The shell went over their outpost.

Over the broken road.

Over the southern approach packed with infected.

Then it landed far beyond the eastern approach.

The street disappeared in white fire.

The explosion swallowed dozens of infected at once, ripping apart the rear of the swarm before the front even understood what had happened.

A shockwave rolled back through the post, shaking dust from the doorway and forcing several Cell 7 agents to lower their heads.

The horde instantly broke.

The part directly beneath the shell vanished under fire and flying concrete.

The ones closest to the post still clawed forward, teeth snapping, hands scraping against the broken slab.

But the infected farther back turned toward the thunder.

Genevieve stared at the burning street. Her ears rang loudly, but her thoughts did not.

Is it Golden Eagle?!

Johannes lowered his pistol slightly.

His gaze moved toward the distant fire, and his mind returned to the gigantic Hellhammer vehicles he had seen sitting in one corner of Hans’s base.

He had not known what they were before.

Now, he had a very clear idea.

Johannes glanced at Cell 7. "That is why I said you should pack up and leave."

Lucie’s mouth opened. No words came out.

Genevieve clenched her jaw. She understood only one thing for now.

Golden Eagle had not been bluffing when he said he would show to her the full might of his army.

"Attention all Cell 7 agents!" Genevieve ordered, one hand still holding the southern slab in place. "Execute Square One. Inform Jannik and Vivian. We’re leaving this forsaken place with Agent Johannes."

Lucie and the rest did not dare argue.

"Understood."

The post erupted into motion.

Cell 7 agents moved through the maintenance block with frightening speed. One agent broke east at once to reach Jannik and Vivian. Another slammed open a concealed cabinet and pulled out sealed document rolls.

A third dragged the wounded man away from the inner doorway.

Johannes understood.

Cell 7 was abandoning the post and erasing evidence of their presence at the same time.

The post had already been found. A prolonged stay would only bring them risks and no advantage.

Genevieve did not look eastward anymore.

Not because she did not care.

But because Jannik and Vivian were there.

If those two could not hold for half a minute, then no one inside Cell 7 deserved to call themselves SAS.

Johannes stepped beside the broken barrier and kicked the head of an infected trying to climb over the slab.

One hit. One skull. One kill.

He did not use too much strength. Just enough to cave the thing’s face in and send the body sliding back into the pile.

Genevieve noticed it. Reserving his strength yet still having the power to do that!

Cell 12 didn’t look dull, especially their leader.

Another infected crawled over the barrier.

Johannes shot it once, then stomped on the wrist of the next one trying to pull itself up.

"Lucie!" Genevieve shouted.

"Twenty seconds!" Lucie answered from inside the post.

"You have ten, or we’ll all get swarmed here!"

"I’m doing my—!"

The night thundered again, almost on the same spot when they first heard it.

Another shell screamed across the sky and exploded farther down the eastern road.

The flash lit the broken windows around them. A second later, the shockwave rolled back weaker than the first, but still strong enough to rattle the rusted pipes above the maintenance block.

Lucie cursed under her breath.

"Damn it, someone tell those blasters to stop blasting!" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Genevieve almost wanted to agree, but then she felt it.

The pressure against the southern slab loosened by a fraction. For some reason, the infected seemed to have been driven away someplace else.

Is the sound attracting them? Or is it something else? Genevieve was curios, but curiosity wasn’t appropriate right now.

"Lead!" Lucie shouted from inside. "We’re done here!"

"Wounded?"

"Already moving!"

Two agents burst out of the maintenance block. One carried the wounded man over his shoulder, while the other came out with two sealed rolls under one arm and a rifle in the other.

They didn’t panic nor scream. Even when escaping under the edge of death, Cell 7 moved like SAS agents.

Suddenly, Lucie, who was carrying a few documents stopped.

"Why did you stop?" Genevieve noticed.

Lucie closed her eyes and placed her other hand near the grip of her pistol.

Something stood between her and the road in front.

No, it’s not standing. It’s crouching!

The SAS agents behind her lost their patience.

"Lucie, why did you stop?!"

Time was running out. To the others, Lucie’s sudden halt looked almost foolish.

"Stop, don’t move! Contact ahead."

"Contact?!"

Everyone backed a step or two away.

Genevieve came to Lucie’s side at once.

She folded another section of nearby concrete, sealing part of the southern access behind them. The slab rose with an ugly crack, blocking anything trying to crawl in from that direction.

Then she followed Lucie’s gaze. There was nothing in there.

Only darkness, and an empty stretch of broken road between the rusted cargo frames.

However, Lucie’s trembling hands said everything Genevieve needed to know.

Just as everyone stared into that empty road, a loud engine rumble pulled them out of their stupor.

Two strange-looking vehicles rushed out from the street corner. Their headlights snapped straight, flooding the alleyways with white flashes.

The mounted autocannon turned with a metallic growl.

A slight pause, and then—

The autocannon fired a burst of shots.

The line of fire chewed through the nearest cluster of infected, tearing bodies apart before they could even fall properly.

Limbs flew. Bone fragments scattered. The broken road flashed under repeated impacts.

