Chapter 115: Evacuation

The town council of Desham was in complete chaos, with frantic members running across the entire building which hosted all of their arctech phone lines, none of it which was working.

“What’s going on? Why can’t we call Tenar for help?”

“Sir, the radios are working fine when tested at short range, but any long-range communication out of the city is completely unusable!”

“Someone or something is interrupting our communications. Could it be-“

“Do not panic! Officer Gabriel will soon have the town under control and –“

“Idiot! The battle is already lost! We need to evacuate before the Yual Dominion starts to invade us! We need to run!”

The panic began to spread through all the members slowly, wondering if they were the first town to have been hit by the imminent war. Based on their location, they should have been well protected by the Keru Forest, serving as a large natural blocker. However, they could not ignore the fact that the Yual Dominion could easily send a force through to destabilise them first.

“Officer Gabriel was right about the external intervention! The Yual Dominion is riling up the locals and using them against us.”

“Our food supply has been crippled: soon, even the upper class would turn against us!”

“We need to evacuate immediately! Send a messenger to Gabriel to lift the martial law at the exits!”

“But sir, that would defeat the purpose of the military encirclement of the slums. What if those responsible managed to evacuate with us –“

“If you want to die as a prisoner of war, suit yourself!”

The council began to execute their evacuation and emergency procedures prepared in the event of war, telling their family and loved ones to prepare. A messenger quickly sprinted out of the council building, running straight for the last known command post of Gabriel in the slums.

Before he could even turn the corner, a burly man was standing right in front of him, machine gun in his arm. With a click of the trigger, a storm of bullets blasted the messenger into pieces in seconds, while the burly man immediately ran off, disappearing from view.

A mad rush to pack up and flee Desham as word of imminent war began to spread like wildfire, every citizen grabbing all their valuables and belongings. They ran out onto the streets, only to join a never-ending queue of arctech wagons which were stalled at the gate to beyond Desham.

The wagon drivers at the front shouted angrily at the soldiers who were blockading the gate. “Why aren’t you letting us go? Do you want all of us to be captured by the Yual Dominion?”

“What? I never heard anything about that. There is martial law applied now; please return to your homes!” The soldiers never received the message due to the communication blackout, having stood guard at the exits for the last few days as part of the military encirclement.

“Shut up! I am a proud citizen of Desham – I funded the council and military, and you’re telling me you won’t let me escape war? Fuck you!”

“Yea, we pay your salary! Let us through!” Another driver chimed in.

“Sir, if I flout martial law it will be punishable by death!” The soldier tried to explain.

One of the drivers pulled out an ornate arctech handgun, aiming it right at the soldier. “Well if you are not going to let us go immediately, then you can die here!”

“Sir, put down the gun now!” The soldiers at the gate reacted strongly, aiming their own repeaters and machine guns at the crowd. “Put down the gun now or I’ll shoot!”

“Just let us go!”

The stream of evacuation refugees began to crowd around the main exits of the town, there only being three. Each suffered from the same lack of communication, resulting in misunderstandings and tensions between the military and the citizens.

As they jostled and fought against the blockade, the sound of a whizzing projectile soared over the town’s buildings, hitting the exit gate squarely and exploding. The soldiers cowered from the mortar strike as the arched gateway began to collapse on itself, the wall guards on the time screaming as they fell and were dashed against the rubble of rock below, blocking off the exit completely.

“Yes, sir!”

But just as they began to enter the tunnel one by one, a loud scream could be heard at the front, along with what sounded like the slashing of flesh. The servants began to cry out in horror one by one, dropping the items they were carrying and running back, trying to squeeze past the soldiers.

“What? What’s going on?” The sergeant in the lead stared at a bloodied servant who attempted to squeeze past him, only to notice a black obsidian blade suddenly jutting out of his guts before the servant was torn in half, the blade slicing vertically upwards to reveal a warrior mineral ant.

“Shit!”

The sergeants and the soldiers raised their repeaters on instinct, prepared to fire. “It’s just one ant! Fir-“

The walls on the side of the tunnels burst, simultaneously collapsing parts of the tunnel onto the screaming soldiers and running servants, while two more mineral ants burst out, overpowering the soldiers in an instant as they were no match for them in such tight, enclosed spaces.

Not all the retreating soldiers moved to the tunnels, some groups having headed over to other parts of the city to loot and pillage what they could, all led by the various sergeants.

“This town has gone to shit! We need to find a new base to entrench ourselves in, snatch all the food we can and hold out as long as possible!”

Just like that, the various retreating groups became deserters, vying for scraps of what was left. Some of the stupider ones went straight for the houses of wealthy individuals, believing that they could use the luxuries to barter.

The more apt ones headed straight for the food storage area, intent on salvaging what was left of the explosion and the raging fire that was still going, illuminating the sky with an orange hue. As they approached, they could hear blood-curdling screams and sounds of gunfire from within the grain storage area. “The original attackers are still here!”

Each group spotted one another, agreeing to band together to enter at the same time, though internally, they were already planning to betray each other for total control of the food storage area. Forming a temporary alliance, they rushed into the food storage area with guns readied, only to stop in fright.

Not a single one of them could describe it as anything else other than utter carnage, with the entire main area between buildings littered with body parts, strewn flesh and a pool of blood. A single surviving guard was still hiding behind the corpses of his dead comrades, firing wildly in fear at a lone man who was stained with blood all over his body.

In one swift leap, the lone man pounced onto the surviving guard, punching him right in the face and caving in the entire front of his skull, killing him instantly.

[System Message]

Killed [Desham Guard], +50 EXP

Kyle turned to see the new group of soldiers staring at him in horror.

“Idiots! What are you waiting for? Kill him!” The sergeants roared, prompting the soldiers to fire their repeaters at him quickly.

The projectiles never made it to him, pounding the dead corpses with barely audible thuds as Kyle jumped and leapt through the messy battlefield, using every damaged crate, wagon and collapsed building to serve as cover.

“Spread out! Surround him!”