A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 17: Danger lurking in the depths (Part-2)

Ciara was looking down from above as she watched Ryan finish laying the last bit of ladder that reached the U-shaped pier underneath, his powers was beyond wonderful, he had placed the pipes, the pumps and the only thing left was the filter and then half the work would be over, it was already nearing lunch as such she would call them back up and let him continue after the lunch and hopefully they did not have to work after the Sun had set.

She looked as her son was looking up and admiring his work with her friend by his side when all of a sudden one of her soldiers shouted out in alarm as she opened fire and following her example as did the others but it was all for naught the creature which turned out to be a giant snake jumped out of the water grabbed Ryan by his shoulder and had tightly wrapped around him, the sheer size of it gave her a miniature heart attack it was too big, the biggest snake she had seen and could bet her life that so did anyone in the whole wide world, she could hear Ryan's scream of pain as she watched him slowly fall into the murky depths of the water.

Zhan was stunned for a moment before she sprang into action with the herculean strength she managed to stop the snake from not only dragging Ryan into the water by dragging it by its tail but also to drag her more into the solid lands, normally she would have fired her gun but that would also release the snake from her grasp and even if she managed to somehow free Ryan a simply breaking of his neck would do the trick.

Zhan with her enormous strength managed to pull the snake off of Ryan, only for it to wound around her tightly, so tight that it made it difficult not only to breath but to held the jaw off her as she stumbled on the ground dangerously close to the edge, by then the others had stopped firing seeing their allies too close to the target as such the fliers decided to land nearby as the others on the shore began their descend suing the newly constructed ladder.

Ryan was disoriented for a moment as he grasped for air his left shoulder ached badly as his hand felt a bit numb, as his vision returned he was greeted by the horrific sight of Zhan struggling against the biggest snake he had ever seen, as he looked at that seen dumbfounded for a brief moment as his mind went back to another scene a few days ago, another person who was like an aunt to him, a family had died similarly and he did not want it again, whenever he closed his eyes he saw a half eaten Lena accusing him of not saving her and he did not want another death on his hands when he could have saved her.

Ryan stood up as his right hand seemed to suddenly disappeared into the air as ripples formed around it for a moment anyone who watched him was stunned at that then he pulled out a rapier out of thin air, Maeve who was nearby shouted at him to stop but he did not pay any heed to her as the only thing that was in front of him was creature that was hurting another of his family member, he lunged towards it with great speed.

Zhan tried to breath but the grasp was too strong for her, she tried to keep the head at bay with her left hand as with her right she tried to push the coiling serpent off of her, she knew after the apocalypse took place her strength had grown up by leaps and bounds and any normal snake no matter how big they were would have been torn to shreds by her bare hands but the one she was wrestling with was no ordinary snake she could feel her bone creaking and the gun pressing badly against her body, when all of a sudden she found herself staring at the tip of the sword a few drops of blood fell on her face, before it disappeared and in a swift and motion full of great fluidity Ryan pulled the sword before he swung it again beheading the beast.

The in a flurry of motion he cut down the beast into many pieces, Zhan pushed the dead body parts off of her as she sat up covered in blood, seeing her relatively unharmed Ryan send her a smile full of relief before he flicked his sword get the blood off of it as he then once again send it back into the inventory.

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"Ryan, Ryan are you alright.", a voice came to his ears as he winced from pain and his earlier strength granted by adrenaline seemed to be wearing off, as Zhan quickly stood up from her position and while she looked over him Maeve approached her as she spoke with concern in her voice, "Captain let us carry you two to safety first before we can give you treatment who knows what else is lurking here."

Zhan nodded as Ryan and she were both lifted to the banks of the gorge as they landed Nikita went towards the person who was nearest to her and that happened to be Zhan who shouted at her, "I am completely fine and uninjured I am simply covered by the beast's blood so go and check on Ryan."

Nikita nodded as she quickly went after Ryan as she barked at the one carrying him, "Place him on the concrete floor."

As Ryan was placed on top of the concrete he let out a moan of pain as Nikita was checking him over as others surrounded him, with the help of Ciara she quickly removed Ryan's clothes as a few of them winced upon seeing his wounds, the beast when it had latched to Ryan had dug its teeth deep leaving serrated marking all over the left side of his torso and the swelling near his collar bone mean that it was broken for sure, Nikita quickly opened her bag as she pulled out a black bottle from her bag and dipped a small swab of cotton in the liquid before she started to clean him she looked towards Ciara as she spoke, "Keep him in seated position."

