Chapter 60: First Meeting with Javier
"Wake up, Claire..."
“We’re here…”
Around 12 noon.
Following the girl's instructions, two wooden speedboats came to a dam that was releasing water.
Yang Ren woke up Claire who was resting in his arms, and then looked towards the dam.
"Is that Javier's hiding place..."
Lyon at the bow gradually stood up.
For long voyages, it is definitely necessary to change the helmsman.
"Yes...I escaped from that dam..."
The girl in the white dress said.
"By the way, we don't know your name yet."
Everyone suddenly remembered that they had not asked the girl's name, so Claire asked.
"Manuela..."
Manuela seemed reluctant to reveal her full name, and no one forced her.
Two speedboats came to the bottom of the dam and docked at a circular entrance.
Claire picked up the kettle and drank some water. When she put it down, she just happened to see Yang Ren staring at her.
"Uh...are you thirsty too?"
Yang Ren touched the kettle hanging around his waist.
Um... empty.
"A bit..."
Claire handed over her kettle, Yang Ren gently took it and took a sip.
Sweet.
……
"Hey, Manuela..."
"If you want to get out of here alive, you have to follow us closely from now on, understand?"
Before entering the entrance of the dam, Leon said to Manuela, trying to speak in a gentle tone.
In response, Manuela just nodded weakly.
"clear…"
The protagonists and the team leader walked in front of the team with Manuela, and the remaining 10 soldiers followed behind.
"Cough cough..."
A few hours later, the two bitten riflemen had already shown obvious symptoms of infection.
In a high temperature + high humidity environment, the virus spreads much faster than usual.
The two riflemen coughed from time to time, their faces turned red, and they kept scratching their skin.
The itching was already unbearable, and the hot environment and the stuffy combat uniform made it even more uncomfortable.
Following the circular passage, everyone soon arrived at the bottom of an open-air cylindrical building.
“This should be the water discharge channel.”
Krauser deduced.
In the center of the water ahead, the calm surface gradually began to ripple.
"alert!"
The squad leader immediately raised his left hand and clenched his fist, and the soldiers behind him dispersed.
As more and more ripples spread on the water surface, several piranhas pounced towards the team.
Fortunately, the water here is not as turbid as the one downstream that floods the villages.
In the clear water, the piranhas have nowhere to hide.
The soldiers immediately opened fire and killed the piranhas.
"The water is dangerous, walk along the edge!"
The crowd walked along the circular edge of the building to the entrance of the passage at the other end.
Just as I was about to enter, there was a sudden noise on the wall above the cylindrical building...
Everyone looked up and saw a...
Dog-headed bat?
It is black and red all over, and its head is covered with a layer of bone, which makes it look very much like the skeleton lizard in King Kong: Skull Island.
It is about half the size of a human, with long and slender limbs.
Especially the front limbs, which are at least one meter long and have sharp claws.
However, this monster does not have a layer of membrane between its hands that is connected to the sides of its body like a bat.
The monster moved very quickly on the wall, and when it saw the right moment, it pounced towards...
Claire seems to be the easiest to bully.
Then Claire kicked it into the water.
He stood up and shook his head which was dizzy from being kicked.
What followed to greet it were a dozen long spears.
It also passed away peacefully.
"It seems that it is very concerned about its weight and has done a good job in losing weight."
Yang Ren sneered.
The fact that this monster could be kicked away by Claire shows how light it is.
The next moment, several zombies covered in blood and wearing yellow work hats crawled out from the water behind the crowd.
Looks like workers inside the dam.
Ignoring these zombies, the team immediately entered the passage ahead and then closed the door.
"This place is full of monsters. It seems Javier doesn't welcome outsiders."
Krauser said, tilting his head.
"Manuela, how did you get through here?"
"Didn't you encounter these monsters when you escaped?"
Leon asked.
"I...I don't know..."
"I didn't see a single monster when I ran away..."
As they were talking, a few more zombies appeared on the road ahead.
"We'll talk about it later. Let's go."
Leon took care of the zombies with a few shots and urged.
Continuing forward, they came to a spiral staircase leading to the top of the dam.
A few more dog-headed bats jumped down from the wall and were instantly shot into sieves by the dense fire network.
After going up the spiral staircase, there is a complicated passage.
However, with Manuela's leadership, everyone quickly arrived outside an elevator.
"The place ahead must be Javier's hiding place."
Krauser said.
"Excuse me... Javier..."
Seeing Manuela hesitate to speak, Klausa turned around in confusion.
"nothing…"
In the end, Manuela was unable to ask.
