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The group around Zane ran after the two soldiers who, following their map, were on their way to the control room. An explosion could be heard in the distance as Zane stopped and looked back with a worried expression.
"They can do it Zane," Zero put a hand on his shoulder.
“Don't stop!” Shouted the lieutenant to keep the group going.
They kept walking when another tremor shook the floor and stumbled them.
“What was that!?” asked the second soldier, who seemed a little younger than his comrade-in-arms.
"Are we too late?" Asked Zane.
"No, that was the same shock as before," analyzed Nathan.
"Come on, we're almost there!" Ordered the first soldier in an energetic voice.
The walls cracked and groaned as they ran down the hallways. The new team leader, Lieutenant Fenon, paid no attention to the walls. The aim of getting to the control room quickly and allowing the caged civilians in the bunker to escape was a priority.
He also did not want to waste the efforts of the other group to stop the colossus and so he encouraged the group around him even more. "There should be another flight of stairs up ahead."
"Another flight of stairs?" Wondered Zane.
"The control room is at the entrance, between the hospital and the bunker itself," replied the second soldier, out of breath.
They kept walking when the stairs came into view in the distance.
“We're there!” Said the lieutenant when he finally saw the target in the distance.
BUNKER was written in bold letters in a lighted display above the reinforced frame of the passage that led to the stairs. The light strips on the floor and the words that followed the arrows also indicated the proximity of the bunker and the control room.
In contrast to the other electronics, the display remained steadfast because it was powered by an independent energy source.
"Now we can evacuate the civilians right away, correct?" Zane asked happily, feeling the first ray of hope in a long time.
"Exactly!" Replied Zero.
Arrived at the basement exit, the younger of the two soldiers immediately checked the panel, which was in the wall while the lieutenant explained how to proceed.
"As soon as we are in the control room, we report to the guards who will help us with the evacuation," he began. “They need to know that we're going to unlock the doors. As soon as that is done, we unlock it and go into the bunker ourselves and guide the civilians together with the other responsible persons in the bunker in the evacuation,” he explained hectically.
"How is it going?" He asked the soldier who was using his PDA to access the data from the bunker on the panel.
"The system has locked the doors, they really can no longer be opened from the outside," he reported. “All cameras are down. There is also some structural damage, but nothing serious. I'm not collecting any data from some of the aisles though. "
“What?” Wondered the lieutenant and went to the panel himself.
The panel showed a detailed map of the bunker. Some of the corridors were colored red, which meant that no data from these corridors was available. Signals, such as video or audio, no longer reached the panel.
"These are all corridors that come from the direction of the academy ..." remarked the lieutenant.
"Another corridor is gone!" Reported the soldier.
"How is that?" Asked Zero.
"It lost power."
"What's going on?" The lieutenant wondered when a noise immediately brought him back.
Footsteps could be heard in the distance, soft at first, then louder. They were so deep inside the hospital that the noises from outside could no longer reach them, so the footsteps could be heard all the more clearly. Then a message was received through the headsets of the group.
"We couldn't stop it ..." someone coughed. "Run away…!"
"Captain!" Shouted the lieutenant into the communicator. "Captain, please come!" He repeated, hoping to hear a sign of life.
Everyone stared intently into the darkness of the corridor, while the footsteps grew louder and louder. Asagi hid behind Zero, who stood protectively in front of her. Nathan and Zane both formed magical circles to launch an attack immediately.
The soldier on the panel frantically pressed a few buttons while the lieutenant aimed his weapon at the corridor, from where the footsteps echoed louder and louder.
"How much longer?" He asked impatiently.
"I'm almost there!" Replied the soldier frantically.
Then the flickering lights illuminated the colossus who was stepping out of the side corridor. It was still wearing the black coat that covered its entire body. The lower part of the coat, however, was a bit torn and appeared to be a little sunk. Still, it seemed to be unharmed, as far as it could be seen through the coat.
The colossus trudged on towards them. "Stop him!" Yelled the lieutenant as he aimed his rifle at the colossus.
"Zane, wait! I'm starting!” Nathan stopped Zane, who was about to attack and replied with a nod.
Nathan immediately started firing his spell into the corridor. He created another huge fountain of water that rushed towards the colossus and should bring him to fall again. This time, however, it was different.
With a mechanical sound, the colossus stamped its legs in the ground and dug them into it. At the same time, it brought its arms in front of it and crossed them in a defensive position. Bending slightly forward, it stood against the fountain of water that was racing towards it.
The fountain hit the colossus and, through the resistance of its body, the water splashed past it on all sides.
Zane and his friends were shocked. Earlier the fountain had thrown back the colossus but now nothing happened. It stood still in the middle of the water fountain. But the group did not notice that the colossus was pushed back a little despite its resistance.
"Zane, as soon as I stop, it's your turn!" Said Nathan, holding his spell up while sweat ran from his forehead.
"OK!" Zane replied, raising his arm with the prepared rune in the direction of the hallway and creating another rune on top of the other.
The fountain pelted to the ground and Nathan immediately shouted "Now!"
"Aero! Glacies!” Zane shot his spell out of the circle. Accelerated by the Aero Element, bright white-blue particles shot out of the circle in front of his hand.
