He was right, that was the reason they had stuck to cars and vans with covert registration details. Their helicopter was state of the art, it may give away too many signals as to who was extracting these people, and potentially lead to the Elite discovering their whereabouts.
“Okay, make sure it's on standby at the edge of the city” She told him, “I'm going to contact unit three and see if they can swing by and grab them, we'll only use the chopper if necessary and as backup.
Rashid nodded and darted into the adjacent room to make the appropriate calls. Things weren't quite going to plan, but that's what happens when you've been compromised. The stress of everything would be visible with other people, but Sheryl had learnt to show a poker face at all times, not allowing any cracks in her calm demeanour to appear. It gave her colleagues confidence, and that's exactly how she needed them to feel to succeed.
LITTLE HILL METRO STATION
Danny, Joaquin and Christian pulled up at the Little Hill Metro Station, instantly seeing their new getaway guests standing there nervously. Danny pulled open the side door to the van and waved at them frantically to get in. They didn't hesitate, almost trampling over each other in the process. Samir, who was the last one to jump in, slammed the door shut behind him as the van pulled away.
“What happened?” Danny asked sensing an uneasiness in the air.
“Well somehow they knew about us” Brandon replied short of breath, not from physical exercise but through nerves, “They took control of the car, then the other cars and the people”
“The zombie people” Samir added, thinking that sounded normal, “and also the kung-Fu lady and-”
“Sounds like you had a rough ride” shouted Joaquin trying to concentrate on getting them all to safety, “We're not far from the meeting point”.
He continued driving cautiously, as fast as he dared. The Elite were aware of their vehicle, so it wouldn't be long until they were spotted again. He hoped that the other factions and their guerrilla tactics would delay the Elite long enough for them to get out of the city. That suddenly gave him an idea.
“Christian, can you phone Sheryl? If we can somehow provoke more factions to launch assaults to the south of us that would distract them for long enough” He said.
“I can reach out to the other factions” Mateo added from behind him.
“You have a secure channel through to them?” Joaquin asked.
“I have a secure channel, not directly to them, but I can feed some info over and I'm pretty sure someone will pick it up”
They all agreed it was worth a shot, so Mateo set back to work on his laptop. His laptop was quickly beginning to be the most important weapon in this getaway.
Chapter 10 – Dear Nephew
MONIQUE, OLIVIA AND Sofia were now on their journey, the same rendezvous point as their end goal. They had all had the same message that morning, and they had all been briefed on what to do. The phones exploded, the plan was set, and they raced off, Monique picking up the others en route. They were all tense, the whole world had been turned on its head this last week, the whole of society turning into one ennormous colony of servants. Now they had destroyed their phones they had no way of knowing how the others were doing, it was just a waiting game to see how they were once they reached the meeting point where they were all going to be picked up. What ordinarily would have been a long and tedious start to the journey now seemed like an emotional roller-coaster. They were full of fear, their adrenalin pumping more fear into them by the minute. They were professional scientists, not trained soldiers, if anything happened, they wouldn't stand much of a chance.
They reached the centre of the city, the busiest part, and one they normally avoided in the car, but it was the most direct route and taking a circular route round would take three times longer. None of them were sure that their adrenalin could pump through them that long without causing them damage, and didn't want to test it out. The centre of the city was a crowded metropolis, with people packed along each street, all acting out their daily motions. The coffee shops, bars and restaurants were all busy with them satisfying their basic needs and not wishing for anything more. They got a little further to the northern central districts and noticed that something didn't seem quite right. The people weren't just mindlessly going about their daily business any more; they were doing it while watching them. Olivia thought it was just in her head to start with, dismissing it as a mere delusion, but the more she looked, the more noticeable it became.
“Hey, maybe it's me, but are these people looking at us? And I mean all of them” She said to Monique and Sofia.
They both looked around outside the car carefully and were also sure they were.
”That's weird” Sofia said, to which Monique agreed.
They carried on, determined to reach their destination as quickly as they could. So, what if these people were watching them, they were just curious citizens. Maybe too curious, but they decided to shrug it off. They were a couple of blocks further when they heard a tremendous explosion. Ahead of them was a tall building with its bottom third ripped out, glass fragments spewed forth creating a hazy cloud of sharp weapons that sliced into unlucky pedestrians.
“Jesus” Monique shouted, “Was that a bomb?”
“It looked like it” Olivia shouted back, panicked, “It's blocked our route, is there another way to get around”.
Monique swerved to the right, adding that she thought she knew one. A few seconds later there was a further explosion somewhere behind them, another bomb, but they had no idea where it had hit.
“Okay, what the hell is going on?” Sofia
