Beyond Survival: Chapter 9

“Warning! Hostile target heading-“

The twenty feet tall military bot did not even have the time to issue its warning before it was brought down by the corrupted human as he jumped to the top of its head in one fell swoop, something that should have been impossible without the use of Exo-rigs but was made possible to whatever The Corruption was.

The monster tore apart the head of the robot with his bare hands and grinned maniacally at the remaining robots and drones that were swarming him while the humans retreated from the chamber, sealing it up behind them.

General Carter. turned off the footage and turned back towards his fellow generals with a sullen look.

“That was the last transmission before the Corruption Contingency Protocol detonated the self-destruct systems within the chamber, burying it under the rubble.”

General Patel looked at Carter with a tired look.

“The Himalayan bunker?”

“Probably long gone. It would not have been possible for The Corruption to infect a Capsule otherwise. Even if they are not gone as we speculate, it is too late for them.”

General Carter opened another file, this time showing the rapidly expanding influence of The Corruption from the rubble that used to be the Hyperloop Complex.

“At the rate it's spreading, we don’t have the time to wait for any potential survivors in the Himalayan Base. We need to evacuate immediately.”

The silence that descended in the meeting room was deafening before General Patel stood up from his seat.

“Let’s get to it. We don’t have the time to contemplate anymore. Even if the majority of the people under my command are gone, we still have seven thousand civilians and two thousand military, scientific, and other experts here. We have to make sure we can at least save them from this fate.”

The other generals nodded at his words and got up from their own chairs, knowing that this was not the time to mourn, especially for General Patel, who had probably lost his entire family who were supposed to arrive today through the Hyperloop system.

They had a duty to what remains of humanity, and they will fulfill that duty to the bitter end.

The three Generals synced their IAS systems as a single prompt ran through their retinas.

[Full Evacuation of Bunker Beta]

[Initiate: Y/N?]

Without hesitation, the three generals pressed the yes button, making the Klaxons across the massive bunker blare to life as people ran about according to the many drills they had conducted in the past.

Watching from the window as the people went about the evacuation procedures, the three generals snapped to salute.

Not just to these brave men and women who put their lives on the line for humanity, but as respect and a final goodbye to Earth, their mother, and their cradle, as well.

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Other side of the Gate.

“Hurry! They will be crossing over at any moment!!”

Dr. Anderson’s voice rang out as the hundreds of teams of engineers, scientists and soldiers ran across the area, clearing the path from the Gate’s location and lining the street to make it easier to quickly move the large number of people that were about to arrive from the gate.

When Dr. Anderson was informed of what happened on the other side, he and his team felt their hearts sink.

They always knew that it was inevitable for The Corruption to claim all of the earth, including the Nevada Bunker. However, they thought they still had some time until that happened despite its increased spreading speed.

However, this attack from a Ravager, an organic infected with The Corruption yet managing to stay alive, was completely unexpected.

The Ravager phenomenon is extremely rare to begin with.

The first time a Ravager was recorded was two years after The Corruption was officially documented. It was a farmer in China who snuck into one of the bunkers and absolutely obliterated its population. It took heavy explosives to tear his body apart completely before he finally stopped moving, and his body rapidly decayed.

The Ravager phenomenon is just as mysterious as its origin, The Corruption. Nobody knows what conditions need to be met for a human, and animal, or a plant life, to become a Ravager.

The only known thing is that A Ravages keeps their personality, intelligence, and memories intact. However, their sanity is completely replaced by an endless thirst for destruction and death.

A terrifying and unpredictable foe to fight.

Fortunately, the phenomenon is very rare, with only one in ten thousand odds for an animal or a plant and one in a million odds for a human to become a Ravager.

And yet, when a Ravager appears, what follows is a dramatically accelerated spread of The Corruption in the surrounding areas, as if the Ravagers were some kind of a herald that brought The Corruption with them.

With the attack of a Ravager originating from the Himalayan Bunker, the Generals issued the immediate evacuation of everyone and everything from the Nevada bunker to the other side.

This was the final exodus, the final time anyone would ever see the Earth since they could not bring the Gate systems with them due to its size, neither could they fabricate it on the other side due to the advanced materials required for it that they simply did not have anymore.

With a heavy heart, Dr. Anderson watched as streams of panicked civilians were herded out of the portal rapidly by the military personnel.

Hours went by as thousands of people, tons of equipment, machines, robots, and materials, along with the last of the soldiers, engineers, scientists, and other experts in various fields trickled in.

Finally, at the twentieth-hour mark, the Three Generals walked out of the portal and just stood there, watching through the portal as if they could see the cradle of humanity they had left behind through the chaotic mess of colors.

They stood there, watching as the portal started to sputter and the machine on the other side finally started to give up, making the portal collapse.

After over a decade of preparation and colossal quantities of resources used, the Exodus project had finally fulfilled its purpose.

Yet, its creators felt nothing but bitterness as victory tasted like ash in their mouths.