Doomsday Pillars

Chapter 130 - Responsibility

The wounded man was set on a nearby chair, he was breathing heavily, but he gave his report. "General, I am part of the advance team to quickly bring news, but we got attacked by a mutated beast on the way here. The fourth division managed to bring along 10,000 refugees, they will be here in a day or two."

"Why are you so late? What happened?"

"I am sorry general, the fourth division met with trouble while executing the mission."

Rico became distressed. "What kind of trouble?! What about Colonel Bernard? Aren't you supposed to rendezvous with the third division?"

Seeing Rico suddenly losing control of his emotions, the regent interrupted him. "Rico, calm down. Let the man explain slowly."

The group found it unusual for Rico to lose his cool, but none of the people here knew that Rico was actually more worried about his son.

"I am sorry, general. We looked for the third division in the city of Bandung, but what we found on the designated meeting places were what was left of them... I am sorry to report, but Colonel Bernard believes that the third division had been wiped out."

"What happened?"

The third division consisted of one military battalion, one militia battalion, and two special forces, totaling 3000 men. All of these people dying shocked Rico even more so, since their leader was Colonel Joko, who was also a dear friend of him. Each division was provided with two Badak Tanks. What kind of force managed to wipe out these units.

"Was it zombies or mutated beast?" Rico inquired.

"We did encounter many mutated beasts on-site sir. But as we continue on our mission, we found evidence that the one attacking us were humans just like us... Colonel Bernard found it hard to accept. Thus, he divided the fourth division into two. He took half of the division to investigate, and we, the other half, were tasked to bring the survivors to this city."

"Do you know the Misfits?"

"The youngsters unit led by Adam sir?"

"Yes my son Adam, do you know if he is alive?" Rico asked worriedly.

The wounded man thought hard and said. "Sorry, sir I am not sure. I believe they left together with Colonel Bernard."

Rico's heart sank, he couldn't help but think of the worst. "Ok soldier, I know you are hurt, but please finish up your detailed report as soon as possible."

"Yes sir." The wounded man saluted Rico as he was guided away to the medical center.

The group finally understood what happened to Rico. The regent walked closer to him. "Rico, I understand the importance of family, but you have a heavier responsibility now. You can send reinforcements there, but you need to stay here to keep the city in check, you have many things to do."

Rico was silent, lost in his thoughts, he mindlessly answered. "I understand."

He was not in the mood to talk. A lot of things were running around on his mind. His eyes fell on Alex and suddenly said. "Alex before you leave and go to Yogyakarta, please visit me first..." 

"Sure."

"Thank you all, I'll take my leave first." 

Late at night after the long meetings, Rico returned to his room with a heavy heart. He never thought that he could worry about his son this much. Adam is an adult and a man, he could take care of himself, he shouldn't be worried... but he still did.

When Rico opened the door to his room, he was surprised because inside were half a dozen people waiting for him. Five men and one woman. He recognized all of them, they were his political supporters. All of them were previous government ministers and Silvia was among them. 

The five men were standing together, Rico remembered their names were written on the note Alex gave. However, Rico wasn't surprised at all. These five men have been supporting his political career but also has been asking a lot of favors from him. Seeing them only worsened his mood. "What do you all want?"

One of the previous ministers said. "Rico, you know what we want. We want you to give us the information for some of the relic sites."

Rico kept his silence.

"You understand right? We all need to survive, and those artifacts will ensure our safety. Just give us a few coordinates, we already have people ready to collect those artifacts."

They noticed Rico's hesitation, thus they pressure him further. "Rico... don't tell us you forgot about all of the things we did for you..."

Rico stared at Silvia and asked. "Are you in on this too?"

Silvia shook her head. "No... I don't really care about those, but I believe it's important for you to have more people supporting you. I have seen what that Alex and the regent meant to our nation. Even though you are the president, you need to have power and influence to back you up."

"I see..." Rico stared at the five men in front of him. These people helped his career before, but he had already returned the favor. With what had happened to the world, the people who only cared about their personal gains were the ones he despised the most, even more so during a national crisis. Rico responded with confidence. "I will not give them to you."

