Chapter 352: Running
There was a long silence after Laz left before everyone seemed to mutter a collective ’Fuck.’ After a brief stunned moment and a bit of laughter, they started making their plans. Lyssa would go with the sisters while the other’s would stay put and wait for the incoming relief effort. And when asked about anyone who was missing, they plan was to act ignorant for as long as possible.
It wasn’t a great plan, but it would work in the short term.
...
Laz ran away from the building for a bit until he was clear. He then reached down, grabbed a rock and focused for a minute to detect what was around him. Without hesitation, Laz threw the rock hard at one of the tiny black dots in the sky. The drone, hundreds of feet off the ground was barely able to focus on him before the small engines failed, causing the drone to plummet to the ground. While it might have only been a moment, it did catch his face like he had planned.
Going forward, Laz was going to be their only target.
...
"Fuck. Follow him. Where is he now?" Tommy screamed as the other drone operators turned their drones and all their attention towards where Laz was spotted.
Just like he had imagined, once they caught sight of him, nothing else mattered.
"He’s running for the breached gate," One of the operators responded as his drone got into position.
"The breached gate?"
"Yes sir. For whatever reason, the stampede of demon beasts just ran away a little while ago and he seems to be going in the same direction."
"Have our ground teams go after him. If anyone gets into a clear position, take a shot," Tommy ordered, not bothering to care what anyone else in the command center vehicle had to say.
"Sir. The drones are all equipped with explosive ordinance. Didn’t you want to take him alive?" One of the pilots asked.
"That would hardly be enough to kill him," Tommy said before sitting down and grabbing a drink. As he tossed back the throat burning whiskey, he knew that all he could do now was wait. He wasn’t about to go out there himself so he had to leave it in the hands of the other chosen who were working with the ground teams.
And as annoying as it was to admit, considering everything that had happened up until this point, Tommy didn’t actually think they would capture Laz this way. He had made another suggestion on what they could use to subdue Laz, something that Jesse had loaned to him before he left for this job. But after hearing about it, Agent Wallace, as the top ranking official with his own military clearance, refused to even entertain the idea.
He knew far more about what Tommy wanted to use than even Tommy himself. Considering the paperwork behind it, Tommy barely glanced over it while the agent had read the report from front to back. Even then, before knowing it was operational, he vowed to never use it.
Of course, that was assuming he didn’t fail this mission.
...
Laz had a brief moment of clarity as he rain through the rain soaked trees and over the mossy, grass covered ground.
’How many times am I going to have to run away like this?’ Laz couldn’t help but ask himself, not even bothering to turn around.
The irony of the situation hadn’t escaped him, he was just powerless to do anything about it. He didn’t believe for a moment that the ones chasing him could either catch him or threaten him. He had felt, when he was using his divine sense to scan the area, that there were several, relatively high powered chosen within the teams trying to encircle him, not to mention the one in the command vehicle almost a mile away.
He just didn’t feel that they would be a risk to his life.
As such, there was really no need for him to try so hard to run away again. Even still, that’s exactly what he was doing so that they wouldn’t threaten his friends.
The whole thing kind of left Laz feeling a bit stifled. He didn’t mind running, but everyone has a limit and he was feeling like every major event in his life since he had awoken involved running.
’Well... at least I’ve gotten pretty good at it I guess?’ Laz asked himself as he jumped and ran without hesitation. While he had intentionally headed towards the area where the demon beasts had run off too, it wasn’t because he was looking to loose his pursuit in the woods. Actually, it had to do with how much he was trying to tempt them. Since he assumed they weren’t stupid, he wanted to give them the impression of desperation. If he headed off in any old direction and still kept out of their grasp, they would probably turn around quicker and go after the people he was with sooner. So all this was to give them extra time, well, the sisters and Lyssa as he was pretty sure the others would be ok. Fame had it’s uses.
Or at least this was what he was hoping would happen. There was no way to know for sure and Laz couldn’t guarantee that he could possibly know what others were thinking. This just made the most sense to him.
As Laz trailed deeper into the woods, he would sometimes come across demon beasts who had stopped fleeing for one reason or another. When this happened, he would pretend to be wary of them and change his direction to avoid them. When the pursuit troops in their atvs and off road vehicles came charging by soon after, those beasts would flee. And thanks to the drones in the air, command had a pretty good idea what happened every time.
"Why is he constantly avoiding those animals. It’s one thing if he doesn’t fight them, but his changes in direction are slowing him down. Is he scared of them?" Agent Wallace, despite hating the current company, was still a institutionalist down to his bones and would there for help in any way he could. After all, those were the orders.
"He’s not weaker than any of them. He’s probably stronger then the last time we saw him," Tommy said with a bored yawn, taking another swig from the bottle.
