Chapter 430
Chapter 430
Jake jogged through the city toward Base Catalina, moving at his usual steady pace. He was on his own now, having sent his wingclaws and arachnoxes back to his ten‑story lair.
He and Catalina planned to reach Dead City by helicopter, which meant his crawlers would have had a hard time following them across the Scarlands. As for the wingclaws, while they could easily keep pace with the helicopter, he saw little reason to have them make the entire trip to Dead City. Should the need arise, one tumor‑grown portal would be all it took to summon his combat units from New Hope directly into Dead City.
As he moved through the city, Jake kept a close watch on the spread of the Ravage Contamination. It continued to expand in all directions, gradually devouring the city. Over half of the urban area was now infected. Yet over the past couple of days, he had observed a noticeable decrease in the speed of its advance. The infection’s hunger seemed to have dulled.
In the beginning, when the Ravage Contamination first appeared, it had spread at an incredible pace like wildfire, quickly overtaking one building after another. Now, however, its progression had slowed significantly. Based on his rough calculations, it would take at least a few more days for the infection to overrun the remaining sections of the city.
Jake didn’t know how much time they would spend in Dead City. It likely depended on what they discovered there. He knew that although Catalina wanted to find her people, she was well aware they were beyond rescue, and the real reason for venturing into the city was to learn what was happening there.
If their stay dragged on, Jake wasn’t planning to remain there continuously. His Kaiju was developing on its own, and when certain resources were needed for it to consume, his lair could automatically supply them to the growing creature, transferring them to the Behemoth Cavern from various storage facilities. Still, there might be occasions when he would need to personally oversee the process, make adjustments, or handle specific matters. Should that need arise, he was ready to open a portal and return to the Hollow Apex without hesitation.
Finally, he reached Base Catalina. The automated turrets struggled to track his movements, trying to keep pace with his speed. They were on high alert but didn’t open fire, just a precaution. He wasn’t classified as an enemy, but their programming required them to keep an eye on him nevertheless.
Vaulting over the perimeter wall, he landed inside the compound. He took a moment to look around. He expected Catalina to be in the main building, but instead, he spotted her outside, on the opposite side of the base, near a helicopter resting on the helipad. Jake trotted toward her.
She was speaking to someone and didn’t immediately notice his approach, but some of her people did. Their bodies stiffened, weapons rising at the ready. He couldn’t help but notice their tense stances and the intensity in their gazes. It didn’t surprise him at all. After all, he was long accustomed to the way humans bristled and held their guard up in his presence.
Finally, Catalina noticed him. Jake covered a few more yards before coming to a halt beside her. The person she had been speaking with stumbled backward, startled by his sudden appearance.
“You can’t just barge into our base whenever you feel like it,” the man objected. His voice might have sounded commanding if not for the tremor betraying his unease.
Jake summoned his electrolarynx, pressing the device firmly against his mandible. His voice emerged with a metallic edge as he said, “You expect me to knock on the gates every time I show up? Yeah, not happening.”
A deep flush spread across the man’s face, his lips parting as a biting retort formed on his tongue. Before he could voice it, Catalina raised a placating hand and interjected, “That’s fine, Albert. I’ll take care of this. You can go.”
The man shot Jake a sharp look and stepped to the side. He didn’t walk away, however. Instead, he remained nearby, watching him intently. Jake also noticed a group of people converging on the helipad. They appeared unusually agitated, and he could tell their unease wasn’t due to his mere presence. Something else bothered them.
Catalina’s gaze locked on him, her voice measured. “Samantha just called. She told me about what you did.”
“Did she bother telling you why I did it?” Jake countered.
“Well, yes. But that’s not the point. Why did you have to…”
“Because it was the best way to get my point across,” Jake interrupted before Catalina could finish her sentence. “She planned to go against me at some point, so I showed her what would happen if she tried to make a move against me.”
Catalina was silent for a moment, then said, “I see.” She clearly didn’t approve of his actions, but she seemed hesitant to voice her displeasure openly.
“So, why did she call you?” Jake asked. “Was she hoping to turn you against me?”
“No. Nothing like that. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. She told me she now understands how foolish it was to think she could ever defeat you. She said she’s past that now, and the reason she called was to ask if I could lend her some resources so her group can construct essential defenses, like sturdy walls, before nightfall. That way, they’ll be protected from the mutants that prowl after dark.”
