Chapter 10: Night of the living virus (3)

I did not even have time to do anything because it all happened so fast. When the rebel went to investigate the small shrine, there emerged a swooshing sound followed by a trail of dim red light as something shot into the sky before disappearing. 

For a few picoseconds, there was a profound silence as all eyes were trained at the sky. That was when it happened.

*PAAA!* 

With the loud sound of a whip cracking, the entire sky and our entire field of vision became painted white. An annoying ringing sound assaulted my ears as all my senses of proprioception were lost at that moment and I could not even hear anything let alone see anything. I simply felt as though I was moving before my face suffered a hard impact followed by the taste of earth and dried leaves in my mouth. I did not even know how I had moved or how I had fallen down but I thanked whatever goddess of fortune who had prompted me to do that because it was the sole reason I was able to survive the massacre which happened next.

The white loss of vision and proprioception did not last long as I was able to barely distinguish the forest around me a few seconds later and I could finally hear some sounds.

"ENEMY AMBUSH!!!!" 

I heard one of the rebels shout as the rebels started to rapidly fire their guns into the thick surrounding undergrowth until all the magazines were emptied and all that came when they pulled their triggers were clicking sounds.

I did not dare to move an inch from the ditch I had fallen into despite hearing the tell-tale signs of guns out of ammo. I expected to hear shrieks and cries of pain from whatever Imperial soldiers who were ambushing us from the forest as they got ripped apart by the bullets but unexpectedly, none ever came.

It was only then that the rebels realized that there was never an ambush and it did not take very long for me to realize that the flash bang which had assaulted our senses was never meant to be used as cover. It was instead meant to be a signal and the things it was signaling were far beyond the means of any human to contend with.

We all heard them coming as they sundered the air apart whilst barreling towards us at supersonic speeds. Although we could not see them, each and everyone in the forest was very much aware of what the protracted whistling sound erringly similar to the whistle of a steam train steadily growing louder each second meant.

My intuition blared its danger alarms as it screamed at me to move, crawl or roll…. It warned me that I had to do anything it took to get the hell out of this place and yet my body and my mind made no efforts to do so. What had once been burgeoning thoughts of vengeance had instead become as blank as a slate. I did not think it was even remotely possible that a person could enter a blank state where they weren't even thinking and yet, here I was…. lying in a ditch I had fallen into and thinking absolutely nothing.

The steadily growing whistling sound was the entire reason why I my mind had become entirely blank.

I see…

I had given up to the sweet embrace of despair. There was nothing I could do to survive this situation and running would be ultimately futile so I could only grit my teeth and hope the gods of fortune were smiling upon me. 

Even the rebels had chosen to do the same as many of them started giving each other tearful hugs and bidding each other farewell. They knew that they might never get to see the light of day again.

My eyes slowly turned towards the beautiful girl I had seen earlier. She was now standing slumped against a tree in resignation, her eyes painted with despair.

An odd sense of petty satisfaction rose up from the depths of my soul when I saw her in that state because, you see, humans have an odd tendency to wish for others to share in the same misfortune they found themselves in. I did not like the idea of the girl gazing upon me with the eyes of a predator and I loathed the feeling of weakness I had felt at that moment. No-one was allowed to make me experience fear again… no one.

Closing my eyes, I heard the sounds of thousands upon thousands of sonic booms growing closer ravaging and shaking the earth with their shockwaves as the turbulent air currents caused the thousands of shells rocketing towards us to enter subsonic speeds before re-entering supersonic speeds due to the forces of gravity.

That's right… coming towards us where thousands upon thousands of highly explosive Antinite Railgun shells. The prior flash bang was never the cover of an insidious ambush, it was actually a signal and a target for the imperial railgun artillery gunners back at the mainland to know that the situation at the island had become compromised and where exactly it had become compromised. The Blinding flare had been nothing more than a large target being drawn over our heads.

Whichever genius strategist had come up with this ingenious trap deserved to be crowned by my blade as the king of good guys if I managed to survive this. My hate and ire was never directed at the stupid rebel who had sprung the trap in the first place because the chances of anyone or anything surviving the thousands of shells barreling towards us and blanketing the entire sky were less than one percent.

I looked up at the sky and had difficulty in swallowing a trickle of my own saliva at that moment for the first time in my life. 

They are here!

That was the last thought I would have for a very long amount of time.