PRDS - 4413 Part 1. Chapter 6: The Capacity

The sun was almost gone. The dark had come from the other side of the sky as if to tremp on the sunset. It might have been too late to move. But the thought, the terrifying thought could not let me consider defending the area until the next morning. I quickly finished contacting the rescue team with a couple of sentences, and let the survivors prepare to move.

The old couple, Linda and George, seemed to have no problem moving to the gather point. And the problem was, how I was going to explain the situation to the Mireen kids.

“Kids, I really do not want to rush you. But we better move now.”

Damn it. I don’t understand why I couldn’t come up with better words for kids.

The brother, Dan, seemed to understand the situation. He skillfully comforted his sister and sent me a bitter smile. Claire also seemed ready to move on. Dan handed me Dr. Mireen’s ID card to me.

“Can you take us to Mom’s lab?”

“...Your safety is the priority.”

Dan seemed to know that I won’t be positive to his request. I could read a small disappointment from his face.

“I am sure we can talk about it when we get to the gathering point.”

I commented as I stepped out of the escaping pod. I pulled out the handgun from the security team and swiftly searched the area. It was getting too dark then, but I started to direct the civilians to the gathering point.

“That direction where you can see the small sunlight. Quick.”

All four of them began to run with me. The sunset became too small. I assumed that there was less than 10 minutes for us to move in the little bit of light. I had the kids move right behind me and the old couple was following. I started to plan and sort things I need to do. And sudden, I saw a flashing spark from a far rocky hill ahead.

I thought, ... That cannot be... “..a sniper.”

Pwep. It was not on me. I turned my head to check behind.

“Nooooo! Dan!”

I carried both kids to the boulder right next to us at a blink of time. Linda and George had themselves covered as well. I quickly fastened Dan’s wound with my ripped shirt. All I could think was to stop the bleeding. I desperately fastened the wound as hard as I could. But the bleeding didn’t seem to stop. I was losing my mind to save Dan and suddenly, Linda woke me up.

“You can stop.”

As I stopped Dan’s care, Dan spoke with his eyes fixed to me.

“Can you.. Take Claire?... To...”

A shock from too much lost blood stopped Dan. Regardless of the number that innocent lives die on my watch, the terrible feeling shutting me down does not seem to get better. I did not hear Claire’s cry anymore, I sat down next to Dan’s cooling body. I stared at his body. I was trying my best to come up with a way to get out of this situation.

“WhatcanIdoWhatcanIdoWhatcanIdo?”

I realized there were no subsequent shots. The sniper was not shooting anymore. I was not sure if the sniper was waiting for us to step out of the cover. The shot on Dan was definitely silent. I had never seen a sniper with a silencer on. Not on earth. Again, a terrifying thought passed through my head. I checked Dan’s body. The bullet penetrated his body, no. There was no bullet at all in the first place. The sniper was not using FREEMAN’s weapon. It was a P4R4D1S3 tech. I looked at the gun that the security team handed me. I triggered the gun pointing to the dead tree. I had no idea when P4R4D1S3 developed such a weapon. It was a lethal laser gun. There was a big hole left on the dead tree.

I despise them. P4R4D1S3. The advanced tech never led them to develop non-lethal weapons. Instead, they developed a weapon that can kill humans more easily. P4R4D1S3 must have been prepared for this moment. To kill every single FREEMANs left on earth. That is the only explanation for the security team armed with this weapon as soon as they landed on earth.

If P4R4D1S3 tech was on FREEMANs’ hand, I had to let everyone know about this. If the sniper was one of the security team, I needed to know why.

Despite the pulling from the old man George, I stepped out of the cover. I knew the sniper moved away, otherwise the sniper would have never stopped shooting with that death laser. I hurried the left survivors to move since the sky was already black. The gathering point was very close. I and the survivors spotted the lights from the gathering point. Time to answer some questions, P4R4D1S3.