She then proceeded to rub the blood and grime of his body, as a dizzy Ryan winced at her touch, "Easy easy there hold still and let me access the injury.", came the soothing voice of Nikita as she gentle touched the collar bone area Ryan gave a grunt of pain as Nikita spoke with a sigh, "Yup definitely broken.", she then had him lean forward a little as she cleaned the back area the blood had yet to stop flowing as Chloe and one of her subordinates quickly applied the combat gauze that was handed to them by Nikita holding them over the area where the wounds were much grievous as did Ciara with Nikita's help.

Meanwhile the guards manning the walls were a bit restless as one of them spoke, "What has happened? I think I heard shots being fired for a moment."

The other with binocular fixed on her eyes spoke with a grimace on her face, "I can see that something did indeed has happened with the water supply team Captain Zhan is covered in copious amount of blood but otherwise looked fine whereas someone is being tended but my view is blocked as such I do not know who, do you think we should alert our medical team."

The other frowned as she spoke with a nod, "Of course I will go and alert them they might receive someone badly injured.", with that she ran towards the last known location of their residential doctors while inwardly cursing the lack of good communication devices.

A few minutes later the group had successfully managed to stop his bleeding the gauzes were red with blood, as Nikita took out a roll of bandage and started applying over his torso carefully as well as tightly she then turned towards one of them and spoke, "Get him on the portable stretcher we are carrying him back to base fast and then it will be easier for me to heal him."

Normally Ciara despised others who tried to take control of her soldiers like that but she knew not to hinder the medic from doing her job properly, she helped them to place Ryan on the portable stretcher as she watched the fliers carry him back to their base, while they decided to move into the safe confines of their bed only for one of them to cry out in alarm, "Major most of the carcass is gone."

That made everyone who was present dash towards the edge only to see the blood covered pier with most of the snake body part strangely missing as Ciara spoke with a frown, "I do not want anyone to venture near the water for the foreseeable future."

Zhan frowned at that as she spoke, "But Major we have the water supply to deal with."

Ciara nodded at that as she spoke in a commanding tone, "I know that but at the same time I also know that the person responsible for it is injured and as such we have no means to accomplish that without his presence so till we have the proper means to accomplish the rest of the work safely I want everyone to stay clear of this place.", Unknown to them as they left towards the base a pair of eyes appeared above water as it feasted on the snake carcass before diving into the depths of the water.

Michalina was dead tired her mother made her and her friends stand under the sun with buckets full of sand in them held by their outstretched hands with their knees bend, she was sweating profusely from the heat, 'At least baby bro will have the shower ready for me by evening, but still getting suspended for doing the right thing well feels bad.'

She then heard a shouting and commotion as she turned towards the nearest soldier as she spoke, "Oi what is this commotion about?"

The soldier turned towards the speaker as she spoke hurriedly, "An accident has occurred in the water supply site.", the mention of it made Michalina's blood turn cold as her fellow sister-in-arms continued, "They are bringing in the injured."

Michalina spoke hurriedly at that, "Do you know who was injured?"

The soldier shook her head as she spoke, "No idea though Captain Zhan was seen coated in blood, if I hear anything I will let you know."

Michalina deflated at that as she whispered, "There goes our evening shower."

Ellie who was nearby spoke with a tired dejected sigh, "So true."

Marcel looked at the small window of the room that had been given to him and his family a room that was smaller than his bathroom, he had just arrived with food for them well what little the military was giving out to everyone, people with strange powers seemed to crop up and their numbers would increase day by day, 'Evolvers' they were called, the 'Future of Humanity' and what not, because of their powers they were given better lodgings and better food, he then looked at his family with hope that one day one of them evolved and at least by then they would not have to live like that his entire family including his father huddled together.

He had given a part of his food to his daughters as did his wife it seemed that they would have to spend another hunger filled day then his thoughts went to his mother as his face darkened a bit, it seemed that one of the higher-ups in the army was an 'old friend' of hers and she had abandoned them to enjoy the life of comfort, the thought of her so called friend made his blood boil the look that lecherous old man gave to his daughters made him simply bash his skulls but it seemed that God simply enjoyed making his life a misery after all that old man was the first ones to evolve.

Thinking about his children made him want to weep, his wife would cry every now and then thinking about his son, who he knew was probably dead but it was something that his wife vehemently refused to believe in but he knew how dangerous the world is and as such he knew he was not only dead but he might be a rotting zombie roaming in the city.