Chapter 646: Chapter 646: What’s The Situation? (Part 1)

Back on the rooftop, the sudden sniper fire created something that hadn’t existed a while.

A pause.

Brief.

Fragile.

Don stopped first.

Not fully. Not carelessly.

His body remained tight, shoulders squared while blood rolled slowly down one side of his forehead and dripped from his jaw onto the rooftop beneath him.

His chest rose harder now, breaths uneven after the nonstop fighting while fragments of broken concrete and torn flesh surrounded him in dark streaks across the roof.

But his eyes shifted upward.

Toward the approaching striker.

Toward the woman at the open side door holding the oversized rifle.

He needed one answer immediately.

Threat?

Or not.

Nearby, K-4 followed Don’s gaze a second later just as his hands crushed the skull of another one of the horde trying to climb over the ledge.

The thing convulsed violently beneath his grip before he shoved the corpse backward into the climbers below.

Blood coated both his gloves now, especially around the puncture wound through his palm where the mutated tongue had pierced him earlier.

Charles tried looking too.

He managed barely half the movement.

His neck lacked the strength to fully turn anymore, muscles trembling faintly while he remained slumped beside the dented ventilation unit.

One wing dragged uselessly against the rooftop gravel while the other twitched weakly every few seconds, metallic feathers shifting but no longer launching.

Even the horde reacted.

The advancing ones slowed unevenly along the rooftop edges while many lower down the building tilted their heads upward toward the incoming helicopters.

Bodies still climbed over one another in chaotic waves, but the motion lacked direction for a moment.

Some paused halfway over ledges. Others twitched violently in place while distant rotor noise hammered through the smoke-covered skyline above.

The atmosphere tightened strangely.

Not calm.

Not safe. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Just suspended.

Smoke rolled between the surrounding towers while ash drifted across the rooftop through the fading evening light.

Loose debris skittered intermittently across the concrete beneath the pressure waves from the approaching strikers.

Below the tower, the horde still writhed through the streets in endless clusters, climbing walls and smashing through windows while the helicopters drew nearer overhead.

Then—

BOOOOOOM—!~

Another shot fired.

The rooftop shook from the impact a fraction of a second later.

One infected near the eastern ledge simply disappeared from the shoulders up.

The round punched through it’s skull with such force that the remains burst outward across three others nearby.

Flesh sprayed over the rooftop edge while fragments of bone tore through another climber’s throat before embedding into the building wall behind it.

The collective pause shattered instantly.

The horde reacted like a kicked nest.

Bodies surged upward violently again, some stumbling from the sudden movement while others got shoved directly off the building by the others behind them.

Hands clawed desperately over the rooftop edges. Several began climbing faster without regard for footing at all, smashing fingers bloody against concrete while forcing themselves upward in frantic waves.

The rooftop trembled harder beneath them.

KRRRKKK—!~

Back inside the lead striker, the atmosphere barely changed despite the chaos outside.

Wind blasted continuously through the open side door, carrying smoke and ash through the cabin while the entire helicopter jerked violently every time the sniper fired her rifle.

The noise inside remained brutal even through combat dampeners, each shot hammering through the armored frame hard enough to rattle loose equipment mounted along the walls.

None of the soldiers reacted much anymore.

It was routine.

The same operative projecting the earlier tactical display now projected another holographic screen.

The glowing aerial feed showed the rooftop battle in real time from above, multiple tracking markers outlining Don, K-4, Charles and the climbing horde swarming the tower beneath them.

The feed zoomed tighter.

Charles’ weakened form filled part of the projection.

"Asset confirmed, sir," the operative said while adjusting the display. "He looks in bad shape."

Captain Walker hummed once from where he stood near the center of the cabin, one gloved hand gripping an overhead restraint while the helicopter shifted again from recoil.

His eyes moved toward the sniper.

"Sparrow," he said flatly. "Make sure nothing gets near that kid."

The sniper gave a small nod without looking back.

A faint glint spread across the dark visor covering her eyes while another magazine indicator flickered across her helmet display.

"Aye aye, captain."

There was confidence in her voice.

Almost arrogance.

"And the others?" she asked.

