Chapter 41 An Encounter

Chapter 41 An Encounter

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The Reclamation Operation conducted by Blackwatch is progressing smoothly.? Teams divided into squads swept every street, road, alley, house, residential and commercial building.

Two hours after Phase Three of the operation started, the Blackwatch operatives found no survivors so far.

Richard was looking concernedly at the television screen mounted on the wall, giving him a first-person view of some operatives who were clearing the area.

"Don't tell me, everyone inside the square kilometer grid was infected?" Richard murmured and bit his lower lip. "How many percent of the square kilometer grid that we have scanned?"

Sara's fingers danced over the keyboard, swiftly entering commands into the software. Moments later, a display screen appeared, with a green area indicating the sections their operatives had already searched and a red area representing the yet-to-be-explored territory.

"We've covered approximately 55 percent of the square kilometer grid so far. That means there's still a substantial portion left to clear," Sara answered.

Richard nodded, his brow furrowed in thought. "Any mutants sighted in the AO?"

Sara shook her head. "None so far."

"Okay, don't take your eyes off the camera. If we find one, report it immediately, we'll have Kilo-1 on standby," Richard said.

"Yes sir!" The military staff on their stations responsible for looking over the cameras acknowledged firmly.

Richard then contacted someone on the ground. "Blackwatch Actual to Specter-1."

***

On the ground, Graves's squad was roaming around the streets with the JLTV Oshkosh, their heads on a swivel for potential zombies that might come out from the buildings on either side of the streets.

His radio crackled to life, and he immediately recognized the voice.

"This is Specter-1, send traffic," Graves replied.

"Specter-1, I want a sitrep of your current location and status," Richard's voice came through the radio.

Graves adjusted his headset and replied, "Roger, Blackwatch Actual. We're currently positioned on Quadrant 2, specifically at Ayala Avenue. Our status is green, no signs of mutants or survivors in this area. Over."

"Copy that, Specter-1. Continue to monitor the situation closely. If there's any change, report it immediately."

"Understood, Blackwatch Actual. Specter-1 out."

With the radio transmission complete, Graves refocused on his surroundings. Quadrant 2 is where the financial hub of Makati City is located. Commercial and residential skyscrapers dominated the cityscape, their windows reflecting the overcast sky like monolithic sentinels guarding a ghostly city.

Graves and his squad were well aware of the importance of securing this area, as it held the potential for valuable resources and critical infrastructure.

The square kilometer grid was divided into four quadrants, Quadrant 1 is where most of the residential areas were located, Quadrant 2 housed the financial and business districts, Quadrant 3 encompassed the government offices and civic centers, and Quadrant 4 contained the recreational and park areas.

Their progress along Ayala Avenue was painstakingly slow due to the numerous abandoned vehicles that clogged the roads.

Graves's squad navigated the JLTV Oshkosh carefully, weaving between the immobile vehicles as they scanned the surroundings for any signs of movement, and then, there was one movement.

"Movement, two o'clock," Graves's voice crackled over the radio as he spotted movement. The tension in the JLTV Oshkosh ratcheted up instantly as the remote-controlled gun mounted atop the vehicle, the M2 Browning, turned towards the indicated direction. The heavy machine gun's barrel tracked the movement of what seemed to be a zombie, five of them.

Attracted to the noise of the engine, the five zombies charged recklessly toward the JLTV Oshkosh.

Inside the vehicle, Graves gave the soldier controlling the M2 Browning a determined nod.

As the infected charged closer, their grotesque forms became more apparent. Tattered clothing hung from their emaciated bodies, and their eyes, once filled with humanity, were now vacant and lifeless.

The soldier operating the heavy machine gun pressed the fire button and the weapon roared to life. The .50 BMG rounds erupted from the gun's barrel in rapid succession,

The rounds struck the targets with unrelenting force, punching through flesh, bone, and sinew. There was no hesitation, no sympathy. The zombies were reduced to a gory mess as the .50 caliber bullets tore through them.

Blood and viscera splattered across the asphalt as the infected bodies fell to the ground.

"Look out for the buildings, zombies may squirt out from it at any moment," Graves calmly said. The sound produced by the M2 Browning just now was loud, so he expected there would be more coming out.

And just as he said that zombies squirted out from the buildings, some even from the windows, falling from great heights.

"There's still many of them huh?" Graves muttered under his breath.

"Not all zombies in the area were attracted by the explosion earlier," said the driver of the JLTV Oshkosh.

"It doesn't matter, they only number around sixty or eighty, we can take them down," said the soldier operating the M2 Browning.

"You are cleared hot to shoot, soldier," Graves ordered.

"With pleasure," the soldier pressed the screen again, and the M2 Browning burst with fire.

The deafening roar of the heavy machine gun filled the air as it spat out a storm of .50 BMG rounds toward the oncoming horde. The bullets tore through the zombies with brutal efficiency, shredding their decaying bodies and sending pieces of flesh and bone flying in all directions.

There was no chance of them even getting ten meters close to Oshkosh. The streets around the JLTV Oshkosh were soon littered with the grotesque remnants of the undead.

About a minute later, no zombies are coming out of the buildings.

"Okay, it's either that there's no zombie in the buildings or they are stuck somewhere inside," Graves commented and pointed his finger at the building. "We are going to clear this building."

The building that Graves pointed out was the Ayala North Exchange Tower One. It's a high-end office twin building that was finished construction three years ago. The Blackwatch planned on making that tower as the new command center as it was built for that specific purpose.

Graves and his men exited the JLTV Oshkosh and made their way to the main entrance of Tower 1. Towers 1 and 2 have different floors and uses. Tower 1 was constructed to be the headquarters of the top company in the Philippines while Tower 2 served as a BPO facility.

The entrance to Tower 1 was a revolving glass door, but it had been shattered long ago, likely during the early days of the outbreak when chaos reigned. The shattered glass crunched underfoot as Graves and his squad cautiously entered the building.

It was dark inside, and Graves's men opened the flashlight fitted on their M4 carbine assault rifle.

The beams of their flashlights cut through the gloom, revealing a scene of eerie desolation. Papers and debris littered the floor, and the walls were marked with smears of dried blood.

As they cautiously moved deeper into the building, they heard a faint sound, almost like a whisper. Graves signaled for his squad to halt, and they all strained to listen. The sound was coming from further inside, beyond the lobby.

The squad proceeded cautiously, their weapons trained in the direction of the sound. They finally reached the reception area, and what they saw there froze them in their tracks.

Before them stood a woman of military age, seemingly in her twenties. Her jet-black hair flowed in a lustrous cascade, reaching down to her waist. She was dressed in a form-fitting white gown that accentuated her slender figure, and in her petite hands, she clutched the hilt of a katana whose blades glistened with the chilling evidence of fresh blood.

Graves's squad members exchanged bewildered glances. It was odd, he felt like he had seen this woman before, on a video, from his commanding officer.

He slowly reached for his radio, his assault rifle still aimed at the woman, and pressed a button.

"Specter-1 to Blackwatch Actual, switch to my camera, there's something you want to see." n.(o/(V((e)-l)/b-)1.(n

At the command center, Richard ordered Sara to switch the display on the television screen to Graves's camera. And when the footage flickered to the screen, Richard's eyes widened.

"Wait, is that..." Sara uttered.

"There's no way..." Mark gasped softly.

"Specter-1, we are watching the live footage of your camera, and by the looks of it, it seems that you have encountered a specimen of great interest."