Exchange of Fire

. . . .

Hunk and his three teammates watched the little girl sobbing over her parents' corpses. Despite the pity they felt, their muzzles remained trained on her.

If this little girl were to suddenly go berserk, they would shoot her down without hesitation.

After all, one of the orders Sui Bian had issued was: "Only implement aid if the safety of combat personnel can be ensured."

To Sui Bian, these Alphas were priceless treasures.

Moreover, Hunk and his men were no fools. Who knew if the girl was truly pitiful or just feigning it? Naturally, they could not afford to lower their guard.

"Sir!" At that moment, the leader of B Team, who was guarding the corridor outside, shouted to Hunk, "We have a situation!"

Hearing this, Hunk turned his head to glance at the girl and said coldly, "Apply restraints. The rest of you, with me."

"Yes."

As the words fell, one Alpha, under the cover of another teammate, pulled a nylon zip-tie from his right pocket and bound the still-sobbing girl.

The girl tried to resist, but she had no power to struggle against an Alpha and was easily pinned to the ground, rendered immobile.

Meanwhile, Hunk and another Alpha stepped out of the room and into the corridor guarded by B Team.

"Roar...! Roar...!"

Upon entering the corridor, Hunk saw a large number of tenants emerging from their rooms, arms outstretched, mouths agape, emitting the same low, guttural growls as the couple from before.

These tenants had pale, sallow skin and vacant eyes, charging toward Hunk and his men, but...

They were somewhat slow.

Their movements were shambling and lacked any coordination, bearing a striking resemblance to the "Infected" B.O.W.s—the zombies—that the USS had previously dealt with on Rockfort Island.

However, real zombies wouldn't sit obediently at a dining table like living people, nor would they perform repetitive motions with knives and forks.

"Ah! Help! Help!"

"Run!"

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Along with the "Pseudo-Zombies" rushing out of the rooms, there were many seemingly normal tenants.

These panicked tenants scrambled toward the apartment's main entrance, some falling to the ground because their legs had gone numb from sitting too long, crawling away on their hands and knees.

Seeing this.

Bang! With a single shot, Hunk took down the nearest "Pseudo-Zombie," while simultaneously raising his voice in the corridor: "Everyone who doesn't want to die, get down! Otherwise, you're responsible for the consequences!"

With that, Hunk ordered his subordinates: "Fire at will!"

"Yes!"

Bang! Bang-bang!

Squelch! Thud!

Following Hunk's order, the four Alphas of B Team unleashed their full firepower. The sound of gunfire and the tearing of flesh echoed throughout the corridor.

Hunk and the other A Team Alpha provided cover; once B Team's magazines were empty, they would provide fire support to avoid the awkward situation of everyone reloading at once.

After just one volley, B Team still had ammunition left in their magazines, but the first-floor corridor had already become "empty."

Dozens of "Pseudo-Zombies" had their skulls precisely blown apart, collapsing to the ground dead, the carpet stained with viscous black blood and littered with debris.

Of course, the corpses also included the normal tenants who had failed to heed Hunk's warning and were accidentally killed.

"Ah... my arm..."

"Help... save me..."

The corridor was still filled with tenants lying on the ground, groaning weakly from being accidentally hit by AP-FMJ rounds.

The corridors of such old apartments were narrow. Even though Hunk and his men were equipped with Mechanical Exoskeletons and maintained an accuracy rate of over 99% at close range, they still couldn't make their bullets curve like in Wanted.

Therefore, those who heard Hunk's warning but didn't act, or those who simply didn't hear it, met the fate of being accidentally killed or wounded.

As for the tenants who had dropped to the floor in time, they kept their lives, and due to the overwhelming firepower of B Team, they were too terrified to speak or move.

This actually made things easier for the Alphas.

The four members of B Team reloaded in sequence, while the two A Team Alphas who had secured the little girl returned to the corridor to cover B Team during their reload.

Hunk, positioned in the center of the group, looked back and forth at the state of the corridor before speaking calmly into his throat mic:

"C Team, D Team, enter the apartment. Confirm the first floor is completely secure, then seal the building. E Team, protect the technical personnel and confirm the status of the corpses and survivors.

A and B Teams, follow me to move upward."

"Yes," came several cold, detached responses over the comms.

After issuing the orders, Hunk led A and B Teams to continue upward using the corridor on the right side of the lobby.

At this time, the eight Alphas of C and D Teams disembarked from the van and quickly entered the apartment lobby, beginning to check the first-floor rooms in pairs.

Next, once C Team confirmed the first floor was secure, they would assist A and B Teams in sweeping for "Pseudo-Zombies" and searching for the source of the anomaly that caused this situation.

D Team remained behind to guard the lobby.

"Pop—pop-pop-pop—pop—" The incessant sound of gunfire echoed throughout the entire apartment building.

At this moment, four Omicron members of E Team escorted four technicians, clad in white one-piece hazmat suits and carrying silver toolkits, into the first-floor lobby.

As for why it wasn't Alpha's E Team, it was because the wounded members who had been shot in the left shoulder and buttocks had yet to recover, so the Omicron E Team had been brought in to assist.

Stepping inside.

The lead technician raised his left arm to glance at the personal computer screen strapped to his wrist. After a few seconds, he reported over the radio:

"Mr. Sui, no abnormal microorganisms have been detected in the air. However, for the sake of safety, I still recommend that this building be completely sealed off and disinfected...

Yes, sir, yes, understood, please rest assured."

After finishing his report to his 'superior,' the technician ordered the remaining personnel: "Everyone, our mission remains the collection of samples. As for sealing the building, that will be handled by the follow-up units. Let's get moving."

"Yes, sir." (x3)

As the muffled voices faded, the four technicians began their work.

First, they set their toolkits down in the spacious lobby, opened them, and retrieved the necessary tools and instruments.

Then, the Alpha members of D Team remained to guard the lobby, while E Team protected the technicians as they entered the corridor on the left side of the first floor.

The technicians began collecting blood, hair, tissue, and other samples from the 'Pseudo-Zombies' and the corpses of the tenants.

As for the surviving tenants, they were now obediently following the technicians' instructions to gather in the lobby, where they knelt on the ground with their hands on their heads, under the watchful eyes of D Team's Alpha members.

After finishing the sample collection from the corpses, the technicians began a meticulous inspection of the rooms, corridors, and corners.

Just then...

"Attention all units, this is Hunk. An anomaly has been confirmed in Room 407 on the fourth floor. D and E Teams, protect the technicians."

Hunk's voice came over the radio, his tone remaining as calm as ever, as if he were incapable of being rattled by any anomaly.