“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

A man and a woman were driving on an abandoned road. Ahead of them, abandoned vehicles were pushed aside even before they arrived, leaving an open path for vehicles to path through. It was a courtesy of the armed convoy. Blood was all over cars. When the undead hit, a traffic jam that blocked the entire road made the vehicle drivers buffet for the zombies. The glass of the cars offered no protection, and the drivers had no way to run.

It had been six hours since the two made the second deal. After that, they started to move out of the city and toward where Jean claimed Alia was. Paul didn’t know why Jean was so confident, but he had no choice but to trust her. It wasn’t difficult to find a car with its key still inside. The car itself was still clean. Likely the driver got out of his car before either making it out alive or dying a terrible death. The latter was much more likely.

Paul’s patience started to dry up when he saw Jean typing on her watch next to him. She wasn’t even looking at the road as he drove.

“Trust me.” The girl reassured without even looking up.

Paul wanted to say something but nonetheless remained silent. He trusted Jean before. No reason to doubt her now.

Meanwhile, Jean was having a meaningful conversation with a certain psychic.

“Hello, Aidan.” She typed in her watch. A greeting could never hurt. “How’s Japan?”

In Japan, Aidan frowned at the text. He never told Jean where he was. Jean was showing her hand by straight up telling him she knew where he was, which meant she kept some sort of surveillance on him. This was a warning telling him not to do anything stupid.

“Gorgeous.” His fingers didn’t slow down as his mind turned. “I have arrived at the Umbrella headquarter in Japan. Old man Wesker is just beside me.” He glanced at one of the main antagonists in this universe. The man, in a pair of sunglasses and a black suit and dominating over everyone else, had no idea someone was right beside him making a snarky comment. He wasn’t mutated, at least not yet. Maybe he could see through Aidan’s psychic power with t-virus enhancements, but not before that.

“Hmm. Sounds fun. Now, tell me about Carl.”

“He and his forces are on two transport planes approaching the North American Umbrella headquarter.” He said with absolute confidence, hinting of a reliable source of information. “I think they are planning for an assault on the compound.”

“Will they be successful?”

“They have the element of surprise, but Umbrella security forces aren’t for show either. It is risky.” Aidan considered all the possibilities. “What do you want me to do? I can lower the defenses significantly if you want.”

“No. Keep me informed on how the event turned out but do not change what is happening.” Jean denied after a brief consideration.

“Copy that.” Aidan nodded.

Jean looked up from her watch and told Paul to turn right at an intersection. Since she first met the siblings, she implanted a small parasite on both of them. It was so small that it couldn’t even attract any retaliation from the world. The parasite was just a small pest, but it allowed Jean to know where the siblings were whenever she wanted. She planted a similar thing on Aidan when they fought.

The vehicle traveled for nearly twenty more miles before Jean suddenly held her right hand up. Paul slammed on the brake.

The two got out of the car and sneaked forward.

In front of them was a gas station. Three SUVs, in camouflage as well, were parked near the station. They were guarding a large gasoline truck that was extracting oil from the storage of the station.

“They’re the men that took my sister.” Paul exclaimed. “They have the same coloring.”

“I don’t think they are the same convoy. These men are on a retrieval mission, but they should be from the same origin. It’s not like there’s a ton of military bases still alive.” Jean reasoned. “Nonetheless, they may be our ticket to your sister. Follow me.”

The two got closer to the gas station under the cover of abandoned vehicles. Paul saw at least ten men in the open, with god knew how much hidden in the dark.

“What do we do?” Paul asked. “This is a gas station. If we use firearms we will blow everybody up.” As satisfying as blowing ten or more enemies up may be, it would be of no help to their case.

Instead of a response, Paul heard a sickening sound of bones snapping. He turned and was slightly horrified to realize Jean was holding a dead soldier in her arms. The soft hands turned into deadly tools as they snapped the man’s neck with absolute ease.

Jean dropped the body of the dead guard. These soldiers were experienced. They were well aware of the danger of getting stuck in a gas station by enemy firing. Even though they didn’t think there would be anyone gunning for them, they posted a scout just in case. Usually, the scout could spot the enemy before they spot him and warn the convoy in time. Unfortunately, the scouts were sensed and taken down without even knowing who was the attacker.

“Use your mind.” Jean casually wiped her hands as she spoke. “You will be of no use to me if all you can do is ask me questions.” Her tone seemed ice cold. She wasn’t doing it on purpose, but from Paul’s point of view, it was especially menacing since he just saw her end a life as if it was nothing.

Still, the man recovered quickly. “We need to melee them.” He said dryly.

“There are two of us and a dozen of them. How should we do that?” Jean was testing Paul.

“Well…”

Captain Courtney Riley stood and watched as the gasoline in the station were moved to the transport vehicle.

There was quite the gasoline storage in The Fortitude, but most of the important gears in the army literally burned gasoline to function. Without armored vehicles as support, foot soldiers would get easily overrun by the endless undead. The storage could support a few convoys, but it wasn’t enough for an all out drawn out battle.

Thus, multiple convoys were sent out toward different gas stations close to the base with the mission of bringing back as much gas as possible. Captain Riley led one of them.

Suddenly, a gunshot came from outside the station. The elite soldiers immediately knelt down and took cover. Courtney quickly glanced at the transport and was satisfied to see it wasn’t targeted. If the tons of gas exploded...it would be a flashy end.

“Miles, what happened?” She attempted to contact the guard on the outside, but there was no response. She frowned and turned to a fellow man. “KJ, take three men and examine the situation.” A large man nodded and picked three fellow soldiers and sneaked forward from the side. “The rest of you keep your guards up. How long until the tank is full?”

“Eight minutes top.”

“Keep working. We should be fine. It’s likely a survivor.”

The captain didn’t necessarily make a wrong decision. From her perspective, most of the world was gone. There should be no human forces left strong enough to overwhelm four highly trained soldiers. Even if there were two dozen survivors, all armed, the soldiers had an overwhelming advantage. Their skills meant they could effectively hold the attackers back long enough for help to arrive. Miles was taken down easily, but maybe he was slacking on the job and was sneaked up or overwhelmed by the attackers. Four highly vigilant men wouldn’t suffer the same fate.