A soldier quickly runs to the Mayor's office, slams open the door and calls out, "Sir, Major Coogler and Major Azoff have come back!"
Alden, Hedjoin and Minister Tyrell were sitting around the Mayor's table, they quickly got on their feet when they heard of their return.
The three quickly rushed to the hall of the safe house, where the two Majors were, not before Alden ordered the soldier to call out for General Adam out of the control room to the Hall.
When they reached out to the Hall, they saw the 25 heavily injured soldiers being taken to their safe house Hospital Room for treatment. Azoff stood at a corner in the Hall, and Coogler sitting on a chair provided by a soldier.
The air in that underground safe house was thick with the scent of burnt wires, sweat, and gore.
Alden stood near by the Hall Door, standing beside him were Hedjoin and Minister Tyrell, all looking at them with worried eyes, as they had already realised their defeat.
"Ma…!" Alden speaks. But was quickly stopped by Tyrell, when he put his right hand on his shoulder interrupting him.
"Azoff and Coogler,if you don't mind, we would expect both of you in the Mayor's office!" Tyrell added.
"Okay." Azoff replied, Coogler was still silent.
Alden, Hedjoin and Tyrell leaves from there, back to the office. General Adam also arrives at the office door just at the time Alden returns back.
A moment later, the door of the office hissed open, and Majors Coogler and Azoff entered. They were the walking dead.
They stood utterly still, covered head-to-toe in a terrible mix of their own blood and the black, dark and thick blood of the monsters.
Azoff's shield was strapped across his back, dented and caked in filth.
Alden was sitting on the Mayor's Chair, Tyrell and Hedjoin sitting on the two chairs in front of the Mayor's desk, while General Adam was sitting on the sofa at the left side of the office.
Alden didn't move. He didn't ask how many were lost. He just stared at the two men who represented the last stand.
"Major," Alden finally forced out, the single word hoarse.
Coogler swallowed hard, his throat raw from screaming orders. His voice was a low, mechanical rasp, stripped of all emotion.
"Sir. We had engaged the monsters at the Ratigion Colony intersection. Our initial assessment was flawed. The numbers were not in the hundreds. They were in the thousands and climbing. And their physical resilience is… total. We lost three hundred and seventy-five men in the battle." He finally speaks up.
Coogler paused, his gaze sweeping the floor. "We could not hold the line. It cannot be held."
"We lost the war!" Azoff added, "The monsters won against the human's!"
Alden's hands clenched the edge of his desk. "The regeneration… is it true?"
Coogler didn't say anything about that, he just nodded his head agreeing with the fact.
Azoff, whose composure was more brittle, answered with a grim nod. "Confirmed. Gun fire only staggers. Explosives are temporary. We established that decapitation is the only reliable kill-method, but to execute it, we have to be close to melee range. Sir, they killed more than seven hundred of our soldiers for fifty confirmed kills. It is a mathematical impossibility."
"You mean, both the battles you guys fought against for just a kill count of fifty monsters?" Tyrell was surprised.
"Yes!" Azoff replied.
"What the fuck!" Tyrell exclaimed.
Alden pushed away from his desk, the sound of his chair scraping on the floor a violent disruption in the quiet room.
"Then find a solution. You are my Commanders. Give me a strategy to protect Elyria." Alden was shaking.
Azoff stepped forward, his eyes flat and cold. "There is no strategy to save Elyria, Mr. Mayor. There is only one move left to save the surrounding region." He looked at Alden with sharp eyes.
"What is it, Azoff?" Hedjoin asked.
"Spit it out!" General Adam said.
"Containment. We have to seal the city off entirely. Every road, every tunnel, every exit must be blocked and defended to prevent the spread. Elyria is a loss."
"We can't risk the other parts of the nation now!" Coogler jumps in.
Tyrell's face snapped up, his compassion warring with the terrifying logic. "Alden, listen to me, don't do this. There are still civilians out there! Families, children who didn't make it to the refugee camps. You can't just… sacrifice them."
Alden closed his eyes, his pale features contorting with unimaginable pain. He looked at Tyrell, then at his commanders, his decision already made.
"If we don't, it's not just the twenty-five we saved tonight. It's every man, woman, and child in the nation." Alden reached for the secure red-line field phone.
His voice was steady, but utterly defeated, "Tyrell, I would ask you to help me contact the nation's high command to initiate the highest possible level of quarantine protocol. We have to tell them to ready the forces to seal off the entire perimeter of the Southern Region, immediately."
"May God save Elyria now!" Hedjoin cried.
"After all, you are the Mayor! It's all about your decision." Tyrell said, "I will try my best to contact them."
Alden lifted the phone's receiver. "This is Mayor Alden Aethon. I need to speak to the Commander in Chief of the Military or the King. Tell him… tell him I have failed."
Someone had actually answered Alden from the other side of the call, but Tyrell, Hedjoin and General Adam weren't sure if it was the Commander in Chief or the King or another soldier.
Alden puts down his phone's receiver. All of the others were eager to hear what the reply was, they were looking at Alden's face for his reply.
"What did the Commander in Chief say, Mayor? Or was it another soldier who received the call?"
"They will take immediate action!" Alden replied.
"Will? Do they think we are making some random kind of shit jokes!" Hedjoin added.
"I will talk with him!" General Adam replied. He walked out of the office and went towards the Control Room to contact the Headquarters by himself.
The Commander in Chief is the highest rank of the whole Military of the nation and not only for the Army. The Commander in Chief works directly under the King of their nation.