At a military shelter, moments after the attack on the cult's main base had begun.
When everything started, Jason's forces were divided into three important groups. One was led by Morgan, who would take care of Neil's people, and Shane was about to take charge of the people from another base that seemed to have a name related to blood.
But this time, Shane's strategy was different. He had the smallest number of people, so his attack needed to be special and very well planned.
"Let's get the hell out of this damn place!"
"Let's go…"
The roar of an engine echoed, and on the smooth cement road, three military trucks carrying forty people sped by.
"Damn it, step on it!"
In the passenger seat of the lead truck in the convoy, a Black man wearing a beret looked toward the main avenue heading directly to the cult, and the smoke visible from kilometers away urged the driver to accelerate.
The scorching sun overhead cast a blazing light, and sweat continued to trickle slowly down his forehead.
Rolling down the window slowly, the leader of this large convoy looked at the rising black smoke and, for some reason, had an extremely ominous feeling in his heart.
"Huh?"
But at that moment, a strange smell suddenly reached his nostrils from the window, so the leader sniffed lightly and suddenly saw two barrels quietly placed in the middle of the road.
The two barrels were simply placed there, blocking the road and clearly stopping their progress.
"Pull over!"
Seeing these strange barrels, the leader immediately pressed down on the driver's shoulder to signal a stop. He then opened the door, jumped out of the vehicle, banged hard on the back compartment to call a few people, and moved forward slowly.
But when a group of them carefully approached the two strange barrels, they found that the lids were open and the smell of gasoline was strong.
"What's the situation?"
There were two barrels on the road for no apparent reason, but aside from the strong gasoline odor, there was nothing unusual about them. This left the convoy leader confused, and he sniffed the barrels, which seemed to be filled with gasoline.
He looked around carefully, trying to see if this was some sort of robbery, but aside from trash bags blowing in the wind, there was no sign of anyone else.
"They're empty!"
"Hahaha!"
Bang bang bang bang bang!
At that moment, gunfire suddenly erupted from ahead on the road. The sound was distant, but definitely coming from up ahead.
"That's coming from the mall!"
Although they didn't understand what was up with the two empty gasoline barrels, the leader didn't care anymore. He kicked the barrels to the side of the road and told the others to get back in the vehicles and keep moving toward the cult.
Vroooom…
The convoy moved forward again, and the leader stared through the front window of the truck, listening to the gunfire growing louder and louder as they advanced, feeling a growing sense of urgency in his heart.
But before the convoy had moved a few hundred meters, two more barrels of the same kind appeared in the middle of the road, once again blocking their path.
"Damn it, who the hell is doing this?"
Seeing this, the leader frowned deeply, but considering what the barrels might contain, he cautiously signaled the others to check ahead again.
But once more, all they found were empty gasoline barrels—and nothing happened.
At that moment, the gunfire from the direction of Teddy's mall grew even more intense. The leader of the convoy—who was supposed to support the cult—suddenly realized what was going on. He kicked the empty barrels aside again and cursed, "Someone put these empty gas barrels here just to delay our support. Let's go!"
Once again signaling for everyone to board the vehicles and move out, the convoy pushed forward.
Sure enough, after traveling another 100 meters, yet another gasoline barrel appeared in the middle of the road.
"Sons of bitches!"
This time, instead of telling the driver to stop, the leader ordered him sharply to ram through it.
Crash!
The empty barrels were struck by the trucks, rolling forward like bowling balls and landing on both sides of the road.
"Clever sons of bitches!"
Seeing this, the convoy leader—who still harbored some suspicion—wore a look of realization, as if he had seen through the enemy's tactic, and a proud smirk appeared on his face.
Not long after, two more gasoline barrels appeared in the road, but this time they were heartlessly flattened by the truck.
"Hmph, just a distraction!"
All remaining doubts in his heart disappeared completely. No one paid attention to the empty barrels anymore; instead, they focused on the approaching gunfire, wondering who was attacking the refinery.
Soon, another barrel appeared blocking the road. The driver didn't think much of it, stepped on the gas, and crashed into it.
CLANG!!!
But unlike the previous barrels that were simply flung into the air, this time the truck slammed into barrels that were unusually solid. The truck shook violently, and the barrels that flew off splashed an unknown liquid all over the windshield. A strong, strange smell immediately filled the vehicle.
With this sudden change, the startled driver instinctively hit the brakes.
As he did, the trucks behind him also braked—but they were half a second too late. In a matter of seconds, the lead truck was struck by a series of rear-end collisions.
Luckily, everyone had hit the brakes in time. Other than the back door of the truck getting dented, there were no casualties.
The repeated impacts made Pérez's head feel like mush, and he still hadn't processed what was happening until the intense smell of gasoline hit his nostrils. His face suddenly twisted in horror, and he shouted: "Get out of here…!!!"
But before he could finish, from a building a kilometer away, and from nearby, several light machine guns resumed fire, and bullets rained down in the blink of an eye.
The first shots ignited the gasoline-soaked truck, killing the leader instantly. Then they fired on the stunned armed men.
The sparks from bullets striking metal also spread the gasoline across the truck, and roaring flames engulfed the vehicle in a matter of seconds.
This time, the attack was a complete surprise. The armed men inside had not yet recovered from the crash when, the next moment, a dense hail of bullets stormed in, mercilessly claiming lives inside the vehicle.
Some of the people in the truck behind managed to react and jump out—but as soon as they did, the spreading gasoline caught fire and engulfed them, turning them into human torches one after another.
The pain of burning was unimaginable, and their piercing screams echoed along the road.
Until the light machine guns fell silent, there was no more movement from the three trucks—only the surging flames consuming the vehicles and the bodies inside them.
"Mission accomplished!"
After lowering the machine guns to the ground, Shane rubbed his aching shoulder, looked at the fire in front of him, and said, "It's a real shame. We lost a lot of weapons."
"Sir, they've all been eliminated, and the untouched base is now vulnerable!"
Upon hearing this, Shane stepped forward and replied with a smile, "This scum enslaved others. They got what they deserved."
Taking the radio from his vest, Shane reported: "Have the assault team begin—we've just eliminated around one hundred and thirty armed men."
"Understood, Captain!"