Chapter 202 – Updated Later

Anna and Del was inside of a car. They needed to go as fast as they could. They needed to warn them about the gas attack. There should be time left since Moruguri was around fifty kilometers away from their location. They had drove for a while and the remaining distance was only five kilometers.

Del bought a half-million dollar MRAP, to be precise, an Cougar 6×6 MRAP. Del wanted an upgrade from the Humvee so he bought a MRAP which had more protection than the previously owned vehicle and he also upgraded the vehicle with an add-on NBC filtering system and armor due to the current circumstances. There was also a .50 BMG turret on the roof, but it was sealed for now. 

The sun had risen. However, things weren’t looking good from afar. Dead bodies were littering the street left and right. Del doubted that it was only Chlorine gas that poisoned the entire area. There could be an even more lethal gas that they didn’t know. At worst, there could be nerve gas out there and they didn’t know about it. 

“Did Cassandra give you clearance to take off your bandage, or is it just your guts to take it all off?” Del looked at the face of his sister as he drove. Since she didn’t wear her gas mask, It was horrifying. It was the combination of charred skin and muscles. Del wouldn’t even think that it was his sister at first. 

“Well, she gave me permission to take off my bandage, but not for long. She said that the limit is twelve hours. The spell would fight the bacteria, but it would be overwhelmed if I don’t wear any bandage in twelve hours,” Anna said. 

“I see…” Del nodded. 

“Anyway, be careful on the road, you’ll hit something sooner or later. This is the first time you drive this vehicle, right?” Anna said. 

“The steering wheel is heavier than our sedan, but well, it’s manageable,” Del said. 

As they drove, a yellow thick cloud appeared in the distance. It was still far away from them. It was covering an entire town. Del presumed that it was Moruguri. Yellow gas was never something good. It would be something bad. However, what could that gas be? 

Del stopped the car, “Damn… those imperial bastards…” He didn’t want to approach the town. That thing could be something more dangerous than a mere Chlorine gas. “What gas is that? Is it Chlorine, again?” 

“No, it could be worse, should we wear a MOPP suit?” Anna asked. 

“Yeah,” Del said. 

They got out of the car to put on the suit first. There was no space to put on the suit inside of the car. 

MOPP suit, or Mission Oriented Protective Posture was a protective gear used to protect military personnel from an attack from chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon. In this case, the attack was coming from chemical weapons. They wore it in fear that the chemical weapons used in Moruguri was a blister agent. If that was the case, the gas mask wouldn’t be enough to protect them. 

What was blister agent? Blister agent was a weapon that caused severe irritation to the epidermis part of the body. They had the ability to cause chemical burn just by touching the agent itself, resulting in painful water blister which would lead to a much more complicated disease to the body such as infection. 

Del wore the over garments alongside with the rubber gloves and the rubber shoes. He made sure that there was no exposed part of his skin. He was aware that even a single gap would decide whether he lived or die. One might wonder why Del could put on the military equipment. Well, the answer was simple. It was because of medical volunteering experience. 

He was once sent to a conflict zone for some easy jobs, but one of the requirements was the ability to wear a Hazmat suit, or in this case, the MOPP suit. Of course, he passed the training, but he never thought it would be useful in another world. 

“Anna, are you done?” Del said as he tightened the cuffs on his legs. 

“Wait a minute,” Anna replied. 

Del walked to Anna’s direction. “Oh my, why don’t you tell me that you can’t put it on?” He looked at Anna that had difficulties in putting the whole suit on. One of the difficulties was due to the amount of straps inside of that suit. Del eventually helped her to put on the suit correctly. 

Del tested the seal on his gas mask again to make sure that the seal was tight. Anna did the same thing then she raised her thumb. They entered the car again and continued their journey towards Moruguri. 

The yellow cloud covered a radius bigger than the town itself. If the soldiers there didn’t have any CRBN protection, they would be as good as dead. Even they had begun entering the yellow cloud zone three kilometers away from the town. The imperial military didn’t want anyone to leave that town. 

“Damn, the gas is quite thick,” Del commented as he drove through the thick yellow cloud. 

“Yeah, no shit, what are we doing in here?” Anna asked. 

“Well, at first, I just want to visit this town to get my reward, but now, I think it’s a good opportunity to get secret information. I doubt anyone would stay in this town,” Del said as he parked his car near the command center of the town. 

Del got out of the car and he tested the air using the strip that was included with the MOPP suit. The strip showed a red color. The gas was a blister agent, otherwise known as the mustard gas. If not for the mop suit, they would get irritation now. 

“Yup, this is mustard gas,” Del commented. 

“Mustard gas? Was that the gas the German used in the first world war?” Anna asked. 

“Yeah, anyway, we might find the forbidden apple in here.” Del slowly walked towards the command center of the town with his rifle in front of his shoulder. He opened the door slowly and aimed his rifle left and right. 

The command center was abandoned abruptly. Once Del closed the door, he noticed that he just stepped on a pool of blood. Following the flow of blood, it came out from the body of a soldier. A rifle was laying down next to him and his head was blown off. All that was left was the stem of his head. There were also blisters on his hands. 

“Damn, what happened in here?” Many soldiers were killing themselves in the same manner. All of them weren’t wearing gas mask. They must have breathed the mustard gas and suffocated. However, they put themselves out of misery. Mustard gas didn’t work that quickly though. It was too quick for the gas to take effect. Was it an instant effect mustard gas? Del wondered. 

He then headed for the general’s office. In there, he didn’t find the general which was quite a shame. However, the general left the place hastily too. There were several military documents inside of that desk too. Maybe the moment the gas hit the town, the general was evacuated immediately. 

Del put all of the military documents into a thick stack of paper and put it all inside of his storage to be analyzed later. The documents consisted of maps, written letters, and orders from the higher-ups. There was no sign of money though.

“Damn, that sneaky general brought nothing but his money.” 

The Intel would be useful, but for what? Del needed money and he had been ripped off by that general. “That damn greedy old man!” Del kicked the table. The table fell to the ground and revealed something. There was a secret storage located right below of the table. The door of the storage accidentally opened from the shake coming from the table. 

There were Husnael plates and a document inside of that secret storage. It looked like he just found the general’s secret storage. That was fortunate. He picked up all of the Husnael plates inside of the safe and put it inside of his storage. 

He then picked up the document, “Ah, what’s this?” 

It was a document that reported the recent terrorist accident that killed thousands of people. There were many redacted parts inside of that documents. He only found that most of the victim that located close to the explosion had the appearance of being burned alive. However, most of the victims came from surrounding area of the terrorist accident. 

The report said that the victim reported heavy nausea followed vomiting blood. The victim usually died in the duration of six days after staying inside of the hospital. It must have been a gas attack, but some of the symptoms didn’t make any sense. Other than those parts, most of the documents were redacted. 

“Is there any other intelligence around here?” 

The whole office had been stripped out of documents by Del. However, he hadn’t searched for more documents in the other room of the command center. He might be able to find more reasons on why the soldiers were left to die without a gas mask. This number of casualty was simply unacceptable. 

How did a competent military unit end up like this? There was simply no clue. Did the federal military have a budget problem that they didn’t equip their soldiers with gas masks, or was it because of other reasons. 

All of those thinking got cut once he heard a transmission from Anna. “Del, come near the medical tent. It’s… just come here.”

“I’m on my way.”