Braverte’s steps give birth to small puffs of smoke that color his frame in a dark brownish hue. His shoulders are slumped with regret as he grips his bloodied blade. The silence of the wind is only broken by the low grumble of the creatures that lost their comrades. Due to the endless experiments their humanity was broken and lost to the abyss. Every single emotion was subdued and eventually blown out by the endless crashing waves of drugs and mind manipulation. Their senses are a mere vessel to execute orders given.

Love, hope and yes even fear were surgically and systematically removed. The husk of who they were was replaced by a beast that never questioned orders and wasn’t limited by morals or their own personal ambitions. A beast without senses.

These are the so-called zombies that slept in dark chambers, locked away from society like a secret no one dared to look at. These very zombies were now shaking in fear at the sight of Braverte and Pulmo approaching them. The fear that was ripped out of them, was born anew at the sight of Pulmo and Braverte slaughtering them over and over without killing them.

Braverte can tell that the zombies have been overcome by fear.

“Seems like us trying to save their lives gave them a trauma.”

Pulmo doesn’t say anything as she keeps her head down. Braverte closes in on two zombies shaking in fear.

“Maybe we should have done that from the beginning instead of trying to stop them by cutting off their limbs. But they don’t deserve a dog’s death.”

“They deserve mercy.”

Braverte clenches his teeth as he is ready to attack.

“The two on the left.”

Braverte moves like an assassin, trained in hiding, in the shadows. He glides forward with his blade in hand. The zombie screams in fear and throws a punch to force Braverte to keep his distance. Braverte swings his arm upwards and cuts the zombie’s arm in two. He then makes a small jump and when coming down he cuts the zombie’s head off. The head slides off its neck, but before it can hit the ground, Braverte grabs it and closes his eyes in sadness. The head explodes in his hand.

Pulmo calmly walks with her scimitar in hand. The two zombies stand motionless like prey in the clutches of fear. Then one zombie steps forward and breaks free from his fear and screams at Pulmo. Pulmo unphased keeps walking towards the zombies. The zombie readies himself to scream again, but before it can, Pulmo disappears from sight and is then suddenly right in front of it. She stabs the tip of her scimitar into the zombie’s head.

“Peace.”

The zombie’s head explodes. The two remaining zombies know that this isn’t a fight they can win. They don’t see any other option but the most basic one. Run away. They turn and try to run away, but both Pulmo and Braverte throw their weapons with extreme accuracy. They both decapitate the zombie they were aiming for. The two of them walk towards the fallen heads and use Higher Reasoning to turn them into dust. With their battle being settled, the two of them look at each other.

“I’ll go and check on Demo. You go check on Cleus, Cyte, and Ten.”

Pulmo nods and starts running in the direction of where she knows them to be. Braverte turns around as well and starts running in the direction of where he heard fighting, assuming it has to be Demo.

Strils was running in the forest, he was headed to where Bilicus was to warn him. Then suddenly he gets a warning on his watch. He looks and sees that the three bars on his watch are gone. He stops running in befuddlement. He can’t believe those three kids were able to take down three zombies. They were failed models, but they should be stronger than any student at this school. They must have cheated or had help. He looks back, thinking if he should go and finish them off since there is no way they are unscathed after fighting the zombies. Then from the corner of his eyes he sees Pulmo run towards them. He immediately hides himself because he knows that he is no match for her. But if she is here, what happened to Bilicus? He tried to contact him a few times but Bilicus can’t be reached. Something is very wrong, he better hurry up. So Strils keeps running towards their new secret hideout.

Bilicus has also arrived at the open field where he knew Sachem to be. He can’t believe that the ground has been destroyed. This means that the lab has been exposed. He thinks to himself that this is very bad. Meanwhile, Demo, Ugly Face and My-Ty are still standing with shocked expressions.

When the smoke cleared, they could see that they were in a laboratory. The lab was filled with dead Palindra bodies. The bodies were strung up with their stomachs cut open. Laid on tables with tubes and tools sticking out of them. Inside of tanks filled with liquid to preserve them. And that was only what they could see at first glance. There were several men in white suits who were doing the experiments.

The men in white suits are shocked and some are stumbling to safety after the roof collapsed on them. They are just as surprised to see Demo and the others. The manager of the suits knows that this is a dire situation now that their secret has been exposed.

“Save the specimens, collect the data and transport all the MYOS. HURRY!”

The scientists start to do their best to salvage what they can and get out of there without being killed.  

The sheer cruelty and brutality of it left Demo, My-Ty and Ugly Face speechless.

Sachem stood up after having fallen down and looked at the trio.

“You’ve done it now. None of you can leave her alive.”

Demo is still in shock, looks around.

“What is this?”

Ugly Face comes to his senses as well as he answers.

“I’ve heard that MYOS comes from the Palindra, but I just thought it was a rumor. This is insane.”

My-Ty is disgusted by what he sees.

“There is no honor in this.”

Demo’s shadow keeps bubbling and it gets more and more violent. Bilicus has walked up to the edge of the collapsed ground to look down and see what’s happening. He sees Demo’s group and Sachem on opposite sides.

“SACHEM! KILL THEM NOW!”

Sachem looks up, sees Bilicus and knows that his presence here must mean something went wrong at the manufacturing site.

“YOU MONSTEEEERRRSSS!!!!”

From Demo’s shadows a huge hand springs forth and hits the ground as a hidden Palindra pulls himself up from the darkness of the shadows. His eyes radiate with rage and disgust.

Chapter 69 Fin