“Stay calm,” Ryan ordered, noticing Echo’s trembling hands as they worked.
Echo took a deep breath, not answering Ryan, but focusing on trying to reconnect with Panther. Staying calm sounded easy, but it was far harder to do in a situation like this. Yet, there was no other option. She had to keep calm, had to remain composed.
“No signal. All of Panther’s communications are down,” Echo quickly reported, her face paling as she realized they had lost contact with Panther’s entire team.
Ryan’s face darkened, his voice low and commanding, “Try again.”
Echo bit her lip and attempted to reestablish contact with Panther.
The comms returned nothing but static. No signal. Panther’s team had gone dark.
Echo clenched her fists and looked up at Ryan, shaking her head. The lack of a signal, combined with the earlier fight, made the situation clear without needing any further explanation.
“Boss, what happened to Panther?” Tiger’s voice came over the open comms, his tone tense as he fought his own battle and sensed something was wrong.
“Focus on your task,” Ryan snapped back.
Tiger immediately acknowledged the order, while Ryan’s eyes glinted coldly as he added, “Permission to retreat.”
Bill, standing nearby, raised his head in mild surprise. He didn’t say anything, but the idea of retreat clearly caught him off guard. Ryan had never given the order to retreat before. It had always been “advance and conquer,” and they had never faced anything they couldn’t defeat. But today, the word “retreat” had finally been spoken.
“Yes, Boss,” Tiger’s voice replied after a brief pause, sounding as serious as ever.
Silence fell after the barrage of gunfire. The night sky, pitch black, was eerily quiet now, with only the wind and the scorched earth left behind.
“Move out,” Ryan ordered after a glance at the charred ground.
Before Echo could even process what Ryan meant by “move out,” she saw Bill already issuing orders. The three planes in the center quickly opened their cargo doors, while the outer tanks began to pull inward in an orderly retreat. All personnel and machinery started to withdraw, shrinking into a compact formation.
Seeing the plane doors open, Echo didn’t need further instructions to understand Ryan’s intention. She gripped the steering wheel and carefully backed the communication vehicle toward the waiting cargo bay.
Everything moved smoothly and with precision.
The mutated figures, as if sensing the firepower they were up against, didn’t make any more attempts to attack.
All personnel swiftly retreated into the planes, and with a deafening roar, the three aircraft took off, heading east.
Echo stepped out of the communication vehicle and noticed that the plane wasn’t heading back to the Cape of Good Hope but flying east instead. She turned to Bill and asked, “Are we going to look for Panther?”
Bill nodded, his expression serious as he replied, “Let’s hope we’re not too late.”
Since the distance wasn’t far-by plane, anyway-it only took a few minutes before they were hovering above Panther’s last known location.
Through the plane’s window, Echo could see flames everywhere below. The trees, scorched black, were visible even from the air. Tanks lay overturned, torn apart, and the communication vehicles were nearly shredded into pieces. Two planes were reduced to skeletal frames.
The sight deepened the furrow in Ryan’s brow.
“Descend,” Ryan ordered in a low voice, watching as the plane circled above.
“Boss, it’s not safe to land here. The wreckage from the planes below is blocking the area-there’s no space to touch down,” the pilot said cautiously.
Echo glanced out the window. While the area wasn’t far from where they had been, the environment was completely different. The trees here grew in strange, dense formations, so tall that even the plane barely reached halfway up their height. It seemed the massive radiation hadn’t harmed them; instead, it acted like a nutrient, making them grow to enormous sizes.
Ryan’s expression darkened at the pilot’s words. He strode over, grabbed the pilot, and sat down at the controls himself. The plane made a sharp turn before Ryan found a small gap and began to descend.
His strength and determination were undeniable. Ryan managed to land the plane in the only small space available. The other two planes had no choice but to keep circling in the air, their lights fully illuminating the enormous forest below, providing visibility for Ryan’s team.