The second vehicle fired toward the place Lucie had sensed.

Two shots. Then the empty darkness exploded.

Blood and limbs fell out, revealing a long body with folded limbs. It looked like a person whose bones had been rearranged and then forced to crawl.

One arm was longer than the other. Its head twitched once before it died fully.

It had been waiting for them to step into its attack range. If Lucie had missed it, someone would have died.

Cell 7 stood frozen.

Then Johannes snapped them back.

"Stop staring and move toward those APCs!"

Genevieve glanced at him.

"Those are yours?"

"I do not have the authority to command these."

It’s Golden Eagle again! Genevieve froze.

Meanwhile, Johannes slapped an infected head aside hard enough to kill it, then shot forward.

The first APC made a hard turn, swinging its rear toward Cell 7’s position. Its back ramp dropped with a heavy metallic thud.

A voice came from inside.

"Board! Move, move, move!"

Six infantrymen rushed out of the APC and formed a defensive line around the ramp. The rest remained inside, weapons angled through firing ports while the second APC covered the road.

They did not ask who Cell 7 was. They did not stare at Genevieve nor the other agents.

They did not even flinch at the infected rapidly approaching from the southern and eastern flanks.

The moment they hit the road; their rifles rose with practice movement.

The triggers were pulled.

The loud gunfire cracks woke Lucie from her stupor, reacting first.

"Military’s here! Get the wounded first, hurry!"

The agent carrying the wounded man rushed forward and climbed into the APC. Two others followed with sealed rolls and packs.

The infantrymen shifted around them without being told, opening just enough space for Cell 7 to pass before closing the formation again.

Genevieve noticed it despite the ringing in her ears. These were not random soldiers. They moved like people who had rehearsed this kind of extraction more than once.

Vivian, Jannik, and three more agents came from the eastern side a few seconds later, their clothes smeared with black blood and concrete dust.

Jannik saw the dead special sprawled across the road. Its longer arm twitched once before going still.

"The vehicle," Lucie replied hastily. "Don’t ask more questions. Get in!"

Jannik stared at the APC’s autocannon as it kept blasting more infected away from the road. His tired face changed.

What a great vehicle!

Genevieve snapped him out of it. "No time admiring it. Get inside!"

Another shell landed farther east.

The thunder rolled away from the post.

The infected farther back turned again, their bodies twisting toward the fresh noise like the city itself had pulled a string.

As their footsteps faded away, Genevieve finally understood the pattern.

The artillery was not destroying the swarm. It was dragging the infected away.

Are they reshaping the battlefield? To lure infected with costly, rare artillery shells?

She wasn’t unsure about Golden Eagle’s motives, but one thing was certain—this man was willing to sacrifice something in return of something else.

As for whatever that return was, she stole a glance at Johannes.

He noticed her gaze.

"What?"

"No—nothing."

She turned away.

"Package secured! Let’s move!"

The squad leader shouted while tapping the shoulder of his subordinate.

The six infantrymen returned in sequence.

Two moved first. Two covered their retreat. Then the last two stepped backward into the ramp while still firing.

The ramp closed behind them followed with a heavy metallic lock.

The APC lurched forward.

Cell 7 did not sit comfortably.

They collapsed into the seats, braced against the walls, held their wounded, gripped their files, and tried to understand what kind of vehicle they had just entered.

The air inside felt too clean and sealed. It didn’t feel rotting, molding, nor any corpse-stink clinging to the seats.

Lucie looked around once, then looked at Genevieve.

No words came out.

Jannik held the sealed rolls against his chest, still breathing hard.

Vivian checked the wounded man’s arm with hands that were steady despite the blood on her sleeves.

Genevieve lowered her head and looked at her trembling fingers. She had spent too much of her HELIX powers.

Holding the slab, then folding the road.

Her body still remembered the pressure of the attack. Her bones still felt the swarm pressing against her and Cell 7.

Yet her mind did not stay on the infected. It drifted back to the man at the meeting site.

Golden Eagle.

The first artillery shell bought them time. The second pulled the swarm away.

Then the APCs opened their extraction path. The infantry had boarded them as if it was just another military drill.

The assistance that Golden Eagle gave was not blind. It was calculated. Too calculated.

Golden Eagle... just who is he? Did he orchestrate this attack as well? No, that’s impossible.

The dangerous thought appeared and died almost in the same breath.

That was paranoia.

If Golden Eagle had wanted Cell 7 destroyed, he could have simply done nothing.

And no sane commander would spend this much just to toy with a small SAS cell and force them under the commander’s wing.

One artillery shell was already excessive.

Two was absurd.

But three, four, more? That was nonsense.

Adding armored vehicles and infantry into the same warzone just to stage a rescue would be beyond wasteful.

Unless...

Genevieve’s fingers tightened.

Unless those resources were not as precious to him in the way they should have been.

To Genevieve, a commander who can waste away resources as if they were disposable, was a terrifying idea.

He had simply reacted to it as if moving artillery, armor, and infantry through the night was natural.

As if this level of force was not a burden.

As if this was merely how a regular army operated.