Chapter 23: 1st Phasewalker Battalion v.s. Mutated Animals

As the blindfold came off, the captured local woman found herself staring at a woman with short, blonde hair. She sat down in a chair right before the woman. A strange green uniform, the same as those worn by the soldiers that captured the woman, covered the girl's body. An apologetic look on her face.

"I am sorry for all those precautions." Caity said quietly as she tossed the blindfold to the side. "We had to be careful. In this age, most visitors mean us ill."

The woman bit her lips as she looked around. She was in some sort of concrete room. It didn't take her long to find a security camera attached to a corner on the ceiling of the room that stared down at her. Needless to say, the uniformed woman wasn't the only one looking at her right now.

"Who are you people?"

The woman asked in confusion. Being captured was bad, if not terrible. She has seen enough to know what people, especially men, could do to captured female prisoners in this lawless era. At the same time, she also knew panic served no one.

"Well," Caity obviously couldn't tell the woman the truth, so she went to a story the Section X strategy analysts came up with after days of discussion. "we belong to a faction of survivors. A powerful one. Our people got to a few military bases and got all these gadgets." She tapped her uniform and sidearm.

Section X was able to generate a societal model of World Alpha. From the looks of things, after the military and the government got overran and Mutants rigged the streets, the survivors went into different groups and managed to beat back the Mutants by hiding behind barricades and walls. Some of these survivors did make it to abandoned military armories or bases. Given the case, her story wasn't so wild.

"Hmmm...how lucky." The woman's voice trailed off. "It looks like you got to more than a few military bases. Those tanks. The trucks and weapons. What are you even doing here? Building a camp?" She demanded as if she was the one doing the interrogation and Caity was the one interrogated.

Caity grinned. She wasn't acting as a ruthless interrogator, and for the right reason.

"Indeed, we are building a camp. A fortress, in fact. I and the men you see out there, we are merely the vanguard. The thing is, our faction is expanding. The fortress we are building here is merely one of the many positions that we are expanding into."

Section X has had a whole debate on what identity the Phasewalkers should assume. The matter of the fact was that sooner or later Caity and her men would run into locals, and unless they wanted to slaughter every single one of them, they needed a story to tell. They had to pretend to be someone local as well if they wanted to gain their trust.

Posing as the vanguard of a larger faction had its benefits. First of all, it explained where all the men and weapons were coming from. Secondly, the locals the Phasewalkers interacted with would undoubtedly question what this all-mighty faction was, and when they couldn't find it, they wouldn't jump to the idea that this faction didn't exist. As long as units and resources kept on pouring in, the locals would likely assume this faction was too far away to be reached. Sometimes, the mystery could be a helper.

This was why Caity was being so nice. She needed the local woman to tell whatever faction she belonged to the story the Phasewalkers came up with.

The woman frowned. Expanding? Every camp she knew was either dwindling or barely making it by. What type of faction could be growing in a time and a world like this? Then again, looking at the weapons and resources these people had, chances were they looted some sort of hidden military warehouse or something and managed to arm themselves. It sounded crazy, but, well, the ground was overrun with human-eating beasts and a thousand other menaces. What else could be crazier than that?

She didn't recognize the automatic rifles, but she automatically classified that as she herself being ill-informed.

These lucky bastards!

Sensing that the woman was buying into her story, Caity grinned warmly and pushed forward. "I mean no harm to you or your comrade. My name is Colonel Caity Hunter. I am the leader of the forces here, which we just call Fortress Alpha. I just want to ask you a few questions."

The woman bit her lips and dodged her gaze. "Where's Liam?"

"He's fine. I will have both of you released as soon as you answer my questions." Caity leaned forward once again. "Who are you and where did you come from?"

The woman turned to the side and responded with silence.

Caity nodded slowly before retreating out of the room without another word. Walking by two Phasewalker sentries in green camouflage uniforms, she made her way to a surveillance room where Eric and Davis were waiting.

"So, what are you going to do with her?" Eric asked impatiently.

Caity shrugged. Suddenly, Ryan walked into the room. The Battalion Commissar quietly walked past Eric and passed Caity a piece of paper. The Colonel quickly looked through its content. When it was done, she looked up with acknowledgment in her eyes.

"I see. In that case, we need to put up a show. A demonstration." She turned to Ryan. "Is Fortress Alpha ready to proceed with the plan?"

"Yes. All personnel is ready for combat. All the setups around Fortress Alpha are finished. All gears and ammunition are on this side of the Portal. They can be delivered to the troops in minutes." Ryan immediately realized what Caity was thinking about, and for this reason, he added. "We are ready to do our job."

Caity nodded her head heavily before scanning everyone in the room, from Ryan to Eric to Captain Davis.

"Eric, tell all the Captains to come here at once. We have a battle to fight."

---

It has been two hours since she was interrogated.

