyone quickly attached their support device, helping them to move down. the sound went all around the place, and the location of the hook was revealed to many H.rC, quickly some of them showed up, their red X eyes glowed in the dark with the sounds of something scratching the ground, something sharp and decaying the material. the squad was quick enough...

they soon dropped down to the storage section, everything looked more stabilized and safer than from above. 

"Woah I didn't expect everything to still be intact down here," the girl said.

"This place must be durable" Guy#1

"Not everything can stand against that liquid..." Guy #2

the three look at each other, but then their captain tells them to focus on the mission. on their way, Jake and the three found a lot of rations, one of them even brought a box full of Quick-Meal on the transport bot he deployed. continued their quest, everyone passed through many categories of supplies, and quickly, they had reached the part and replaceable. this place unlike the rest of the basement, was heavily infected by D-substance, the whole path and ways are now covered with pitch black spikes and red emitting electric spark light from them.

"Oh boy..."

"c'mon we can't mess around, sooner we get the core, the sooner we can get out of this place"

the captain rushed everyone, and they began to run, passing the spikes, trying not to get pierced by them. the radar detected no Coral around, and the core was getting close. they stopped at a container and opened it using the forces of 5 people, the group could finally take the core. inside the container, there are a lot of Healer cores, but most of them are not functioning anymore, the captain then grabs a still intact core from the death machine, testing to see if it still works, which it was.

"Great, time to head back," he said. 

everyone is glad that the mission has gone through like it was planned, Jake still has that unsettled feeling in his head, he keeps feeling it for no reason. the team then heads back to where they came down from, but this time, instead of climbing upward, they have to search for the stairs. 

"I can hear those things above us..." -Guy#1

"shh... don't speak, they might hear us" -Guy#2

the captain takes out a bait, a one-timed speaker, the squad looks at it and understands what he is going to do. he gave it to the girl and she began to install it, the group then quickly got into the fire exit stairs, and after a few steps ahead, the girl set it off. down in the basement, the speaker plays a very loud sound of two people speaking. taking the chance, the group begins running, their footsteps sounds have been covered by the bait, and the sounds of many mechanized roars and screams with the sound of something stabbing the brick is getting down, just in two seconds, those things have overtaken the storage section, leaving the surface all clear. Jake with his team rushed outside, not bothering anything around, they all just dive their head and ran.

upon getting out, everyone was shocked to see one bird flying above, the captain not wasting any second, took his modified rifle with an electric pulse and took the shot, the rounds flew out of the barrel and it took down the infected bird. the flying creature hit the ground with the sound of *splat* 

"c'mon let's move!" the captain said, he knew everything would soon go bad if they didn't go away fast. 

the area around the mall has no cover for them, it is like an empty plate, and anything can be poured inside. "shit!" Jake thinks to himself, but the feeling remains. 

the HC might have detected the survivors, they all rushed outside, from the buildings and the area where they left. things are looking bad for the survivors, their carrier is away from them approximately 300m away, the captain gives Jake the core, and he looks at him with worried eyes.

"uh oh..." Jake thinks. he knows and understands, he turns on the cloaking device, and the boy immediately goes invisible, his running speed increases and speeds up to the vehicle.

"Are we going to die?" the girl said,

"Not without a fight..." Guy#2

with the H.rC charging with the top speed of a fighter jet, at the group of people, the captain and his soldier or civilian who has been training for their death, all fire their weapons, moving and keeping their distance away. 

many of the Human re-con C.ty.e all let out a distorted scream, sharing the same hive mind, and the superior form of life, the survivors will be eradicated in no time. one of the H.rCs dived down the sky, and ate a few shots of the driver, before slashing him into four, creating a shockwave that knocked everything around.

"GET UP, WE GOT TO MOVE"

their scream echoed throughout the whole area, will there be an end to this nightmare?

Jake runs back to the Carrier, right when the cloaking device goes into recharge mode, breathing heavily, he still isn't used to this. the carrier computer detected him.

A.C: "Start evac sequence?"

Jake hesitated, he looked at the screen showing the team status, himself, and three others still alive, but then dropped into only him and two others when the time hit into next minute.

"wait!" he said "Wait for the other."

A.C: "Understood"

observing the screen while checking the surroundings, he saw more and more HC coming to them. when all things seem to be over, the sound of his captain and the girl goes through his ears, jake takes the risk and drives the vehicle, turning the carrier head back, the door wide open from behind, the captain and the girl continue to run and gun, behind them, is tons of Human Coral, "C'mon!" jake yelled.

when the captain and the girl finally touched the mark, "GO NOW" the computer accelerated the carrier at full speed, and the captain and lady all fired their weapon until the door was fully sealed.

"cut them loose!" the captain ordered the computer, 

AC: "Evading maneuver"

The carrier driver through a broken building, causing the H.rCs to slow down, then exits through a tunnel that has been dug before, successfully escaping death.

"y'all alright?" -Jake

"you got balls kid..." the girl said.

"damn... thanks a lot, kid" -captain

"Glad you-"

the conversation immediately cut off when the carrier got attacked from above, a hole could be seen pierced through the carrier, and from afar something was being shot at the vehicle, without letting the survivor have a chance, another HC then dived in, it cut the car in half from the side, crashed everything. 

Jake whimpered on the ground, he felt his body had been cut by a metal object, but the wound wasn't deep, trying to stand up, he saw the girl and the captain is running to him.

"c'mon, we have to go!" -captain

he picked the boy up and started running. they all headed inside a small building, the girl when tried to go in with him, but the captain shot her in the heart, and the girl fell down and immediately bled to death, he knew why he had to do it, she had been slashed by the re.con. and if he don't the girl will be one of them.

Jake and the captain are the only two survivors...

"What now sir..?"

"stick to the plan, I know you have been through this a lot, only you were still alive... so I have an order for you..."

Jake closed his mouth and listened closely, he didn't want to hear the word-

"priority survivors must be protected at all costs"

"no...no..."

his weak words do not do anything to the cruel reality, his worrying feelings are correct, and every time he is the one who is alive when all of his team dies.

the captain hid Jake in the ventilation, and for his job right now, the captain baited the H.rCs away, he jumped out of the building, luring them all away from Jake.

Jake: "Why me..." he watched, watching the Human machine passing through with the rifle sounds going up from the distance, 2, 5, 10 shots, and then silence, nothing could be heard besides Jake's heartbeat and breathing. he takes his toolbox, to fix up the wound on his stomach, he has nothing to do besides, bringing what he has and the stuff his team looted on this one-way mission for his squad.