Jake nodded without saying anything. Catalina remained silent for a moment, her brow furrowed. She seemed to hesitate but eventually gathered the courage to say, “You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure there were better ways to get your point across.”
“No. What I did was the only way to make her understand.”
Catalina was clearly preparing to argue, but Jake wasn’t having any of it. Before she could speak, he asked, “Do you still need my help in Dead City?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Are you ready to go right now?”
“Yes, everything I may need has already been loaded,” she said with quiet resolve. “But before we depart, give me a moment to speak to my people… It may be the last time I ever see them.”
Jake nodded. He had no interest in hearing what Catalina had to say to her people, so when she turned to address them, he entered the helicopter. Sliding into the cockpit, he settled into the pilot’s seat. He started the engine, and the rotor blades began to spin, quickly accelerating. By the time they reached the necessary speed for takeoff, Catalina had entered the helicopter and taken a seat beside him.
She gave him a silent nod. With a smooth pull on the controls, he lifted the helicopter skyward. On the dashboard, a scanner displayed a glowing blip marking the location of Dead City, making it easy to find the correct direction. Banking away from the base, he angled the craft toward their destination, and the helicopter sliced through the open sky on a direct path to Dead City.
The flight took them a few hours, most of which passed in silence. Catalina made a few attempts to break it, probing with various questions: what he was doing in his lairs, what his ultimate goal was in creating an army of monsters, and the like. Jake, however, refused to reveal anything, as that was none of her business.
Finally, the skyscrapers of Dead City appeared in the distance. Even from this distance, an unsettling wrongness hung over the place. With every kilometer they closed, the situation became clearer: the city was encased in a towering, organic wall made of the same material the Ravage Contamination had used to cover buildings in New Hope.
Their original plan had been to land somewhere near the city and enter on foot to avoid the risk of their helicopter being shot down. But now, as the monstrous wall loomed larger in their view, it was obvious that their plan would not work.
Jake kept one hand steady on the controls as the helicopter cut through the air, the city looming larger with every passing second. “What’s the plan?” he asked, glancing at Catalina. “Maybe you want to turn back?”
“No,” Catalina replied. “We didn’t fly all this way just to turn back. Let’s fly over the wall and land on the closest building we find.”
“Are you sure?” Jake asked. “If we enter the city, we risk meeting the same fate as the other two choppers you dispatched there.”
“I’m willing to take that risk,” Catalina said stubbornly.
“Alright,” Jake said.
It’s your funeral, he added mentally, fully aware that he would survive a crash if their helicopter were shot down, while her survival was a big question. But since he had already explained all of this to her before, he saw no reason to waste breath repeating it.
The helicopter closed the distance to Dead City, its blades slicing through the air, until it drifted over the looming organic wall.
Catalina’s voice trembled with shock. “Oh my God…” Her eyes swept over the devastation below. Towers, streets, and homes were swallowed whole beneath a suffocating blanket of fleshy growth. It was clear that the same fate awaited New Hope unless they found a way to stop the relentless spread of Ravage Contamination.
“Look, there,” she said, pointing toward a nearby high-rise with a spacious rooftop, large enough to accommodate their helicopter. “We can touch down there.”
However, they never made it that far. A large mutant emerged onto the roof of the building they were flying over at that moment. Jake didn’t have much time to examine it closely, but he could see that it was massive, with flesh fused seamlessly to metal armor. What caught his attention most was the rocket launcher integrated into its back, appearing as if it had grown there.
“Are you sure it was human survivors who shot down the last aircraft you sent here?” he asked, noticing that Catalina had spotted the mutant too.
She didn’t get the chance to answer. The mutant bent its knees and adjusted its stance, raising the rocket launcher until it was aimed directly at the helicopter. An instant later, a volley of missiles erupted from the barrels, streaking through the air toward them.
There was no way Jake could evade them all. He yanked the controls hard, throwing the chopper into a sharp starboard bank. Two missiles shot past, but the rest struck home a heartbeat later.
The aircraft shuddered under multiple impacts, alarms blaring as red light flooded the cockpit. The helicopter began to spin out of control, dropping rapidly toward the ground.