Throughout the two hours, the woman sat in the room quietly. She tried to move, but her chair was nailed to the ground. Faced with nothing else to do but think, she did exactly that.

The woman's name was Maria. When the first wave of Alpha Virus struck, her grandparents were immediately mutated. The last thing she remembered was her parents telling her to run, even as they themselves were ripped apart while holding the Mutants back.

And run she did. Maria has been an athlete runner since middle school. With her speed and reflexes, she survived the endless horrors that have devoured the world. with the same qualities, she managed to land the job of a scout of Camp York. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get her some food so she didn't have to sell her body just to feed herself.

When Maria was captured by these men, she was really afraid, and that fear only grew as she spent longer in the silence. She has heard stories about all sorts of malicious human factions out there. Marauders. Bandits. Thugs. These individuals were still human on the outside, but deep down inside, they were no better than the Mutants. They would torture and kill anyone they got their hands on. The men would fare better. At least they could get a quick death. The women, on the other hand…

Fortunately for her, these men didn't lay a finger on her. Still, when their leader, a girl who couldn't be older than Maria herself, asked for information, she kept her lips tight. Lord Apollo wasn't one to favor betrayals.

Deep down, the woman was worried. The girl looked all nice and polite, but there was no telling what she would do after being rejected.

The door was pushed open and an armed man walked in. Maria struggled. So when the easy way failed, it was time for the hard way, huh? The woman quietly did some calculations in her head. Lord Apollo was terrifying, but he was leagues away, and right now, these people and their guns were equally scary...

She was a little confused when the sentry untied her hands. That confusion turned to surprise when the sentry handed her a handgun. It was her weapon that was confiscated when she was captured.

"What…" Now what were these people trying to do?

"We are under attack from the Mutants." The sentry said quietly as Maria stood up. "We need every human to fight."

Now that the door was open and Maria paid attention, she could hear the sound of gunshots and beast growls coming from the outside, and her expression changed. In most cases, Mutants roamed around in the wild, ambushing human scavenging parties or other passersby. They rarely attacked entrenched human settlements, but whenever they did, it was done with a swarm of countless Mutants. Maria has never witnessed any of such sieges, but she has heard many tales from haunted survivors. In most cases, the settlements didn't survive the siege.

If this settlement was really under siege, then she was in some real trouble.

Following the Phasewalker sentry, Maria ran through a series of unfamiliar corridors before reaching the outside. There, a battle was already raging on.

Hundreds of Mutated Animals roared as they charged toward the Fortress Alpha. Mutated Wolves. Mutated Cats and Dogs. Even a few mutated Rabbits. Most of them had not a single clue of what was going on. All they knew was they were going about their business, casually resting or hunting or being hunted, when they heard something flying over their head, blasting music. Their instincts to kill and devour, powered by both the noise and the smell of flesh on those flyers, prompted them to deviate from their course and chase after the helicopters.

The helicopters purposefully maintained a speed so they wouldn't be endangered by the Mutants but the Mutants wouldn't fall too far behind.

As more and more Mutants gathered behind the helicopter, something thrilling happened. The fact was that Mutants were by no means friends with each other. Nope. Most Mutated Animals hunted fellow Mutated Animals the same way they hunted human beings. Only several groups of special Mutated Animals hunted in packs, such as the Mutated Wolves that have caused Caity so much grief.

As the Mutated Animals pursuing the choppers got out into the open, they ran into other Mutated Animals. Before long, the helicopter pilots watched gladly as their foes just started killing each other. A pack of Mutated Wolves dissected a Mutated Tiger. A Mutated Elephant stampede its way across a horde of Mutated Dogs.

Before the Phasewalkers even fired a single shot, numerous Mutated Animals were already slaughtered. Their flesh and blood paved a path of carnage across the open field, trailing behind the helicopters.

Ever since the Phasewalkers established Fortress Alpha, the plan to clear out a certain perimeter has always been on the timetable. Caity and the Section X analysts back home knew very well the Phasewalkers could make no real progress if every step they took outside the fortress walls would result in an ambush. They had to do some cleansing first.

Only fools would engage Mutants in the field with a force as small as the 1st Phasewalker Battalion, but one advantage the human had against the animals, no matter how Mutated they were, was intelligence. After observing that there were no Mutants with anti-air capabilities in the surroundings, Caity came up with this plan.

Lure all the Mutants in the area to smash into the newly built Fortress Alpha and bury them all in the meters of trenches with a storm of machine-gun rounds, artillery, grenades, and missiles.

Originally, this plan wasn't supposed to be executed for another several days, if not weeks, but the presence of the two Camp York scouts changed things.

Countless roared echoed through the air as the Mutated Animals finally reached the walls of Fortress Alpha. For a while, the Phasewalkers held their fire. All they did was hold their ground behind sandbags or inside bunkers. Their eyes were trained on the Mutated Animals as they advanced, killing each other in the process. But as they got closer to the fortress, the smell of human flesh became more and more effective. The Mutated Animals, following their nature, turned more attention to humans rather than their own Mutated kind. There were still some infighting, but overall, the lines were much more united.