Suddenly, a dozen men rushed inside his room from outside, they were armed to the teeth and aimed at him.

An old minister declared. "We had hoped that it would not come to this. But we will do whatever it takes to increase the chance of our survival."

When Rico the faces of the men aiming at him, he recognized some of them as they were part of his personal guards. Rico felt betrayed, add to that all the stress he's having today. He finally snapped, this was the final straw that ticked his anger. He was furious. A cold voice then came out of his mouth. "So be it then..."

Rico took a deep breath and suddenly jumped to the closest soldier. A full-powered peak strength Mortal Realm punch hit the poor soldier's stomach...

BAMM!!!

The soldiers were taken by surprise and blood was spilled. Rico quickly disarmed the poor soldier and took his assault rifle.

The other soldiers who saw what just happened suddenly became panicked, they didn't expect Rico would fight back. Apparently, Rico was not a paper tiger. The five ministers were trembling in fear and quickly ordered. "You are crazy Rico!!! FIREEE!!!"

Dratatatatatata!!!!

Rico swiftly moved around and used the poor soldier's body as a shield, blood splashed everywhere. Rico aimed the gun from behind the dead body at the remaining soldiers.

Dratatatatattat!!!

Five of the soldiers managed to dodge, but Rico succeeded in killing four of them and critically wounded another two. These actions made the old ministers and Silvia ducked down in fear. Silvia steeled herself and shouted. "STOP! STOP! DON'T SHOOT!!!" 

But the man next to her immediately shouted. "Don't stop shooting kill him!!!"

Within the short confusion, the soldiers looked back at the area where Rico was, but he was already gone from where he was staying.

"Where did he go? Did he run away? Shiiiiitt! Find him!!!"

They suddenly heard loud noises from the outside, the guards responded immediately when they heard the roaring gunshots.

"Fuxxxxx, this has become such a mess! We must escape right away! Drop the gun and retreat to the back, we will meet outside the compound."

Everyone left the room in a panic. They swiftly headed to the back room and one of the men told Silvia to come with them, but Silvia chose to stay. Things have gone awry but she decided to take her chances in seeking Rico's forgiveness.

The old ministers and the soldiers quickly walked out of the room, but to their surprise, Rico was there waiting for them. The soldiers already drop their weapon inside, so they won't get suspicious, now they regret it seeing Rico aiming an assault rifle at them.

"You guys really shouldn't have drop your weapon..."

Rico also dropped his assault rifle and decided to fight with his bare fists. He wished to blow off some steam through this.

All of the soldiers were at high stage Mortal Realm, but they did not expect that even though Rico was no longer at his prime, he was able to bring them down one by one. Within just five minutes, all five soldiers were lying on the floor unconscious. When the last one fell, a group of guards arrived at the scene led by Colonel Adnan. The guards were confused, but since they saw Rico standing among the unconscious, the guards understood the situation and arrested the five ministers and the soldiers lying on the ground.

One of the old ministers struggled while being dragged away by a guard. "Rico!!! If you want to arrest us, give us first a trial!!!"

Rico let out a sigh when he heard the pleads of this pathetic man. 

The doomsdays era was not a place for politicians. 

"I can arrest you, the country is currently under Martial Law and I can do whatever I want. Trying to assassinate a president is one of the highest crimes. I will make sure you will ever see the light of day."

A short moment later, a guard brought along Silvia, also in handcuffs. She tried to plead and asked for Rico's forgiveness. "Rico. I didn't do anything wrong..."

"Stop it. I am sure it was you who give them the ideas. I know you care for me, but you should have trusted me... I will deal with you later. Take her away!"

When everyone left, Rico felt empty. Most of the people he had arrested today were his closest partners in his political career, the people he spent a lot of time with. 

In the past, he didn't spend enough time for his family, he neglected his family for his career, for people like them... his failed marriage was one of his biggest regrets. Rico could only blame himself for his stupidity. He knew he couldn't let this happen again. Rico could not stop thinking about Adam. He decided to go find his son. 

The next morning, he took with him a dozen armored vehicles and trucks, with 500 special forces all fully armed heading to the south.