Bang.
Somehow, over the sound of the engines of the vertibird, the still very clear sounds of battle in the distance, the sound of the minigun behind him firing off rounds to help lighten the crowd of ferals spanning the streets, somehow, despite all that noise, Adam could hear his own shot ring out.
The glowing Chinese soldier was standing, rocket in his hands, aimed at the vertibird, ready to shoot at it again when Adam's rifle fired. As soon as Adam pulled the trigger he knew, instinctively, he had done it.
The ghoul's head burst open like a ball filled with confetti as he fell backward quickly, his already loaded rocket fired off harmlessly into the air as his body, moments after falling over, was stepped on and overtaken by the mass of feral ghouls that still surrounded the area.
"You got him!" Eve said with a tone of pure joy. Even Adam was shocked, he had landed the shot at the most critical moment. But as far as he could tell, at least from a glance, the ghouls below seemed the same? He desperately hoped he was not wrong about his assumptions.
"Colonel says the ferals have changed patterns!" The pilot called out to the back quickly. Adam turned to look at him, overjoyed to hear that and then looked back down at the ferals still gathered in the streets, trying to discern a pattern himself.
After a few moments of observation he noticed it. While the ferals before were ravenously trying to push towards the defensive line, the ones below now looked lethargic. They did seem to mostly be filtering towards the parking lot still, but where once they were dogged, now they were just shambling along. It was too soon to say but it seemed as though they might have done it!
"Fly us around a bit, give your gunners time to help thin the herd and then we will head back to basecamp." Adam ordered the pilot who gave him a nod.
"Roger, commencing flyover." He said as he once more moved the Vertibird forward and let the miniguns do their work, now even more effective than ever as many of the ghouls seemed to lose interest in continuing to advance forward once they lost a limb or two.
"Good shot kid." Salvatore said, patting Adam on the back lightly, his face showing how disappointed he was in himself.
"You okay there?" Adam asked back.
"Yeah, I'm just sorry I couldn't do the job you asked me to do." He said solemnly. Adam shook his head.
"Don't worry about it, we still got plenty left to kill. Besides you almost fell out, no one holds it against you." Adam said with a warm tone.
"Yeah I know but…" Salvatore said again, clearly still beat up about the momentary shellshock he received after he was saved from falling. No amount of words from Adam would help clear his head right now, work was the best thing he could do for himself.
"Well if you feel bad, take out some of the ferals still gathered, we will be in the air for a bit longer before we head back." Salvatore stared at Adam for a moment and then nodded, pulling out his 9mm pistol he rarely used and aiming out the door to begin taking shots at the ferals below. He would have used his rifle, no doubt, if he still had it, but it was lost in the sea of ferals. A sea that was already becoming more and more sparse by the minute. Between the firepower of everyone on the Vertibird shooting, and the lethargic nature of the ferals, some were even straight up turning around and leaving, some were straying into nearby buildings, and others were, perhaps, sentient enough to run away? In either case it seemed like the worst of it may be over.
They stayed in the air for a few more minutes, helping to clear the group of ferals still waiting to reinforce the battlefield before heading back, the miniguns now basically dry again.
As they touched down in the camp again, two gunners ran over, holding boxes of 5mm ammo and began to reload the Vertibird a second time, meanwhile Adam, Salvatore, and Eve all stepped out and surveyed the situation.
There was still a fight going on, but it looked more like a clean up, the dire situation they had left was now nothing but a handful of shots every few seconds as the remaining ferals continued to trickle in. They had done it, there was no doubt, Adam's hunch was right, they had won.
As Adam looked around he noticed a significant amount of casualties, there was no way to do a headcount right now, but he saw a huge number of corpses laying around, mostly near the edges of the sandbag walls. The brunt of the damage was received by War's men, but that might simply be because they had the largest group.
As the fight slowly began to wind down the members of the cult returned from the East, looking in far better shape than anyone else was as they reentered the camp, led by the condescending man again.
"Splendid work, everyone." He said with a slow clap as he entered the camp, flanked by 4 of his men while the rest spread out. "It seems that the truth beyond the graves shall be spared from the innocent flock of Chicago today." He said with a knowing grin. Every word this guy spoke made Adam uncomfortable, he could not even say why, aside from the fact he was clearly just a dick.
"Yes, I do think we are through the worst of it." Adam said as he wiped some sweat off his brow, as he took off his helmet for a moment, technically this was not something you should ever do in a combat situation, so long as you were on the battlefield your helmet should stay on. But the feral ghouls did not have guns and Adam was hot, sweaty, and did not plan to keep it off for long, his drill sergeant from beyond the grave would forgive him just this once he was sure.
"Yes, I do think we all have done a splendid job~" The lead cultist said again, his uncomfortable smile not abating. "Now all that is left is to bring salvation."
As soon as the word left his lips the scene around Adam changed in an instant. What once was a clean up operation. One that was just wrapping up as a handful of ferals continued to slowly stagger in, was now the sight of a new massacre.
The cultists that had spread out among the camp pulled out guns and then began to fire on the army. It was madness within moments.
Adam dove to the ground, slipping his helmet on as he did and pulled out his 10mm pistol ready to fire at whoever threatened him. He assumed, reasonably, the one threatening him would be the cultist head standing nearby, but no, that man's back was to Adam, he was instead shooting one of War's men, as were the cultists next to him… as were all the other cultists.
Nay. It was not just the cultists shooting at War's men, it was… a mix of people?! There was a hunter who harpooned one of the war's men that he was next to. One of the Demon Klan gouged the eyes of another warfighter out, two of the midway guards opened up with a volley fire of submachine guns into the ones they were nearest to. Even one of the junior knights broke formation and cut off the head of one of the war fighters. For a brief moment, it appeared as though everyone, other than himself, had suddenly turned on War.
This thought was broken quickly though when he heard the Colonel shouting loudly at one of his men who had also begun opening up on the war fighters nearby. He yelled at him for a few moments before he pulled out a laser pistol and then fired into the back of the head of the gunner putting him down in a second.
It was through this that Adam then noticed that almost everyone else in the camp was just as confused as he was to what was going on. Other than the few strays from the various groups no one had a clue why this was happening.
The interesting thing was that, despite being over 7 feet tall, carrying a massive sword, and having an unmistakable silhouette, War was nowhere to be seen. However after a few moments he noticed a shimmering bend in the air as it cleaved through 2 cultists in one go. It took a moment for him to understand but it seemed that War had used a stealth boy when this all happened, went invisible, and was now fighting back.
However his revenge was not to be as after he had killed only a few of the cultists, most of the other groups still too stunned and confused to act, the head cultist pulled out a whistle and blew it. After the whistle was sounded everyone, including those people who had fired at War's fighters that were not robbed like cultists, began a retreat.
War managed to cut down a few more of them as they retreated, leaving half torn corpses in his blood soaked wake but he was not fast enough to catch them all, and within moments, the sudden surprise attack that started like a flash ended like one too. As the silence permeated the camp, dead bodies littering the grounds, there was one thing certain on Adam's mind. This was a planned attack by the Cult of Pestilence. They took advantage of this defense to strike a deadly blow. This was a declaration of war.