Leading the charge was a Mutated Hound. The Mutations gave him an extra pair of legs. A total of three pair of legs brought the Hound into the front of the horde. Finally, it took a leap into the air, its teeth watering at the sight of fresh human meat to devour. As if it wanted to intimidate its prey first, in mid-air, it opened its mouth and let out a roar.

That bloodthirsty roar turned into a whimper as the beast's legs hit the ground and the Mutated Hound realized he wasn't actually standing on solid ground. Under a layer of grass was actually a wooden plank, which cracked immediately under the additional weight. The unfortunate Mutated Hound collapsed into what was under the plank: a deep trench.

Before it could react, a line of metal pikes lining across the bottom of the trenches plowed through its neck and stomach. Blood oozed out. Worst of all, the Hound was still alive, its life extended by the Alpha Virus coursing through its body. Yet, ultimately, there was nothing it could do but slowly feel that life drained away.

Caity was standing on one of the watchtowers with a set of binoculars. A set of radios was beside her. In the front, the front of the horde has reached the trap at the trenches, which successfully tricked groups of Mutated Animals into their death. The fierce charge was put to a brief halt.

That was when she gave the order.

"Phasewalkers, fire at will!"

---

In one of the 50 bunkers across the perimeter, five Phasewalkers of the 4th Motorized Company were waiting. As soon as the order could be heard through the radio, they exchanged a look before dashing into action. One of them reached for a mounted M2 browning and started pulling the trigger. A string of fire exploded from the gun barrels. Four other Phasewalkers did a similar thing, except it was with their M4A1s.

A line of armor formed up behind the bunkers. M1A2 SEP main battle tanks. Lav-25s. Dozens of Phasewalker pilots followed their training with shaking hands. This might be the first time they were truly fighting real ammo at real, breathing enemies, but they were nonetheless unfaltering. They were supplemented by 15 M109 Howitzers from the 3rd Company in their task to rain down fire and fury against all that opposed the Phasewalker Corps.

In just seconds, across the 2 kilometers of battle line, hundreds and hundreds of Mutated Animals were mowed down by the human firepower. Artillery shell after artillery shell exploded among the beasts, tossing them into the air like ragged dolls. When they landed, they were dead already. Shrapnel rounds exploded into a thousand pieces of metal, most of which found a new home inside the body of a Mutant attacker.

The beasts kept on charging even as the lick of the machine gun rounds sent them to the ground one by one, but the 8 meters of trenches was enough to keep most of them at bay. Countless attackers made a leap of faith, only to be smashed into a pile of battered flesh in the bottom of the trenches. The Mutants growled and screeched in endless fury, but the Phasewalker entrenchment was too tough to be broken.

In one of the bunkers, Alex pulled the trigger a single time. A bullet flew out of the barrel and landed in the eye of a Mutated Cat. The animal has lost whatever cuteness cats were supposed to represent. Its body was covered in sharp, spear-like fur. The bullet caught it completely by surprise. Before it knew what happened, the bullet exploded inside its brain, turning the Mutated Cat into something even the mysterious Alpha Virus couldn't revive.

Hollow Point Bullets. Designed to explode inside the body of those unlucky enough to be shot by them. It was frowned upon by the global community, mostly because if you were shot by one of these, you would probably die from all the different bullet pieces in your body. But here, in World Alpha, even the rules of war had to give way for one thing.

Victory.

Alex reloaded her weapon, ejecting a used shell. As she took her eyes off the Mutated Animals, she suddenly turned to the trooper beside her.

The Phasewalker was pulling the trigger of his automatic rifle, but the weapon has been out of bullets for quite a while. Alex sighed in frustration before lowering her rifle and tapping the man on the shoulder. The Phasewalker snapped around. A haunted look on his face.

"What?"

"Reload!" Alex screamed. As if he was suddenly woken up, the Phasewalker followed his training and loaded another full magazine into his M4A1 before returning to the shooting. Alex's face was blank as she returned to her position and put some sort of Mutated Insect behind her sight. It was at least half a meter tall, with claws sharp enough to send chills down Alex's spine.

She pulled the trigger.

The insect collapsed into the swarm of Mutants.

As she went from target to target, Alex suddenly found a small smirk climbing onto her face. Even with all the death and carnage around her, she had to admit shooting at these Mutated Animals and hearing their screams and cries and shrieks was a million times better than shooting paper targets. In a sense, it was even relieving.

As the recoil of the rifle hit her shoulder, Alex suddenly remembered reading a text somewhere that said "there was nothing better to relieve stress than a massacre that brings no burden to your mind."

"How accurate."

She noted before placing the head of a Mutated Ant into her sight.