Fully armed, Ryan even held the latest model weapon in his hands. Echo, seeing this, gritted her teeth and took the gun Bill handed her. After what had happened to the planes, staying onboard didn’t seem safe either.
“Walk in front of me,” Ryan ordered coldly as he grabbed Echo.
Without hesitation, Echo stepped out of the slowly opening cargo door. She knew why Ryan wanted her to walk in front-so he could keep an eye on her and protect her. If she were behind him, he might not be able to see her if danger struck, and with enemies this powerful, that could be fatal.
As soon as they exited the plane, the stench of burning filled the air, and Echo wrinkled her nose. Blood and fire surrounded her, the ground stained crimson. Echo stared, wide-eyed, at the shredded bodies, the torn-apart limbs, and the blood-soaked earth.
The gruesome scene sent a shiver down her spine.
Behind her, Ryan’s face was darker than Echo had ever seen it. He stayed close, his voice steady as he said, “Keep moving.”
Echo had never witnessed anything like this before. Even though she had mentally prepared herself, her legs still wobbled at the sight. Hearing Ryan’s voice behind her, she clenched her teeth and forced herself to keep walking, step by step. The warmth of his presence behind her gave her a strange sense of reassurance.
Silence filled the air-a suffocating, eerie silence. The entire team of dozens of soldiers, scouring the area, said nothing. The oppressive silence only deepened the fear, as they looked at their fallen comrades who now rested here, without even intact bodies.
Along with sadness, an indescribable terror began to creep in.
“What incredible destructive power,” Ryan muttered, staring at the massive tree trunk, thick as a man’s waist, lying on the ground. The obvious claw marks on the broken end made his expression even more serious.
“Any sign of them?” Bill suddenly asked.
“No.”
“No.”
The negative responses came one after another.
Bill’s question was vague, but everyone knew he was asking if there were any signs of Panther’s body.
“Hnnn… hnnn…” Suddenly, a faint groan, barely audible, pierced the silence.
Ryan and the others immediately turned their heads toward the sound.
A man, his face blackened beyond recognition, with one arm ripped clean off, was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely. He was barely breathing, clearly on the verge of death.
“Where’s Panther?” Ryan asked coldly as he strode over with Echo, squatting down beside the man.
The man struggled to open his eyes, recognizing Ryan, and rasped in a broken voice, “I… don’t… know… they… came…”
“Was it a group of human-like creatures that attacked? How many?” Bill cut straight to the point, seeing that the man didn’t have much time left.
“Yes… hundreds… we… couldn’t… stand… a chance… terrifying…” the man gasped.
Ryan, Echo, Bill, and the others exchanged uneasy glances. They had only faced twenty or so creatures, and even without the cover of large trees, they had barely managed to kill one at great cost. Here, hundreds had descended-no wonder everything was in ruins.
“How long-” Ryan began to ask, but before he could finish, the man’s eyes closed, his breath stopping entirely.
Ryan fell silent, not pressing further.
The people around Ryan were visibly shaken by what they heard. Looking at the devastation before them, none of them could help but wonder if they would’ve met the same fate had they been in Panther’s place. The brutal scene left everyone speechless.
“Any sign of him?” Ryan asked sharply, standing up.
“No,” came the reply.
There was no sign of Panther’s body.
“How many men?” Ryan’s eyes were dark with a murderous edge.
Panther had been with him for years, personally trained by him. If Panther had really died here, Ryan would have razed this place to the ground.
“One hundred and fifty bodies accounted for. Seventeen are still missing, including Panther,” someone reported quickly after a brief count.
Though the bodies were in pieces, there were still ways to identify the number of people.
Bill and Echo exchanged glances, a flicker of hope passing between them. If Panther and the others had managed to escape, there might still be a chance.
“The enemy numbered two hundred,” the next report came in, and Ryan’s frown deepened.
Echo glanced down and noticed a body near her feet. In the light, she finally got a good look at what these attackers looked like.