Battlefield: Control (Book Two)

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Dale

Everything hit the fan so fast. Dale's head was spinning.

One minute he and the rest of the blue tribe were loading up a van with the supplies the green tribe would need to continue their experiments. The next he was engaging in battle with zombies.

While he was happy the blue and green tribes were being interrupted from their work, he didn't much enjoy being a target for attack. The zombies were easy enough to bring down. What made things difficult was they kept getting back up again.

At first he had been worried they were living people and had been careful with how he handled them.

Once he figured out they were in fact, actual reanimated corpses, he started to take on a different tactic. Take them down by any means necessary, and keep them there. He'd worry about being disrespectful toward the dead later.

At that moment in time all he cared about was getting out alive. Something in his gut told him the zombies didn't care much about whether or not he survived.

When he was able to break free from the attacks, he decided to do something to help the red tribe. Instead of unloading the last car of supplies, he was going to help destroy them, as was part of the original plan. Only with his plan, he could play a more active role in the destruction, and it felt good.

He concentrated on creating orbs of black goo, and ordered them to attack the car. But not before he was able to set them on fire.

It felt fitting for him to decimate the last car in such a manner. It was filled with a similar thick, black substance. In fact, Dale was positive that was the stuff pumping through his veins.

It took him a few tries, but he was able to blow up the car. He smiled, pleased with his work. What made it more wonderful was that because everyone was so distracted with the repeat zombie attacks, nobody paid attention to what he was doing. Dale also made certain to be far enough away to be out of view just in case.

It exhilarated him more than he anticipated. He could do this, be the double agent, and laugh in the face of danger. Straight laced Dale. Who would have thought?

As the chaos died down, Dale made his way back to the van. The girl called Ophelia was gone. Where she went, he didn't know and he didn't care. Her distraction had worked to his advantage.

"Please tell me we still have some of the X chemical?" Sprout asked with a shaky voice.

"Gone," Bean said.

She let out a scream and turned away from the group, grabbing her hair, and Dale was pretty sure she was muttering curses. Bean went over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, but she pushed him away.

"We did everything we could," he said.

Bean was always the optimistic one. He never said anything bad about anyone. In other circumstances, Dale would have been friends with the guy and would have loved to be a part of the team if it aligned more with Bean's philosophy on life.

"He's going to be so furious, I—" She stopped when a phone began to ring. Sprout reached into her pocket and pulled it out, read the caller ID, and whimpered. "It's him." She waved for everyone to be quiet. "Yes?"

Dale could barely make out the voice of The Doctor through the receiver. "Please tell me everything went smoothly tonight," he said.

"We have everything but the X chemical." She winced as she said it.

The Doctor was quiet. "We were attacked as well. I lost three new potential charges tonight, and three currents. Sensor and Bomber were able to get away, but Virus, Behemoth, and Racer were taken. They have some of the experimented, and there are multiple Alturans working against us. I'm not sure how they knew about all of this, but believe me I will find out."

Sprout nodded. "Yes sir. We were able to hold off the attacker. She got away. Chihuahua Man was here as well. Given their attire, I'm thinking they're part of the—"

"The yellow. Interesting. I thought they were of the red tribe. My superior will be pleased to have more fuel for the fire."

"Yes," she said and breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Bring the rest of the shipment over. There's still time to get the X chemical. There are other ways of obtaining it."

Dale swallowed, not sure he wanted to know. Bomber—Tori—was okay. A good thing, but he had hoped maybe the red tribe would have taken her so she could be taken out of the fight.

Next time.