"Major, your aura is too strong. You scared the girl."
Leon on the side said with a smile.
Krauser rolled his eyes in response.
There were a lot of people, so they entered the elevator in two batches.
Inside the narrow elevator, everyone looked at the door nervously.
I was afraid that once the elevator door opened, there would be another horde of zombies outside.
Fortunately, when the elevator reached the top and the door opened, there were no zombies waiting outside.
After the next wave of soldiers came up in the elevator, the team continued to move forward.
This is a drainage channel sloping downward.
On both sides were stairs leading down, in the middle was a turbulent waterway, and on the opposite side was a door.
Klausa walked along the grating-paved passage and said grimly:
"It's too quiet, I don't like it..."
Leon keenly noticed that in the corner of the wall in front of him, a camera with a flashing red light slowly turned around.
“We are being watched…”
When Leon and Manuela also walked onto the grating, several piranhas suddenly jumped out of the drain on the right.
Manuela lost her balance and fell into the turbulent waterway.
"Manuela!"
Leon shouted, then jumped down without hesitation.
Yang Ren immediately ran down the stairs at the side and intercepted Manuela on her sliding path.
"Nicholas, grab her!"
Yang Ren leaned down, grabbed Manuela's outstretched hand, and, as Leon expected, pulled Manuela out of the water.
"Thank you...you run really fast...!"
Manuela, still in shock, timidly thanked Yang Ren.
In response, Yang Ren just shrugged.
"My little cabbage said the same thing..."
As for Lyon...
He slid along the waterway almost all the way to the bottom, then grabbed a ladder on the side and left the waterway.
Behind the door across the passage was a machine room where several huge transmission gears were rotating.
"Manuela..."
A deep male voice suddenly came from a speaker above my head.
Leon looked at the speaker that made the sound in confusion, then looked at Manuela.
The other party turned his head away with an evasive look.
The team continued to move forward and came to an empty area that looked like a spillway.
Suddenly, there was the sound of leather shoes pacing overhead.
Everyone looked up and saw a man with sunglasses, a goatee and a slicked-back hair standing on the platform above.
That is exactly the goal of Leon and others' action this time.
The drug lord, Javier Hidalgo!
"Javier!"
Leon, Elliot and Klausa immediately rushed forward and protected Manuela behind them.
A group of soldiers also formed a fan-shaped encirclement, with nine spears pointed at Javier above.
Javier, who was pointed at by so many guns, did not seem to panic at all. He just spoke slowly:
"Manuela...I do all this for you..."
"As long as you follow my instructions for 15 years, you won't turn into a monster...!"
"Until then, you have to be patient..."
Hearing this, Claire frowned, suddenly took a few steps forward, and said to Javier:
"Asshole! The Veronica virus is simply uncontrollable!"
"You are basically poisoning her!"
Seeing the TerraSave badges on Claire and Yang Ren's chests, Javier also raised his eyebrows:
"Oh? This beautiful lady seems to have a dirty mouth, doesn't she?"
"Besides... what do you anti-biochemical organizations, who only know how to shout and march every day, know?"
"This was told to me personally by the person who provided me with the Veronica virus!"
As Javier finished his words, the sound of something hitting the wall suddenly came from the originally empty space.
“What’s going on…?”
Krauser looked overhead in confusion.
An ominous premonition gradually rose in my heart.
"what!"
A scream suddenly came from behind.
Everyone looked back and saw that Manuela had retreated to the back at some point.
He was also grabbed by one hand by a soldier with a [Holy Snake] tattoo on his arm, who was pointing a submachine gun at everyone with the other hand.
At the same time, several more soldiers rushed in with submachine guns on the way here.
Special forces soldiers versus drug lord's henchmen.
In a very close-range confrontation between fully automatic weapons, no one dared to pull the trigger first.
The scene suddenly fell into a stalemate.
"Manuela...it wasn't those Americans who saved you, nor was it the anti-biochemical organization."
"But as your closest relative, I am your father...!"
Javier continued, his tone somewhat unquestionable.
Suddenly, a huge floodgate was opened.
A large amount of flood water swept down, and everyone except Yang Ren was swept into the current.
"Claire!"
Because Yang Ren was standing relatively far back, he was not immediately swept away by the current.
But when he saw Claire being swept into the water, Yang Ren jumped into the turbulent current without hesitation.
"Leon!"
Manuela bit the soldier's hand in front of her, broke free and rushed into the flood screaming.
"Manuela...? Manuela!"
Javier lost his composure when he saw his daughter Manuela following Leon into the water.