"Then why this act?" Agent Wallace looked back, his voice neither overbearing or submissive.
"Either he’s trying to lead us on or, more likely, he’s tired or injured. You said a demon wave broke out there right? Chances are he fought more than once and tired himself out. Even if he won each time, he’s not a robot. He will tired eventually. I’m just glad we found tonight of all nights to act. This stupid bitch has wasted way too much of my time already. He should just submit nicely so we can put him in a jar next to his grandpa. I’m sure they’d be good company for each other, HA HA HA..."
’That fucking villain laugh. I thought he was just being a jackass when I first heard it but that’s really how that maniac laughs... fucking weird,’ Agent Wallace said to himself while keeping his eyes on the drone feeds.
’Wait. His grandpa?’ Agent Wallace shot a brief glance at Tommy who was now watching the feeds with a sour look on his face.
"Those stupid fuckers."
Agent Wallace turned back to see that a couple groups had stopped to engage wandering demon beasts who’d been disturbed by their loud vehicles in the woods. While the beasts smelled Azeban’s blood on Laz and didn’t dare chase, freezing in place only out of fear, they had no such issues with these other humans. Due to this change, several regular military members were attacked which made the other members stop chasing and trying to rescue each other even if they were being ordered to keep going. After all, the only ones ordering them to keep going with the arrogantly fucking chosen who had assumed command as soon as they joined the squad.
Tommy wasn’t cursing the chosen who were trying to do their jobs, but the military personal who wouldn’t just follow orders and abandon each other. Tommy couldn’t wait for the day the didn’t need the solders anymore so they could be killed the moment they refused to follow orders.
’But then again, this is a good opportunity for me,’ Tommy thought before turning his attention to Agent Wallace.
"If it goes on like this, he’s going to get away again." Tommy said, strangely calm.
Agent Wallace didn’t answer back. Instead, he stared at the young man on the screen and had a strange thought,
’A man who doesn’t give up. One who would even jump into an enemy base just to save a girl. One who would even stare a god in the face and throw himself at it. I wonder just who here is a monster and who is blessed?’ Agent Wallace didn’t turn to look at Tommy, but that was who he was thinking about.
’To think they are the same age too.’
"Agent? Are you really going to fail again this time?" Tommy said, not bothered being ignored. Instead, he was thrilled. In the past, he had only been met with angry retort. But now it seemed like the agent was actually thinking it over.
Even so, Tommy was surprised by the next words Agent Wallace spoke.
"Go ahead. I give my permission," Agent Wallace said with a sigh, turned around and sat down, his gaze a thousand kilometers away from what was happening.
"Uh... Yes. Right. All teams. Keep tracking suspect but fall back. Sending in the Alpha Squad!" Despite the cringe worthy name, the chosen all had looks of dread on their faces as they told their squads to fall back and focus on keeping each other safe. This full turnaround as the chosen themselves got down from whatever high stoop they were riding on to start battling the nearby demon beasts made all of them go slack jawed.
If they had known what the chosen knew, they would understand that they were only doing this to cover their own asses. The farther away they were, the safer they were. So suddenly every little cut and injury of the team’s military personal was suddenly life threatening, even if they had to do it themselves.
In one team for example, after hearing the news, the chosen leader, who had kept his people safe and had gotten lucky, suddenly waved his finger as a long spiderweb hanging from a nearby tree sudden became as hard as metal but as flexible as string. It shot out from the tree, wrapped itself around the lead drivers wrist and with a ’slit’ sound, the drivers wrist was removed. He screamed in pain and lost control of the care, causing a pileup that prevented them from moving forward at all.
Exactly as he had planned. While he looked at the injured solder with a guilty frown on his face, he reminded himself that losing one hand was was better than everyone loosing their lives.
Back at a special cryogenic truck that had been following along with the command vehicle, dormant screens suddenly unlocked and powered up. This sleeping giant was suddenly full of light and sound as several layers of activity sprung up, animating the inside. Within several tubes filled of a unknown, frozen liquid, the dethaw process had begun and these troops would be ready in a few moments at most.
As agent Wallace and Tommy, sporting a huge smile, watched on, the almost identical looking members of the alpha squad suited up, having been naked from being frozen. They grabbed their weapons and jumped out of a hatch in the top of the vehicle.
In their heads, while they were going through these actions, many key points of data were being downloaded directly to their brains. Their mission, their target, info about the terrain and their commanding officer was inputted into their brains in mere moments as they jumped off and took off into the woods, their speeds faster than anything a normal human could hope to accomplish.
As secret and important members involved in this program were suddenly alerted to it’s activation and tuned in to watch, the Alpha Squad had begun their hunt for Laz
