Thrive in Catastrophe - Chap 12

The gate was embedded into the wall, Xiao took a look around and discovered the electrical panel above. Even if Surge had reinforced the building they couldn’t change the pre-existing wiring. Xiao took out his tool kit and began his work on the wiring. He cut open the wire insulation and attempting the short circuit the current. He never imagined that he would have the opportunity to put into action things he had only seen in obscure documentaries that were more than 200y old.

Xiao was glad that he had such an interest in antique technology. He returned to the gate and told Mark. “It’s okay. The panel is burnt out, you should be able to just pry the door open. ”

“Eh?” Mark looked over at Heine, “That’s all?”

Heine nodded, they were worried that opening the door would trip an alarm inside the building. If the alarm was burnt out, then they didn’t have to worry about opening the gate.

Mark walked to the gate, red faced he unloaded nearly all his strength into opening the heavy material.

Liv went in first, and Xiao feared she would walk into an ambush.

The others followed, and Maya paused at Xiao’s side. Whether he was attempting to protect or harass him was unclear since under Heine’s oppressive glare he hurried away to join the others.

Heine looked over at Xiao who nervously gathered himself and entered as well.

The building was so dusty it looked abandoned. Xiao was trying to suppress a cough when Heine pressed a respirator to his face with an expression that said, ‘if you cough I will kill you’.

Everyone moved quickly and quietly. Floor by floor they finally made it down into the basement.

Their previous scans showed where the hostages were being kept. Xiao swallowed hard, the next panel was connected to an electronic door that required a key code to enter.

Very old and very troublesome. Heine tilted his chin at Xiao, “Open it.”

Xiao took out his portable terminal and used it to calculate the password. After a few tries, the door slowly opened. In that moment Heine grabbed Xiao, pulling him behind to enter first. Countless zombies poured out of the door, the task force went to work dispatching them.

Clearly the Surge organization had long guessed that they would come and prepared this obstacle ahead of time. At the end of the basement was an iron cage. A middle aged man was strapped to a chair and zombies were lumbering in front of the cage, attempting to squeeze inside. They stretched their arms through the bars, trying to catch a bit of flesh. Xiao peered over Heine shoulder to see him round house kick a zombie with such force that it fell into no more than a sticky mess.

Seeing his strength, Xiao shuddered a bit remembering his shattered shoulder. He didn’t want to ever personally feel the level of strength Heine possessed again. He unconsciously moved his own shoulders checking the integrity of the healed area. Heine caught his movement and shot him a look that dropped the temperature of the room and sliced into him. Xiao felt that he had been physically cut by that sharp glance.

Whenever one of the corpses came close to touching Xiao, the edge of Heine’s blade flashed and the air erupted in a splash of pus and body fluids. The angle of attack was so precise that not a drop of it landed on Xiao Yan’s body. He felt like an outsider watching a master at work.

Countless zombies lunged at Xiao and countless zombies fell to Heine blade, turning decay into death.

His eyes were focused and a hellish sheen of blood concentrated in his pupils, every movement was a combination of cruelty and beauty.