Though nobody could see it directly, her targeting reticle had already shifted briefly across K-4 first.

Then Don.

She had intended to assist.

Walker answered immediately.

"You have your orders."

Simple.

Final.

Sparrow clicked her tongue softly beneath the helmet before rotating the rifle back toward Charles’ section of the rooftop.

Another reached the ledge nearest him.

BOOOOM—!~

The upper torso vanished.

Back on the rooftop, Don and K-4 continued fighting immediately after the pause ended, though the pressure had eased slightly now that one entire angle of attack kept getting erased by sniper fire before reaching rooftop level.

The horde still climbed harder than before.

Just sloppier.

K-4 grabbed one man by the throat and slammed him headfirst into the rooftop ledge hard enough to collapse the skull inward.

The corpse twitched violently before going limp, blood spilling down the side of the tower beneath it.

Another rushed him immediately after.

Male.

Tall.

One side of his face had swollen grotesquely around exposed bone growth while strips of flesh hung from both arms like wet cloth.

Its movements came unevenly, shoulders jerking violently every few steps as it lunged toward K-4.

The officer punched.

The man ducked under it unexpectedly.

Then dove straight toward K-4’s thigh.

Its jaws clamped down hard against the armored section above his knee.

The material held.

Barely.

K-4’s expression tightened immediately from the force behind the bite. Muscles along his leg flexed hard while pain flashed visibly across his face for half a second.

Then both hands slammed downward.

KRAAASH—!~

The man’s spine bent grotesquely beneath the impact before collapsing flat against the rooftop surface.

Bone burst visibly through its back while blood spread beneath the twitching remains.

At the same time—

Don demolished everything climbing in his direction.

Something inside him had loosened.

Not physically.

Mentally.

The certainty of extraction removed a pressure he hadn’t fully realized he carried since encountering the horde.

The constant question of escape—of whether they’d die trapped on this rooftop—had disappeared.

And his fighting changed immediately because of it.

A woman with twisted shoulders climbed over the ledge first.

Don met her with a straight punch that blew through her chest entirely.

The corpse launched backward into another climber before either body hit the ground.

He turned instantly afterward and caught a second woman by the face mid-lunge.

His fingers dug fully into the skull before he slammed her sideways through a maintenance pipe hard enough to bend the metal support inward.

Another rushed him from behind.

Don spun.

His elbow struck first.

CRACK—!~

The jaw shattered apart from the side of the face before the follow-up kick folded it completely over the rooftop edge.

Two more climbed together.

One missing an arm.

The other dragging exposed intestines across the concrete behind him.

Don surged directly into them.

His shoulder crashed into the first hard enough to burst the torso apart against the ventilation structures while his hand caught the second by the throat immediately afterward.

Then he slammed it downward.

Once.

Twice.

The third impact crushed the head completely.

Another leaped from the ledge.

Don stepped forward and clapped both hands together directly in front of it.

BOOOOM—!~

Compressed air exploded outward violently.

It’s entire upper body ruptured apart midair while two more climbing beneath it lost their grip completely and spiraled backward off the tower.

Blood mist drifted across the rooftop wind.

Another reached him.

Then another.

Don moved through them brutally fast now.

One lost its head to a spinning backfist.

Another got driven facefirst through a solar panel frame.

A woman with pointed fingers tried clawing toward his throat only for Don to catch her arm and yank hard enough to tear the entire shoulder free before kicking the body backward into the next climber.

KRAASH—!~

Three bodies disappeared over the edge together.

By the end of it, corpses littered the rooftop around him in broken heaps while blood spread through the cracks running across the concrete surface.

And then—

Nothing climbed over his side.

Not because the horde had stopped.

The next wave simply hadn’t reached rooftop level yet.

Don stood there breathing harder now, chest rising unevenly while smoke rolled past him through the evening wind.

Blood dripped steadily from both hands while distant rotor wash hammered across the rooftop from the approaching striker formation overhead.

Inside the helicopter cabin, the soldiers watched the aftermath across the holographic feed.

For a moment, nobody spoke.

Then the broad-shouldered operative near the rear gave a low whistle beneath his helmet.

"...kid’s not half bad."