Everything the particles touched froze instantly. When they reached the wet colossus, which was about to start moving again, it froze in a split second. The water, blown back by the wind of the spell, had frozen into sharp ice crystals.
The colossus stood motionless in the corridor. A thick layer of ice had frozen him in place.
"Is it over?" Asked Zane, who wasn't convinced of his spells anymore.
"It seems so ..." assumed Zero, who was nervously waiting for the colossus to move. "But let's wait and see ..."
"Done!" the soldier on the panel suddenly shouted enthusiastically. "I restored the door control!"
"That's great!" Zane replied happily. "Now we can save them all!"
"I don't want to dampen your excitement, but something is moving!" Nathan suddenly yelled and Zane looked back at the colossus.
Small fragments of ice began to detach from the outer layer of ice that surrounded the colossus. A snap followed, a crack opened up and in the next moment the ice that surrounded the upper body of the colossus broke open.
"Shit!" Zane swore.
“Is that a super soldier? What's going on here?” the soldier at the panel complained, while looking at the scene in front of him in disbelief.
"Quickly to the bunker!" Ordered the lieutenant, who sent them into the stairwell with a hand gesture.
Zero and Asagi were the first to get to there. "What about that thing?"
"That won't come through the security door," pushed the lieutenant Zero towards the stairwell. "Come on now!" He urged Nathan and Zane, who still stared at the colossus which was trying to free itself from the ice.
Since the water from Nathan's attack had spread over the floor and the colossus had previously rammed his legs into the ground, it now had problems freeing itself because a thick layer of ice had formed around its lower body.
Zane and Nathan looked back at the lieutenant, behind whom Asagi and Zero were already standing. "Shouldn't we ...?"
"No time for that, let's get going now!" Ordered the lieutenant again.
"He's right Zane," Nathan patted him on the shoulder, who was about to follow Zero and the others.
There was a splintering noise. Zane and Nathan turned around and saw how the colossus hit the lump of ice that surrounded it with its arms. In the next moment, the lump of ice was already splintering and the colossus pulled out one of its legs.
"Come on! The lieutenant shouted while Zane and Nathan came running towards him. Another splintering sound was heard as the colossus completely freed itself from its frozen prison.
Immediately the colossus began to head towards the group with quick steps. Zane and Nathan were just sliding beneath the gate of the bunker entrance when the colossus was halfway behind them.
"Shut the door!" Yelled the lieutenant, while the colossus came closer and closer.
The soldier frantically pressed his PDA and a heavy steel door rushed down from above and closed the bunker entrance with a thud.
In the next instant, there was another loud bang and everyone winced. Intending to ram the gate, the colossus had run his shoulder first against the steel door, but it hardly moved.
"Don't worry, it won't get through, it's a fire shutter," said the lieutenant, while the colossus banged on the door.
After several attempts, the colossus seemed to have given up and silence returned to the bunker entrance where they had holed up.
"He's gone," Nathan listened at the door.
A sigh of relief crossed the room as the lieutenant straightened up. "OK, let's move on."
"What about the captain?" Asked Zane.
"Our job is to open the gates of the bunker," he avoided the question.
Zane lowered his gaze when Asagi protested, "But ..."
"They are trained soldiers, they can do it."
"If we hurry up, we might be able to evacuate them too," Nathan tried to lighten the mood.
"Right, sitting around here doesn't get us any further," Zane stood up as well.
"Come on then," Zero straightened up, whereupon the lieutenant nodded.
The group around Zane continued down the stairs floor after floor. Unlike in the hospital, the stairs were illuminated and the lights worked perfectly here. There were guidelines posted on the walls civilians and law enforcement officials could follow in an emergency. A drawn map of the bunker outlined the layout, the individual departments, and escape routes, while colored stripes on the wall and on the floor led the civilians into the corresponding bunker sections.
"There is the entrance," remarked the lieutenant when they arrived at the end of the stairs where they found themselves in a large room. From the room onwards, there were three corridors, one leading directly to the bunker entrance and the other two to other entrances.
"We're almost there," the lieutenant ran ahead into the first corridor.
The large room served as a gathering point before the long corridor was used for an orderly entrance into the bunker. At the end of the corridor, the group was greeted by a sluice, a heavy steel door like the one earlier at the entrance to the bunker closed off the entrance to the interior. The lights of the scanners had gone off and the lock looked abandoned.
"There should be Soldiers stationed here ..." said the lieutenant as they approached the control room which was located to the right of the lock.
There was a light in the control room but it was quiet. The lieutenant pulled his ID card through the panel on the door which opened with a hydraulic sound. Black dust immediately poured out of there.
"Is it possible ..." the lieutenant whispered while the color drained from his face.
The floor was full of dust and small crystals but there were also cartridge cases underneath. Bullet holes were visible in various places on the wall and some of the control panels had also been hit by bullets. Blood ran down a wall and underneath was one of the soldiers, a gash was drawn across his torso.
"What happened here?" Wondered Zane walking through the dust.
"Don't look Asagi!" Zero turned to her and shielded her from the sight.
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