(Out of data! Three chapters a day, please!)
Four hours later, night fell.
"Rumble--"
Behind the two command vehicles, four off-road armored vehicles were speeding along the gravel-strewn country road.
The heavy tires rolled over the road, crushing gravel and dry corn stalks with intermittent, crisp sounds.
In the middle of the escort vehicle, Lois was surrounded by a group of fully armed soldiers with difficulty.
His hands were locked, and his body was leaning against the car window in an extremely awkward position, with ridiculously little room to move.
Left with no other choice, Lois could only silently watch the wheat field rushing past the window.
Suddenly, my heart skipped a beat.
She recognized the road.
Less than five miles ahead, across the old railway bridge spanning the riverbed, lies the outermost edge of Smallville.
It is also the very edge of the Kansas border.
Although John never revealed his information to Lois.
But the military clearly wanted to thoroughly investigate every place she had stopped along the way.
Lois nervously raised her eyes and looked at the fully armed soldiers in the carriage.
Six special agents sat expressionless opposite her, each holding a loaded submachine gun.
The convoy soon drove onto the old railway bridge.
"Sizzle... sizzle..."
At that moment, a piercing buzzing sound suddenly erupted from the radio on the roof of the armored vehicle.
And it was at that very moment that the buzzing sound began.
A special agent directly opposite Lois suddenly contorted his face.
"My head... it hurts so much..."
The rifle was tossed aside, and he clutched the sides of his helmet tightly with both hands, curling up in agony.
To maintain communication, audio is shared in real time throughout all carriages.
Therefore, upon hearing the commotion, the second lieutenant sitting in the co-driver's seat of the command vehicle immediately grabbed the communicator and asked sternly:
"What's going on?! Third car, report the situation!"
But there was no response on the communication channel.
All that remained was a chorus of chilling, heavy panting.
Inside the train carriage.
Lois had somehow "escaped unharmed," felt a sudden pang in her heart.
Apart from him, all the special agents inside the car collapsed simultaneously, clutching their heads and groaning in pain.
Something must have happened outside!
She shifted her body, pressed her face against the thickened bulletproof car window, and hurriedly looked outside.
In the night fog ahead of the highway.
Above the road bridge spanning the riverbed, a strange black shadow hangs silently.
At the top of that thin body was a huge head, several times larger than that of a normal person.
The scalp was very thin and pinkish-white, with countless dark yellow blood vessels, like living worms, bulging out and constantly writhing.
"Heh heh... these persistent ants..."
In his cloudy eyes, thick, dark yellow liquid seeped out in strands from his eye sockets and seven orifices, weaving around his body.
Indeed, the deformed figure suspended in mid-air is Hector, who escaped from the laboratory.
Following his subconscious connection to the Green Spectrum, he identified a "threat" that needed to be completely "eliminated."
So he crossed most of America and came to the fields on the edge of this small town.
But he didn't expect that the military would turn out to be such disgusting "lackeys."
He had just arrived when someone else followed him here.
Since that's the case... let's crush these ants first.
"Enemy attack!! Open fire! Open fire at will!!"
At this moment, the machine gunner inside the armored vehicle finally reacted, pulling the trigger sharply and unleashing a series of loud, explosive shots.
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"
A dense barrage of bullets streaked across the night sky, hurtling straight toward the strange figure suspended in mid-air.
But just as these stray bullets, capable of turning a person into a lotus seedpod, reached Hector—
The void suddenly distorted.
The thousands of streams of hair seemed to have hit a layer of sticky, dark yellow asphalt, and remained stuck in mid-air.
In mid-air.
Hector stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the chaotic convoy below.
Beneath the pale skin, deformed by the giant skull, a cruel, maniacal, trembling laugh slowly unfurled.
"They're all... ants!"
He then raised his hands and danced them with ease, as if conducting a beautiful symphony with long batons.
The next second.
"Buzz!!"
The thousands of Negasonic Teenage Warhead that were stuck in the air were shot back at an even more terrifying speed amidst the flashes of yellow energy.
"Whoosh--!!"
The windshield of the car in front was instantly riddled with tiny white spots, forced to withstand extreme pressure, and then shattered!
"The bullet bounced back! The cockpit..."
"Clang!!"
Without any obstruction, the scorching bullets raged through the driver's cab, instantly turning the human body inside into a blurry cloud of blood.
At the same time, the engine below was also shattered by a series of stray bullets, and the cylinder block and shaft emitted thick smoke due to overheating during emergency braking, until—
out of control!
The massive vehicle, weighing several tons, came to a sudden stop due to terrifying inertia, its front end lifting up before plunging heavily into the mud!
"BOOM--!!!"
The armored vehicle rolled several times during the repeated impacts before finally crashing heavily into a sunken wheat field beside it.
The remaining vehicles came to an abrupt stop amidst the billowing dust and smoke, locked themselves up, and swung violently sideways, barely coming to a stop in front of the overturned half-wreckage.
"Lead vehicle overturned! Repeat! Lead vehicle overturned!"
"Open fire for cover! All troops, dismount!"
The scene shifts, and the dialogue continues.
"Everyone get off! What the hell is this monster?!"
Seeing this horrifying scene, my worldview was shattered.
The lieutenant ripped off his headphones, drew his pistol in terror, and aimed it at the enormous, grotesque figure.
But he hadn't had time to pull the trigger.
"Huh?... There's a naughty little bug here."
Hector, suspended in mid-air, seemed to sense something, smacked his lips, and turned his head.
The murky yellow pupils pierced through the layers of the carriage panels and landed directly inside the carriage.
"Try this..."
Next second.
A massive, filthy consciousness, like molten lead bursting from a dam, forcefully poured into the minds of every soldier in the vehicle.
"Ughh...
Soon, the soldiers in the carriage erupted in shrill, desperate screams.
Their eyes instantly became bloodshot, their pupils dilated, and their faces contorted in terror.
Nightmares, grotesque horrors, and depravity forge the most primal fears in everyone, brutally devouring their reason.
"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!!"
At that moment, a soldier, his face contorted with rage, raised his gun and pulled the trigger directly at his comrade beside him.
"Da da da da!!"
In a very short time.
The cramped carriage was instantly filled with rampant blood and red mist.
Everyone went mad, and then to the extreme of frenzy.
They fired at each other, engaging in primal biting and tearing, spraying warm, thick slurry onto the dying bodies.
They weren't the only ones affected.
In the front row, the second lieutenant's veins bulged and his eyes were wide open.
His entire body was held upright by the exertion of his maximum strength, and the muscles in his cheeks twitched and trembled violently.
He was trying hard to restrain himself, struggling.
But his right hand, which was tightly gripping the pistol, continued to tremble little by little before suddenly rising up.
Tears of blood flowed slowly down.
Then came a desperate sob:
"No..."
"Click!"
Suddenly, the cold muzzle of the gun rose and pressed precisely against his temple.
"Bang!"
Inside the now-defunct armored truck, Lois huddled numbly in a corner.
And it was at this moment...
"Tear--!!"
The armored truck's thick roof, several inches high, was instantly torn apart by a powerful and terrifying force.
The next second, the night wind carrying a fishy smell blew in.
Hector stepped onto the dented edge of the roof, and his deformed, swollen head slowly emerged.
He lowered his gaze, looking down at the woman huddled in the corner, her face covered in blood.
"Oh?"
The yellow light in Hector's eyes flickered slightly.