PRDS - 4413 Part 1. Chapter 5: The Survivors

Chapter 5: The Survivors.

I didn’t even notice the approach. I slowly turned to keep the atmosphere as calm as possible. It better be one of the security teams.

“Eric Banaton. Rescue team ALPHA. You can check my uniform.”

“Rescue team? What the hell are you doing here? Freaking FREEMANs are everywhere. Get yourself armed at all times.”

Security team. I was very lucky. I’d be 99% shot if I were spotted by FREEMAN. Well, FREEMANs wouldn’t say a thing before they shoot. I could loosen my tension by little then.

“Sounds like my team didn’t get the line recovered with the HQ. We barely made the landing. Can you tell me what happened as detailed as possible? I’ll report the content to let my team be aware of the situation.”

“Before that, it’s priority to find all the escape pods. Secure the civilians first and I will explain. Freemans are sniffing around besides us. I didn’t really get to get rid of them, though, if they keep sneaking out like cockroaches.”

That’s right. Securing civilians must be done before anything else. That was the reason why I left my team in the first place. Just like I knew how FREEMANs were roaming around the area to attack anyone, I should’ve thought what to prioritize. FREEMANs might think a genocide through this situation could get them a revenge that they wished for the last 20 years. It is pretty clear for the security team what to do to save the civilians. Eliminate all the danger. Another genocide.

The strength gap between the security team and the FREEMANs is quite huge. FREEMANs’ advance in technology had stopped 20 years ago when P4R4D1S3 arose and took everything on earth. It is impossible for the FREEMANs to ‘fight’ with the security team.

“Right, take this. It must be better than your artifact handgun. Find the civilians, secure and make the gathering in the west. There’s a secured point. It should be easy to find. The sun is falling that way. Good luck.”

He handed me his weapon that I never got to use but took a look on. Quite handy, brand new, and unnecessary to reload. How great.

“Ah! Forgot to warn. DO NOT GO NEAR THE P4R4D1S3!”

With that sentence, he left to search near escape pods. I wanted to guess the reason why he told me not to go near the P4R4D1S3, but I decided not to question it before the rescue.

I was aware that any conflicts with the FREEMANs would slow the mission. I had to be quiet. No shouting to find the people, I could only rely on my luck. A luck to avoid encounters, but to meet the escaped survivors. Regardless of how bad the situation was, the sun was not waiting for me to finish the mission. The darkening environment made me hustle the search. If people left the escape pods…., no, they would not want to make such a choice. I wished they were not that brave to do so. If they opened the pod by themselves, it would make it hard to find them and endanger everyone. I needed to rush.

After one and the other empty escape pods, I spotted an escape pod that was sealed. The entrance of the escaping pod was poorly damaged, I could find some traces of the FREEMANs attempting to open the entrance. The survivors must have been locked in the escape pods due to gate system failure. FREEMANs weren’t present around the pod at the moment, I suspected that they might come back with tools to break the entrance. I made sure no one was around before I shot to break the entrance system. I carefully shot the edge of the entrance to avoid hurting the survivors inside. Without the compressed fresh air released, I could finally face the survivors.

“It’s alright. I’ve come to rescue.”

“Please! She needs medical attention right now.”

One old couple, one teenager, one kid and one bleeding woman. I spotted everyone already having masks on as I ran into the pod to check the woman’s condition. It was a bullet that penetrated her stomach. Quite a large amount of blood pond was gathered around her. Her consciousness was clearly fading. The old lady seemed like she had been taking care of her.

“How long has she been like this?”

“A couple of hours. She got shot.”

A young girl was holding the woman’s arm tightly. A daughter?

“Can I take a close look on her? Let me help her out.”

I softly asked the girl to make a space next to her. The girl stared at me for a second, shortly made a hard decision to let go of her mother for a while.

I deliberately diagnosed her. She was barely holding on to her consciousness, too much blood had been lost, and must suffer from secondary infection even if I treated her right at the moment. It was rather a miracle for her to stay conscious since the crash. In conclusion, there were not many things I could do at the moment. It would be more dangerous to transport her to the base that all the survivors were gathering. It was a shame for me to say such a thing in front of her daughter, but I would never like to lie to her.

“Kid, I am very sor….”

The wounded woman suddenly grabbed my shirt. It looked like she had something to say. Or she actually wanted me to shut my mouth for her. And that was when she opened her mouth to deliver her will.

“I...am Dr. Mireen from Himon Lab. There is a future of our kind back in P4R4D1S3. In the lab. It was my life’s work. For Aaron, too. Now it’s yours. Claire... Dan… That’s all I can do for you. I am so… so sorry. Go.. before.. too late…”

With her last breath, she gave all her efforts to let their children know the time had come for them. The young girl named Claire bursted into crying on Dr. Mireen. An adolescent, Dan, was trying to hide his face away from people in the room. I could not see clearly because of the dim blinking light, but I shortly understood why he had to hide his tears from his younger sister. He was a guy already.

Himon Lab… I had no idea if I had ever heard the name before. I could not be sure what she meant by the future of our kind, what is in the lab, and going back in P4R4D1S3. But I was aware that the person who killed Dr. Mireen was capable of destroying P4R4D1S3 tech. It could have been a misshot from the security team, but the most terrifying thing was if FREEMANs had done this.

The sun was almost set. It is too dangerous to move around in the dark with 4 civilians. We had to move quickly. But where? To the gathering? Or to the lab? I was lacking too much information. I had no idea why I couldn’t go near P4R4D1S3, but it must be dangerous enough to make P4R4D1S3 fall. I had both duties for my team and for these survivors. It should be a right choice to safely escort civilians to the gathering and then contact my team as soon as I gain some information I need. But before deciding where to go, I had to leave that site. There could be a possibility that FREEMANs were being active at that moment around the crash site of all the escaping pods. I comforted the Mireen’s kids. At least a few moments to arrange their mind. That was all I could do for them.