Chương 29: Bloodbath

Kevin held the man in his arms as he stopped breathing and his body went limp. Though he barely even knew this person, he was gripped by a terrible sense of wretchedness. Horrifying memories resurfaced in his mind as he sat there surrounded by the corpses. He remembered watching his friends die at school and the news of his parents' death.

Tears threatened to gush out of Kevin's eyes, but he steeled himself. This wasn't the time to be weak. Whatever had killed these men was probably still lurking inside the maintenance corridor, and he wasn't going to let it harm anyone else.

"The wall,'' Kevin mumbled, looking around.

With the help of the glow stick, Kevin began scanning the walls. He hadn't noticed anything suspicious on his way in, but then again he was too focused on the path ahead. Kevin backtracked, shining the light on each tile as he slowly walked the corridor.

His initial search yielded no results, so he turned around again. Keeping his eyes on the walls, he passed the dead bodies and continued walking. A few minutes later, the main power coil came to view. It was over 8 feet in height and was surrounded by four tertiary coils.

As Kevin approached the power coils, his attention was immediately drawn to an open vent attached to the right wall. Its grill cover was lying on the ground. All the screws on it were missing, but there was no sign of cutting or burning. It wasn't a forced entry.

No machine would take all the trouble of removing screws and sneaking into the maintenance corridor undetected. This had to be the work of a human. The ventilation shaft was just wide enough for a slim person to crawl through.

Kevin's suspicion was soon confirmed as he found a small piece of cloth lying on the floor. He picked it up and examined it up close. It was not Neolineum, which meant that the culprit wasn't from the Residential District, but an outsider.

Gradually, Kevin put the pieces of the puzzle together. A single person had come in through the vent and tampered with the power coils. His job was to simply sabotage the power supply and get out of there, but he hadn't anticipated the rapid response from the lab and security personnel. What was a bit difficult to digest was the fact that one man had managed to take down two armed guards and a lab technician. Whoever it was definitely had some training.

One thing, however, remained unclear. 'Why would someone from the outside want to cut off the research facility's power supply?'

Kevin was still thinking about the possibilities when he received a communication request from Suzy. He picked up at once.

"Kev, you need to get back here!" Suzy yelled over the line.

"The guards and the technician have been killed, Suzy. Someone infiltrated the maintenance corridor through a ventilation shaft."

"It's the work of the Raiders!"

"How do you know that?"

"Because they have breached subsection D-1 and D-2 and are trying to get into D-3! They cut off the power to disable the auto-targeting turrets and catch the guards by surprise. We need you over here!" Suzy urged.

"I'm coming! Just hold on!" Kevin disconnected the call and ran back at full speed.

As Kevin rushed outside, a loud explosion blew open the door separating D-2 from D-3. Before Tyler and his men could spot the targets, the tunnel filled with smoke.

"Suzy, get back to the R&D lab!" Kevin yelled.

She knew she would be of little help here and took the special express elevator to the lab.

Kevin pointed his left arm forward. "Activate Rapid Firing Gatling Gun!"

Destroying robots was one thing, but killing humans was something far beyond Kevin's imagination. Though he kept his gun aimed at the door, he didn't actually want to fire it. He wasn't a killer!

A series of blinding flashes suddenly lit up the tunnel, accompanied by loud shrieking noises. Tyler and his men became disoriented and dropped their guard. Just then, automatic rifle fire tore through the tunnel, taking them out one by one. The men started dropping like flies.

Tyler had ducked behind a sandbag wall, but the others weren't so lucky. His entire team was massacred in the blink of an eye as the Raiders marched into the tunnel.

Seeing those men getting shot right in front of his eyes, triggered something inside Kevin. It was as if a switch had been flipped in his mind. The world had turned into a cruel and unforgiving place and there was no room for those who refused to pull the trigger when needed.

Even though Kevin couldn't see anything, he started firing blindly into the smoke, yelling at the top of his voice. "Die, you bastards! Bastards, all of you!"

His 'spray and pray' method managed to cause panic in the enemy's ranks. He kept firing indiscriminately, killing all who stood before the barrels of his gun. Blood and chunks of flesh scattered like confetti as he continued mowing down the Raiders.

"Fall back!"

"It's that damn Cyborg!"

The sound of wild screams, mingled with the dull clutter of footsteps, reverberated throughout the tunnel as the surviving Raiders ran for their lives. Kevin kept firing until his gun stopped automatically due to overheating.

A river of corpses stretched out before him, beyond which lay the sea of blood and guts. Empty shells were strewn across the floor, like wilting flowers at a graveyard.

Kevin didn't feel a thing as he looked at the eviscerated remains of the dead Raiders. They all deserved to die! He only regretted not firing sooner. In his eyes, the Raiders weren't humans, but monsters disguised as people. Even in the middle of an apocalypse, all they could think about was killing other humans, instead of fighting against a common enemy.

The Raiders were a disease and Kevin swore to be the cure. His mind was clouded with dark thoughts when his AI made an announcement.

// Artificial Assistance enabled.

Analyzing combat data...

30 hostiles eliminated.

Targets killed: humans.

Affiliation: Raiders.

Raiders added to the list of hostiles.

Suggest immediate termination! //

As soon as this announcement was over, his right eye flashed a stream of green light on the ground, scanning the corpses.

// Analyzing...analysing...

No resources detected! //

Kevin ignored the AI's messages and walked up to Tyler. He was still staring at the bodies of his fallen brothers. Hearing Kevin's footsteps approaching, he turned around.

"I need you to do me a favor," he said, looking into Kevin's eyes. "Kill those Raiders. Leave no one alive."

"I plan to do just that. Point me in the right direction," Kevin replied.

Tyler darted his eyes forward, towards the gaping hole in the tunnel. "The Dark District lies just beyond subsection D-1."

Kevin nodded and walked off in the pointed direction. He was ready to end this once and for all.

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