Wither With Me

CHAPTER 51 - SPARK

The girl's reaction had been exceptional, he had to give her credit. The queen would be dead otherwise. A red stain spread quickly from her right shoulder, as her entire body convulsed. She opened her mouth as if to scream, but her organism seemed to shut down in response to pain, limiting the movements of her limbs and facial muscles. By her side, the girl with glasses yelled in distress.

"Over there!!"

A rain of bullets fell on his surroundings, forcing him to take cover behind a ventilation unit. The military had taken positions around the helipad access point, and they wouldn't be making questions until he was either dead or incapacitated.

They outnumbered him. Balancing the scales was a necessity.

He took off his sweater, revealing a protective vest with several pockets. After checking the wind's direction, he extracted a small, metallic object from one of them, pulled the pin, and threw it overhead, towards the location where the soldiers were gathered.

"Grenade!!!"

"Take cover!!"

Barely a second after the grenade hit the floor, a soft burst shook the rooftop. He took a quick glance at the enemy positions. A gas cloud, of a sickly yellowish color, had enveloped the area. A strong wind swept the heights, scattering it rapidly towards the opposite side of the roof.

He readied his pistol, peeked from behind cover cover, and spotted the soldiers. At least four of them in sight, either on their knees or crawling on all fours, coughing. One of them clawed at his neck, struggling to breathe. Another one tried to cover his mouth and nose, in vain.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Their movements ceased.

Among the corpses, oblivious to the gunshots, several civilians wandered aimlessly. The vast majority of them had fled towards the other side of the rooftop as soon as the shooting began, precisely where the wind had taken the gas. They stumbled around, overcome with powerful coughing fits. He didn't even bother opening fire on them.

He turned on his radio. "This is Prometheus. Cleanup initiated. Over."

"This is [ZEUS]. Understood, Prometheus." answered a voice on the other side. "Hades is on its way."

'...'

He could've formulated the question he had in mind, but he chose not to do so. The absence of new orders was unsettling, and PT-01 could guess the reason.

Something caught his attention. The queen stood on her feet and ran towards the stairwell. The girl with glasses followed her closely, dragging a small child with her. He raised his weapon, intending to finish the job, when a new volley of bullets forced him to take cover once again.

'Where is it coming from!?'

He looked up. In the helipad platform, two figures had taken positions on the floor. One of them was an arbitrary private. He recognized the other one: Colonel Rowan.

He glanced at the stairwell door again. The girls had managed to slip away.

'With a wound like that, the Convergence signal must be spreading like the plague. Even so, I'd rather finish what I started...'

Following the girls, other survivors who managed to escape the gas ran for the stairs, seeking refuge. Among them was a handcuffed man, dressed in a ragged suit.

'Julien...'

They had monitored him so much over his stay at Saint Marie that he ended up being too predictable. Selfish, impulsive, obsessive. PT-01 wouldn't be able to reach the stairs without catching a bullet or two, but maybe he didn't have to. With his left hand, he reached for the left side of his vest and pulled an unusual pistol out of its holster.